Bill Maher said it best regarding President Obama: “It’s not that these folks don’t like the food or the restaurant; they don’t like the waiter”. Whatever he brings is unacceptable. President Obama has persistently shown amazing calm and integrity in the face of so much ignorance. This should only serve to illumine his intellectual brilliance and character in the face of our unabashedly Babylonian Capitol Hill. Instead, it appears that too many Republicans, including those who could not negotiate their way into a bathroom stall with a full bladder, will raise any unfounded argument in an attempt to discredit him. My Mom used to say, “A drowning man will grab at straw.” If it’s not the birth certificate, it’s his profession of faith, or it’s ridiculously disjointed statements like: “The Muslims define him as Muslim so he must be Muslim”. Franklin Graham’s recent statements questioning the President’s Christianity are an international, racism-loaded travesty. So what else do you think, Franklin? Is the Dalai Lama really a closet Pentecostal?
Billy Graham doesn’t have to wait to turn over in his grave; he’s probably doing donuts in his wheelchair in lamentation of his son’s humiliating ignorance. I suspect Billy’s most private moments might include some Job-like responses, such as rent garments and ashes on his head. Franklin has proved that this apple has not only fallen far, far from the tree, but rolled down a hill into an abyss of theological ignorance.
In Romans 10:9, Paul made it plain and simple: Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. The President has unapologetically and unwaveringly professed Jesus Christ with his mouth on national TV and in print several times, sometimes making emphatic statements affirming the Resurrection. I don’t foresee him recanting this after he’s re-elected in November or even years from now. In my own, albeit naïve, discernment I cannot imagine him stating at some future point that he “exercised a critical lapse in judgment”, in professing Jesus Christ.
Well, Franklin, if you’re not satisfied with the verbal confession, do you wanna try your hand at medicine, too, and prove that you can botch a coronary exploration into the heart of a man of such integrity? (Hint: Why don’t you leave the "heart" part up to God?)
I don't know how or where here to post my question to you Joyce: my question is this:
ReplyDeleteAre there any white pastors appointed to black churches? In the Philadelphia area-that would be a challenging option. Has this ever been done?
There are no such appointments presently in this area that I know of for our denomination, but it is definitely quite unusual.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, it was more prevalent by the sheer fact that there were proportionately so few members and hence, clergy of color in the UMC, (as opposed to AME, AMEZ, etc.), and as white pastors were often seen as more effective leaders if there were issues in the local church.
Thank goodness you are in a city that needs your ministry.
DeleteShe has been needed for over twenty years. Pastor Joyce sees the need to minister to the city of Norristown, to benefit a multi-cultural community. In this economy, so many are in need. The church has provided much needed avenues of care: soup kitchen, food pantry, and support of AA. I believe God has chosen Pastor Joyce to be a committed leader in my beloved church. The sad thing is that there are some headstrong members of the church who just don't get the fact this is 2012-and life is NOT what it was in the 60's. Pastor Joyce is a blessing to my church and to Norristown.
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