THYME Magazine: Finding the C.U.R.E.

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VIII, Issue X

Finding the C.U.R.E.
Star Parker's Mission to Give People a Voice

As the wreckage of Watts smoldered in the wake of the riots of 1992, a young woman's dream lay shattered in the ruins. Star Parker had dreamed of creating an urban Christian magazine and that enterprise was now a casualty of the violence. As a teen she had had a troubled life, influenced by crime and drugs. She came to Los Angeles with a dream to become a dancer on Soul Train, but ended up as a single mother on welfare instead. Her life was forever changed when she gave it to Christ. She credits her G-d-given Faith for everything that happened after that.

Ms. Parker was motivated by her Faith to do more than simply cash her check and languish for the rest of her life on public assistance. She worked under the table and found a way to put herself through school, earning a degree in marketing. She launched her magazine, only to see her business destroyed in 1992. But Star Parker was only defeated temporarily. She continued her writing and her activism. Taking on the welfare system she had escaped, she wrote her autobiography, Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats, published in 1997. Her second book, Uncle Sam's Plantation, was released in 2003.

Star Parker founded the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, or CURE, to: "provide a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy." As a social policy consultant, Star Parker has given regular testimony before the United States Congress, and is a national expert on major television and radio shows across the country. She recently RAN for Congress but was unsuccessful. Star is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News. She has debated Jesse Jackson on BET; fought for school choice on Larry King Live; and defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today Ms. Star regularly publishes compelling commentary on issues of the day. Many of them appear on the website of CURE [click to read] and provide a welcome contrast to the repetitive tomes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Her story is amazing. Her writing is clear and lucid. She seems like a woman who has stepped out of the Harlem Renaissance and into our century! She is on a mission to inspire black pastors so that they might inspire their congregants.

So why don't we hear more about her? Her story of overcoming does not square well with the 'victim' narrative favored by so many contemporary activists. Also, her Christian Faith, the catalyst in her amazing life story, is problematic to modern Liberal narrative as well!

Could it be that the modern activist narrative, perpetuated by writers like Howard Zinn, conveniently ignores the sin, violence and retribution that lies outside of 'Western' activity. His 776 page A People's History of the United States [click to read] is required reading on many college campuses. No doubt, his philosophy has influenced many an aspiring journalist in their own activism. But Zinn must be seen for the Marxist that he is, and his convenient 'omission' of important history needs to be corrected.The problem is that Zinn, not sin, has become the basis for the activism of men like Sharpton and Jackson, who for the media serve as icons of the Civil Rights Movement.

First of all, it must be noted that Zinn himself admits: “Once I was bar mitzvahed, and I had done my religious duty, and my family needn’t be ashamed of me anymore…. that was the end of my religiosity.” He further perpetuates the marginalization of Faith in his works. Bob Cheeks [click to read] writes: "Rhetorician Richard M. Weaver in his essay, Up From Liberalism, explained the spiritual discernment that gave birth to his intellectual epiphany: “Original sin is a parabolical expression of the immemorial tendency of man to do the wrong thing when he knows the right thing.” By acknowledging Original sin, Weaver, abandoned a youthful dalliance with what at that time (the 1930’s) was called liberalism. Unfortunately, historian/activist Howard Zinn had no such epiphany."

The problem becomes most apparent when 'history' focuses on slavery in the Western world, conveniently forgetting its long-standing existence both ancient and primitive societies. Ignored is the fact that it was the Western world that created conditions for the dialogue and activism that largely ended the foul institution. Faith was the catalyst in the lives of men like John Newton and William Wilberforce. It was the catalyst for Martin Luther King's dream as well.

Indeed, Star Parker finds herself swimming upstream (as far as the academy is concerned) with her message of personal responsibility and empowerment. Her message and indeed her own life story serve to deconstruct the 'victim' narrative so essential to the perpetuation of the modern Liberal philosophy. Where they would focus on reforming 'corrupt' (as they see it) institutions, Parker seeks to reform the man! We would do well to remember that our great universities were founded on this principle, to bring the Gospel into practical practice in the hearts of individuals that make up our society. Star Parker is merely picking up their original mission in the work she does. Her message resonates with that of Martin Luther King's 1962 Speech, given at the Lincoln Memorial:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beckoning light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

One hundred years later the Negro is still languishing in the comers of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.

We all have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to change racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice ring out for all of God's children.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted citizenship rights.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

And the marvelous new militarism which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers have evidenced by their presence here today that they have come to realize that their destiny is part of our destiny.

So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and before the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the mount with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the genuine discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, pray together; to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom forever, )mowing that we will be free one day.

And I say to you today my friends, let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of G-d's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank G-d almighty, we're free at last!"

The Divine Plan of Redemption

If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." -- 2 Chronicles 7:14

The Great Depression of the 1930's in America...


What does redemption really look like? "The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph" -- Mr. Mendez.

"What this world needs is a little Wonder!" -- Mr Mendez

This beautiful short film has much to say about the mission of G-d's people in the world today. Do we grasp the wonder of Imago Dei in those around us? Do we seek to encourage and nurture it. The Butterfly Circus should be seen as a challenge to all of us in this regard.

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue V

This week the 'other' weekly news magazine features a cover picture of an empty 'hoodie' and the headline After Trayvon [click to read]. THYME wants to look youth violence square in the face, hence we invite you with our cover to see Imago Dei, the 'Image of G-d.' For every publicized youth death, there are hundreds more that happen in our nation's big cities. John Donne is right to remind us:

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The sentiment expressed by Donne should move us when we learn of any young person dead before their time. The young man who died, any young man who died, might have become instead the next Vivien Thomas [click to read], who developed surgical techniques that saved thousands of lives. Vivien Thomas was the victim of discrimination, not even allowed to be on the payroll of John's Hopkins as anything but a housekeeper, but Johns Hopkins was able to grow into the institution it is today, where Dr. Benjamin Carson could become Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery and Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center. Prejudice can and should be overcome. Our young people need to see examples to follow; examples of action, not anger.

But how can we inspire the youth of our communities with the vision that they are essential participants in humanity? Here is One Example [click to read] of how positive role models can become involved in the lives of youth. A church can become the catalyst for creating relationships with kids and gifted people for them to emulate. We need to offer young people our best mentors and principles if they are to succeed.

Staunton's Office on Youth did just that in creating Terrific Tuesdays. Middle school and elementary school students got to participate in a variety of art and craft projects, including painting a mural on the wall of their community center [1.] Pastor Tony Evans works to create partnerships of suburban churches and inner city churches to provide resources and tutoring for young people. His Urban Alternative [click to read] offers hope Activist Star Parker, who went from welfare mother to creator of an urban affairs magazine, watched her office go up in flames during the Watts riots. She persisted in her mission and now is the director of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education [click to read].

These are the leaders America needs right now. Back in the 1970's a friend of mine traveled to Northern Ireland to do a paper on the situation there. He met people on both sides of the issue with deep-seated resentment, the victims of an ongoing bloody battle. He even interviewed Bernadette Devlin. What stuck with me from his research was how there were indeed people in Northern Ireland who were, in spite of the injustice and bloodshed they had experienced, seeking to heal their country.

Guided by Christian ideals of forgiveness and love for one's enemies, these unique individuals sought to bring about a reconciliation in their land. Reading the vicious 'tweets' and stories of racially motivated beatings after the Zimmerman verdict, one can only hope for such noble people to lead us now. Eric Holder's assertion that 'white people haven't suffered enough' needs to be weighed against real history. Many of us are in America because our ancestors fled oppression of all sorts. My Bavarian ancestors came to escape Bismark's exploitation. If we studied more real history we might all end up as friends. I have heard Egyptian Christians who have sought asylum in our country tell their stories.

As a child in Baltimore, some of my school teachers had escaped oppression in Eastern Europe. Baltimore's immigrant citizens came in waves, all having stories of fleeing famine, war and pestilence. The media had already convicted Zimmerman. 'Reasonable doubt' had not been put to rest. In this case, justice worked. It isn't about Zimmerman's morality or lack thereof, it is about proof. A media truly concerned about truth would tell us so. Leaders concerned for the youth of their cities would seek to lead us in healing, not hatred. Our concern should be directed toward redemption, not revenge. Every young person who dies or is not encouraged to flourish in our community diminishes us all. John Donne is right!

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume III, Issue XXXII

The Decline and Fall of Europe?

The 'other' weekly news magazine is featuring what it calls The Decline and Fall of Europe. Actually we're looking at the distinct failure of the system that President Obama would fundamentally remake us in. The British riots were largely the product of a society where fewer and fewer are employed. More and more young Brits are the recipients of government subsidies of some sort. The so-called 'menial' jobs essential for the function of society are mostly performed by foreigners.

America has actually seen such a decline in our own history. Witness the Los Angeles riots were much of the city was torched. It was touched off by a very similar catalyst as the British riots.

Star Parker, a young welfare mother had just struggled out of the dependent class to launch her magazine on urban affairs when she lost everything in the fires of Los Angeles... everything, that is but the faith and determination that has today made her a national spokesperson for the same issues.

One would do well to take a lesson from New York as well, where the middle-class has been pushed out. What is left is a small population of the very wealthy who can endure the cost of living there for the address, and a growing underclass.

British Degeneracy on Parade [click to read] by Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal

Who Lost the Middle Class [click to read] by Fred Seigal in City Journal

Star Parker [click to read] with a 'wake up' call for America.

Protests in Israel [click to read] by Sol Stern in City Journal. A study in contrasts.

"... the demonstrations actually proved how deep and stable the roots of Israel’s capitalist democracy are. I spent several evenings on the boulevards with the tent dwellers and among the massive crowds on the Saturday-night marches. I was amazed at their gentle yet serious demeanor. On one Friday night on Nordau Boulevard, the protesters set up tables for the traditional Israeli Sabbath dinner, complete with wine and challah and long debates about the situation." -- Sol Stern

EU've Got Mail [click to read] by Civitas researcher Carolina Bracken. The European Union today is a far cry from the trading partnership originally concieved three decades ago.

The Great American Downgrade

It's the Credit Rating Agencies [click to read] that need to be downgraded by Peter Gambrill.

" Firstly governments don’t need to base their fiscal plans around threats of ratings downgrades and secondly there is a case to be made for the establishment of a truly independent body to assess the security of public debt, initially on a national scale but with the ultimate goal of an international body which is well respected and not profit driven. Ratings agencies should no longer be given the trust of governments and should not be relied upon for informing public policy." -- Peter Gambrill.

Sloppy Riot Thinking [click to read] by Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal.

"The combination of loose thinking and indifference to the likely effects of its expression may, indeed, have been a major cause of many of our current problems. Let us, as Pascal said, labor to think clearly: for such is the beginning of morality. And, one might add, of sound policy." -- Theodore Dalrymple

Cultural Vandalism

Bring Back Stigma [click to read] by Myron Magnet in City Journal.

"When is a flawless, gleaming, plate-glass shopwindow a broken window? Boston mayor Thomas Menino had no trouble answering the question after one look at the Nike sneaker shop’s display on his city’s upscale Newbury Street." -- Myron Magnet

Escape from the Underworld of Coruscant

A Free Society Should Have No Permenant Underclass


The underworld of Coruscant never sees the light of the sun.

Any Star Wars fan can tell you that beneath the tall towers of Coruscant there is an underworld where sunlight never penetrates. Here the machinery to support the great city is housed and here also is the dwelling place of multitudes of poor beings who are not welcome in her elevated precincts. They are forever trapped in fifty levels of sordid squalor -- never will they see the light of day.

A glance at ‘Wookiepedia’s’ article on Coruscant’s lower levels will tell you that conditions in this part of the realm have remained unchanged through several periods of galactic government and empire. Like Shanghai’s non-resident ‘residents,’ they remain in an unseen situation. No Charles Dickens or George Müller is to be found who might challenge this perpetuation of misery. Thankfully Coruscant’s hellish underworld is imaginary.

Sadly, there are many places in the realm of humanity today that resemble the lowest levels of Coruscant, but history tells us that redemption has occurred in just such places. Dickens and Müller are but two examples of how people of faith challenged poverty. Dickens in his ‘Christmas Carol’ takes on ‘ignorance’ and ‘want.’ Müller took children from a life on the streets, schooled them and taught them trades.

Thomas Sowell [click to read] references an article by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson entitled “Two Californias.” The article describes an ‘underworld’ that is developing right here in what was once considered America’s ‘Land of Milk and Honey:’ "Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the Third World. There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric wires crossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens roaming around the yards."

Redemption is a central theme of the human epic. Stories of redemption encourage us even in the darkest of times. Our ancestors might have lived in the most wretched of tenements, but they looked to brighter days ahead. They nurtured community and looked out for each other’s children. They created oases of safety in the midst of a dangerous world.

As modern society has departed from the traditional family structure, it has disrupted the foundations of community as well. Young men look to gangs to provide structure and stability. Single parents raise children. Government is increasingly seen as the means of redemption. Unfortunately, government is a very poor redeemer.


Star Parker (photo: Center for Urban Renewal and Education)

In her weekly column, Star Parker, founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education [CURE] talks about a new organization’s journey down a very well-travelled road. The Conference of National Black Churches recently met for the first time in Washington, DC. The group’s mission: "to improve the quality of life for African Americans." But Parker laments that the group’s further statements lay no groundwork for personal responsibility, only calls for government to do more.

It’s what Sowell calls ‘Mascot Politics.’ “The black ghettos of America, and especially their housing projects, are other enclaves of people largely abandoned to their own lawless and violent lives, their children warehoused in schools where they are allowed to run wild, with education being more or less optional.”

“What is going on? These and other groups, here and abroad, are treated as mascots of the self-congratulatory elites.”

“These elites are able to indulge themselves in non-judgmental permissiveness toward those selected as mascots, while cracking down with heavy-handed, nanny-state control on others.”

“The effect of all this on the mascots themselves is not a big concern of the elites. Mascots symbolize something for others. The actual fate of the mascots themselves seldom matters much to their supposed benefactors.” -- Thomas Sowell

“Plans for "economic empowerment," for example, which the Conferenceof National Black Churches describes as the organization's"centerpiece," has the usual language of proposing collective actionto pressure corporations to develop practices and policies that "favor justice, equality, and environmental responsibility."

"CNBC will fill the void for a unified voice of faith which will betranslated into advocacy efforts in the area of education, health, public policy/social justice, and economic empowerment."

It all sounds noble until you realize, as Sowell points out, that the same groups that now enjoy ‘mascot’ status were once th target of Progressive policies such as ‘Eugenics.’ Indeed there is no guarantee that ‘mascot’ status will continue. Think of the elderly who have faithfully supported AARP only to see AARP endorse Obamacare with it’s ‘End of Life Counselling’ policies. Many signed on to support government solutions only to see government desert them as part of the solution.

Parker points out that economist Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute identifies six areas of improper use of government that caused the economic disaster we are now living through. She says members of the new coalition would do well to consider these thoughts of R.C. Sproul:

"Statism involves a philosophy of government by which the state is viewed not only as the final ruling authority but as the ultimate agency of redemption. In this sense the state does not simply co-exist with the church, it supplants the church."

Parker, who rose from welfare mother to founder of CURE states: “There is no better tool for individual empowerment than the Ten Commandments. The rules to respect the property of others -- ThouShalt Not Steal -- and prohibiting spurious concern about what others have -- Thou Shalt Not Covet -- are simple and clear.” The Center for Urban Renewal and Education promotes policies that encourage and reward personal responsibility. Ms.Parker has written three books. Her autobiography "Pimps, Whores & Welfare Brats" was released in 1997 by Pocket Books, "Uncle Sam's Plantation" was released by Thomas Nelson in the fall of 2003, and "White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay" was released in 2006.

Ms. Parker studied marketing and began an urban Christian magazine, which folded as a result of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. She went on to become a spokesperson for faith and market-based alternatives to empower the lives of the poor. Parker has addressed Congress and appeared on the major news programs As a social policy consultant. In 2010 she ran for Congress seeking California's 37th District seat. Though she did not win, she was effective in communicating her message of empowerment to a national audience. Her weekly column is a must-read for anyone interested in bringing hope to America’s urban poor.

One part of the solution may be Monasticism... NEW Monasticism that is, where Christians live in intentional community in order to bring redemption to the forgotten places of the Empire. Recreating healthy community could be the foundation for lifting lives out of poverty’s endless cycle.

Meet the 2011 Freshman Congress

A Congress that Looks [and Thinks] More Like America


Star Parker (photo: Center for Urban Renewal and Education)

Remember when Bill Clinton promised to assemble an administration that '"looked more like America?' Well, they all looked a lot like Janet Reno if you stared for a while. Barack Hussein Obama promised an 'inclusive' administration as well. You don't have to look to hard to see that they all look like his old law professors [or 'guys from his neighborhood]. OK, you get the picture.

But now we have the 2010 elections before us. Just Look at these Exciting Candidates [click to read] that those nasty racist tea-partyers are talking about!

Star Parker

Meet the former welfare Mother from Los Angeles who went back to school and founded a Christian magazine for urbanites. She's the author of three books: "Pimps, Whores & Welfare Brats," "Uncle Sam's Plantation" and "White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay." She speaks at universities now and testifies regularly before Congress as a social-policy consultant.

"Government now takes almost half of our national income, yet poverty does not change, Poor kids don't get educated. We're piling up debt that our kids will never be able to pay. And we're becoming less rather than more competitive in the international marketplace. We're becoming weaker, not stronger."

"So the question today before us: Are we going to be a free nation under G-d? Or are we going to be a welfare state?" -- Star Parker.

Ms. Parker is running for California's 37th Congressional District.

The 'Other' Weekly Newsmagazine [click to read] seems to be in serious denial.