Hello World,

Last week, when I first saw a story about Kelly Gissendaner, I quickly looked at the mug shot and read a few lines of the story “Weather Threat Postpones Georgia’s First Execution of a Woman in 70 Years” and concluded, she looks like a criminal and went on with my life…

But then through the blog post “When Is Grace Enough?”  by Alisha L. Gordon on findthepieces.com, I saw another side of this dead woman walking initially through the picture above…and then through these words…

This matters, even now, as I have friends and colleagues who personally know Kelly. They’ve laughed and talked with her. They’ve walked with her through new theological understandings and guided her to completing a certificate in theological studies through the Candler School of Theology and the Lee Arrendale Prison, where she’s currently housed. The partnership between Candler and Arrendale has provided women like Kelly the opportunity to transform their lives — from the inside out. It has given her a fresh start on a life that took a terrible turn. It was a full extension of God’s grace in action. To read the rest of the blog post, go to findthepieces.com.

And then on Friday, on the WAOK radio program “Too Much Truth” with Derrick Boazman, I listened to the testimony of Nikki Roberts, a former inmate at Metro State Prison in Georgia and pastor’s daughter, who found herself in jail and suicidal…As a pastor’s daughter myself, I was compelled to listen as she cried and described her friendship with Kelly Gissendaner…But for Kelly Gissendaner, she may have taken her life…Nikki Roberts talks about Kelly Gissendaner here…

Kelly Gissendaner’s story has even found its way to The New York Times…

From “A Death Row Inmate Finds Common Ground With Theologians.”

A lot of convicted felons find God while in prison. Some of their stories rise to the level of literature — Oscar Wilde, Malcolm X. Others are less sincere; parole boards around the country are treated to a lot of conversion stories.

Few are anything like Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, who is scheduled on Monday to be put to death by lethal injection. She became pen pals with one of the world’s most prominent theologians.

In 1998, Ms. Gissendaner was sentenced to death for persuading her boyfriend to murder her husband. The crime, which she now admits, was brutal. Many, including some of her slain husband’s relatives, want her to die. She probably will; the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency this week. To read the rest of the story, go here.

Here is a link to her clemency application

If you are moved to support Kelly Gissendaner like I am, you can contact:

Gov. Nathan Deal at 404-656-1776 or @GovernorDeal on Twitter. You can also contact the Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles at 404-656-4661 and www.pap.georgia.gov.

You can also:

sign this change.org petition…   

or sign this letter if you are a clergy member

Also, tonight at 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., “A Vigil of Light, Life and Solidarity for Kelly Gissendaner” will held at the William R. Cannon Chapel at 515 S Kilgo Cir NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30322.

All are welcome to come and celebrate Kelly Gissendaner and what she has meant to the many communities of which she is part. The service will feature several speakers who testified on Tuesday at Kelly’s clemency hearing before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles — as well as music, poetry, and prayer.

Speakers:

Rev. Yolanda Thompson, MDiv/MSJ
Pastor, Joy n’Java Fellowship

Rev. Della P. Bacote, M.Div.
Chaplain, St. Thomas Healthcare System
Teacher, Metro Nashville Public Schools
Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Nashville, TN

And here is link to a Facebook page supporting Kelly Gissendaner, and if you tweet about Kelly Gissendaner, use the hashtag #KellyOnMyMind…

And of course, she can use our prayers….

Any thoughts?

The post Kelly Gissendaner Will Be Executed on Monday Without Our Intervention… appeared first on After the Altar Call.

First of all on this Memorial Day holiday weekend, I want to thank the veterans of the United States, many of whom paid the ultimate price for me to be able leisurely write this post this beautiful summer morning…God bless and keep you and your families…

With that being said, I’m a history buff…I love to see how various events, trends, belief systems have shaped the trajectory of history…After reading an article in The New York Times, I am reminded why I tithe…I tithe because I recognize that every cent I earn could not be earned without the gifts, talents and opportunities given to me by the Father(and all of the resources of the world belong to God anyway)…I tithe because I want to demonstrate to myself and others that even with less, I can do more (it’s amazing how this works!)…I tithe because I am supporting God’s ministry through my church and supporting my church…Unfortunately, in Harlem, which has been a national jewel for the black community from arts to worship down through the decades, is experiencing a shift as many black churchgoers in Harlem are moving away and the ones that have remained are not tithing as they once were…And I believe what is going on Harlem is affecting all inner-city churches…

To read the entire article, go here – As Tourists Come and Go, Harlem Churches Lose a 10% Lifeblood.

Why do you tithe, and how has it affected your life?

Any thoughts?

The post Tithing Declines In Historical Black Churches in Harlem… appeared first on After the Altar Call.

Who Dat?

And that’s pretty much all I’ma say about the Super Bowl…I was gonna write something that had to do with the Super Bowl, but I’ma keep it real…I don’t get into football like that…although I know the Saints will be marching in by the end of the day…How can they lose with a name like that?

So after I saw the third article on this topic, I knew I had to discuss it here on this blog…In one article I read, former Us Weekly Editor-In-Chief Janice Min made more in one paycheck than her husband made in a whole year!!!(Apparently, she made roughly $2 million a year…I would say that is PHENOMENAL for a journalist. READ: Can I get somma dat some day?) According to an article in The New York Times, more men are likely to marry women who earn more money than they do than ever before according to Pew Research Center data….NPR,  in another article,  “Modern Marriages: The Rise of The Sugar Mama,” explored the same topic using the same data. In this article, one husband is married to a woman who works at the same company as he does — except she is two management levels above him. And THREE of his wife’s brothers are in a similar situation…Below is an interesting excerpt from the same article…

“I think this is really an example of an outdated idea,” says Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage: A History. Coontz says that in a 1967 poll, two-thirds of women said they’d consider marrying a man they did not love if he had good earnings potential.

“Now, women have a completely different point of view,” Coontz says. “They say overwhelmingly — 87 percent — that it’s more important to have a man who can communicate well, who can be intimate and who will share the housework than to have someone who makes more money than you do.”

So how do y’all feel about that? Could you marry a man who makes less than you do? A friend and I were discussing relationships yesterday as we often do. We talked about how some of us who are still in the game (the dating game) still tout money as one of the main qualities that a eligible man must have. She said the term “love” rarely comes up as a quality – meaning that women rarely talk about a man loving them as an important quality. She cited a Bible verse…

 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:25-33

In sum, husbands are commanded to love their wives, and women are commanded to respect their husbands…So I wonder if women need to look at love as the most important quality to look for in a man…But then again, some women may not be able to respect a man if his earning potential is less than hers…

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.  I Timothy 5:18

Now to be fair, providing for your household does not mean that you have to make more in my opinion. It does means that you have to provide your share…But some women may interpret that verse as meaning that a man must make more money than they do…What do you think? What do I think…

Well, when I was in j-school (journalism school), I found out pretty quickly that journalism was not one of the careers you chose if you are simply trying to get paid…People typically become journalists become they love the written word and have an insatiable curiousity. (READ: Me in a nutshell.) And now that our country is in its current economic state, journalism, as y’all probably know,  has become even less lucrative across the board…With that in mind, would it make sense for me to marry a man that makes less than I do…I’m honestly not sure…but judging from what I’ve seen in the news, some of the world’s richest, most powerful men make the worst husbands…And then again, just because a man is not rich and powerful doesn’t mean that he’s a keeper either…

Any thoughts?

To honor Black History Month, I will offer a memorable quote from someone in black history on each post I write this month…

“No person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended.”  Alice Walker….(Did y’all know that Alice Walker has a blog?)

The post The Rise of the Alpha Female…and the men they choose to marry… appeared first on After the Altar Call.