 | We often view statistics which place urban residents, African American urban residents in particular, at the bottom end of most issues dealing with health and wellness.It doesn’t matter what area of health and wellness the statistics describe, it appears that the African American community is failing. It is certainly not due to a lack of credible and able physicians in our community. |
The Detroit area is home to some of the finest and largest concentration of African American physicians anywhere in the country. Detroit also has the prestige of harboring one of the nations best medical schools in the world – Wayne State University Medical School. This begs the question, why African Americans continue to perish from preventable diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and strokes? We also should be compelled to ask ourselves, why in an area like metropolitan Detroit, with arguably the largest concentration of African American elected officials, educators, and business people in America, do we grapple with such high levels of violence? Our quality of life in and around the city has been reduced to avoiding becoming victimized by crime. This is certainly not the image one conjures when considering quality of life issues. Again, these facts raise more questions than they answer. These facts certainly do not explain why we are not able to overcome this condition.
Well, the short answer is that as the word of God informs us, "the people perish for a lack of knowledge." Our duty as a collective is to enlighten and inform the people utilizing every means available to us. We trust that this health issue of the Baptist Times Magazine will help to spread knowledge about the variety of prevention mechanisms available to our community. We hope to inform the community that these resources help us in the fight to keep treatable diseases from becoming fatal. We also offer tips in this issue regarding financial strength, educational prowess, emotional supports, and spiritual awareness. We have taken a holistic approach to dealing with health and wellness. We intend to focus on these various areas of health and wellness on an on-going basis. Our goal here at the Baptist Times is to provide our readers with relevant and consistent information that will promote healthier lives. It has become apparent that we cannot provide too much information on health and wellness to the community. In fact, we have deemed the challenge of spreading the good news about health and wellness as one that we will accept as often as we can. We trust that something provided in this issue will stimulate thought and conversation on the issue of health and wellness in a variety of areas. As always, we thank you for joining us on our quest to inform and educate.
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CARRIE L. CONNOR is a community activist and a Detroit resident. She holds a BA in Business, a MA in Sociology and a MA in Counseling. 
DR. KENNETH E. HARRIS is Pastor of Detroit Baptist Temple and serves as Chairman of the Education Committee of the Council. Dr. Harris is a noted Lecturer and Biblical Scholar serving as Professor at both Ashland Theological Seminary and the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit. 
DR. JOSEPH R. JORDAN is Pastor of Corinthian Baptist Church in Hamtramck. Pastor Jordan is the immediate past President of the Council of Baptist Pastors, and it was under his leadership that the "Baptist Times Magazine" was given official approval. He continues to offer leadership and guidance to this endeavor. 
DR. LYN LEWIS is a retired professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Detroit Mercy. She holds a PhD in Sociology. She has written several articles and is completing two books. She is a well-sought-after speaker, therapist, evaluator and researcher. She is the founder and president of Lyn Lewis and Associates, Inc. Her email address is lewisle@udmercy.edu. 
