(1) The English newspaper The Independent thinks President George W. Bush is contemplating becoming a Catholic.

(2) Democratic candidate Barack Obama scolded absentee fathers on Sunday, Father’s Day. According to the NYTimes, Mr. Obama noted that

“more than half of all black children live in single-parent households,” a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood……”

(3) Meanwhile, black pro-life advocates will be protesting outside the upcoming Cincinnati, Ohio annual NAACP meeting. Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey pastor, said

“Because 2008 is an election year, the presidential candidates will undoubtedly speak at the convention. This gives us a national stage to make our case to the American people, as a whole, as well as the convention delegates.”

The NYTimes published an article A Life of Quality: Harriet McBryde Johnson:

“…..What many saw when they looked at her was a scrawny woman with a twisted spine who got around with a power wheelchair and lots…

In the forty years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the theologically informed social justice credentials of African American clergy have been a bit shaky. Of course, Black clergy have been engaged in protest, politics and prophetic preaching. But, to be sure, it seems the marriage of deep theological reflection and prophetic social agitation experienced a separation of sorts. If this is true, the evident “outing” of the Black pulpit’s prophetic edge in recent coverage of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ and public exploration of Black Liberation theology by mainstream, armchair theologians has caused or contributed to a forced reconciliation.

In recent weeks, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced finalists for its revered, vacant national presidency. Among the three candidates is the Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes III. Haynes, interestingly enough, is co-chair of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference,…