Diverse Devotions: Black Belief Across Boundaries

Unity Church Minister – with Charline Manuel, part 2

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Charline Manuel, shares about the prevalence of women’s leadership in the Unity Church, how she addresses racism and why music is so important for Black religious folk.
Highlights:
Why there is so much women’s leadership in the Unity Church
Race and racism in The Unity Church
How she lives out her spirituality
The importance of music for Black Unity worshippers
Mentioned in This Episode:
Unity Church: https://www.unity.org/en
Unity Church and Race: https://www.unity.org/en/article/unity-and-race-truthful-history
Centers for Spiritual Living: https://csl.org/
UFBL: Universal Foundation for Better Living: https://ufbl.org/
Agape International Spiritual Center: https://agapelive.com/
The Daily Word: https://shop.unityonline.org/subscribe/
Catherine Ponder: https://catherineponder.wwwhubs.com/
Charles Fillmore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fillmore_(Unity_Church)
Eric Butterworth: https://www.unity.org/en/collection/eric-butterworth
Emilie Cady: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Emilie_Cady
Ruth Mosley: https://www.unity.org/en/article/house-ruth-built
Johnnie Colemon: https://afro.com/spiritual-activist-johnnie-colemons-legacy-thrives/
Maurice Williams: https://www.truthunity.net/people/maurice-williams
Sylvia Sumter: https://unityofwashingtondc.org/discover/minister-staff/
Books by Charline Manuel:
The Power of One Accord: 7 Spiritual Keys to Consensus Building for Spirit-Led Boards: https://amzn.to/4qA4nCw
Shaping Hope: Harnessing the Power of Grace in Your Life Stories: https://amzn.to/4owXeAQ
Pray Up Your Life: Self-Exploration Companion Workbook: https://amzn.to/3LwfP1G
Do Puppies Pray: https://amzn.to/4qlBIAS
Pray Up Your Life: 50 Powerful Prayer Practices to Help You Create the Life You Desire: https://amzn.to/47wx7mY
The Metaphysics of Shoes: 12 Extraordinary Steps to Empower Your Sole’s Journey: https://amzn.to/430I9zl
The Power of One Accord: 7 Spiritual Keys to Harness Synergy in the Boardroom: https://amzn.to/4oE9lMI
Boardroom Culture Shock: 7 Strategies to Amplify the Competence and Capacity of Board Culture: https://amzn.to/4oJzWIq
Books available here: https://amazon.com/author/charline
Guest Information:
Charline Manuel is an inspirational Author, Speaker, Board Consultant and Unity Minister of thirty years. In her work she has encouraged small and large audiences nationally and internationally through her writings, keynote messages, workshops, seminars, and retreats. Charline has been active in international initiatives bringing water to villages in Africa, building a school in Haiti, and peace immersion in Costa Rica. She served as a church pastor for twenty-two years before moving into training church leaders and their boards to be more effective leaders. Charline served on the Board of Directors of Unity World Headquarters and was the first person of color to serve as Chair of the board in the organization’s 130-year history. Charline currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of World’s Religions headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. She is a faculty instructor of the Unity Urban Ministerial School helping to develop spiritual leaders for ministry since 2012. Charline is the author of nine books including titles: Pray Up Your Life and The Metaphysics of Shoes, Boardroom Culture Shock and The Power of One Accord: 7 Keys to Harnessing Synergy in the Boardroom. However, if you ask Charline of all her books which is closest to her heart she will tell you children’s book, Do Puppies Pray? Written with her two grandchildren in mind. She is a proud mother and grandmother, making her home just outside of Orlando, Florida.
https://charlinemanuel.com/
 
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Unity Church Minister – with Charline Manuel, part 1

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Charline Manuel, shares how she searched for answers to her questions, found Unity Church and ensured that New Thought religions are included in global interfaith communities.
 
Highlights:
Charline’s childhood belief that God created her for joy
How Charline got “New Thought” a seat at the table of the world’s religions
Where Charline finds “diversity on steroids”
The Unity Church history of “The Daily Word” booklet
What Thanksgiving dinner is like as her whole family isn’t Unity
Mentioned in This Episode:
Unity Church: https://www.unity.org/en
Parliament of the World’s Religions: https://parliamentofreligions.org/
Unity Church and Race: https://www.unity.org/en/article/unity-and-race-truthful-history
Books by Charline Manuel:
The Power of One Accord: 7 Spiritual Keys to Consensus Building for Spirit-Led Boards: https://amzn.to/4qA4nCw
Shaping Hope: Harnessing the Power of Grace in Your Life Stories: https://amzn.to/4owXeAQ
Pray Up Your Life: Self-Exploration Companion Workbook: https://amzn.to/3LwfP1G
Do Puppies Pray: https://amzn.to/4qlBIAS
Pray Up Your Life: 50 Powerful Prayer Practices to Help You Create the Life You Desire: https://amzn.to/47wx7mY
The Metaphysics of Shoes: 12 Extraordinary Steps to Empower Your Sole’s Journey: https://amzn.to/430I9zl
The Power of One Accord: 7 Spiritual Keys to Harness Synergy in the Boardroom: https://amzn.to/4oE9lMI
Boardroom Culture Shock: 7 Strategies to Amplify the Competence and Capacity of Board Culture: https://amzn.to/4oJzWIq
Books available here: https://amazon.com/author/charline
Guest Information:
Charline Manuel is an inspirational Author, Speaker, Board Consultant and Unity Minister of thirty years. In her work she has encouraged small and large audiences nationally and internationally through her writings, keynote messages, workshops, seminars, and retreats. Charline has been active in international initiatives bringing water to villages in Africa, building a school in Haiti, and peace immersion in Costa Rica. She served as a church pastor for twenty-two years before moving into training church leaders and their boards to be more effective leaders. Charline served on the Board of Directors of Unity World Headquarters and was the first person of color to serve as Chair of the board in the organization’s 130-year history. Charline currently serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of World’s Religions headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. She is a faculty instructor of the Unity Urban Ministerial School helping to develop spiritual leaders for ministry since 2012. Charline is the author of nine books including titles: Pray Up Your Life and The Metaphysics of Shoes, Boardroom Culture Shock and The Power of One Accord: 7 Keys to Harnessing Synergy in the Boardroom. However, if you ask Charline of all her books which is closest to her heart she will tell you children’s book, Do Puppies Pray? Written with her two grandchildren in mind. She is a proud mother and grandmother, making her home just outside of Orlando, Florida.
https://charlinemanuel.com/
 
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Afro-Eccentric Forms of Spirituality – with William D. Hart

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, William D. Hart, shares how his penchant for religious autobiographies led him to critique what he coins as “the standard narrative of Black religion” and how Afro-ecentric forms of spirituality develop strong communities and fight for freedom.
 
Highlights:
What William D. Hart means by “the standard narrative of Black religion”
The Black church as a school of leadership, business and virtue – the “outsized” role that the Black church played in the lives of African Americans
How historians and sociologists created an entity called “The Black Church”
The positive and negative sides of strong communities
Afro-Eccentric forms of spirituality as distinct from the norms of “the Black Church”
Black freedom movements for the unchurched and anti-church
 
Mentioned in This Episode:
E.B. DuBois, The Negro Church: https://amzn.to/4nkJZm1
Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration: https://amzn.to/3Wisp7a
Anthony Hoekema, The Four Major Cults: Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism: https://amzn.to/3L04mYe
Arthur Huff Fauset, Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults: https://amzn.to/48J3uRG
Joseph Murphy, Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the African Diaspora: https://amzn.to/4qoes5e
Tracy E. Hucks, Yoruba Traditions and African American Nationalism: https://amzn.to/49hGHwn
Tracey E. Hucks: Obeah, Orisa and Religious Identity in Trinidad, Vol. 1, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination: https://amzn.to/47D6ZrG
Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy: https://amzn.to/4hkfZoS
Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Phoenix, AZ: https://ambc-az.org/
Cornel West: http://www.cornelwest.com/
Books by William D. Hart:
Edward Said and the Religious Effects of Culture: https://amzn.to/4o48FAs
Black Religion: Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis: https://amzn.to/4hr4Um3
Afro-Eccentricity: Beyond the Standard Narrative of Black Religion: https://amzn.to/47eGKq5
The Blackness of Black: Key Concepts in Critical Discourse: https://amzn.to/4hjUNPO
 
Guest Information:
William David Hart is the Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Religious Studies at Macalester College. He is the author of The Blackness of Black: Key Concepts in Critical Discourse (Lexington 2020); Afro-Eccentricity: Beyond the Standard Narrative of Black Religion (Palgrave (2011); Black Religion: Malcolm X, Julius Lester, and Jan Willis (Palgrave 2008); and Edward Said and the Religious Effects of Culture (Cambridge 2000). His research interests include Black studies, social theory, philosophy of race, American philosophy, and the intersections of religion, ethics, and politics.
 
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Expansive Hoodoo Ancestral Intelligence – with Will Coleman

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Will Coleman, shares how hoodoo is his religion of origin, his interests in African retentions in African American culture, and why he considers his spiritual practice to be expansive rather than eclectic.
 
Highlights:
How hoodoo underlies Will Coleman’s rearing in Black Christianity
How years of learning led to a year of initiations
How tarot cards led him to “ancestral intelligence”
Will’s connection between memory and being engaged in movements for liberation
Mentioned in This Episode:
 
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Signifying Monkey: a Theory of African American Literary Criticism: https://amzn.to/42Ameig
Michael Beckwith: https://www.michaelbeckwith.com/
Presbyterian Church USA: https://pcusa.org/
Where'd He Get That?: A Biblical Cross-Reference to Ernest Holmes' the Science of Mind by Margo Ruark: https://amzn.to/4n2CrEq
Rosicrucianism/ Fraternity of the Rosy Cross: https://www.rosicrucian.org/
Oba Adebolu Fatunmise: https://youtu.be/W_ohdHEhNbs?si=t8rrZyRhqLW0jU2v
 
Books by Will Coleman:
Tribal Talk: Black Theology, Hermeneutics, and African/American Ways of “Telling the Story”: https://amzn.to/47lxxNW
African Traditional Religions Textbook: Ifa (open source): https://research.auctr.edu/Ifa
 
Guest Information:
Will Coleman, Ph.D. is a theologian and teacher of Biblical spirituality. He was born and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree in religion at Rhodes College in Memphis, he moved to Decatur, Georgia in order to attend Columbia Theological Seminary where he received his Master of Divinity degree, with a focus in theology.  A few years later, he went on to receive the Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His areas of concentration were in philosophical and systematic theology, philosophy of religion and interpretation theory. He is Associate Professor of Theology and World Religions Emeritus from the Interdenominational Theological Center; The Holmes Institute; and The Johnnie Colman Theological Seminary. He is an honorably retired minster of the presbyterian church (U.S.A.).  He teaches and tutors individuals and groups in a variety of contexts in the areas of theology and Biblical spirituality, which interprets the Bible as a guide for transformation of consciousness in the original sounds, symbols and languages of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts than in English translations
 
wcolemanphd33 at gmail dot com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/will.coleman.56
 
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Ifa/Orisa Churched Womanist – with Natasha L. Robinson

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Natasha L. Robinson, shares about growing up in an African-centered church, practicing Ifa/Orisa traditions and where she sees justice show up in her faith and the world.
 
Highlights:
How membership in a Black church that values African cultures shaped Natasha’s openness to different religions
How Natasha recovered from betrayal by a religious leader
Where justice shows up in Natasha’s multifaith understanding
How Natasha understands Jesus in and out of church
 
Mentioned in This Episode:
Trinity United Church of Christ: https://www.trinitychicago.org/
The Gathering: a Womanist Church: http://www.thegatheringexperience.com/
Pink Robe Chronicles: https://www.drmelvasampson.com/pink-robe-chronicles
Ase Ire: https://aseire.com/
Jeremiah Wright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Wright
Melva Sampson: https://www.drmelvasampson.com/about
Irie Lynne Sessions: https://www.dririe.com/about
Kamilah Hall Sharp: https://www.ctschicago.edu/people/kamilah-hall-sharp/
Ilekes: https://asanee44.com/ileke-beads-in-the-ifa-tradition/
Guest Information:
Natasha Robinson, J.D. is Assistant Vice President of Social Justice and Advocacy and Title IX Coordinator for Roosevelt University. Professor Robinson is a retired criminal defense attorney, and the creator and curator of Legaleaze Please! LLC, an online platform and digital space that empowers the development of individual and collective comprehension of criminal laws, cases, and policies through decoding, deconstructing, and demystifying legal language. Professor Robinson has been a regular guest legal analyst on CourtTV and WGN9 news. Robinson is a proud ministry partner of The Gathering, A Womanist Church, in Dallas, Texas, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Theological Studies as a member of the Sacred Memory Cohort at McCormick Theological Seminary.
 
Legaleazeplease at gmail dot com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/legaleaze_please/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/legaleazeplease/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/natasha.l.robinson.5
 
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Metaphysical Womanist New Thought Christian - with Tawnicia Rowan

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Tawnicia Rowan, shares her personal experiences of Black Christianity, finding the Universal Truth Center and how she accidentally became a minister there.
 
Highlights:
How loving a Buddhist posed big questions to her faith
Why her Christian mother pointed her to a new place of worship
Five universal principles that are the most meaningful for Tawnicia
Her experience at a historically Black and Christian seminary
How to create a world that is meaningful and compassionate for all
Mentioned in This Episode:
Universal Truth Center in Miami: https://utruthcenter.org/
Universal Foundation for Better Living: https://ufbl.org/
Rev. Dr. Mary Tumpkin: https://ufbl.org/rev-mary/
Guest Information:
Tawnicia Rowan is an ordained minister in the Universal Foundation for Better Living, an international association of New Thought Christian. Currently, Rev. Tawnicia serves as a staff minister at the Universal Truth Center in Miami Gardens, FL and as a faculty member at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary and the Unity Urban Ministerial School. You can reach Rev. Rowan via email and hear her talks on YouTube.
Email: tawniciar@utruthcenter.org
Tawnicia’s talks: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsQL9T7IxkcA8bf1j6nJsOpTNeYbpprWz&si=8YODGNFIm6x3Yljp
 
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Black and Unitarian Universalist - with Takiyah Nur Amin

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Takiyah Nur Amin, shares about growing up with Muslim and Christian family members, finding Unitarian Universalism as a place of acceptance, and what her daily spiritual practices look like.
 
Highlights:
How Takiyah found her tradition over lunch in the high school cafeteria
What it means to be a part of a covenantal religious tradition
Why living together with love and empathy trumps doctrinal differences
Why she won’t choose between her Blackness and her faith tradition
 
Mentioned in This Episode:
Care for the World: Reflections on Community Ministry: https://amzn.to/3WqVVb2
BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice and Liberation: https://amzn.to/3Cm6SUD
Unitarian Universalist Association: https://www.uua.org/
BLUU: https://blacklivesuu.org/
OWL curriculum: https://www.uua.org/re/owl
John Shelby Spong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong
Chautauqua Institution: https://www.chq.org/about/
 
 
Guest Information:
Takiyah Nur Amin is a dance scholar, educator, academic success strategist. Dr. Amin serves Unitarian Universalism as a member of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee and UU Studies Network, and a former member of the Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) Organizing Collective Board. Her writing has been featured in UU World Magazine, and in two edited volumes, Care for the World: Reflections on Community Ministry and BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice and Liberation (co-edited with the Rev. Mykal Slack.) You can reach Dr. Amin at TakiyahNurAmin.com
 
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New Thought Hoodooist - with Darnise C. Martin

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Darnise Martin, tells us how her childhood questions about religion led her to a New Thought metaphysics and an embrace of her ancestral traditions of hoodoo.
 
Highlights:
The mystery man who gave Dr. Darnise a pamphlet that changed her life
The connection among spirituality, magic and nature
Darnise’s spirituality in the grocery store
The role of hoodoo in justice-making
 
Mentioned in This Episode:
Michael Beckwith’s podcast: https://www.michaelbeckwith.com/podcast
Michael Beckwith + Ellen DeGeneres interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONdSvQCPjeQ
Will Coleman: https://www.facebook.com/will.coleman.56/
Martinism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinism#
David Alexander’s Freedom from Discord: The Promise of New Thought Liberation Theology: https://amzn.to/42ubumh
 
 
Guest Information:
Dr. Darnise C. Martin is an Adjunct Professor at Loyola Marymount University. Dr. Darnise is the author of two books, including the 2005 volume, Beyond Christianity: African Americans in a New Thought Church and co-edited the volume Women In New and Africana Religions and numerous articles and essays. As a media consultant, Dr. Danise has been featured on Tavis Smiley’s radio program, KJLH Radio in Los Angeles, numerous of podcasts and internet radio programs. She was the research consultant on the documentaries Dark Girls and Light Girls for the Oprah Winfrey Network.  She conducts research on the diversities of African-American religions particularly the Gullah Geechee and hoodoo cultures in the South Carolina and Georgia low country regions of the U.S.
 
You can reach Dr. Darnise at DrDarnise.com  
 
Darnise’s House of Religion, Magic and History: https://www.youtube.com/drdarnise
Beyond Christianity: African Americans in a New Thought Church: https://amzn.to/4hfJs2E
“Is This a Dance Floor or a Revival Meeting” in Ain’t I a Womanist: Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought: https://amzn.to/4jq0SuR
All Books Dr. Darnise has written can be found here: https://amzn.to/4ayuKku
 
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Okomfo in a Black Church - with Salim Faraji, part 2

In this thought-provoking episode, our guest, Salim Faraji, tells us how he straddles three religious traditions, how he raises his children and where he finds true spiritual community.
Highlights:
Why Black churches are still meaningful for Dr. Salim
The religion Dr. Salim raises his children in
How religious multiplicity is accepted in his West African communities
Why and how you should form book clubs on Black religions
Mentioned in This Episode:
Dr. Cecil Gray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecil-conteen-gray-09a8983a/
Ibrahim Farajaje: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Abdurrahman_Farajaj%C3%A9
Djimon Hounsou’s InSearch of Voodoo: Roots to Heaven https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5852022/
 
 
Guest Information:
Dr. Salim Faraji is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is also the founding Executive Director of the Master of Arts in International Studies Africa Program at Concordia University Irvine in Ghana, West Africa. As a theological pluralist and interfaith practitioner, he is currently an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a practicing African Traditional Priest (Okomfo) who has been initiated in both the Akan traditions of Ghana, West Africa and ancient Egyptian religious practice. Professor Faraji is author of The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered and numerous articles and essays.
 
You can reach Dr. Faraji at CSUDH Africana: https://www.csudh.edu/africana/faculty/salim-faraji
 
You can find Dr. Faraji’s writings here:
Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age: https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531502973/life-under-the-baobab-tree/
“Rediscovering the Links Between the Earthen Pyramids of West Africa and Ancient Nubia:” https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/rediscovering-the-links-between-the-earthen-pyramids-of-west-africa-and-ancient-nubia-restoring-william-leo-hansberrys-vision-of-ancient-kush-and-sudanic-africa/
The Roots of Nubia Christianity Uncovered: https://africaworldpressbooks.com/the-roots-of-nubian-christianity-uncovered-the-triumph-of-the-last-pharaoh-by-salim-faraji/
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Okomfo in a Black Church - with Salim Faraji, part 1

Our guest, Salim Faraji, tells us how he studied and practiced various Black religions before finding a home in the religious traditions of the ancient Nile Valley civilizations, the Akan people and African American Protestant churches.
Highlights:
How the religiously diverse city of Philadelphia allowed for Salim’s religious exploration
The spiritual and intellectual adventure that came from hearing a guest speaker in college
When a seminary professor let Salim do Ausar Auset divinations in a class
What happens on a trip to Ghana West Africa
How Salim left and returned to Black church leadership
 
Mentioned in This Episode:
Mechal Sobel, Trabelin' On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith: https://amzn.to/40Mgi5q
Ausar Auset Society in Philadelphia: https://www.ausarausetpa.com/
 
Guest Information:
Dr. Salim Faraji is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is also the founding Executive Director of the Master of Arts in International Studies Africa Program at Concordia University Irvine in Ghana, West Africa. As a theological pluralist and interfaith practitioner, he is currently an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a practicing African Traditional Priest (Okomfo) who has been initiated in both the Akan traditions of Ghana, West Africa and ancient Egyptian religious practice. Professor Faraji is author of The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered and numerous articles and essays.
 
You can reach Dr. Faraji at CSUDH Africana: https://www.csudh.edu/africana/faculty/salim-faraji
 
You can find Dr. Faraji’s writings here:
Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age: https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531502973/life-under-the-baobab-tree/
“Rediscovering the Links Between the Earthen Pyramids of West Africa and Ancient Nubia:” https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/rediscovering-the-links-between-the-earthen-pyramids-of-west-africa-and-ancient-nubia-restoring-william-leo-hansberrys-vision-of-ancient-kush-and-sudanic-africa/
The Roots of Nubia Christianity Uncovered: https://africaworldpressbooks.com/the-roots-of-nubian-christianity-uncovered-the-triumph-of-the-last-pharaoh-by-salim-faraji/
 
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