Lavaille Lavette for the Huffington Post: Faithfulness Is Perseverance in Purpose: An Interview With Roland Martin
Roland's thoughts on Faithfulness
Jun 06, 2012
Huffington Post
June 6, 2012
By, Lavaille Lavette
Years ago, when I was an instructional supervisor in the Houston Independent School District, I frequently visited Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston, where Roland Martin, now host of Washington Watch and a CNN contributor attended. Martin's success continues to provide inspiration and hope to many of the school's students, and I have witnessed firsthand the positive influence that Martin's success has had on many students in the Houston area. As a journalist and author, he is candid and meticulous, and faith plays a major part in his success at making the most of his God-given time.
Roland's thoughts on Faithfulness
What definition of "faith" best describes the concept to you?
There are some people that look at faith as a part of their life and there are those like me that look at faith as the essence of their life. I look at all things through my faith. Some people will say that they can put faith aside so that they can focus on some other things. And that to me is the big difference between having faith as just a part of your life and having faith as the essence of your life. So for me faith is the essence of my life, I see all things through faith.
You wrote a book on faith called, "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." What inspired that book?
Like I mentioned before, faith is the essence of my life, and my faith inspires me to do a number of things. I've always used my various platforms to talk about faith. When I had my syndicated column I wrote about various contemporary topics through the faith prism. So whether or not it was a column dealing with a baseball player who made a decision not to play a particular game because it was a Jewish holiday. To talking about the YWCA diminishing the Christian aspect of their name. Faith is the essence of my life. When I ran blackamericaweb.com, Tom Joyner's site, there was no faith channel. I said there is no way you can have a website targeting black people and there's no faith channel. So I added that. I've always integrated my faith perspective in those lights. I think faith is vitally important to your day, your seconds in each day. Faith helps to get you through the day. The 50 perspectives that I talk about in my book are timeless. You can look at them as 50 distinct pieces. They don't have to go in any particular order, they can speak to you in many different ways.
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Jun 06, 2012
Huffington Post
June 6, 2012
By, Lavaille Lavette
Years ago, when I was an instructional supervisor in the Houston Independent School District, I frequently visited Jack Yates Senior High School in Houston, where Roland Martin, now host of Washington Watch and a CNN contributor attended. Martin's success continues to provide inspiration and hope to many of the school's students, and I have witnessed firsthand the positive influence that Martin's success has had on many students in the Houston area. As a journalist and author, he is candid and meticulous, and faith plays a major part in his success at making the most of his God-given time.
Roland's thoughts on Faithfulness
What definition of "faith" best describes the concept to you?
There are some people that look at faith as a part of their life and there are those like me that look at faith as the essence of their life. I look at all things through my faith. Some people will say that they can put faith aside so that they can focus on some other things. And that to me is the big difference between having faith as just a part of your life and having faith as the essence of your life. So for me faith is the essence of my life, I see all things through faith.
You wrote a book on faith called, "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." What inspired that book?
Like I mentioned before, faith is the essence of my life, and my faith inspires me to do a number of things. I've always used my various platforms to talk about faith. When I had my syndicated column I wrote about various contemporary topics through the faith prism. So whether or not it was a column dealing with a baseball player who made a decision not to play a particular game because it was a Jewish holiday. To talking about the YWCA diminishing the Christian aspect of their name. Faith is the essence of my life. When I ran blackamericaweb.com, Tom Joyner's site, there was no faith channel. I said there is no way you can have a website targeting black people and there's no faith channel. So I added that. I've always integrated my faith perspective in those lights. I think faith is vitally important to your day, your seconds in each day. Faith helps to get you through the day. The 50 perspectives that I talk about in my book are timeless. You can look at them as 50 distinct pieces. They don't have to go in any particular order, they can speak to you in many different ways.
Read More