Radio Host Tom Joyner and media critic Tavis Smiley are collaborating on a special town hall meeting - The State of the Black Church: Relevant, Repressive or Renewal. The event will be held in Detroit, MI on February 8, 2003 from 8:00AM - 4:30PM. It will be broadcast live via C-SPAN. Joyner & Smiley have assembled two impressive panels consisting of lay, clergy and cultural critics. Several prominent AME clergy/theologians will be speaking (Bishop McKenzie, Floyd Flake, James Cone, Cain Hope Felder, & Jackie Grant). You can find more about this special event by going directly to the following URL: http://www.tomjoyner.com/missed/smiley_blackunion.html I sure hope J. Payne or R. Matthews can provide the above link in HTTP for quick access. Perhaps our AME friends in the MI Conference like Barbara Robinson can attend in person and be roving reporters for this BB. To borrow a line from the hit 60s show 'Mission Impossible', Barbara, if you choose to accept this task understand that your services rendered will be pro bono but I will treat you to lunch when I visit Motown for the FAMU football game in August :-) QED

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2003

Answers

:-)www.tomj oyner.com/missed/smiley_blackunion.html

Thank you Professor Dickens!!!

I am sure this town meeting will be a momentous event. I don't have a cable but I wish that I could obtain a transcript of this meeting.

Jazzman

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2003

Thank you Professor Dickens,

I enjoy cable when I travel. However, I have chosen to invest my money into a network internet based business which is only about 4 years old. It was started by Bill Fields, former CEO of Walmart who helped Sam Walton turn the company from a 40 million dollar company to a 70 billion dollar company. It also includes other successful high level executives such as Steve Smith, the co- founder of Excel which is a successful network based telecommunications firm. There is also Steve Gursich, the Co-founder of GSD&M. This business provides personal finance services such as access to ones credit report, a wealth planner, and a nationwide application for the best rates on loans.

The founders started this company in an effort to provide the average American with internet access to ways of reducing their total lifetime payout of interest by giving them a means to check their credit report without lowering their credit score. It also gives individuals an opportunity to be paid a referral fee for telling others about this service. It is similar to AMAZON.COM paying YAHOO a referral fee everytime someone visits their site.

I learned about this opportunity from a retired UPS corporate executive. I prayed about it and I am excited about having my own total internet based business which helps other people restructure their finances for debt reduction. I would like you to go to my web site :-)www.wealthlink.com/Virginia

Professor Dickens, I would be honored if you visited my web site and gave me your criticism of this business model for addressing the consumer indebtedness in the US. An economy which has of late been largely consumer driven.

Jazzman

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2003

Copies of the broadcast may be ordered from C-SPAN. See their web site at c-span.org for details.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2003

I really enjoyed watching the whole seminar. It was very enlightening and I was highly impressed with the wide AME representation. They all showed the disparity and dichotomy of black clergy yet they did not falter from the issues that seperate us. James Cone proved to be very insightful amongst the more popular panelists. I think that there was alot that could have been said for some of the panelists, but because of time restraints and the broadness of the panel, I think Black Americans should have a gripping awareness of the problems and solutions needed to keep the black church a model and vehicle for black liberation. I will order the video and offer a proposal for a similar seminar for our local area.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2003

Excellent a turely enlighting experience please advise how to secure a video of the State of the Black Church Union

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2003

You can view the session online at c-span.org.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2003

The meeting was beautiful and well organized. But I noticed exactly what is wrong with the black church...

I noticed that there was too much emphasis on how black women are supposedly "oppressed and neglected", yet it is black men who are filling jails and dying from gun shots!!!!!!!! Futhermore, it was stated by Rev. Michael Eric Dyson that the black church is "75%-80%" female!!!!!!

So therfore, it is obvious that black women have a lot of control over the affairs in the black community. SO HOW IN HELL ARE BLACK MEN "OPPRESSING" BLACK WOMEN???

I am sick and tired of hearing about how the wants and needs of black women are not being met and pampered, when it is obvious that it is black men who are most unemployed and at risk!!!!!

It is ashame that no one sees black men at risk in rap music, but only cares about how black rappers are supposedly "disrespecting black women!!!!" NO ONE CARES HOW BLACK RAPPERS CALL BLACK MEN NAMES ALSO!!!!

I HOPE YOU SEE MY POINT!!!!

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2003

Black women have been oppressed in the church. In many churches they are treated as second or third class citizens in spite of the fact that they do most of work and provide most of the support.

These women are told that they do not have a voice. They are told that they are supposed to accept abuse as part of honoring God.

They are denied access to pulpits they pay for. The list goes on and on. We must not confuse the oppression of African people in the American context by engaging in an intra-racial debate over who is getting the short end of the stick.

We must however fight diligently to see that we do no harm to each other and that we lift up the model of Jesus Christ who empowered men and women to be heirs in the kingdom of God.

-- Anonymous, February 24, 2003