“As a people, we are far too religious and involved in the church to be experiencing so many social problems. There is something grossly peculiar about this reality. It reflects a detachment of the head from the body; a kind of cultural decapitation within the Black collective.” – From Introduction.

“Excessive displays of emotion are good and can be therapeutic, but it has to lead to a practical place over time. It has to lead to a usefulness of some sort. We have to have religion with reason and emotion with practicality.” – From Chapter One: Emotion and Entertainment.

“Repetition is the anchor of the Black preacher’s sermonic repertoire. Their survival depends on it. Repetition, however, is often camouflaged and condiments are added to the sermon to spice it up, in the hopes that it won’t be recognized as last week’s leftovers.” – From Chapter Two: Rhetorical Confinement.

“For generations, Black preachers have intoxicated their congregations with rhetoric that says (especially without Jesus) they are so poor, lost, weak, without and blind, even though most of us do not fit these pitiful descriptions.  The preacher is feeding us a plate of self-powerlessness. This kind of indoctrination hardens into belief systems and eventually become self-fulfilling realities." From Chapter Three: Privation Rationalization 

"Our collective mental pulse begins at the pulpit. As the rhetoric and rituals behind the pulpit changes, the people will change also. The church has always been the dog that wags the tail  (the people). if it is in a non-progressive state, still clinging to ill-suited traditions and we attend church in droves, consequentially this will limit our collective growth and development." From Chapter Four: Ritualistic Suspension

“We attend church faithfully, in droves. the difference between a productive race of people and an unproductive one is what they do with their time. We spend too much time in church utilizing it like an emotional factory where we manufacture non-productivity.” From Chapter Five: The Need for Relevance

“One of the best ways to transcend the traps of tradition is by moving beyond the realm of literal interpretation and understand that there are deeper metaphoric and symbolic meanings to many biblical scriptures.” From Chapter Six: Beyond the Literal

“We have been historically and helplessly waiting for the Lord, waiting for the “Kingdom of Heaven,” waiting for the welfare check, waiting to hit the lottery, waiting for the government and waiting for others to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves.” From Chapter Seven: Waiting and Hoping 

“An icon of a White Jesus in a Black church is one of the most blatant vestiges of an enslaved mentality that remains within our psyche.” From Chapter Eight: The Impact of Images

“There is an abundance of preachers who are the sons of former preachers, who perhaps are the sons of former preachers. If a preacher is “called” by God to preach the gospel, then isn’t it ironic that so may are “called” from the same address?” From Chapter Nine: Economic Fragmentation 

“If we were committed to our collective salvation as we are to our individual salvation, we would be the giants of the earth.” From Chapter Ten: At the Crossroads