Folks, it is time for another "What Black Bloggers are Saying" post. I do these periodically when a subject crops up that all of us seem to have a post on.
Weeks sparked thunderous applause and cheers when he asked members to tell those seated next to them: “We’ve got certain things going on right now, but I refuse to stop coming to the house God built.” (SOURCE), Tommy "The Hit Man"Weeks speaking with his congregation, TWO days after surrendering for beating the crap out of his wife Juanita Bynum.
According to The Mo' Kelly Report, Bishop Tommy " The Hit Man" Weeks was back in the pulpit on Sunday. Reason #1235 that I am a devout member of Bedside Baptist Church, lead by Pastor A. Larm Clock, Sr. "Church Folk" are a MESS. Now settle down "church folk" from what I can remember from studying the Good Book, the lord has an extra special crispy reward for folks who appoint themselves as High Priests without being called and lead their flock astray. Now if IIIII had been a member of his church, I would have taken it back to the old school and stood up in church and said "I demand that the pastor vacate the pulpit until his criminal case is resolved!" But that's some ole school Deacon stuff, these young deacons and trustees ain't got it in 'em for a good old fashioned church fight! AAAh those were the times! But I digress.
Before I provide more links to other bloggers, let me comment on about some things I am observing from blog posts and the comments sections related to Juanita Bynum. As expected folks are taking the fact that this 5'2 woman was allegedly choked, kicked and stomped into the ground by a 6 foot man as some type of sign that her teachings were flawed, fraudulent, or a hypocritical. My response is, so what if she was flawed, a fraud, or a hypocrite? I don't know whether she is or she isn't. Does it justify a beat down like that? DO you really think that domestic violence is some kind of karmic retribution for prior bad acts? Need I remind some of you "church folks" that even Jesus was beaten!
Being the recipient of a beating does not make you inherently unworthy of preaching the gospel nor does it make you a hypocrite( other things do, but not this). Even though I am a devout member of Bedside Baptist Church where we are lead by the Honorable Rev. A. Larm Clock, Sr., I literally grew up in a church house Sunday through Monday, even vacationed with "church folk" so I knew that these comments were coming.
I don't know if she is a false prophet, but then again, I don't follow mortals. So it does not matter if she is a false prophet. I know that preachers are human not gods and ultimately I am responsible for my own salvation. I take everything with a grain of truth and if there ain't a bible verse to back it up, it ain't gospel. So attack Juanita Bynum for her teachings, or because of the clothes she wore, or the lifestyle she lived, but please abandon this whole thread of "SHE GOT WHAT SHE DESERVED" because you don't like her ministry........ It just ain't Christian! The Devil is laughing at all of y'all right now. He did his work, the "church folk" will do the rest.
The MILLION DOLLAR WEDDING
Second, ALOT of people are almost chortling with glee that this happened in light of Juanita's 1 MILLION DOLLAR wedding. Now y'all know I am "her royal cheapness." I could throw any of y'all a wedding for less than $1,000. It would be nice too. The reception would feature peanuts, mints and fraupe ( punch made out of sherbet and gingerale/7UP/sprite). Your cake would be done by Sam's Club ( do not sleep on the Sam's Club cake. they even give you cake stands). If you wanted to take it out to $1,500, We could offer some chicken nugget platters from Chic-Fil-A, my official party caterer ( don't sleep on the nugget platter. ) No need for plates or cutlery, some napkins and toothpicks would do just fine.
But let's address this million dollar wedding for a number of reasons. First, you don't have to wait until you get married to throw yourself a party. If Oprah had been the victim of a beat down, would we be talking about all of the lavish parties she threw for herself? No! So it isn't just that Juanita Bynum threw a big lavish wedding is it? It is almost as if we are saying that a Black woman shouldn't expect too much out of marriage. OF course he is crazy, of course y'all gone get a divorce, of course he'll cheat, of course he'll break his vows, why on earth would any woman be so audacious as to celebrate the start of what she thinks is going to be a wonderful life? How dare a woman be so outrageous as to throw herself a lavish celebration of finding what she had been praying to the Almighty for? I remember the day I got my bar results in the mail. Talk about catching the Holy Spirit, dancing and speaking in tongues. BWHAHA! I scared the crap out of my roommate.
National Gina Appreciation Day.
Each year I celebrate National Gina Appreciation Day otherwise known as my birthday. Now whenever I tell people about this important national holiday that they have never heard of, they laugh and then they ask when is it? But yes, I have thrown myself a birthday party before, in fact, I have already sent out the initial save the date e-mail to family and friends for National Gina Appreciation Day 2007: The Life, the Laughter, the Legend.
My birthdays were always a big deal growing up in a big family where everybody's birthday was a big production by my family's standards ( I inherited my cheapness). Because I was an itinerant child who was constantly in some kind of trouble, my birthday celebrations were always a barometer of how much my parents loved or didn't love me ( I didn't say that was reasonable, but remember I was a mere child). Even now I will get fidgety if the clock is headed towards 11:59PM and I still haven't heard for each one of my immediate family members on my big day. I'm still bitter about the year my Daddy stacked a bunch of OREO cookies in a pile and put a candle on top and said "happy birthday" I am still looking for my dayum cake!. Or who can forget the Christmas when I got a Nintendo 64 and I was so happy until my Daddy told me that I would have gotten the Nintendo on my birthday if I hadn't been so dayum bad around the time of my birthday! Don't feel bad for me, I bring that OREO party and that Christmas up about three times a year almost 20 years later. So yes, I have some "birthday" issues.
Anyway, on National Gina Appreciation Day, I pry open my normally tightly clamped pocketbook and go all out. This year's celebration will feature a pony(a stuffed one), the cake of my dreams ( Italian cream meets carrot cake meets Vanilla Wafer cake- ambitious but possible), several Chic-Fil-A nugget platters and a pinata. I will challenge my nephew to a game of pin the tail on the donkey and Twister. We'll play Taboo, and maybe this year I will splurge and have some fraupe. I will purchase my own gifts, pick my own menu and am currently considering whether to have a life-sized cut out of me wearing a tiara so that guests can take a picture with my likeness.
Now to some of you it may seem arrogant to throw my own celebration of me, I don't care haters! I ain't waiting till I get married ( or not) to throw myself a big ole party. Maybe some of y'all wedding-hungry folks should just put yourself out of your misery now and throw the wedding without the groom. Print up invitations, register at Target, hire a caterer and a band and celebrate you right now. Lord knows if you wait and throw yourself a big ole wedding, folks are going to be ticking off the minutes until you end up just like Juanita Bynum. In the moment of what may very well be the most humiliating and devastating betrayal of her life, having people throw the fact that she wanted to throw a big celebration on her wedding day back into her face as if she was too uppity for dreaming too big. Sisters be careful with jumping on the "her wedding was too big" bandwagon. If you have the money and ain't going into debt to do it, go all out now, and don't wait for the wedding!
So let's see what other bloggers are saying.
The Mo'Kelly Report, one of my faves is wondering why some of these male preachers aren't speaking out about domestic violence or wishing Juanita well publicly I commented on his blog that maybe they are honoring her wish to keep the matter "private" or maybe Bishop Weeks knows some of their dirty laundry and they fear him putting them and THEIR domestic situations on blast. Mo' ain't buying it. It is a hilarious post about what Mo would do if he saw his pastor laying hands on his wife int he church parking lot.
Sugar N Spice speculates on whether Juanita DID or SAID something to set Bishop Tommy "The Hit Man" Weeks off! The post is called Juanita Bynum Beat Down: More Lessons than She ever Taught. It borders on blaming the victim, but it is an interesting conversation about when to walk away from a confrontation. I am convinced that if he did all this, he didn't need a reason. He probably just saved his prior beating for behind closed doors. UPDATE: SUGAR REPLIES -
"Hey! Hey! Trust that I did not intend to imply that Ms. Bynum did anything to deserve the beating that her husband dished out. At all! I'm merely stating the obvious. He didn't just all of a sudden become crazy on that fateful night. She knew he was crazy from the offset and trying to meet in a public place to avoid another beat down is not a good strategy. She should have just left him and sent his butt the divorce papers....then, discussed it in court or in mediation." Sugar from Sugar N Spice.
The iPinions Journal is engaged in a full blown case of shadenfraude in a post called "Fall From Grace of Another Preacher" At least they cop to enjoying the fall out.
After all, as charisma goes, Weeks is to Hillary (Clinton) as Bynum is to Bill. But the analogy ends there. Because, in every other respect, all indications are that Bynum was utterly devoted to and supportive of Weeks. Unfortunately, she could not help the way her inspiring holistic message overshadowed his pedestrian evangelistic hucksterism.Can you say DAYUM? and yes, iPinions goes into the rumblings I has mentioned in an earlier post.
The Religion News Blog is Reporting that Tommy "The Hit Man" Weeks is blaming de ebil Devil for making him beat the crap out of his wife. You HAVE to read the reactions from the "church folk" attending the service yesterday. Now need I remind them that even Jesus had to roll up in the temple acting up and turning over tables to throw the money changers out of the temple ( I wasn't kidding about my Mama being a Sunday School teacher... Can you imagine having me as a student? BWHAHA!) What does the Good Book say.... Instead of cheering and applauding, y'all shoulda been turning over some offering plates yesterday SHEEPLE!
Halima over at the Black Women's IR Circle ( yeah, I'm linking to it SUE ME and call me names members of the Anti-Black Women's Bloggers Cabal who target all who dare to link to certain blogs by Black women( you know who you are. Your secret is out!)) Folks y'all think I am radical. Go read her thoughts on these "church folk" taking the Good Bishop back into their bosom, our obsession with marriage and relationships with men in general.
Princess Dominique has several posts on Juanita Bynum, but she has a breakdown about the details of that wedding that is on everybody's lips.
At Office Stuffer, there is even a post on what the Juanita Bynum Attack can teach office workers. Everybody is getting in on this thing. It is an interesting read. Going to work is dangerous! DAYUM! I'm glad I have today off.
Even folks in Japan are talking about Juanita. The Rising Son of Nihon give a potential take from a Japanese perspective.
Aisha Music, goes into TMZ's idiotic ( as usual) reporting of the Bynum incident. I ain't linking to TMZ, but you can read Aisha's take. TMZ went all over the line and made this seem like it was something from a Saturday Night Live Sketch. No, TMZ that was a real life Black woman that got brutalized by her devoted spouse in a parking lot.
What About Our Daughters? Guest Contributor, Content Black Woman, is breaking it down over at Why Black Women Are Angry. She is the first to report that Bishop Eddie Long has broken the embargo of silence from Black male preachers and addressed Bynum's attack in his Sunday service. Content also Talks about what all this may mean to some babes in Christ who are trying to make sense of the foolishness. For those of you who are not connoisseurs of Christian entertainment, you may not know that another well-known female televangelist, Paula White announced that she and her husband Randy are separating. Now I don't think this is a coincidence that Paula and Randy announced this during the Bynum fallout, but Content breaks down about folks who may be confused about what has happened to Juanita and Paula's marriages. It is a really food post about gender dynamics in the church. On Saturday, she predicted what would be said in pulpits around America about Juanita and Paula in a post called Easy Like Sunday.
