Blacks and Jews in Historical Interaction: The Biblical/African Experience

The subject before us for consideration is part of a larger one, in the light of which it must be studied and only in the light of which it can be understood. That larger subject is: “Blacks and Jews in Historical Interaction: The Biblical/Black Experience.” But having stated the larger subject of which the immediate one is only a part takes us short distance in dealing with it. Before real treatment can be given it is necessary first of all to establish a foundation upon which a superstructure can be erected. The foundation consists in confirming the existence of Black peoples in the Biblical world with whom Jews could have interacted; it cannot be taken for granted that there were. Once such a confirmation is made, then and then only may the presentation proceed. For this reason the paper consists of two parts, the foundation and the superstructure

Pilot Study of Text Message Nudges as a Way to Improve Weight Loss Outcomes

Weight loss programs for women are on the rise, including both face to face and online programs. However, current research is limited on the process measures and content which produce adherence and the largest outcomes. With obesity on the rise in the United States, it is important to understand out health coaches can strengthen their programs to better support the obese population in their weight loss journey. The purpose of this pilot study was to develop and test the acceptability of text message nudges among women participating in an online weight loss program; determine how dose may be associated with weight loss outcomes; and to test how goal setting text messaging nudges improve percent body weight loss among women participating in an online weight loss program. It was found that the implementation of text message nudges did not provide enough to continue to improve and extend the program to be more successful. However, qualitative data was recorded and found to provide helpful insight into what content was preferred by the participants

Biblical Characters, Events, Places and Images Remembered and Celebrated in Black Worship

The present title of this article is a restatement and reduction of the much larger topic, “African and Biblical Bases for Black Worship and the Ways in which Biblical Events, Characters, Places and Images Parallel and Interweave Black Experience, and are Remembered and Celebrated in Worship,” an extended project upon which I am constantly at work. It is to be noted, here, that I shall deal in this paper only with Biblical (i.e., not with African) characters, events, places and images. At the very beginning, I must say that what is here presented is to be viewed and evaluated as the first draft of a report of an investigation into the subject. The subject is so vast that several persons, working over an extended period of time, might give attention to it. Therefore, the best that I might hope for is that what is presented may serve as a suggestion for further research and writing. Worship consists of several elements. This investigation was limited to songs, sermons and prayers. In the course of the investigation I perused five hundred fifty Spirituals, chiefly by title; two hundred fifty Gospel Songs which date mainly from the 1930’s to the present; fifty “Tindley” and similar Black Gospel Hymns which date from 1885 to 1935; and three hundred sermons which date from 1800 to the present. Roughly twenty-five prayers, dating from 1785 to the present, were reviewed

The Bible and the African Experience: The Biblical Period

In my opinion, the subject that has been announced for me to discuss, “The Bible and African Experience” is sufficiently broad to permit of, indeed to require, a division into several subtopics, each one of which merits serious consideration. It could well treat of relationships between the Bible, viewed as a collection of writings that came into existence over a period of some twelve hundred years, and the continent of Africa from the time that the earliest of those writings were produced down to the present moment. For indeed Africa has a place in the biblical writings from the very beginning, however far back in history one may set those beginnings

Isaiah's philosophy of history

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Three Thousand Years of Biblical Interpretation with Reference to Black Peoples

In the land of Palestine, known also from antiquity as the Holy Land, stand two mountains, which are not far apart and which face each other. In between lies a valley. By the ancient Hebrews, one mountain, called Gerizim, was referred to as the “Mount of Blessing.” The other, called Ebal, was referred to as the “Mount of Cursing.” Using a figure of speech, with reference to the Bible, we may compare the Bible to the valley between the two mountains, and ask a question: “To which of these mountains does the Bible—or rather, interpretations of the Bible,—belong?” To the “Mount of Blessing” or to the “Mount of Cursing?” Granted that the Bible, along with interpretations of it, have proved to be and continue to be sources of blessings to millions of people. It is also true that these have been and continue to be sources of some of the greatest curses humankind has known. Upon the basis of the Bible and interpretations of it Orthodox Jew has killed Orthodox Jew; Orthodox Jew has killed Christian Jew; Gentile has murdered Jew; Christian has murdered Christian. In no instance, however, have the Bible and interpretations of it led to such murder, whether physical, psychological, social, or spiritual, as in the case of Black peoples. As will be noted, such murder goes back to ancient times, and is still being committed today. This lecture has as its purpose to review the history of the Bible and its interpretation with reference to Black peoples, from the very beginnings of the Bible itself, as collections of literature at various times, to the Bible as it exists today primarily in English translation, and as it is still interpreted today. Hence the title of the lecture is “Three Thousand Years of Biblical Interpretation with Reference to Black Peoples.

The Black Man in the Biblical World

During the course of centuries, upon the basis of the Bible the black man has been viewed in several and various ways. He has been regarded as the veritable father of Near Eastern civilizations; as cursed of God, or by a prophetic man of God, forever destined to serve “his more favored brethren,” incapable of any civilization. At the same time, but still upon the basis of the Bible, he has been excluded from the family of man, and declared to be a beast. Moreover, he has been declared a non-inhabitant of the biblical world, yet at the same time the cause behind the disintegration and decay of ancient civilizations

The Bible and the African Experience: The Biblical Period, 2014

Dr. Charles Copher is one of the black pioneer scholars of Old Testament. His distinction lies in his scholarly and analytical study of the black experience in the entire Bible. He notices that “numerous references to Africa and Africans are located in several types of the biblical literature: in the Pentateuch or five books of the Law; in the so-called historical books; in the books of prophecy; in poetical-wisdom books - all in the Old Testament; and in the New Testament Gospels, the one historical book, letters, and the apocalypse.