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New Birth Crowns Eddie Long as King! [VIDEO]

CoCo Brother — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:43:10 +0000

While most Christians were having regular Sunday services, over at Eddie Long’s New Birth Church in Lithonia, Ga, Ralph Messer, who is part of the Hebrew Roots movement, was crowning Eddie Long King in an elaborate ceremony that included wrapping Long in a Torah Scroll reportedly found at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

In case you’re unable or unwilling to watch: the video shows Messer giving Long the Torah scroll declaring that he’s the first man to look upon the scroll after 3000 years. Long is “wrapped in the scroll” and prayed over. Messer asks Long to take a seat, and declares that God gave Long a position of power and authority. He’s given the constitution of God as a king (6:49), the Torah, and then, Messer has four men representing the four corners of the earth, (7:04) pick the chair up. Messer then declares that Eddie Long is raised up from a commoner to a King, replete with music, cheers, and a poorly executed blessing in Hebrew. If it weren’t so offensive to Christian and Jewish sensibilities, it would be laughable.

via BlackMediaScoop

They Say They’re Saved, But It’s Not Always True

CoCo Brother — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:38:07 +0000

Some have the notion that God’s grace is so forgiving that they can treat sin lightly as though it doesn’t make any difference.

They think nothing will happen if they dabble in “harmless sins.” They say to themselves, “God is love, so all I have to do is to confess it to Him and He has to forgive me,” or “God loves me, so He will never harm me even if I keep sinning.” It was not any different in the first century.

Paul wanted to be very clear that anyone practicing “sexual immorality, impure [or promiscuousness] and greed [lust or covetous] (such a person is an idolater)” has no part with Christ in heaven. This is a typical description of how the Gentiles lived.

If the “fear of the Lord” means that God will do exactly as He says in His Word, then we must “flee youthful lusts” (2 Tim 2:22), and “flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor 6:18). Only a fool would not heed these warnings. Paul had made it clear that such practices “must not even be named among you” (3:3). Even flippantly joking about such sins in conversations can encourage participation (5:4).

Read the full story at ObeytheCommands.blogspot.com, a blog authored by Don & Jon.

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More and More Preachers Addicted to Sex

CoCo Brother — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:31:15 +0000

Although no one is immune to sexual temptation, a pastor leading an online pornography addiction recovery ministry says that church leaders may be especially vulnerable to sexually moral failure, says the Christian Post.

Pastor Jeff Fisher, whose past secret addiction to pornography was discovered while pastoring a church in the Northeast several years ago, recently had his thoughts on the struggles church leadership might face in this area published on Pastors.com.

Fisher and his wife, Marsha, have shared their road to recovery individually and in their marriage along with resources for others struggling with pornography addiction on their Website, PorntoPurity.com.

In his post, “5 Reasons Ministers are (More) Vulnerable to Sexual Temptation,” he writes: “Let me start off by saying, no one is immune to sexual temptation. It doesn’t matter what your job is, how old you are, or how much time you spend with Jesus each day.”

Read the full story at thechristianpost.com.

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Doctors Find that Unforgiveness Can Lead to An Unhealthy [VIDEO] Life

CoCo Brother — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:54:57 +0000

Unforgiveness can not only be destructive to a person’s spiritual health, but also his or her physical well-being.

As doctors learn more about these effects, many are beginning to integrate “forgiveness therapy” into certain treatments.

Jayne Valseca said if she hadn’t learned to forgive, she may not even be alive today.

She and her husband Eduardo were in Mexico when he was kidnapped and tortured. Valseca eventually negotiated his release, yet she had trouble moving on from the ordeal. She describes the experience in her book, We Have Your Husband.

“I knew that the stress was taking a toll on my immune system,” Valseca recalled.

The Physical Toll

After eight months, her husband was released, but she soon found out she had another battle to fight.

“I was almost not surprised, yet completely devastated to hear the words, ‘You have stage four breast cancer,’” she said.

Valseca prayed for healing even though doctors gave her a death sentence.

“I did collect more information, and in one of the books I read, I heard about Cancer Treatment Centers of America and I thought, ‘Wow, this sounds like a fantastic place,’” she said.

Valseca added “forgiveness therapy” to her cancer treatment with Dr. Michael Barry, a pastor and author of the book The Forgiveness Project.

“Harboring these negative emotions, this anger and hatred, creates a state of chronic anxiety,” Barry explained.

“Chronic anxiety very predictably produces excess adrenaline and cortisol, which deplete the production of natural killer cells which is your body’s foot soldier in the fight against cancer,” he said.

Click here to read more

Source: CBN News | Lorie Johnson

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Mary Mary’s Erica Gives Birth!

CoCo Brother — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:31:56 +0000

Elev8 is proud and happy to send CONGRATULATIONS to Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell on the birth of her new daughter.

Representatives for Mary Mary have just announced that Erica Campbell gave birth to a baby girl, Zaya Monique, Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Mother and daughter are resting comfortably.

Read: Maurette Brown Clark Celebrates Her Third Top 5 Single

Erica stated that she and husband, Warryn Campbell, are “feeling so thankful and so blessed to have our sweet Zaya finally make her grand entrance into the world! God is awesome, our family couldn’t be more happy than we are today!”

Zaya Monique was born at 6 lbs, 12 oz. Congrats Campbell fam!

The singer will take a few weeks to spend with her newborn before gearing up to promote Mary Mary’s new self titled WE tv reality series. The highly anticipated series premiers on Thursday, March 29th at 10pm ET/PT, then continues each week at 9pm ET/PT with ten, hour-long episodes.

Read: Get Pampered! Top 5 Eco-Friendly Spas In The World

make sure that you are following Elev8 on twitter and faceboo

DISCUSSION: Is There Shame Attached To Being Celibate, Especially From A Religious Viewpoint?

CoCo Brother — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:40:34 +0000

I was saddened to learn of the resignation this week of Gabino Zavala, Auxiliary Bishop of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

This is not another sexual abuse case involving a priest. Like many, I am skeptical of the Catholic Church. It’s a sketchy place. And yet, as a resident of Los Angeles, I benefit from the Church’s moral and financial presence here — a presence that lifts up entire sections of the city. This is particularly the case in Latino communities, which make up 65 percent of the 5 million Catholics living in Los Angeles. The strength of these communities is the strength of LA.

By all accounts, Gavino Zavala is not just one of the good guys, he’s one of the very best guys. One who has served the tragically underserved Latino community of East LA for 35 years. One who has been an outspoken advocate for immigration rights. One who is largely responsible for widespread prison reform. One who has worked tirelessly to improve conditions for the working poor.

It turns out, like billions of people, he is also a parent. And because of this, he is no longer a priest.

Speaking for the Church, in response to Zavala’s resignation, Archbishop Jose Gomez writes, “The archdiocese has reached out to the mother and children to provide spiritual care as well as funding to assist the children with college costs.” What is considered standard procedure by corporations and small businesses in this country is regaled as benevolence by the Catholic Church. A condolence package for its dishonorably discharged. A kind gesture to its non-celibate, mortal sinners.

Of which over half of Catholic priests are.

According to A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and retired psychotherapist who spent 25 years recording clerical sexual practices, “At any one time, no more than fifty percent of Catholic clergy professing celibacy are actually practicing sexual abstinence.” A similar study by Father Victor Kotze puts the number at 45 percent. The Vatican does not dispute this. In 1993, when presented with these findings by the BBC, Cardinal Jose Sanchez stated, “I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of those figures.”

The fact is, if all bishops and priests who are presently engaged in consensual sexual relations with adults were to resign, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church would be decimated.

Why, then, doesn’t the Vatican simply change the rule? According to Sipe, it comes down to money:

It’s in the financial interest of the Church to uphold celibacy doctrines because it doesn’t take as much money to supply the life’s care of a priest or a nun as it would with an entire family. So the Church controls the system through guilt. Sin is their bailiwick. It sets up the guilt and then the forgiveness. For example, the most common sexual practice among young priests is masturbation. The church teaches that this is a mortal sin, so priests are immediately caught in a cycle of guilt and confession and guilt and confession. Many also have sex, another clerical sin. And who has charge of forgiving these sins? The Church. Control a person’s sexual practice, and you control the person.

“Let the person among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” –John 8:7

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-brian-smith/the-shame-of-celibacy_b_1190602.html

Article Courtesy of The Huffington Post

DISCUSSION: Why Women Are Drawn To Men Who Don’t Like Them

CoCo Brother — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:45:00 +0000

One of our favorite sites Shine posted a story that, in their words, ‘proves all women are nuts’. Researchers at a University in Virginia found that when women were presented with men who, from their Facebook profile, liked them, men who didn’t and men who couldn’t say either way, the women found themselves interested in the guys who didn’t like them. Yep, you read it right, ladies like the men that don’t like them. Great.

My question is though; why do we like guys who don’t like us? Wouldn’t it be so much easier to like someone who actually liked you back?

Probably. And that’s where all our problems start. It’s just to easy.

We all know the girls who keep going back to the guy who won’t commit to her, or keeps cheating on her, because it’s a challenge, or they ‘know that he does really care about me, he’s just shy with his feelings’. Sure, that’s why he broke up with you for a weekend in Vegas, and that’s why he’s creeping with half the neighborhood.

25 REASONS WE LOVE “LOVE JONES”

And we have all been the friends who have tried to make her see sense. Well sadly, basically according to this survey, there is no hope for us. No matter how many times we can tell our friends to drop the deadbeat, or make well-reasoned arguments as to why her logic is totally flawed, she is genetically wired to ignore us.

But I can’t help thinking that perhaps these results may be just a little misleading. Surely not everyone out there is willing to settle for a guy, or a girl for that matter, who treats them like just a jump off, and flatly just isn’t committed to them. Surely?

Maybe this research was engineered by a couple of women, who wanted an explanation to why they or their friends put up with a boyfriend who was acting shady, or why they are still single.

Or maybe, it is easier to accept that we are destined to pick the men who are wrong for us, than it is to accept that he just really isn’t that into you.

I know that whenever you go out with someone who you think is perfect and you tell everyone about your amazing time, and it doesn’t quite go to plan, then we all (don’t even try and play the ‘hell no, I don’t waste time on no man’ card), try to reason our way out of it. His cell died, he was really busy with work, he was moving hose this weekend, he was hit by a car and lost his memory and/or use of his hands to call me. Any explanation it seems, except he just didn’t like me.

But at least know we have some explanation for why we do it.

What do you think?

http://hellobeautiful.com/hellobeautiful-original/laurenminogue/why-we-like-guys-who-dont-like-us/

Article Courtesy of Hello Beautiful

Radio Show Goes In On First Lady “She Isn’t Black Enough… Need To Visit South Central!” [VIDEO]

CoCo Brother — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:44:36 +0000

Oh snap, here we go again! Arianna Huffington, the woman behind website The Huffington Post is under fire today after comments she made about First Lady Michelle Obama.

During an episode of her “Both Sides Now With Huffington and Matalin” radio program, multimillionaire Huffington decided to take the First Lady to task for not being Black enough. Huh!?!

Of course, she didn’t say, “Black enough,” she just said that Michelle Obama should be more like former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and visit “South Central.”

Huffington said the First Lady should avoid lavish fundraisers in swanky L.A. neighborhoods and focus more on demonstrating her compassion for people’s suffering…

“I’d love [Michelle] to be more [like] Eleanor Roosevelt right now, because the country needs an Eleanor Roosevelt who’s going to go around and at the same time that she’s doing fund-raisers in Beverly Hills and Bel Air … she should go to South Central [Los Angeles], I mean, if I were Michelle Obama right now, I would not go anywhere for a fund-raiser without going and seeing the places where there is pain, where there is struggle, where there is homelessness, where there is unemployment, because we need to bring that conversation to the center of the debate and there’s nothing like a first lady or … a candidate to take us there.”

Check out the interview below…

via BlackMediaScoop

Michelle Obama Says “No Angry Black Woman Here” and Neither Am I!!!

Watch Michelle Obama Show Off Her Dance Moves On iCarly [VIDEO]

Georgia Parents Outraged Over School Assignment That Used Slavery Math Questions

CoCo Brother — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:30:15 +0000

Angry parents called for an apology after a Georgia elementary school set a math assignment that used questions about slavery and beatings, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Parents of third grade students at Beaver Ridge Elementary School, Norcross, were outraged after their children brought home a math worksheet featuring questions such as “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?”

They were also asked, “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

Christopher Braxton, whose eight-year-old son was given the worksheet, told WSB-TV he was “furious” when he read the homework.

“Something like this shouldn’t be imbedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade,” another parent, Terrance Barnett, added. “I’m having to explain to my eight year old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts.”

School district officials said teachers who wrote the paper were not trying to offend anyone but were just trying to incorporate history into the math lesson.

“Clearly, they did not do as good of a job as they should have done,” district spokeswoman Sloan Roach told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was just a poorly written question.”

Beaver Ridge’s principal Jose DeJesus promised to offer more training for staff and help teachers come up with more appropriate questions.

But parents said the school has not gone far enough and are calling for an apology and diversity training for teachers and officials.

“I think the teachers should be reprimanded for using that poor judgment, and an apology should be made,” community activist Jennifer Falk said. “But the bigger question is how could something like this happen?”

Source

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DISCUSSION: Is it Selfish to have an Only Child or is it Normal?

CoCo Brother — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:07:47 +0000

Within a few months of my son’s birth, I was put on the questioning block, “When are you having another?” I heard that almost as frequently as, “What a cute guy he is.” My husband and I had some questions of our own: Would our son be lonely, spoiled, bossy as people tried to tell us. What would it be like for him to grow up without siblings?

The “have-another” campaign intensified as our son got older. Some comments were harsh: “How can you do THAT to your child!” “He needs a sibling.” If you are considering or have a singleton, you undoubtedly will hear a variation on the theme, “You are being selfish.” Were we?

Friends, neighbors, parents, and in-laws — even perfect strangers — have no qualms about inserting their opinions into your reproductive life. It’s enough to make you wonder if you are being selfish or potentially damaging your child. For parents of one, the attacks may not stop until you are too old to have or adopt another child.

The admonishments are surprising given that the single-child family is the fastest growing family unit — not just in the US, but worldwide in most developed countries. In England, for example, 46 percent of families have one child; in Spain and Portugal, 30 percent. According to the US Census, one-child families represent 22 percent (and climbing) of families — and 30 percent in major metropolitan areas. The Traditional Family as we knew it — “a boy for you, a girl for me,” dad at work, mom home — has changed dramatically. In fact, new Pew Research Center findings confirm that women are holding off on having babies; declines in birth rates were particularly sharp between 2007 (before the recession) and 2009 (the latest data available). Provisional numbers for 2010 reveal the decline continues.

Realism vs. Selfishness

Women are marrying and starting their families later than in previous generations and often face infertility when attempting to conceive a first or more children. For the first time in history, there are more women than men in the labor force. Over 70 percent of mothers with young children work — some because they want to, most because they must to help support the family. Holding down a job and raising children at the same time is stressful and difficult, carrying risks in pay increases and in job security.

A job can be the thing that dissolves uncertainty about having more children. The impact of a second maternity leave, for example, can be extensive, particularly in the current economic climate; someone is always waiting to take your spot. I spoke with a woman who took what she says is the shortest maternity leave on record — two weeks. When her boss was out on maternity leave a few years earlier, she stepped into her boss’ job. As she explained, “I know this can happen, and I’m not about to let it happen to me.”

Compounding job security uncertainty is “The Motherhood Penalty.” Children help men advance, but mothers pay a price. The biggest gap is between mothers and childless women. Mothers’ starting salaries are seven percent lower than women without children; and over the course of a career, the penalty is conservatively five percent per child!

When you combine employment concerns with the high cost of raising children, the trend toward one-child is likely to continue. Although no one likes to put a price tag on children, raising them is expensive. According to the Department of Agriculture, families with an average income between roughly $57,000 and $98,000 will spend a little over $286,000 to rear one child from birth through age seventeen — college not included. About $46,000 is for food! Those of us who choose one child for whatever individual reasons — age, infertility, finances, health, lifestyle preference — are being realistic, not selfish.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/having-an-only-child_n_1173236.html

Article Courtesy of The Huffington Post