Contemporary Perspectives
Contemporary Perspectives is a resource that presents perspectives on current events and issues of importance to the constituency of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. and responds to questions posed by website visitors.
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FEATURED PERSPECTIVE
Goodbye to Civility?
By Dr. Kelly Miller Smith, Jr.
Executive Director, Sunday School Publishing Board
Pastor, Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Knoxville, TN
I wonder if we need to say farewell to civility. I am beginning to wonder if people just don't care about respect, decency and decorum. I am beginning to believe that we have come to an age when we can say and do about anything we please and believe it is acceptable, even admired...
How else can we gain some sense of logic from some of the forays we have seen or heard about in the public arena lately. You have Serena Williams, an athlete I enjoy watching and pulling for, losing it during the recent U.S. Open Tennis tournament. She disagreed with a call and literally threatened the official who made the call. You have Kanye West, who disagreed with the selection of an artist for a particular award, so he takes it upon himself, without invitation or even request, to come to the stage and grab the microphone and state his preference for who should have won the award. Then you have Joe Wilson, the Congressman from South Carolina, who shouts out "You lie" while President Obama addressed Congress on Health Care reform...
Maybe all of us have lost our mind. Maybe no one has a clear corner on what is logical and what makes sense. Maybe no one knows what is decent and in order. It is so sad that we have gotten to this point...
I am not sure how we got here, but I sure don't like it. One of the phrases that gets attacked in these kinds of discussions is being "politically correct." What the phrase means is that there are some things that we should not say or should not do because it may be insensitive or offensive. Those who attack the phrase state that the constitution gives us the right for free speech. They feel they should be free to call it as they see it. That may be true, but the Bible which is older than the constitution and is God's word gives us a different perspective. It tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:23 24, "Everything is permissible" but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible" but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others." This tells us that though we may have the legal right to do some things, we may not have the moral right. The greater right for us to consider should be what brings glory to God and not our just giving a piece of our minds. And then again the Bible tells us, "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless" (James 1:26-27). Ultimately our object should be to win people over to the ways of Christ, even when they offend us...
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FEATURED PERSPECTIVE
Health Care Reform Now: Why We Can't Wait!
By Rev. Charles Mock
Executive Secretary, Home Mission Board
In one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letters from the Birmingham jail he informed a number of his clergy colleagues, hesitant and disturbed about the speed in which he was calling for racial reform in America, that there was no time to waste. He indicated that "time" is neutral and could therefore be used for better or for worst. Dr. King made a case for why we can't wait any longer: what needed to be done to end race-centered discrimination and segregation needed to be done now. The same case is being made by millions of people with regards to Health Care Reform. There are good reasons why we can't wait. What needs to be done needs to be done now!...
We may feel powerless in the face of this health care giant but as you can see, there's always something we can do individually and collectively to make our values known and our voice heard. To be silent at a time such as this, especially as people of faith who follow the commandments of God, is no less than an embarrassment to the God who has been to us a great physician that continuously heals our souls. It is no less than a disservice to the Christ who took upon Himself our infirmities in order to make us well. Have we not learned anything from the health care crisis experienced by a man in John 5:1-9?...
Is not this the condition of 45 million of Americans? They have no man, no woman, no husband, no wife, no family, and no system of support to help him get to the pool of healing waters. He was not only physically infirmed he was also familiarly infirmed. He was a man in waiting. Jesus felt that he had waited long enough and should not have to wait any longer...
Learn More About President Obama's Health Care Reform Plans
Contemporary Perpectives Articles
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| Goodbye Civility? - Dr. Kelly Miller Smith, Jr. - October 2009 I wonder if we need to say farewell to civility. I am beginning to wonder if people just don’t care about respect, decency and decorum. I am beginning to believe that we have come to an age when we can say and do about anything we please and believe it is acceptable, even admired... |
| Health Care Reform NOW! - Rev. Charles Mock Dr. King made a case for why we can’t wait any longer: what needed to be done to end race-centered discrimination and segregation needed to be done now. The same case is being made by millions of people with regards to Health Care Reform. There are good reasons why we can’t wait. What needs to be done needs to be done now! |
| Reflections On the 2008 Presidential Election Reflections offered by Dr. William J. Shaw, Rev. Charles E. Mock and Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith. |
| The Church and Issues of Morality - Charles Mock - September 2008 The issues of morality we are to reflect upon are not enumerated by our President for this is not what he has in mind. He has stated the primary reference to morals is to be understood within the context of the imperatives that guide all moral decisions; the lens through which we look; and, the framework around which we build “in order to come to ways to thinking and acting that are in conformity with and hence acceptable to the Will of God, us and all of God’s creation..." |
| The Heavenly Vision and the Morals of the Church President Shaw explains the 2008-2009 Annual Thematic Focus for the Convention. |
| The Aftermath of Assassinations - Charles E. Mock - December 2007 As various newspapers reported on the mayhem and madness following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, I could not help muse over Jesus' death (assassination) and what followed. What followed were not death and destruction, further victimizations and violence... |
| A Matter of Stewardship - Damien Durr - October 2007 Earlier this year a young lady in her essay that landed her as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show stated “history does not repeat itself, people repeat history...” Jena represents a place where a history of racial tension would manifest itself... |
| Hurricane Injustice Hits Jena - Charles. E. Mock - Sept. 2007 Two years after Hurricane Katrina uncovered the external garments of social and economic realities in New Orleans, revealing the hidden realities of racism and discrimination, another hurricane has hit in a small rural community name Jena in Louisiana. This hurricane has not been given a formal name so let us just call it by its generic name—Hurricane Injustice. |
| DISCONNECTED: Katrina: Two Years Later - Charles Mock - August 2007 It is a crying shame that two years later, 250,000 former New Orleans residents have not been able to find their way back home. It is a crying shame that exploitation and gross abuse have added insult to injury to a continuation of economic disparities throughout the Gulf Coast. It is a crying shame that the failure to rescue in time has given way to the failure to rebuild in time... |
| Race Matters in the 2008 Presidential Election - Charles E. Mock - July 2007 The importance of who the next President will be has been spelled out recently in the decision involving the use of Race in decisions around public education. The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling struck down aggressive school desegregation programs in Seattle and Louisville, which considered race as a factor when assigning students to their public schools... What ought our response be? |
| Faith & Politics: Freedom of Speech - Judge Wendell Griffen - June 2007 Judge Wendell Griffen discusses the question: Do elected officials have a right to free speech as it concerns their faith & values? |
| What Will Your Obituary Have to Say? Robert Tamasy - Feb 2007 "Do you ever read obituaries? I don’t mean to sound morbid, but increasingly I find myself making the obituary page a regular stop on my journey through the daily newspaper. My wife reads the “obits” because she works in a medical office and occasionally she discovers that one of the older patients has passed away. As I get older, I find more people that I once knew – or at least met – are appearing on that page. And the fact is, one day my name will be displayed there as well..." |
| Katrina Anniversary - Rev. Charles E. Mock - August 2006 A year later and what does New Orleans have to show for the sundry responses to Hurricane Katrina from across this nation? |
| Immigration and Mission Matters: Framing Our Response - Charles Mock - rev. June 6, 2006 ...Christians are challenged by Jesus’ commandments and mission mandates, to weigh in on all matters relevant to faith. The Immigration Movement is such a matter that begs our undivided attention. Each of us must wrestle with the thorny question, “Where do I stand?”... |
| A Tribute to Rosa Parks - Charles Mock - November 2005 Although many of us could not pay our tributes to the quiet warrior, Rosa Parks, by visiting her at the Capitol Rotunda, or, by attending her ascension service in Detroit, we can not help but be moved by the gracious accolades that have sought to do justice to this courageous heroine of truth, justice and equality. We also can not help but think of ways we can pay tribute from a distance in the days to come... |
| The Official Obituary of Rosa Parks The Official Obituary of Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Warning: Large file, 3MB |
| A Church Mission Fast - Charles Mock - December 2005 "...Life for each of us this past year was a life to some extent characterized by gloom and darkness. Although we are called a people of the light, there were times when we did not have the light needed in our dwellings to guide our footsteps...We did not have all the light of god’s truth and wisdom we needed. We were living in living rooms with 60 watt bulbs when what we needed were 200 watt bulbs..." |
| Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., The Kingdom of America and Katrina" - Charles Mock - December 2005 As our nation once again pays homage in April to one of the most progressive and prophetic visionaries of the twentieth century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we do so against our nations’ hunger and thirst for moral and ethical guidance at a time that in many ways mirrors that of the political and religious realities of the Prophet Samuel’s generation as recorded in I Samuel 8..." |
| Are You Being Left Behind? - Dr. Thomas Hohstadt - November 2005 How can churches be led without leaders? "Spirit-led" or not, churches "thrive or dive" by their leaders. Especially in this historical moment, it's the one thing that matters most. Yet, today's leaders can't salvage tomorrow's church. For their flaws are built into their very roles! In other words, the leadership system is already based on a fallacy. And--even if that were not true--present leadership roles are totally incompatible with the coming world. |
| Will We Even Call It Church? - Dr. Thomas Hohstadt - October 2005 How much can we take? Changes in today's church are happening so frequently, so profoundly, that we can't tell for certain where we're going. In fact, if we finally get there, will we even call it "church"? |
| Let's Roll! - Rev. Charles E. Mock - February 2005 I listened as a friend in the ministry talked about “authenticity” during a fellowship hour. This minister wondered aloud whether we, as Christians, are authentic enough for Christ to set His seal of authenticity on us…In my reflection since then, I have come to the reasoned conclusion that "authenticity" is like being pregnant—either you are or you aren't. |
| Feeling Post Election Blues? None Necessary! - Rev. Charles E. Mock - November 2004 For Christian Democrats who may be suffering post-election blues, I hear a word from the Prophet Jeremiah that may prove comforting, if not challenging. In chapters 24-29 of Jeremiah the Old Testament people of God, better known as "the Elect" had just lost their land, their position and their power to another party--the Babylonians. Their collective question, lingering in a grayish atmosphere of sadness was, "What now?" |
| Reflections on The Passion of the Christ - Rev. Steven Lawrence - March 2004 The choice to view the film was a difficult one for me. I did not look forward to the graphic crucifixion and torture scenes. I knew however, as “card-carrying” member of the Christian Clergy, that I would be asked about the film...These are my observations and reflections... |
| Pro-Life? Look at the Fruits - Dr. Glen Harold Stassen A personal examination of the intersection of political and religious views on abortion. |
| Rethinking Ministry - Rev. David L. Jefferson - August 2004 By Rev. David L. Jefferson, reprinted from the Informer Summer 2004 issue. Responds to the question: "Why does a minister have to be a preacher? |
| Why We Are Baptists - Rev. Charles E. Mock - August 11, 2004 Describes the features that differentiate Baptists from other denominations and offers insight into the subtle differences in Black Baptist vs. other Baptist churches. Written by Rev. Charles E. Mock, Chairman of the Home Mission Board in response to a question posed by a website visitor. |
