“Beverly Crawford and JDI Christmas” debut at #17. Forever Jones re-enters the chart at #38 with “Musical Revival.”
J Moss’ “V4: The Other Side of Victory” moves up to #12, Trip Lee’s “The Good Life” is at #14 and Fred Hammond’s “God, Love and Romance” climbs to #21. Bishop Paul S. Morton’s “Best Days Yet” slides over to #16.

Below is the list of albums that made the Top Ten this week.
Top Ten Billboard Gospel Albums
1. “Gravity”-Lecrae
2. “Best Days”-Tamela Mann
3. “Jesus at the Center”-Israel & New Breed
4. “Go Get It”-Mary Mary
5. “WOW Gospel 2012″-Various Artists
6. “Well Done”-Joshua Rogers
7. “Grace Gift”-James Fortune
8. “I Win”-Marvin Sapp
9. “Identity”- James Fortune
10. “Life and Favor”-John P. Kee

Source:http://www.examiner.com/article/billboard-gospel-albums-chart-james-fortune-captures-two-top-ten-spots

Historically Black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, received a $100,000 grant from DEX Imaging Inc. The grant will fund a scholarship program for Meharry’s School of Graduate Studies and Research, including four scholarships for students in the school’s master of science in public health degree program.

The Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant will fund the Carolinas Alcohol and Drug Resources (CADRE) program that will target racial and ethnic minorities, and particularly African Americans, for HIV and hepatitis testing and for substance abuse treatment.

Historically Black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina received a $100,000 grant from the Smithfield-Luter Foundation of Smithfield, Virginia. The grant will fund a scholarship program for children and grandchildren of employees of Smithfield Foods who attend the university.

Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, received a three-year, $902,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a program to train instructors to teach computer science courses in schools in the predominantly Black Hartford public school system that currently do not have courses in the field. Teachers in the program will attend a six-week summer course and then begin to teach computer science courses to students in the fall of 2013.

Source:http://www.jbhe.com/2012/12/higher-education-grants-of-interest-to-african-americans-44/

Reuters/Reuters: Filmmaker Byron Hurt is pictured with his mother, Frances Hurt, and sister, Taundra Hurt, holding family photos of Hurt's father, Jackie Hurt, who died in 2007 at age 64 as a result of pancreatic cancer in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters December 21, 2012. REUTERS/Bryon Hurt/Handout

(Reuters) – After interviewing food historians, scholars, cooks, doctors, activists and consumers for his new film “Soul Food Junkies,” filmmaker Byron Hurt concluded that an addiction to soul food is killing African-Americans at an alarming rate.
The movie, which will premiere on January 14 on U.S. public broadcasting television, examines how black cultural identity is linked to high-calorie, high-fat food such as fried chicken and barbecued ribs and how eating habits may be changing.
In the deeply personal film, Hurt details his father’s fight and eventual death from pancreatic cancer. A high-fat diet is a risk factor for the illness, according to researchers at Duke University in North Carolina.
“I never questioned what we ate or how much,” 42-year-old New Jersey-based Hurt says in the film that travels from New Jersey and New York to Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Chicago.
“My father went from being young and fit to twice his size.”
Hurt, who also made “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” decided to examine the link between calorie-loaded soul food and illnesses among blacks after his father was diagnosed in 2006.
He delves into his family history, as well as slavery, the African diaspora and the black power movement in the film and provides photographs, drawings, historic film footage and maps.
In Jackson, Mississippi, Hurt joined football fans for ribs and corn cooked with pigs’ feet and turkey necks. He also visited Peaches Restaurant, founded in 1961, where freedom riders and civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr. ate.
Hurt, whose family came from Milledgeville, Georgia, grew up on a diet of fried chicken, pork chops, macaroni and cheese, potatoes and gravy, barbecued ribs, sweet potato pie, collard greens, ham hocks and black-eyed peas. Read More

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/film-explores-african-americans-unhealthy-soul-food-habit-012935083.html

The project has received rave reviews, but Lee won’t be watching it because he’s convinced it’s one movie African Americans should avoid.

He tells Vibe magazine, “”I can’t speak on it ’cause I’m not gonna see it. All I’m going to say is that it’s disrespectful to my ancestors.”"

The filmmaker also took to his Twitter.com account over the weekend (22Dec12) to blast the modern spaghetti western, writing, “”American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone (director) Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.”"

This isn’t the first time Lee has taken offence to Tarantino’s work – he also spoke out against his 1997 movie Jackie Brown.

He told reporters, “”I have a definite problem with Quentin Tarantino’s excessive use of the n-word. And let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word – I’ve used that word in many of my films – but I think something is wrong with him.”"

Source:http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2012/dec/28/spike-lee-django-unchained-is-disrespectful-to-my-/

The church had to rethink and retool the Gospel to meet the need of the world. In the modern thinking mind, they assume that “knowledge is certain, objective and good, and that such knowledge is obtainable.” Men try to seek out and discover knowledge during the Enlightenment Age and beyond. This crusade toward reason and truth was an individual concern. Common folks within the church now read the Bible for themselves to decipher what is truth. The church was pushed out of the business of having the trademark of truth. The biggest challenge for the church now was postmodernism.

There was a time when most people in America believed in God and the Bible as authoritative. But since the birth of modernism and postmodernism, that would change by leaps and bounds. The world moving forward would experience three major earthquakes.

1. The Scientific: Darwin’s theory of evolution questioned the authority of the Biblical view of creation.
2. The Philosophical: questioned the Bible’s authority to define the meaning of man’s life and the reason for his existence.
3. The Moral: questioned the Bible’s authority to dictate man’s morality.

This worldview has no moral absolutes, everything is abstract and all belief systems are equally true. Just as in “The Next Generation” Data replaced Spock; just as postmodernity replaced modernity. Now not even the very fact of rationality can be accepted. The question now became how could the Gospel be shared within this context? Christianity is based on universal truths, which crosses all landmass and ocean shores. The reality is that the “center of reality” is Jesus Christ. Stanley Grenz proposed two contours that ought to shape future evangelical theology.

I. An authentic postmodern evangelical theology must be post-individual.

The church must capture an understanding of …Read More

Written by Pastor Gilford T. Monrose

Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pastor-gilford-t-monrose/postmodernism-and-the-future-of-evangelical-theology-and-the-christian-church_b_2296177.html

______________________________

Below you will find additional information, including:

*   Scholar Eligibility
*   JRF Application Schedule
*   Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
*   View a Webinar on the Program and Scholarship
*   See the “42” Movie Trailer

Eligibility
To be eligible for a Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship, an applicant must:

*   Be a graduating, minority high school senior
*   Plan to attend an accredited and approved four-year institution within the United States
*   Show leadership potential
*   Demonstrate a dedication to community service
*   Present evidence of financial need
*   Be a United States citizen
*   A minimum SAT score of 1,000 combined on the math and critical reading sections or a composite ACT score of 22
*   Not possess a degree from a 2 or 4-year college when applying for the scholarship

Frequently Asked Questions
We are happy to provide you with Frequently Asked Questions about the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship. We have compiled a listing of the queries we most often receive into one easy to read document for you and your students. To download click here.<https://custom.cvent.com/9967EF59840C4865B086335F9B06D660/files/3ef5b5587b0441ad8c6fdece16fd66e7.pdf>

View a Recent Webinar on the JRF Program and Scholarship Opportunity
On Tuesday, November 27th, the Jackie Robinson Foundation hosted a webinar for National Urban League (NUL) staffers and its affiliates to provide members of the historic civil rights organization with insight into JRF’s highly successful mentoring and leadership program and application process. To view, click here<https://www.dropbox.com/s/ij70bw2wdshysrf/2012-11-27%2015.30%20The%20Jackie%20Robinson%20Foundation%20Scholarship.wmv>. After downloading webinar please be sure your media player is up to date in order to view.

A third of women from the ones enrolled for the study said that they had reduced their frequency of exercising because of their hair concerns. Some others, some 40%, said that they simply escaped exercise for their hair.

It is being said that African-American women, who straightened their hair mostly avoided exercise. The only reason was the sweating that came as a result of exercising. Since, hair straightening using chemical relaxers is fragile and asks for less frequent washing.

Also, straightening of hair with other products or heat takes lot of time as well as money and sweating does not allow them to remain the same. However, they do exercise less often. But, it has been found that they are less recommended for moderate physical activity a week.

The U. S. Department of Health & Human Services has reported that this results in their being overweight or obese mostly. Strategies are being demanded that look after boost in physical activity by African-American women along with end of their hair care issues.

Source:http://topnews.us/content/252261-african-american-women-avoiding-exercise-hair-careAfrican-American Women Avoiding Exercise for Hair Care