Do You Know Where Your Tithes Are Going???

Well in Compton, CA they go directly in the pocket of the good Reverend E. Joshua Sims to the tune of $800,000. Yup that's how much they estimate he embezzled between 2000 - 2008. Of course he had the requisite Benz and a hip happening pool in his home. Gettin ganked in the house of the Lord is sooooo wack. That's why I'm old school and still keep my ends shoved under my titty meat..... fug that!

source

COMPTON -- A local Baptist minister pleaded not guilty Thursday to embezzling more than $800,000 from his church. The Rev. E. Joshua Sims, of the Double Rock Baptist Church in Compton, is charged with felony grand theft embezzlement, money laundering and dissuading a witness. If convicted on all the charges, he faces up to seven years in prison.

Sims' bail was reduced from $1.2 million to $250,000, according to the District Attorney's office, but he was ordered to stay away from the church and its members. Sims was taken into custody Wednesday morning at his home in Corona following a months-long investigation.

Sims is suspected of diverting church funds into a personal account between 2000 and 2008, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office. Investigators believe Sims used the money to buy a Mercedes-Benz and build an indoor pool at his home in Riverside County. When church members began questioning his finances, Sims allegedly threatened them during his sermons, she said.

The Compton Bulletin reported last year that Sims stunned members of his congregation when he revealed at a meeting in September that he took thousands of dollars a month in "household allowances" without first obtaining the approval of the church's board.

Brew Bits: Judge Speaks Out Against Homophobia in the Black Church

I have always found the black church's hush policy on homosexuality confusing and senseless. There are so many openly gay men who are members of these churches and I always wonder how they sit through sermons that advise them of the damnation that awaits them due to their horrendous sin. I just don't get it, at all.

During CNN's "Reclaiming the Dream",on the issue of getting the black church to play a larger role in helping to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community, Judge Penny Brown Reynolds did not hold back, she said:

"We need to remove the shame. And the self-worth issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. Because to say in the Black church, the foundation of our community, that somehow homosexuality, when all of our people who are musicians are homosexuals and even some of the pastors are homosexuals, that this is not an issue, that, we're just burying our head in the sand. The Black church should be at the forefront of this, just like we are with civil rights issues."

Now that's what I call "real talk". See clip below: