Facebook Pastor Only Plans to Leave Post Temporarily

Cedric Miller is known nationally as "the Facebook Pastor," after telling his congregation to ban Facebook in order to save their marriages. Miller went as far as telling his church leaders that if they didn't give up their Facebook accounts, he would remove them from their posts.

It turned out that Pastor Miller may have had his own reasons for fearing Facebook. The popular social-networking site may have been linked to the affair the pastor had involving his male assistant and his wife. Whether it was swinging, bisexual activity or something else, most of us know that a preacher shouldn't be "getting freaky" at bible study (which is where much of the sex allegedly took place, according to court testimony).

Pastor Miller took his humiliation like a man. In a public display of what seemed to be sincere contrition, the pastor told his church that he would step down in response to his being exposed for living a double life. The problem was that his reaction was only temporary: Rather than giving up his post permanently, the pastor plans to leave for just a little while and return in 90 days. In other words, it seems that he plans on stepping down long enough for the controversy to cool itself off, and then it may be back to business as usual.

Miller, who is the pastor at the Living Word Christian Fellowship Church in Neptune Township, N.J., received a vote of confidence as the church's spiritual leader before making his decision public. He also said that he came to his conclusion after "prayer and thoughtful consideration" by the members of the board, according to the church's spokesperson.

Miller must be given credit for attempting to take a stand against something that does play a role in undermining the sanctity of the marital bond in quite a few families across America. There is nothing wrong with a person learning from his mistakes and using that as credibility when admonishing the actions of others. It would have been better had Miler "fessed up" from the beginning, rather than trying to appear holier than thou.

The challenge for Pastor Miller, however, is that he can't stop people from using Facebook. Facebook, and sites like it, are never going to go away. The only thing we can do is learn to live in a world where human beings are interconnected. Telling people to stop using Facebook and other sites is like telling men to stop going to work because women are going to be there.

As for his own personal choices, I openly wonder if Pastor Miller might be perceived to be a hypocrite for having a zero-tolerance policy toward members of his church who possess flaws that are not nearly as dramatic as his own. I also fear for the black community, which puts a tremendous amount of faith in quite a few spiritual leaders whose spirits are not nearly as pure as we are led to believe. Rather than being told what to believe by our so-called spiritual leaders, perhaps it makes sense for us to simply think for ourselves.

6 Things Your Dry Cleaner Won't Tell You

We got the best cleaning experts to air all their dirty laundry. Find out secret ways to save, which clothes you can really just wash yourself, and why organic is the most misleading word in the business.

1) Women Are Charged Substantially More
The automated machinery that most dry cleaners use is made to fit men's clothing only. "Putting in a smaller woman's blouse with all of its ornamentation would make it look like it was run over by a steamroller," says Wayne Edelman, President of Meurice Garment Care in New York City. Also, women's clothing often requires additional work — such as removing all the buttons and embellishments by hand before the cleaning process, according to John Mahdessian, President of Madame Paulette, another renowned dry cleaner in New York City. So that’s why having your stuff cleaned tends to cost you more. But if you're bringing in a standard wool suit without pleats or fancy buttons, you shouldn't be charged more than your boyfriend would for his suit.
Related: 5 Things a Fashion Stylist Won't Tell You

2) Organic Dry Cleaning Isn't Really Green.
There are no government standards for green dry cleaning yet. "Organic is the biggest misnomer in terms of cleaning," says Edelman. Most cleaners who advertise "organic" services use hydrocarbon, an "organic" substance only because it comes from the earth. And hydrocarbon is still considered toxic (and only slightly less so than PERC, short for perchloroethylen, which is used by about 85% of dry cleaners). "The only true organic clean is using water," he says. "But unfortunately not all garments can be cleaned using a water-based process."
Related: Top 10 Cheap (and Easy) Ways to Save the Planet

3) Bring Clothes in the Off-Season for the Quickest Turnaround.
The busiest time of year for dry cleaners is April through June, so bring your summer and spring outfits in during January and February — traditionally the slowest months of business. Some dry cleaners may even offer a 20-30% discount to fill the gap for work that they're not getting in that time frame.
Related: 5 Things Your Hairstylist Won't Tell You

4) Most Clothes Don't Need to Be Dry-Cleaned...
"We advise our clients to wash their cotton, solid color sweaters at home if they have time," says Edelman. He suggests using Johnson's baby shampoo or Woolite in cool water. Once you're done, roll them in a towel to remove excess water, and lay them out on a new towel to finish air drying. If you're unsure if you should wash a shirt yourself, Mahdessian says to wet a q-tip and dab it on an unseen area of your clothing, like under the armpit. If color comes off on the q-tip, bring it to the cleaners.
Related: The Sexiest Jeans for Your Body

5) How You Store Your Clothes Is As Important As How You Wash Them.
Don't keep your clothes in the plastic bags the dry cleaner puts them in. The polyethalene in the plastic begins to break down as soon as it's exposed to light, which causes discoloration on garments, says Edelman. Another way to avoid yellowing is to always clean clothes before putting them in storage: stains that might not be apparent will oxidize and become potentially permanent while hidden away.
Related: 4 Things Your Husband Won't Tell You

6) Treat Stains Right Away, Even if You're in a Pinch
"The longer a stain goes untreated, the more likely it becomes oxidized and sets into the fabric," says Mahdessian. If you stain your new LBD while out with your friends, put a stain remover on it as soon as you can and then hand wash. If you can't go to the cleaners or do laundry until next week, try pre-treating it with a stain remover (Edelmen recomments Shout Wipes), but don't apply laundry detergent directly on the stain. You can also buy Madame Paulette's professional stain removal kits to keep in your clutch in case of emergencies.

Can You Sue McDonald's For Making You Fat? Yes You Can!

Anyone who's worked in a job that involves food can probably tell you that such occupations are both a gift and a curse. The good is obvious: working at a restaurant usually means either free or discounted meals. I worked at various fast food places from Subway to Burger King before I graduated to The Day Job, and all that free food came in handy. It was basically one less item on which I needed to spend what little money I had. I could also hook up my friends at will. This probably wasn't exactly ethical, but hey, pay a guy $3.35 an hour, and the definition of "ethical" tends to change a bit.

The flip side of working fast food is you likewise develop some terrible eating habits. Most of these jobs are pretty sedentary as well, with little activity involved beyond standing up and washing an occasional pot. Combine lack of movement with foods swimming in fat, and you've got a pretty lethal combo on your hands. I also smelled like fries when I got off, which wasn't too cool either.

Anyways, common sense would dictate that a long-term career as a McManager would come with its own share of obvious occupational hazards. A Brazilian employee of the franchise lawyered up and recently won a judgment against the company for this very reason:

Black Unemployment Drops Slightly, Still Remains High

How one analyzes the black unemployment numbers for the month of October really comes down to whether you see the glass as being half empty or half full. On one hand, most of the indicators of black unemployment went down, but they still remain remarkably high relative to the numbers for white Americans.

According to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment dropped by .4 percentage points, from 16.1 percent to 15.7 percent. The number is still nearly double that of white unemployment, which lies at 8.8 percent.

Black male unemployment actually saw the steepest decline among all race/gender groups, dropping from 17.6 percent to 16.3 percent. The number is still 83 percent higher than white male unemployment (which is 8.9 percent).

Black women saw a slight increase in their unemployment rate, which went from 12.6 percent to 12.7 percent. The unemployment numbers for black women are 74 percent higher than those for white females (at 7.3 percent, lower than any other group in America).

Black teens saw mild relief from their unemployment crisis, but not very much. The unemployment rate for black teenagers dropped from 49 percent to 48 percent, but still remains more than double that of white teens (23.6 percent).

The numbers on black unemployment at least appear to be holding steady, but can be misleading due to the fact that quite a few Americans have simply stopped looking for work. Also, improvements in the black unemployment numbers must be balanced against the reality that black Americans are consistently unemployed at a rate that is nearly double that of the white American population. As I mentioned in my open letter to President Obama, this state of affairs cannot be allowed to exist much longer.

Facing Stiff Competition, Tyler Perry's 'For Colored Girls' Does Well At Box Office

Facing his toughest competition ever when opening a film, Tyler Perry's latest outing, 'For Colored Girls,' came in third place at the box office with $20.1 million.

The 3D animated film, 'Megamind,' topped the box office with an estimated $47.7 million, followed by the Robert Downey Jr./ Zach Galifianakis dramedy 'Due Date' with $33.5 million from 3,355 theaters.

"'Colored Girls' averaged a stellar $9,450 from 2,127 locations and like the filmmaker's prior work played heavily to black adult women. According to studio data, 82% of the crowd was female, 87% was over 25, and 81% was African American. Based on Ntozake Shange's 1975 play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow Is Enuf,' the film covered disturbing subject matter but brought out a large targeted audience thanks to the brand names of the director and the play, plus starpower from cast members like Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, and Whoopi Goldberg. The gross was just somewhat below the $23.4M bow of Perry's last fall release 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' from last year," said boxofficeguru.com.

While the number is lower than what box office experts had predicted, it's actually remarkable, considering that this was his first R-rated film that he's released.

According to the Wall Street Journal , it's also the third drama film, outside of horror films, to make over the $20 million plateau during its opening week behind Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island' and Ben Affleck's 'The Town.'

This is Perry's second film released this year. The PG-13 rated 'Why Did I Get Married Too?' grossed a total of $30.2 million in its opening weekend placing second behind 'Clash of the Titans.'

With the exception of 'Daddy's Little Girls' ($31 M) with Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba, and 'Meet The Browns' ($41.9M) with Angela Bassett, the rest of Perry's films have grossed over $50 million.

Coming in fourth place was the Bruce Willis-Morgan Freeman action film, 'Red,' with $8.9 million. The film has taken in a total of $71.9 million. After opening up number one last week, the horror film, 'Saw 3D,' dropped 66% to $8.2 million to round out the top five. It's total gross is $38.8 million, which is disappointed considering the inflated prices for a 3D film.