Racial Harmony in The Upper Room

The greatest miracle at Pentecost wasn’t “speaking in tongues” the great miracle was that every race under the sun was united in prayer and in purpose. It takes the power of God to stop racism, if the Churches in our country are racist then we have a problem. Christians have to set the example for the rest of the world to follow. The awesome power of the Holy Spirit can and will break the stronghold of racism in the church so it can spread to the rest of society.

Racism is rampant more than ever! Our electing President Obama is a step in the right direction, but reality is, it has probably incensed the white supremacy movement to a point that they might even be more intolerable than ever towards African Americans.

Racism is obviously not a new concept. It has been around forever. Nothing has changed, it has not gotten better, what has happened is African Americans, Jews, Hispanics, and other races that have been targeted have climbed the social ladder and in turn we have been tricked into believing we are less racist. That simply is not true.

Blacks are still targeted by cops, whites are still angry at blacks, blacks still don’t trust white people completely, can you blame them, whites are still getting sick of what we call reverse racism, Mexicans want a better life, and the government cannot control immigration, so people target Mexicans, gangs based on race are still popping up all over, and finally, God forbid if you are a Muslim boarding an airplane. Did you see the movie Soul Plane? It is not easy being Middle Eastern in America right now.

Please don’t kid yourself that we are coming together as one and stop the fight against racism. Hate and intolerance of others will only stop with future generations. I believe whole heartedly that if you are racist by the time you are an adult, your belief system is imbedded so deep into your psyche that it is almost impossible to change. We have to start with the young and impressionable, just the same as the groups that recruit people into the KKK or any other organization that has hate written all over it do. As Christians we have to acknowledge the “Elephant in the room” (Racism) and preach against it in ALL of our Pulpits, we must pray for the kind of racial harmony that took place in the Upper Room at Pentecost. Only with God’s help can racism ever hope to end!

M Hamilton Stevens, Th.D, CPRP

Why Prince’s Death is Such a Loss

I know some of my very conservative Christian friends wonder why I lament over the death of Prince since he was NOT a Gospel Musician, but I am a lover of music and talent, Prince is the last of a dying breed. Everything today is synthesized and created in a studio, artist lip sync , and sample everything….Prince was a musical genius and YES I believe God give people TALENT. He is not really appreciated as a musician as he should because most people focus on his flamboyant behavior and clothes…but that man played multiple instruments and his guitar play was as good as or better than Hendrix, Clapton, and Santana’s. RIP Prince I pray you had a talk with Jesus before you passed and I for one will always love hearing “When Doves Cry”.

M. Hamilton Stevens