Hello World,
It’s official! Future Zahir, 5, and Sienna Princess, 2, have a little brother or sister on the way! Today on Instagram, Ciara announced that Baby 3 is coming to join the Wilson Family on an Instagram post. Russell Wilson took the amazing photo…It looks like a beautiful pregnancy so far…
It says in the Word that, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him” in Psalm 127:3. The Wilsons are definitely being rewarded!
Congratulations to them!
Any thoughts?
Hello World,
Happy June! I’m back with my monthly roundup of blog posts and or magazine articles for black Christian women! So below is my Top 10 monthly roundup of blog posts and or magazine/newspaper articles for black Christian women for May but you don’t have be a black Christian woman to to check them out 
As usual, let me know if you like my list! Enjoy and share!
1. “For the First Time in History, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America Are All Black” by BOTWC Staff
Excerpt: We already know that Black is beautiful, but for the first time in history the top beauty pageants in the country have simultaneously elevated this truth. Three Black women are currently wearing crowns as the 2019 Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America. When Cheslie Kryst’s name was announced as Miss USA on Thursday she completed the historic trio with pageant winners 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin and recently crowned 2019 Miss Teen USA Kaliegh Garris. See more at: becauseofthemwecan.com.
2.”Ciara Finally Lets Us In On The Prayer That Led Her To Russell Wilson” by Taylor Honore
Excerpt: Since Ciara and Russell Wilson got married in 2016, single women everywhere have been scouring the church pews in search of the fateful prayer the 33-year-old “Level Up” singer said in order that to secure the man of her dreams, and sis finally gave up a sip of the proverbial tea. See more at: xonecole.com.
3. “Searching For A New Church Home? Here Are 6 Things To Consider” by Ashley Hobbs
Excerpt: You’ve visited twenty different churches but none seem to fit. Some Sundays, you’re excited to get up, get dressed and go search. Other times, you’d rather pledge membership to Bedside Baptist and call it a day. But there is a tug at your spirit. Your desire for faith community is growing by the day and YouTube sermons are starting to feel supplementary at best. You want to experience God corporately in a way that not only transforms your life but others’ lives through you. I’ll say this: Sometimes you find what you want by experiencing what you don’t. Finding the right church home is an important search and it takes time, trial and error, and a discerning heart to find a community that speaks to you. A faith space in which you can grow, serve, and thrive. See more at: xonecole.com.
4. “All-Black World War II Women’s Battalion To Be Honored at Memorial Day Parade” by Andrea Cambron
Excerpt: The Women’s Army Corps, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 1, 1943, included a little known battalion of African American women. Nicknamed “Six Triple Eight,” the unit of 824 women traveled overseas to England and France where they were tasked with handling, sorting and delivering an immense backlog of mail destined for and sent by U.S. forces. Women of the Six Triple Eight ran their own mess hall, hair salon, refreshment bar and other recreational facilities. When the unit’s military police were denied firearms, they instead trained in jujitsu, an effective alternative in keeping intruders out of their compound. See more at: wtop.com.
5. “Nigerians Celebrate Leah Sharibu’s 16th Birthday, Demand Her Release” by Samson Folarin and James Abraham 
Excerpt: Sharibu was among the 112 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram members at the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018. While most of the victims were released, she was reportedly held for refusing to deny her Christian faith. On Tuesday, May 14, Nigerians took to different social media platforms to mark her birthday as they demanded her release after 449 days in captivity. See more at: punchng.com.
6. “‘God Has Been Calling Me Here:’ First Female, Black Episcopal Bishop in Colorado Talks Her Past and the Church’s Future” by Allison Levine
Excerpt: For the first time in history, the Episcopal Church in Colorado will be led by an African-American woman. On Saturday, the church hosted the ordination and consecration of Kym Lucas as its 11th bishop. She is both the church’s first woman bishop and first black bishop. See more at: 9news.com.
7. “Unita Blackwell, Civil Rights Pillar and First Black Woman Mayor in Mississippi, Dies at 86” by Adam Ganucheau
Excerpt: Unita Blackwell, the sharecropper who later became the first black woman mayor in the state of Mississippi and advised six U.S. presidents, died Monday at age 86. Her son Jeremiah Blackwell Jr. told Mississippi Today his mother died Monday morning at a hospital in Biloxi after a long battle with dementia. See more at: mississippitoday.org.
8. “How Black Women Championed Demands for Reparations” by FM Editors
Excerpt: Sojourner Truth also demanded reparations for slavery through land redistribution. Following the end of slavery, during Reconstruction, Truth argued that slaves helped to build the nation’s wealth and therefore should be compensated. In 1870, she circulated a petition requesting Congress to provide land to the “freed colored people in and about Washington” to allow them “to support themselves.” Yet, Truth’s efforts were not successful. US former slaves got no land or financial support after the end of slavery. See more at: faithfullymagazine.com.
9. “Uzo Aduba To Play Shirley Chisholm In FX Limited Series, ‘Mrs. America’” by
Excerpt: Mrs. America tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the unexpected backlash led by a conservative woman named Phyllis Schlafly, played by Blanchett. Through the eyes of the women of that era – both Schlafly and second wave feminists Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus – the series explores how one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s helped give rise to the Moral Majority and forever shifted our political landscape. See more at: blackfilm.com.
10. “This Traveling Library Is Making Sure ‘Black Women’s Literature Has the Place It Deserves'” by Char Adams
Excerpt: So she kicked off the project by asking friends and family to simply donate a book to her cause. Nearly four years ago, that little girl marked her first trade, and now, Akinmowo has over 1,000 books in what she has named the Free Black Women’s Library. Since then, she’s set up a collection of books in monthly pop-ups all around Brooklyn, New York. Having graduated from brownstone stoops, the library now functions as a traveling biblio-installation that sets up shop in museums, creative spaces, theaters, art galleries, churches, and festivals. See more at: oprahmag.com.
If you know of any black Christian women bloggers and or writers, please e-mail me at jacqueline@afterthealtarcall.com as I’m always interested in expanding my community of black Christian women blogs and websites. As I noted before, while this is a roundup of interesting blog posts and or magazine and newspaper articles for black Christian women, you don’t have to be one to appreciate these pieces .
Hello World,
It was a exactly a year ago that Pastor John Gray got caught up in a controversy regarding relationships. R&B star Ciara faced backlash from single ladies simply because of a snippet of a Pastor John Gray sermon that she tweeted. Remember this tweet below?
#LevelUp pic.twitter.com/rmS0WMOV1B
— Ciara (@ciara) January 20, 2018
Ciara tweeted a snippet of Gray’s sermon from the 2016 I Am Woman Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. I felt it was kind of unfair to blame Gray for something he said in 2016 that Ciara tweeted in 2018, and I also didn’t think Ciara’s message of #LevelUp was wrong considering all that she went through to get where she is today. And if you want to read that entire post, click on “Why Ciara & Pastor John Gray Are Right To Advise Single Ladies to Level Up…”
But now, a year after that January 2018 tweet, Pastor John Gray is caught up in another controversy regarding relationships. Relentless Church recently posted on Facebook that Gray along with his wife First Lady Aventer Gray will be hosting a relationship conference entitled “Align 19” which will be held at their church Relentless Church in Greenville, SC on Feb. 7-9. UPDATE: The date has been changed to Sept. 12-14.
This announcement has folk talking again because The Christian Post and other news outlets reported that Gray and his wife admitted that they had considered divorce for two years, which he said on a YouTube video from the summer of 2018. From The Christian Post:
“What they didn’t see is that for the last two years we weren’t sure if we would even make it. This is what the people saw,” he said while fake smiling, “but they didn’t see the tears at night. They didn’t see the times when one of us was sleeping on the couch because the argument. We had to keep smiling because even though we were struggling and even though I was failing as a husband, I was already in front of the people and the people can’t receive my brokenness because where do leaders go when they bleed? Because sheep don’t do well with blood so I had to bleed alone,” Gray said.
In that same video, his wife spoke about a “strange woman” whom affected their marriage. From The Christian Post:
“I prayed for them and him and then the devil loses,” she said to applause. “’Cause what’s not gonna happen is you tell me that I’m gonna lose my purpose because somebody whispered to a 16-year-old John? The devil is a liar. I’m staying with my husband and you can go back to the pits of Hell where you came from.”
She added, “So you want me to leave my husband because you spoke to the 16-year-old that couldn’t get a date? And he listened. So I’m supposed to leave my husband because you spoke to a place of brokenness that had not yet been submitted back to the Father? But because I know the tricks of the enemy and I’m learning them every day, I can stand here in boldness for everybody that tried to sneak in, thank you, because I got closer to God because of it. I got in that word … come on devil, you don’t want it with me.”
As a result of these revelations regarding their near divorce and this “strange woman,” some think Grays do not need to be hosting a relationship conference. And given the fact that Pastor Gray could have been contemplating divorce and allegedly cavorting with a “strange woman” while giving relationship advice to women at the 2016 I Am Woman Conference, he could very well be a hypocrite. I must say those were my initial conclusions as well.
But then, I started thinking about the fact that the Grays will be the hosts of the conferences but are not billed as speakers (as least according to the flyer anyway). I don’t know about you but when I need help in a particular area, I gather as many experts in that area that I can find and try to learn from them. That expertise may be found within the pages of a book. I may attend a conference or two. I may get counseling. I try to align myself with people who have what I want so that I can get what they have.
As far as the speakers at the Align relationship conference are concerned, Kirk and Tammy Franklin have been married for 23 years and although they have faced some challenges (I remember when Kirk Franklin admitted to having a porn addiction), they are still together. That is an inspirational story for couples who have faced similar challenges. Although DeVon Franklin is happily married now, but prior to getting married to Meagan Good, he was celibate for over 10 years as a single man. He obviously has a word for single people. I’m not as familiar with the rest of the slate of speakers, but based on their bios, they have testimonies that could encourage conference attendees. And as far as the Grays are concerned, maybe their decision to name the conference “Align” which means “to to be in or come into precise adjustment or correct relative position” is indicative of their intention to adjust or correct their marriage after what they revealed about their personal lives last year.
But what about the fact that he was giving relationship advice in 2016 while likely not having a good relationship with his own wife at the time, some of y’all are probably saying? LOL. I say I hope he uses better judgment in 2019 regarding his speaking engagements and overall speech because I can see why he was more than ready for 2018 to be over and hit the reset button for 2019.
Y’all it seemed like Pastor Gray was being talked about and not in a good way for much of 2018. See for yourself below.
Am I missing any controversies?
Pastor Gray said in his New Year’s Eve sermon “The Reset” that he was dressed in all black in his “funeral outfit” because “2018 tried to kill me so I thought I would dress for the occasion.” He said that, “Some of the stuff that tried to kill me, I helped…Some stuff wasn’t the devil. Some stuff was you. It would be great if we shouted for that too because what we’re saying is, ‘I take personal responsibility.'” He then goes on to talk about how he even thought about suicide behind all of what transpired in 2018. I agree with Pastor John Gray that much of what happened to him at least regarding his public persona and statements could be traced back to his decisions. For example, I’m pretty sure he is not the only megapastor who gifted his wife with a lavish gift in 2018 especially on the heels of Christmas but many of them did not post what they gifted.
I remember Pastor Gray before he was a pastor. He was a comedian I believe. I saw him at a church event here in Atlanta, and I thought he was funny at the time. But I didn’t think much else about him because he was another Christian comedian doing this thing. But now his circumstances have changed. He is a pastor with worldwide platform. Somebody say, “More platform, More problems…” As it says in the Word, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1) His inclination is still to be funny although his words, which may come from an innocent place, are now judged more seriously.
I hope he remembers this verse as we proceed in 2019.
What say you?
Any thoughts?
