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GOSPEL TODAYJuly 27, 2009

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Issue No. Seventeen gospeltoday..com

P U B L I S H E RDR. TERESA HAIRSTON

P o s t O f f i c e B o x 8 0 0A i r b u r n , G A 3 0 2 1 3

T E L E P H O N E770-719-4825 F A C S I M I L E770-719-4825

The Professor and the Police OfficerPage 2

The Death of Walter CronkitePage 4

Dr. Henry Louis Gates

Harvard Scholar

Bishop Andy C. Lewter, D. Min. Editor

GOSPEL TODAY! PAGE3

Gospel Today, Post Office Box 800, Fairburn, GA 30213 | 770-719-4825 | gospeltoday.com

It began as an unfortunate exchange between a Harvard scholar and a local police officer that should have barely lasted through the news cycle of one day. Then, at the end of an hour long press conference with the president on Health Care Reform, came what appeared to be an innocent question about the event. The president spoke from the heart and his comments reflected his respect and friendship of the Harvard scholar.

Suddenly, an event that was barely newsworthy became the center of a controversy that dominated the news cycle for over a week. In the end, the president confessed that he perhaps could have “calibrated his words a bit better” and the police officer and the professor agreed to come to the White House for a beer.

Outside the immediate circle of the president, professor and police officer, a number of notable voices expressed their opinions on the subject. The collective conversation on the topic provided what the president would later call a “teachable moment” and an opportunity to talk about

the lingering question of race that America is still skiddish over.“Where I come from, if you are right you move forward with the process. The fact that the police department dropped the charges is an indication that the department was not convinced that it had a case” said noted journalist and political commentator

Roland Martin from CNN.Dr. Michael Eric Dyson recalled how

he was pulled over and hasseled by state troopers while driving interstate 95. “When I told the officer that I was a Ph. D. student at Princeton, he told me that he was the president of the United States.”

These and so many other incidents experienced by African American men points to the fact that despite having made enormous progress in recent years, and with even having an African American in the White House, the issue of racial profiling and a lingering tension between the Black community and the law enforcement community still exists.

“When I told the officer that I was a Ph. D.

student at Princeton University, he told me that he was the “xxxx” president of the United

States.”

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Harvard Scholar and Professor Director, WEB Dubois Institute

The Professor and the Police Officer

GOSPEL TODAY! PAGE4

Gospel Today, Post Office Box 800, Fairburn, GA 30213 | 770-719-4825 | gospeltoday.com

One might ask w hy w o u l d a publication that is dedicated to Christianity and Gospe l Mus ic ca r r y a s t o r y

about Walter Cronkite. Afterall, he was a remarkable reporter but what does that have to do with the material and information that Gospel Today has built a reputation for.

That is exactly why Gospel Today pauses to salute a person like Walter Cronkite, because at the end of the day what we strive to do is produce excellent journalism. Journalism is journalism and despite those who want to argue that there are separate genres of journalism, like religious journalism or political journalism, the truth of the matter is that there is but one standard for true journalism.

Walter Cronkite who served as the anchorman for CBS news for many years represents what that “gold standard” is for the world of journalism.

Walter Cronkite began as a wire service agent during World War II but eventually, through hard work and dedication, became known as the most trusted man in America. Most person over 50 can recall that it was

Walter Cronkite that delivered to us several news items that cause us to remember just what we were doing when he delivered to us the news.

It was Walter Cronkite, normally cool and detached, removed his glasses and with a tear stained eye told us that President John

F. Kennedy, not only had been shot, but died at around 1:30 PM in the city Dallas, Texas.

It was Walter Cronkite, with a bit of a giddy voice told us that mankind has just landed and was now stepping on the surface of the moon.

It was Walter Cronkite that first raised our awareness of a seemingly unimportant break-in at an office building called “Watergate” and then narrated to us the unfolding events that would eventually lead to the final farewell and salute of Richard M. Nixon as he left the White House in scandal and shame.

It was Walter Cronkite who brought to us pictures and the video footage of the human carnage in South East Asia, in an unknown country called Viet Nam. It was his uncharacteristic opinionated comments that cause then President Lyndon Baines Johnson to say “If we have lost Walter Cronkite, we have lost Middle America”.

So it becomes clear and evident that the death of Walter Cronkite last week was much more than the passing of an average man, it was the passing of an era. Prior to Cronkite and his reporting on the death of an American president, the dominant distribution of news in this country was the daily newspaper. After November 23, 1963, that all changed and television moved to the center stage as the primary mechanism for news in the country. So what we do now here at Gospel Today was made possible in part because of a man called Walter Cronkite.

It was his uncharacteristic

opinionated comments that

cause then President

Lyndon Baines Johnson to say

“If we have lost Walter Cronkite,

we have lost Middle America”

Field of Journalism Salutes the Passing of Walter Cronkite

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GOSPEL TODAY! PAGE6

Gospel Today, Post Office Box 800, Fairburn, GA 30210 | 770-719-4825 | gospeltoday.com

Generally speaking, the African-American village, or community of today, is broken. When our village is broken that indicates that there are broken people in our village, and when we have broken people, we have broken families, a broken economy, broken churches, and broken schools.

Some of our fathers are refusing to take their God-given responsibilities to lead, guide, and direct their families under God's direction. Many others are handcuffed by the criminal justice system or dysfunctional relationships with their "baby mama's."

Some of our mothers have had to take on the role of being the mother

and the father to their children, many, through no fault of their own.

Because of this dysfunction, our children are caught in the middle--confused and conflicted--not knowing which way to go in life.

The families of our village are dealing with their individual internal issues which are getting in the way of what God wants to do to bring about restoration to our broken village.

The village is also under attack by the forces of racism and oppression. The criminal justice system and our nation's public schools seemingly have constructed an invisible, but real,

school yard to prison cell pipeline. Economic apartheid cripples the development of African-American communities, often mired in poverty.

This book is an attempt to look at and to address, under the power and authority of God's Word, the issues that have left us broken as a people and thus, broken as a village.

My prayer is that God will make us more aware of the problems in our broken village, and place upon our hearts a desire, with His help, to strive to put our broken village back together for His glory!

Healing Our Broken Village Encourages Churches to Take Responsibility

BY DR. FREDERICK HAYNES, III

Pastor Frederick Haynes Healing our Broken Villages