Good morning Qcity! Today is going to be another beautiful day in Charlotte. The weatherman is calling for mostly sunny skies with a high near 75°. Tonight, expect temperatures in the low 50s. 

Here’s what’s brewing in the news:

Do they have to do it all?

Are too many demands and expectations placed on black pastors? One pastor seems to think so. John Fountain, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently published a letter that he received years ago from an anonymous pastor in response to a critical essay Fountain wrote on the black church. In the letter, the pastor laments that he and his colleagues struggle under the faulty expectations and needs of their congregations. He asks, “Do we have to do it all?” 

Below are a few excerpts from his letter. Read them, and leave your comments in the section below. Do you think perhaps he answered the wrong calling or does he have a valid point? Do we expect too much from our pastors?

The pastor begins his letter by stating that he is a prominent minister and acknowledges that Fountain’s rebuke of the church is not without cause. He then goes on to say that there is also a flip side to the story:

“I wanted to tell you about the weighted back — bent from the heavy lifting of broken people, bent from years of being expected to fill in the deficit, which has us suffering from poor leadership from other areas. Our pastors have had to fill in for no black leadership, insensitive presidents. . . . We are called to be spiritual leaders but required to be everything else. We are lost in a fog of too many demands, unfair job descriptions, endless hours, countless funerals, graveside services, ripped off by builders, forsaken by wives, hated by media, afraid of our own peers . . . [The church] expects us to be its civil rights, social service, psychologist, community builders, event planners, land developers . . .”

He elaborates on his frustrations with his own flock:

“I stopped shaking hands on Sunday morning . . . I was tired and overworked, exposed to countless people who wanted something from me — more than I had to give. I had loaned out money that I needed and was never repaid. I had been hit on by the women, ignored by the brothers who say they wanted to help but who more times than not took the position but not the work that went with it. I was tired of shaking hands with people who only wanted me to pay for the funeral, hire them to do work they used to do for free at their old church and find out ways they could get into my finances. Frankly, many pastors have collapsed and are equally disheartened as you seem to be . . . Statistics say that 75 percent of pastors of all races secretly want to quit, confess secret depressions, struggling marriages and endless demands weighting them down . . .The black community brings every issue to the feet of its pastors. What happened to the NAACP, the Urban League, National Council of Negro Women? Must we as black pastors do it all?”

He explains that pastors have their own issues to deal with:

“Many of the average-range pastors are just confused as to which fire to put out first: the one in the White House, the one in the church house or the one at his house! Not all of us are the pimp-like creatures you described. Even those of us who have a Rolex buy it to compensate for not having a life!”

In conclusion:

“I could go on and on . . . I am just a preacher who wishes guys like you would come back and help this first generation of churches who now finally have their own buildings, do suffer from misplaced priorities, but only because they are trying desperately to keep up with a changing definition of what a great church is.
Boy, we need you . . .”

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America’s filthiest surfaces

A team of hygienists took the streets of six U.S. cities to find the filthiest surfaces we encounter on a daily basis. Gas pumps topped the list. Other top offenders include handles on public mailboxes, escalator rails and ATM buttons. Closely following on the filthiest list were parking meters and kiosks, crosswalk buttons and buttons on vending machines in shopping malls. These everyday objects are breeding grounds for the worst bacteria and viruses, according to the study, which was released Tuesday by Kimberly-Clark Professional, a unit of the personal hygiene giant Kimberly-Clark Corp. Testers analyzed swabs taken from the surfaces and found that the levels of animal, vegetable, bacteria, yeast or mold cells were high enough to suggest that these items are not being cleaned frequently or thoroughly enough and can be transmitting illness. (Read more) 
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Surprising crime stats about athletes and the law

Murder, rape, drugs, domestic violence, driving under the influence. Name an offense, and most likely there is an NFL player that has been arrested or convicted on the charges. From the looks of it, one may think that NFL players are a bunch of thugs, but according to FBI statistics, NFL players get in 47.6 percent less trouble than the average citizen. In 2010, the national arrest rate was 1 in 23 (4.2 percent) compared to one in every 45 NFL players (2.2 percent), reports WCCO - a CBS affiliate in Minnesota. According to the report, the NBA has by far the highest arrest rate (5.1 percent) of any other professional sports league in America. Major League Baseball is second with an arrest rate of 2.1 percent last year. In 2010, the NFL actually had the lowest rate with 2 percent of its players in trouble. However, when it comes to DUI offenses, NFL players have an arrest rate (one in 144) slightly higher than the national average (one in 135). According to the report, the Minnesota Vikings lead the NFL in the number of players arrested since 2000. (Read more)  

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