Leonardo Blair

Latest

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  Jun 29, 2021

  Virginia Theological Seminary pays first round of reparations checks from $1.7M fund

  Less than two years after creating a $1.7 million reparations program for descendants of enslaved blacks who worked on the school’s campus, as well as descendants of black employees from the Jim Crow era, the Virginia Theological Seminary, the flagship seminary of the Episcopal Church, has started dispensing checks.

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  Jun 29, 2021

  SBC Pres. Ed Litton apologizes for copying JD Greear sermon without credit

  Days after a video posted on YouTube highlighted similarities between separate sermons delivered by Southern Baptist Convention President Ed Litton and his predecessor, J.D. Greear, who both suggest that God appears to "whisper" about sexual sin in the Bible, Litton has apologized for not giving credit to Greear.

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  Jun 29, 2021

  Church clings to hope as 9 families missing after Champlain Towers South building collapse

  Parishioners at the Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Florida, are still clinging to hope as members of at least nine families that lived in the Champlain Towers South in Surfside remain missing after its catastrophic collapse last Thursday.

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  Jun 25, 2021

  Pastor urges President Biden to sign executive order declaring violence a public health crisis

  Calling it the “No. 1 problem of the 21st century,” an Illinois pastor who lost his son to gun violence in 2018, is urging President Joe Biden Wednesday to sign an executive order declaring violence a “national public health crisis.”

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  Jun 24, 2021

  As ex-megachurch leader Kirbyjon Caldwell reports to prison, wife says she ‘cried a river’

  Suzette Caldwell, the wife of Kirbyjon Caldwell who formerly led the 14-000 member Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Texas, says she “cried a river” as her husband began a six-year prison term for defrauding members of his church and other investors Tuesday.

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  Jun 23, 2021

  Tulsa pastor gives ‘reparations’ to massacre survivors, calls on churches to take the lead

  Transformation Church Pastor Michael Todd in Bixby, Oklahoma, called on churches across America to take the lead on the issue of reparations as he presented $200,000 checks to each of the only living survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre during a moving sermon on Sunday.

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  Jun 23, 2021

  Kansas City pastor dies from COVID-19 at 39 after doctor allegedly said 'he’s going to be fine'

  For months, Pastor Michael “Grizzy” Griswold of Kansas City, Missouri, fought to survive a COVID-19 infection that doctors initially told his wife he would beat. Two weeks ago, the Macedonia Baptist Church teen pastor died at the age of 39.

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  Jun 22, 2021

  Reality star couple scammed black investors out of millions with ‘Blessings in No Time’ scheme: lawsuit

  Thousands of African Americans who pumped an estimated $40 million into what some saw as a “Godly, ALL-Black, socially conscious gifting community” known as Blessings in No Time, may have placed their faith in an illegal pyramid scheme started by reality star couple Marlon Moore, also known as D.J. ASAP, and his wife LaShonda according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

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  Jun 22, 2021

  11 children injured in church bus crash, 2 critical as church asks for privacy

  The Union City First United Pentecostal Church in Tennessee thanked members of the public for an “outpouring of love and support” Tuesday, days after 11 children were injured in a crash during a trip in the ministry's van on Saturday.

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  Jun 21, 2021

  9 children, 1 adult from Christian group home killed in fiery Alabama crash

  The close-knit community of the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch, a Christian group home in Alabama, are now grappling with grief after nine children and one adult from their group died Saturday in a fiery crash on Interstate 65 in Butler County.