Pastor Rick Warren, Misses the Mark

I came across this article online at CNN.com.,“Church most powerful weapon against HIV/AIDS, “describing Rev. Rick Warren intervention efforts against HIV/AIDS in Africa.  Unfortunately, I do not know much about him other than he’s the founder and pastor at Saddleback Church and he wrote The Purpose Driven Life as the article points out.  I have however seen him on national news programs but rarely gave him an audience longer than a few seconds.  Disclaimer: (I am skeptical of him and his cohorts.)

HIV/AIDS affect millions globally and Warren’s crusade to combat the disease is chronicled with his interventions efforts (e.g., HIV testing, Christian volunteers, stewardship) in the article.  Pastor Rick Warren, I contend is a Christian believer of non-marital sex and disproves of the usage of condoms.  Albeit an important defense to HIV infections (Condoms) is not promoted anywhere in the article: This is not an oversight by Pastor Warren.

Rick Warren’s efforts are highly susceptible to his religious beliefs and those sentiments are not all covered in this essay.  I question one who does not mention condoms as a defense against the HIV/AIDS infection.  Blacks globally are overrepresented in AIDS infection and one easily becomes mislead by these covert operations.  The article provides what appears as a noble cause, (I doubt it); Rick Warren is not qualified to help the HIV/AIDS epidemic if condoms are off the table.  His efforts are paramount to telling people not to use smoke detectors and provide intervention efforts after their homes have burned down.  He is driven in the wrong direction.

Condoms can help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS infections.  This is not new to Warren but premarital sex goes against his faith and this trumps reason, facts, or common sense.  The African American’s church community serves a similar public doctrine as Warren.  Nevertheless, their congregations are saturated with LGBT parishioners as well as pastors, deacons, and first ladies are Gay and Lesbians.  Nevertheless, the charade in the Black community about their highly intolerance of LGBT life styles is laughable.  In other words, they choose like Warren to imagine premarital sex does not occur by church members.  Really, have you checked the never married single mother’s rates attending Black churches?

If condoms can help prevent HIV/AIDS infections, why would any reasonable person not recommend them?  Oh, I forgot pastors like Warren are allergic to reason and common sense.  What a pity?

The Invisible Dragon

Young Black Males & Prison Incarceration

black boy in prison

According to Boothe (2007), African American male children have little chance of succeeding in life. For example, the chances of an African American male becoming:

an NFL player is 1 in 1,250

an NBA player is 1 in 4,600

a Ph.D. in engineering, mathematics, or the physical sciences is 1 in 2,000

a doctor is 1 in 548

a lawyer is 1 in 195

a teacher is 1 in 53

On the other hand, the same African-American boy probability for prison incarceration is 1 in 13 before dying; they have a 1 in 3 chance of being a felon; a 1 in 7 chance of never graduating from high school; a 1 in 6 chance of graduating from college; and a 50:50 chance of becoming a drug abuser…

Black boy adolescents are 46 times more likely to be sent to a juvenile detention facility than Caucasian adolescents.

The dismal picture of African-American boys seems lost or at least not important enough for a social movement. The author feels that the acceptance of Black boys being an endangered species influence indifference by society and the Black community.

As always, countless Black pontificates fill national news shows articulating black boys’ demise, however, the announcements of a social movement remains a moot point. When will the Black community stop the generational destruction of Black boys?

Subsequently, we watch in calmness as they drop out of school and join the ‘Prison Armed Forces.’ Sadly, being locked up has become dramatized with MSNBC running countless loops of prison life. The show as well as others like it seems to say incarceration isn’t all that bad, YIKES!!! Black boys are in a bad way in America, unschooled, truant, and a valuable commodity to the private prison industry.

In short, the Black church as usual is incapable of enacting any real transformation in the hood. Preachers and pastors run the game of ‘faith & hope’ to Black mothers whose boys are locked away on extensive bits in prisons across the nation. Where are the social programs to address the exodus of Black boys on the slave ships called ‘Mass Incarceration’?

The Invisible Dragon

References:

Boothe, D. (2007). Why are so many black men in prison?: Full Surface Publishing.
Boykin,

Dragon’s Daily Fireball

The Fire next Time

**

“All religious or spiritual sayings are recited phraseology. A person’s beliefs are not the words they verbalize, yet, on the contrary.  Watch their actions, the silent actions; and without erring, they will testify their true alliance.  Only then, shall their pious masquerade get the test.”

The Invisible Dragon

What is Spiritual Faith?

First, What Faith is Not

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Faith is not relentless praying and meditating until wishes come true. **Faith is not the practice of good behavior with hopes of a better life here or after**Faith is not the practice of customs, traditions or rituals ** Faith is not precondition behaviors for rewards, faith is not tithes**faith is not hate or intolerance**faith is not God is “On our Side,” ** faith is not a pastor, minister, pope, bishop, palm reader or fortune teller ** faith is not specific behaviors practiced on certain days ** faith is not men-only to being preachers ** faith is not believing all who disagree with your faith should burn in hell ** faith is not heterosexual nor homosexual preference ** faith is not race, creed or color ** faith is not religious clothing ** faith is not chants, mantras, or The Lord’s pray ** Faith is not the Bible, Koran, or any other book, who claims it’s a book of faith ** Faith is not being right ** faith is not a great spiritual orator ** faith is not a mega-church or a small cozy one ** faith is not an act of miracles ** faith is not the Virgin Mary ** a picture of a crying Jesus ** or a bright light witnessed in near death situations ** Faith is not things working out for you ** faith is not converting followers to your faith ** faith is not abstinence ** faith is not abstaining from pre-martial sex, alcohol, booze or drugs, ** and faith is not the sole ownership of those who believes their faith is stronger than others.

What is Faith?

***

Faith is nothing. Faith is thoughtless, faith is silence, faith is stillness, faith is inner-spirit, faith is self-harmony, faith is non-judgmental, faith is egoless, faith is love of all and abandonment of none, faith is guiding one’s own life, faith is change, faith is spiritual balance, faith is self-discovery, faith is self-honesty, faith is patience, faith is self-awareness, faith is desire-less, faith is non-expectations, faith is inner-growth, faith is inclusion…Faith is saying, I’m sorry…Faith is accepting I’m sorry…Faith is forgiveness…Faith is love… Faith is blind….

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Robert Williams

How Near Thy Kingdom, O Lord?

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Tongues who proclaim God’s

wisdom slay the unsaved.

The dead chained to ideology

and piety thirst for thy word.

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Man’s doctrines lead us away.

In the wilderness we flail about.

Children, the Gospel is not hidden

as thy Son proclaim, it is near.

As a child in thy Mother’s womb

so is the kingdom.

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The thirsts of God’s love will not go unquenched.

So, prepare thy spirit for its return.

Vanquish all fears, beliefs and judgments.

For the breast milk of the

Lord shall feed thy hearts.

****

Let not the spirit be deceived

by your fathers’ customs.

Tear down those traditions

that one enters unblemished.

***

We enter the Kingdom not by

man’s way of life but one’s own heart.

We enter the kingdom not of obligations,

conditions or mandate, but by the

Love and forgiveness of God.

****

The Kingdom of Heaven is in you.

Love and forgive yourself, and

you can love and forgive anyone.

This, the Gospel of Jesus.

***

Thy Kingdom is not far.

**

The Invisible Dragon