January 28, 2010
Whose Gospel?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Protestantism (Whose Religion?)
by James Forbes
The New Press
Available 01/12/10 in Hardcover
War violates all Ten Commandments. There is no getting around this. How it does so is a matter of interpretation, but any honest reading of the list makes it hard to deny: God forbids war. –From Whose Gospel
In Whose Gospel?, one of America’s greatest living preachers offers a compelling vision of progressive social change. Known as “the preacher’s preacher,” Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. has tirelessly advocated progressive views on the crucial issues of our time–from poverty, war, and women’s equality to racial justice, sexuality, and the environment.
Long a powerful voice for progressive Protestants, Forbes draws on a record of political commitment ranging from the civil rights movement to his stirring address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, in addition to his eighteen years at the helm of New York City’s historic Riverside Church. Reflecting the insights of his years as a pastor, a teacher, and an adviser to political leaders, this inspiring manifesto “for the healing of the nations” epitomizes the best thinking of one of the country’s foremost religious leaders. Published with a foreword by longtime Riverside Church member Bill Moyers, Whose Gospel? is a pithy and insightful introduction to Forbes’s thought and a welcome source of inspiration in this era of hope and change.
October 1, 2009
Warning to Ministers, Their Wives, and Mistresses
by Betty R. Price
Faith One Publishing
Available 06/30/09
Fifty years in the making, Dr. Betty Price’s new book highlights tear-stained letters, shocking kiss-and-tell emails and gut-wrenching intimate confessions by wives and mistresses snared in dangerous liaisons.
“Warning To Ministers, Their Wives And Mistresses” is a powerful cautionary tale of how ministers who cheat have ruined their ministries, their congregation and their marriages due to adultery.
THIS BOOK IS A WARNING. In Dr. Betty Price’s view, the sexual misconduct of ministers is the most visible sign that the church is in danger of moral collapse. The strength of the leadership in the Church starts with the integrity of the ministerial office to guide the sheep. And while adultery has become tacitly frowned upon by society at large, the church has a higher calling and a greater responsibility. Whether the minister willfully committed adultery or was ensnared, he should repent immediately because he is in danger of losing his ministry, and possibly his life. An excellent ministry tool, Dr. Betty Price’s “Warning” is a must-read for ministers and their mistresses or any other person (politician, celebrity or spouse) who is embroiled in an extra-marital affair in order to restore their lives.
September 20, 2009
My Holy Bible for African-American Children, NIV
Zondervan
Available 10/01/09
Designed for African-American children, this large print, easy-to-read Bible contains special features that celebrate the African-American heritage and faith.
August 29, 2009
We Are All Africans – Exposing the Negative Influence of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic Religions on Africans
by Kwadwo Obeng
Two Harbors Press
Available 05/05/09
We Are All Africans challenges the teachings of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions from an African perspective. Readers of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faith will discover an honest evaluation of their religious teachings and the effects on society.
The book blends history, science and experiential reality to challenge the claims of the Bible and Koran as books written under inspiration by Gods – Yahweh, Trinity and Allah. It dispels the long-held belief that all men descended from Adam six thousand years ago and includes Africans as his descendants. This book asserts that Africans were on the continent hundreds of thousands of years, if not millions, before Adam emerged and they could not be his descendants. It claims that Adam, if he existed at all, was a descendant of Africans.
Much more than a compelling intellectual exercise, this book evaluates the Bible’s stories, especially the pieces written by Moses which form the foundation of these religions. When compared to discoveries of modern science, common observations of nature and every day experience, the Bible’s stories are found wanting, devoid of substance, fact and truth. It examines the story of how the whole universe and life on earth were created in six 24-hour days, only six thousand years ago; Adam and Eve being the ancestors of all mankind who lived six thousand years ago in Iraq; Noah’s global deluge; crossing of the Red Sea; the destruction of homosexuals in Sodom and Gomorrah, the Deity and pre-earth existence of Jesus in heaven and many others. It discusses how Yahweh was created by Moses, Trinity by Romans and Allah by Mohammed as man-made Gods in contrast to the real Creator of the universe. It concludes that since the fossil record, radiometric dating, tracing of Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA, and melanin establish Africa as the origin of man hundreds of thousands if not millions of years ago, then Africans and their descendants did not and could not descend from Adam and inherit his sin. Therefore they do not need Jesus as a savior or Moses and Mohammed as their prophets or intermediaries for redemption of sin.
April 18, 2009
Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson
by Michael Eric Dyson
Available 05/11/09
Over the last 20 years, Michael Eric Dyson has become one of America’s most visible—and quotable—public intellectuals. Whether in his sixteen books, or in countless newspapers, television and radio appearances, or on stages, podiums, and pulpits across the world, Dyson has spun an enchanting web of words that has caught the attention of the masses and elites alike. He has weighed in on a myriad array of topics – from faith to fatherhood, and from race to sex, as well as sports, manhood, gender, music, leadership, politics, language, love, justice, literature, suffering, death, hope, relationships and much, much more.
Can You Hear Me Now?, offers a sampling of Dyson’s sharp wit, profound thought, and edifying eloquence on the enduring problems of humanity, from love to justice, and the latest topics of the day, including race and the presidency. It is both revealing and relevant, and at once thoughtful provoking and uplifting. Whether he is writing about Jay-Z or Barack Obama, addressing racial catastrophes or opportunities, or speaking about religion or the felicities of King’s rhetoric, Dyson’s intellect shines with insight and inspiration.
Can You Hear Me Now? captures Dyson’s incredible facility with words, and his prodigious intelligence, at a time when he has gained greater fame as a public intellectual, university professor, best-selling author, and most recently, as one of the first prominent blacks to endorse President Barack Obama. The time is ripe for his wit, wisdom and worldview, and this book is Dyson’s most accessible compendium of thinking on a broad range of topics that haunt and shape the nation.
October 27, 2008
Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
by Barbara Dianne Savage
Available November 2008
Even before the emergence of the civil rights movement with black churches at its center, African American religion and progressive politics were assumed to be inextricably intertwined. In her revelatory book, Barbara Savage counters this assumption with the story of a highly diversified religious community whose debates over engagement in the struggle for racial equality were as vigorous as they were persistent. Rather than inevitable allies, black churches and political activists have been uneasy and contentious partners.
From the 1920s on, some of the best African American minds — W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, Benjamin Mays, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles S. Johnson, and others — argued tirelessly about the churches’ responsibility in the quest for racial justice. Could they be a liberal force, or would they be a constraint on progress? There was no single, unified black church but rather many churches marked by enormous intellectual, theological, and political differences and independence. Yet, confronted by racial discrimination and poverty, churches were called upon again and again to come together as savior institutions for black communities.
The tension between faith and political activism in black churches testifies to the difficult and unpredictable project of coupling religion and politics in the twentieth century. By retrieving the people, the polemics, and the power of the spiritual that animated African American political life, Savage has dramatically demonstrated the challenge to all religious institutions seeking political change in our time.
September 9, 2008
God and Race in American Politics:
A Short History
Mark A. Noll
Available September 2008
Religion has been a powerful political force throughout American history. When race enters the mix the results have been some of our greatest triumphs as a nation–and some of our most shameful failures. In this important book, Mark Noll, one of the most influential historians of American religion writing today, traces the explosive political effects of the religious intermingling with race.
Noll demonstrates how supporters and opponents of slavery and segregation drew equally on the Bible to justify the morality of their positions. He shows how a common evangelical heritage supported Jim Crow discrimination and contributed powerfully to the black theology of liberation preached by Martin Luther King Jr. In probing such connections, Noll takes readers from the 1830 slave revolt of Nat Turner through Reconstruction and the long Jim Crow era, from the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to “values” voting in recent presidential elections. He argues that the greatest transformations in American political history, from the Civil War through the civil rights revolution and beyond, constitute an interconnected narrative in which opposing appeals to Biblical truth gave rise to often-contradictory religious and moral complexities. And he shows how this heritage remains alive today in controversies surrounding stem-cell research and abortion as well as civil rights reform.
God and Race in American Politics is a panoramic history that reveals the profound role of religion in American political history and in American discourse on race and social justice.
Mark A. Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. His books include The Civil War as a Theological Crisis; America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln; and The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.
July 13, 2008
The Faith of Barack Obama
By Stephen Mansfield
Available July 2008
Discover the unapologetically Christian and liberal Barack Obama-and how he represents the changing face of religion in American politics. In “The Faith of Barack Obama” Stephen Mansfield presents an insightful portrait of the presidential candidate. Learn how his faith motivates him as a senator and leader in our nation.
You’d have to live in a cave to have avoided hearing about Barack Obama’s woes as he deals with the crises arising from the close mentor relationship he had with the senior pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. How, people ask, could Sen. Obama represent as president people of all races, when he attended for 20 years a church permeated by a defining, if understandable, spirit of anger toward white America? There is, however, much more to the senator’s faith than this one issue. As early as 2004, as he delivered a powerful speech to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, he was taking a stand for his faith: “We worship an awesome God in the Blue States.” In The Faith of Barack Obama, Stephen Mansfield explores Obama’s religious faith without political or ideological bias. His basic premise is this: If a man’s faith is sincere, then it is the most important thing about him. As a result, it is impossible to understand how Barack Obama will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.
“You must read this perceptive and well written book. Then you will know why Barack Obama has such a passion for justice and equity, such a gift for filling people of different generations with a newfound hope that things can and will change for the better. His inspiration comes from his faith; he is an ardent believer. Yes, he is a Christian and proud of it.”
—ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
NOBEL LAUREATE
July 8, 2008
Where Are All the Brothers?: Straight Answers to Men’s Questions about the Church
Eric C. Redmond
Available May 2008
In this unique book, Pastor Eric Redmond confronts the important question of “Where are the black men in the African-American church?” with a candid approach that combines wisdom with a conversational tone.
Instead of side-stepping issues, Redmond converses with readers about some of their reasons for not going to church—the church seems geared toward women, the preacher is just an ordinary man, Islam appears to offer more for the black man, organized religion is not necessary, churches are just after your money—and approaches their skepticism with respect but also with corrective truth. On these and other topics, Where Are All the Brothers? speaks about the things that men think about in private or discuss at the barbershop when it comes to church and religion, challenging them to reexamine their long-held assumptions.
Redmond, who has used this material in a variety of settings with great success, also gives eight things to look for when considering a good church so that readers can find a healthy, biblical church home. And it’s all in this unintimidating book that can easily be read in ten minutes a day.
