Top Five Posts for the Week of September 20-27, 2013

Top Five Posts for the Week of September 20-27, 2013 September 27, 2013

Here are the top five posts from Rhetoric Race and Religion this week. To contribute to R3, click here.


Number 1


Alcorn State University has named a Jackson pastor as rector of the Historic Oakland Memorial Chapel and director of Student Religious Life, concluding a two-year search. The Rev. C. Edward Rhodes II, pastor of Mount Helm Baptist Church, begins his tenure at Alcorn on September 15, 2013. On that Sunday, Rector Rhodes will lead an interfaith service in the recently renovated campus chapel.



Number 2

When God Says No: Part 2

R3 Contributor

My husband CMadison died May 20, 2013, at home, literally in my arms with a smile on his face. God neither healed nor delivered in the way I very expressly requested.  I asked believing and as much as possible I was in a place of obedience. Yet I can attest that my prayers as one of the righteous did avail much. Those prayers, in conjunction with the prayers of many others, coupled with the grace and mercy of God, are the reason CMadison survived a potentially deadly bone infection, a partial amputation, a broken neck, two spinal surgeries interrupted by a “cardiac incident” along with multiple medical “miscalculations”. The coupling of believed prayers with abundant mercy is the reason CMadison survived four months of hospitalization followed by three months of institutional rehabilitation. Daily fervent prayers, new mercies and amazing meals prepared from my garden and served by me, are why CMadison experienced a miraculous and complete recover from the anoxic brain injury sustained as a result of the cardiac “incident” and how he transitioned from a quadriplegic to someone with full upper body control and continued nerve regeneration through his lower body.

Number 3

R3 Contributor

Over the past month or so, there has been quite a bit of Internet chatter as to why Millennials aren’t going to church. As a member of their big sister generation, Generation X, the eternal little sister to the Baby Boomers, I’m torn between apathy and Jan Brady Syndrome. (“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”) Of course, we should be concerned when any generation is turning away from the church in large numbers, especially at a time when church attendance across denominations is dropping faster than a brick off a tall building. Even though there are millennials who are quite active in their churches, we should still be questioning why there are such high levels of disenchantment with the weekend ritual of getting dressed up and going to Sunday morning worship. So what went wrong? I think people are skipping out on church for two general reasons: perceived hypocrisy and lack of access to social media.

Number 4

Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era: An Interview with the Editors

On March 23, 2010, Paul Harvey posted a call for papers for a conference at Rice University on “Millennialism and Providentialism in the Era of the American Civil War.” The papers presented at the conference that October formed the basis for an anthology titled Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Eraset to be published this November by LSU Press.


Number 5

Pope Meets With Liberation Theology Pioneer

Some observers of the Catholic theological scene are saying that a personal meeting between Pope Francis and Dominican Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez could mark a thaw in decades of frosty relations between the church’s hierarchy and liberation theologians. Gutiérrez, a Peruvian, coined the phrase “liberation theology.” The theology is marked by its concern for liberation of the world’s people from unjust economic or social conditions. It was developed in Latin America during the region’s military dictatorships in the 1960s and ’70s.

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