After Oprah’s Interview with Prince Harry & Meghan Markle, Interracial Marriage is a Hot Topic!

Hello World,

Were you among the 17. 1 million USA viewers who watched the Oprah interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Sunday or the 11.3 million viewers in the UK on Monday?!!! I am a member of the former group.  I’ve been fascinated with Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s love story since before they were married. I think I have written about them at least three times on this blog. See those blog posts below:

Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ‘Megxit’ is a Modern-Day ‘Leave and Cleave’ in Action…

7 Reasons Why Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding Was the Best Royal Wedding Ever!!!

Why the ‘Good Morning America’ Headline About Meghan Markle and ‘Hope’ for Black Women Wasn’t Offensive To Me…

After their interview with the queen of American television, none other than Oprah Winfrey, the fascination continues…I’m also deeply troubled by what was revealed…namely, the ugly racism that led to Meghan wanting to commit suicide and Prince Harry extricating himself from the monarchy to protect his wife and children – born and unborn. Here in the U.S., we’re now having conversations about passing and colorism. While Meghan likely enjoyed some privileges as a lighter-skinned black woman in the US, her lighter skin seemingly did not afford those same privileges in the U.K.

In the U.K., they are having discussions about what it means to be royal and does race have anything to do with it. And to see the hysterical reaction to the interview such as the continued and weird vitriol that that Piers Morgan spews whenever Meghan Markle is mentioned, it’s no wonder that Megxit was warranted. He should be leaving Good Morning Britain and his former co-host Alex Beresford was right to challenge his obsession with hating her…

See the exchange below…It’s sooo crazy…

Even Christian media in the UK is in a tizzy about it all…Premier Christianity magazine has had to issue an apology for its initial response…See an excerpt below…

Yesterday evening, shortly before the Harry and Meghan interview aired, we published a blog on this page, entitled ‘5 reasons you shouldn’t watch the Meghan and Harry interview’.

We have now removed this article and would like to unreservedly apologise for it, for the offence and hurt it has caused, and the damage it has done to the witness of Christians. We were wrong to publish it.

Although we initially only apologised for one phrase within the piece, we now understand the problems with the blog were far wider than one phrase. It was not a helpful piece of commentary, but instead has resulted in understandable anger and pain, especially for those who have experienced racism.

My own personal view on the Harry and Meghan interview can be read here: “7 lessons Christians can learn from Meghan and Harry’s interview“. While I know this cannot repair the damage already done, my hope is this new article will prove to be a much more helpful contribution to these issues than what was published before.

Read the rest on premierchristianity.com.

In the wake of this time period of racial reckoning that has spread across the pond, I thought I would share this article below…

“What Does the Bible Say about Interracial Marriage?” by Emma Danzey

In a time with a large number of questions in regard to racism, one might ask if it is ok for a man and a woman of different ethnicities to marry? What does the Bible say about interracial marriage? I recently was at a small gathering and a white woman who hosted the event was telling us her hardship when people basically asked her straight-up if she got pregnant before marriage when they noticed that her kids were not of the same skin tone. Her husband is from Africa, and she is from North Carolina.

What Defines Race?

No matter what a person believes on the matter of interracial marriage, I want to begin with the fact that we are all made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). I chose to write this article because I love to research Scriptures on topics to gain understanding. I personally know and care for a variety of interracial married couples who love the Lord.  One of my dearest friends is an African American woman who is married to a Caucasian man. Another of my closest friends is Greek, and she is about to marry a man of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. I tell her that they are going to have beautiful “Puerto-Greek-an” babies one day.

But let us not stop there. I am friends with a Caucasian woman married to an African American man. I also have a friend who is a Japanese woman married to a Caucasian man; they have three beautiful children and serve in ministry together. I know Romanians married to Americans, and a Pilipino woman married to a Southern man. Do they all experience hardships in different ways for their choice to marry one another? Yes. Would they have chosen a different path? No.

Read the rest on crosswalk.com.

Finally, what do you think about the Queen of the UK, Queen Elizabeth’s response…

Any thoughts?

Pastor Tom Buck Calls Vice President Kamala Harris ‘Jezebel’ on Twitter & Stands By Slur After Backlash…

Hello World,

Even though I’m hurt, I’m not surprised. Tom Buck, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, Texas tweeted this about our country’s first female vice president, Kamala Harris, who is of black and Indian descent. See below:

As was noted in an article “SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] pastor calls Vice President Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel’ two days after inauguration” written by Mark Wingfield of BaptistNews.com, “calling a black woman ‘Jezebel’ is a racist trope documented by the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University. It has roots in slavery and the perceived sexual promiscuity of black women compared to white women.”

Below is how Pastor Buck explained his statement because he likely was told that his comment seemed racist.

Obviously, many had lots to say in response to these tweets. Here is one  response from Wingfield’s article: “Some noted his hypocrisy for eagerly supporting Donald Trump; others castigated him for advancing a racist trope. One commenter wrote: ‘It’s funny how willing the SBC was to overlook Trump’s divorces, his affairs, his sexual assault allegations, the dishonesty, and the constant cruelty, but it is a woman whose politics they disagree with who draws their contempt.'”

You can read the entire article HERE for all of the details. But this is why I’m hurt. Everybody knows that black people have been marginalized and much more in these not so United States of America for generations. As black people have ascended, through the grace of God, to places and positions that would have been unthinkable to previous generations, black people feel a sense of pride that we are finally able demonstrate that we’ve had the potential all along although it wasn’t recognized on a wider scale before recent history.

And people of other races, ethnic backgrounds, etc. should be able to understand why although some don’t or maybe won’t, which I’m not surprised by. Sadly, it’s been that way for longer than I’ve been here. Even if you disagree with Vice President Harris’ politics and that is fair, name calling, particularly, in this example is insensitive. The more productive thing to do would be to work to change policies with which you disagree. The same grace that was extended to the former president despite how his choices didn’t always reflect Christian principles  is the same grace that needs to be extended to Vice President Harris. Actually, let me rephrase that as some supporters of the former president appeared to be in a cult or else the insurrection at the capitol wouldn’t have happened. A better way to say this is that many Christians were willing to work with the former president even if they didn’t agree with everything about him. That should be true for Vice President Harris.

Christians will be never be able convince the broader culture that we are different unless we are different. I try my hardest (well not always) to be different. Anywho, that’s all I have to say about that. Below are a few more of Pastor’s Buck’s tweets just for additional information…

Final thought:  I will stop being proud of “first black” or “first female” designations for that matter when we no longer need to denote “first black” or “first female.”

What say you?

Any thoughts?

 

Potter’s House Bishop T.D. Jakes & Pastor Sheryl Brady Address Racism & Police Reform in Opinion Piece & Open Letter…

Hello World,

Bishop T. D. Jakes of The Potter’s House in Dallas & Pastor Sheryl Brady, who leads The Potter’s House in North Dallas, recently issued statements regarding their stance on racism and police reform…

In the wake of the recent killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, global spiritual leader and elder statesman Bishop T.D. Jakes is calling for a national conversation on policing and race to be immediately followed by an action plan for police reform.

In a pointed opinion piece published on FoxNews.com, Jakes says now is the time to put in place a response with buy-in from community leaders, clergy, police unions, the U.S. Justice Department and elected officials.

The plan must address longstanding issues like the implementation of de-escalation training and the lack of standardized hiring practices for the nation’s 18,000 police departments. It must also include tough measures such as cutting or eliminating funding for recalcitrant police departments.

“The ongoing demonstrations around the nation offer a glimpse into what the future looks like if nothing is done,” Jakes writes.

“Doing nothing will destroy our society,” adds Jakes, pastor of the 30,000-member The Potter’s House located in Dallas. “Mutual antipathy between police and the black community further exacerbates racial tensions in the country at large. It generates outrage not only domestically but also internationally, making a mockery of our professed commitment to stated ideals of liberty and justice. Further, it gives comfort to our enemies abroad who are eagerly awaiting opportunities to exploit our nation’s biggest Achilles heel: racial strife.”

Jakes says Christians have a moral imperative to take action instead of doing nothing. He quotes the words from the prophet Isaiah: “Learn to do good: seek justice, correct oppression.”

Pastor Sheryl Brady, whom I recently interviewed about her book “Don’t Miss the Moment,” wrote an open letter to President Trump which was published on her Facebook page. Read the letter below.

 

Any thoughts?