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PBS Special Shines Light on Faith
S u m m e r S p e c ia l
Religion’s role
in the African-
American
experience
(A P) — An am bitious goal: To
shine light on the religious faith o f
black Americans, while exploring
w hat sealed their devotion across
three centuries o f history.
That is what "This Far By Faith"
sets out to do. Airing June 24-26 on
PBS (check local listings), the six
one-hour segments add up to a
sweeping portrait o f the black expe
rience - from the arrival o f the early
African slaves through the Civil
War, Reconstruction, J im Crow, the
Depression, the civil rights era and
the advent o f the 21st century.
This becomes a sobering jo u r
ney as it revisits innumerable hard
ships and indignities. But it is up
lifting, too, with one point repeat
edly brought home: Black A m eri
cans’ spiritual focus has been more
than a survival mechanism; it is a
natural state o f being.
“There is no w ord for religion in
many African languages,” explains
the narrator in the series’ first mo
ments, “for in a traditional African
view o f the world, there is no place
where God is not.”
In countless versions, such a
world view has served black Ameri
cans to the present day.
“To grossly oversimplify: They
don’t separate their Sunday m orn
ing ritual from the rest oftheir lives,”
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Church of the Living God
Members o f the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco surround Rev. Cecil
Williams. The religious faith o f black Americans is examined this week in the PBS ’ series “This
Far By Faith." (AP photo)
says June Cross, a producer o f the
series. (Just consider black Ameri
cans’ claim on the word “sotil” to
signify their shared ethnic aw are
ness and pride.)
Cross cites a Harris Poll con
ducted in January that found higher
levels o f religious b elief among
blacks than among whites and His
panics.
“O ur faith is constant,” says
executive producer Dante James,
"and it’s not at anyone else's whim
or influence. It’s something that we
own and we control.”
As a result, the series is “an
affirm ation that spirituality has
been and probably will continue to
be the backbone o f the African-
American fight for justice in this
country,” James says.
The first hour invokes two very
different 19th-century black lead
ers, both o f whom were sustained
by their faith: a freed slave in New
York w ho renamed hersel fSojoumer
Truth and becam e a nationally
known advocate for equality and
j ustice; and Denmark Vesey, a car
penter and would-be insurrection
ist w ho plotted an uprising to kill
white oppressors in Charleston,
S.C., but was found out, tried and
executed.
Later in the series, viewers meet
contemporary figures including the
Rev. Cecil Williams, who nearly 40
years ago took over a dying church
in San Francisco’s blighted Ten
derloin district and gave it new vi
tality through wide-open com m u
nity involvement.
“The church," he declares, "had
a comm itment to help us become
free.”
Christian workers fo r
fellowship
6401 N.E. 10th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97211
Services
Pastor and First
Ladv Rov G. Moxie
Sunday School
Morning Worship
Evening Worship
Weds Bible Study
9:45 A.M.
11:30 A.M.
7:00 P.M.
7:00P.M.
“Where there is no vision, The People perish. ”
For more information please call
(503) 284-5171
E veryone's W elcom e.....
Why be Accountable?
B y E thei .
J. B ates
F o r the
P ortland
O bserver
Some things taught in Scripture
makes us uncomfortable, and the
idea o f being personally account
able to someone else for our ac
tions is certainly one o f them. Yet,
the passage quoted above could
not be any clearer about our re
sponsibility to our brothers and
sisters in Christ. W hen fellow be
lievers drift o ff into sin, it is our
responsibility to confront them.
M any believers mistakenly be
lieve that the personal nature o f our
relationship with God excludes our
need for mutual accountability.
Although it is true that our relation
ship with God is personal, it is not
true that it is private. The Bible
teaches that we are accountable to
one another for our conduct and
character.
In (Matt. 17:18, & Mark 1:25)
Jesus took the disciples by sur
prise when he commanded them to
“rebuke” a sinning brother. It is a
strong term. To ask them to rebuke
a brother was a stringent thing to
do. Yet Jesus did n 't hesitate. The
same idea is echoed in what Paul
told the believers in Galatia (Gal.6:1-
3). Paul said that if a believer was
caught in sin the strong members
were to help shoulder responsibil
ity o f that person’s sin. Notice,
Jesus, nor Paul instructed the be-
I ievers to cover the sin, or deny that
‘Take heed to yourselves. I f your
brother sins against you, rebuke
him; and if he repents, forgive him
(Luke 17:3). ’
it existed. But rather, to confront it,
that the offending believer may be
restored to fellowship with Christ!
Perhaps one reason we Chris
tians are reluctant to hold each other
accountable, or confront our broth
ers and sisters, is because instead
o f being the leaders on such issues
as life values, morality, and integ
rity, we have al lowed society to set
the perimeters. We have lost our
understanding o f what sin really is.
Let’s look at the definition o f sin.
In biblical thinking, we can un
derstand neither shalom nor sin
apart from reference to God. Sin is
a religious concept, not just an oral
one. Sin is not only the breaking o f
law, but also the breaking o f cov
enant with o n e’s savior. Sin is the
smearing o f a relationship, the griev
ing o f one’sdi vine parent and bene
factor, a betrayal o f the partner to
whom one isjoined by a holy bond.
It is the result o f corruption in the
mind, and heart. The filmmaker
Woody Allen said in 1993, trying to
explain his controversial affair with
the young daughter o f Mia Farrow,
“the heart wants what it wants,”
Without accountability. Without
conscience.
But why doesn’t the heart want
God, trust God, look childlike to
God for life’s joys and securities?
Why doesn 't the heart seek final
good where it can actually be found?
Why turn again and again, in small
matters and large, to satisfactions
that are mutable, damaging, and
imperiled?
Reformation documents offer a
num berofim agesforcorruption: it
is a despoiled nature, a diseased
root, a contaminated spring, a foul
heart. According to these docu
ments, we are wrong to the core.
A bad strain has gotten into the
stock so that we now sin with the
ease and readiness o f people bom
to the task After the fall we sin by
second nature: we are “bom sin
ners" as some folk are bom ath
letes. This fact, empirical as well as
biblical, lies behind a broad con
sensus on original sin. All sinners
subscribe to the doctrine o f corrup
tion, the centerpiece o f which is the
claim that even when they are good
in important ways, human beings
are not sound. Without a childlike
spirit o f submission; trust and hu
mility, which is required o f all true
believers, accountability is not
possible. W hether we know it or
not, agree with it or not, like it or not,
practice it or not, we are account
able to one another! Protect your
faith! Walk in accountability!
Ethel J. Bates is a minister fo r
the Allen Temple CME Church in
Portland.
(T3) b i t u a r i e s
Mother of 13 Remembered
Reverend Dies at 82
A funeral was held last Friday, June 20, 2003, in
M aranatha Church o f G od in Portland for Ethel Mae
Moore, who died June 17 at age 79.
Ethel M ae Blanson was bom Jan. 6, 1924, in
W innsboro, La. A homemaker, she moved to Port
land in 1965. In 1943, she married Sam L. Sr.; hedied
in 2002.
Survivors include her sons, Roy B. Thomas, Sam
L. M oore Jr., Demarcus R. Moore, W illie D. Moore
and Dallas Dennis; daughters, Brenda K. Coleman,
G wendolyn J. Robinson, Deborah L. Warren, Ollie
A. Banks, Mona L. Jiminez, Constance D. McCool.
Algia R. M oore-Thomas and Margo L. Taylor; sis
ters, Georgine Tumer and MaxineGrimble; 23 grand
children; and 46 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held Thursday, June 19,
2003, in Walker Temple Church o f God in Christ in
Portland for the Rev. Lonnie D. Dotsey Sr., who died
June 13 at age 82.
The Rev. Dotsey Sr. was bom March 15, 1921, in
Cameron, Texas. During World War II, he served in the
Army. He moved to Portland in 1946, where he was a
supervisor for Linden Farms. He was a pastor at
Nazarene Church o f God in Christ. About 1957, he
married Audrey Brown; she died in 1996.
Survivors include his sons, Lawrence and Lonnie
Jr.; daughters, Lydia D Lewis and Audrey Muhammad;
stepsons. Tom Moore and Lee Moore; sister, Celestine
Jackson; 17 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchil
dren.
r
President:
1
Mr. Edward Kent
Treasurer:
Rev. James Colemen
B ookkeeper:
Mr. Edward Kent
Manager-Director:
Secretary:
Rev. W alter Pritchett
Mrs. Lousie Pritchett
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