Black people vote for Obama because of things remembered and the memories are not in the distant past of history. Once, a minister and congregation members lifted up a minority beaten down by government policies and economic inequality. The stories of surviving this existence lingers in the very make up of being black. For some, being black is synonymous with being hopeless; until there was President Obama who lifted our eyes, spirits, our souls to redefining what being black could mean. And then his savage attack by the Right Wing made us remember our bitter brutal history again .
The separation of church and state has allowed the church leaders to turn a blind eye to community and most importantly to family needs. When church leaders fail to have opened eyes to the state of human - physical well being of the body of Christ and citizens of a nation, sickness is allowed to creep in. When leaders instill in the body of Christ "I am able to tell you all that you need to know about living a Christian life" and do not offer tools, resources, encouragement, support, education in doing so, disease thrives.
Many black Christians as well as non black Christians live in a state of bondage of the mind. They turn to religion (as every other slave in history) for answers; for freedom. The clergy has always offered Jesus for those in bondage as the one answer and giver of freedom. As a Christian I know Jesus is the answer for the bondage of death caused by sin. The soul can have salvation and a promise of eternity with God. But after freedom one must live as a free person and that has always been difficult for the slave who has only known bondage. The Israelites wanted to return to slavery (Pharaoh) under Moses leadership instead of going on to the journey of the unknown. As a slave they had the certainty of knowing their daily routine and the FREEDOM of someone else determining their life and worth. Today's black person is suffering from POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE DISORDER.
Post traumatic slave disorder reminds blacks in flashbacks how black people were beaten if caught reading (notice how blacks almost recoil, run from education), blacks remember how no matter how hard and long they worked they could never make enough money to buy their own freedom let alone their entire family's freedom. Even if they made money they did not know how to count it or its value (black people do not know how to handle finance, budget, invest), flashbacks to KKK riding by if they gathered together and talked about how to, together as a community, work for better living standards, laws (the only large gathering of blacks today is in the church and they will not talk about bettering themselves), flashbacks to trying to vote when barriers were placed one after another (in the same way now with the voter ID fraud concerns), jobs lost, even lives lost (blacks will not keep up with politics and do not even know candidates or issues to vote for), and finally the heart wrenching flashbacks of families being separated and sold. Children wrenched from mothers, young girls used for breeding, big buck traded from plantation to plantation for hard labor (no feeling of national equality, no voice in America as a tax payer too).
How can there be spiritual freedom when the mind and the essence of a people is still in bondage? Okay, if the church waves the banner of church and state are separate; how can leaders minister to family units that are broken, how can they baptize, marry, and bury people knowing they will never rise above their education level in society? How can leaders tell people to live HOLY but not tell them to live HEALTHY emotionally and physically?
Leaders should know and I know they do, that the black community is suffering. These same suffering people come to church religiously and yet are offered salvation Sunday after Sunday. How many times do they need to be saved? I went to a church that had 6 members. The same 6 people had been going to that church for 30 years and each Sunday the pastor ended service with an alter call and the 6 people went to the alter each Sunday. Needless to say I do not attend that church anymore.
The Black Agenda, the plague of the hearts and minds of the black body of Christ is not a long list or even a hellish over powering demon. It can be summed up in 5 easy titles:
1. Health Care: black people will wait till they are almost dead before going to the doctor. We practice bad health choices, take it to the alter and go right back to assisting in our own illnesses.
2. Poor Education: Our children barely graduate. We work hard to teach them their ABC"s and 123's before school and then don't help them with homework throughout the rest of their schooling
3. Rate of Incarceration: We turn as blind eye to the fact our unemployed children make more purchases than employed people. 15% of blacks use crack yet over 80% are jailed for it. Over 80% of whites use crack and less than 10% are in jail for it. Areas with low graduation rates have highest incarceration rates. But, we do not need statistics to know what are children are doing.
4. Unemployment: I have never seen a group who actually believes if they hate reading and writing that they are suppose to have a high paying job.
5. Family Breakdown: 2 or more generations of one family living in one house without a father figure. Young men by the age of 24 with 2 baby mommas. This list can go on and on. If we are failures in our homes, guess what, we are apt to be the same in the community, work place, state, nation, country world. This is a biblical premise when Jesus said start at home and then spread abroad.
The GOP has labeled these basic needs as handouts, wellfare, reparations. Not so.
I am not preaching or being holier than thou. I say this to let anyone reading this know, this is not a permanent condition. It can be changed at any moment at your choosing. Conquering our problems begin with knowing them and targeted effort to change them. I just attended the 6th Annual Conference of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and sat next to people who were beat and jailed for the right to vote and to be treated as citizens of America; many died. For their sacrifice I feel it is my duty not to let it be in vain. I want to live up to what people have died for me to have and I hope you do too.
Children are a gift from God. He knew and loved them first and entrusted us with them to give them kingdom instruction and the tools needed to live Holy lives here on earth. Many parents have never been told this fact. Raising children is a part of living righteously. Taking them to church each Sunday does not exempt us from our parental mandate. In the same vein, shepherds are responsible for the WELLNESS of their sheep. I must ask, how can such a religious ethnic group, who devoutly attend church and give an hour to their pastor, be in such a diseased condition?
It is easier to tell people to worship God in a broken condition than to tell them to live in the freedom of God and come out of bondage. It is easier to tell them the devil is busy trying to kill them instead of 'rise up' and take charge of your life and your children's lives. An old adage says "you can lead a horse to water but you can';t make him drink." Maybe that's why God used the sheep as the example of His children because a sheep will only drink if it is led to water.
Slaves pretended a lot of things in the presence of their masters. They had to pretend to be dumb for their survival. Now we have to BE educated for our survival. We have to be involved for our survival. We have to love ourselves and our brothers and sisters for our survival.
Big business has an agenda, the gays have an agenda, the Jews have an agenda, the tea party has an agenda, the unions have an agenda, the Evangelicals have an agenda; everyone has an agenda. WHAT IS THE BLACK AGENDA? I hope at least it is education of our youths and ourselves. I hope it is healing the family unit, I hope it is striving for the best and highest paying jobs and political offices, I hope it is good health and a long life, I hope it is our men at home being husbands and fathers and not in the jails. WHO CAN GET MAD ABOUT THIS?
Do a study on the balm of Gilead (Jer. 8:22) Sheep was of great economic value in the Old Testament. There was a disease of the brain the sheep could contract and it could be fatal. There was as cure for this brain disease in a city called Gilead. This balm was a gum/resin like medicine used to cure a variety of diseases. If one sheep was afflicted with the disease the shepherd would walk miles to the one place where the medicine was available, Gilead. The wise shepherd knew if ONE sheep became infected it could spread to the rest of his herd. Songs have been written about the balm in Gilead and how it heals and saves, but I want you to look at the shepherd who knew the value of his flock and how serious the disease of one was to the rest of the flock and to his livelihood and shepherding ability. The shepherd would be looked down upon and shunned by other shepherds for not trying to cure his sheep. They would be angered at the shepherd allowing disease to run rampant in his flock and letting a killer disease get a foot hold in the area possibly endangering the other shepherd's flock. the black community not being allowed to vote is a contagion and the church needs to help it's flock.
The problems afflicting the black community is not "just how black people are." The problems of the black community is just what they are PROBLEMS, and as far as I know; problems are meant to be solved. I ask women who have always been present and a strong voice in many of the major movements in and out of the church, to start to sound the trumpet to save the next generation of the black community. Use the last great gathering place of blacks (the church) to instill the black agenda outlined in this blog. Instill a love and sense of necessity for reading and writing, give seminars and classes on parenting becoming a parent and the beauty of marriage and how to know and recognize love, teach how to manage money and what it takes to make a living and the difference between having enough money to survive and enough money to LIVE, show videos of where we have come from and where we are now, stop accepting drug money gifts from family members, be creative, but do something. Do something until you can't.
And do not allow anyone to twist your reason as to why you vote for President Obama - because he has walked in the shoes of the black experience - and there is nothing sinister or devious about this fact. Pray for him and pray for those who persecute him for being black hidden under the guise of political differences and religious concerns. At one point in religious history in America; a Catholic or Mormon would never be allowed to hold the presidential office. Now the 2012 ticket is comprised of a Catholic and Mormon. What power Christianity has to do God's work and the work of the flesh.
.jpg)
