Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2020

Chadwick Boseman’s Brothers Share About Their Brother, Reveal Final Prayer For Him…

Hello World,

The more I hear about Chadwick Boseman, star of Black Panther who died at 43 years old on Aug. 28 from colon cancer, the more I’m impressed by how he lived his life including his faith. Recently, his brothers were interviewed by The New York Times. The Grio shared a few snippets from the interview.

Boseman, who hailed from Anderson, S.C, was raised in the church along with his brothers by his parents Leroy and Carolyn in a large, God-fearing, close-knit family. He was always interested in the arts. Kevin was a dancer for Alvin Alley and other dance troupes, inspiring his younger brother who eventually started to pursue theater. Chadwick was initially interested in writing and directing but it was his Howard University professors that encouraged him to act.
“Chad was gifted,” said his brother, Pastor Derrick Boseman, 54, who said when his youngest sibling was a child, he could sit and draw anyone. “He’s probably the most gifted person I’ve ever met.”
Pastor Bosman was praying with his brother in his final days. Chadwick never publicly revealed he was sick, just continued on with his career while keeping up a pace that would have challenged someone 100% healthy. His brother said he was praying for Chad to get better until he said something that changed his focus. “Man, I’m in the fourth quarter, and I need you to get me out of the game,” Chadwick told his oldest brother. “When he told me that, I changed my prayer from, ‘God heal him, God save him,’ to ‘God, let your will be done,’” said Pastor Boseman. “And the next day he passed away.”

Wow, that took a lot of courage and faith on Pastor Boseman’s part to change his prayer that way…What say you?

Below is an Instagram post from his brother Kevin Boseman…

View this post on Instagram

Thank You, God. Thank you, Brother. Thank you, Family. Thank you, all. Thank you.

A post shared by KEVIN BOSEMAN (@kevinboseman) on Sep 8, 2020 at 1:15pm PDT

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2020

CeCe Winans Participates in Trump Coronavirus Ad Campaign, Denies Participation is ‘Political’

Should CeCe Winans Be Cancelled?

Hello World,

Gospel music great CeCe Winans, auntie of Deborah Joy Winans, who portrayed “Charity” on OWN’s Greenleaf, is in a lot of trouble according to the online cancel culture authorities. According to POLITICO,

The health department is moving quickly on a highly unusual advertising campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort that was shaped by a political appointee close to President Donald Trump and executed in part by close allies of the official, using taxpayer funds.

The ad blitz, described in some budget documents as the “Covid-19 immediate surge public advertising and awareness campaign,” is expected to lean heavily on video interviews between administration officials and celebrities, who will discuss aspects of the coronavirus outbreak and address the Trump administration’s response to the crisis, according to six individuals with knowledge of the campaign who described its workings to POLITICO.

The health department is moving quickly on a highly unusual advertising campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort that was shaped by a political appointee close to President Donald Trump and executed in part by close allies of the official, using taxpayer funds.

The ad blitz, described in some budget documents as the “Covid-19 immediate surge public advertising and awareness campaign,” is expected to lean heavily on video interviews between administration officials and celebrities, who will discuss aspects of the coronavirus outbreak and address the Trump administration’s response to the crisis, according to six individuals with knowledge of the campaign who described its workings to POLITICO.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Well, CeCe is one of those celebrities and Black Twitter is not amused…Here is one I discovered from The Grio…

The Black church looking at CeCe Winans in this ad. pic.twitter.com/aYHlHPJKkt

— Open the Portal 🤣 (@SarcasticSmiggy) September 26, 2020

And others…

Black Twitter confronting CeCe Winans like pic.twitter.com/ilePu8BeNH

— No way, Ofay. (@HunseckerProxy) September 26, 2020

Cece Winans and Dennis Quaid support Trump?pic.twitter.com/SdMPSPDa6A

— Jermaine Watkins ✍🏾 (@JermaineWatkins) September 26, 2020

The backlash was so much that CeCe had to respond. Below is what she had to say…

View this post on Instagram

A quick urgent message!

A post shared by CeCe Winans (@cecewinans) on Sep 25, 2020 at 9:08pm PDT

Although CeCe says her involvement is the Trump ad campaign is not “political,” journalist Roland Martin says otherwise…

No @cecewinans, your interview with @Surgeon_General @JeromeAdamsMD was political. It was a $300 million campaign right before the election to try and change the story on Trump’s leadership failure that has resulted in 200,000 dead. 1/3 https://t.co/TGimKwLngj

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) September 26, 2020

How do I feel about it? First of all, I don’t believe in cancel culture. The cancel culture seems to be comprised of online bullies who don’t have the capacity to interpret nuanced issues. That being said, in this highly politicized time, darn near everything is political at this point. I understand what CeCe is saying about trying to spread the facts about COVID-19 to stop the spread of the virus itself. In fact, both her brother BeBe, their mother and another brother suffered from the virus!

But on the other hand, the president, himself, is sending a mixed message about the pandemic and has been from the beginning. So you’ve got these celebrities talking about a wearing a mask as a part of this ad campaign that is funded by the government while the head of the government is saying one thing while doing another. I feel for Surgeon General Dr. Jerome M. Adams and Dr. Fauci who I believe are trying to stop the spread, but at the same time, the overall administration is not functioning as one unit.

So should CeCe be cancelled? No, BUT the nuances influencing this ad campaign should be considered…Read the POLITICO article because the nuances influencing this campaign are fully explained…

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, September 27, 2020

Jacqueline J. Holness (ME) Writes Racial Reconciliation Cover Story for Christianity Today!

Latasha Morrison/ Photograph by Ben Rollins

Hello World,

I’m so excited because recently I was blessed with the assignment of writing a cover story about racial reconciliation as it pertains to the church in Atlanta for Christianity Today, one of the foremost publications in the Christian world! Although it is a thorny topic without question and I certainly wish we didn’t have to continue highlighting this issue, I’m glad that I am continuing the work of my father, who is passionate about this topic. In fact, he created a newsletter for the Christian church, hosted an annual Racial Reconciliation Service each January (to coincide with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and traveled to speaking engagements to address racial reconciliation. Additionally, my father is the one who introduced me to Christianity Today magazine when I was only reading VIBE, Essence, The Source and similar magazines back in the day.

Well, my article “Racial Reconciliation Is Still a Dream for Atlanta Christians” is now available for you to read. Below is the beginning of the article and you can click on the link below the excerpt to read the rest.

Dhati Lewis set out to start a church that could be a blueprint for urban discipleship, a church “in the city, for the city, that looks like the city.” But first, he needed a city.

A decade ago, he left the college town of Denton, Texas, for Atlanta, an urban hub four times larger. With him came 25 longtime ministry partners, including rappers Lecrae and Sho Baraka and pastor John Onwuchekwa. Together they planted Blueprint Church in the Old Fourth Ward, a story chronicled in a recent documentary, Becoming Blueprint, released in honor of the church’s 10th anniversary.

Lewis’s approach to ministry grew out of the tension he felt between the white evangelical culture that fueled his faith in Denton and the familiar black culture of his upbringing. In Atlanta, though he was a black pastor leading a diverse congregation in a majority-black city, the work of urban church planting was complicated.

For one, the area around his church continued to gentrify. “In this neighborhood, what scares me is the fact that you have Section 8 housing on one end and like a million-dollar home on the other end,” he said in the documentary.

Read the rest HERE.

Below is the gorgeous cover of the October issue of Christianity Today!

My story is part of a four-story cover package. The official description is as follows:

Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church who’s now running for US Senate, talked about his calling into politics as a Christian. He said, “My impact doesn’t stop at the church door. That’s actually where it starts.” That approach to living out the gospel extends across generations and segments of society in Atlanta. In this month’s cover package, we hear from pastors, politicians, and entrepreneurs—black Christian leaders whose faith calls them back into their communities in the diverse hometown of Martin Luther King Jr.