The My View column has added community voices to our front page. Karen Perron, Pam Spaulding, Alan Teasley and the young people from SEEDS have made the paper better, whether they're writing about pit bulls or boyfriends who cheat.

Carl Kenney, whose column debuts Saturday, was senior pastor at Orange Grove Missionary Baptist Church until he split from the hierarchy seven years ago. (His story is told in the book "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought.") Today he leads Compassion Ministries of Durham, preaching to about 50 people in the basement of Northgate Mall.

"I talked about liberation in a way they were uncomfortable with," Kenney says, in dreadlocks and a green Save Darfur bracelet. "I was involved in the community in a way that mirrored a politician, and they were uncomfortable with that."

Kenney is passionate about journalism. He takes on the powerful, whether church elders, Durham's political committees or City Hall. What he won't do is speak for the black community.

"I don't think we have a [single] black voice in the community," he says. "My desire is to be the voice in the middle, to be the voice between black and white, between Christian, Hindu, whatever.

"I think I'm respected for that. I think I'm also alienated because of that."

Look for Kenney's column Saturday. He won't tell you what to think. I hope he will make you think.