Originally posted on HuffingtonPost.com/Black Voices. Used with permission.

This week, we're joined by several church leaders and religious thinkers as we explore how the religious is also political.

First, Sister Joi Ruth Orr, of Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute of the AME Church, along with two other ministers pen an open letter to Newt Gingrich. Citing his inflammatory statements about poor children of color, "As a candidate vying for the Republican Presidential nomination, to suggest that poor children collectively lack a work ethic and drive for legal and productive work is entirely classist. Your national platform is no place for such irresponsible remarks. Our children deserve better than your degrading rhetoric."

As representatives of their congregation, Joi and her co-authors demand an answer.

Next, longtime Sunday Preach contributor, Darius Gray, reminds us of the long held but often forgotten tradition of Watch Night and how a deep dive into post-slavery record revealed black family ties even as many black during and right after slavery were scattered across the country.

Last but not least, Monique Ruffin, continues her exploration into homophobia in the church and takes a deep look at Pastor Joel Osteen and his message.

An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich from the Pastors of Poor Children

By Joi Ruth Orr

Mr. Gingrich,

For this you still owe our children an apology:

"Some of the things they could do is work in a library, work in the front office, some of them frankly could be janitorial; what if they clean up the bathrooms, what if they mopped the floors, what if in the summer they repainted the school; what if in the process they were actually learning to work, learning to earn money; if they had their own money, they didn't have to become a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer. [If] they had the dignity of work and learned how to be around adults who actually wanted to mentor them and help them. This is not a casual comment... It grows out of a lot of thinking over many years of trying to figure out how do we break out people trapped in poverty who have no work habits." -- Gingrich

We, the students and faculty of the Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute of the AME Church, representing over 34 congregations and their constituents throughout Delaware and southern Pennsylvania are outraged at your continued demeaning of poor children and their families.

As a candidate vying for the Republican Presidential nomination, to suggest that poor children collectively lack a work ethic and drive for legal and productive work is entirely classist. Your national platform is no place for such irresponsible remarks. Our children deserve better than your degrading rhetoric.

In fact, they deserve an apology, and we -- their pastors and advocates -- demand one.

Mr. Gingrich, what your remarks have demonstrated is a failure to acknowledge the resilience of many who work daily and yet are unable to escape poverty. For many, low wages, a poor economy, and sparse full time employment opportunities have landed many families into the category of what the U.S. Department of Labor & Labor Statistics call the working poor. Contrary to what your remarks propagate, a significant number of children in households below the American poverty line (and those one paycheck away from it) are in homes with working family members; many of them are in our congregations weekly and are active citizens.

Mr. Gingrich, not only did you get the "cause" of poverty wrong, but your "solution" is just as unsubstantiated and offensive. Mandating that poor children become the janitors of their own failing public schools to better their work ethic is not a well thought out, viable, or realistic solution. Such a proposal is not only insulting, it is ridiculous.

Where would the currently employed janitors work (obviously this is a back handed assault on union employees)? If poor children are to benefit from extracurricular employment, why not at least provide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) opportunities to increase their competitiveness in the global marketplace? Why not invest in education reform instead of cutting back early education/head start programs? Why not put forth solutions to the unemployment crisis in our nation, so that those who have the dignity, but not the work, can have an opportunity to build a better future for themselves and their children?

But, no -- instead you fan the flames of prejudice to get votes. With a move right out of Lee Atwater's Southern Strategy play book (i.e., "Welfare Mothers" = Lazy Blacks), you have managed to stir the xenophobia and racist fears of your far right republican base with the statement:

"I've been talking about the importance of work, particularly as it relates to people who are in areas where there is public housing, et cetera, where there are relatively few people that go to work." (Emphasis added)

Mr. Gingrich, the poverty of many poor minority children is the byproduct of systemic injustices that bar them from participation in the American Dream because of their racial and social location -- not laziness.

We understand that you are of the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" camp, but the last time we checked Mr. Gingrich, it is impossible to pull yourself up by your own boot straps, and even more difficult when you have no boots to begin with.

Consequently, as pastors and leaders of the poor and their children, we are called to champion those without the boots of opportunity, fair play, and justice. For us not to mandate an apology for such biased, erroneous and offensive remarks would be as irresponsible as the remarks themselves. Today, Mr. Gingrich, we extend to you the opportunity to recant your "war on poor children" rhetoric and the opportunity to apologize to our children for speaking such falsehoods over their lives.

Awaiting your response,

Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute

The Rev. Dr. Janet J. Sturdivant, Dean of Ministerial Institute

The Rev. Silvester S. Beaman, Chairman of Board of Examiners

Sis. Joi Orr, M.Div, Organizer & Institute Student

Follow Joi Ruth Orr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joi_orr

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Watch Night

By Darius Gray

As 2011 came to its close, many of us watched the annual rituals at Times Square on our flat-screened televisions. Around the country, songs were sung and parties enjoyed, but I wonder how many of us or our children remembered that December 31st is Watch Night. It was on this date in 1862 that Blacks in this nation, freeborn and enslaved, crowded into churches and other buildings, or huddled as families at home waiting for the event scheduled to happen on the first day of 1863. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order freeing many of the nation's slaves was to take effect. The actual order had been signed in September 1862, and was set to free the slaves held by the states in rebellion against the Union. (With the war's end in April 1865, and passage of the 13th Amendment in December of that year, all slaves would be freed.) Our ancestors had heard rumors of freedom's coming and were "watching" for this great event. They awaited word by all possible means. There were no cell phones or text messages that night, but word spread nonetheless. Yes, the president had signed the order. All Blacks in this nation had cause to celebrate.

My grandfather, James Louis Gray, was born in 1859. He was born enslaved. Slavery is my heritage. I've wondered what my grandfather's parents did on Watch Night. They lived in the border state of Missouri, which had already been technically freed by state law. Nonetheless, I imagine that they kept watch with others. Did they have cousins in other states who would be emancipated by Lincoln's order? Friends? I believe that they understood how inter-woven our destinies are. As Dr. King wrote in his great Letter from Birmingham Jail: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality."

My parents spoke easily of the way things were "back in slave days." It was simply a part of our family history, and not far away at all. Because of this, I had particular interest in the genealogical work I helped facilitate with Marjorie Taylor: The Freedman Bank records. Though the bank itself failed, a treasure survived. It had nothing to do with money, but with names.

If you're a former slave seeking to identify yourself in a new, post Civil War world where you can have a bank account and actually be paid for your labors, you have no Social Security card, no driver's license, no identification we would take for granted today. As a result, you would identify yourself by your relationships.

The microfilmed bank records we dealt with when doing the extraction (which were ultimately made available on CD) had priceless and sometimes heartbreaking notes to identify the owner of the account. In an interview, the former slave establishing an account would answer questions. Their answers would be written down. They would identify their parents, children, siblings. Each account might give generations of names, which their descendants can now look up. Family connections mattered deeply to our slave ancestors and they worked hard at maintaining those relationships -- even through the horrible years of slavery and reconstruction.

How well have we remembered this legacy and the hard history we share? Next year will be the 150th anniversary of "Watch Night." Let us teach our children to understand and value their roots. Let us never forget the lessons which remind us that what affects one affects all. Let us remember that we are still watching for freedom -- ours or that of anyone in the family of God.

May we all be blessed,

Darius A. Gray

Joel Osteen's Sin

By Monique Ruffin

I ended my last blog about the oppression of gays by some black Christian churches by asking, "How did Jesus transcend all manner of hate?" This question has lived inside my heart and life for many years. It was the question that led me away from Christianity, as I could not find the answer in the religion of my childhood. I wanted deeply to understand the power of Jesus' love, and his command for us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love God with all our heart and soul.

While I've found that some of the leaders of black Christian churches tend to be particularly staunch in their commitment to demonizing gays, other non-black Christian churches don't hesitate to join in, too. Recently,Oprah Winfrey sat down with Joel Osteen, the pastor of the largest church in America. Each Sunday Osteen speaks to at least 16,000 church members. When Oprah asked Pastor Osteen if he thought gay people would enter heaven, he answered, "Yes, if they repent for their sins." Pastor Osteen went on to say that the Bible defines homosexuality as a sin. These types of declarations and beliefs by some Christians conflict with what I've come to see as the deeper meaning within the teachings of Jesus.

In 1998 I left the Christian church and began a journey that started with the question, "How did Jesus transcend all manner of hate?" I'd heard hundreds, and maybe thousands, of messages pointing me to what Jesus did and why I should worship him. But after 30 years those lessons hadn't given me any real power or peace in my life. After years of religious and spiritual exploration and deep questioning, I discovered that unlike the Jesus espoused in the various mega-churches, the Jesus I'd found knew, owned, accepted, and declared his oneness with God. "When you see me, you see my Father who has sent me," said Jesus. Jesus' core message was love: love yourself, love your enemy, and love God. These teachings were my path from a dark night of the soul, a path that eventually led me to profound oneness.

Osteen says, "Wishing to be something that you are not is an insult to God. God made every one of us a masterpiece." Here's where I question Pastor Osteen's message. I say "yes" to this, and I ask, "Are these words true for gay people, or are they the exception to the message you offer the thousands you speak with weekly, and the millions who purchase your books?"

Even as Pastor Osteen's message is one of happiness and inspiration, I see it is as duplicitous and divisive at its core, like a wolf in sheep's clothing. In the world in which we live today, this concept of sin asks us to discard a part of ourselves. "Love the sinner but hate the sin" suggests that there is some part of ourselves we should reject or even hate. How can this be true if Jesus himself said to love your enemy? We're accustomed to viewing our enemy as something or someone outside ourselves, but in truth the greatest and only enemy is within. And Christ commands each to love himself as he loves God, no exceptions. Love in and of itself creates bridges and builds relationships with all people and all parts of ourselves. Love creates wholeness.

What if we all were taught (and believed!) that we are here as a representative of the Father, the creative force behind all that is? What if we knew that each person we encounter is a representative of the Father? In our understanding that each one of us is here on purpose as a representative of the Father, an experience of surrender and acceptance occurs. When we, like Jesus the Christ, know our oneness with God, an embrace of the self is realized. In an era post-Jesus the Christ, there is only one sin, and that is our denial of our true and whole selves.

In our world today there appears to be a great explosion of pain and suffering. We see oppressed people rising up and claiming their freedom. Freedom occurs once we claim every part of ourselves to the whole. Pastor Osteen's message is obsolete and oppressive in an age when people are awakening to their truest nature. We each have as our birthright the claim, "When you see me, you see my Father who has sent me." There, in the hearts, lives, and eyes of gay people, are all people. So there is only one thing to see and accept: gay people (like the Christ) are the living expression of love. They, too, are representatives of the Father. And our ability to fully love gay people and all people is directly connected to our experience of God.

Follow Monique Ruffin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/moniqueruffin