By NYdiva ~ S ometimes the hardest thing about being an African American businesswoman is keeping my mouth shut when religious Black folks drag religion into the public square . Unlike my outburst in my last story ( I just couldn’t take it anymore ), I constantly fight the urge to speak out. “Is this a business meeting or a prayer meeting?” Or “I thought this meeting was about real estate?” Having been religious once, I understand how much faith influences a believer’s worldview. But being bombarded with faith talk at Black business meetings all the time is annoying. More often than not, a minister is asked to pray and soon people are shouting, waving and shaking as if they were at a revival meeting . I once sat through a business meeting where a woman told the story about how she was engaged, but her fiancé had left her for another woman. She was heartbroken for years. But on the news, she just heard that her former fiancé had killed his wife, their two preschool children and...

By NYdiva ~ I t was the end of a busy week and I was going home on the New York City subway . On 116th Street , two young men and an older woman got on the train. The woman sat next to me. As soon as the train’s doors closed, one of the young men starting preaching. He said we all needed a savior because we were sinful and that God sent Jesus to die for our sins. Before I could check myself, I said very loudly, “What evidence do you have there is a God?” Everyone looked at me. New Yorkers are used to subway preachers, but no one expected a black grandmother to challenge one. The young man looked at his friend and they smiled nervously at each other. The young man turned to me, “I know God is real because I feel him in his heart. I used to smoke weed and now I don’t smoke or gang bang anymore. I paused. If this boy from the “hood” was really a former gang member, I didn’t want to criticize his attempt to rehabilitate himself. For better or worse, the inner city church has d...