Podcasts about diamond reynolds

On the evening of July 6, 2016, Valerie Castile was sleeping in her bedroom, exhausted after a long road trip back home from a family reunion in St. Louis. Just after 9 p.m. she was awakened by her daughter, who shared harrowing news about Philando, Castile's 32-year-old son. “She told me that Philando was on Facebook dying,” Castille recalled. “So, that's how I found out.” Her daughter watched her moaning, bleeding brother on a Facebook Live stream, as it was captured in real-time by his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds. The video showed a traffic stop in which St. Anthony Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez held a gun on Castile and Reynolds, only seconds after shooting Castile in front of Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter. Yanez would later tell investigators that he feared for his life and thought Castile was pulling out a gun, not the ID that he asked for. On the officer's body camera video, Castile — who was legally carrying a gun — can be heard saying he was not pulling his firearm out. Yanez fired the shots seconds later.  Castile says she still questions Yanez's explanation. “He stuck that gun in that car and shot my son while he was seat-belted in the car and had a woman and a child in the car,” Castile said. “What would make you afraid of a Black family?” A jury acquitted Yanez of criminal charges in 2017. It's been six years since Castile's death and the later acquittal of Yanez, which sparked enthusiastic protests and calls for change across the nation. Evan Frost | MPR News 2021 Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile, speaks about his son's life, death, and legacy during a press conference on the five-year anniversary of his death in St. Paul. “He's magnified and amplified a lot of the problems within the country,” Castile said of her late son. She believes that his killing exposed police brutality and racial disparities and differences in how Americans who are licensed to carry weapons are treated. “It made the world stand still,” she said. “It uncovered a plague.” Though the incident unfolded while classes were out for the summer, the news of Philando Castile's death quickly traveled across the network of parents of the nearly 400 children at J.J. Hill Montessori School where Castile worked. He was the school's beloved cafeteria supervisor — affectionately known as Mr. Phil. The people who knew him best say Castile had a knack for connecting with all students, but especially special needs students and students of color. As one parent of a J.J. Hill student said: “People knew him from his smile, before they even knew his name.” Another parent called him “Mr. Rogers with dreadlocks.” Before he was killed, Castile had been stopped by police in the Twin Cities at least 52 times and issued citations for minor offenses such as not wearing a seatbelt and speeding, but never for any serious crimes.  Maria Alejandra Cardona | MPR News file J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul, Minn., is the school Philando Castile worked as a cafeteria supervisor. Many J.J. Hill students, including those who knew Castile and are now in middle school and high school, say the killing and the acquittal inspired a stronger commitment to social justice within them. Fourteen-year-old Naomi Carter, who attended J.J. Hill in pre-K and kindergarten, is now an eighth-grader at Capitol Hill Magnet in St. Paul. There, she's part of a student leadership group called “Where Everyone Belongs” and treasurer of the Black Student Union. She said the killing of Castile has helped inspire her to become a lawyer one day. “I never really said I wanted to be a lawyer until after it happened with Philando Castile. And I held onto that for a long time,” she said. “So, eventually after it happened to George Floyd, then I started thinking about it again. Being a lawyer would really help this because a lot of these cases don't get tried, and they don't get justice. If I became a lawyer, then I could try these cases.” Valerie Castile said she is encouraged by the youth, both those who came through JJ Hill and beyond. “They're beginning to see what we've been saying all along,” she said. “And I can say technology has been instrumental in that.” Full coverage The death of Philando Castile and the trial of Jeronimo Yanez ChangeMakers Valerie and Allysza Castile, carrying on Philando's spirit 2021 Philando Castile's mother criticizes lack of progress in police accountability What should we cover next? Pass the Mic

Just playing the audio of Philando Castile girlfriend Diamond Reynolds talking about that incident in 2016 of her boyfriend getting killed --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/russell-mills0/support

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” - 2 Timothy 1:7I saw a beautiful photo story about Diamond. The artist said that cinema has to do a better job showing the tenderness of Black lives. I thought about it and remembered the single best moment in cinematic history is when Denzel Washington looked wickedness in the face, flexed his back, and braced his heart for an act of terrorism. You remember. His "ally", Matthew Broderick, ordered the use of violence to inject fear into the heart of this free Black man. Denzel resisted. And with a single tear of defiance, he became fearless. Fear is the greatest tool of white supremacy. So today, we honor a real spiritual warrior. A woman named Diamond Reynolds, who refused to be paralyzed by fear and found a way to speak.Spiritual Warrior of the Day:On July 6, 2016, Diamond Reynolds watched the murder of her boyfriend Philando Castille. The officer's gun was still drawn. Pointing in the car at her and her 4-year-old daughter. At that moment, Diamond got snatched up by a spirit of love and became fearless. She pressed record to tell the world what was happening to her family. It was an act of raw and radical love."There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." - 1 John 4:18Once it was over, Diamond folded into soft tears. Unafraid, once again to show us a Black woman. Vulnerable. Real. Soft.That is spiritual warriorship.Do not give them your humanity. Don't stop crying. Don't stop loving. In fact, love harder. ...your children, your neighbors, your soul mates, your self, your God. Your love is perfect. Black women, don't fold into darkness. Your love is our light. Rock with it. Roll with it. Wail if you have to. Tell the world what is happening to us. Shout it out. Don't hold it in. That's what Diamond taught us. It's no wonder she calls herself Lavish Reynolds. She IS lavish. Thick with humanity. Thick with loving-kindness. Thick with inextinguishable joy. With radical vulnerability. With supreme love and light. And at point-blank range, fear could not win over her love. Join GirlTrek’s Black History Bootcamp - The Prayer Edition at blackhistorybootcamp.com to receive specially curated emails with prayers, survival tips, speeches + dedicated songs to listen to for each episode. Together we will discover the stories of 21 spiritual warriors.Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music or interview excerpt played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:Speak to My Heart - Donnie McClurkin:https://open.spotify.com/track/3nAwU0F5Tb3wdeSa2mAMe5?si=DOFURVDgQIer2L35tkbJVgEverlasting God - William Murphy:https://open.spotify.com/track/3ypSY1hp9s6k1xzZ6OSCTH?si=Wk1Q72-uR0-O6zz0PiEilADiamond Reynolds | Iyanla: Fix My Life | OWN:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZ5VdRQ10s

I wanted to bring this encore conversation with Mothers Against Police Brutality’s Sara Mokuria in a week where so many of us have been grappling with the issue of police violence and what we can do about it. I know many of us have been searching for some action we can take about this issue and I want to encourage you to listen to this conversation with Sara Mokuria, one of the co-founders of Mothers Against Police Brutality. She will give you insight and advocacy steps from her own experience losing her father. And then, make a donation to Mothers Against Police Brutality, an organization that is seeking change by addressing policy and building police accountability, beginning in Texas but with nationwide impact. As you listen, I hope you’ll consider making a donation as well and I also challenge you to identify just one person who you can share this episode and this call to action with; together we can start to take steps in the direction of police accountability. Now here is my conversation with Sara Mokuria. ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES It’s an honor and responsibility to share this Episode #33 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality. It’s the third and final in a series I recorded as part of the Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative and it comes to you with a call to action to get involved with this issue today. This episode was dedicated by Collette Flanagan, the founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, who turned her grief from the loss of her son, Clinton Allen, into fuel for change. In her dedication, Collette reminded us of our common humanity as mothers and that an insult to one mother is an insult to all mothers. It is this knowing that caused me to record this series after I saw the heart-breaking video of Diamond Reynolds and her then four year old daughter after they witnessed the killing of Philando Castile. Philando was like a father to this little girl, was unarmed and was complying with the police officer’s requests when he was shot. Seeing the trauma and heartbreak endured by this four year old girl, who was the same age as my son when I saw this video, became a catalyst to face the epidemic of police brutality in our country, and to begin taking action, however imperfect. Much like Diamond Reynold’s daughter, Sara also endured trauma and heartbreak when she watched her father get shot and killed by police at her home in Dallas when she was 10 years old. Fueled by her own experience, Sara joined Collette along with another co-founder, John Fullinwider, in creating Mother’s Against Police Brutality, as a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition uniting mothers nationwide to fight for civil rights, police accountability and policy reform. Sara is a mom herself to a seven year old boy.  And, in addition to her work with Mothers Against Police Brutality, she’s a sought after educator, community organizer, project manager, and facilitator, currently working as Associate Director for Leadership Initiatives with The Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has two masters degrees, has taught both high school and college at the University of Texas at Dallas and currently serves on the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee for the US Human Rights Network. She came to the conversation with an open heart she told me, and I felt her generosity and honesty throughout as she shared how police violence changed her life forever, discussed the trauma of being black in America, how the institution of policing and the prison industrial complex contributes to that trauma, and the ways in which an investment in Mothers Against Police Brutality can change policies and systems to reduce violence and create more accountability. As compelling was Sara’s exploration of the vision she has for our future… of vibrant communities where we invest in our young people, lean into and value our differences, and where each of us taps into our own unique magic to get us there. We ended our conversation with a co-created prayer, a wish for ourselves as much as for all of you listening, to move into greater responsibility for this work from wherever we are, to have the courage to go to those difficult and painful places so we can create a freer future, and to take this moment right now to support this cause. I’m doing that today by making a financial contribution to Mothers Against Police Brutality and putting my resources with the mothers, like Sara and Collette, who are closest to the problem and who can see the solution. I hope you’ll join me. Visit http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/ to make a donation and reference Mother’s Quest or, if contributing on November 28th, Giving Tuesday, visit the Mother’s Quest Facebook Fundraising Page  to contribute to the Giving Tuesday Campaign. This episode dedicated by Mothers Against Police Brutality founder Collette Flanagan, whose son, Clinton Allen, was shot and killed by the Dallas Police in March of 2013. Topics discussed in this episode Sara’s joyous childhood which changed forever when her father was killed by Dallas police officers when she was just 10 years old How Sara’s mother was her fiercest advocate, even as her mother grappled with the deeply traumatic effects of her husband’s killing and the lack of support as a crime victim. Disturbing facts about our current law enforcement policies, lack of accountability, the militarization of police, and budget allocations that favor the prison industrial complex over investments that would build a vibrant community The New Jim Crowe and the War on Drugs and how it has played out as a war on people of color White privilege and how to move from shame and guilt to responsibility and action How Sara teaches her son to understand injustice, the history we don’t learn in our schools, and how tenderness, love and joy can be an act of resistance What happened when Sara met with the officer who killed her father years later and how that shifted her perspective about what the problem really is How women make up half of the world’s population and how we birthed the other half, therefore we are the world. And, the power of mothers to chart the direction of our families and communities. The importance of finding your own unique magic to make a difference and why Sara keeps her heart open to welcome people to this cause when they come to it Our prayer and invitation to you the listener Resources mentioned in this episode Women Podcasters in Solidarity Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movie 13th, directed by Ava Duvernay The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Drug Policy Alliance EP31: Brave Spaces and Solidarity with “Rad Women” Author Kate Schatz Ep 27: Courageous Conversations about Race with Nicole Lee Ep 07: Living Out Loud with Jenjii Hysten How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev Dallas Woman Turns Tragedy Into Conversation About Race, an article where Sara talks about the system and not police officers being the problem Stride Toward Justice: 9 Steps to Change Policing in America – policy recommendations from Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movement for Black Lives Campaign Zero This Week’s Three-fold Challenge Have courageous conversation about these issues with your families during the holidays. Get involved and informed about these issues locally. Become an advocate in your city. Make a monetary contribution to support the mothers who are closest to the solution at Mothers Against Police Brutality. Make a donation by visiting http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/.  Announcement Time Sensitive Opportunity To Join Me and Nicole Lee One of those guides, Nicole Lee and I, decided we'd like to collaborate on a four-week offering to hold space for learning, growth and solidarity through weekly zoom conversations. If you’re interested in joining, email me ASAP at julie@mothersquest.com or comment on our live conversation today in the Mother’s Quest group and I can give you more details.  Click [here] to watch the Zoom conversation in the Mother's Quest Group.

SPECIAL NOTE: As part of my commitment to amplify the voices and wisdom of black women this week, I’m re-releasing key episodes on the podcast feed, including this one, that I think can light our way in our commitment toward anti-racism and racial justice. You can also find these episodes, and others that shine a light on social justice issues from myself and other podcasters, at www.womenpodcastersinsolidarity.com.   Hello and welcome to Episode #27 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast and the first of several I’ll be sharing for an initiative I’ve launched called Women Podcasters in Solidarity. The Initiative is a commitment I’ve made, alongside some other amazing women podcasters, to raise awareness and dollars to uncover and dismantle the ways racism, both conscious and unconscious, are impacting our society. I planned the Initiative after viewing the haunting video of Philando Castile’s death and of his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her young daughter in the back of the cop car in its aftermath. But, the events of Charlottesville since then have brought another level of urgency to this effort. I’m so grateful that I found Nicole Lee, an incredible African American woman and mother, as our first guest on this topic, to light the way for how we as mothers, and especially those of us who are white women like myself, can take steps to make a difference, beginning with our own children and our own communities. Nicole is a strategist, executive coach and public policy advocate through her diversity and inclusion consulting firm, Lee Bayard Group, LLC. And she’s a practicing human rights attorney through the Black Movement Law Project she co-founded, which provides legal and strategy assistance to Black Lives Matter protestors and organizations. Social justice and human rights have been part of her character since she was a child where she got her pioneering spirit especially from her own mother, one of the first black women to be ordained in her Christian denomination. Nicole brings her experience as a mother and advocate to training parents in how to have courageous conversations with our children about diversity, inclusion and equity. I had the opportunity to learn from Nicole on a recent webinar on the subject, an overview for a more detailed class launching in September, that was also attended by Mallory Schlabach who offers this week’s dedication. Nicole and I start the episode with shared agreements and intentions for courageous conversation, committing to one another to come to the podcast recording with an open heart, a commitment to move through discomfort and risk imperfection. I vowed not to edit anything out and we both named a shared desire to plant seeds in mothers to raise awareness for themselves and their children. We explored how we can open channels of communication with our children, holding a “growth mindset” for them in relation to diversity, allowing them to make mistakes as they share what’s on their minds and not “shushing” them when they do. Nicole also shared the importance of expressing our values to our children in ways that they understand. When I asked her where we could invest in change, she challenged us to focus on our own communities and to identify some hard conversations we’ve been putting off. She emphasized the importance of introspective work to realize what’s in our way, determine what we need to be “ready” and then go get ready and have them. As it has been for me, I hope this podcast episode, and the links and resources in the show notes, will be part of what you need to get ready to have the brave conversations with your own children and your own communities. As Nicole says at the end of our conversation, “we’ve got this.” We are not being asked to do anything that is not within our grasp. It’s not easy but we can get it done. This Week’s Challenge: Our challenge this week is to go back and process our own patterns and thinking about race, diversity and inclusion, to identify what courageous conversations we’ve been putting off, to get what we need to be ready, and then go have them. Topics discussed in this episode: How having an open heart and articulating intentions create meaningful opportunity for brave conversations about our differences Nicole’s reflection on why many black women may not want to talk with white women about racism and how to seek out spaces, and resources, to explore these issues if you’re white and have genuine intention to learn Nicole’s childhood and how she was driven at an early age to fight for social good An exploration of the E.P.I.C Guideposts in relation to the topic of diversity and inclusion The role mothers have in planting awareness and knowledge in their children that will help transform our society The importance of cultivating real friendships across differences and how color blindness and an unwillingness to have tough conversations can block authentic connection The importance of having a growth mindset in the context of race and not to “shush” our children when they share what’s really on their minds Expressing our values in a way our children will understand Ideas for investing and supporting the Movement for Black Lives and Nicole’s opinion that getting involved locally in advocacy on police relations, and having the hard conversations, in our own communities, are the most important steps we can take. Resources mentioned in this episode: Women Podcasters in Solidarity Mother on a Quest: Nicole Lee Growth Mindset in Diversity Mother’s Quest Ep 07: Living Out Loud with Jenjii Hysten Explaining Charlottesville to my 7-year-old by Nicole Lee How to Deal with the Police/Parents Explain Lee Bayard Group, LLC – Nicole’s diversity and inclusion consulting firm Black Movement Law Project – Legal and strategy assistance to Black Lives Matter protestors and organizations where Nicole is a co-founder Nicole’s Upcoming Class on Courageous Conversations With Children The Movement for Black Lives Announcements Women Podcasters in Solidarity I’m even more committed to a quest I’ve been on to understand the roots of racism and bigotry, how it still shows up today, and how I can become a better ally and advocate to fight against it. I’m raising awareness for myself, and inviting you to do the same, through this special podcast episode. I’m also pledging to donate to an organization supporting the Movement for Black Lives and to invite you to donate too leading up to Giving Tuesday in November. More on this to come soon. If you are a women podcaster yourself, I’d love for you to make a similar pledge to use the power of your platform for this cause. You can learn more and join the initiative by signing up at mothersquest.com/solidarity. Acknowledgements A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support: Mallory Schlabach – Marketing Magic for Entrepreneurs Katharine Earhart of Alesco Advisors Jessica Kupferman of She Podcasts Resistance Artist Jen Jenkins Dohner Genese Harris Tonya Rineer, founder of The Profit Party Liane Louie-Badua Cristin Downs of the Notable Woman Podcast Erin Kendall of Fit Mom Go Niko Osoteo of Bear Beat Productions Erik Newton of The Together Show Claire Fry Divya Silbermann Rachel Winter Caren and Debbie Lieberman Cameron Miranda Fran and David Lieberman Debbie and Alan Goore Jenise and Marianne of the Sustainable Living Podcast Support the Podcast If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Two of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution http://mothersquest.com/be-a-supporter/ If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com — Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life. Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C). Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/

O episódio discute “Relatos de Sofrimento e Violência na Internet”, com Marlon Dias, doutorando em Ciências da Comunicação pela Unisinos . Ele é jornalista e mestre em Comunicação pela Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. Também tem experiência em pesquisa, reportagem para diferentes plataformas, revisão de texto e cobertura de eventos. Falamos sobre o caso Diamond Reynolds, Twitter, sobre o movimento “Eu não mereço ser estuprada”, massagem cardíaca (acredite) e sobre a circulação dos corpos trans na mídia, com a performance da crucificação de Jesus Cristo na Parada do Orgulho LGBT+.

I’ll be back in two weeks with a new episode, but I wanted to bring this encore conversation with Mothers Against Police Brutality’s Sara Mokuria in a week where so many of us have been grappling with the issue of police violence and what we can do about it. This week, our consciousness has been focused on the tragic deaths of two black people, Botham Jean and Atiana Jefferson, who were murdered in their own homes by police officers. Botham was in his own apartment when an off duty police officer shot and killed him, allegedly mistaking him for an intruder in her own apartment. Recently, the woman who killed him was sentenced to only 10 years in prison for his killing. Atiana Jefferson, who was playing video games with her nephew in her own home at the time, was murdered when an officer sent to the house by a neighbor because of an open door, immediately shot and killed Atiana instead of checking on her wellbeing. I know many of us have been searching for some action we can take about this issue and I want to encourage you to do two things: first listen to this conversation with Sara Mokuria, one of the co-founders of Mothers Against Police Brutality. She will give you insight and advocacy steps from her own experience losing her father. And then, make a donation to Mothers Against Police Brutality, an organization that is seeking change by addressing policy and building police accountability, beginning in Texas but with nationwide impact. Inspired by my last conversation with trust-based philanthropy thought leader Pia Infante, our family committed to an ongoing monthly donation to support their work over time, and made the donation in honor of two men who lost their lives to police violence over the last year in my own area, Chinedu Okobi and Miles Hall. As you listen, I hope you’ll consider making a donation as well and I also challenge you to identify just one person who you can share this episode and this call to action with; together we can start to take steps in the direction of police accountability. Now here is my conversation with Sara Mokuria. Much appreciation, P.S. Know someone who would love this conversation? Click forward now to pay this forward to a friend who may be interested. Make a donation by visiting http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/.  ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES It’s an honor and responsibility to share this Episode #33 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality. It’s the third and final in a series I recorded as part of the Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative and it comes to you with a call to action to get involved with this issue today. This episode was dedicated by Collette Flanagan, the founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, who turned her grief from the loss of her son, Clinton Allen, into fuel for change. In her dedication, Collette reminded us of our common humanity as mothers and that an insult to one mother is an insult to all mothers. It is this knowing that caused me to record this series after I saw the heart-breaking video of Diamond Reynolds and her then four year old daughter after they witnessed the killing of Philando Castile. Philando was like a father to this little girl, was unarmed and was complying with the police officer’s requests when he was shot. Seeing the trauma and heartbreak endured by this four year old girl, who was the same age as my son when I saw this video, became a catalyst to face the epidemic of police brutality in our country, and to begin taking action, however imperfect. Much like Diamond Reynold’s daughter, Sara also endured trauma and heartbreak when she watched her father get shot and killed by police at her home in Dallas when she was 10 years old. Fueled by her own experience, Sara joined Collette along with another co-founder, John Fullinwider, in creating Mother’s Against Police Brutality, as a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition uniting mothers nationwide to fight for civil rights, police accountability and policy reform. Sara is a mom herself to a seven year old boy.  And, in addition to her work with Mothers Against Police Brutality, she’s a sought after educator, community organizer, project manager, and facilitator, currently working as Associate Director for Leadership Initiatives with The Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has two masters degrees, has taught both high school and college at the University of Texas at Dallas and currently serves on the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee for the US Human Rights Network. She came to the conversation with an open heart she told me, and I felt her generosity and honesty throughout as she shared how police violence changed her life forever, discussed the trauma of being black in America, how the institution of policing and the prison industrial complex contributes to that trauma, and the ways in which an investment in Mothers Against Police Brutality can change policies and systems to reduce violence and create more accountability. As compelling was Sara’s exploration of the vision she has for our future... of vibrant communities where we invest in our young people, lean into and value our differences, and where each of us taps into our own unique magic to get us there. We ended our conversation with a co-created prayer, a wish for ourselves as much as for all of you listening, to move into greater responsibility for this work from wherever we are, to have the courage to go to those difficult and painful places so we can create a freer future, and to take this moment right now to support this cause. I’m doing that today by making a financial contribution to Mothers Against Police Brutality and putting my resources with the mothers, like Sara and Collette, who are closest to the problem and who can see the solution. I hope you’ll join me. Visit http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/ to make a donation and reference Mother’s Quest or, if contributing on November 28th, Giving Tuesday, visit the Mother's Quest Facebook Fundraising Page  to contribute to the Giving Tuesday Campaign. This episode dedicated by Mothers Against Police Brutality founder Collette Flanagan, whose son, Clinton Allen, was shot and killed by the Dallas Police in March of 2013. Topics discussed in this episode Sara’s joyous childhood which changed forever when her father was killed by Dallas police officers when she was just 10 years old How Sara’s mother was her fiercest advocate, even as her mother grappled with the deeply traumatic effects of her husband’s killing and the lack of support as a crime victim. Disturbing facts about our current law enforcement policies, lack of accountability, the militarization of police, and budget allocations that favor the prison industrial complex over investments that would build a vibrant community The New Jim Crowe and the War on Drugs and how it has played out as a war on people of color White privilege and how to move from shame and guilt to responsibility and action How Sara teaches her son to understand injustice, the history we don’t learn in our schools, and how tenderness, love and joy can be an act of resistance What happened when Sara met with the officer who killed her father years later and how that shifted her perspective about what the problem really is How women make up half of the world’s population and how we birthed the other half, therefore we are the world. And, the power of mothers to chart the direction of our families and communities. The importance of finding your own unique magic to make a difference and why Sara keeps her heart open to welcome people to this cause when they come to it Our prayer and invitation to you the listener Resources mentioned in this episode Women Podcasters in Solidarity Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movie 13th, directed by Ava Duvernay The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Drug Policy Alliance EP31: Brave Spaces and Solidarity with “Rad Women” Author Kate Schatz Ep 27: Courageous Conversations about Race with Nicole Lee Ep 07: Living Out Loud with Jenjii Hysten How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev Dallas Woman Turns Tragedy Into Conversation About Race, an article where Sara talks about the system and not police officers being the problem Stride Toward Justice: 9 Steps to Change Policing in America - policy recommendations from Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movement for Black Lives Campaign Zero This Week’s Three-fold Challenge Have courageous conversation about these issues with your families during the holidays. Get involved and informed about these issues locally. Become an advocate in your city. Make a monetary contribution to support the mothers who are closest to the solution at Mothers Against Police Brutality. Announcements Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative If you identify as a woman podcaster, I hope you’ll join us for the third season of the Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative. Our group recently committed to the topic of immigration from a social justice perspective, and we invite you to join us by committing to record an episode that can shine a light on this important issue. To take a look at past seasons and get more information visit www.womenpodcastersinsolidarity.com. Applications are open for the Spark Your E.P.I.C. Live Virtual Circle If you’re on a quest to live an E.P.I.C. life, but you’ve been feeling challenged, isolated, or unsure of the path ahead, the Mother’s Quest Circle may be the source of connection you’re looking for. The Mother’s Quest Circle provides inspiration, coaching and community for an intimate group of no more than 8 women who are ready to say “yes” to: Reflect together, in a community of like-minded mothers, on what matters most To consciously live a more E.P.I.C. life To take bold action toward one of the E.P.I.C. life guideposts before the end of the session To hold space for sharing, coaching, and championing one another so we are “in community” on our journey Click HERE to Learn More Acknowledgements A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support: On the Move and etsuko Kubo Kate Amoo-Gottfried Nicole Lee Olivia Parr-Rud “Vince” of the While Black Podcast Sara Brannin-Mooser Lindsay Pera Julie Castro Abrams Alexia Vernon Brooke Markevicius Democracy Clothing Michael Skolnik Helgi Maki Kari Azuma Tamara Sobomehin Katie Krimitsos Carrie Caulfield Arick Rachel Rosen Chandra Brooks Jen Simon Monisha Vasa Celia Ward-Wallace Vanessa Couto Desiree Adaway Rachel Steinman Katie Hanus Denise Barreto Sage B. Hobbs Samantha Nolan-Smith Jody Smith Emily Cretella Collette Flanagan Titilayo Tinubu Ali Carly Magnus Hurt Lizzy Russinko Suzanne Brown Mara Berns Langer Mallory Schlabach Katharine Earhart Jessica Kupferman Jen Jenkins Dohner Genese Harris Tonya Rineer Liane Louie-Badua Cristin Downs Erin Kendall Niko Osoteo Erik Newton Claire Fry Divya Silbermann Rachel Winter Caren and Debbie Lieberman Cameron Miranda Fran and David Lieberman Debbie and Alan Goore The Sustainable Living Podcast Support the Podcast If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution. If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com — Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life. Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C). Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/

We have reached the mid season finale!!! Instagram - imjustsayin21 , cassielle77 Twitter - its_meedanni , cassiellevery Facebook - Imjustsayin Gmail - heyimjustsayin21@gmail.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jussayinpodcast/support

Ep 106 (No AJ and Free or even Terrence J.): Summer Jam: The Koch Brothers purchasing Time Inc. and that means that they own Essence Magazine: https://theintercept.com/2017/12/01/time-magazine-koch-brothers-meredith-corp/ The complexion for the protection in the case of Tyler Pitzl: http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/case-of--year-old-accused-of-assaulting-parents-shooting/article_69addfe0-d46f-11e7-9bbe-af7e589b2fa5.html Philando Castile(RIP) girlfriend Diamond Reynolds will receive $800k for distress and false arrest: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/29/diamond-reynolds-agrees-to-800000-settlement-stemming-from-philando-castiles-death/?utm_term=.a90241bc841e The NFL trying to bribe players to stand for the anthem: https://deadspin.com/the-nfls-proposal-to-end-anthem-protests-gives-the-nfl-1820876878 Selling Hope Like Dope: Nebraska with the "choose life" license plate design backed by Governor Pete Ricketts: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/controversial-choose-life-nebraska-license-plate-design-unveiled/article_61d45354-d38d-11e7-b70c-dbf48d27f60b.html Pete Ricketts dirt ball donation: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/gov-ricketts-gives-another-for-a-total-of-to-pro/article_ac9fa121-9d8f-5ba6-9228-237cdc3ebb25.html Hold This L: Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson and his "Its Ok to be white" tweet. https://www.theroot.com/minecraft-creator-goes-full-white-privilege-denying-whi-1820904201 Not All Heroes: The American people that got the NYTimes special story Nazi fired. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/us/nazi-sympathizer-profiled-by-the-times-loses-his-job.html And in Health Over Wealth: We got some inspiration from Air Jordan. https://www.instagram.com/p/BcLkDdCjS85/?hl=en Questions/Comments/Feedback: DuragsAndBoatshoes@gmail.com

Melanated Discussion: This week co-host and RachDaGem want to put a request to Wypipo to stop taking our shit!!! You’ve literally taken the skin off the backs of our ancestors. This week’s Health Tip: Winter Hydration Who's Queenin’: LaToya Cantrell Word on the Boulevard: Congrats Kevin Hart on the new Baby! WE LOVE E.BADU!! Support and Bring Awareness to what’s going on Libya. Re-cap of Soul Train Awards. Megan Markle-We black in the castle!! Diamond Reynolds receives an insulting settlement Executive Producer for the episode is Racheal Martin Don’t be petty, give us 5 stars!!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Melanin Boulevard MelaninBlvd@gmail.com www.MelaninBoulevard.com Facebook: MelaninBlvd Instagram: @melaninblvd Twitter: MelaninBlvd ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RachDaGem Rach.MelaninBlvd@gmail.com Instagram: @RachDaGem Twitter: @RachDaGem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Intro Music: Island Bey Cole Facebook: Island Bey Cole Instagram: @IslandBeyCole https://soundcloud.com/island-bey-cole

It’s an honor and responsibility to share this Episode #33 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with Sara Mokuria, co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality. It’s the third and final in a series I recorded as part of the Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative and it comes to you with a call to action to get involved with this issue today.  This episode was dedicated by Collette Flanagan, the founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, who turned her grief from the loss of her son, Clinton Allen, into fuel for change.  In her dedication, Collette reminded us of our common humanity as mothers and that an insult to one mother is an insult to all mothers. It is this knowing that caused me to record this series after I saw the heart-breaking video of Diamond Reynolds and her then four year old daughter after they witnessed the killing of Philando Castile. Philando was like a father to this little girl, was unarmed and was complying with the police officer’s requests when he was shot. Seeing the trauma and heartbreak endured by this four year old girl, who was the same age as my son when I saw this video, became a catalyst to face the epidemic of police brutality in our country, and to begin taking action, however imperfect.  Much like Diamond Reynold’s daughter, Sara also endured trauma and heartbreak when she watched her father get shot and killed by police at her home in Dallas when she was 10 years old.  Fueled by her own experience, Sara joined Collette along with another co-founder, John Fullinwider, in creating Mother’s Against Police Brutality, as a multi-racial, multi-ethnic coalition uniting mothers nationwide to fight for civil rights, police accountability and policy reform.  Sara is a mom herself to a seven year old boy.  And, in addition to her work with Mothers Against Police Brutality, she’s a sought after educator, community organizer, project manager, and facilitator, currently working as Associate Director for Leadership Initiatives with The Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has two masters degrees, has taught both high school and college at the University of Texas at Dallas and currently serves on the International Mechanism Coordinating Committee for the US Human Rights Network.  She came to the conversation with an open heart she told me, and I felt her generosity and honesty throughout as she shared how police violence changed her life forever, discussed the trauma of being black in America, how the institution of policing and the prison industrial complex contributes to that trauma, and the ways in which an investment in Mothers Against Police Brutality can change policies and systems to reduce violence and create more accountability.  As compelling was Sara’s exploration of the vision she has for our future... of vibrant communities where we invest in our young people, lean into and value our differences, and where each of us taps into our own unique magic to get us there.  We ended our conversation with a co-created prayer, a wish for ourselves as much as for all of you listening, to move into greater responsibility for this work from wherever we are, to have the courage to go to those difficult and painful places so we can create a freer future, and to take this moment right now to support this cause.  I’m doing that today by making a financial contribution to Mothers Against Police Brutality and putting my resources with the mothers, like Sara and Collette, who are closest to the problem and who can see the solution. I hope you’ll join me.  Visit http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/ to make a donation and reference Mother’s Quest or, if contributing on November 28th, Giving Tuesday, visit the Mother’s Quest Facebook Page to contribute to the Giving Tuesday Campaign, where we have a  possibility of matching funds from the Gates Foundation. This episode dedicated by: Mothers Against Police Brutality founder Collette Flanagan, whose son, Clinton Allen, was shot and killed by the Dallas Police in March of 2013.    Topics discussed in this episode: Sara’s joyous childhood which changed forever when her father was killed by Dallas police officers when she was just 10 years old How Sara’s mother was her fiercest advocate, even as her mother grappled with the deeply traumatic effects of her husband’s killing and the lack of support as a crime victim. Disturbing facts about our current law enforcement policies, lack of accountability, the militarization of police, and budget allocations that favor the prison industrial complex over investments that would build a vibrant community The New Jim Crowe and the War on Drugs and how it has played out as a war on people of color White privilege and how to move from shame and guilt to responsibility and action How Sara teaches her son to understand injustice, the history we don’t learn in our schools, and how tenderness, love and joy can be an act of resistance What happened when Sara met with the officer who killed her father years later and how that shifted her perspective about what the problem really is How women make up half of the world’s population and how we birthed the other half, therefore we are the world. And, the power of mothers to chart the direction of our families and communities. The importance of finding your own unique magic to make a difference and why Sara keeps her heart open to welcome people to this cause when they come to it Our prayer and invitation to you the listener Resources mentioned in this episode: Women Podcasters in Solidarity Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movie 13th, directed by Ava Duvernay The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Drug Policy Alliance EP31: Brave Spaces and Solidarity with “Rad Women” Author Kate Schatz Ep 27: Courageous Conversations about Race with Nicole Lee Ep 07: Living Out Loud with Jenjii Hysten How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatiev Dallas Woman Turns Tragedy Into Conversation About Race, an article where Sara talks about the system and not police officers being the problem Stride Toward Justice: 9 Steps to Change Policing in America - policy recommendations from Mothers Against Police Brutality The Movement for Black Lives Campaign Zero This Week’s Three-fold Challenge: Have courageous conversation about these issues with your families during the holidays. Get involved and informed about these issues locally. Become an advocate in your city. Make a monetary contribution to support the mothers who are closest to the solution at Mothers Against Police Brutality. Announcements: Giving Tuesday Visit http://mothersagainstpolicebrutality.org/donate/ to make a donation and reference Mother’s Quest or, if contributing on November 28th, Giving Tuesday, visit the Mother’s Quest Facebook Page to contribute to the Giving Tuesday Campaign, where there is a possibility of matching funds from the Gates Foundation. Women Podcasters in Solidarity I’m honored to have shared three episodes in this series of conversations for the Women Podcasters in Solidarity Initiative. I created the Initiative to build awareness and raise dollars for Anti-Racism and the Movement for Black Lives. Coming soon: visit www.womenpodcastersinsolidarity.com for the complete list of episodes created by other podcasters who pledged to the initiative. Help Us Celebrate Mother’s Quest’s First Birthday A year ago on December 1st, I launched the Mother’s Quest Podcast as a birthday present to myself. It’s hard to believe that another personal birthday and the first birthday of the podcast is almost here. I’d love to celebrate by highlighting your stories and how the podcast or Mother’s Quest Community has helped you to live your E.P.I.C. life. Go tomothersquest.com and use the speakpipe tool to leave me a 1-2 minute message for a chance to be featured in this season’s finale. Everyone who submits will also be entered into a drawing for a free signature coaching session from me and some other prizes from other amazing moms in the Mother’s Quest Community. Can’t wait to hear your stories and celebrate with you. Virtual Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot You’re a mindful mother. And being present for your children in these years when you’re raising them is your highest priority. You’re also committed to making a positive impact in the world, something that feels even more important with all the challenges we currently face. If the description above sounds like you, the Virtual Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot, may be right for you. This signature offering provides inspiration, coaching and community to spark your E.P.I.C. life with intimate virtual reflective sessions over 3-4 months. Click http://mothersquest.com/virtualcircle/ to learn and apply. The group will start as soon as I have a committed number of participants so don’t delay if you’re interested. Questions? Email me at julie@mothersquest.com Visit the Website If you haven’t yet visited the website, head over to www.mothersquest.comto explore some of the ways you can get more connected. At the site, you can sign up for our email list (to get show notes delivered to your inbox and our new “Mothers on a Quest” features), click the link to join the Facebook group and press record to leave a voice message for me. You can also download the FREE Live Your E.P.I.C. Life Planning and Reflection Sheets. Acknowledgements: A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support: Collette Flanagan, founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality Titilayo Tinubu Ali of Own Your Expertise Carly Magnus Hurt Lizzy Russinko of This (Un)Scripted Life Suzanne Brown, author of Mompowerment Mara Berns Langer Mallory Schlabach of Marketing Magic for Entrepreneurs Katharine Earhart of Alesco Advisors Jessica Kupferman of She Podcasts Resistance Artist Jen Jenkins Dohner Genese Harris Tonya Rineer, founder of The Profit Party Liane Louie-Badua Cristin Downs of the Notable Woman Podcast Erin Kendall of Fit Mom Go Niko Osoteo of Bear Beat Productions Erik Newton of The Together Show Claire Fry Divya Silbermann Rachel Winter Caren and Debbie Lieberman Cameron Miranda Fran and David Lieberman Debbie and Alan Goore Jenise and Marianne of the Sustainable Living Podcast

Hello and welcome to Episode #27 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast and the first of several I’ll be sharing for an initiative I’ve launched called Women Podcasters in Solidarity. The Initiative is a commitment I’ve made, alongside some other amazing women podcasters, to raise awareness and dollars to uncover and dismantle the ways racism, both conscious and unconscious, are impacting our society. I planned the Initiative after viewing the haunting video of Philando Castile’s death and of his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her young daughter in the back of the cop car in its aftermath. But, the events of Charlottesville since then have brought another level of urgency to this effort. I’m so grateful that I found Nicole Lee, an incredible African American woman and mother, as our first guest on this topic, to light the way for how we as mothers, and especially those of us who are white women like myself, can take steps to make a difference, beginning with our own children and our own communities. Nicole is a strategist, executive coach and public policy advocate through her diversity and inclusion consulting firm, Lee Bayard Group, LLC. And she’s a practicing human rights attorney through the Black Movement Law Project she co-founded, which provides legal and strategy assistance to Black Lives Matter protestors and organizations. Social justice and human rights have been part of her character since she was a child where she got her pioneering spirit especially from her own mother, one of the first black women to be ordained in her Christian denomination. Nicole brings her experience as a mother and advocate to training parents in how to have courageous conversations with our children about diversity, inclusion and equity. I had the opportunity to learn from Nicole on a recent webinar on the subject, an overview for a more detailed class launching in September, that was also attended by Mallory Schlabach who offers this week’s dedication. Nicole and I start the episode with shared agreements and intentions for courageous conversation, committing to one another to come to the podcast recording with an open heart, a commitment to move through discomfort and risk imperfection. I vowed not to edit anything out and we both named a shared desire to plant seeds in mothers to raise awareness for themselves and their children. We explored how we can open channels of communication with our children, holding a “growth mindset” for them in relation to diversity, allowing them to make mistakes as they share what’s on their minds and not “shushing” them when they do. Nicole also shared the importance of expressing our values to our children in ways that they understand. When I asked her where we could invest in change, she challenged us to focus on our own communities and to identify some hard conversations we’ve been putting off. She emphasized the importance of introspective work to realize what’s in our way, determine what we need to be “ready” and then go get ready and have them. I committed to doing this work and to having Nicole join us to continue the conversation and give me an opportunity to check in on my progress in the private Mother’s Quest Facebook Group on Wednesday, September 13th at 11:30 am PST. As it has been for me, I hope this podcast episode, and the links and resources in the show notes, will be part of what you need to get ready to have the brave conversations with your own children and your own communities. As Nicole says at the end of our conversation, “we’ve got this.” We are not being asked to do anything that is not within our grasp. It’s not easy but we can get it done. This Week’s Challenge: Our challenge this week is to go back and process our own patterns and thinking about race, diversity and inclusion, to identify what courageous conversations we’ve been putting off, to get what we need to be ready, and then go have them. Topics discussed in this episode: How having an open heart and articulating intentions create meaningful opportunity for brave conversations about our differences Nicole’s reflection on why many black women may not want to talk with white women about racism and how to seek out spaces, and resources, to explore these issues if you’re white and have genuine intention to learn Nicole’s childhood and how she was driven at an early age to fight for social good An exploration of the E.P.I.C Guideposts in relation to the topic of diversity and inclusion The role mothers have in planting awareness and knowledge in their children that will help transform our society The importance of cultivating real friendships across differences and how color blindness and an unwillingness to have tough conversations can block authentic connection The importance of having a growth mindset in the context of race and not to “shush” our children when they share what’s really on their minds Expressing our values in a way our children will understand Ideas for investing and supporting the Movement for Black Lives and Nicole’s opinion that getting involved locally in advocacy on police relations, and having the hard conversations, in our own communities, are the most important steps we can take. Resources mentioned in this episode: Women Podcasters in Solidarity Mother on a Quest: Nicole Lee Growth Mindset in Diversity Mother’s Quest Ep 07: Living Out Loud with Jenjii Hysten Explaining Charlottesville to my 7-year-old by Nicole Lee How to Deal with the Police/Parents Explain Lee Bayard Group, LLC – Nicole’s diversity and inclusion consulting firm Black Movement Law Project – Legal and strategy assistance to Black Lives Matter protestors and organizations where Nicole is a co-founder Nicole’s Upcoming Class on Courageous Conversations With Children The Movement for Black Lives Announcements Women Podcasters in Solidarity After the events that took place in Charlottesville, I’m even more committed to a quest I’ve been on to understand the roots of racism and bigotry, how it still shows up today, and how I can become a better ally and advocate to fight against it. I’m raising awareness for myself, and inviting you to do the same, through this special podcast episode. I’m also pledging to donate to an organization supporting the Movement for Black Lives and to invite you to donate too leading up to Giving Tuesday in November. More on this to come soon. If you are a women podcaster yourself, I’d love for you to make a similar pledge to use the power of your platform for this cause. You can learn more and join the initiative by signing up at mothersquest.com/solidarity. Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot You’re a mindful mother. And being present for your children in these years when you’re raising them is your highest priority. You’re also committed to making a positive impact in the world, something that feels even more important with all the challenges we currently face. If the description above sounds like you, the Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot, launching this fall may be right for you.  This signature offering provides inspiration, coaching and community to spark your E.P.I.C. life with intimate in-person reflective sessions over 3-4 months. Click www.mothersquest.com/mothers-quest-circle to learn and apply by September 10th. Questions? Email me at julie@mothersquest.com Visit the Website If you haven’t yet visited the website, head over to www.mothersquest.com to explore some of the ways you can get more connected. At the site, you can sign up for our email list (to get show notes delivered to your inbox and our new “Mothers on a Quest” features), click the link to join the Facebook group and press record to leave a voice message for me. You can also download the FREE Live Your E.P.I.C. Life Planning and Reflection Sheets. Sign up! – Free 30 minute Discovery Session I’m rolling out my new coaching offerings and having great conversations with women who are ready to live a more E.P.I.C. life and interested in coaching. If you’ve had a spark moment setting you on a new path or are at a crossroads but feel unsure, guilty or overwhelmed, I’d love to talk with you about how working with me could help light the way, get you clear about what you want, shift your mindset from fear to faith, and get you moving into action. I’ve been there, I’m still on the journey myself, and I’d love to bring all I’ve learned from a decade of coaching, 13 years of motherhood and all the lessons from my podcast guests to support you. Send me an email at julie@mothersquest.com or sign up for a free discovery call by clicking this link if you’re interested in learning more. Acknowledgements A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support: Mallory Schlabach – Marketing Magic for Entrepreneurs Katharine Earhart of Alesco Advisors Jessica Kupferman of She Podcasts Resistance Artist Jen Jenkins Dohner Genese Harris Tonya Rineer, founder of The Profit Party Liane Louie-Badua Cristin Downs of the Notable Woman Podcast Erin Kendall of Fit Mom Go Niko Osoteo of Bear Beat Productions Erik Newton of The Together Show Claire Fry Divya Silbermann Rachel Winter Caren and Debbie Lieberman Cameron Miranda Fran and David Lieberman Debbie and Alan Goore Jenise and Marianne of the Sustainable Living Podcast Support the Podcast If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Two of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution http://mothersquest.com/be-a-supporter/ If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com — Mother’s Quest is a podcast for moms who are ready to live a truly E.P.I.C. life. Join in for intimate conversations with a diverse group of inspiring mothers as they share how they are living an E.P.I.C. life, Engaging mindfully with their children (E), Passionately and Purposefully making a difference beyond their family (P), Investing in themselves (I), and Connecting to a strong support network (C). Join our community of mothers to light the way and sustain you on your quest at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mothersquest/

President Donald Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and jeopardizing Israel in the glorious quest for world peace.... Network News anchor Scott Pelley and leftists everywhere versus those they deem to be their enemies, such as Congressional Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Officer Jeronimo Yanez versus Philando Castile, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter; and leftists lamely attempting to exploit this tragedy for their purposes of doing away with concealed carry of firearms, and pursuing disarmament of citizenry. Need to make concealed carry laws consistent, uniform, and nationwide. Good, godly citizens subjected to attempted prosecution for defending themselves and their families and loved ones from murderous destroyers.

On this newest episode we review the tragic killing of Philando Castile. Many in our society are reeling from the recent news that Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer was acquitted after shooting at Castile 7-times during a traffic stop with two other occupants (his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year old daughter). How should we, specifically as Christians, think through this tragedy? Many in the black community are hurting. Many feel as if there are injustices that are not being addressed. Many feel as though there are double-standards applied in our society (one for police officers and one for regular citizens). How can we think about law, society, and justice in a way that is helpful and meaningful? We are convinced of the power of the Gospel and the healing power of the Word of God. Our hope is to mourn with those who mourn and to begin speaking to our justice system in a prophetic way that begins a movement of transformation back to God’s Standards of justice in society. God says: “Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. You are righteous, Lord, and your laws are right.The statutes you have laid down are righteous; they are fully trustworthy.”- Psalm 119:136-138 WARNING: We kept the audio unaltered so that we could all better examine the audio itself. There is swearing in this. No King but Christ! Apologia Studios The post AR #211 – Killing Philando Castile & God’s Law appeared first on Apologia Radio - Christian Podcast and TV Show.

Freddie Bell is the General Manager of KMOJ 89.9 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Freddie is also the host of the Morning Show. For more information about one of the nation's best community radio stations visit http://kmojfm.com. On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was in a car with his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer. On November 16, 2016, John Choi, the Ramsey County Attorney, announced that Yanez was being charged with three felonies: one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. Choi said, "I would submit that no reasonable officer knowing, seeing, and hearing what Officer Yanez did at the time would have used deadly force under these circumstances." Yanez was acquitted of all charges on June 16, 2017. The same day, he was fired by the City of St. Anthony

Philando Castile.  You deserved better than this.   We discuss our different opinions on the trial and the entire shooting of Philando Castile by officer Jeronimo Yanez in St Paul Minnesota.   A few questions we posed and discussed:  How is this a fair justice for a killing?  Are these cops trained correctly?  Is "open carry" the issue? How is shooting someone 7 times not endangering the child and woman in the car?  How are these situations avoided in the future?  Please be sure to give us your opinions on our social media to join in the conversation! 

On the second day of testimony, two of the witnesses closest to the shooting -- Diamond Reynolds and police officer Joseph Kauser -- take the stand.

The jury is seated, the defense and prosecution have made their opening statements, and the first of the witnesses take the stand -- including the woman who brought this case to the attention of millions.

Introduction Paul as he was evaluating his preaching ministry in Corinth, said, these remarkable words, 1 Corinthians 2:3. He said, "I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling." So I feel that today a few weeks ago, I felt led by the Lord I felt pressed on my heart that Ephesians 6:9 would be a jumping off place to talk about an issue that faces our nation and our church, our ministry and this community, and that's the topic of racism. Since that time, I've done a lot of reading. I've done a lot of talking to friends, both black and white. I've talked to leaders in the community, other pastors. And the more I've had those conversations, the more this sense of fear and trembling has increased, not decreased. This is a hot issue for people. It's hard for people, it's hard to hear, it's hard to talk about, it's polarizing, it's divisive, and painful. That's why I somewhat identify with Paul's self-assessment weakness, fear, trembling. But, you know, I also stand before you today with a tremendous confidence in the power of the Word of God to make changes in human hearts, that the Word of God has a supernatural power to change the world. It's been going on for 20 centuries the Gospel of Christ and so Paul continues in 1 Corinthians the next couple of verses saying, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power." So I just have a sense of confidence that the Word of God is powerful to demolish satanic strongholds, and I just consider racism to be a satanic stronghold, and I think 2 Corinthians 10 says that we wield weapons that have supernatural power to blow up satanic strongholds. Blow them up. I believe that racism is a subset of the overall darkness satanic darkness that's come on the human race. It's a subset of it, that darkness is the darkness of sin, of rebellion against a holy God. But God has sovereignly shown his light in the darkness. Isaiah 9:2, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." And that light is Christ. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." And God's word is light. Psalm 119:105, "A lamp to our feet and a light to our path." And the Church, God's Church is light, we are the light of the world, Jesus said. “He lights a lamp and puts it up on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.” And so it says in Isaiah 60, speaking of the heavenly Zion, "Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Behold, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn." So the obstacles are huge, problems are complex, seem to be insoluble but I think where the darkness is the greatest, God's light can shine most gloriously. Where the enemy is seen to be strongest, God's power is displayed most radiantly gloriously and that's what I want to see happen today and through our church. I. Recent Events Search Our Souls Summer of 2016 So we begin by just looking at recent events. Recent events, just search our souls. This summer has been a hot summer. Now I know it's hot, it's hot, every day. I had some hope last week when it got to be 75. I'm just weak and it's not because I'm from Massachusetts, I don't like the cold either. So it's been steaming hot this summer. But the heat I'm talking about here, is the heat of current events. It's the heat of the issues connected with this topic of racism. On July 5th, Alton Sterling a 37-year-old African-American man was shot several times at point-blank range while being pinned down by two white police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And the incident and downloading of the videos led to ever escalating protests, resulting in a July 9th, demonstration, in which police officers were injured. And then the next day, July 6, Philando Castile was fatally shot, in St. Anthony Minnesota. Police officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled him over in St. Paul, Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds was with him in the car, and after being asked for his license and registration Castile notified the officer, he had a license to carry weapon and one in the car and office told him not to move, and as he was putting his hands up, the officer, shot him in the arm four times and he bled to death. Diamond Reynolds video live streamed it and it obviously created immense reaction culminating in the shooting of three officers in Baton Rouge July 17th. All of these things coming together. And these events at the beginning of the summer just two more in a series of high profile events, all fitting that description of interactions between people of color and law enforcement. The names have been burned into our minds, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, places like Ferguson, Missouri, North Charleston, South Carolina have become the focus of intense national scrutiny. A year ago in April 2015, in Baltimore, in the city of Baltimore, there were significant race riots, racial riots involving the injuries stemming from incidents involving injuries of Freddie Gray at the hands again, of law enforcement officials pushed the outrage of African-American community to a boiling point, and demonstrations got violent. Somewhere in the midst of all of those events that we've been discussing, that have been going on in recent years, a controversial group called Black Lives Matter was organized, and has become an increasingly vocal, and visible part of the political election and other parts of the landscape. Borrowing a phrase from Thomas Paine's opening words in his American crisis written around the time of the American Revolution. "These are the times that try men's souls." Or search our souls, should search our souls. My Own Anguish and Journey So, I have searched my soul and I've been thinking about myself. So who am I? Where do I come from? What's my background? Well, I was born in Boston, I was raised in Eastern Massachusetts, I was Irish-Catholic, went to college as an unbelieving, nominal Catholic. Never dreamed when I matriculated as a freshman at MIT, that I would end up the senior pastor of a Southern Baptist Church. I don't think any of those words would have meant anything to me at that point. What in the world is that? On this issue, as I find myself now the senior pastor of a predominantly white Bible Belt Southern Baptist Church, pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention which I learned after I became a Southern Baptist, that it was started in 1845, when slave-holding missionaries wanted to take their slaves with them on the mission field and Northern Baptists refused and so, they broke off and started the denomination of which this church is a member. I was surprised to find that out, but it's just history. 1845. The same year this church was established. The more I've learned details about the struggle for the Civil Rights Movement and the terrible injustices of the Jim Crow era, institutional racism, that segregated South. So I didn't see with my own eyes, I was more in 1962, so the Civil Rights Movement was going but I was really little, I didn't know much about it, but since the Civil War ended, and 13th or 14th amendments, were passed ending slavery. But then the situation just was still horrible, for blacks in America. And then I look at my own heart and I just have always had, honestly revulsion and hatred for those kinds of things. It's always been part of my life but honestly I didn't have any black friends growing up. None. There were just none in the community at all. I know that Boston was a focal point of racial tensions and demonstrations and even riots, violent riots during the busing era. But again, I didn't know much about that. I think in my heart, honestly, I'd always wanted to have African-American friends, but I just didn't have an opportunity. So I was wired that way, but in the end, it didn't really help me because I tended more and more to think that's got nothing to do with me. That's not who I am. It's not what I think, it's not what I've done. So I don't really need to think about this topic. But I believe that I have a position of responsibility in this community, a position to lead this church, to preach the Word, and I'm increasingly aware that most of my sins, and the racial issues have to do with sins of omission, not sins of commission, things that I should have been doing and haven't been doing. And I'm going to have to give the Lord and account some day, for my ministry in this community. And the issue of racial reconciliation is going to be one of the themes we're going to discuss, I believe, and I want to be faithful. TGC and Mika Edmondson Back in May, I attended the stakeholders meeting of the Gospel Coalition. Every other year, we have a conference, a big conference and then the alternate year it's just the Gospel Coalition gets together and we're a group of mostly pastors, but also evangelical leaders from different denominational backgrounds. And we had the privilege of listening to Dr. Mike Edmondson talk about this theme, this title, it was assigned to him, "Is Black Lives Matter", that group, "the New Civil Rights Movement?" Well, that talk just blew me away. I didn't know that much about BLM. I learned a lot from him about it. He did a great job of just tracing out very carefully the differences between BLM and the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Significant differences. For example, the Civil Rights Movement was originated in the black church and was steeped with biblical themes and a desire for reconciliation, genuine reconciliation between blacks and whites, a genuine unleashing of biblical truths by Dr. King and others. Many of the leaders were pastors etcetera, they used non-violence that many said got from Gandhi but Gandhi said he got it from Jesus, so let's just give the glory of Jesus of loving your enemies, turning the other cheek, winning people's affections by that kind of behavior. And that was the strategy. BLM is different in many ways. I think perhaps most significantly by their embracing of the Gay Rights Agenda and linking those two together in ways that Evangelical Christians find repugnant, especially black leaders who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, just find utterly repugnant, and don't agree at all that it's the same. Also some embracing of socialism, socialistic themes by BLM and seemed countenancing violence and other things just some significant difference but none of that was what really moved me. What really moved me was at the end he said, "Do you understand why BLM has been raised up? Why? It's because the evangelical church has stayed on the sidelines on this issue. There's been no coherent, well-thought out, vigorous evangelical answer to these social issues. That's why." He said, "We the church can do better than Black Lives Matter. We must do better than that. We must step up and speak the truth about these things, so that that movement becomes by contrast, pathetic and obsolete because these issues are so, in such a healthy, beautiful way being addressed by the Church." So his words burned in my heart, I was moved. I was moved to tears. So, three weeks ago, I was going to a place to study and write my next sermon, which I thought that morning my next sermon was going to be on spiritual warfare. God willing, that will be next week. But instead, I ran into a friend of mine, African-American man named Eddie White, who went through our internship a number of years ago. Eddie was a layman in his church and just felt the leading to become a vocational pastor. He wanted to become a pastor. Found out about our internship, did some research on the website, and downloaded some things. That same day he saw Matthew Hodges driving the van with the First Baptist Church thing on the side, he's like, "Woah! A sign from God." He followed him to Liberty Street, got out and had a conversation, went through our internship, eventually left his job, went to Southeastern Seminary, and is now a pastor. Big fork in his road and we were privileged of being able to walk with him. Saw me right away, recognized me, we hugged. And I stood there in the parking lot and talked to him for 50 minutes on my study day. But I didn't realize that the Lord had different plans for me and that a whole different sermon. So, we got to talking about these themes. He said, "Pastor you need to come with me to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum." I said, "When do you want to do it?" He said, "How about this week?" So we went that Thursday. It's the kind of thing that changes your life. He took me first on a tour of NC A&T, traditionally black college. There we parked and then I was walking by a statue with four guys on it. Now, we did more walking by that statute, he came back and said, "These were the Greensboro Four." I didn't know anything about the Greensboro Four, many of you do, many of you don't. But there is this big statue of four men standing side by side. The Greensboro Four were students at NC A&T during the Civil Rights era. Back then by law, public institutions were segregated. The lying slogan at the time was, separate but equal. Well, they were separate, the “separate” part was vigorously enforced, but the “equal” not at all. Separate schools, separate motels, separate restrooms, separate water fountains, separate swimming pools, separate places on public transportation. John Piper said in his book Bloodlines, he said, "How could you communicate more clearly the lie that being black was like a disease?" Well, there was a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, for you younger people. Woolworth’s was that generation's version of Walmart. I remember Woolworth’s, I actually walked into a Woolworth’s once. But there was a Woolworths there and they had a lunch counter and the lunch counter had a place where you could sit and eat. But it was open to whites only. Blacks could order food there, but they had to take it out. So these four students thinking of just a way to agitate and to affect change said, "Why don't we go to lunch counter and sit down and order something and not leave till they serve us?" So that's what they did. Four students, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. and Joseph McNeil, did that on February 1st, 1960, at 4:30 PM, walked into Woolworths, went right, they couldn't sit side by side, but they found seats, sat down and ordered coffee. They were obviously immediately refused and urged to leave fervently, but they didn't leave. They stayed there until the store closed that night. The next day, more NC A&T students joined in this and it started to grow. 20 more students recruited from other campuses joined in, white customers heckled them while they peacefully studied to keep busy. Just reading books, newspaper reporters, a TV film crew covered the second day, and more and more people got involved. Within one week of the initial protest, Greensboro students throughout North Carolina in different other campuses following black campuses like Central here and all that, here in Durham, started similar protests. It became a whole pattern of protest, and it was incredibly effective. The original Woolworth’s in Greensboro, where those demonstrations were happening, however, was losing money hand over fist to the tune of $1.6 million, during those weeks. So the store manager Clarence Harris quietly asked three black employees to change out of their work clothes and order a meal at the counter and it was done. The segregation of that lunch counter was finished. So we were standing there on the campus. He told me this story, etcetera. I didn't know anything about it. We went from there to the Greensboro Civil Rights Museum, which is at the Woolworths where the Woolworths was, but it's not a museum. And we went in, and it was just extremely moving for me, to walk through that place to see the photos up on the wall to be reminded of what things were like. It's recent history friends, recent history. And it's difficult to look at those pictures, pictures of violence, the Birmingham Police turning a water cannon on peaceful protesters, freedom riding buses being firebombed, lynchings. I saw a Coke machine there that was in the bus terminal, I think, at that time. Again, segregated had a black section, white section, but the Coke machine had been designed to have two faces to places to vend. So with the wall separated, but you had the white side and the black side. The white side was 5 cents a Coke, black side 10 cents. The woman who was giving us a tour said, "I was down in the Coke Museum down in Atlanta, they didn't have one of these machines down there, one of those historical machines. Didn't show it." But it's there in the Civil Rights Museum. Clear evidence of separate but unequal, I mean unequal price. So at one point, I look over at Eddie and there's tears streaming down his face. I was just at a museum, just looking at pictures, thinking about history sober-minded, but he was feeling at a whole different level. His mother had been involved in the counter demonstrations there at NC A&T, she had been a part of it. She told them all these stories. And it bothered me that it meant more to Eddie than it meant to me. It felt like we weren't as one as we could be. I wanted to be more one with my friend. This pattern of non-violent protest continued. There were certain other aspects people would challenge like they had things called pray-ins, where groups of black people would go to predominantly white churches, and come and just kneel and pray, taking whatever abuse came. Some white churches responded by having human chains, blocking people from getting in. Some churches did that. It's possible our church did that, not for sure. Anecdotally we heard that that happened. So, that's history. What is “Racism”? So, what is racism? What are we even talking about? Can I tell you, first of all, I don't really know how to define race? The more I think about it, the harder it gets. I don't even know what it is. I can define ‘human race.’ But I have a hard time defining race. It's very, very difficult, just has to do with physical features or attributes that cluster a group or identify a person. Racism John Piper defines this way, "An explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively values one race above another." So, it's a belief leading to actions that one race is superior to all others or maybe to a specific other race. So superiority of one race, inferiority of the other race or races, and then actions that flow from it. I think it has to do with a bias, a slant, a perspective that always goes in one direction, coupled with denigration and even hostility toward others. That's what I think of when I think of racism. I was at a basketball game my son was playing in a week ago. We're sitting in the stands, and the father of one of Calvin's opponents was sitting behind me. He had a good set of lungs. And I just thought the man was exceptionally biased in all of his comments. They all seemed to go from one slant. Whether the refereeing or the plays that were made or his praise or his condemnation, everything went one direction. But what really got me was when he said, "We should be wiping up the floor with this team." I was like, "Alright I'm about ready to say something." My son's been playing basketball most of his life. He can play a little. So he's not a mop. I kept my tongue. I don't know if it was cowardice, or good manners, or Christian sanctification, but I didn't say anything. I don't want to trivialize at all racism, but it's that bias, where you see every current event, whatever from your angle, and then that denigration of the other people where they're like mops or lower than you. That's what I think of. Why Am I Talking About This Now? Now, why am I talking about this now, why today? Well, I've already told you, one reason, current events. I don't want the church to have its head in the sand like we don't know what's going on, and we're not relevant. That's a lie. The Bible is perfectly relevant to everything that's going on, the Gospel is. But also the text that you heard Ben read for us look at it again, it says, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way,” the same way that I encourage the slaves to have in mind the invisible Jesus, every moment that they serve, and they do their service as unto him. Masters, I want you to be aware of the invisible Jesus all the time, in how you treat your slaves. Do not threaten them. Talked about that at length last time, not going back into that. Since you know that he who is both their master and yours doesn't have, Now here's the phrase. "And there is no favoritism with him." “No partiality” some translations give us. He's “no respecter of persons.” So I've meditated on, “there is no favoritism.” That's where the sermon title comes from. There is no racism with Christ. So as I thought about, “What does it mean?” I think there's a positive and a negative side of there's no favoritism. First, he equally delights in every person that he has made in terms of their amoral distinctives. He just enjoys how he made you. He just delights in the color of your skin, the color of your hair, the color of your eyes, the shape of your eyes, the shape of your nose, the shape of your chin, your height, all of those amoral diverse tendencies of humans, God delights in all of them, equally. Now that's unbelievably important. Even aside from the topic of racism, I want all of you to be able to look in the mirror and say God made me, and be delighted in what he made. And God does make differences. He does make distinctions. Frankly, where would the Olympic games, be if there weren't differences between people? Everybody would finish in a tie. God makes differences, but Paul says clearly in Corinthians, "Who made you different than anyone else?" Answer, “God did.” And what do you have that you didn't receive? Answer, “Nothing, everything I have, I received.” “And if you did receive it, then why do you boast as though you did not?” That kills racism right there. Every difference, God made, and we should delight in it. God just delights in what he has made. So what I want, is I want us to be able to look at each other's faces and just delight in what God's made fearfully and wonderfully, and just say, "It's beautiful, all of it because my Father made it." So that's positive, there's no favoritism with God, it goes that way. Then negatively, on Judgment Day, every moral decision. So I talked about amoral distinctions. Every moral issue will be evaluated fairly and justly by God. There's no favoritism, no special deals, no skillful lawyers with their special techniques, no sweetheart deals, no bribes, none of that. Romans 2:9-11, "There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, but glory, honor and peace, for everyone who does right, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism." That's what that means. So Judgment Day, level ground. So, we face the challenge of racism and we have weapons of biblical truth in our hands. Now, if you look at your outline, the bulletin, I want to look at five biblical just heat-seeking missiles, that destroy racism. But I want to cluster them together. I want all of them together, that if we really embrace these biblical theological themes, racism should be gone forever, certainly from the Church. II. Biblical Doctrine Destroys Racism Creation: The Whole Race Descended from One Man So, first creation. Biblically, the Bible teaches plainly all of us are created in the image of God. Every single human being is equally in the image of God, and even more fascinatingly, all of us are descended from one man. That's amazing. It says in Acts 17:26, "From one man, he made every nation of man, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He had determined the time set for them, and the exact places where they should live." Now why, why is that relevant to race? Well, it's because people get separated, like after the flood gets separated from each other and settle in certain valleys, and just are there without interactions from outsiders. And then they have children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Some genetic tendencies start to float to the surface and then they all start to have those tendencies. Like, God celebrating in Isaiah 18, the people of Cush, the Cushites, what we call modern Ethiopians, he said, "Go to a people tall and smooth-skinned." It's just delight that God has in that beautiful people. But he describes them physically. How do they get to be that way taller than other people? They're all descendants from Noah, all descended from Adam, but it has do with how God sovereignly orchestrated these things to happen. It's a beautiful thing, and God knew exactly what happened when he put all of that in the genetic code of Adam. Boy is he going to be surprised when he has a red-headed kid and one with black hair, and he's like, “Huh? Interesting.” You know, interesting. And just a journey of discovery Adam and Eve finding out just how diverse it can all get. But it's just a beautiful thing. Fall: The Whole Human Race Equally Sinned in Adam Secondly, the fall. Every single human being on earth, is equally fallen in Adam. We all fell in Adam. Romans 5:12 says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death sin. And in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” We're all sinful in Adam positionally, and then we're sinful in ourselves actually, because we received from Adam a sin nature and though we don't sin, all of us sin exactly the same ways. So no, I don't sin exactly the same way as other people, but all of us are equally in need of Jesus, the Savior, all of us. And so Paul is very clear about this in Romans 3, "What shall we conclude then? Are we any better?" Romans 3:9, "Not at all." So, there he's talking to Gentile. Are we any better? Are they any better? We're all in the same place for he says, "Not at all, we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are whites and blacks whatever, either or you want to put it, are equally under sin." “As it is written, There is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they together become worthless.” There is no one who does good, not even one, that's all of us. There's a unity in sin here, shameful unity, unity in shame. And you can say, "Well I don't do this." Yeah, but James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point of it, guilty of breaking all of it." And then there's that multigenerational aspect in Matthew 23, Jesus said, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'" Now, listen, the next thing Jesus says, "And so, you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then the measure of the sins of your forefathers." Now, friends, each person stands or falls on his or her own actions. We're not responsible for the sins of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. But there's something going on in what Jesus said there. And so for me to disavow guilt, say, "I wouldn’t have done it, that's not who I am." It's not helpful, that's not a helpful way it's true, but not helpful. I didn't commit the same sins as a clansmen, who did a lynching, or as some evil people that bombed little girls in Birmingham, or a governor that blocks Brown v. Board of Education. I didn't commit all those same sins, but I'm human, like that. Each of those people are, we're all human. And I can't say, "Look, I know I would never have done any of those things." In Daniel 9, Daniel prayed in solidarity with his people, the Jewish nation. Daniel being a pure man not sinless, but he just included himself. "We have sinned, we have violated your laws, we have broken your covenant, we have disobeyed, you." And there's that solidarity. So God gives to each person according to what he has done, that's true, but God calls in us with humility to recognize the same sin nature in me, as in anybody else. We all need a Savior. Redemption: Elect from Every Nation Were Equally Redeemed by Christ Thirdly, redemption. Thank God, there is a Savior. Thank God, Jesus came to save us from these sins and in God's plan, he elected, he chose people from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Revelation 5:9, "You were slain, [speaking to Jesus,] you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men, for God from every tribe and language and people, and nation." Revelation 7 pictures them standing around the throne and worshipping God in white robes and saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne." So in that way, Romans 3:22 says, "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God presented him as a propitiation of blood sacrifice, the one who turns away God's wrath through faith in his blood. We're all saved the same way, thank God. Church: The Church All Over the World is One in Christ And then fourthly, that brings me immediately the doctrine of the Church. Having been justified, we are then assimilated, by the Spirit into one Church worldwide. And we have sweet fellowship through the Spirit with people of radically different backgrounds than us. We have become one body in Christ. That's just true, there's not different works God's doing all over the world, one work. And so, Galatians 3:27-28, says, "All of you who are baptized in Christ Jesus have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither junior Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you're all one in Christ Jesus." And then Colossians 3:11, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all." So that unity of the Church, that destroys racism. And then finally, best of all, Heaven. Where are we going? What's it going to be like when we get there? How beautiful is that? We are going to see people from every tribe, and language, people and nation. I already said, Revelation 7:9-10. I believe, maintaining amoral diversity. Purified, all of us from our sins, but different from one another. I can't imagine, some matrix of people all standing the exact same height, face, shape and all that. That's just weird. And I wouldn't know why that was even what happened. In our resurrection bodies we all look exactly alike and that doesn't make any sense to me. But we'll be pure from all sins, pride, racism, it'll be gone. And we're going to be together, and these central topic of Heaven will not be any of us. It'll be Christ and his achievements and we're going to be together worshipping. And so, Isaiah 60, the picture of the heavenly Zion, gates standing open continually to receive wealth from the nations pouring in, diverse displays of worship to almighty God, that's what that is. Isaiah 60:11. So These five biblical themes have the power to destroy racism, creation, fall redemption, church and heaven. III. A Journey of Unity John 17: Trinitarian Unity Now, my go-to verse on multi-ethnic churches has been for years, John 17, Jesus's prayer that all of the world who hears the Gospel through the words of the apostles, “that all of them, Jesus prays may be one, Father, just as you and I are one, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me. And have loved them even as you've loved me.” One of the key things I've said this before, I'll say it again, I believe you should go through John 17, the so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus and say everything Jesus asked for, he gets, everything, 100% because that's just Jesus, he never prays outside of the will of the Father ever. So it's like, "Oh gee, I wish Jesus could have the unity he prayed for." No, he's going to get it, it's going to happen. We are going to be in Heaven as one as the Father and the Son are one. Now, what does that mean? It's a mystery, but in the doctrine of the Trinity, we have ‘separate’ if we can use that language, persons who have a perfectly one relationship with one another and never ever disagree about anything, ever. And not only that, but they passionately hold their views with each other. I really, really love Jesus. Well, I really do too. And that's how Heaven's going to be like. I mean not exactly like that, but better. But that sense of passionate oneness around the truth and the works of redemption and Jesus, but he's thinking about now may they be in the process of becoming more and more one to let the watching world see a work that only God could do. Don't you yearn to see that in this local church? That we would put the Gospel on display by supernatural unity, but the journey ahead of us is going to be hard. It's a journey of hard work, of seeking out areas, pockets of sin and shining the Gospel light. And so, a journey of justice and love stands in front of us. There're just serious social issues to address. The evangelical church has traditionally had a blind spot on social action and social justice. There's a long history of this. The fundamentalists tended to withdraw from science and culture and just pull back and just get in their own plays, and just celebrate Jesus crucified and bodily resurrected the fundamentals, but to not engage the surrounding culture. And this is part of that lack of engagement. Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, wrote a book called Divided By Race: Evangelical Religion and The Problem of Race in America. They said this, "Recall that in the Jim Crow era, most evangelicals even in the North, did not think it their duty to oppose segregation. Instead, they felt it was enough to treat blacks they knew personally with courtesy and fairness." “So my job as a Christian is just be Christian to everyone I know. Just treat them kindly and with respect and that's it. And not challenge the structural institutional sins, not do anything about that.” That's a heritage. IV. A Journey of Justice and Love So what is our goal? This is a slogan I've got. And this is like what's in front of me? A prayer goal on the issue of racism in society and structurally and in institutions. I got this from a quote in Piper's book, Bloodlines, "To render race inconsequential for life opportunities, to render race inconsequential for life opportunities, or irrelevant let's say. It doesn't matter what your race is, here are the opportunities." That's the goal. Now, I will say that's much more true now than it was 50 years ago. I think that clearly, progress has been made, and isn't that encouraging? The Christians through action and non-Christians too but just through common grace whatever, you can become, the society can become less racist and more openly, or overtly, just. So that's encouraging to us to try. But that's what we want to see happen or in Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous statement, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." That's a different way of saying the same thing. So we have a biblical commitment to act especially in proportion to our positions of responsibility. So the more that God's given you, the more He's going to require from you. So we have a commitment to speak up. Isaiah 1:17, "Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17. Later Isaiah 58:6, "Is not this the kind of fasting that I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Or Proverbs 31:8-9, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves", that's advocacy, "For the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly and defend the causes or the rights for the poor and needy." There Remain Serious Social Issues to Address So present hot button issues, what are we going to do? Let's take the law enforcement and people of color issues. Now these are terrible incidents, but it's pretty obvious that I tend to see them differently than my black friends do. And that's a problem for me. I want to see things more together. I want us to be together and see it, and to understand what they see when something like that happens. Some people deny that in those incidents, there's any racism at all. I don't know how you can know that, but there isn't any. What happened is that people are resisting arrest, and then this happens, etcetera. Other people think it's nothing but racism all the time. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. On those that say there's no racism, all there's specific cases though, they've become a little bit difficult to explain when like an African-American gentleman's on his back with his arm, straight up, and just trying to surrender quickly whatever, and still get shot. And then, does the society react properly? The grand juries and all that, do they do the right thing? So there's just issues with that all over. I know that most of the people within a one-mile or three mile radius of this place that we might seek to reach would see things radically differently I think than us, and that should matter as we're trying to reach the community. But there's deeper issues than that. I'll tell you, on that particular one, I saw a panel discussion, a round table discussion after Ferguson. And there was this one African-American sister in Christ, who's married to a black police officer, she said, "I can't tell you how conflicting this whole issue is for me. I see it very much from the angle of racial justice, but I want my husband to come home safely at the end of the night." And those are touchy moments when there's tension. And you got a split second decision. It's hard to know what to do. What kind of training? What kind of response after the fact, investigating the incident? Hard to know. That's what she said, speaking honestly. But I know there are deeper issues. Present Conditions There're heartbreaking issues concerning the African-American community, especially young men in the African-American community. Homicide is the number one cause of death for black men between 15 and 29 years of age and has been for decades. 94% of all black people who are murdered, are murdered by other black people. It's heart-breaking. The more you look at this, it's just shattering. It's like, "Lord, what can we do?" In the past several decades the suicide rate among young black men, has increased more than 100%. In some cities, black males have a high school dropout rate of more than 50%. I was standing in line at Lowe's yesterday with Calvin, hoping you don’t if I tell. Calvin was turning on flashlights and turning them off and he was urging me to buy one of them. Like I'm good. High energy, lots of stuff going on. I just wanted to check out and leave. African-American woman standing next to me, she said, "That's just the way boys are. I have three sons of my own." We got into a conversation. "How old are your sons?" Her name was Lynn. "How old are your sons?" "Well praise Jesus they're 19, 18, and 15." I said, "Well Calvin's 15." We got talking. She says, "A 19-year-old and he's still a virgin.” She said that to me. We're total strangers. A little awkward. It's awkward. It's like, "Oh, good for you. Keep it up." But just the themes of raising young men and the challenges of doing that, and how hard it is, and this is much on her mind as a mother. These themes come together, they're not in a vacuum, they come together in a complex of issues, In 1965, the year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, 24% of black births in America were to single women. Today, the number is 72%. Just the devastation and being raised without a godly father who can give direction to a young man as he grows. Now, as we look at this complex of issues, there tend to be polarized answers. Answer number one, answer number two. Answer number one tends to focus on personal responsibility. Individuals need to take personal responsibility for their education, their morality, their actions. They need to live up to standards of society, and not get into the kind of difficulties that cause all these troubles. Alright? Focus number two is structural or institutional reform. There has to be significant changes made to society and structures in society. Bigger than any individual and it's going to take massive efforts to make. Those are two approaches, two different approaches. Social or political conservatives tend to be in the first camp, Republicans. And then social, what do you say, political liberals, etcetera, Democrats for the most part tend to be in the other. And there you've got that divide. What do you do? And African-American scholars are divided in the same way. Two Seemingly Conflicting Poles Henry Louis Gates Junior of Harvard, said, "The causes of poverty within the black community are both structural and behavioral. It's not one or the other." He said this, "Not to demand that each member of the black community accept individual responsibility for their behavior, whether that behavior assumes the form of gang violence, sexual activity,” you name it, “is another way of selling out a beleaguered community." But Elijah Anderson of Yale said, "Without a massive program of reconstruction, inner-city residents, especially young black men will remain mired in hopeless circumstances that they cannot escape." Now, if you go with the more structural intervention side, things get even more complicated and divisive. Government intervention has made a difference, a big difference, like Brown versus Board of Education and other things with the Civil Rights Act. It does make a difference. But sometimes structural intervention makes things worse, like things like affirmative action programs are criticized, even by black scholars because they establish a preferential treatment for blacks, the kind of writes, impermanently a gap, which is insulting frankly, to African-Americans at that point. But then how do you level the playing field? So what do you do? Shelby Steele, African-American scholar says this, "Blacks can have no real power without taking responsibility for their own educational and economic development. Whites can have no racial innocence without earning it by eradicating discrimination and helping the disadvantagde to develop both sides." I feel harmony with that statement. So for us, we have to look at what God's given us, what positions of influence, what has he given us that we can use to level the playing field in an intelligent way. John Piper: “Seven Feelings Rise In My Heart” Now, as I was reading Bloodlines by Piper, he got to after going back and forth and back and forth for far more pages than I burdened you with this morning. He just stopped in the middle of the book he said, "Can I tell you I have seven feelings right now?" That's John Piper by the way, he just has seven feelings. Most of us have one feeling, he has seven. But they were just so thorough and complete and they lined up and I just thought it was right. What were his seven feelings? “Alright, first I feel regret for my own sin in this area. Sense of regret. Secondly, I feel sorrow over cycles of despair and depression, and hopelessness and brokenness and the ruin of so many human lives. Thirdly, I feel anger at sin on all sides of this equation. No one's escaped. There is no one righteous, there's no one clean on this one. And I feel anger about that sin. Fourth, I feel frustration over untold layers of complexity of trying to actually solve this thing. It's frustrating to me that everything we try to do actually seems to make things worse sometimes. Fifthly, I feel empathy with the truth claims as I perceive them to be true on all sides of this debate. I feel drawn by the truth that I read and it's like, ‘Yeah that's true.’ Sixth, I feel a great longing to see the Gospel unleashed in this issue. And the Gospel preached, and individual saved, and lives transformed. And then finally, seventh, I feel tremendous hope for the future. Not just the eternal future of what's going to happen in Heaven but that even in our society, new things can be thought of, that will greatly improve life for everybody involved.” V. Application The Gospel Alright, so for me, applications. First and foremost, I always seek to preach the Gospel. And I actually see a lot of folks that are here that aren't usually here. Glad that you're here, praise God for that. I don't always know why people come to church, but I know this, none of this issue, this reason is by far the most significant issue of anybody's life. Jesus said, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" So even if the entire world of opportunity were handed right to whether you're black or white, it wouldn't matter if you weren't a Christian, if you weren't born again, it will do you no good on Judgment Day. And beyond that, all of the biblical truth that I've talked about only gets unleashed in the lives of believers. People who believe these themes. So come to Christ and trust in Him. Embrace the Gospel, the Gospel has power to change hearts. Ask God to Search Your Heart Secondly, if you're a Christian, just take Psalm 139:23-24, and just say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart, show me patterns of sin inside me." Now on racism it may be issues of deeper hardness in your heart toward individuals that may be there. And you didn't know it was there. There's some hiddenness that can happen there. Could be some sins of commission, things you've said or done in the past and you should feel ashamed for it, and you feel that and you want forgiveness for it. But it might be like me, mostly sins of omission, that you've shrunk back from getting engaged frankly. Shrunk back from energetic ministries and out of laziness, selfishness, cowardice, whatever reason, "Search me, O God and show me know my heart." Seek New Friendships Thirdly, seek out genuine friendships with different people, people different than yourself. When I say seek out, I mean get out of your usual patterns, and go be involved in ministries or other things that enables you to make new friends that are different from you. And as you have opportunity, if they are, blacks with whites or whites with blacks, talk about these things. And don't shrink back from talking about it, but lean into the topic of racism like we've tried to do today and say, “Help me think better about this.” I want us, I want me and Eddie White, I want us to feel the same about the things that his mother went through. I want to feel the same and be one with my brother. And I want to be good friends. That's going to be one of the most important things you can do, genuine friendships with people who are different and genuine communication. Pray For An End to Racism Fourth, pray for an end to racism, that race would someday be irrelevant inconsequential for life opportunities. Just pray for that. Pray that God would work. And if you say that there's no such thing as bias, there's no such thing as, well very controversially the phrase, “white privilege,” things like that. Look, I understand why you might think that way. I understand certain aspects and some of them amoral and some of them moral. You don't want to feel like the things you learned in your education were just handed to you because you're white and all that. I understand all that. But I liken it to bike riding. I like to ride bikes for exercise, and I've just found that uphills are harder than downhills. Have you guys, maybe some of you right bikes and you know, it's just when it's like this, it's hard. And when I get to the top, I'm exhausted.: But if I get to turn around and come back down, I remember riding out in the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was with a friend of mine, and we rode uphill for two hours and downhill for like 20 minutes. Scariest ride of my life. Over 50 miles an hour on thin tires. I don't think I'll ever do that again. But it was exhilarating. But bias is like that. It's just like every stroke of the pedal is a little bit harder just a little bit harder. Like is it real, is it actually happening? Well, that's where friendships can come in, where you can actually communicate. What we're seeking is often called the level playing field, achieving it may be a lifetime work. I don't know, but that's the goal. That's what we're looking for. And pray for FBC Durham to be a light in a dark place in a city on a hill. Pray for us to do creative ministries. Find ways to reach out. I was talking to Nathan Miles after the Wednesday meeting about the refugee issue. And I didn't even touch how the refugee issue is an issue of racism, too. And I mean, I could go on and on about this. But just that kind of ministry will really help us grow in terms of social justice and getting involved or urban ministry. So many of you guys are involved in that. Pray that God would do a multi-ethnic work, in this church just more and more people of different backgrounds becoming members here. And then finally, don't see color blindness, seek delight in what God's made. Let's just really enjoy each other in what God's made and delight in it, like we will in Heaven, so close with me prayer. Prayer Father, we thank you for the time we've had to look at this topic. I just thank you for this church. I thank you for the hearts of the people here, I thank you for their eagerness to hear from God and from this word, and they're consistent trust in the Word to take this church where it needs to go. God, do a work, a supernatural work of unity and love and justice in our church, and through our church. Help us to be more energetic and active than ever before in issues of social justice, but with the saturation of the word of God and the inherent scriptures in the Gospel of Christ, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I tried to avoid it, but the Republican National Convention was omnipresent. This is  one of my takes on it. Get on your knees.       Fighting.     Stop it!     Assured with violence.      LAW.     What difference does it make? Hillary Clinton must be punished.     America must be punished.      You're the problem.     No Hillary, no problem. Radical vision.     (Special thanks to Diamond Reynolds for her recording of the officers who detained her.) Cast of characters (roughly in order): Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Pam Bondi, Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Laura Ingraham, a little Bernie and Hillary sprinkled in.

In a world where we think we've seen everything, the videos of the shootings of Alton Sterling and, especially, Philando Castile were shocking because of the intimacy they offered. Anyone who watched Diamond Reynolds calmly addressing the police officer who shot her boyfriend, Castile, as he lay dying beside her, will never forget it.Across the country, people took to the streets and to the internet. People mourned and raged on social media. And a number of prominent local writers shared an essay by a young writer that caught our eye: “I Don't Want to Be Beautiful” by Melanie Alldritt. We invited her in to read for us and discuss how writing lets her work through experiences that are too horrible to talk about. Alldritt is currently working on an essay about the grief of being a black woman that she'll read at the Grief Rites reading series on August 8 at the American Legion Post 143.

A few hours ago my wife asked me if we could just leave the country for good. It wasn't a rhetorical question, but a serious, sobering, painful one coming from a distraught black mother of five young black children. Her question was not one of travel, but survival.   She already knew that being black in America is not safe, but the videos of Alton Sterling being killed by police in Baton Rouge and of his devastated son crying his heart out on national television hit her hard. They hit millions of us hard. His name and those videos are now seared into the widely known roll call of black men and women murdered by American police in cold blood.   While millions of us grieved and processed our anger and pain about the death of Alton Sterling, something unthinkable happened right before our eyes - live on Facebook for all of us to see. Riding in the car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter, Philando Castile was pulled over by police in Minnesota Wednesday night. As he reached for his wallet, as the officer requested, the officer shot him four times and killed him.   -Shaun King   Having just witnessed her boyfriend shot to bits in front of her young daughter, Diamond Reynolds had few choices. She couldn't call the police, of course, they were there, with their guns now pointed at her. So she pulled her phone out, opened up Facebook and chose to broadcast live, for the whole world to see as Philando fought for his life, bleeding out right there in the car.   -Shaun King   Links   www.WileyNFlash.com   www.twitter.com/WileyShow   www.YouTube.com/TheWileyShow   IG: @4everWiley

Business of Monday Money Talk|Motivation. "Unapologetically Black Lives Matter - Black Wealth Matters". "FOLLOW US". Reminder 7.12! 9AM CT Live CommunityView while having your breakfast & more @Sammy's Avenue Eatery, 1101 W. Broadway Ave N, Mpls.   Mondays - Apostle SB Barber & Our contributing host & commentator - the fabulous & bodacious educator Lola Thomas aka @call_Lola of Cycle Changers! and Michael Lopez of Halo Ramp LLC. He is an Entrepreneur|Businessman|Inventor & Founder of Entrepreneurs of Color Conference & Recognition. Get ready for our conference March 25, 2017. GMSbuzz & Guest Contact Link: *Download app: Civic Eagle *Sat., 8.13. From 1-3PM. YiG Stars & Stop bullying Now Movement present TeenTalk REAL.RAW.REALITY. We invite Teens & Youth to join LIVE Audience. Families are welcome @ North Community YMCA for Youth and Teens Center, 1711 W. Broadway, Mpls, MN 55411. SBBMS Music Playlist: ABradshaw "Revolution", Ernest Pugh "I'll Trade It". Guest/Programming Booking Request: gracemediaservices@yahoo.com Send us your questions/comments before, during, after the broadcast. Join us on Twitter@GMNetwork, Facebook@GMNLiveTv, YouTube@GMNLiveTv or Instagram@GMNLiveTv -- SB Barber Morning Show with Apostle Shena SB Barber is produced by ShenaBarber.com and presented by GRACE Media Network.

When we sat down in the studio to record this week's show, it was Wednesday evening, and our hearts were heavy with the news of Alton Sterling's death. Sterling was shot and killed by police in Baton Rouge. He'd been selling CDs outside of a convenience store. It's a conversation we've had more times than we can accurately remember in our four years of producing Strange Fruit episodes. The details change, but our analysis stays the same. A police officer who hasn't been trained to recognize his own internal biases is more likely to see a black man as a threat. Media outlets look to the victim's past, and behavior during the stop, for evidence of guilt. Police who shoot people are rarely convicted of crimes. These are all factors in this cycle of police violence we're seeing in the United States — and now that most people have cell phones with video cameras, we actually see the incidents, all over the internet and TV. The morning after we recorded our episode, the whole world was watching a Facebook live video taken by Diamond Reynolds showing the last minutes of her boyfriend's life. Philandro Castile was shot by police during a traffic stop. Reynolds's 4-year-old daughter, who was in the back seat during the shooting, could be heard on the live stream telling her mom, "It’s OK, I’m right here with you." And then, the next night, a sniper shot at police during a peaceful protest in Dallas, killing five officers. The violence perpetrated by and involving the police is so constant, we can't keep up with it. So this week, we're bringing you the show as we originally recorded it, focused on Alton Sterling. We'll be at Louisville's vigil on Sunday, and we'll keep you posted on further developments. And we sincerely hope we never see another week like this.

The last two days I have been disgusted by the bad words on the videos of Alton Sterling being killed by police officers in Baton Rouge. What disgusts me is that I can’t hear the “bad words”, and that much of the repulsive activity taking place is being masked by the bleeping out of those “bad words”. The notion of what offends, and what we need to be “protected” from, demonstrated by these videos, sums up how distorted the priorities of ruling institutions have become. Philando Castile lies dying in his car after being shot several times by a hysterically shrieking police officer, while Diamond Reynolds, Philando Castile’s fiancée, calmly films and narrates the whole proceedings. Meanwhile, her 4-year-old daughter is being traumatized in the back seat as she witnesses the whole revolting happening. Heaven forbid that that little girl should ever hear "bad words" on television......