Black atheists or agnostics are often looked at by other blacks as alien or pitiable. A black atheist quoted in the New York Times last year said his mother was bothered more by the admission that he is an atheist than the admission that he is gay. Another in the Huffington Post said that declaring she was an atheist to her black friends was “social suicide.”

‘Incredibly important’

She added: “The caves would probably have been used as dormitories.

“They’re obviously Negro features. We think they carved their faces here, hoping they would be found one day.”

If true, Ms Willis-Brown said that the carvings would be a “rare” and “incredibly important” reminder of Britain’s black heritage.

Almost 20 years ago, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, a teacher in a small town in Iowa tried a daring classroom experiment.

The American Religious Identification Survey of 2008 found that from 1990 to 2008 the number of blacks without any religious affiliation nearly doubled from 6 to 11 percent. Among Americans, that number also jumped to 15 percent from 8 percent in 1990.

Emmy Award Winning AIDS Activist Rae Lewis-Thornton rose to national acclaim when she told her story of living with AIDS in a cover story for Essence Magazine. She has been living with HIV for twenty-seven years and AIDS for seventeen years. Despite her HIV status, Rae has spent the last fifteen years traveling worldwide in an unending crusade challenging stereotypes and myths around HIV/AIDS.

Please join us Sunday, May 6, 2012 as we discuss the merits of attending church.  The call in number is 310-982-4273.

Let’s talk about a subject that a Christian actually put forth to other believers.  The blog post asked fellow believers if church was a waste of time due to a number of reasons.

Why are the economic disparities in many highly religious neighborhoods so glaring?

Why are the crime rates in many highly religious neighborhoods so high?

Why are the teen preganancy and std rates in many highly religious neighborhoods out of control?

Why hasn’t the prayer of the righteous been answered and fulfilled in what seems to be a vicious perpetual cycle of dysfunction?

Why do you need to pray at all if your life was predestined?  Is God’s will subject to negotiation?

Why is the passuh and his inner circle the only ones acquiring wealth?  In most cases, it’s a matter of smoke and mirrors.

Why isn’t your passuh sowing seeds into good fertile ground?  I mean isn’t that what he is imploring you to do everytime you go to church?  Why isn’t s/he and the church held to the same standard?

Like many introverts, social situations practically give me hives. My palms sweat at the prospect of small talk and networking. I detest banquets, awards ceremonies, plated dinner events, and anything else that means milling around with a drink in my hand, trying not to nervously laugh and wildly gesticulate while making what I hope is a moderately witty rejoinder.

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