Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

Unless one has been on a deep space mission the last couple of weeks, you have undoubtedly heard of travail of Tiger Woods. Allegedly he has broken his marital vows and has had affairs with other women. Here's my issue. This whole thing started with the news reporting that Tiger was in an accident. Can someone tell me how in the world that the media goes from reporting an accident to accusing Tiger of cheating? Were they bored? Was there nothing else more important to talk about? Wait, there was...

The President of the United States security was threatened when two uninvited people people crashed the State Dinner. The Secret Service protocols were not followed, and they allowed two potential threats into the White House. Does the media mean to say that alleged rompings of a sports figure outweigh the breach of security that could have been potentially disastrous to our Commander and Chief? Please understand, Right or Left politics are irrelevant, my only concern is that our news media decided to quietly put away a presidential security issue to focus on a sports person. The news has its priorities slightly...ok, majorly skewed. So what's next? If, God forbid, another security issue comes up for the Pres, what will the media do? Run a story on Lady GaGa's new hair extensions?

Until Next Time...

A lesson of the heart

Last week, i found out that a person who was like my brother, took his own life last year. This was an emotional devastation of unprecedented scale in my life. Me and this person had not spoken for some years because of something that I thought important at the time wasn't important to him. Now, I will never get a chance to reconcile with him. The lesson is life is too short and unpredictable to sit and hold a grudge against someone. We are not promised tomorrow, so if you have ANYTHING against someone you may have been close with, but are no longer, please seek reconciliation today, because you may not have that opportunity tomorrow. Just as God reconciled Himself to us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus the Messiah, we need to be reconciled to one another.

Until later,

Michael

Love American Style...

...truer than the red, white, and blue", at least that is what the theme from the 70's TV classic show says, but for some reason that idea skipped New Orleans, LA. Here in 2009, a couple was denied a marriage license by a justice (and I use that tern loosely) of the peace becasue the couple were of different ethnicities. A Black man and White woman were denied the blessing of being lawfully wed because the judge didn't think it proper to marry a mixed couple becasue he was concerned about them having mixed offspring. Mixed offspring? The last I checked, we were all mutts, no "pure" anything. If he goes back far enough, I'm sure the good judge will find some chocolate and brown sugar in his family mix, it's LOUISIANA!!! The "swirl" has been there for centuries! Let's be honest people, Massa' was up in the slave quarters and doing as he pleased with his "property" often against her will, sometimes not.

This brings me to a revelation I had in my own heart that I have had to struggle with. In our society, it has become a common sight to see a Black man with a White, Hispanic, or sometimes, an Asian woman. Now what you don't see a lot of is a Black women with White men, at least I haven't. I found that I didn't react to the former, but felt different about the latter. I had to confront this hypocrisy in my own heart. It is becasue of my knowledge of the history of slavery in this country that caused me to feel "hurt" when I saw a Black woman with a White man. As I described above, it was the sickening norm for female African slaves to be raped and molested by the captains and crew of the slave ship. The humiliation continued for centuries on the plantation. If the woman happened to have a husband (even though the marriage wasn't legally recognized by the state), the master or foreman could and did, take the woman and have their way with them in the presence of the husband at times. How? The husband knew that he was powerless to do anything about it without putting the lives of his family and himself in danger. Any resistance would be met with beatings, selling off of the children, or being hung.

With this knowledge, I projected the evils of something from the past onto the people of the present. No longer is a Black woman forced into a relationship she does not want. What right did I have to think "Wow, are there no good Black men anymore that you have to take a White man as a boyfriend or spouse?" Because of the negative portrayal of Black men in the media, my thought was that she was buying into the stereotype of the "no good, lazy, violent, womanizing, no good coon", and opting for the "wealthy ,powerful, hard working White man who built this country from scratch and saved it form the "evil" indigenous people." It was a kick in the stomach to me. I thought that she must have suffered from a type of "Stockholm Syndrome", where the captive begins to sympathize with the ideology of their captors and take their point of view, the captors being the media in this case.

I had to repent and check myself. When a man and a woman love each other and vow to serve each other in love, who cares what ethnic group they belong to? In the eyes of God it is IRRELEVANT! Love has nothing to do with color, it has to do with dying to yourself and putting the others needs above your own, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

Love American style indeed.

Roaring Silence and "Dagger Vision"

Last weekend, I had an experience that I will not soon forget. An elder from our church and I went to see a brother who was incarcerated in S. Illinois. During the 400 mile trip, the elder and I were talking about race and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true healing solution to this problem. We visited the man and were blessed by his warmth and joy in the midst of his situation and the harsh environment he is in. The elder and I stayed overnight and left on Monday morning. On our way back, we stopped in a small town McDonald's to get breakfast.

Then the adventure began...

As we stepped into the restaurant, I made for the men's facilities, that's when I noticed the stares. I came out of the restroom and went to stand in line to order. The person who took my order was pleasant and smiling. As my friend and I received our order and sat down, I felt the eyes upon us and the silence was deafening. One old farmer in particular was staring at me. I caught his glance and smiled and nodded at him, needless to say the gesture was not returned. Now one could argue that it was just the one guy, but wait there's more. While we continued our meal, two town sheriffs came and ate next to us. When I tried to say hello, I was ignored. Why? My friend also noticed the thick and very unwelcoming atmosphere. This was a town that time forgot. One would think they have stepped back fifty years into a restaurant that would have proudly displayed a sign that said "WHITES ONLY". Even the music that was being piped in was from the early 1960's. If you have ever seen "Forrest Gump", there was a scene where Forrest was a teenager being chased by guys in a pickup truck. The music they were playing in the background accurately matched the atmosphere we found ourselves in.

As we left the restaurant, my friend, an older white gentleman, saw and sensed the uneasiness I felt and he also saw the behavior of the camouflage cap wearing hunters and farmers who glared at me. For this writer, I now see that the silent stare is now the new way of saying "nigger".

This is a situation that challenges one to pray fro those who may despise you. If someone had shouted out "Get out out of here nigger, and take your nigger lovin' friend with you.", it would have been my duty towards Christ to forgive and pray for them. I did pray for them. In this day and age, many still hold on to the evils of the past and refuse to move on. It is a shame and a sad thing for them, but we must love then nonetheless as Jesus does.

Caught In A Mosh...

is a song title from the 80's thrash metal band, Anthrax. I think that the tile is appropriate for the political happenings of the past week.

We as a nation were spectators to one of the most disturbing and disrespectful acts ever witnessed during a Presidential speech. For those of you who may have missed it, during the President's speech on health care reform, Congressman Wilson of South Carolina yells at the Commander and Chief "You lie!". What?!? You interrupt one of the most important speeches of this administration with shouts of "You lie." What happened to decorum? What happened to respecting the Presidential office no matter who holds it at the moment? What happened to just plain good manners? Hey, you can have your political and ideological differences and air them AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME AND PLACE. This really saddened me to see our politicians turn form being public leaders and models of American democracy, to "Bowery Boy" street hooligans yelling beer powered threats and curses at a baseball game.

The congressman has apologized, but history will record this as one of the most tumultuous times in American politics outside of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals. Do you think this type of behavior would have been tolerated under Reagan, Carter, or even LBJ? I think not.

For those who may be curious of why I picked "Caught In A Mosh", here's a excerpt from the song lyrics:

"Which one of these words, don't you understand
All caught in a mosh
Talking to you, is like clapping with one hand"

This describes someone who will not listen and acts foolishly.

Appropriate, don't you think?

Slight Detour

Hi Folks,

Sorry I have not been posting much. Family and school have to take precedence for the time being. The topic of race is still fresh and I will be writing more, but for the next couple of weeks, I may not have time to get as deep as I'd like to with this. Stay tuned true believers, your dark, overweight, caped crusader of the blogsphere will return shortly to fight the spiritual and social evils of our fair nation.


Stay tuned for our commercial break...

Hate: The Black Hole Of The Human Soul Pt. 2

There has been some spirited talk about the subject I posted a couple of days ago. I wanted to respond to the statements made on Facebook here because frankly, the texting on FB is much to be desired. Buckle up, here we go.

It was said in one of the posts:

"You know I'm not seeing it as or holding it against any race, although people on both sides of the issue define it as such. Worse, many of the displaced made it a race issue themselves."


Reply: I'm not saying that all of the bad stuff that happen to the people who were displaced was racially motivated, not in the least, BUT historically speaking, when a disaster hit neighborhoods that were occupied by minorities, it was those neighborhoods that either were not built back up or were very slow in receiving funding to rebuild. This was not the norm in wealthier neighborhoods whom were built back up in a timely fashion.

For the record, I don't see the "racial boogeyman" around every corner. I do not attempt to infer racism into every situation I read or hear about. I'm not saying anyone is implying that, but I just wanted it out there. In the article I referred to with Boortz, I put the quote he had in there because when you read it and know the situations and references he made, it does not take a Mr. Spock or Sherlock Holmes to see that we was specifically speaking about African-Americans. When he referred to the Superdome, if we remember the scenes from there, a majority of the people that were seen were people of color. Of course there were other ethnicities there, but if Boortz was looking at the same images I was, it was a sea of Black faces. So in THIS case, it's not a far stretch to know exactly who he was referring to.

Second statement I wanted to address:

"Now, careful with that theocratic thinking... Right and wrong are much more easily determined & upheld without religion needing any place in that. Most terrorists (domestic and abroad) are faithful and see what they do as for God.

Faith is often a good thing, but also absolutely abusable - that is why I am no longer religious at all. Spiritual, sure, good person, almost certainly, and no one can claim I am not well educated on the subject."

Reply:

I actually do not advocate a theocratic society, not one ruled by mortal men at least. We have tried to have a society ruled by a theocracy starting around 306A.D. under Emperor Constantine, it was the beginning of the "Holy" Roman Empire which after its collapse in the 5th century A.D., was the beginning of the Dark Ages. Indeed the Taliban are a more recent form of a theocracy and we see what that has gone. When I spoke about the Church speaking out against racism, what I was trying to convey was that Jesus was our model for how to treat our fellow man. When He walked the Earth, He had shown justice and mercy to the hurting and underprivileged. We as Christians should also model that behavior. Where there is injustice, we should speak loudest against it and act to correct it.

As I have stated in my opening post, I am a Christian by faith and practice, I do believe the Bible is the Word Of God. With that said, I do believe that Jesus will return one day and set up His kingdom on the Earth in Jerusalem. Check out the Books of Daniel, Revelations, and Isaiah, they refer to th Messiah and His kingdom. I said all of that to say this: I would never want to live a place where man has setup a theocracy because man is fallible and corruptible. Justice and mercy would only be applied to those who can afford it, look at Europe during the Dark Ages all the way up through the Renaissance. Corruption abounded under the political rule of the Papacy and it didn't get challenged until Martin Luther, but I digress. When Jesus rules, then you will see true love, justice and mercy. Just a note, I am not condemning Catholic people, not by any stretch of the imagination, I am only referring to the policies and doctrines that were condoned by the Papacy in centuries past. It is now 1:22AM and I must rest. If I haven't been clear enough, please let me know. I bid all a good ni..err.. morning.