This is a Dallas South first so bear with me, but my plan is to present a live stream of the C.A.W. Clark Memorial service to be held at Friendship West tonight at 7 pm. You can check back at this post or go to UStream.tv and search for Shawn P Williams Now. Try this link if the feed here goes slow. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shawn-p-williams-now Live Broadcasting by Ustream

On Sunday one of God's preaching greats left this Earth with the passing of Rev. C.A.W. Clark. Pastor Clark began preaching in 1929 and was ordained four years later. He lead his first church, Israelite Baptist in Louisiana, at age 19. Clark was a graduate of Bishop College. My earliest memories are of Pastor Clark on the cover of Ebony magazine in the early 80's as one of America's 15 Best Preachers.  This was a big deal in my house because I had an aunt and uncle who attended his church. As a matter of fact, the first time I met Pastor Clark was in my grandmother's Paris, Texas living room.   Clark was in town for a week long revival and Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church.  I  found Rev. Clark to be a quiet yet engaging figure with an unforgettable chuckle of a laugh. Speaking of unforgettable, once you heard Rev. Clark preach God's word, you could never forget it.  Clark's sermon's began slow and deliberately.  I wondered if his voice would ever rise above a whisper the first time I heard him.  But by the end of the sermon, his whoop had the congregation on their feet shouting, lifting their hands, and praising ...

When Father Michael Pfleger called in to the Roland S. Martin show at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, at least I knew he was awake. I gave dialed him up and asked if I could drop by and visit with him after I left WVON. Thanks to GPS (I call her GiGi) it was an easy trip down to 87th. I felt welcome from the moment I pulled up in front of the Faith Community of St. Sabina. I didn't know that Father Pfleger had resumed his duties at the parish until our Chicago family members made us aware of the fact earlier in the week. You may remember me recounting the "temporary leave of absence" Cardinal George had placed on Father Pfleger a few weeks ago. I went in fully intending it to be a personal visit to check in on how the Father was doing since all of the media and political scapegoating that had taken place over the last few weeks. The last thing that I want to do is throw gasoline on America's race baiting fire, but a story unfolded that I had to share with the Dallas South family. After a few minutes ...

Senator Barack Obama and his family spent Father's Day at the Apostolic Church of God on Chicago's South Side. Any fool can have child, that doesn't make you a father. Senator Barack Obama I heard Kyra Phillips on CNN asking whether or not Obama would take heat for his comments, likening his pseudo sermon to the self hate speech spewed by Bill Cosby. Of course he won't. The problem with Cosby is not the content of his speech but the spirit from which he speaks. Obama spoke from a "we" position in explaining how the African-American people can be made whole. Cosby speaks in terms of "they" and "them." One of the gross misunderstandings during the whole "black church/black pastor " flap was that black folks don't preach or teach responsibility. The senator's stance on the role of black father's is not foreign to black pulpits. Family values are taught right along side equal justice. I really liked when Obama tells the single mothers they need help. I truly believe our sisters do things by themselves because they can, without thought of whether or not it may be better to raise their children with a child's father. Excellence, responsibility, ...

By the time I wrote this post, the Democratic Primary was at its zenith, and there was tons of traffic coming this way.  I think this post had the 2nd most comments I've ever had.  You may want to go back through them for historical context. As painful as it was, and as much as Dr. Wright has suffered, this was a discussion that America needed to have.  It at least opened the door to some issues that had been shut for some time.  THE MEDIA LYNCHING OF JEREMIAH WRIGHT (PART 1)  March 16th, 2008 · 55 Comments Sick…disgusted…appalled. Those were some of the feelings that washed over me as I listened to the mainstream media launch an all out assault on Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr. It should have been no surprise, but even my wary eyes were taken aback by the ferocity of the attacks on Dr. Wright. I have had the pleasure to observe the gospel genius and hermeneutical excellence of Dr. Wright for the last 10 years since joining Friendship-West Baptist Church. Dr. Wright serves as father in the ministry to my pastor, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III. After the frustration with the media last week drove me to turn off ...

I was scrolling across Technorati and saw a sad story regarding my friend Father Michael Pfleger.  I've been meaning to write a post about the fallout from his You Tube issue, but just haven't done it.  The Chicago Sun-Times reports Father Pfleger is apartment hunting.  Here's what the article had to say: This morning, Pfleger, the 59-year-old pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church, plans to move out of the rectory he has called home for 33 years and into an apartment in the surrounding Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. (Cardinal Francis) George telephoned Pfleger Monday night and asked him to take a sabbatical for a month or so. When Pfleger balked, the cardinal, who has long talked of moving Pfleger from St. Sabina where he'd overstayed the archdiocese's term limit for parish priests by years and years, told him to sleep on it, Pfleger said. "I asked the cardinal if I could stay in the rectory during this time and he said no," Pfleger said late Tuesday night, after his parishioners held a prayer service and rally demanding their pastor's immediate and full return to the parish, as well as a meeting with George to discuss Pfleger's future and the future of the unique African-American ...

The "Black Church" gets thrown under the bus while no one accounts for John Hagee's beliefs. It's a terrible double standard at work here.

As early as this week, the NAACP will make a decision on who be their next president. With the organization getting ready to celebrate From what I have read, Benjamin Jealous and Alvin Brown are fine candidates for the position, yet I'm of the mind that there is one candidate that should stand as the choice of the NAACP executive board. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III should be the next president Involvement in civil right on a local level Some of the NAACP leaders are interested in finding leader who has "worked in the movement" Well just short investigation into Dr. Haynes ministry at Friendship-West Baptist Church will find that he has been intimately involved in the so-called movement. There is a local instances that highlights Dr. Haynes' leadership in the area of social justice. First is the case of Tyrone Brown. In short, a Dallas judge sentenced Mr. Brown to life in prison after testing positive for marijuana while on probation for armed robbery. Tyrone was 17 at the time. Dr. Haynes rallied a coalition which included Mr. Brown's family (who worked tirelessly), civic leaders -including the local NAACP, and members of the faith ...

I've checked the net, and there aren't many places (other than Dallas South) discussing developments regarding the Bush Library. That means its one of two things. Either a vote recently taken on the matter really didn't mean much, or someone's trying to spin the significance of what's going on with the General Conference and South Central Jurisdiction. After my initial post on the General Council's vote adopting an agenda item seeking to stop the sell of the SMU land where the library would be built, I was contacted by Rev. Scott Jones. Jones is Bishop of the Kansas Area of the United Methodis Church, and Immediate past president of the South Central Jurisdiction College of Bishops. He took issues with me saying the council had "rejected" the idea of the library. See his full response here. Now Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph. D. comes back to Dallas South to share more of his thoughts on what the vote means. After reading his response as well as the linked articles, I have a hard time believing that the South Central Jurisdiction will have the courage to make a decision like the one suggested by Dr. Weaver and ...

More on the Bush Library. The General Conference of the United Methodist Church did receive a petition asking it to block SMU's decision to lease land for the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Center. Its decision was only to refer it to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference. In no way did it reject the decision already made by the South Central Jurisdiction's Mission Council. The action was merely procedural because the General Conference said the decision belonged at the Jurisdictional level. The overwhelming nature of the vote was due to the fact that it, along with 11 other petitions, was on a consent calendar of things approved overwhelmingly in committees that recommended referrals. Scott J. Jones Bishop, Kansas Area of the United Methodist Church Immediate past president, South Central Jurisdiction College of Bishops