Going to this group brothers to brothers a few times now and i will be coming back and going back. When i asked them if they would like to have a representative from mosaic on the program, you most unanimously recommended reginald liles. Welcome. Thank you for having me thank u taking the time to be here. One of the things before we get to brothers to brothers, i always like my audience to know who you are, some of your background and some of your history. Show me your experiences. I was raised in north oakland. I lived in other places in the city of oakland. And member of Temple Baptist church. I have been there for 40. I was a chairman. A deacon. A servant, believer. I teach class nine, sunday school class nine. It is an adult class. 3540 people attend every sunday. Interesting. Make the woour context as our understanding. And i teach Old Testament one and two with the leadership institute. Institute. , seminarian undergraduate. Graduate of San Francisco state. High school at oakland tech. Im married to Dolores Gibson whiles. We live in marin county. I was in Law Enforcement for 30 years. Came over to a captain and depu and i live in novato. I told you i did not know about the Police Background and Law Enforcement. I was at the jail one day and they said that the church does a lot youd were a liaison. They said he is a police officer. I said, i did not know that. You have a great reputation for that. I believed in matthew five that says blessed are the peacemakers. They should be called children of god. I always wanted to be a police maker as opposed to a piece kiefer. But of police maker has to listen and understand all factions and try to navigate and create peace. Where everybody is affirmed. I like the concept and understanding. We know there has been a lot of tension in the communities. Im sure you have had to walk that line at times. I have been one of the fierce critics. I love cops. They have walked away from ethical positioning. Not all of them. But there is a percentage that have walked away from the ethical understanding of who and what they are in the society, in the community. Therefore we have mario woods and eric gardner and Philando Castile and it is wrong. You are speaking from experience and that makes a difference. He. And some of them are happy. The tr the light and they have to get back to ethics. The truth sets us free. Mario woods, five, six, 114 pounds. Homeless. Nine officers stop him and they all shoot him. Terrible. We have to come back to brothers to brothers. Im glad we had this introduction of what you do and who you are. Thank you for being with us. Please join us in the nest next segment with Reginald Lyles and brothers to brothers and some of the work he is doing. Welcome back to mosaic. We have been speaking to Reginald Lyles. You have heard about his great background and experience. One of the reasons i invited him was to talk about brothers to brothers. Tell us about brothers to brothers. Brothers to brothers has been going on for about 20 plus years. It started from a general by the name of herb loftin. He was trying to bring African American men together and focus on bible study and navigating life. And it started with two or Three Friends that he knew that attended church with him. And it has grown to now we have a session every tuesday night. Maybe 6570 men come. They are an eclectic group. We have baptist and a large group of catholic. We have muslims. We have some people who were agnostic and et cetera. And you have methodist now . We have folks that have been very accomplished in their careers. The Junior College district. President s of colleges. Former mayors. City council. Lawyers, businessmen, developers. One of the things i found interesting was in my first time, they said they wanted two things not to be mentioned, title and denomination. That is right. So you dont get in the way. You leave that at the door. You go on a first name basis. They respect everyone. We have to listen and that is what we are working hard on. Forcing ourselves. And sometimes you have to be forced to really hear what your brother is saying. And we use the platform of studying the sre gesis to revelations and start over again. How many times have you gone through the bible . I would say 10 we get thr four versus. And people raise their hand and have a question on the passage. And from that exchange, we believe that what needs to come out and needs to be heard is heard. I heard you teach the Old Testament. People would say why not the new testament . Why not the gospels . Some say it is so difficult and challenging. It is in some places but it is important that we understand thnoread paul, matth mark or luke and he is trying to reflect i want to reto you a way of looking at this in the context of where you are and where you are living now. This is not to be a word from god that is exclusionary but inclusive. So i think when we understand that and the attributes of christ, the christology of christ, then i believe we can understand better how we should live. So what was jesus talking about when he was quoting isaiah . What was this elijah moment when he was running away of the prophets about . What was that about . Do we have tuio here and i dont think you could really understand new testament scripture unless you understand what they are reflecting off of and how they are evolving off they are echoing off of what they know and what they have been taught and launching out into a new way of applying it to their lives. And without the roots, you dont get the fruits. You sound like a rapper. That is right. Without the roots you dont get the fruits. And we shouldnt call it the Old Testament. We should understand it as such. And we can understand it as such. And we should understand who those people were. They were african understand that and then apply that evolution. How the scriptures evolved through time to the day and how we are evolving. I dont believe god has stopped revealing gods self to gods creation. One of the things with United Church of christ i believe that god is still speaking. I noticed in the two times i have come that each individual is able to speak. And they say, these are some of the skills we develop. But i dont see someone saying, you are wrong to sayalloargunts you could have a person saying, i believe it is this. This is how i heard it. And another person say, i heard this. But we dont have the direct back and forth argument or debate. Why is that . Too much conflict . Peoples feelings get hurt. We are not here to trample on anyones feelings. We are there to open their mind. We believe in the renewing of the mind. I have heard often times folks say, ive never heard it like that before. That is fine. And as you well know, learning can be a struggle and it takes courage. You have to launch out on things you dont know and see if it will be embraced. We pray for the presence beliehe lytity, an agent that here with us. And so we are invited by. And you pray for others. We wair we are going to take a break and come es brothers to brothers. Reginald men turned earlier there are brothers from all backgrounds that come. One of the persons that come is an author and he happens to have the authors book. I think it would be good to lift him up and tell us who he is. His name is ronald cole. Reverend ronald cole. His book is called paying attention. The inspirational journey. Ronald cole is a dear friend. I think we met one another in the 4th grade. He is a phenomenal minister of god and servant of god. And of course we both serve under Jaclyn ThompsonSenior Pastor at the baptist church. This is a great book. A great read ho gois usedh an individual. This gentleman is a very uncommon man but he writes for the common. Okay. Why brothers . One . Why that emphasis . It is one of the struggling issues of our growth. I have folksay, we need time when we can be alone and talk and et cetera. I hope that we can evolve into having men and women. At this point, that is where it is. When we have our retreat and we do every year, we have brought in dr. Jaclyn and reverend doctor pope has also presented. And she and dr. Thompson did a session for us together. I dont see it as sexist. Men have certain things to address. Women have certain groups. That is the way i see it. I think you are probably right about that. I think we need to have a time when we come together. We will see what happens. We will just follow the holy spirit and see what happens. I could take it either way. As i mentioned earlier in the introduction, the contemporary transition says brothers and sisters in harmony and unity. I think that is the ultimate. If the bible was written by women, it probably would be a lot different. A lot of verses would not be of language. And being silent in church. Just horrendous. I was in the seminary and heard the story about how a man reading scripture to his grandmother had no formal education. And it got to the point where it said women should be silent in church. And the grandma said how . They dont read that part. Also the part about servants having the masters and i dont want to hear that either. Which is a way of controlling people. I think the gospel is liberating. That is the context for which i come. That is what i try to promulgate. What are the interesting discussions . When i went last time, we talked about the context of peoples lives. Some people say, we are here for the text. I . I think it would have to be a combination. I dont think literalists study for the text without making some application. The text wont service. The bible is merely a history lesson. When it is looked at like that, it allows us to not think that we have to act out with the bible, what the bible is asking us to act. It is almost apart from us. It is outside of us. The word of god is supposed to be ns and we are supposed to apply our lives, action and behaviors based on the truths and the heroes within the bible. If the hero does something that is not godly, we are not to replicate it because it is in the bible. So the text has to be challenged. It has to be wrestled with, within the confines of where we are living. I dont believe god would come to me and speak to me in a mandarin language. I dont understand mandarin. God will speak to me in the language, the context of which i understand and then use me where god would want me to be used. I think the bible is alive because 3000 plus years ago, it spoke to the people then and it still speaks to us now. That is what makes it so gn so omore segment. Thank you for all that you shared. Please join us in the last segment with Reginald Lyles as we speak about the scripture and how important it is to our lives. We are so grateful for Reginald Lyles as we speak of the about the bible and the scripture. We want to say in the last few minutes, how does that word speak to us in day and time . We are living in difficult times as you know. We have a person in the white house who is meanspirited and causing a lot of pain. So the scripture will educate us on folks like that and tell us not to give up hope or faith that god is still in the blessing business and these better times are on the horizon. What about those that consider evangelical who overwhelming si dont know if y overwhelmingly support someone who lies horrible moral lifestyle that this one has. I pray for my evangelical brothers that they will wake up because they are not supposed to follow that type of leadership. I think that is pretty provocative and challenging. I dont since that i would censor anyone on my show. I want everyone to hear what you said. And i appreciate your thoughts. If you are following someone that sepa babies from mothers, something is wrong with your application of jesus christ and his love for his people. How would you apply it in terms of seeing the scripture in light of that . You quote scripture quite well. Water what are you saying about injustice. You know what is good. Michael six. He is not doing justice. He is in oligarch and mean spirited and he is causing more pain than night. Why do you think it was un you have people that can love a lot of things. Gambling, drugs, money. But justice is the foundation and how love is constructed upon. If no justice exists, then you cant love a person. That is why i understand the song what does love have to do with i. I understand why people asked you to be the spokesperson of brothers to brothers. Thank you, reginald. Thank you. I will be seeing you again. Thank you for being with us. Im ron swisher. See you next month. Thats yes for less. Get the brands you love and save 20 to 60 off Department Store prices. On now. Josh are you at ross. Yes for less. There is an armed suspect behind bars were a swat team searched the bay area neighborhood. More on that investigation. We will tell you what is causing the travel nightmare and why it could be the first of many at sfo. The california battle over vaccines is heating up. A lastminute move on governor newsom. It is 6 00 a. M. Lets start off with a check of the forecast. It might sound dramatic by start off by saying that we will be 10 degrees warmer than yesterday for some