I don’t know if white Christians hate Negroes or not; I know that we have a Christian church which is white and a Christian church which is black. I know as Malcolm X once put it: “the most segregated hour in American life is high noon on Sunday. That says a great deal to me about a Christian nation.” It means that I can’t afford to trust most white Christians, and certainly cannot trust the Christian church.
This aught to be a hymn of the church- Dr. Mack King Carter
Front Lines – Stevie Wonder
I am a veteran of the war
I up and joined the army back in 1964
At sixteen I just had to be a man at any cost
I volunteered for Vietnam where I got my leg shot off
I recall a quote from a movie that said “who’s more a man
Than a man with a reason that’s worth dyin’ for”
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to gettin’ ahead
They gave me a uniform and a tiny salty pill
To stop the big urge I might have for the wrong kind of thrill
They put a gun in my hand and said, “shoot until he’s dead”
But it’s hard to kill when ‘please your friend’ echoes through your head
Brought up in church taught no man should take another’s life
But then put in a jungle where life has no price
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to gettin’ ahead
Back in the world the paper reads today
Another war is in the brewing
But what about the lives of yesterday
And the many happy families that have been ruined
My niece is a hooker and my nephew’s a junkie too
But they say I have no right to tell them how they should do
They laugh and say “quit bragging” ’bout the war you should never have been in
But my mind is so brain-washed I’d prob’bly go back and do it again
I walk the neighborhood parading my purple heart
With a fear of agent orange that no one will stop
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
They had me standing on the front line
But now I stand at the back of the line when it comes to gettin’ ahead
Does God make mistakes? My grandmother would declare that he doesn’t, and I may agree, but he is surely above my thought level. I like many others who have been bless with carmel skin waited for a verdict that would serve justice for the black people.( In all honesty we knew what the deal was…) We gazed at the television, listened to the radio, peeped out twitter and Facebook, to once again find out that we are BLACK.
It is quite obvious that america has no concern or care for black bodies. The black body represents a trope that refashions atrocities as complaints in what Maya Angelou called “ these yet to be united states of america.” The sufferings of a community of people have been lost in media hype as the church sits idle making attempts to evangelize without addressing justice. The Gospel disconnected from justice is a consumeristic explanation of suffering that minimizes the value of people in pain. Many want the Gospel, but, they want a Gospel that is denuded from justice. They want a God that abides in the Eucharist and dwells in the water of baptism but not a God who stands on the side of the oppressed and marginalized –the Blacks in america.
Maybe the imago dei is represented in the rioting…–Is God not outraged at injustice?
Riots are the voice of the unheard? – Dr. Martin Luther King
still wrestling…
Dr. Eric Mason raises some critical critiques and questions in the quest to reach black men with the scriptures.
African American men need an affirmation of Gospel centered, biblical intellectualism that is contextualized yet biblical and shows the connection of the entire breath of the word of God.- Dr. Eric Mason, Lead Pastor of Epiphany Fellowship
Syncopated Hustle 