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11A
RELIGION
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1997
Ebenezer installs pastor
The Rev. Leonzo Lynch takes helm at
Ebenezer Saturday. See Church News, page
12 A.
Sunday
School
LESSON
Robertson’s comments deemed offensive
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Leader Appears
The history of Israel is that of a
people in frequent need of
“recharging.” Through the period
of the judges, Israel was faithful
during the time of a faithful
judge; then they lapsed into idola
try until another leader came
along to recharge their faithliil-
ness. The same pattern continued
through the monarchy-faithful
kings led the people to be faith-
ful;unfaithful kings led the people
closer and closer to disaster.
Finally disaster came, in 722 B.C.
for the northern tribes and in 586
for the south. God’s chosen people
had become exiles in foreign
lands.
After the exile, a similar pattern
developed. The people who first
returned to Jerusalem enthusias
tically began to build the temple.
But they soon lost their zeal, and
the temple lay partially built
until the prophets Haggai and
Zechariah recharged their batter
ies and got the project back on
track. Twenty years after it had
been started, the temple was
completed, and the people cele
brated enthusiastically.
Then, again, the batteries grew
weak. The people began to ignore
the law. Some of then had even
married pagan wives, and their
faithfulness to Yahweh was grow
ing weak. That’s when Ezra
arrived to recharge the batteries
once more, as we saw in last
week’s lesson. Today’s lesson
brings us to a time about 13 years
after Ezra came to Jerusalem,
and the people are in need of a
recharge once again.
When we first meet Nehemiah,
he is serving as cupbearer to the
Persian king Artaxerxes, in the
capital city of Susa. The cupbear
er’s job was to taste any vtine
brought before the king. Thus, if
an assassin wished to poison the
king, the poison would have to be
added after the cupbearer had
tasted the wine. The cupbearer,
then, had to be someone the king
trusted and regarded very highly.
It appears that Nehemiah had
become a good fiiend to the king
as well.
It also seems that Nehemiah
was quite happy with his posi
tion. He did not return with the
Jews who first went back to
Jerusalem or with the seventeen
hundred who returned later with
Ezra. Apparently he assumed
that the Jews who had returned
to Jerusalem could get along
without him and had likely
restored Jerusalem into a
respectable city once more.
Then Nehemiah’s and some
other men came from Jerusalem
with disturbing news. The holy
city of Jerusalem was not a city at
aU. It was closer to a frontier vil
lage. The walls and gates were in
ruins, just as Nebuchadnezzar’s
men had left them more than a
hundred years before. Nehemiah
sat down and cried, and then he
prayed. His parents probably had
taught him to love Jerusalem, the
city where their ancestors had
lived and died. Now its once beau
tiful walls were only heaps of rub
ble. Nehemiah could not bear the
thought. Something had to be
done!
Nebomiah did not act impul
sively. He must have thought and
planned and prayed for a long
time. In fact, four months passed
— from the month Kislev to Nisan
- before to took his problem to the
king. As Nehemiah was serving
the king his wine, the king
noticed the sad expression on his
face. Nehemiah had never
appeared unhappy in the king’s
presence before, so the king asked
him why he was so upset.
Nehemiah explained that he was
mourning for his homeland.
In those days, one did not ask
kings for favors so easily as peo
ple in Western countries make
demands of their elected officials.
The proper protocol was to wait
until the king said it was okay to
ask. Artaxerxes could tell
Nehemiah wanted something, so
he invited him to make his
request.
WASHINGTON - Muslim lead
ers are demanding an apology
from Christian evangelist Pat
Robertson for saying on bis televi
sion program that converting to
Islam “is nothing short of insani
ty”
The remarks, according to a
transcript provided by the
Council on American-Islamic
Relations, were made after a
report about the persecution of
Christians in some Middle East
countries.
“Tb see Americans become fol
lowers of, quote, Islam, is nothing
short of insanity,” the group quot
ed Robertson as saying. “The
Islamic people, the Arabs, were
the ones who captured Africans,
put them in slavery, and sent
them to America as slaves. Why
would people in America want to
embrace the religion of the
slavers?”
The comments were made Oct.
27 on Robertson’s “700 Club,”
which airs on his Christian
Broadcasting Network, based in
Virginia Beach.
“Mr. Robertson’s hate-filled
remarks fit a pattern of demo-
nization of Islam and Muslims we
see growing in strength in this
country,” Nihad Awad, executive
director of the council, said Friday
at a news conference. He said
Robertson had “insulted” U.S.
Muslims and had previously
Father Mom
The Rev. Ida Johnson greets young parishioners before service.
PHOTO/SUE ANN JOHNSON
Priest balances family, church
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
The Rev. Ida Louise Johnson
knows about making history.
In the two years since her
ordination, she’s done it so
many times it no longer fazes
her.
She was the first AIHcan
American voted student body
president of the Church
Divinity School of the Pacific.
She’s the only African
American woman Episcopal
priest in North Carolina.
Johnson, 49, has been named
vicar of St. Michael and All
Angels Episcopal, the city’s old
est African American Episcopal
congregation. She’s the first
woman to hold the position in
the church’s 112-year history.
Installation services will be
held Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.
She says being first is just
“part of my journey.”
“I kind of tend to do that,”
Johnson said. “It seems kind of
strange to be talking about
firsts this close to the year
2000. I guess we sometimes
move a little slow.”
Being first has its drawbacks,
Johnson says.
In the Episcopal Church,
priests are called father by con
gregants. That occasionally
gives parishioners pause when
talking about a woman priest.
“1 am not father,” she said
with a laugh. “I am not mother
either. My son says I should get
a tag for my car that says
‘Father Mom.’ I guess that
might solve the problem.”
Johnson encourages people
just to call her “Rev. Ida.”
Johnson is St. Michael’s first
full-time priest since 1993. In
addition to ministering souls,
she is also charged with the
task of rebuilding. Once one of
Charlotte’s largest and
strongest African American
churches, St. Michael has had
a tough time in recent years.
Forced to move its downtown
home in 1968 during urban
renewal, St. Michael shared
worship space with other con
gregations for almost 15 years
before finding its current sanc
tuary in the Brookvale commu
nity in west Charlotte. The
church also lost its status as an
independent congregation,
which meant for years it had no
full-time priest. The combina
tion took its toll. Members left
for more settled congregations.
Currently, St. Michael has
150 members. About half
attend services each Sunday.
Johnson thinks she and St.
Michael are a perfect match.
Like the church, she has
endured some tough times.
“I was a battered wife,” she
said. “(She and son Craig, now
22) left with only the clothes on
Johnson
our backs, our Bibles and our
prayer books. Leaving was a
learning experience. I learned
that it is OK to put yom- trust
in God. It’s
not going to
be nice and
easy, but it is
going to be
OK.”
In 1983,
Johnson left
her husband.
She and her
Craig settled
in northern
California
and rebuilt their lives. Johnson
followed her calling to become a
priest.
“I always knew I had a mis
sion,” she said. “But women
weren’t allowed to begin the
ordination process until 1975
or so. By that point I was mar
ried. I hadn’t ever really
thought about women being
ordained in the church...My life
was such that I was just con
centrating on surviving. I had
to get my life in order first.
When I got to California, I real
ized that what I needed to be
doing was not in the secular
world.”
Johnson returned to college
after a 20-year hiatus in 1985,
earning a bachelor in philoso
phy and religion from San
Francisco State University in
1991. She went on to obtain a
master of divinity from CDSP in
1994.
After spending a year as a dea
con, Johnson was ordained a
priest in 1995.
She spent much of her first
year in the priesthood working
with young people in missions in
Califomia. She served briefly as
Director of Youth, Christian
Education and Camps and
Conferences for the Diocese of
Massachusetts, the largest
Episcopal diocese in the nation.
She also served for a year as
UNC Charlotte’s Episcopal chap
lain.
Coming to Charlotte wasn’t in
her plan, but evidently it was
“part of God’s,” she said.
“I just wanted to take a vaca
tion from the snow in Boston,”
she said, then laughed, “I never
intended to stay here. I just did
n’t want to see snow.”
After 22 snow storms in a year,
Johnson decided to visit the
South for Easter in 1995. She
picked North Carolina because
her son’s godmother, who hap
pened to be a member of St.
Michael, lived here.
“She called to tell me they did
n’t have a supply priest for
Easter,” Johnson said. “I packed
my vestments and came.”
She’s been her ever since. After
almost a year and half as the
See LIFE Page 12A
Report: Lyons had secret bank account
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - More
than $1 million intended for the
nation’s largest black church
wound up in a secret bank
account used by the church leader
and a worker to buy a waterfront
house and a diamond ring, a
newspaper reported.
The Wisconsin account at the
Guaranty Bank under the name
J.H. Associates was opened by
Josephine Hicks, who owns a
Milwaukee diner and is a long
time fiiend of the church worker.
Bernice Edwards, the St.
Petersburg Times said Thursday.
Hicks said last week that she
opened the account to help
Edwards cash checks but closed it
after learning large wire transfers
were going into the account.
Hicks said the transfers made
her uncomfortable. The account
was empty when she closed it
more than a year ago, she said.
The newspaper reported that
$136,000 was withdrawn from
the account as a down payment
on a $700,000 waterfront home
that the Rev. Henry Lyons and
Edwards own together and
$28,700 went toward a diamond
ring they
bought.
Lyons hired
Edwards, a
convicted
embezzler, for a
top job at the
National
Baptist
Convention
USA Inc. in
public rela
tions. Lyons denied he has done
anything illegal.
Lyons
The newspaper said hundreds
of thousands of dollars also were
transferred from the Wisconsin
account into a convention Baptist
Builder Fimd, a secret accoxmt
Lyons controlled in a St.
Petersburg bank.
The Loewen Group, a funeral
group in business with the con
vention, wired more than $1 mil
lion into that account, the Times
said. Company officials would not
discuss the transaction or disclose
who gave them the account nmn-
ber.
expressed anti-Muslim prejudice.
A spokeswoman for Robertson,
said in a statement that his words
“were taken out of context and
unfairly misrepresented his
views.””
American Muslim Council
leader Fahhim Abdulhadi
demanded an apology.
Workshop
pairs HIV
and music
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POST
A local AIDS education group is
takings its message about preven
tion and awareness to young peo
ple through a medium sure to get
their attention - song.
Revival of the AfHcan American
Faith Community for the Healing
of AIDS and the The North
Carolina Intercollegiate Music
Conference will join forces to pre
sent a weekend of awareness and
song for youth.
Guest lecturers include AIDS
activist the Rev. Gwen Curry,
chair of RAAFC, Donald
Lawrence, of the Tri-City Singers
and Richard Odom of Salem
Baptist Chvuch.
More than 20 colleges and high
school choirs will participate in
the two-day conference, which
includes live recording sessions
and concerts. Admissions coun
selors from 25 N.C. schools wfil be
on hand to discuss financial aid
options and requirements.
AIDS educators will be avail
able to discuss HIV and AIDS.
The event is free and open to col
lege and high students.
Schedule of events:
Friday
High School Gospel Choir
Showcase, 7 p.m. Silver Mount
Baptist Church, 501 W. Arrowood
Road.
Saturday
Recording session and worship
service, 8 p.m. Sheraton Plaza
Hotel, Billy Graham Parkway.
For more information, call 393-
2005.
Speaker
knows pain
of loss
By Jeri Young
THE CHARLOTTE POS
A nationally-known speaker will
help Charlotte’s first African
Methodist Episcopal chinch cele
brate its 100th aimiversary
The Rev. Lonise Bias will be the
keynote speaker for Greater
Bethel AME’s Centennial
Banquet Friday.
Bias is the mother of former col
lege basketball standout Len
Bias, who was the first player cho
sen in the 1986 National
Basketball Association draft.
Bias, a star from the University
of M^uyland, died of cocaine over
dose before playing an NBA
game.
In 1990, tragedy struck the Bias
family again when her younger
son. Jay, was killed in a drive-by
shooting.
Since the deaths of her sons.
Bias has crisscrossed the country
speaking to students and sports
figures about the importance of
remaining drug-free and avoiding
the violence that plagues many
communities.
Bias’ speech is one of several
events celebrating Greater
Bethel’s centermial. Previously,
the church hosted a fashion show,
men’s day observance as well as a
play tracing the church’s history
Tickets for the banquet are $30.
The event will be beld at **
Charlotte Marriott Executive
Park For more information call
376-4345.