{"id":1326,"date":"2013-07-17T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle-zimmermantrial.html"},"modified":"2013-07-17T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T19:53:00","slug":"my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle-zimmermantrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle-zimmermantrial.html","title":{"rendered":"My #Theological Necessity for the Black Church-I Wrestle #zimmermantrial"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/10\/frequent-blogger-brian-foulks.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Foulks<\/a><\/span><br><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">R3 Contributor<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\"><br><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">*This was first posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/syncopatedhustle.com\/2013\/07\/16\/my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Syncopated Hustle\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">I am not sure from a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/when-text-is-problem-liberationists.html\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">theological perspective or from a biblical perspective that I can justify what I am about to say-not that it is right or wrong but that it is plausible to consider.\u00a0<\/a>I value\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.malphursgroupblog.com\/2013\/04\/oil-water-developing-a-multi-racial-church\/\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">diversity\u00a0<\/a>as much as the next man but I deplore pastors who hide within theological doctrines. As Derrick Bell quotes in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Faces-The-Bottom-Well-Permanence\/dp\/0465068146\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373994302&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=faces+at+the+bottom+of+the+well+the+permanence+of+racism\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i>Faces at the Bottom of the Well : The Permanence of Racism<\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">\u201cPeople looking to escape are not worried about solutions.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">Theology when practiced with skill and a global sense of humanity provides answers to the toughest issues we face. It provides solace or engenders the need to reform. So it saddens me that the church at large had decided to ignore this tension.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">By now we have all heard the verdict of the George Zimmerman Trial but I am saddened that many in the evangelical world preach about a Jesus that does not involve a Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. I now without a doubt that it is a hard subject matter to tackle but it is the very thing that people of faith were developed to handle. Maybe I am over-sensitized to the plight of black men but if you as a pastor did not mention anything about Trayvon Martin then I perceive you as being wrong. It would be impossible for you to preach a Jesus that does not include the dichotomy of two lives that hung in the balance- Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. It would be impossible for you not to wrestle through the pain of two mothers who believed with all their hearts that the voice on the call was their son; For you not to consider how 6 jurors lives will be forever changed (whether you agree with the verdict or not). How this trial will forever impact the lives of those lawyers-for good or bad purposes. For you not to witness the mother of a slain child take the stand with grace and composure never defaming the character of the\u00a0 very man that killed her son; A mother that just called for justice (whatever that looked like). A mother that proclaimed then very name that you preach about Sunday after Sunday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">I am sorry if you did not mention this case on Sunday you were by and large out of touch with your God and I am sorry we just do not serve the same God.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\">\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">I can assure you of this one thing that the black pastors I know spoke about this. They have considered the implications of this trial since February of last year. They have toiled through many nights of mothers crying because their black sons were profiled. They have wrestle through the nights that their own sons were profiled. They have been to the jailhouse visiting innocent boys that were arrested for being black. Yes, I declare definitively there is a need for a black church.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">It is within the walls of the black church where the very blood of Trayvon Martin continues to speak. The black church where we find godly solutions for situations that presents themselves as viable reasons for ungodly actions. \u00a0It is the black church where we search James Cone and see that there was a precise reason he wrote\u00a0<i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Black-Theology-Liberation-James-Cone\/dp\/1570758956\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373994406&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=black+liberation+theology\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Black Liberation Theology<\/a>,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Black-Theology-Liberation-James-Cone\/dp\/1570758956\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373994406&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=black+liberation+theology\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">God of the Oppressed<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cross-Lynching-Tree-James-Cone\/dp\/1570759375\/ref=pd_sim_b_3\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Cross and the Lynching Tree<\/a>\u2013\u00a0<\/i>this is out lives lived out in an everyday context. The black church is where you can come and see a million other young black males who look like Trayvon.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">If we are a\u00a0<i>\u201cnation of laws\u201d<\/i>\u00a0that has deem some greater than others then the only place for me to find refuge is in the black church.<\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"background-color: white;line-height: 22px;margin-bottom: 10px\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\"><span style=\"font-size: small\">Follow Brian on Twitter <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brianfoulks\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@brianfoulks<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Brian FoulksR3 Contributor *This was first posted at Syncopated Hustle\u00a0 I am not sure from a\u00a0theological perspective or from a biblical perspective that I can justify what I am about to say-not that it is right or wrong but that it is plausible to consider.\u00a0I value\u00a0diversity\u00a0as much as the next man but I deplore [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>My #Theological Necessity for the Black Church-I Wrestle #zimmermantrial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Brian FoulksR3 Contributor*This was first posted at Syncopated Hustle&nbsp;I am not sure from a&nbsp;theological perspective or from a biblical\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle-zimmermantrial.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My #Theological Necessity for the Black Church-I Wrestle #zimmermantrial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Brian FoulksR3 Contributor*This was first posted at Syncopated Hustle&nbsp;I am not sure from a&nbsp;theological perspective or from a biblical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/07\/my-theological-necessity-for-the-black-church-i-wrestle-zimmermantrial.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-17T19:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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