BISHOP EDDIE LONG… WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Well, by now I take it that you know I must have seen the video or come across something which has alerted me considering this new controversy circling around Bishop Eddie Long.

Yes, as a matter of fact a few weeks ago I came across the YouTube video posted by the Bishop… or someone telling everyone that he was alright, but had started this new health kick or some kind of diet.  But honestly to tell you the truth as I watched him… and paid great attention to his body language and facial expressions…

Well, to tell you the truth he looks like a man who has either consumed himself with alcohol or become an addict.

I know…. I know you probably don’t want to hear this.  Some of you really do still believe and trust in the Bishop.   But he is a man who is greatly troubled.  And the demons which possess him do not seem to have finished with him yet.

I hate to see people brought down.   Or shamed before everyone.  But when I look at those boys whom he groomed into homosexuality… and think about how he claimed he was ‘David facing Goliath’ when it came to his legal battles with them over their abuse.   I feel sorry…  for them all… all the way around.  Really.

I clearly understand how a demonic spirit can enter into your body and attack you… bringing you into submission IF YOU ARE NOT FULLY EQUIPPED to fend off such attacks through the Holy Spirit.

Unless you are FULLY EQUIPPED with the Spirit of the Lord… the devil will steal your mind.  And don’t sit there and think that he won’t do it… nor that it can’t happen to you.  Because it can.  Even to me.   Yes, it can… if I were not equipped and believed fully in God.  And that God is able to keep me through all things… if I desire to be kept.

There is this thing that we must all understand… and that is ‘in order to stand and fight off the devil you better be fully prepared for the battle.’  We are not told as Christians that we must have on ‘the WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD’ for no reason.   Without God’s amour… His protection…  we too can become easily overtaken by demonic spirits.  And when these spirits get a hold of you… when they enter into your body… and get into your spirit… they are not easily shaken.

We all need the power of God truly working within us in order to bring us out of such attacks.  But… and it is a big BUT.  But if we become captivated by the lure of the sin that is trying to entangle us then we loose.   You cannot fall prey to such attacks, and the attraction to the evil doing that you begin to operate within it… for you will get lost in it.   As we see how that thing took a hold of Bishop Long.   One day out marching against homosexuals… while entering those spirits within his own flesh.  And it over took him.

For the most part Bishop Eddie Long has long been recognized as a prosperity preacher.  I will be 1 of the first to tell you… and not me alone… that God truly endowed him with the word.   But he went astray… and got into all that prosperity mess.

Once Long got into the prosperity teachings and doings… he was lost.  He got turned around and lost his focus.   His god became mammon… riches.   You cannot serve both God and the lure of riches. You will either love the 1 and hate the other.

Therefore, the lust of money then made him more susceptible to any other spirit that would attach itself to him.  Hence, the spirit of homosexuality came calling upon him.

Thus, Long began to open up facilities to house boys from which a chosen few were picked for his sexual grooming… to fill his desire to interact with them on a less than religious manner…  as a perpetrator… a sexual deviant.  A grown man seeking to delight himself sexual among young boys.

So, these young boys came into his range where he had access to them… could ‘father’ them into a seemingly caring relationship where what he was doing appeared to them … and I guess all who were near as a harmless religious relationship among him and them… the boys.    As Long did not take sexual advantage of them physically… per what the boys/now grown young men claimed in their law suits against him.  But he did do touchy and feelly things… things that excited and brought about certain urges… which Scripture has called ‘unnatural.’   Creating longings and desires within the young boys…  which when you see them you can clearly see the damage that was done.   They were groomed like cattle …or a horse for a certain kind of thing… a certain kind of behavior.    And that ‘thing’ … in my opinion when I look at their videos and pictures of those young boys turned to young men… that ‘thing’ stole their manhood.

Now, fast forward to Eddie Long  today after having paid out some $9 million plus to these young men whom he had doctored up and touched… and groomed in his special way to be his select stable… to feel whatever demonic fantasy that was going on in his head.

Today it appears that the demons have chased him down.  Long looks broken… as broken as a drunk on the street (I hate using such terminology as it is not how I view people or ever speak of them… but for the purpose of this blog and the message I’m trying to convey, it is the only way I can get you to really see what I’m talking about.  So, please forgive my terminology when speaking or classifying anyone here)

Yes, Bishop appears a broken man in this video below.  And unlike Pastor Zachary Timms… I do see where possible drugs or alcohol may be playing a factor in his life.

That which loosing all that money and some of his congregation could not do… I now believe his conscience is making up for it… sadly.   Such a gifted man at 1 time in the Lord.  And look how he let the devil use him… and now I believe he is truly paying for it mentally and physically… and it is ironic.

The irony is how much he worked to build up his body… and what was an apparent love of his physique.   To now be dwindled down to almost nothing… half a man.   A tormented man it seems.

I pray he find a way back to the Lord.   As we serve a God who is long suffering and forgiving.   But to have taken his position as a spiritual leader and have turned it into an artful predator, using the house of the Lord as his playground… might be something that God will not forgive… as He did not forgive Eli when it came to his sons.

I just read that Bishop Long is now on a medical sabbatical after revealing to his church that he is facing some health challenges.  Repentance is the only cure.  A true and real pouring out of his heart

UPDATE:  Yesterday morning… Sunday, January 15, 2017…  it was reported that Bishop Long passed.   I will not comment or speculate as to my thoughts further on this matter.  It is sad all the way around …for all who were effected and involved.

I pray peace and resolution to the minds and souls of the young then boys drawn into this scandal.  And that God call them out that they may be saved from the perverse thing and things which have and are happening to them.  Because this now is their choice to chose to live or die in that mess.

Well, God bless… and thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add a comment September 10, 2016

PAULA WHITE… UNEVENLY YOKED…

I know…   I know… I’m late on this but from the moment that I found out… which was recently like last week… that Paula White got divorced and married a rocker I thought to myself.

Married a what???

A rock and roll rocker… as in musician????

Paula White the woman who became the head of what’s his name church in Orlando… who had a church in Tampa.   That Paula White???

Yes, that 1.

Needless to say that it struck me odd that a so-called woman of God would even consider marrying a man… all tattooed up and still plays as a musicians touring on the road.  He is in his mid-sixties while Paula claims to be in her mid-forties… with each
having married three times.

His name is Jonathan Cain… I’m not really familiar with him.  But then I have never followed rock music or any of its groups outside of the BeeGee’s, Hall & Oates… if you can call them a group… and maybe 1 or 2 others but that
has been it

But it is not him who I wish to speak about… but Paula.

I first saw Paula on television.  I guess the Word Network where she had been a fiery  woman of God, at the time… who definitely knew the Word and could preach it.   But over the course of time… lot most of the TV evangelists and pastors … or so-called… that I have seen on television they soon loose sight  of God and become all about money.   And that is exactly the only thing that Paula White seems to be consumed with getting… and does not mind freely letting you see that that is what she is all about these days.

I happened to come across the information of Paula’s wedding over the internet… on youtube.  Where I thought it was interesting that the 2 videos talking Paula White and her new man… were 2 white people.   Some man and some woman… who appeared to have a connection with each as the basic look of their videos were the same.  But since Paula White’s congregation for the most part… as part as I have seen… has primarily been and continues to be majority African American… I would have expected videos on youtube regarding Paula’s wedding to been from some black folk.

I read where someone on Facebook posted on their page last week this question, ‘Why can we find black churches under the leadership of a white pastor, but cannot find the reverse?’

That is a very real question.  Black are by far more accepting of having a white person leading them as a pastor than the opposite.  A perfect example of this is the break between the Church of God in Christ and Assemblies of God.

When the Church of God in Christ was birth under Bishop C. H. Mason a number of white folk were also involved and in membership but later the white member withdrew from the Church of God in Christ to create their own denomination known as the Assemblies of Christ.   This example of the split in membership between the white members and black members of the Church of God in Christ does strongly suggest that black people… though we had gone through slavery and oppression in many countries …not just in America but around the world… but when it comes to laying aside every weight and bias …especially when it comes to matters of God… black folk are by far more forgiving and tolerate than white people and can lay aside the color of someone’s skin.

But I am not trying to give a history lesson here.   I want to comment on Paula White becoming unevenly yoked.  But that is not to say that maybe she had not done so before.  Because after all she had had 3 prior marriages… just like the man she married.   So, both Paul and her rocker husband make the fourth marriage that each of them have said ‘I do’ to.

But how does a woman who professes to know the Lord.  None less a pastor of the Word of God marry 4 times?

And the the 4th time being to a man in his 60’s who has spent his life playing and writing rock and roll music… and still does for a living?

Clearly, he has money.  And we know that Paula definitely has money especially since her television time tab is picked up by the church she stepped in to assume the pastoral of following the death of Zachary Timms… giving way for a takeover by some church heads to put in slave master Paula White.   Because if you listen to those youtube videos this 2 people uploaded

While Zachary was making a name for himself in Orlando, with New Destiny Christian Center, a church under the order of Apostle Fredrick Price… Paula was busy with her then husband… husband #3… Randy White building up their church in Tampa, Without Walls International… which has bit the dust and gone under the auction block.

There was lots of controversy when somehow Paula White emerged as the pick to lead Timms church following his death, due to overdose.   To say the least it was a big mess.  But to tell you the truth there are a lot of big messes in
the church… as our home church is dealing with 1 itself.   But maybe sometime other time I will address that… but it was highly disappointing.

When I first saw Paula… I have no idea how long she had been on the scene prior as I never watched TV or had heard of her until I guess I used to start watching my sisters television on occasions and when I saw her preach at Bishop T.D. Jake’s Woman Thou Art Loose.  At that time she was different … not obsessed with riches here on earth as she had since become.  She today has stepped away from the ‘soul saving’ or ‘caring’ business to increase my pockets business.

It is interesting to me when I see these so-called pastors such as Rod Parsley… who when I first saw him he was different too.  Today the man seems to be on the deep end… tethering between sanity and insanity.  Money too has taken his mind.  And like Paula and more than three quarters of those preachers on the Word Network… all of them in search of getting rich on the backs of gullible black folk willing to send them in whatever amount they ask for of that given day.  As everyday on these people shows is a ‘give me’ ‘give me’ episode ‘if you want such and such.’   Or are looking for ‘such and such.’   It has become a real racket.

So, Paula is leading the black folk of Timms congregation now for the past 3 years or so… since Zachary died in New York City… found dead in a hotel room of an overdose.   It must have been like hitting the jackpot because Zachary loved media.  He loved being on television and had invested much in the state of art television and audio equipment.  Not to mention all the television time his church purchased weekly.  And Paula was and is a lover of media herself… it is what she has used to get her to the place where she now it.

But before at least Paula preached the gospel before.   She merely uses the gospel now.   But this marriage to this guy was a step way beyond ‘I could less what anybody thinks.’    It
was like ‘I’m going to have this man… and his money and I don’t care whether he ever finds Christ or not.’

Now, how does a supposed ‘woman of God’…  much less a pastor with a large congregation do that?

Isn’t she suppose to be the role model… the standard bearer?

Well, Paula is worry about any standards godly or otherwise.  She is too caught up in her own importance over her temple worshippers who I guess are willing to follow her straight into hell.   The woman must be into witchcraft… voodoo or something because they are servants and she is their god head… married to her prince of
rock and roll, baby.   And ain’t nobody up in arms about it… because Paula has her followers… the Destiny congregation
bewitched.  Just as bewitched as when whomever elected her to take over their church that cause the whole board of elders selected to aid in that process such as Bishop T.D. Jakes and Bishop Ivy Hilliard to both hit the door, and start walking.

So, this woman marrying an ungodly man should not upset anyone… because honestly speaking Paula White ceased to be godly a long time ago.

It is clear that for anyone who marries time and time again… then evidently that person must be marrying outside of the will of God.  There can be no other answer to that question… which would mean that any marriage outside of God’s will is doomed.   Thus Paula White’s 3 prior marriages… and this cannot be any otherwise as the man is not of God… but is in the world.

God bless… It’s almost time for me to get out of here now.   So I have got to hurry.   But before I check out of here I just want to say, ‘What a fool that guy was last night who followed President Obama during that press dinner event they had.   The guy was completely out of order.   And to use the ‘N’ word when referring to my President absolutely inferiated me.

These clown uncle toms need to go and sit down.   And never to arise again.

If I ever hope someone were to loose his job… on what overnight tv show he host… it is definitely him.  He is not worth whatever they pay him.   Kill that contract and bury that guy.   What a fool… in a clown suit and make-up.   No, maybe I am giving clowns a bad name to equate them and that idiot… whatever his name was.  

Thank you for reading this blog…and my others. Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…” www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016

Add a comment May 3, 2016

HAS GOSPEL MUSIC GONE SECULAR…the Gospel… and Changes in People Preaching the Word

You might not believe this but I actually completed this blog the night before Martin L. King’s birthday weekend.  But I’m just now getting back to it now… nearly how many months later??  But I hope that you still find it to be a good read.

Interesting…

Recently, I got an interview request from someone who wanted to discuss with me some of my comments and opinions… or rather some singular statements that I  voiced here on my blog site. Statements regarding a shift in gospel music.  In particular they wanted to talk to me regarding my blog entitled… ‘KIM BURRELL…secular music wanna be.’

In that blog I stated my opinions on gospel artists attempting to move away from their musical base…or roots if you will… to chase after what appears to them to be ‘greener grounds’ on the other side.  They want larger crowds… bigger audiences… and when you get right down to it… it’s all about “moe money”… “moe fame”… “more of the roar of the crowd”… and “moe money.”

Wonder who told them getting it would be “all of dat…then some?”

Do I feel that Kim Burrell’s decision to try to follow a secular career in music is based upon money?

Yes, I do.

Kim saying that it is about souls…really contradicts Biblical text which says ‘come out from among them’ …not become like them so you can bring them in.

So, when I hear an gospel artist say that they have hipped up their music and performance to reach the masses or the younger generation… it really does not equate.  Least ways… not for me.

What it really amounts to is nothing more than not wanting to be labelled as an ‘gospel artist‘ any longer… which Kim Burrell has publically stated.

So, Kim has this burning desire  to not just do ‘gospel music’  any more ….or to be labelled as a ‘gospel music artist’ any longer…but something wider…and broader than that.  Might as well just come out and say… something more worldly.

You can tell something about Kim Burrell if you have ever watched that show, Sunday’s Best…which I never did.  But it was all over the internet …including a youtube upload of the segment that I am refering to… where Kim told someone to get rid of  “that gospel sound” … saying, “You’re sounding too churchie.”

Too “CHURCHIE???”

Has Kim not heard of Aretha Franklin?

Sounding ‘churchie’ never hurt Aretha 1 little bit.

Po’ Kimberly.

Well, this kind of thinking may or may not have stemmed from Kim having grown up in her family’s church, singing gospel music most of her life.  Until… I guess… maybe  all of her life until now.

So, now  Kim Burrell wants a secular career.  She wants to cross over to do R&B … or SOUL music or Pop Music… or whatever they call it today.   And I say that because today all ‘our’ musical forms are under attack… though Pop is not  ours.  But our music is under attack.  Is under the threat of  seriously totally disappearing before our very eyes.  It is all being re-catagorized into something else.

Coming from the music industry from way back… I can make certain assessments and statements from a point of knowledge that most cannot.  Because of my history of being many years in the record industry …namely by way of  radio…I do therefore come with some degree of insider  knowledge based upon my observations over the years… and they are merely my observations.  I have been watching certain changes and themes going on in the music industry since I guess I started listening to music… because it has always been there.  And namely because we do not control it… other people do.

Who would have ever thought that there would come a day when black folk would not want to sound black?

We all have heard of Elvis and other white recording artists covering black folks music and trying their best to sound like us.  There were those that emulated our keyboard playing… guitar playing… singing …and even dancing.  But now there has been a shift… now we’re the ones trying to do the emulating.   This is sad.  We are now doing what they used to do… and it is especially so in the gospel industry.  And particularly among some of the upper tier gospel artists who want to get air time on Christian radio stations.

It used to be that black gospel singers just wanted a contract… get some radio exposure… do concerts …and praise the Lord, while showing forth their praises to Him for the marvelous gifts He had endowed them with.  But not today.  The atmosphere has changed… and it is not about God.   Well, for many it is not… but all about money.

Guess gospel radio stations are about to bite the dust as far as some of today’s gospel artists are concerned… and they are disappearing.   Our artist could care less about those small little black owned radio stations that they used to leap at for a chance to get an interview on so they could talk up their latest projects.

In regards to my thoughts on what some so-called gospel artists are currently calling urban gospel music… I really think that it is a shamme.   It is truly a shame and disgrace how readily we are so quick to forsake those things which are so uniquely us.   And we do it all for nothing more than the sank of  a few almighty dollars…that only last for a little while.

And they do it without any consideration to our history and our future legacies.

We just throw it all to the wind…and then other people come in… and they begin to lay claim to it… calling it theirs.

Have you not seen that?

There was once a time when there had been more than just a hand full of black owned businesses in America… and they were large booming corporations.  But during the latter 70’s into the mid-80’s there was a big sale off of most of those black owned companies… and mostly they were sold off to companies controlled by non-African Americans.  Thoes African American companies were companies that produced products directly for us and by us… and had been birthed primarily because other corporations did not care about us… or what our specific needs were.

There was a time when all the make-up and hair products in the stores were basically geared towards white women and men.  But the difference you see in stores today is not there because of anyone outside of ourselves.  We began to produce black hair products and make-up etc. for us… to fit our needs… or skin tones… and hair textures etc.

But those African American companies…for the most part were really the beginning of the big sell off.  The big money makers like the black hair care and make-up companies followed by publications and radio stations etc. were the first things bought out by white corporations.  Today you see that almost all our so-called black radio stations are owned by 1 corporation, Clear Channel.  Clear Channel owns almost everything media…black, white, hispanic and etc.

The first cab company here in our town was even started by a black woman… and even that  too was sold off.

So, what am I saying?

I am saying that we are good historically at creating then selling off and out everything that we own… and have created… selling out our goods, talents, gifts etc… to other groups of people who almost always end up capitalizing far more off them… than we ever did.   And we usually have done so to our own detriment…as a group of people… and to the lack of consideration for our future generations, who have no knowledge of what was… and no vision for what can be for them.

We have lost so much in  all of those sell-off transactions.  And one of the greatest things we have sold off  is our ability to control and determine our own destines…through any sustainable period of time.

This same trend for years has been spreading across the board into everything  we have either created or  have produced… not just our hair care products and cosmetics, but also in our art and various other art forms such as dance etc.  This is not good… and has been a huge determent to our children’s future and their entrepreneurial spirit.  Which many of them have none at all.

It is definitely not good for  us to forsake our cultural gifts… our diversity and own creativity… and particularly to forsake those things which are uniquely us… such as our music and our other cultural forms of art.

If we don’t preserve them …who will?

If we don’t treasure them …who will?

Today’s artists are greedy.  They want more money… and they are just not satisfied with more money… they want LOTS of it.  Which, of course, has to mean more sales… wider variety of awards… and all of this translates into creating a wider market.

So, today’s gospel artists do not mind forsaking their old fan base who loved and supported them during their meager beginning… who bought their music before the big switch to sounding like somebody else… somebody non-black… somebody undefined…somebody non-negro …because it is a race thang… or un-black. And many gospel promoters can’t even touch them… because they are priced outside of our reach.

It all has to be a new form of self-hate.  And I thought we had gotten way past that.

Our children walk around believing we have nothing… have done nothing… and that they will be nothing… because we have forsaken so much.  We have just thrown it all away… all  to the wind.  Even our own self-respect.

There are just some things too valuable to place a price on… things that are truly worth holding on to no matter what.  If we do not… we all loose.  There are so few black businesses today. 

A few gospel labels are still trying to hold on… like Malaco, Tyscot, JDI, and some smaller record labels and those yet under-ground… companies that we all should be trying to support because they still maintain their integrity by staying close to our gospel core… providing good gospel music while other companies… the larger gospel labels out weigh them with the stellar gospel stars and much much much larger budgets.

The thing that hurts the most … and I can say even worst… is that our children will loose… and loose big for every generations to come.  Clearly, they are already suffering when you look and hear what they are pumping out.  It neither sounds like us… or looks like us.  They have gone ga-ga..

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/evangelisttonyaglive/2011/12/03/ngm-presents-talk-show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

During the course of my career there has come my way many times that I got up and walked off  away from the table… because I was made offers.   But money has never wowed me like that.  Me… myself… and I…  WE ARE NOT FOR SALE… and have never been.

So, even as a sinner… way back then… I got up and turned my back on a lot of things that could have gotten me lots of money… but I chose to say, ‘no’… as I have never elected to do anything that would disgrace me or my family… or my people… or my core beliefs.

So, I have never been a sell-out.

Nor have I ever sold myself out.  And as good as God has been to me… I definitely have no intentions of ever considering ‘going for the money’ now.

No, way… I love Him too much.  And all our gifts are for his glory.

Money is not worth selling off that part of you that you will never be able to buy back.

How do you sell off your soul?

I have always been called an artists.  Most of the time I made a lot of decisions based upon my art… and not necessarily in consideration of my pocketbook.  So, I have been in the dark many a times.

Yes, I have had the electricity shut off…more than a few times…. cars repossessed… and bill collectors up the yah-zoo.  But I never did anything that went against me…   Well, almost once.  But it didn’t work out… thank goodness for God.  He stepped in.

I do believe some gospel artists are choosing to go against whatever moral standings they may have had… if some of them had any at all.  Or maybe it is just that they are not really saved or sanctified in the first place.  I have heard comments concerning people we have long held in high regard as truly being people of God… who behind the scene cuss… fuss, use drugs, drink …and show off a side to be anything but holy.

But truly here are some things that we have to take seriously…  and very seriously indeed.  Putting God up for sale.. or whether we should… or  would want to is one of them.  And trying to sell it off as a means of winning souls to Christ is another.

Confess and tell the truth.

Today the music industry is going through another re-defining, repositioning, and a transitional period.   It is something that the industry goes through periodically.  It ususally comes about when they realize that there is more money to be made if we…do this.  So, by dangling sparkling trinkets before the eyes of certain artist who may be hot… or have the talent to be very hot.  So, these companies feed them a song and dance about how they can make more money if they would…  Sell out… because that is what it comes down to. 

It happened with Michael Jackson when he was stolen away from Motown and his family group, the Jackson 5.  You remember when Michael emerged as the King of Pop… that was the new thing then… a new musical catagory called Pop Music.

This re-catagorization or creation of new music sub-divisions are for the purpose of openning artists up to larger audiences …by making them more acceptable to ‘other people’ in order to rake in more capital.  And it has  meant the lost of  such music catagories as… R&B… and Soul Music… which were converted into catagories called ‘urban‘ and this new junk call ‘neo-soul’ today.  And most of the black radio stations became urban radio stations.

When gospel artist decide that they are going to ‘go for the money’ then they should say that… if that is what they are going for.

They really should just say, “I’m going for the money.”

But no… they want to make statements like-

“God told me I needed to go out there to the unsaved.  And in order to do that I have do what will appeal to them.  That means creating music that speaks to them and will intrigue-  Ooops…excuse me. I mean to say help bring  them in.”

Such statements speak in direct contradiction to Biblical text… and can never justify anyone going out there trying to cross-over their music in order to reach ‘a wider’ audience outside of the gospel world.   And when you think about it… was not gospel music created for the saved… not the un-saved?

They already have their music.

In the mid-80’s came this thing called “POP MUSIC.”  It was the beginning of a marketing plan to make black artist… or African American talent more acceptable to white audiences.  And it was all about making more money for those artist who wanted to do this thing called ‘cross-over.’ And was the beginning of ridding the music world of anything sounding …or looking like us.

In many cases of  the artist’s who wanted to go Pop their whole sound changed… just as we are hearing today in the gospel music industry.  The artist moved away from making music or writing songs that brought them to the attention of those who began chasing them, offering more money and bigger contracts.

Those people came up with a plan to do away with certain groups  of music… music you hardly hear any more because they set about graying the lines between the music to make it more acceptable to all…  Well, almost all.

One of the first types of music that was aimed to hit the bricks was jazz.  This began just about the time that many of the real jazz masters started departing this earth… jazz greats such as Miles, Coltrane, Armstrong, Thelonious Monk etc…etc…etc…   And if it had not been for die hard jazz lovers who strongly resisted the lost of this musical genre by (1) rebuilding a core of new real jazz music lovers, (2) the emergence of  jazz radio station programming it … usually on mostly public radio and/or educational stations where subscribers  supported this type of programming, and (3) the creation of smooth jazz radio stations programming a softer more acceptable jazz, 24 hours a day everyday of the week.  Though smooth jazz is considerably different from the type of  jazz that had been created by the masters  like Miles Davis… it did, however, find its nitch.

Now, while half watching… get this… the Soul Train Music Awards show… I noticed a drastic change  has happened to Soul Music.  While watching it all I could think was… if Don Cornelius was alive (and he was at the time…I just didn’t know it until he committed suicide).    During that show I heard terms  like ‘urban soul’… and that mess they called ‘neo-soul.’   All mostly foreign to me… as of course do not listen to such mess.

I equate ‘neo-soul’  to the new direction we see gospel music headed in… and it is very sad.

While putting together a gospel music video program… I included a music video by the gospel duo of sisters called MaryMary.  What stuck out to me as I was typing in the data for their video… I noticed that it was classified as being ‘urban.’ 

I realized then that MaryMary did not desire to be pigeoned hold as simply being  ‘gospel’ artists… but something more acceptable to a wider audience… which would also mean wider radio and television programming… and/or exposure for their music

Okay…

I guess if that is what you want to do.  But the argument on the side of  MaryMary can still be made that they have never really totally sold out… they are not afraid to speak ‘Jesus’ or ‘God’ in their music… nor does it appear that they are willing to expose much of their bodies ‘for profit.’  And the focus of  their music still seems to be not as far out there as I see where some others have gone lately.

In order to reach the acclaim and match the money that MaryMary has managed to reap… it appears that others have decided to follow MaryMary’s lead… but they have decided to go that additional mile.   They have decided to reach further out into the deep waters… by what seems to me to be a casting off  of any semblance of  anything that remotely sounds like ‘gospel’ music… and/or looks ‘holy.’   They  desire to be more like what is being called ‘Christian’ music artists.  Which is very much more like rock music… and will drive you crazy if you sat listening to it all day.

In almost all of the music on the so-called Christian radio stations… you have to  listen real hard to even be able to deciper that itit is a Christian song… because Christian radio stations do not play gospel song.

So, in order to be heard over Christian radio stations…which are growing while our smaller less popular gospel radio stations are fading, barely able to stay afloat… since many black people are now tuning in to Christian radio stations too., which give them greater Arbitron numbers which means more advertising dollars going to them.  So, many of our artists have lost that black sound… or the ethnic sound in order to blend in.

Oh, I know that rock music has it roots in our music… going all the way back to such people  like Little Richard and Jimmy Hendrix.  But that is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is this…

Christian radio station is a misnomer… because it sounds like for the most just like another rock station.  It is just positioning itself as something else… and that something else is working.

I do not care what they call it… those radio stations  pump rock music… and they are rock & roll radio stations at their core, and they are hurting our radio stations.  It really doesn’t matter what type of lyrics their songs may or may not have… the basic overall sound of it is still the same as that of rock and roll.

When urban radio stations began playing music like Donnie McClurkin’s ‘We Fall Down’  …or going all the way back to Walter Hawkins,’ Oh, Happy Day’…it did not make those stations become gospel radio stations.  Nor did playing Donnie’s song or the Clark Sister’s ‘You Bring the Sunshine’ dictate an overall change in their basic programming format.  Their focus was and still is… is on playing supposed urban music… or today  mostly that neo-soul mess.

Therein, this leads me to further  make my case,  urban radio stations used to be soul radio stations… or R&B radio stations… but in the mid-90’s there came about a change.  A re-classification change… many R&B artists wanted to follow the king of Pop…Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie and others come from under the rock called  ‘black music artist’ tag.  They wanted to lean toward another word just beginning to circulate… first ‘urban’…and then it became ‘pop.’

All of it was aimed at reaching beyond the boundaries of  our own neighborhoods… from the urban areas to a much wider and broader audiences.  Also it was to bring about something which was being whispered at that time… the doing away of the R&B/Soul music categories.  And none of  this was being done by us.

No,  but it was by those who whispered into the ears of the so-called up and coming artists and rappers of  today.

It was done by the people who own the labels… the chart books… and who had influence to get things heard and played over the radio.  And those people are a lot like the penthouse drug kingpins…and might be some.

You know those guys… the drug lords who never touch the street but reap the bigger benefits… because the drug market is really theirs… and to a large degree it intertwines with the music business.  Though this is never spoken of.

Yeah, it is like that.  The drug business and the music business are constructed very much the same.  Little wonder why drugs are so easily and readily obtainable in the music industry…  the sports industry… and wherever else where there are lots of dollars to be made.  Anything that makes money is usually owned and operated by the same people when you get right down to it.

When a new radio station signed on in New York City I was looking forward to it.  I had read that it was going to be a Christian radio station… in a place that was pumbing everything else but any daily gospel music.  But from the moment it began airing I realized that there was something wrong.  It sounded more like Z-100 ‘the Zoo’… a  local New York City rock music radio station.

The whole thing is really a gimmick to entice hardcore rock listeners to tune into something else which is being passed off as Christian music …but is still very much  and sounds just like the music that they love and crave for so very dearly… rock.   They have not been transformed.

Thus, were the Christian radio stations birthed.    They became a quick sell buying into every market and opening the doors for many of their artists… caucasian singers and musicans to become more widely known and accepted in the Christian/Gospel music market… and more importantly the  award shows.

In a very large metro areas such as New York City… which up until the Christian radio station began air… it had no 24 hour …or daytime radio station programming any gospel or Christian music at all at that time… it was seen by many Christian people as a welcomed  and long overdue arrival.

But this welcomed arrival… soon became a big game changer too.  And they were on the FM dial… which everybody knows sounds a lot better than a low signal AM station any time.

Thus was a desire kindled by some gospel artists to create material which could become acceptable to this new outlet called ‘Christian Radio.’   A large part of  this transformation called for those artists wishing to cross over… to first  lose their ‘black’… or ‘gospel-ee’ sound.   And that is exactlyy what they have done… much like Beyoncé sounding less ‘black’… like almost that whole ‘neo-soul’ movement in what used to be known as the Black Music Division yesterday… to the Urban Music Division a few years ago… and now Neo-Soul.  And there is nothing soul in it… or about it …outside of  the color of the skin of  those who call themselves performing it.

This change you can especially  be heard in  Tye Tribbitts latest cd… also in much of the Kirk Franklin’s material… as well as in many others who want to jump onto that band wagon.   You can say that they have sold out …and it is not for Christ’s sake.   But for that all mighty thing called in the Biblical text  ‘filthy luka.’

Kim Burrell in her latest cd release has attempted to do the same thing… as well as,  Kierra Shear… and Trinity 5:7… and the list goes on… and on.

When I saw Kim baring her shoulder and trying to appear as a sex vixen in a music video produced from a song on her latest cd… it seemed sad to me.  I thought… she has eyes but can not see.   The video was anything but sexy… nor was it appealing.

Then I saw where someone had posted over the internet  a note about the Trinity 5:7’s latest  video… saying that she  was shocked at their display… asking if it was just her…. or whether or not the video appeared to be leaning towards anything gospel… religious… or  Christian at all???

So, I checked out the video.  And my answer was…‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’

One could say that many of  todays new brand of  gospel music producers and performers are pimping that gift that God has so freely endowed them with … which is supposed to be for His glory… by subverting it for their own benefit… and worldly profit.

Yeah, the kids like it… I guess…must be… for the most part.  And don’t get me wrong… not all of it is totally bad.  There are a lot of songs that I like by Kirk… and at least 1 by Tye.

I know my son loves Kierra’s latest cd.  But when I first heard it I didn’t have a clue as to who it was singing.  It was not until sometime later that he told me it was Kierra, Karen Clark Shears daughter.

Kierra’s cd does get there but after a while… but still you can see the direction that Kierra chose to take in an effort to land on Christian radio stations… as opposed to catering to the gospel music brand of  those she follows so closely in the footsteps of… namely her mother, Karen… and her aunts… the other Clark Sisters.  And of course her grandmother… Dr. Mattie Moss Clark.

Thank goodness most of the gospel artists and especially the gospel quartets have remained true and strong their art form.  Chosing to preserve the traditions of an art form that still moves many of us to tears with moving touching lyrics… or foot stomping songs… and hand clapping music that still  brings many of  us to our feet.  Music created in the muke and miry clay of  the fields during slavery times… and on up through the years of  our history here in America.

Maybe, I should have waited to write this during Black History Month… or Gospel Music Month.  Is there such a thing as… Gospel Music Month?

Is there a Gospel Music Month?

If  not then there should be.  Because our music is the only real American music… as Soul Food is the only real American cuisine.  Because it is the only food in which its roots were started here in America.  Almost every other food we eat came from some other  country… rooted in other cultures and brought here as the immigrants began to flow into this country.  But our circumstances being different… forced us to create ‘a new’ everything we eat… said… and did.

Earlier this evening while working on this blog… I had my computer on the Word Network listening to this preacher named Dr. Chris Hill, a pastor of a T.D. Jakes church in Dever, Colorado.  I had heard him before and have occasionally watched his broadcast… but to tell you the truth I can only take a little bit of the guy.  But tonight as I typed I would occasionally glance over to his broadcast …and it dawned on me as to what it was I found so irritating about him.

For the first thing… it came across my mind that each time I have happened to catch a piece of his broadcast… that the man appeared to be on drugs.

And for the  2nd  thing that I noticed was… the guy likes to holler.  I have nothing against hollering …preachers holler.  So, growing up in the Church… and particular the black Church… I have learned to accept hollering by preachers as being part of their technique.

In the Pentecostal Church whenever the Pastor or whomever is preaching  when they  got excited they automatically began to holler… or  in other words speak very fervently.   But this guy… Dr. Chris Hill hollers at numerous places throughout his sermon at varying times… and most of the time as it appears to me… he does it for no other reason outside of  him just wanting to do so… or to grab a laugh.

As I occasionally would glance back and forth at him tonight… he reminded me of a stand-up comedian.   Appearing comedic appears to be very much Dr. Hill’s forte… or so he believes.

But tonight I felt I have really put my hand on it finally.   That is to say… put my hand on exactly what it was that I had been trying to put my hands on about him.  And this is it…he appears more like ‘Stepin Fetchit.’

Now, I am really not trying to crack on Dr. Hill.  No, I am not.  Truly, I am not trying to do that.  But he gives me the impression of someone who is more playing with his audience… which is made up of a large number of  white church goers.  Rather than just delivering a sermon to them. He likes to play with the sermon and them a lot.  And he seems to love to do what he thinks will prompt them to laugh.

I don’t know… perhaps I am just toooooo old school… or maybe I’m just being ‘too’ black… first the gospel music… and now this????

Will the church become full of preachers who want to do stand-up comedy rather than preach the word?

I don’t mind humor.  I know that humor is good.  But the entire sermon turned into a joke…  I don’t know????

Or maybe it is that this is the Chris Hill way of preaching.  Is the way of a new group of preachers coming up today… to slay them with laughter?

We’ll see.

But there does seem to me to be such an urgency today that wasn’t there yesterday.  And that is we are getting closer and closer to the end times… far closer than we were yesterday.  And though I definitely know and agree that laugher is good… but preaching salvation and deliverance is of a greater need.  And I’m not saying that humor cannot be mixed with it… if you can do it without shading the overall message too much.

So, do not get me wrong.  Yes, I believe in laugher.  In fact, I hired some comedians recently and brought a night of comedy here… but for everything there is a time and a season.  Standing up and humoring a bunch of  folk straight through what should be your sermon does not seem to me to be ministering to the whole man… when you are working the crowd like a stand-up comedian rather than a man of God operating in his formal capacity.

It was Jesus who said… “Feed my sheep.”

As of New Year’s Eve Pastor Paula White became the new senior Pastor over New Destiny Christian Church… following the sudden death of their founder and leader Pastor Zackery Tims.

In reading the story… namely the ill feelings between the Broads of Regents over the Church and Riva Tims… the ex-Mrs. Zackery Tims, who filed papers against the Church claiming that she should have been named the senior Pastor since she and her then husband, Pastor Tims, were the founders of New Destiny.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-fla-church-denies-riva-tims-claim-to-leadership-66085/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-death-fla-ministers-ex-wife-comments-on-leading-megachurch-56660/

I found it interesting that Paula like Sheryl Brandy just decided to up and leave her church behind.  Well, Paula not quite…as it seems that Paula is still in control over her own church still,  the church Without Walls International, in Tampa, FL … which Paula founded along with her then husband, Randy White… whom we do not hear much of anything from or about rany more.

As you many may or may not have noticed …but over the course of the last few years Paula has shifted in terms of her theology… it has swung to prosperity.  This is extremely evident in her daily television show segments which she broadcasts over the Word Network… and other channels as well.   One thing in particular that stands out is Paula’s show’s guest list … featuring a bunch of false prophets and supposed evangelist… and I guess even some so-called Pastors all soliciting sowers on the behalf of Paula  White.

It will be interesting to see or read about New Destiny since the passing of Pastor Zackery Tims, who had built up such a vast media following.  I can only imagine how greatly vested he was in media equipment and facilities as he had a large television ministry.   His vast media possibilities have now availed themselves to Paula White since she has been chosen the new Pastor at New Destiny.

The question in all of this is whether of not Paula White can carry it …or what will she do with it?

Well, tomorrow is Dr. Martin L. King’s birthday.    Meaning we all have a day off… and an opportunity to reflect upon the history and legacy of  Dr. King.  With some states chosing it to initiate state issued Voter ID cards… a trend that can only be seen as a drive by Republicans to lessen minority votes…as well as,  to try and weaken worker’s rights, benefits and compensation, medical plans, and unions busting… also changes in Women Rights to abortion etc… as it is all tied in with the power to vote.

This holiday we have much to reflect upon.

Let us not allow the hands of time to be turned back.

It is interesting to think that forty years after the death of  Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. we have an African American man  in the White House, as President of the United States of  America.  And I love it.

But the other side of that coin is the number of  death threats per day that President Obama receives, more than 8 per day… it is the highest number ever in the history of American Presidents.  And the number of  insults hurled at him publicly by Republican members of both the Senate and Congress… inclusive of being called ‘liar’ loudly during a State of the Nation broadcast… can be surmised as nothing more than pure out and out racism.

Miss Daisy said it best… an elderly woman of over 100 years of age… who said to me 1 day angrily-

“Do you see what they are doing to Obama?”

And man… was Miss Daisy mad when she said it.

Unlike the kids… she saw… lived …and remembered what it had been like years before laws were created to force the change in things… as to how we live… our basic everyday rights… and privileges that were never extended to us before.  But Dr. King marched…went to jail and fought that we might be able stand like everybody else in this country… with our back up straight and tall.   So, we could stand on the law… and in our case ‘the laws’… there were many and they were long in coming.

Enjoy Dr. King’s day.

Got a little snow the other night… didn’t amount to much and I am glad about that after all the snow we got last year.

But it has been very very very cold these last few days… then 1 day would get mild… and by night fall which to come very early this year… it turns soooo cold all over again.  But then it is winter… and I would rather the cold over the snow… or cold and snow.

Well, God bless… and enjoy your week.  Just noticing… this is my first blog for this year….2012.  Time is truly flying by.

Well, it would have been… had I finished it before now.  LOL….

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2012

Add a comment July 31, 2012

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

4 comments August 23, 2011