Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

A minister at Obama's former church crosses a line again, but is it a line that matters to anyone?

At the risk of wandering blindly into two highly charged areas, I have to ask this question: Why is a Barack Obama's now-former congregation laughing and cheering about Hillary Clinton being a cry-baby during a Sunday worship service?

In this lull day as Obama takes the Democratic nomination but before the full-scale war of words begins for the fall campaign, it's as good a time as any to think about the involvement of church in state. You're probably heard the latest flap concerning Trinity United Church of Christ, which caused Obama to resign his membership: A visiting Catholic priest went off on Hillary during his Sunday sermon, adding a couple of racist-tinged comments and then wiping fake tears from his eyes in a reference to Hillary's occasionally weepy campaign actions. You can see some of what was said on YouTube and read about what happened here in the Chicago Sun-Times, the home paper to Obama's church.

Unity Church art show reception tonight

I had lunch at Corner Market on Lower Greenville (which I'll get into later on) across the street from Unity Church. I picked up a flier about an art show tonight 7p.m.-9 p.m. at the church entitled "the color of Spirit".

Now, I have no clue what the art will be like, only that the gallery offers a "visual presentation of how artists have breathed their life into their works depicting the many faces and colors of Spirit". I admittedly have little inkling what that means. But I do know they will be serving up refreshments, wine, and music by Barb Pennington. From all I can gather, the event is free and will probably be interesting to boot. The exhibit will run through May 9.

Joseph Lowery, "dean of the civil rights movement," visits Munger Place UMC Sunday

Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery of Atlanta, “the dean of the civil rights movement,” will be the guest preacher at Munger Place United Methodist Church, 5200 Bryan Street, on Sunday, April 20, at the 10:50 a.m. worship service. Lowery will be in Dallas to accept SMU's Robert O. Cooper Peace and Justice Fellowship. Lowery and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1965, Lowery was chairman of the delegation to take demands to then Alabama Gov. George Wallace during the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. For Information, call 214-823-9929.

Wilshire Baptist Church wants your peanut butter

Wilshire Baptist is one of the North Texas Food Bank's 10 partners in a community effort initiated by Oprah's Big Give, a reality TV show with talk show diva Oprah Winfrey in which people compete not to get but to give as much as they possibly can.

As part of the show, Winfrey also gave $10,000 to 100 local markets around the country with the charge of doing good in their communities. WFAA Channel 8 was one of these, and the TV station decided to make the North Texas Food Bank its recipient. The food bank, in turn, asked 10 local organizations to be its partners in the Big Give, matching the $10,000 donation and helping to collect 10,000 jars of peanut butter.

Why Christmas and not Easter?

Every year when we get to Holy Week, I have to sit back and wonder why Christians don't make a ruckus about the commercialization of Easter the way many of them do about Christmas.

Of the two religious holidays, Easter is the more important. I realize Jesus had to be born in order for Christians to even be celebrating Easter, but if there had been no resurrection, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't celebrate Christmas. (At least that's what my more theologically intelligent friends tell me.)

Yes, there are bunnies and rabbits and eggs and LOTS of chocolate candy around Easter. How this is any different than Santa Claus and reindeer and Frosty and eggnog, I don't know. But even pagan origins and fertility symbols aside, if you ask someone about their plans for Easter, you'll most likely get an answer that has something to do with brunch.

STA Auction - Great Success

The St Thomas auction was held this past weekend at the Belo Mansion. All numbers point to the most successful auction yet. Thanks to the generosity of many of the parents and the donations of the community, in excess of $200,000 was raised (final numbers are still be tallied). The auction's proceeds helps keep the tuition at STA at a very reasonable level and remains one of the best private school values in the area.

One of the more interesting items was dinner for 12 with Fr. John at the new "back room" at Jimmy's. It was split up with a few different parents and went for 30K total. Kudos to all who made it a huge success.

Neighborhood pastor in the spotlight

Some say politics and religion don't mix, but I decided to break that rule tonight and blog about the Baptists while some of you may still be watching the Super Tuesday results trickle in.

Speaking of religion and politics, anyone who read the DMN on Saturday may have seen our religion columnist, the Rev. George Mason, quoted in a story about last week's Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta, Ga. The celebration brought together racially, geographically and theologically diverse Baptists, and made headlines because of some of its own headliners — Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Bill Clinton. This resulted in an essential boycott of the event from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention, which was not included in the planning and whose leaders criticized the event as left-wing and partisan.

Mason was a speaker at the celebration, and when I asked him whether he had received any feedback from the story, he told me most of it had been concerning his comment: "I wish all Baptists had been there."

Some say politics and religion don't mix, but I decided to break that rule tonight and blog about the Baptists while some of you may still be watching the Super Tuesday results trickle in.

Speaking of religion and politics, anyone who read the DMN on Saturday may have seen our religion columnist, the Rev. George Mason, quoted in a story about last week's Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta, Ga. The celebration brought together racially, geographically and theologically diverse Baptists, and made headlines because of some of its own headliners — Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and Bill Clinton. This resulted in an essential boycott of the event from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention, which was not included in the planning and whose leaders criticized the event as left-wing and partisan.

Mason was a speaker at the celebration, and when I asked him whether he had received any feedback from the story, he told me most of it had been concerning his comment: "I wish all Baptists had been there."

Need an excuse to stop by Burger House on Tuesday?

As if you really need an excuse to suck down some cheese fries and burgers, here's a good one: Ridgewood Park Methodist's youth group is raising money for a summer mission trip, and Burger House is donating a portion of Tuesday's (Feb. 5) proceeds between 6-8:30 p.m. to the cause. Tuesday also happens to be Fat Tuesday, which is kind of what happens if you eat enough burgers and fries, but since this is a one-day event, we're probably OK here.

The Great Debaters: a movie review

My family and I just returned from watching the latest Denzel Washington movie, The Great Debaters, which dramatizes the story of tiny, all-black Wiley College's triumph over the Harvard University debate team in the 1930s. (It's an Oprah Winfrey production, for those who are interested.) The premise probably doesn't sound like a "must-see" these days, since there's no promise of bloodshed and the PG-13 rating doesn't offer much in the way of sexual escapes either, but go see it if you get a chance. According to the weekend's movie rankings in terms of box office, not many of us are (even though the half-full auditorium gave it a spontaneous round of applause after our showing).

Today's children, and perhaps too many of us adults, don't really understand the importance of the civil rights movement and how not-so-long-ago just down the road from Dallas in Marshall (and surely in Dallas, too), black Americans didn't have anywhere near the same opportunities whites did. The movie isn't preachy, but there are a couple of moments when it drives a point home, and it's all wrapped around a good story about some kids from nowhere who worked hard, beat the odds and made something of themselves — and that's a story line that's still inspiring regardless of the actors' color.

Dallas man asks: Do you believe every word?

In the most recent CNN/YouTube debate among GOP candidates, 24-year-old Joseph Dearing of Dallas asked the candidates:

"Do you believe every word of the Bible?"

And then, according to yesterday's DMN article, Mr. Dearing was disappointed in all the candidates' answers, which he felt skirted what he was driving at (though I'm still not sure what answer he was looking for — the DMN reporter, frustratingly, either didn't ask Mr. Dearing what answer he was looking for and what his motivation for asking the question, or asked and didn't print his response.) I gather, however, that he was looking for a simple "yes."

Anyway, it was an interesting if overly simplistic question that has spurred plenty of comments and debate on CNN's political ticker blog. Click on the link and you'll also get a glimpse of Dearing.