Courtesy of Huffington Post/Black Voices

I am writing this response to a YouTube video circulating widely on the internet in in which Eddie Long, the troubled pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta GA is apparently crowned king with the ritual use of a Jewish Torah scroll. (The reader may know him for the recent scandal in which he was accused by five young men of sexual misconduct. After initially denying the allegations, he went into settlement talks with them.) A number of specious claims are made during the ritual which I would like to refute.

The unidentified man who, (in the YouTube video to which I had access he is identified subsequently as Ralph Messer), represents himself as a Jew. He may well be some sort of Messianic Jew, a person who claims Jewish heritage and recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, but who is not part of one of the major Jewish movements: Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal. He does not, however, represent recognizable Jewish thought or practice in his (mis-) representations of the Torah and other Jewish sancta — or for that matter, New Testament and Christian biblical interpretation and theology.

1. The claim that Holocaust Torahs cannot be insured “because there are no more” is patently false. They are regularly insured as are other one of a kind objects d’art, i.e. the works of Picasso.
2. The Torah cover is not a “foreskin.” Hyper-masculine, hyper-sexualization of the Torah reduces the holy Torah to a problematic phallic symbol — God’s? or Long’s? — and categorizes the most destructive behaviors associated with New Birth ministries in recent years. Grammatically and symbolically, the Torah is feminine in Hebrew and is personified as “She,” as in “She is a Tree of Life,” in Prov. 3:18.

Continue reading at Huffington Post/Black Voices

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — American employers substantially stepped up their hiring in January, bringing the unemployment rate down for the fifth month in a row.

Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department reported Friday, marking a pick-up in hiring from December, when the economy added 203,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%. That is the lowest since February 2009.

Hiring was much stronger than expected, and once it was apparent the job gains were broad based across several sectors, economists and investors called it a “nice surprise,” “fantastic,” and even “a touchdown!” Stocks climbed at the market open.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecast 130,000 jobs added in the month, and that the unemployment rate likely ticked up to 8.6%.

“To show the economy adding this kind of jobs number in a January is amazing,” said Kathy Kane, senior vice president of talent management at Adecco Group North America. “As we talk to clients, they’re very optimistic about continuing to hold jobs throughout the year but also to increase jobs.”

Continue at CNN Money!

Another week, another day and another round of outrageous celebrity phrases! This week, the celebrity sound bites making headlines include everything from a gangsta rapper’s prediction for the next presidency to a basketball wife’s public brawl with her former BFF to an icon reportedly beating down his own child. Guess which television father is cursing out black folk again and which Oscar-nominated actress is happiest when she is eating. Plus, an exclusive quote from Atlanta’s most famous Southern belle. And I quote…

Related: Don Cornelius Through The Years [PHOTOS]

Tony Cornelius, Don’s son, told Gayle King on “CBS This Morning” that his father called him just hours before he shot himself early Wednesday morning. Tony did not go into detail about the call, but did say, “It was a call of urgency, and I came to his home immediately.”

Tony said his father’s health was indeed failing and he was “unhappy about some things” in his life.

He went on to say:

“My father was extremely private and unfortunately, when you’re a private person, you keep things inside. You know, it’s hard to imagine that you would– how you feel. You have to be in a person’s shoes really to understand. Obviously, me being extremely close to him, I could tell that he was uncomfortable. But our family could never know that he would– how uncomfortable he really was.”

Tony worked with his father on several shows, including Soul Train, and says Don will leave a legacy of making a statement on black-oriented television.

Source

In early December, Long took a leave of absence to take care of “some family business,” but returned shortly after to continue his direction at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia. This past Sunday, he invited Rabbi Ralph Messer to partake in his “crowning.” (Yes, we will keep using quotation marks.)

The strange ritual was all caught on tape in a 14-minute clip where Messer explained:

“[Long's] a king. God’s blessed him. He’s a humble man. But in him is kingship. In him is royalty. In him was a land of Israel. In him was a k chromosome…he was brought through the slaves, raised up in a city and God now wants to release a new anointing.”

All the while, Long was paraded around the stage on his “throne” by the “kingsmen.”

Watch here:

Angelo Dundee, the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. He was 90.

The genial Dundee was best known for being in Ali’s corner for almost his entire career, but those in boxing also knew him as an ambassador for boxing and a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it.

He died with his family surrounding him, said son, Jimmy Dundee, but not before being able to attend Ali’s 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month.

“It was the way he wanted to go,” Jimmy Dundee said. “He did everything he wanted to do.”

Jimmy Dundee said his father was hospitalized for a blood clot last week and was briefly in a rehabilitation facility before returning to his apartment.

“He was coming along good yesterday and then he started to have breathing problems. My wife was with him at the time, thank God, and called and said he can’t breathe. We all got over there. All the grandkids were there. He didn’t want to go slowly,” the son said.

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali. He called Dundee a legend in the sport, someone who worked the corner for some of the greatest fights of the times.

Continue at The Grio…

theGrio.com

The list is comprised of 100 remarkable people in the fields of business, health, education, science & the environment, media, pop culture, arts & culture, service & activism, politics and sports. They were selected by their potential to make changes not only to small groups of people, but to America as a whole and were only considered if their body of work was yet to be completed. The selection team at theGrio worked diligently and tirelessly to narrow the list to 100, making no repeats from previous years.

Some honorees from this year’s 100 include:

• TJ Holmes, former CNN anchor heading to BET to report the stories that directly affect the Black community.
• Mara Brock Akil, writer of several successful shows including Girlfriends, The Game, The Jamie Foxx Show, etc.
• Laniyah Bailey, a seven-year-old writer of books on obesity and bullying.
• Doyle Beneby, president and CEO of CPS Energy in San Antonio, TX.
• Cam Newton, NFL star and rookie quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

These are just five of amazing individuals who have made theGrio’s 100 and that will be highlighted all February in honor of Black History month. Take the time to read and learn about ALL of their invaluable efforts that have made an impact on our community.

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates – creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.

The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.

Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress – a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.

The rupture, which has not been publicly announced as it unfolded, is wrenching for some of those who’ve learned about it and admire both organizations.

“We’re kind of reeling,” said Patrick Hurd, who is CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia – recipient of a 2010 grant from Komen – and whose wife, Betsi, is a veteran of several Komen fundraising races and is currently battling breast cancer.

Continue at the Associated Press…

Courtesy of EURweb

Snoop Dogg appears to be joining Kelly Clarkson as a celebrity endorser of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.

But while the “American Idol” singer prefers Paul’s hands-off approach to all things government, for Snoop, it’s all about the weed.

The rapper and marijuana lover appeared to grant his endorsement to Paul on his Facebook page late Monday, posting a picture of Paul with the headline “Smoke Weed Everyday.” Snoop Dogg — born Calvin Broadus — included the message “Because I said so” with his post.

Snoop — whose most recent marijuana-related arrest occurred earlier this month, at the Texas border town of Sierra Blanca — is presumably drawn to Paul due to the libertarian candidate’s stance on drugs. Paul was a co-sponsor of the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, and supports the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008.

Continue reading at EURweb

Courtesy of The Root

When Newt Gingrich says that housing project people don’t work, our job is to show that they do. When he says that Obama is the “food stamp” president, our job is to show that most food stamp recipients are white. When Ron Paul writes that we’re about to start rioting again, we are to make sure that everybody knows we’re not.

In other words, although this isn’t the lesson usually taken from these recent episodes, it would appear that we are getting more comfortable admitting that progress happens for us. Real progress, even if racism still exists, as it always will. And not just symbolic progress, such as having a black president. When we get angry at whites depicting us as poster children, we are saying that being black is less of a problem in 2012, even if it occasionally still is one.

Well, now there’s more good news. We need to trumpet it to the skies as eagerly as we do the news that not so many of us use food stamps. It’s about segregation: This new report by Edward Glaeser and Jacob Vigdor shows that black Americans are living under less of it than at any time since William Howard Taft was president.

As Glaeser and Vigdor, writing for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, show, “As of 2010, the separation of African-Americans from individuals of other races has stood at its lowest level in nearly a century. Fifty years ago, nearly half the black population lived in what might be termed a ‘ghetto’ neighborhood, with an African-American share above 80 percent. Today, that proportion has fallen to 20 percent.”

Indeed, I used to work for the Manhattan Institute and am proud of it. But I am hardly the only one who will be writing about this report this week, and I would be shouting it to the heavens even if I used to work for Burger King. This is important news.

So often we are told that despite the civil rights revolution, black America’s big problem is segregation. Black people live together too much, we are told. And when everybody is black and poor, then we have to understand that the neighborhood must fall to pieces. Not enough middle-class role models, we are told. About twice a year the New York Times runs a story on segregation that pings around the country madly for weeks, in which assorted people are quoted spinning variations on “We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”

Here, then, is a story about the way we’ve come. From 1970 to 2010, segregation declined for black people in all 85 of the nation’s largest metro areas. From just 2000 to 2010, segregation declined in 522 out of 658 housing markets. By 2010, out of 72,531 census tracts, only 424 had no black people in them. And as recently as 2000, that number had been 902. In 1960, there were 4,700 all-white neighborhoods in America. Today there are 170. We’re everywhere!

Continue reading at The Root