2012 Presidential Race: America, a “House Divided”

According to last year’s 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair magazine survey that asked Americans from different backgrounds and various political persuasions, “which past president they believed they would bring back to fix the economy,” conservative republicans overwhelmingly chose Ronald Reagan while liberal democrats significantly leaned toward FDR, as their first and second choices.  This came as no surprise to most people who would agree, with some reservations, that the Reaganomics of the eighties and the New Deal of the thirties have gotten the country out of the tough economic spots those two presidents’ administration found them in.

It is remarkable on the one hand that some would gladly bring back dead presidents to fix today’s problems.  This does nothing but accentuate the impotence of those who presently aspire to ascend to the highest office of the land.  On the other hand, there is a bit of short-sightedness in voters arguing over which presidential candidate would be better suited than the incumbent president to handle the economy without regard for other variables in the equations of this disastrous economy.  There is a greater reality that is being largely overlooked, and it is an astonishing fact, or perhaps not, that those who profess to uphold a faith that claims God as the Creator of the universe are lost in the political diatribes just like the rest of the world, and they are not paying attention to the possible correlation between Americans’ attitude toward God and the economy.

I am not suggesting a superstitious way of looking at the present situation.  It is quite alright to be pragmatic and acknowledge that the application of the basic principles of micro and macro-economics, as well as making good fiscal decisions based on sound economic ideology may contribute to a stronger economy.  However, for those who read the Bible, the prophets, Haggai and Amos, have provided great insights into the possibility of God using disastrous economic conditions as a means to bring attention to Himself.

Sole human knowledge is insufficient to remedy to the woes of this present economy.  It would take a president who would be willing to act on God’s behalf, and pushing for national reconciliation, to fix the troubled economy.  Since I am not in favor of bringing back the dead, I would say that it may take someone with the fortitude of an Abraham Lincoln or the courage and understanding of a Martin Luther King Jr., even though he was not a president, to succeed in that endeavor.

These two took giant steps and made formidable godly decisions to unite the country, and they paid for the success of their mission with their lives.  Today, we are faced with an unprecedented division in this country, and in the midst of a disdain that seems to have reached its fullness, who will be willing to be the next martyr as it appears obvious that these two icons –Lincoln and King – acted as the mouthpieces of God and paid the ultimate price?

Let us see together how they did it.

On June 16, 1858, a deeply convicted Abraham Lincoln stood up and gave a speech about a “house divided” before an Illinois convention.  “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he said.  “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”  This was something he reiterated at the height of the Civil War when he gave his ever famous Gettysburg’s Address on November 19, 1863, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived [in liberty] and so dedicated [to the proposition that all men are created equal] can long endure [half slave and half free].”

A retrospective look at this moment, and looking at other documents by the same author, assures us that he was primarily concerned about slavery possibly ripping the nation apart.  The threat he perceived was correctly assessed, politically speaking; but as urgent as it was to rid the country of the evil of this form of slavery, that only constituted the tip of the iceberg.

The larger issue was the inability for southern Christians to recognize the violence that was being done to God Himself in dividing the body of Christ – an offense even more severe in the eyes of the Creator of the universe than the subjection and oppression of Americans of African descent, some of whom were their brethren in the faith.  The dehumanization of dark-skinned Americans was endemic to the dominant culture in the south – Americans who professed to be Christian, and it averred to be a natural result stemming from a disdain for the truth and for God.

While Lincoln’s endearing piece of oratory marvel – the Gettysburg’s Address, acknowledged yet in its time as a masterpiece of verbal discourse, still holds our countrymen in awe even today, it was in reality a prophetic biblical message couched in careful political language that fit the occasion.  Unlike most of the rest of the nation, the president understood that a mighty, loving and just God could not possibly look down from Heaven, witness the subhuman conditions that a group of human beings who claimed allegiance to Him was inflicting upon their brethren, hear the sufferers’ cries for deliverance, and look the other way.

Lincoln was astonishingly well imbued of the Creator’s judgment upon the citizens of America.  He declared it in his second inaugural address in no uncertain terms: “Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-men’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.’”

Sadly, America did not understand then, nor does she understand today that God has not withdrawn into a corner of Heaven waiting for His Son to come and rapture the Church, but He is alive and active and still judging the deeds of mankind all over the globe.  Not just content to display such great insight into the divine reason for the civil war, President Lincoln also proclaimed, upon the urging of his son Robert’s future father-in-law, a day of fasting and prayer for the nation’s “presumptuous sins” of having “forgotten God.”  In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of other prophets who made similar claims about biblical Israel: Isaiah (17:10), Jeremiah (2:32, 3:21, 13:25, 18:15, 23:27), Ezekiel (22:12), and Hosea (4:6, 8:14, 13:6).

While Lincoln made no explicit personal claim to Christianity, his actions fell in line with the Christian mandate for humankind: “Love God and love fellow human beings.”  Lincoln’s America, in major part, failed to fulfill both.  Edward Everett, the most eloquent orator in the country at the time, who delivered a breath-taking message for two hours at Gettysburg before Lincoln’s two-minute address, said it best when he wrote to president Lincoln, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

The central idea was something that was always in the heart of the president.  It is the centerpiece of human existence and the main point of the eternal divine message to mankind.  It is therefore no small wonder that, although he was concerned about the soldiers and their families, Lincoln thought that Americans, rather than to dedicate a cemetery for the dead, should instead dedicate their lives “to the great task remaining before us,… that this nation [is together] under God,… and that government of the people, by the people, for the people [does] not perish from the earth.”  In other words, God has instituted government to care for the people, because life is all about love for God and people.

Lincoln was taken down by an assassin’s bullet, and so went down in modern history the killing of one more prophet of God.  The “new birth of freedom” that he visualized never completely materialized, and a dream had to be deferred.  Despite his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, evil kept its grip on the nation.  While there was an appearance of progress for Americans of African descent who went from being slaves to being a free people, evil only downgraded for them from dehumanization to degradation, as they moved from being less than human to being second-class citizens.  It would take another century for the next American national prophet to show up in the person of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it took King’s I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC. in 1963 to compel America to dream again and “let freedom ring!”

From an early age, Dr. King has shown signs that he was practically cast into the role of the great Emancipator’s successor.  He was only fifteen years old, and a junior in Booker T. Washington high school on his way to college, when he won a speech contest.  The speech was entitled “The Negro and the Constitution,” and whether or not he got help in drafting it has been debated.  Regardless, he closed on a note that showed his understanding of Lincoln’s prophetic role in this grand task of rectifying America’s wrongs.  He said, “My heart throbs anew in the hope that, inspired by the example of Lincoln, imbued with the spirit of Christ, [America] will cast down the last barrier to perfect freedom, … and I with my brothers of blackest hue possessing at last my rightful heritage and holding my head erect, may stand beside the Saxon – a negro – and yet a man.”

Dr. King was called by God to deal with the evil of segregation.  This evil had been perpetuated by many Christians as being divinely ordained.  Segregation was deceiving and dangerous, not only because it was injurious to colored people, but also because it had some semblance of biblical legitimacy, and it was definitely a legal social construct.  Its legality put the beneficiaries of the system at ease in applying its most cruel laws while it severely oppressed its victims by curtailing several of their civil rights.  The system’s dark side could only be visible in the light of the biblical mandate for Christians to love God and other people.  How could good Christians find it in their heart to despise Christians of a different race when the Bible clearly says that “all who believe in Jesus will not perish, but have eternal life?” [John 3:16]

Does not all include everyone?  Even if Christians should think that God loves some of His children more than others, would that give them the right to act on that assumption in making segregation the law of the southern states?  Is not the measure of love that they must show their fellow human beings clearly stated in the command to “love your neighbor like yourself?”

We can all acknowledge that it is indeed very hard to love people who do not love us, and Dr. King knew it.  He struggled with it.  He talked about it.  He preached about it.  After many personal struggles, he came to the conclusion that there was no other way to overcome the evil forces of segregation.  In a Christmas sermon entitled “Loving Your Enemies” given at his Dexter Avenue pastorate, he declared, “Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness … Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.”  Nonviolent or passive resistance became the symbol of application of that love, and through it Dr. King led the Civil Rights movement to success.

However, King’s calling was greater than to bring about civil rights and dignity to Americans of African descent.  He was called to play the role of a prophet.  He reminded America that she had defaulted on her “promissory note” to provide freedom and justice for all her citizens.  He wanted to hold the government accountable for the just welfare of all of its citizens equally as per the Declaration of Independence.   On the steps of the Lincoln memorial, he affirmed, “No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”  The bolded part of the statement which came to be attributed to Dr. King is rather authored by the biblical prophet Amos (5:24).

As for King’s signature prophetic message, it would come on the eve of his brutal assassination.  On that blustery day when the storms and the tornado warnings should have kept the masses at home, an indirect request suggested by their strong showing was made for the reverend to come and comfort them in their distress.  It was certainly visible to the doctor’s entourage that the people had flocked to hear him rather than anyone else.  It was not just his charisma that attracted them, but he personified hope – a hope for justice and freedom for them, their nation, and the world.

On that evening, in the Masonic Temple in Memphis, TN, Martin Luther King Jr. gave perhaps the most significant speech of his entire career.  Dr. King delivered his extemporaneous message with an inner vibrancy, defying his fatigue previously raised as an impediment to his presence, to a wonderful crowd that braved the stormy weather, as well to those whose eyes were glued on their television screens or their ears to the radio. He said, as if he had a premonition of his death, “…I’ve seen the promised land.  I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

Those were not mere words of encouragement.  They emanated from a profound conviction that things could not be otherwise.  They welled up from his heart to his lips as if originated from higher Wisdom.  “I’m not concerned about [longevity] now,” he confirmed before that; “I just want to do God’s will.”  Those were the words of a prophet of God, the last national prophet that America has known.

Like Lincoln, he sought to hold America true to her principles.  Like he, he was taken down by an assassin’s bullet.  America had killed another one of its prophets.  When John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at close range, he was convinced he was doing the nation a favor.  When Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down, many saw him as a threat to the stability of a nation already at war.

Both Lincoln and King were incredibly brave people who served the cause of God and the needy in their frail humanity.  They were both criticized for their unevangelistic Christianity.  That is because they chose to reject Christianity in its vain form as practiced by the majority, but embraced its substance.  They were imperfect, but God still used them just He used the prophets of old.  Moses was a murderer, David was a murderer and an adulterer, Elijah suffered from depression, Jeremiah had low self-esteem in his youth, Jonah had open hatred for an entire people, but God still used them.  However, those two – Lincoln and King – taught us that in the land of the free and the home of the brave, one can be free to believe in the divine truth, but the bravery in proclaiming it must be accompanied by a readiness to die.

As the general elections approach, I am not holding my breath to find out which of the candidates who claim Christianity as their mantle is ready to emulate Lincoln in his boldness to live out his Christianity, or which one of them will be, like Dr. King, endowed with Godly wisdom to make the right decisions that will save the nation.  As I see it, if America does not come together as one to repent before Almighty God, our nation will perish in its economic quagmire, and that, dear reader, may become the primary campaign issue for a presidential candidate to be worthy of serious consideration.

Seasons are Fun by Ravi G. Stimphil (7 y.o.)

Games are fun.

On a sunny day

I can climb a tree

And run on the grass.

How about you?

In the summer

It’s warm and nice

On the beach.

In the fall

You can play in the leafs.

In the spring

It’s nice and good.          

In the winter, it’s is cold

But you can still have fun

In the snow.

All seasons have fun

 

Excerpt from Martin’s Dream – Journey Onto the Promised Land –Ch.8

The bus dropped him off a block away from the subdivision where the Winfreds lived.  Deshawn felt very strange in these unfamiliar surroundings.  He looked around in amazement at the manicured front lawns and the perfectly trimmed bushes around the magnificent colonial and federal residences.

The entrance to Martin’s subdivision was about half a block down, opposite the street where he got off the bus.  Wealed Haven, the subdivision’s name, was written in mammoth gold letters on a wall diagonally placed at the corner among a shrubbery populated with euphorbia, hibiscus plants, and some evergreens.

The long main street had two brick posts on either side of the entrance, with a golden lantern atop each one.  Maple trees lined up along both sides of the streets at regular intervals.

At the end of the dividing lane of this main street, there was a magnificent water fountain featuring a ballerina in fifth position.  She was placed in the middle of a large bottom pool, with water pouring out of her fingers onto her head, and cascading from her tutu.  Water was also spouting up from the inside circle of the pool toward the ballerina’s legs.  Christmas decorations, left over from the holiday season, still hung across the street.

Deshawn recalled the directions mentally: “Make a left when I reach the water fountain at the intersection, and it should be the third house on the left.”  “That looks like it right over there,” he thought.  As he turned the corner, he noticed a patrol car coming down the main road toward him at very low speed.

At first, he paid little attention to it.  However, as he was looking for the house number, the private security patrol vehicle drew slowly closer.  Deshawn instinctively hastened his strides.  He identified the house number, and, with short and rather gimpy strides, walked down the driveway toward the back door and rang the bell.

Martin was expecting him.  Since the day that his dad and he had dropped Deshawn off from school, he had felt the burden to reach out to him.  He had felt compassionate toward his classmate, and he had shared his feelings with his parents.  Ava had proposed to her son to extend an invitation for Deshawn to dine with them, and Deshawn had accepted wholeheartedly.

“Hey.  Come in, Deshawn.  I told you it wasn’t much trouble finding us.”

Deshawn might beg to differ: his heart was still racing within him.  There was that negative vibe he got from uniforms or vehicles that reminded him of law enforcement.  The house might not have been hard to find, but Deshawn was feeling out of place in that environment.  The doorbell suddenly rang as he followed Martin into the family room.

“Did anyone else come with you?” Martin asked him.

“Nope.  I came alone,” Deshawn answered readily.

“I wonder who that is.  We’re not expecting anyone else as far as I know,” Martin continued as he prepared to answer the front door.  He looked into the surveillance monitor and recognized the familiar face of the armed security guard patrolling the area standing behind the door.  He opened it.

“Ah.  Mr. Jenkins.  How are you, sir?”

“Can’t complain, young man.  Can’t complain.  Is everything alright?” the guard asked as he scrutinized the space beyond Martin, looking over his small oval glasses.  Deshawn was waving at him from the family room as if to poke fun at the redoubtable looking guard.

“Everything is fine, sir.  Just my friend visiting with us.  We’re about to have dinner, would you like to join us?” Martin proposed.

“That’s very kind of you young man, but I must decline.  I’m on duty.  Perhaps another time,” Mr. Jenkins replied. “Are your parents home?”

“Yes, sir.  My mom is in the kitchen, and my dad is in his office.”

At that moment, Mrs. Winfred came out of the kitchen and walked toward the front door.  She had heard the guard ask for her, and she temporarily left the confinement of her kitchen to address the latter’s concern.

“Is everything alright, officer?” she asked.

“No problem at all, ma’am.  None whatsoever.  I just wanted to make sure that you all were home and OK.”

“Thank you, officer.  We really appreciate you checking on us, but we’re doing very well.  Is there anything else we could help you with?”

“No, ma’am.  Thank you.  But if you need anything don’t hesitate to call,” replied the guard as he eyed Deshawn from above his glasses.

“I surely appreciate you dropping by, and of course, if we need your help, we shall surely not hesitate to call.”

Mr. Jenkins tipped his hat off to Ava like the perfect gentleman that he was, walked back toward the patrol car, got in, and drove away.  Mrs. Winfred closed the front door, and upon returning into the kitchen, she suggested that Martin give Deshawn a tour of the house.

“This is a really nice house!” Deshawn exclaimed.

“Thank you, Deshawn,” Mrs. Winfred acquiesced.

Deshawn nearly stumbled against the large aquarium in the living room.  He was looking around at the sumptuous room with its grand piano separating it from the dining room.  The floral-patterned window drapes matched the sofa pillows, and the maroon velvet valence blended nicely with the Victorian furniture set that was resting on an elaborately decorated oriental rug spread over the mahogany hard wood floor.

At one corner of the room, one could spot a lone beautiful Victorian floor lamp.  At another corner, a solid oak grandfather clock stood majestically.  Two ornate armchairs were facing each other across a tea table set by the brick fireplace above which a multitude of family photographs, spanning several generations, hung, along with some paintings.

As Deshawn continued to look around at the paintings on the wall, some of which were well-executed copies of originals, his eyes came to rest on “the Last Supper” by the Renaissance painter, Raphael.  A provocative question came on his lips.  He turned to Martin and said, “I know ya believe in God and Jesus and … Well… Lemme ask ya, Wuz Jesus black or white?”

Martin could have anticipated a question about the fake painting, for Deshawn appeared to have been looking at it with a particular interest.  However, he had seldom questioned the painter’s human model for his Jesus.  Deshawn’s question, though not unusual, took him by surprise.  He knew it to be a well-documented fact that the Jesus figures painted on most European works of art were most often white while African art portrayed Him as black.  He nonetheless ventured an answer based on his biblical convictions.

“According to the Bible,” Martin replied, “Jesus was a Jew.  Therefore, I assume he must have had middle-eastern features like any other Jew, but who knows?  There has not been any portrait made of Him by any artist of the period when he was on earth, as far as I know.  The Shroud of Turin has a depiction of Jesus’ appearance, but…”

“The what?”

“The Shroud of Turin.  It’s a famous religious artifact that depicts a face that many believe is the face of the Christ, but regardless of what Jesus really looked like, I think who He is and what He came to do are more important than what he looked like: He was the Son of God in the flesh who came to reconcile man to God the Father, if you’re willing to believe it.”

“If his skin color is not important, why do white people make him to be white and black people say he wuz black, bro?”

“I think people will do and say things because they are human, whether they are black or white.”

“So, you guys like da white Jesus better, don’t ya?”  Deshawn whispered within Martin’s earshot, as though he was concerned that anyone else would hear him.

“What makes you say that?” Martin asked him.

“I see a white Jesus, but I don’t see no black Jesus.”

“Not that it matters, but my mom does have an African painting showing a black Jesus in the hallway that leads to our bedrooms.”

“My bad,” Deshawn conceded as he continued his tour.

“You’re asking me all these questions, Deshawn.  Let me ask you this.  Do you believe in Jesus?”

“I dunno.  I think Jesus wuz a racist.”

“I can’t believe you said that.”

“Yes.  I’ll say it again.  Jesus is racist, bro.  OK. OK. If Jesus is not racist, where wuz he when black people wuz slaves?”

“I don’t know if you will ever be satisfied with an answer coming from me, but I know this much: black people have not been slaves in this country for the past hundred and forty-five years at least.”

“And your point is?”

“My point is that if Jesus were a racist, black people would still be slaves.”

“Whateva.”

“You still haven’t told me if you believe in Jesus,” Martin proceeds persistently.

“I dunno.  If it’s my mama’s Jesus, I dunno if I do.  I remember when I was ten years old.  We wuz in church one Sunday, and the preacher wuz asking people to plant a seed.  I t’ought the pastor wanted the church property to be full of trees.  People lined up in three different lines to bring money to dat puppet.”

“You mean to the pulpit?” Martin rectified.

“Yeah.  Whateva.  They were throwing money all over the floor while the pastor was encouraging them.  Some guy kept showing her to the back of the line because doze with the larger bank notes had to go first. Chuch was very long dat day.  After chuch, we went home hungry, and we ate not’n but crackers and water the rest of the day since we ran out of food stamp money the day before, and she had just gave her last ten dollars to the chuch, to JEE-ZIS.  She gave and got not’n back.  She wanted so much to plant seeds.  She continued to give, but I ain’t never seen no money tree grow in our apartment.  But I’ve seen the preacher’s car.  He changed his raggedy navy blue Cadillac for a brand new brown one.  You know, I want me one of doze.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I swore dat when I could make my own decisions, I’d never go to chuch again.  So when I turned thirteen, I stopped goin’.  I would just stay in bed and pretend that I could not get up, or I was sick or somet’in.  Eventually, my mama left me alone.  And eventually, she too stopped goin’.  Maybe she finally felt like I did.”

“And how is that?” Martin asked inquisitively.

“Maybe she finally saw dat dis Jeezis thing was all a big lie, because we visited my grandma’s chuch for a while, and the same thing wuz goin’ on.  You know, jest a way for preachers to make money off weak-minded people.”

“Deshawn, you shouldn’t say that Jesus isn’t real just because a few preachers are doing the wrong thing.  It’s like saying that peanuts are to be eliminated from people’s diet because some have died from deadly allergic reactions to peanut products, or that you would never take a ride in a car because some drunk and irresponsible drivers have caused innocent people to die.  There are many fine preachers out there who are doing things right, you know.”

“Thanks for the thought, bro.  But I decided that no one would take advantage of me no more.  I’ll be strong and let no one mess with me.  I’m gonna start working out, get myself a few tattoos, and be a thug.  Yeah, baby.  Be a thug.  That’s right!”

“Deshawn, don’t you have the desire to get a good education, to be successful someday, to live a better life, to be doing better than your mama or grandma ever did?”

“College is for guys like you, Martin.    I ain’t cut out for this s____.  Oops!  Excuse my French!  Wa don’t you go to college and become a lawyer or somet’in?  I might need you some day.”

“Deshawn, do you realize that a lot of people sacrificed themselves, so you and I could get a proper education and equip ourselves to compete in this world?  Their dream is being fulfilled.  We now even have a black president in the White House.  Their sacrifice was worthwhile.  You can make something out of yourself if you’re willing to get an education.”

“Martin, even Obama cannot change America’s image.  In America, money is the name of the game.  Better yet, you know how they say.  Money makes the world go ’round.  I say dat the American dream is a racket.  Life is money in my pocket.”

“Money isn’t everything, Deshawn…”

“But America would sell her soul for money.  Tell me…Isn’t dat why black people were slaves in this country?  Isn’t dat why there are so many poor black people today?  You know what?  I’m proud to be black, but I’m tired of being poor.  I don’t care if those bills have pictures of dead white presidents on ’em, I’m gonna find a way to make maself some money, baby.”

“You worry me, man.  I hope you’re not thinking of doing illegal stuff.  You can end up in jail one day, or even dead.”

“Ah! Ah! This is America.  It’s called free enterprise, baby.  If I’ve got enough cash stashed away, I can pay me a lawyer to get me out of trouble.  I can even afford my own funeral if I end up dead.  You only live once, man.”

“Be careful, Deshawn.  The Bible says that the love of money is the source of all kinds of evil.”

“Are you saying that the white man is evil?  Because these muthas[1] love money, bro,” Deshawn said with a smirk.

“Deshawn, I’m not talking about the white man.  I’m talking to you.  Besides, it’s wrong to call an entire race of people evil.  There are good white people as well as good black people.  There are evil white people as well as evil black people.  Do you have a problem with white people?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you why.  My grandfather told me the story of how he became a drunkard.  He told me he saw something when he wuz a little boy that he couldn’t get out of his mind.  He wuz too afraid to even tell the story for a while.  He saw white men set fire to a black man who was hanging from a tree, not even dead yet.  He knew he wasn’t dead because the man was kicking his legs until he stopped moving.  He said he heard them laugh and cuss and joke about it.  He could never take away the sound of the fire crackling, and he never forgot doze laughs and dat stench.  Not even a strong moonshine could silence those noises in his head, he said.”

“I’m really sorry about your grandfather’s experience, Deshawn.  I read about those things.  Those were awful times.”

“You don’t get it, shawty.  You think it’s over, don’t you?  Well it ain’t.  I hear of doze stories of nooses that they hang in schools and universities…”

“Those are unfortunate incidents indeed.”

“I get mad when I walk in the park, bro, and white people walk away from me as dough I’m gonna mug’em.  I walk into stores, and security follow me ’round like I’m gonna steal somet’in.  They look at me; they don’t know me, but they think I’m a thief, or I’m violent or somet’in.  You see.  Hanging a man and setting him on fire while he is still alive is violent.  I may be an angry black man, but I ain’t violent.”

“Martin! Deshawn!” It was Ava calling the young men.  “Dinner is ready!”

I would love to post some more excerpts, but I am awaiting feedback from you readers.  Please use the comment section to share your feedbacks, good or bad.  I would surely appreciate it.

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[1] Short for the expletive motherf____s

The Lost Bell by Ravi G. Stimphil (7 y.o.)

I looked in a well

To find my bell

My only bell

The cows mooed

The dog barked

The moss was long

The grass was short

But I did not care

At the pond

I saw bells

Gold bells

Diamond bells

Silver bells

But no steel bells

At the farm

I saw two bells

One of them was my bell

But I did not know

The farmer said

“Here is your bell.”

At last!

I found my bell.

A beautiful story of love from Reggie Dabbs

As good as this video is, it is quite color-coded.

Race and the 2012 Presidential Race

As we navigate the murky waters of the 2012 presidential race, one cannot help but ponder how race will affect it this time around.  Black teenager Trayvon Martin’s fatal shooting by George Zimmerman, a presumed white Hispanic, despite the many unanswered questions, has now irreversibly turned racial and may compel the presidential candidates as well as the sitting president to think seriously about the state of the Union in strategizing their campaign rhetoric.

At the risk of reviving old animosities, I must resurrect something that the US Attorney General said at the beginning of his career for which he got much grief, and it is that “in things racial,… we have always been and …continue to be… a nation of cowards.”

Despite the deluge of criticism that overflowed the airwaves after he so stated, Eric Holder was not the first one to have declared what he did.  The remarkable Frederic Douglas, in disagreement with his former protégé, the abolitionist Lloyd Garrison, over the fate of the Union, uttered a similar statement.  While Garrison favored Southern Secession because he was eager to part with slaveholding states, Douglas called his position a “cowardly measure,” because it avoided Garrison dealing with the greater issue of insuring the immediate abolition of slavery in the entire United States.

One hundred and fifty years later, the accusations levied against those who would do everything in their power to avoid dealing with the difficult issues of this Union are still as relevant now as they were then, and even as far back as the inception of this nation.  In fact, in a letter to John Holmes, Thomas Jefferson made it clear that he struggled over the fate of the “non-freemen,” i.e. African slaves in America, in the new republic.  He likened the issue of slavery to a wolf he was holding by the ears, saying, “[A]s it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.  Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”  He, along with his contemporaries, cowardly chose self-preservation over justice, and they left to subsequent generations the laborious task of rectifying the wrongs of the past.

Therefore, even while our economy is in the throes of depression, there is one issue that might be more pressing for the candidates and the incumbent president, and it is racial reconciliation.

I can already imagine the comments to this article, if I had stopped at the end of the above paragraph, going the way of the racial divide, with blacks wanting an immediate open dialogue on the subject and whites expressing sensory overload and frustration over the fact that this matter refuses to go away.  I am sorry to disappoint you, but there is more.

I do not believe we have been bombarded, for the past three months, with messages that converge to a single aim purposelessly:  Tebow 316, Kony 2012, and more recently 17-year-old Trayvon.

First, Tebow overtook the global net because of John 3:16 painted under his eyes.  John 3:16 is the quintessential tenet of Christianity in which God declares His love for people and the price He is willing to pay to get them back into a loving relationship with Him.  He gave His Son, so that through faith in him and what he did, everyone has a shot at spending life forever with God rather than away from Him in the fire of His anger.  The biblical context for this passage is one in which Jesus was talking to a Jewish rabbi named Nicodemus who knew full well that the greatest commandment to humans is to love God, and the second greatest is to love one’s neighbor like oneself.

After Tebow 316, Jason Russell narrated a powerful documentary, Kony 2012, in which he inspired people to remember they are people and that they should care for their fellow human beings, especially when they are innocent children who are physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually violated by one evil man named Joseph Kony somewhere in Eastern and Central Africa.

Lastly, came the heartbreaking death of Trayvon Martin that reminds us of our obligation to love our neighbor like ourselves and how evil can easily fill the void left by the absence of love in our communities.

Our nation has been dealing with the evil of division since the founding fathers.  This division is prompted by a lack of love and an absence of compassion for our fellow human beings.  It has been ignored for too long and must be stopped.

If one is a good student of history, it would be noticed that every time the realization was forced upon us to acknowledge our humanity by acts of compassion, the price was paid in blood.  For instance, President Abraham Lincoln took a stand to stop the spreading of the evil of slavery, fearing it would tear his country apart and present the wrong example to the world.  He affirmed that “a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” that keeps slaves by classifying them as an inferior brand of human species, cannot “endure long.”  Many Americans lost their lives in the war to keep this country unified and save the Union.

The same can be said of Dr. King.  When Americans of African descent were considered to be second-class citizens in the evil system of segregation, he rose up as the eloquent voice of reason, calling on America to stop “defaulting on its citizens of color,” reminding her that she had an obligation to provide freedom and justice to all her citizens equally.

Sadly, this is a message that America had begrudgingly accepted.  Both Lincoln and King were assassinated for the same reason: they had put their finger on the heart of the matter, which was a willingness on the part of a certain group to divide rather than to unite at the peril of self-destruction.  In the process, the perpetrators were manifesting an extreme disdain for the truth that compassion for fellow human beings matter more than anything else in this world.  

Dr. King understood that love was the only power that can bring people together.  He said in one of his many sermons: “Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them.” 

Lincoln, in his Gettysburg’s address, declared that instead of dedicating the cemetery to the dead, the living should rather dedicate themselves “to the great task remaining before us,… that this nation [is together] under God,… and that government of the people, by the people, for the people [does] not perish from the earth.”   He conveyed succinctly that life was all about God and people.

Both Lincoln and King paid a heavy price for their stance on racial issues.  Therefore it is quite understandable that leaders would shy away from so great a task as the unification of a people.  I also understand how this insight may escape some as it is often given to those who have been called for times such we had during the Civil War and the Civil Rights.  However, it would be devastating if the insight was given and was deliberately ignored, as has seemingly been the case among evangelical leaders throughout those times, and our time is no exception. 

Throughout history, the worst enemies of the gospel message have always emerged from God’s own people.  Conservative candidates would probably do better not mentioning God at all on their campaign trail, for when they do, they appear to speak a foreign language: the God of the Bible is barely recognizable in their attitude toward the race problem, and He is rendered effectively irrelevant by their inactions when faced with freedom and justice for the poor and the oppressed.

America needs a president with the fortitude of a Lincoln or the courage of a King to tackle what will be the most important issue of the 2012 presidential race: racial reconciliation.  This nation needs to enter an era of reconciliation and new beginnings.  It needs a leader who will see through it that tragedies like Trayvon Martin’s death no longer galvanizes one side to protest, but rather rallies all to weep together and find healing together. 

What You Do Not Know About Love Can Kill You!

Did you know that God has a love affair with you? After Yahweh God sent Moses to deliver the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and set them on their way to the Promised Land, He gave them as a commandment, to always remember how much He loves them.  Here is how the word of God puts it:

⁴ “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. ⁶ These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. ⁹ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. [HCSB Deuteronomy 6:4-9]

That is why from the times of Moses until today, practicing Jews still wear a little box called a “phylactery” on their wrists and forehead, and they recite daily the above Scripture called the “Shema” (Shema means listen or hear in the Hebrew language).  In Matthew 23:5, Jesus called the Pharisees “hypocrites,” because they would carry bigger phylacteries than the common people as a sign that they loved God more.

The best known verse in the Bible is John 3:16, For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. [HCSB]

John, who called himself at the end of his gospel “the disciple Jesus loved,” [John 21:20], understood that the love of God was central to the word of God specifically and to life in general, and that love was only demonstrated in God sending His Unique Son to reconcile mankind to Himself, for mankind had been separated from Him through sin.  He reiterated that message in a letter he wrote to the Church, saying, “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” [HCSB 1 John 4:9]

Beloved, this love of God is serious business.  Most of us live our daily lives not realizing what that love entails.  There are a few key words in the above paragraph that must be explained in order for the meaning of God’s love to be clearer.  They are: love, reconcile, separated, and sin.

First, love is a powerful force of attraction between God and His Son.  The only reason we have the ability to love is because the Creator of the universe put it in us (1 John 4:19).  When God created mankind, he created them in His image, meaning that this love held us together with Him in a powerful bond that allowed us to continually be in God’s presence.  However, the first couple’s (Adam and Eve’s) disobedience (sin) broke that bond, and death (spiritual and physical) came, threatening to separate us from God forever.

It took an amazing act of love on the part of God in sending His Son to earth to break the power of sin, to reconcile us with Him.  God made an enormous sacrifice in that He had to separate Himself from His One and Only Son, made of the same fabric as He, in order to reunite (reconcile) us with Him.  However temporary that separation was, it hurt God.  Furthermore, since breaking away from God is punishable by the ultimate penalty of eternal isolation, God suffered even more since His own Son had to take upon Himself the punishment that was duly reserved for mankind.

The Bible is very clear about all this.  When some of the angels, which are powerful creatures of God, rebelled led by Satan, God punished them by creating hell for them (Matthew 25:41), which is a place where souls will remain in eternal fire, away from God’s presence.  Contrarily to popular belief, hell was created for them and NOT for mankind, but sadly, some people will choose to follow the devil there.  Moreover, we read in the Bible that whenever people thought they had seen God, they were always afraid, because they thought they would die, because sinful man cannot withstand God’s presence (Exodus 20:19; Numbers 17:13; Judges 6:22,23).

You see, beloved reader, Many people misunderstand God’s plan.  They think that Christians worship a mean and capricious God who is constantly playing Gotcha!  They also think that God lurks around waiting to catch people in their sins in order to send them to hell.  That could not be further from the truth.

On the contrary, God is patiently and actively seeking to save people (Deuteronomy 4:31; 2 Chronicles 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 78:38; 103:8; 145:8; Jonah 4:2; 2 Peter 3:9), and not hurt them as some would have people believe.  Please do not misconstrue the truth I just shared to mean that God does not punish people.  In His love, He does.  However, in His love also He does provide a way out of the punishment if we care to believe.

John 3:16 tells us that “everyone who believes in Jesus will not perish, nor will be destroyed, but that person will have eternal life.” The requirement for all human beings not to be destroyed is to believe in what Jesus came to accomplish on this earth, which was to offer Himself as a sacrifice, because it takes a sacrifice to pay for the violence that was done to our original loving relationship with God, and it will also take an enormous sacrifice from God to fix things back up.

There is no other choice for mankind but to accept Jesus and His sacrifice, for sin shall not enter the presence of God (Hebrews 12:14).  If we say we have no sin, we become liars and therefore sin anyway, because all people are sinners (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10).  There is absolutely no way around it.

This is an incredible amount of information that I just shared with you right now.  It is up to you to use it to your benefit.  If you are still confused about your purpose on this earth, go to God in prayer, and ask Him to guide you.  He promises not to cast away those who come to Him in repentance.

Satan is looking for companionship on his way to hell.  The apostle Peter calls him “a roaring lion seeking to devour who he can” (1 Peter 5:8).  Pray that God may break any bond you have with Satan and protect you from his sharp-clawed paws.

Look around you, or on TV, or on the internet, and notice what is happening in the world.  You can trace every terrible event to an absence of love, a lack of love, or an inability to love.  The family – the basic unit of society – is being destroyed, because husbands do not know how to love their wives, wives do know how to love their husbands, parents do not know how to love their children and vice versa.

Love is a multi-billion-dollar business.  The best songs are either romantic songs about love, or they are about hearts broken by love.  Magazines and tabloids make billions following who is falling in or out love.  Romantic movies are not about to get out of fashion as Gone With the Wind stills warms people’s heart every Christmas season.

On the other hand, thefts are perpetrated because the thief has no love for his fellow man.  Rapes are committed because the rapist hates his victims.  Companies exploit their employees because they do not care much for their welfare.  Dictators mistreat their fellow countrymen because they do not care a bit about their wellbeing.  Gang members and religious sects create their own marginal social subculture because both are made of leaders who believe they can provide an appearance of love to followers who cannot identify true love.

Every ill in the world can be traced, as I stated earlier, to an absence of love, a lack of love, or an inability to love.  Ultimately, it is all rooted in a misunderstanding of God’s love for His own Son and for the human beings He created.

What you do not know about love could kill you… literally… and spiritually.  Do not be left in the dark.