On Sunday, July 11, 2010, Walter Hawkins, a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer, legendary composer and Bishop from Oakland, made his transition to heaven after battling Pancreatic Cancer. He was 61. Born in Oakland, Hawkins studied for his divinity degree at the University of California, Berkeley. At the time of his death, Hawkins was planning a new "Love Alive" CD concert recording for this fall. Besides his brother Walter, Hawkins is survived by two children, two grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews.

I have no words that can adequately express to you how grateful I am to God for Bishop Walter Hawkins; truly a wonderful child of God who filled my life with anointed lyrics and music delivered to us directly from the portals of heaven. He leaves a legacy of music behind that is unquestionably legendary but what is even greater is the legacy that he leaves behind in terms of how ministry in the Black Church should be conducted. Walter pioneered something few will discuss or view as a great accomplishment and that was his obedience to the Great Commission, "Go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to ALL creation.” (Mark 16:15, NASB)

Lord, My Child is Gay, What Do I Do?

(Something every parent who has a child should read!) Excerpt from:
“Love Won’t Let Me Be Silent” and also included in, “They Say That I Am Broken” by Terry Angel Mason 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

by Keith Wilkes

UGANDA MY HEART WEEPS FOR YOU!

I am tired of being attacked, robbed, and denied equal rights by heterosexual religious bandits who blame same-gender-loving people for their failed marriages. Today is January 27, 2010, and I have just read a statement released by the Associated Press, quoting the founder of a family values think-tank who said (while testifying before the California Supreme Court) that rights of same-sex couples should come second to preserving the cherished social institution of marriage.

Most of my life, I have served in worship centers across America in one capacity or another, and I can tell you that what has eroded heterosexual marriages has nothing to do with a secret gay agenda and/or conspiracy spearheaded by evil men and women dressed in rainbow-hooded robes like the Ku Klux Klan in the '50 and '60s.  Unlike many same-gender-loving men and women who have left the church because of crazy statements like these (heralded from pulpits across America) and attitudes that demean and demoralize them as individuals, I have decided to remain in the ranks. So I know first-hand that the reason Bishop so-and-so and prophetess so-and-so got divorced had absolutely nothing to do with my attraction to another man. I didn’t live in their house! I did not attend their lavish wedding! I certainly didn’t secretly carry on an illicit sexual affair behind the scenes with either of them. And I was not the confidant they confided in when things began to crumble in their marriages and the erotic flame burned out in their sex lives.  Nor was I the person they sought when they made their decision to marry and needed marriage counseling, although after observing the horrific aftermath of their failed marriage, perhaps I should have been!

Melissa Etheridge made a profound statement when she questioned the U.S. government’s right to extract taxes from her (a hard-working same-gender-loving U.S. Citizen), yet deny her the right to marry the person she loves. Well, this is not something that is new to me as an African-American. For years, this same so-called Democratic government has denied people of color across this great nation their equal rights, all the while working them to death to build their mansions, work on their plantations, prosper their businesses by stealing their inventions and creative ideas, and pad their financial portfolios. Then one day, a Black man by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from Atlanta, Georgia, got fed up and said “Enough”!!!   Dr. King radically galvanized a generation in a time when everything was against them! People took to the streets with signs in hand – much like the LGBTQ community has done and began to demand what is due them as law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.

It was not an easy battle; change never is – something I learned as a Black youth growing up in Southeast Los Angeles, during this very era! Many were left bleeding and decapitated as their dead bodies were left swinging from trees side to side, blown by the winds of hatred and discrimination, the result of being horribly disfigured and murdered.  Some were maimed, having lost limbs like legs or arms and mothers kicked in the stomach – never again able to bear children after brutal beatings.  But something in them kept them from turning back even in the face of insurmountable odds until equal rights was something that all Americans of all ethnicities – from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the northern borders of this country to the very southern borders of America – could enjoy and stand up and proudly boast about.

So no, I won’t shut up or go quietly into the night and stop protesting just because certain conservative Evangelical pastors and redneck politicians threaten to withdraw their support from the President of the United States (Barack Obama) in future elections. I appreciate the fact that Obama is working diligently behind the scenes to ensure that one day, I can walk down the aisle in the state that I live in and say “I do” to the man I love; and be able to avail myself to the same healthcare benefits and federal benefits and provisions that heterosexuals who enter a similar union are afforded.”

I have one question to ask, especially to the so-called defenders of Civil Rights in the African-American community:  What if during the Civil Rights Era, some misguided soul who headed a powerful political organization or government had the gall to stand up and say, “I think that equal rights for African-Americans should come second to preserving the cherished social institution of inequality and discrimination”?! Oopps! Well, actually, someone did say something similar to that! Governor George Wallace made numerous outlandish statements so crazy until it would make the hair stand up on the back of the necks of most Americans today, if I shared them with you now!   And here is the knock-out thing:  When he made those outlandish statements, millions of white Americans across the country cheered him and supported his backward discriminatory way of thinking the same way many do when spiritual leaders mount the pulpit and bash gay people. Had it not been for The President Kennedy intervening by appointing his brother Robert as Attorney General to deal with these issues, something that may have ultimately cost him his life, the Civil Rights Movement’s stunning achievements may have been stymied and/or hindered for who knows how long; and countless more lives of innocent African-Americans would have been beaten and killed in public view, all to preserve the status quo.

Now because I hate to complain about problems and never offer solutions (something I will do at the conclusion of this article), I must address another stunning revelation I learned about just yesterday. Apparently, there are 170,000 inmates in the state of California in a prison system designed to service at the most 100,000. You might ask, Well, how could we let this happen? I will never forget the night I sat comfortably in my living room and watched a popular news program that clearly exposed one of the most powerful unions in America’s attempt to continue to hold hundreds of thousands of inmates across the country in institutions – not because they had done some extremely hideous, unforgiveable crime, but because it was big business.  When any governor or top official tries to combat this injustice and craft new legislation to release non-violent offenders, this same powerful union exerts its powerful financial and political muscle by using well-known law enforcement figures like puppets to frighten the American public by informing them via newscasts, Internet, and infomercials that their children are going to be raped or molested if these criminals are released and that most certainly, their homes will be ransacked in the middle of the night by some illiterate Black or Latino man and that the Police Department will be overwhelmed by increased crime if these horrible people -- by the way, many of them your fathers, mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles, and aunts -- are released. Millions, if not billions, are being misappropriated in order to care for incarcerated people yearly, causing severe cutbacks in educational funding, programs that benefit the growing elderly population, AIDS organizations servicing an increasingly number of our youth, social security, and many other much needed social programs.  This misappropriation of funds now threatens to annihilate even welfare!  And year after year, we allow their captors to entice us into believing that it would be better to lay off teachers, caregivers, city employees, and public servants than to release people who are incarcerated who shouldn’t be there in the first place.  Is it any wonder why the Bible urges  us to “Awake oh thou that sleepest?!”

Yet, where are our pastors, the shepherds, and religious leaders we hold in high esteem and do everything to protect and cater to? In Washington, D.C. or in Sacramento, California, fighting to deny hard-working people the right to marry the person of their choice. And what is their answer to the AIDS pandemic that is ravaging their ministries and claiming the lives of millions of their parishioners and the millions of men and women who are being herded like cattle in prison institutions, while unions and the private sector get filthy rich, the result of their incarceration? That is easy to answer.  Channel over $45 million of their parishioners' tithes and offerings to combat Proposition 8 when many churches don’t even have a food pantry to feed the poor or a church bus to transport its elderly to and from church, no effective counseling programs for sexually-active teens to keep them from having children out of wedlock or prevent them from contracting AIDS or STDs, and no marriage preparation programs that deal with real issues for couples considering marriage.

I have heard it said time and time again by pastors all over America: “We must sound a trumpet in Zion. The very foundation of our Christian faith is under attack because the gays are getting married! – forgetting that Jesus said, “On this rock I build my church and nothing can prevail against it, not even the gates of hell!”

I say we must sound several trumpets in Zion and tell the pastors, bishops, priests, and leaders of our flocks to stop acting like Adam and Eve who blamed each other, the tempter, and even the Creator for their transgressions and shortcomings and face up to the facts.  The facts are that they have been acting like the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day who criticized Him for feeding His disciples because they were hungry on the Sabbath day because of some distorted legalistic ritual they thought was Biblically correct – all because He allowed them to eat in the cornfields. Yes, by all means, “Let's sound a trumpet in Zion and send those same pastors packing back to their seminaries and theological educational institutions so that they can learn the true meaning of scriptures like these, and not listen to another sermon or heed their instruction until they do:

“Therefore, If any woman or man is in Christ Jesus (including same-gender-loving people), he or she is a new Creation…. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Jesus cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever (the most universal inclusive word in the Bible) believes in him shall not perish, but they shall have everlasting life!” (John 3:16)

And lastly, someone please inform them that the best way to shore up the institution of marriage is to spend generous amounts of time with their congregations and couples who are considering marriage and not be MIA (missing in action) because they are down at the courthouse protesting.  Rather, teaching couples how to be good husbands and wives and how to walk in love and integrity from the Word of God. Jesus said that what convinces the world more than anything that we are His disciples is that we walk in love and live lives of integrity before people, not misappropriate $45 million fighting a proposition that will ultimately be overturned, which by the way, had it passed, would have generated countless millions of much needed revenue over the next ten years into California’s impoverished economy. Wisdom would surely encourage our spiritual leaders to readjust their priorities and start addressing the real issues that plague their congregations and communities and to stop being remiss in their responsibilities as leaders and shepherds.

By Terry Angel Mason, Author
Love Won’t Let Me Be Silent &
They Say That I Am Broken
WWW.TERRYANGELMASON.COM




Mason is known for his breakthrough revolutionary book, Love Won't Let Me Be Silent, that is becoming a testament for many gays and lesbians struggling with their sexuality and the need to come out to their family and friends. What started out as a self-published nonfiction book has now become a literary phenomenon consistently earning him numerous literary nominations; while at the same time, gaining a place of reverence in the hearts and minds of millions of readers -- both men and women worldwide.

 

The most important issue of our lifetime is health care reform. If reform doesn’t come it will cost us dearly financially as well as physically. And as in most cases, it will have a devastating effect on the Black community. Health care costs have skyrocketed over the past several years to the point where they are one-sixth of our economy today and are projected by everyone to continue to rise at an even higher pace if nothing is done to curtail them.  This will force more and more businesses, large and small, to cut health benefits to their employees.

It’s time for us to get off our butts. Get out of those nice soft chairs and get out to the town hall meetings, community meetings, or at least go to our computer chairs and voice our opinion on health care reform or the last election for President will not have meant a thing.

The most important thing we can have is our health. But without health care reform we will not have that. So it’s critical for all who supported change in the last presidential election to get out and let the politicians, hospitals and health insurance companies know we will not accept anything less than real change. And if they don’t support change, there will be hell to pay from us.

At these meetings we must not be about shouting others with different views down, but listening to all sides of the issue, then making sure that health care reform is implemented.

What are the options?

There are basically three camps battling. The Right Wing conservatives, mostly Republicans are fighting to keep things as they are; where the insurance and pharmaceutical companies pretty much dictate prices and who is covered. They defeated the Clinton plan during the ‘90s, and offered nothing during the 2000-2006 period when they controlled all three branches of government in Washington. They have made it clear that they will not support anything that has a public option in it, or may raise taxes.

On the Left are the liberals, mostly Democrats who support a single payer system in which the government would run the entire health care system much like Medicare does for seniors and people on Social Security. They feel this system would best serve the masses of poor uninsured, low income working people as well as the middle class. They will not support anything that doesn’t have a public option.

The Middle, made up of Democrats, Independents and moderate Republicans not running for political office, want a public option. The public option is simply giving everyone an option between the private insurers and a government plan, basically Medicare competing with the private insurers. This they believe is the only way to bring down or at least slow down the skyrocketing, total out of control health care cost in this country. The Right is saying this would force the private companies out of business because people would automatically chose the less expensive choice, which would lead to the single payer system that the liberals want. The moderates say that the people should have a real choice. Let them decide.

Where does the President stand?

Before his speech even though Obama has made it absolutely clear where he stood from day one when he first started his campaign for president, many are saying that he’s moving too fast, it’s not clear where he stands, he is giving Congress too much leeway, and he has not come up with his own plan which has led to confusion.

So why did we all overwhelmingly support this Black man with the African name? Because he offered change, and his opponent was offering more of the same.

At the top of his list for change were; Health Care, Education and Energy Reform.  And unlike most politicians he has stayed true to his promise. Health Care reform is at the top of his agenda, making it a must for Congress in his first year. He is not to the right or to the left of this issue, but smack dab in the middle, where he’s at on most issues. He has always said he wants a public option to help bring prices down in the health care field. He has always said that people must have a choice, if they want to keep what they have, fine, but if they want to change they should have the same choices Congress has. A public option.

Well, for some reason the masses of us who supported him apparently must feel that after we voted for him that our jobs are finished.

No, not by a long shot, our jobs have just begun.

In order for Health Care to be reformed the House and the Senate must pass reform bills.. President Obama wanted both houses to pass a bill by the August recess, so when they came back in September the bills would be easily conformed to what he wants and passed by both houses and signed into law by the end of the year. The House passed a bill but the Senate did not.

This is what he ran on. This is what most Democrats were elected for, yet something is going wrong.

His opponents have pulled out all the big guns to stop reform in its tracks. They have raised such a stink that some of the Democrats, called Blue Dogs, have forgotten why they were voted into office in Republican states. This fight is for all the marbles. If they can defeat Obama on health care then they’ve started the collapse of the building. The next move is education reform, then energy reform. So by the end of his four years, nothing will have changed.

So we all know where they are coming from. They are throwing up a big smoke screen called deficit spending. Well Obama has made it clear that he will not sign a health care bill that does not pay for itself in the long run. Yet no one seems to hear him.  My question is even if there was a tax increase would it be anywhere near the cost to each individual if we had to pay for our own health care? Would it be anywhere close to the cost to each one of us if there is no health care reform?

If we don’t fix health care, the economy will never get back on track.

If we don’t fix health care millions more Americans are going to die, or suffer unnecessarily.

If we don’t fix health care most of the young people who turned out for the first time to vote will never come out again. Why should they, when Congress is not doing what they were voted into office to do.

Obama was not voted into office just by Democrats and Independents, many Republicans voted for him because they too wanted change. Most people still vote for the person, not the party, so if Republicans really want to stay in office they need to listen to more than just the right wing of their party, and support true health care reform.

What can you do?

Write every Congressman and Senator, not just yours, and let them know what you want. Then email them all. Then pick up the phone and call them all, both parties.  And don’t be afraid to get out and march, write letters to insurance and pharmaceutical companies letting them know your feelings and all the other big players in this health care issue, and encourage everyone you come in contact with to do the same, including family and friends here as well as in other states.  

The Republicans have effectively blocked health care reform for years, yet they pretend that they don’t know why the President is pushing so hard to get it passed this year, they keep talking about the need for patience, the need to wait to get it right. Isn’t this what Black folks were told doing the Civil Rights era. America has been waiting for years, we are tired of waiting. Now is the time for health care reform, there is no tomorrow.

This is a war we must win.

(Ulish Carter is managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier, he can be reach at ucarter@newpittsburghcourier.com)

We Need Abortion Debate

A few years ago, I came upon an abortion protest in Pittsburgh, with anti-abortion activists filling a street outside a clinic that supposedly performed abortions, but at the very least counseled women about abortion.

The protest group included young people from a local Christian college, a wizened activist holding up a placard with grotesque photos of aborted fetuses and some earnest young people pressing fliers and other material into the hands of passersby. What were not in the crowd were Black people. In fact, when I walked through the throng, no one attempted to hand me a flier, no one asked me to join in and no one said anything. I was the invisible man.