The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope

©Wendell Griffen, 2020 February 18, 2020 I’ve been overhearing conversations lately about how people of color, women, people who are LGBTQI, and people who have been mistreated and otherwise disrespected by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should respond to his self-funded campaign to become the 2020 presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.   I’ve overheard relatives, acquaintances, and strangers talk about the importance of defeating Donald Trump in 2020.   I’ve heard, seen, and read media reports about Bloomberg’s strengths and liabilities when he was mayor of New York and the way he spent his fortune on various causes before he decided to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to run for president.   The conversations also include references to Bloomberg’s support for the racist stop and frisk policy that targeted and mistreated black and brown New Yorkers.   People are talking about Bloomberg’s suggestion that the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing re

THE COMPANY WE KEEP ©Wendell Griffen, 2020 Little Rock, Arkansas February 6, 2020 “You’re known by the company you keep.”   I heard my parents and other elders say those words many times as a child.   They stressed that associates and companions influence where we socialize, what we think, and how we behave.   They wanted to know about my associates, their families, and what they believed.   The elders knew that those things matter.      What does it mean when people deliberately associate with someone who has spent a lifetime being dishonest?   How should we assess the integrity of people who choose to associate with a sociopath, someone who cheats, bullies, and disrespects others?   Why should we entrust ourselves, our loved ones, fortunes, and future to people who deliberately associate with someone known for being dishonorable, unfaithful, deceitful, oppressive, and corrupt?   “You are known by the company you keep.”   I’ve thought about that message a l

©Wendell Griffen, 2020 Little Rock, Arkansas February 5, 2020 When I was a child there was a popular television cartoon show about Yogi the Bear.   Yogi and his sidekick Boo Boo were bears in Jelly Stone Park.   In the show, Yogi often got into trouble because he thought he was “smarter than the average bear.”   Boo Boo sometimes tried to act as his conscience.   Yet Boo Boo typically went along with what Yogi said or did - even when it was ridiculously wrong – because Yogi thought he was “smarter than the average bear.”     Now when I now hear people make ridiculous assertions I occasionally respond that although I wear a T shirt, it does not read “Boo Boo the Fool.”   I don’t believe obviously untrue claims merely because other people consider themselves “smarter than the average bear.” The U.S. Constitution requires that the President of the United States shall be convicted on impeachment charges only when two-thirds of the Senators present agree.   There are currently

©Wendell Griffen, 2020 A Sermon Delivered at  New Millennium Church, Little Rock, AR February 2, 2020 (Fourth Sunday after Epiphany) Micah 6:1-8 6 Hear what the  Lord  says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.  2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the  Lord , and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the  Lord  has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.  3 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!  4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.  5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the  Lord .” 6 “With what shall I come before the  Lord , and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves