Inside Milwaukee's NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner & Church Culture Debates

Good morning. Welcome to Community Voice. I'm your host Keith Parris. I want to thank everybody for joining us this morning. Good morning, Clark Kent. How are you? Hey, man, I'm with you, bro. Apostle, the profound one. Well, you know, the people ask me for the wisdom. Defound the wisdom. The wisdom. They say, give me the wisdom. The reservoir of intellect. So, you know, I tell them,

With the infinite wisdom that I have, he that sleeps in the bed can never fall on the floor. That's wisdom. That ain't true. Oh, a lot of people have fell out the bed. As a matter of fact, isn't that how we describe getting up? I fell out the bed this morning. Describe getting up. Dad, don't wake you up. I don't know what we... That's the wisdom. They want the wisdom.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How was your weekend? Man, it was great, man. I mean, it was very productive for me and on top of that, um, I'm still waiting. Oh, oh, wait, wait. Well, let me, cause this, this all segues into phones working, right? Yeah. Okay. So man, I'm going to tell you, I was telling, I was telling them as, um, off air, you know, I hate.

You all don't know how difficult it is for me to go to a lot of these social events, right? You got to dress up, you know, then you speak in the people and, you know, I'm a real private person. So when I go to these events, trust me, it takes a whole lot of motivation just to get my mind right and say, hey, I got to go and do this. And so Friday night, I was at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner.

And it was funny he was talking about Michelle's ticket because his brother showed up and sat at the table. I had never seen before. He's the corporate. They let me in. That's it. Hey, you should have turned out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Like security jump What did Briggs say at Anchorman, you're not round Yeah, so but turn he did some great artwork and so we Oh man, it wasn't Jay Murray was no Let me pull out my phone Rhonda. You can I know you listening you can tell me because Rhonda won the bid for puzzles that he did

He does like these black history puzzles. So she was able to win those for Kennedy. Now, when I asked Michelle how much the bid was, Michelle blind, she ain't seen nothing. I don't know nothing. I don't know nothing. That's how we do. So we were there and as I was going in, because this is where I met him last year,

Arizona's dad was there and I said, tell your son, give me a call. I think he's on a milk cart right now. I think it's going to get worse because in Kansas City going up to Seattle next week. So, uh, let's, let's, uh, let's see. He didn't do the post. He didn't do the posters, the puzzles. He did the, oh man, really?

Kennedy you better take care of these puzzles So anyway, I did get a chance to To to see him and and say again tell you son give me a call cuz I don't know is he missing person you didn't seem too concerned Stop lying you love attention. That's really not true. I am I Do this

And this is more exposure than I signed on for it. Because remember when I signed on, it was just radio. It wasn't YouTube, it wasn't Facebook. And you find yourself in environments. And then I don't necessarily like eating in public, which is a weird thing.

That chicken was good Friday night. That chicken was really good Friday night. If we didn't have a lot of people, I would say, can you bring me her place right here? He bring me, but great affair, great affair. So let me thank the good folks there at the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP. They really put it again. Gideon Verneen was the emcee from WTMJ4.

the son of one of the people I respected in my whole life, Brian Verdeen. And so, and knew his mom, who was an attorney, Luanda Williams. So just shout out, shout out, Wednesday night. But anyway, he was an artist and beautiful piece of art, too, that he donated for the silent auction. So let me just shout out to

to folks and then let me also publicly congratulate the Reverend Dr. Rayford E. Malone who has now become the sixth pastor officially of the historic Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. His installation services was Saturday and incredible keynote

by the incoming president of Wisconsin, General State Baptist Convention. I know I'm in that group, but it was really, really a great affair. And so certainly the prayers of my ancestral church, they're always in my prayers there at Metropolitan Baptist Church, always good to get home. And so that turned out now.

This was a Baptist affair. I don't know why we got to be so long, but I understand. I understand. I don't understand. I, uh, uh, Bishop Noel Jones was doing a preaching on the model prayer, the Lord's prayer. And he said, you know, I just read this and it took me like 36, 38 seconds to read this prayer. He said, what takes us so long?

Man listen and I look and I'm just saying I I I just think Because I do adult education I'm telling you People shut you down. They stopped listening. Oh, yeah, you know and so You know that I loved I guess that's one of the reasons why I love math so much because the average homily it's about 20 to 25 minutes

And let me say this is not all Baptist because I don't know if it's the same case under Pastor Sinclair, but I do know under Pastor John Wesley McVicker senior, there was a clock. 30 minutes, it's 30 minutes, 30 minutes. And so, you know, you're trying to get a lot of information out to folks.

but for adults, it almost becomes information overload. And so, now this is just Keith speaking. I would say regardless whether it's church or not, I am so surprised. You know, Congresswoman Gwen Moore told a joke at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. She said that she's gonna keep her remarks brief because she wants the program to end on the same day it started.

Man, listen. And so I can tell you, man, it's and it's hard because you're trying to figure out how do you get your coach at point out and three minutes and three minutes. And it's hard because, you know, now you really see the funerals. Man, doc, I'm going to tell you what I really hate being in the Baptist circuit for a few years before I switched my alliance to the non denominational.

Whatever that is. You know, people have been talking about this song, God, denominational. At some point, you know why you're denominational? Because you split from something else and denominate is to divide. OK, all right. I know the boy, the boy D. The boy B. You almost got an offer down to me. That boy B.

But you know what? I hate so much clock. I don't know if you ever experienced this yet It's when they do the seven words of Jesus Listen, I swear, man We church started at like what was it? 11 We didn't get a man. I think they were still doing the words of Jesus around 3 34 o'clock. That's pretty close because one of between 11 and 3 listen doc. I'm on the Oregon

Like I'm not even gonna lie. This is the other's the God truth man. I got so frustrated It just came out. I was like man kill him already My god looked at my god looked at me and fell out I was like man, I can't take it man. We be here all day It gets it gets like I'll be one to call the paramedics cuz it'd be like, you know, it's a tradition and

And I understand because people are trying to emphasize the importance. And certainly it's important. Jesus is not crucified. We're not Christians. So it is significant, but man put them put them in the grave already. I was I was telling Dr. Gaum and I said, you know, I don't know if at AME church and I know it doesn't happen at church guy in Christ, but a Baptist church Jesus die and get up and Sunday. Listen, that day that Jesus died for the.

for the seven words of Jesus. Now, I'm playing for like four or five Baptist Church in my team. Every single one of these seven words of Jesus, man, I was like, do Jesus fell asleep waiting for y'all to say what he said? Oh, he didn't know. I think, you know, I think, I think, and that's part of the, your dramatizing, right?

And I think you're trying to get people to understand the significance of it. So maybe we can retire this bit of bad, this biblical narrative. He never said a mumbling word, but then you need to explain the seven last utterances from the cross. And a lot of it is like poetry. I know one of the ones that I pushed back, I remember the first drop, you know, when the praises go up, the blessings come down.

And I'm going theologically that is not true. Your blessings are not necessarily tied into your praise because in real talk, you don't always praise or we don't always praise like we all to yet we're still being blessed. So it's not commensurate and it would make God capricious and arbitrary and needy of our prayer. God does not need

our praise. So you mean to tell me God no capricious to? Spell. Capricious off a seventh to keep. Oh, Capricious Joe. Yeah. Oh, Capricious Joe. Oh, man, Capricious Joe.

We talking black people And how we did my kids and you know and that that has always been I remember the sociologist and in her critique of naming of black children She condescended

because she was saying that it was a desperate attempt at legitimacy or uniqueness. And that's the problem sometimes with the educated, that they have a tendency to look down on the uneducated and not to appreciate that there's a certain level of creativity. Now, I agree sometimes the words, but this ain't new to this generation.

What you'll see is, look, my mama's name is Cliffy, C-L-I-F-F-I-E. My mama was named after her uncle and her aunt. Okay, now we would accept that bit of creativity. So if people come up or even, you know, how Kennedy spells her name, K-E-N-N-D-I.

That be Canada Canada die, right? Yeah, you know, so I mean that that becomes a uniqueness There's this whole thing and then if I don't if you listen One of the things I do every year is I look at the most popular names of Names given to babies Keith is never ever been in the top of popular names given

You almost have to go back to the 50s. Yeah, it was even rate man. It is never But there were people who liked back in the 80s some of you 80s Jamal's Malik's you know where you know that that little So I think it is now in most cultures Your name is emblematic of either

Circumstances of your birth what you should represent going forward. That's why it's so important to understand Your name I bumped into a guy his name was Keith and I think I gave him the Welch he gave me the Scott Irish so In terms of our name that we shared and then family God didn't help where they said Keith is the worst name in the English language, right? But no, I mean so I think that people do that you can be creative

How we come up with names a lot of times and if nothing else some thought went into it and and so, you know, we talk about the people who name brand who is it I was listening to Michael Eric Dyson. He was preaching at the Hamptons preaching thing that they do every March, I think and he was talking about how sometimes We name our kids stuff. We can't afford

But if you listen to it, it was fascinating and I don't know if it was Malcolm Gladwell.

or who it was when he was talking about how And he was talking about white folks and he's doing this whole class thing He said it's amazing how lower class white folks will take the names that upper class white folks would do for their names I don't know if y'all noticing now some of the names that you see for the dudes like Colton You know coat some of the real interesting names that you you see in it and there's people who are

One, you want every child to be distinct. I think the other piece of it is you're seeing a movement now where they're giving people so-called really basic names like John, Mary, Jane, and then they said, then it's up to that kid to grow into and then create the meaning around that name based on the essence of their life, which I thought was. Now, one of my favorite names that I ever had ever was Prairie.

And when I asked the woman, why did you name your daughter Prairie? She said because of her vastness. I went, wow. Call her, welcome to the program. Good morning. Good morning. What's up? You know, one of the things that I can never figure out when we talk about spending time in church and we are old enough.

Well, we didn't have a problem going to the club for two or three hours Yeah, you always forget that little piece of it. I was enjoying my time at the club. Yeah, sitting in the movie theater. I was enjoying the movie. Going to a concert. Going to a sporting event. But we get bored or lose our attention span over the lord.

That has never made sense to me. Never. I never understand that. So when St. Pete or whoever, when you go meet your maker, and he said, so you was having fun at the club, but you wouldn't have fun praising my son, what he did for you.

Mm-hmm George that is George that is George that you do know man at the Bible do speaks of sin being pleasurable for a season, right? All I'm saying is that we have a responsibility So are you saying that we shouldn't enjoy our experience?

when we're worshiping? Who said that? Well, because when people say, their times and look, and that's the problem, I can't be the only hater in America. There are times that people are sitting out there going like, will this ever end? Yeah, hurry up already. You know, I mean, it is. But my point is key, because you just had the point, but you weren't saying that when you was in the club, was you?

Saying what? Watching that watching that but if if if if if the club Hey, no George, I'll be honest with you if the club if the club wasn't banging I was gone. Yeah, and that's you went to another one, right? You went to another one, right? You ain't saying I'm packing up and I'm going home tonight Yeah, but that's just like going to a church. I thought there ain't nothing going on here like I'm gonna leave here and go over to another church like if the sermon is boring

or if the church service is boring, it's like, hey man, I'm ready to go. And I'm saying right because I'm talking about people who have to sit through me. Let me shout out the good folks there at the historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Yesterday we celebrated their 80th anniversary. And you know, they're kind of looking at me like, we're going to do 80 years with this message. You need to get to what you need. I hear that and I'm saying and it gets back to

Jesus said that the Sabbath was created for man not man for the Sabbath. It should not feel burdensome to be in church. And there's a lot that goes into that. It's not a mindset. It's not a mindset. It's real. So, you've been up in church waiting. I'm here with you. I want to go wash the pack. Yeah, some people do do that. No disrespect. No disrespect. Or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or,

to each day all but we better be careful about what about what we doing and what we worship because I just heard you talking about the cross but we worship and all that other stuff. No all I'm saying is that I don't think first of all I am taking people an hour or two hours of their time. Time is the most precious thing that the Creator gives us and we should be useful in our time and what we have done I think

Sometimes to our detriment is notice that other folks than figuring it out like we ain't gonna be in church for three hours And you can't tell me you can't tell me you can't get done an hour and a half What it would take you three hours to do I'm just and I'm looking at you right now show a hand how many people Watched all of the brewers game How many people watch all of the factors game yesterday? And what's your point?

I try to make my point. Okay. We ain't agreeing like we never do. Okay. I'm just saying, George, if you want to be there for three hours, that's good. I'm just saying that obviously. And I probably will be cheap. All right. But what I'm saying is if you look at, if you look at church, if you look at church attendance and they go in and they will survey why, what do you think is wrong with church? Certainly when they started talking, they say, first of all, it's too long. Too many offers. It's too long. Well, you know.

Whatever, we gotta keep the lights on, right? No, I'm just saying, so all I'm saying is... I'm operating in my ministry classes and stuff like that, and you know what they told us? One of the first things they told us, your message shouldn't take over 10 minutes. If you ain't got your point across in 10 minutes, you speaking too long. And at 22 minutes, in terms of adult learning, they shut you down. As a minister, as a minister...

Do you think you could get your message across in 10 minutes because I can't? I can if I'm direct to the point and say, here's what we need to do. And especially if it doesn't require a lot of explanation, a lot of exposition, right? I mean, I think that you're able to get in and do because after a while, I'm just telling you, it ain't got nothing to do with God. It ain't got nothing to do with Jesus. It's us.

that there's sometimes that we are and maybe radio has helped me with this piece in terms of being overly verbose and boy I don't know if that's being redundant but I'm just saying in terms of you can say what you have to say get through it sit down it's like choirs you know you got choirs out there doing album cuts

You know, it's like, come on, man. I mean, we got it the first four times you went through it. Reprise versions. Right. Extended it. Yeah, just, just, you know, now if the spirit is leading you because I really do believe in organic worship, then you go with it. But sometimes you just, you're trying to fill it. So I'm going to have stuff be show and tell because you, because you like the song and it's feeling good to you. So you keep it going and it's the same way that we're preaching.

because you can spend three, four hours to with God getting ready for a 20, 30 minute message. So there's a guy even going home to be with Jesus and I know he's with Jesus. I'm going to hang up and I'm just going to make my, I'm just going to say it again. Maybe that's why we in the trouble that we in right now. No, we spend it too much time on other stuff instead on the Lord. And I'm going to leave it at that. Now I do have a blessed day. I do agree with him on that part because we should spend time.

With our creator and we should give him our first fruit So I do understand that and and the whole thing of if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves Turn from the wicked ways. They're not we're here from heaven. So yeah, I do agree with spending more time with the creator how I don't you know, that's nebulous I don't know what that looks like. I mean, you know, and it depends on the person, right?

It depends on the person. Like, you know, they said you should always be praying. Well, I still got to come in and do this radio show. I still have to do this. I still have to do that. I mean, you know, I think again, we should not be slaves to religion and slaves to tradition and slaves to we like, let me let me. OK, I got go. But, you know, just just just do something that ain't printed in the program and watch how people trip.

because now it becomes colonel because there's nothing spiritual. It could be but you know people want the routine. Well, I will pick it up when we get back. You're listening to Community Boys Got Calling. Yes sir. Caller will talk to you right after the break. We'll be right back.

all right welcome back and as I was talking about and we were having this conversation and I asked Jermaine to remind me to do this shout out again great service yesterday at Antioch and again my friend

My good friend my good friend for over 50 years Pastor Victor Malone Victor Malone Victor man my good friend don't know his name, right? But they did some and pastor had called me and he said Hey Keith do you have a problem with us having a rapper?

at service. And I was saying, I said, no, not really because my DJ won't even be available. So I won't be able to rap. But they had a young brother named Wave Chappelle yesterday and right out was telling me his lineage. But man, he was great. He was great. Let me and that, you know, that's the whole piece y'all that we have to be able to incorporate.

the old with the new. Like if I do your benediction, I'm always going to end at old school with God be with you, you know, just because of the meaning of that song. Now that's old school. A lot of people get their own little, you know, benediction songs with that one is in my heart because the benediction is our final blessing before we leave this place. And the other thing is it also shows our unity beyond these doors, beyond these walls. And so

I'm just saying, man, that a lot of it is repetitive and redundant. And then here's the other piece. Let's just real talk, whether it's in the church, whether, you know, what was the problem with new addition? And when they was touring, I think Bobby Brown had his own little piece. Or, you know, Bobby be out there longer than he's supposed to be. Right, right. You know, or you have bands because look, man, people get up and when you got that stick in your hand.

There's all kinds of stuff going on in your mind. And look, there is the profundity of what you do, but there's the performative of what you do. Sometimes people can make some of the most profound points and do not necessarily have an engaging style. And so people shut them down because they don't like the way he's sounding or she sounding as opposed to what they're saying, which becomes.

the real thing, you know, that, that piece, I mentioned it yesterday in the message, like in white men can't jump and they was talking about Jimi Hendrix. And he said, you listen to Jimi Hendrix, but that'll mean you hear Jimi Hendrix, right? You know, you sit up and you listen to the sermon every Sunday. That'll mean you hear because hearing takes it to a different level of appreciation in terms of, oh, okay, it makes you think, it makes you go, hmm, or you say, you know,

That's me, or that's something that I need to look at, because that's always the thing. And I really appreciate something that I heard Pastor James Ivy say Saturday at the installation about preaching should compel you to think.

Right? It should that whole thing about contemplation and you can be reasonable or apply reason that doesn't negate. As a matter of fact, that's kind of, didn't Paul say, think on these things? He didn't say, feel on these things. He said, think on these things. And so it becomes part of us, what we're thinking. And look, I think the other piece of it is that I'm gone.

to many, many worship experiences where people came in and it was a worship experience. You felt better when you left than when you did when you came in. Now, I don't know if that's always the case when we leave the club because, you know, you certainly could be feeling, feeling good the next day. No, but I think like, like a good, like a good, I just like celebration.

And I don't limit celebration to certain things. I think it's like when we do our family reunions and we do that soul train line, right? You know, it's a celebration man. I mean, you know, and we should, we should celebrate. But again, I don't think we need to be slaves to religion. As a matter of fact, I think religion should free us. Religion should liberate us.

You know, so when when when people and look that and a lot of times that's how we would talk That's just you know, if you put it put in all this time in church then then then you don't have you have less time to send Only to discover that while we was in church. We were still sending Okay

and about church holding too long. I'm going to tell you something, but there's that kind of change because Church of God and Christ used to be in there all night. Man. Very. Church of God and Christ used to then start church to eight o'clock. Okay. Uh, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it,

Church of God and Christ didn't start at the 12 o'clock on Sunday all over the country and you being at the least three o'clock. Now Baptist was always out at about 12 o'clock. So it's been a switching, it's been a great fall in a way in the holiness church man. You know, I remember. You know what I think it is. So, Meach, might we acknowledge that we have a more

our view of holiness is evolving. No, no, no, no, no. Man have become educated. No, no, no, no. I think that, look, because in the church of God in Christ and in Pentecostal churches, epistolic churches, when I was growing up, many of them didn't have televisions because they said that that was the world, right? So I think that our evolving, our understanding of our dogma of our religion is evolving. Brother, can I say this to you? I gotta be honest with you, even though I enjoy my television,

and I rebelled against a whole lot of it. I believe that we've evolved into a much worse place of being. It's okay, look. But I don't think that's because we've spent less time in church. I rebelled against a lot of it because they were teaching no girlfriends. Come on, man, we run round door, coochie-coochie. So was this sent in the world when you were coming along as a kid? Of course. Okay.

So, okay. Now we was in church all day and all night. There was still sin. We understand that, but those were the people that were sinning most likely were not participating. The people that were sinning, who were those people? Listen, brother, we've all seen and she fell short of the glory God. Now, me and George, I barely agree with George. I think the last time I agree with George on this program, he was telling you that cameo was smoke.

Earth went in the fire and I had to agree with him and I had to agree with him this morning And one thing about it when it comes down, you're not gonna provoke me man. Okay, listen And when it comes down to preachers, you know, my granddaddy taught me he said, okay boy Speak up to be seen Speak up to be heard

and sit down to be appreciated. Don't start none because you got the audience or you got the folks in a row because you come out of a hoop that you can come down and then try to go back into it again. Sit down because that ain't what we're going to do. As a matter of fact, he might pull you for co-tail and I start pulling for co-tail. Here man, I call you up to say a few remarks and you finish still assignment. You finish sneaker preach. No, I'm finished. Grab your co-tail and if I'm

That's because of the intoxicating effect of the microphone. They guess what? And folk get drunk off of it, man. Oh, man, I'm telling you. And look, I'm sitting up here and telling you, I know. I know what it's like. But I think. You've been wanting them before, Keith. I believe you've been one. Man, you ain't going to provoke me, man. You just say, first of all, you come up with this. I want to know, do you close in a hoop? You seem more like a teacher. Do you close in a hoop?

or you hate on the hoopers? No, not at all. So do you do you close out in the hoop or don't you think don't you think the message would determine how you would conclude it? Not necessarily. If I'm doing dry with no music, no nothing. No, what I'm saying is that it would depend on what you're preaching about and whether or not this would be a motion, whether the

the message would require that type of closing. Now, we should always finish strong. Now, what finish strong looks like depends on the individual, but we are Dr. King finished strong, right? Sandy Ray finished strong. Augustus Jones, you know, William Augustus Jones finished strong. They don't finish strong, but they don't finish as they never finished in a, I think I heard one tape with King closing in a hoop, you know, but other than that.

He was pretty much. You know, but the whole thing was one of those things. And again, I was telling right off off the air when I was at American Baptist that. You know, people want to emotionally. They want to be emotionally stirred, you know, that that's that's part of preaching. You want to feel like like if I just get up and read a message, people say he don't feel it. Well, if I'm trying to get you to think.

Maybe I'm trying to minimize the amount of feeling that goes into it now to be powerful Now this is public speaking regardless of what it is, right? It's public speaking if you look at Obama Obama always finished strong Always finished strong because that's what you want to do. You want to be injected politics with some little weak man that man don't finish strong You know what you know what a guy named Donnie Sims told me one time. I did the late night service, right?

And I thought I didn't do real good cause you know, I was up against some, some big boys, man. Them boys was good. So they put a little fellow in there like me and I go on here and I do my thing, you know, cause I'm half-slit too, you know? So the next day I was talking to a guy named Donnie Sims and we was having, we was, we was eating some breakfast. Young Donnie or Dr. Sims? Dr. Sims, well, well, not the son butter. So I said, I said, I said, I said, man, I don't think,

I don't think I did too good last night. Everybody else told me I did good, but I don't, I don't think so. And he said, well, did you make it home? I said, well, yeah, yeah, I made it home, you know, too much. He said, did you make it home? I said, yeah, he said, well, me, as long as you made it home. As long as I was able to get into the closet and get him back up, man, significantly, significantly, uh, crowd arousal.

competition. I had one of my classmates and he was in my freshman class who was in Milwaukee and he came and he came in and he heard me and he he he go doc doc doc that was that was a great message uh uh uh but we didn't go by the cross I said because it wasn't about the cross that is that is a tradition that is a tradition that is a tradition of black baptist preachers

No, no, it is a tradition. It is not. And let me... So what are you? Are you white? Some days. My goodness. What was that? You just be blaspheming on this radio. No, but what? It's obvious that it's obvious. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You asked me a foolish question. So why would you... Wait, wait, Meach. You asked me a foolish question. Why would you expect a foolish answer?

I'm saying I'm saying that I think it's up to the individual if you hold on to that tradition that's fine that that's what you do all I'm saying is All I'm if we're talking about the cross Now people always say and again here's here like I said this before I said

Here's the thing, because if you ever listen to Jimmy Swagger and Swagger Ministries and Donnie and all of them, they give the cross supremacy. Jesus gets supremacy. You know, that's the whole debate about in Catholic churches on the crucifix, Jesus is still on the crucifix. In Protestant churches, Jesus is not on the crucifix because people are arguing

Well, he's not on crucifix because they took him down. He got up. First of all, it's a symbol. So, you know, we're going back and forth about symbols. We go back and forth about, in my mind, sometimes ancillary things. The thing is, it could be, it could be somebody in there that never heard about the cross. The cross is to set you up for salvation. Okay. Did Jesus say teach the cross? Did Jesus say? The time X of the cross.

the climax of the cross. Did Jesus say teach the cross or didn't he say follow my teachings? What do you mean? What I just asked you. Well, a lot of it is a lot of it, man. It's like you said, it's traditional, but what if you got a person there that never heard the cross or don't notice it? If I have a person there and want to know why we in church, what we in church for without the death, burial, resurrection, man, there is no salvation. That's why I'm not going to go with them. Other religions.

But Jesus is going to judge you. Jesus is going to judge you. Or did you do what I told you to do? Jesus is going to judge me. Or did you do what I was supposed to do? And if you don't believe me, if you don't believe me, if you don't believe me,

Then one of the things go to matthew 25 and see what jesus said that you should do in order to get eternal life Let's go to the scriptures then What do you do? What should you do? Feed the hungry Visit the sick I know all about it. Oh and we minimize that No, we minimize that

That's the work. And we have a discussion around the cross, but we don't talk about what the person who died on the cross told us that we should do. What's wrong with the picture? There'll be a lot of, there'll be a lot of folks saying did not feed the hungry in your name, did not close the naked. And he gonna say what? Keith. No, that's not what the scripture says. That's not what the scripture says. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Meach. That's not what the scripture says.

That is not what the scripture says. Doesn't say if you do all these things and then he says, I know you not. As a matter of fact, he said, if you do these things, I will welcome you into the kingdom. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. What Sunday school you been in? Read your Bible. But you don't want to read your Bible.

So, read Matthew 25. No, read Matthew 25. Read Matthew 25 and tell me what Matthew 25 says. I gotta take a break. You're listening to a community voice.

Okay, you did all of that you don't even have to do all that you go directly to Matthew 25 Because when I run up against God like you and these other religions I gotta be ready I don't study another religion to debunk my religion because they really probably Have you read Matthew 25? I don't read the whole thing. I don't read the whole thing. I'm talking about this particular thing. Have you read Matthew 25? Have you read Matthew 25?

I've read the whole book. I ain't miss one page. So I'm sure I read it. So you listen in the Jimi Hendrix, but you're not hearing. All right. We'll be right back with your host, Keith Parris. You know, one of the things that we had to do with Kennedy was to get her to slow down when she read because she was so intent on finishing.

She didn't always retain what it was. She was reading so we would tell her to slow down just a little bit and take in and hear What it is that you're reading and so you you you have people And I don't want to be all Baptist minister on this let let everyone who has a ear let him hear and and it seems like profound all the same is that over and beyond

your exposure to material is then how you digest that material and then you apply that material to life. Like, you know, in the body, you can ingest food and you can digest food, right? When you digest food, you break it down and it becomes all the nutrients you need to sustain the body is done when you break it down. I think it's the same thing where

You know, you go in and I think that's why I love philosophy so much. Because it does say think about this. Does it does it make sense? And then if it doesn't make sense, is this one of those things I then put into faith and belief? Or do I look at an alternative? But a lot of this comes to questioning and one of the things that we don't want. And then there's the comfort and tradition, right? I know how to do this.

Um, you know, and I was telling I was telling Jermaine and Clark that That wave she fell I When he got up I kept going yeah His lyrics were so on point and people could actually hear what he was saying

They can understand and they can understand it and then we need to understand y'all What we call rap and hip-hop is something that black people been doing as long as we've been here in America Because we've been doing call and response. That's how we learn religion through call and response It's how we learn and we still do call and response is such a big part of preaching those of us who Had to do the virtual churches, you know when we certainly when we first on telephone

And you're not getting the amen. And you just kind of go on like, oh, oh, we're the crowd responses. Remember people have to mute their phones. So it's part, it's culture. It's part of culture. And I think it's a beautiful part of our culture. I love black preaching. I love black preaching. There ain't nothing like black preachers, male or female. Our charisma, which is another word for that gift,

is something that I truly believe is the divinely bestowed. But as I was telling right out, the Creator calls you because of your uniqueness. And sometimes, and all of us pattern ourselves after somebody until we find our own voice, right? If you listen to singers, they'll tell you, oh, I listened to Aretha and I listened to Chaka. And then that's how I was able, because all of us are influences by the world or the environment that we find ourselves in.

And if we're able, then you come up with your own voice. Write Out has his own style of playing piano. There was people, I drop a name and Write Out go like, oh man, he called. Oh man, she was called. All that went into the musician that Write Out is today. But Write Out had his own uniqueness. So I think that that's it. And Meach, again, don't tell me you read the whole Bible when I'm talking to you about a specific part of the Bible, you know, which is Matthew 25. We skirt past that.

Right, and then at the same time we're wondering why aren't people coming to church and You're going like because people don't always sense that they can get help when they come to the church Right, you know And a lot of it is sometimes being slaved through tradition like should we dress up for church? Now I can sit up and tell you now the flip side of that is

That you will spend the same amount of money to dress down as you did to dress up Because you sitting there with $250 sneakers on right, you know, so it is Those things and I'm glad that we're evolving I'm glad that we're having these discussions Because what you don't want to be is stagnant right people say that you have 21st century methods with a first century message

The message doesn't change, but the methods might because you're reaching a different generation who comes from a different cultural environment than some of us did. And then you have to factor in technology and how technology changes the game, how churches that got electricity. A lot of churches couldn't afford organs, right? A lot of churches couldn't afford pianos. That's why guitars. You could afford a guitar.

And so that's why you see in certain faith movements in the African diaspora here in America, it was like guitars, right? We get quartets. You know, because in many people, they had quartets before they had choirs and they had pianos before they had organs, right? All that's technology, all that is relative prosperity. All those things go into it, but we should not miss the message.

And the message, if you're a Christian, I can't speak for Jews. I can't speak for Muslims. I think I can speak in terms of what our Christian ethos should be, is that we are disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. And what did Jesus teach? And then we build upon what Jesus, Paul goes in and clarifies. Paul is considered an apologist, right? Paul explains, that's what apology means, to explain. So Paul goes in and he gives more depth because Paul was educated.

And trust me, there were dynamics going on with Paul and his education and others who weren't educated. Paul was more sophisticated. So that whole idea Paul was saying, look, you know, it ain't a question of whether you eat pork or not that makes you a Jew. It's not a question of whether you're physically circumcised that makes you a believer, right? He talks about circumcision of a heart because they were cultures that didn't circumcise.

So that's, does that mean that because I didn't do this ritual that I'm any less spiritual? Kind of makes you go home. You listen. Okay. Go and get the call. Call the one to the program. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I like, I like this text you guys on because the fact is a lot of people don't believe that they need to go to, you know, to a brick and mortar. The one thing about

the differences, you know, you can have God in your life and every day read and study, but it's good to have a pastor. The Bible's asking you to hear the word, it's not let you have a pastor. It seems that God ordained for the pastor to be able to do the word, it breaks down to him, give him a better understanding to help you just have a good day. But then not only that, you've got a family. The Bible says, for a state not to similarly yourself and the present people, God was the man that most people do.

You know and and and and you know We want to walk away from church. We give what we say we of God We say we are the people of God, but there's the mighty show. Let's go to the box. We'll go, you know Get ready and shake it down. Why why are people making that comparison? First of all, I think you mix in apples and oranges Well, say well make them apples and oranges because I'm gonna say I'm gonna say that the reason why I say that is that

know people personally that said I am 110% of God save everything do this today but their their way their way of serving God is you look at them and look at the world you see no difference you see no difference in their mannerism okay but then you look at

the things of God, it ain't that you're going to walk around here with a collar on. Hey, let me let me do this, bro. Hey, I need to take a break. Can you hold on to after the break? I've been home. All right. You'll listen to Community Voice. We'll be right back. I've FM with your host, Keith Parris. All right, Pastor, you're going to have to show me what a cogent four minutes look like. You got four minutes.

I was just talking to Aaron Morgan, past Aaron Morgan over at Old Port Washington, doing this little break we had, you know, we was talking about the, you know, God shaking the things. In the book of Hebrews from, he says he shook the things first on earth and then he went back and shook them in heaven. Now the things that what we're going through today is like a shaking man. And if we don't really see God for who he is, it's going to shake off.

We got to wake up man as the people of God. Yes, we need God Every day in our life, but we ain't got to walk right here Oh, so holy that we that people can't even deal with us. So we too well who determines what that looks like Let me tell you something right? The determination You know, we know the first let's go here. We know the tree by the fruity bears. Okay number one Number two

When we stand when we stand before people we ain't got to tell everybody I'm saying we got to have a collar But the one thing about it We got a first judge ourselves And we got to work more than before God. So are you saying repentance is a continual state? Repentance is in the spirit. You ain't got to let it out to my father Repentance means to change. So are we changing? You turn from your wicked ways you turn from doing that

from what you want to what God wants you to be but the Repentance is a truly a with sin is saved by grace. Let's go there correct So does does religion in general and Christianity in? Particulars does one size fit all? No, no, no, no, no one side don't fit all in one thing we could we could be religious by doing some religious every day, but

being Christ like is what we are. And what does that look like? And that's walking. You got two minutes to tell me what Christ like looks like. Look here. Christ like looks like people how you desire to be treated. Okay. But loving God with everything within you. Okay. And know how to go out into this daily walk.

and live a Christian life. Okay. Maintain a Christian life. Okay. Hold a Christian life. Okay. That's perfect, man. You got, you got it in. You got it in less than four minutes, man. I appreciate you. I gotta take a break. You listen to community voice. Gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back.

Them with your host Keith Paris. All right. Welcome back. Call it. Welcome to the program. Oh, I thought you. Oh, man, I like those Jordans, dude. Don't get jacked. You be going to your appointment barefoot. Oh, okay. All right. Call. Welcome to the program. Peace. It was a man. I surely didn't mean for this to turn into that.

the only thing that let me try let me try and do it a different way and and and my acting my point is not the only point that counts only thing I was trying to say okay there's 24 hours in a day correct seven days a week correct yeah so how many hours is that a week I don't know you did the math you put it in the chat a hundred of hundreds work work do you read me right yeah

It's a hundred and sixty eight hours a week, okay? Two or three hours a week for church, correct? Yeah Maybe an hour if we go to Bible study an hour for that correct. Yeah Maybe study at home and praying. I'll back for that two hours. Okay. Okay So that's five hours a week spending with the Lord correct Okay, so what are we doing with the rest of the time if we're lucky enough to have a job?

and working for a time that's about 40 hours a week. Come on, brother, keep up. Sleepy. So what are we doing with the rest of our time? Are we making an assumption? Now, don't get me wrong, Keith. I ain't just holier than I'll do. You know me. I'm not that kind of guy. I tried to do the best I can. We're walking with the Lord. I was in the streets. So I'll party seven days a week.

And so when I come to the realization, when I got saved, how much time I was wasted, all this foolishness, how the wilding me that we go through, all that stuff that you say is fun. Did you feel like you were wasting it when you were doing it?

No, Keith, but that worked. And that's why I said we need to refocus, Keith. Okay. Okay. That's that's all I was trying to do. It's just George opinion. You don't have to agree with it. I'm just saying I didn't mean for it to turn into that. I was just saying we complain about three hours a week in church versus the rest of the stuff that we're doing with our life. That's all. And I think that here's my pushback. We're saying that in that three hours that that is a meaningful three hour experience.

And I'm not arguing that the four hours you spent in the club was a meaningful experience. But I'm just saying that if you can have a meaningful experience an hour and a half, probably more because people are more focused than if you might in three hours. I always love doing this quote from Malcolm. Malcolm said, the kitten's born in an oven, don't make them biscuits.

You know the fact that we sit in church for three hours doesn't necessarily mean that people being changed And now would with with the cell phone people can be distracted So I don't I just think that it should be meaningful and I don't think we should be slaves We should be slaves to anything and I'm not disagreeing with you on that point Keith I'm not you didn't hear me one time say I disagree with you on that I'm just saying that what we focus our time on and what we do with our time

should be meaningful. Well, that's kind of where I was yesterday. And I'm old enough to know better now. That's all I'm saying. I don't want to do with our lives. And if that's what we want to do with our lives, but remember what? Remember the lesson of Noah. And what did Jesus say when he come back? People gonna still be doing the same things in the days of Noah, right?

We're going to be marrying. We're going to be partying. We're going to be doing things that we be doing instead of paying attention and doing what he said. What did you say Matthew 25 said? Because you always fall back on that. And I'm not going to disagree with your Matthew 25 because that's your fall back point all the time. That's not my fall back point. It's one of those points. Also, I use it a lot because I use it a lot because

Very particularly Jesus talked about eternal life in that. I mean that that is attributed to Jesus and his teachings So if we talk about eternal life, that's what salvation is supposed to be right that that we do salvation for eternal life But I think salvation is beyond us dying salvation should be about how we live it and And that's the hard part you know hard part, you know because you know heaven take care of itself But what we're doing down here and so I think that that that becomes

the the the instance and and I think that there's some people feeling like There's two Greek words. I only know three Chronos, Chyros and Yero Now the the the Chronos is the three hours that we spend in church The Chyros is the meaningfulness of those three hours in church

Two different things going on. So there is no, you don't get attendance points for being there if it's not meaningful. And you certainly don't benefit from it if it's not meaningful. So I'm thinking, how do we make it meaningful? How do we, as the goal that I always have is that you feel a little bit better when you leave than you did when you came in. How do you make this a meaningful?

Worship experience not in the three hours doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna be the three hours is just three hours What did I do in those three hours? How did I use those three hours? I'm sorry I'm sorry, but let me ask you a question because I don't want to take up too much time do you think if we actually Live out the teachings of Jesus that this would be a better world

Yes, that's an easy one. Okay, that was my whole point, my brother. And like I said, it ain't so much the point where I was saying, you gotta be in church for three hours. No, that wasn't what I was. That's what people were thinking, they missed the whole point. My whole point was that we complained.

Oh, man, I'm sitting up in church. And my whole point was that we don't do that when we go to the club. No, because if it's me, look, if you got an awful DJ, you're going to be sitting up there complaining in the club. Right, Clark? OK, OK, OK, I guess you're still missing my whole. No, no, my point is that you have to understand that we dismiss people's complaints because maybe we don't want to take the responsibility.

or acknowledge that maybe what they're citing is right. So we dismiss it and then we go like, well, if, and I'm not saying you say this, but if you say you, no, no, this should be meaningful. You know, like I take communion so seriously because communion, communion is not just me remembering, you know, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It also has me remember the importance of community.

why we come together as a collective body and call ourselves a church. Because it is relationships. It is relationships. So I want to know, because we can sit up and we can justify not getting along with people in church. I asked that question yesterday. How could a place that's built on love be so tolerant of hate? That's the issue.

I'm sorry. Because we're up in there and we're not living out. No, what I'm saying is we can be very tolerant of hate, right? And then it can eke into what we preach and what we preach about and who we preach to and how we preach about people. We can do hate. We got people in the church, right? Community, communion, who don't speak to each other, who hate each other, trying to destroy each other. Now, here it comes.

Here it comes. The fact is that we have human beings who are in church. And human beings bring their humanity. And sometimes our humanity is not pretty. And so isn't that what religion is about? Modifying negative, modifying mean to change negative human behavior to make it positive human behavior? Shouldn't that be the goal?

Yes, okay. I'm not gonna disagree with you on that. I appreciate that. None of that stuff. I worked hard on that one. I would disagree. I was just the point I was just trying to make is that I guess at the end of the day use our time wisely and I'm still working on that myself. Regardless of where we are. Well, I was saying I just was is just when y'all was complaining and a percent people was complaining about.

He's taken too long and this and the other I hear that so much it just George have you ever been in the situation in church where somebody's been too long? Yes, but you know what I have the choice of key I Can get up and walk out right did you say something to yourself about Keith? It's up there too long

Cause trust me, if you came to hear me and I was long, you gonna be sitting out there going like, now keep knowing long, right? Okay. And I'm saying so. Yeah, I'm just saying that, yeah, you can, you, and look man, it's like when people would sit up and go like, God knows my heart. Yeah, but we can hear you sing. Maybe I guess I'm just saying.

I guess my point was if we, I guess in churches, the building is just a building, you know, I guess our Lord and Savior, you probably spend more time out of the church trying to save people than he was in the building. So I guess I'm a little bit confused. I guess I'm just trying to say, maybe ask what would it write out he did in the Second Chronicles that he...

If my people are called by now, I think that's the second climate because that he said. I guess that's the point I was just trying to get back to is that maybe when we spend more time with our Lord and Savior, maybe a lot of this stuff would be a change. Maybe I just didn't say it the right way. Maybe we just stopped spending so much time with Jesus. I'm going to be a little messy. Hey, George. Because I read the Post, right? I read all the Post. George ain't hiding behind no fake name.

Okay, all right. No me and I'm a chief of real. So all y'all who want to be like this and that we we all got our point and we all have our like to spend less time spend less time with Jesus and spend more time doing what Jesus told us to do. I agree with you on that. Okay. Appreciate you. You're listening to community voice. We want to take a quick break. We'll be right back. You're inside community.

Welcome back. It's like a center when they put a new quarterback in you used to serve cadence I guess we could talk about the day after the night before I Was surprised at the number cowboy fans we have in Milwaukee Yeah, yeah a lot of them yeah, but anyway, man we actually

coming on, on, on Monday and not be all depressed and sad. Yeah, but they got a tough schedule, man. Out of the next five, six games, all those teams have winning records. They go up to Detroit. They got a, they got a tough little road. So no, no, no. They played pretty well, but they played at UCLA.

So they they they didn't win. Oh man at that Valkyrie's fever fever dream game So Valkyrie in the dream play tonight, man, I'm a big fan of You know, I the Cowboys are in trouble Cowboys in trouble I can and I'm not

I don't hate the Cowboys, so I'm not one of those people. We're talking the bears, that's different. But the Cowboys, I don't understand. But, man, boy, it was. But how about Kenny Clark getting that sack? Welcome home. Yeah, you know what? You get even though they've lost Cooper.

You get you get Parsons back in the next two games, right? Their defense is pretty solid defense is pretty solid They just need a running game offense. You just can't came throw but then Zach threw fold we threw over 50 times last night so Yeah, yeah, plus when he threw two interceptions So he was getting hurried quite a bit. Yeah, and then I had no line wasn't holding up

I had that love moment, man, when he threw what could have been an interception. And the guy was, it was incomplete. I'm going like, dude, here we go. It's not that you throw a lot of interceptions. It's when you throw them. You know, it's like, ooh, so we dodged the bullet on that one. Yeah, but you know how kind of that one interception he got from us. And they said that he didn't touch you.

And see, they thought he touched you. Oh yeah, on golden? Yeah. Yeah. And they showed a how. I said, man. I said, they barely touched him. Hey, it don't say it. It's a touch. Whether barely a whole lot. But the one player I like when Wichita got the interception, he called it.

And he stopped they say they blow the whistle, but he didn't touch the now that yeah, that was he said and kept and then you see doing the sound like Keep going. That was close to nobody touched. Yeah watching wasn't it? Yeah, nobody touched. Nobody touched me. He's just talking. Oh, and I guess it works. I guess the referee gods Some of those roughing calls they was they wouldn't call that a pee wee football

I don't know what was in them cards. Oh man, the one where they do this. You already gone. Yeah. And the dude kind of pushed them and it looked like Zach act like he had just got shot six times where he fell. And I'm going like, dude, that ain't, that ain't.

Ooh, I'm glad it didn't come back to harness, but it would have came down to doing the Caitlyn Clark. Yeah. Oh, man, like like a European soccer player. Floor on a flop in the football. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. So that's right. NBA starts tomorrow. That got up on us quick. But it's too early to be talking to NBA, man. We got baseball. Yeah, we got.

Football. Thank you, Bruce, for making the city happy. You know, some people were talking about how they don't know if a lot of people are going to watch if it's certainly if it's if it's Tampa and Milwaukee. And at first I was kind of going, but then I went like, I can care less how many people watch the bottom line is with the Brewers with the World Series. That's the bottom line. So I know, I know everybody in Wisconsin will be watching. Right.

You know, I saw a guy yesterday, though. He had on, what did he have on? A Brewer's hat in a Packers jersey. So. Hey, he represents both. Yeah, he represents. And this whole week off, I started to drive me, because I started to do that, but I didn't want y'all to get on me. Y'all were talking about me so bad. Man, you have such a sinister laugh. Do you hear that?

I would have succeeded in one of those meddling camps. Oh, Simon Barsinister. Simon Barsinister. So anyway, man, let me thank everybody. Did I get everybody from the weekend? Yeah, I did. And let me always shout out to folks. George was saying that because I do the public stuff. I do the public stuff because I have to. If it was up to me, you know, I'm just curled up, man.

And let me let me thank Red Zone. Man, I don't know. You guys got Red Zone? No. Oh, man, Red Zone, you just you get a chance to see these games. I know a lot of people do Sunday tickets where, you know, you get the whole game. I got the super box, man. I can just about see anything. But I don't use all of that. What's that? Yeah. But Red Zone is great, man. So if you really like a football fan, especially a pro football fan.

You know, you see all the games. You see portions of the game. You don't get a chance to and certainly when the teams are in scoring position or let's say that you the Packers are playing at 325 on Sunday in Detroit and you have a game that's going into overtime, right? Red zone, you can see that game because of the NFL rules.

They have to take you away from that game to put you in your local market game, which is going to be the Packers. So man, it was like red zone. So great for sports. So when I when I speak to that super box, I can pull up a Detroit channel and watch them watch the local game. Yeah. Plus we get it here, right? So and we were talking about when the Packers used to come down and play at County Stadium. If they didn't sell the game out, we wouldn't get the game. You know, I think.

I don't know if we had to go to Racine or Kenosha to see the game. It was 30 miles or something like that. So anyway, amen. How was your weekend, D? Yeah, it was good. It was good, of course. Got a chance to not come in here at all on yesterday. Thank you, Brother Clark Kent. Okay. Although he can't multitask, if he goes.

If he comes here, he can't make it to church. Sacrifice. I wish I had that excuse. Yes.

All right, y'all. Hey, the good Lord willing, quick. Don't rise. I hope to talk to everybody on tomorrow. And as always, go from this place in peace.