I read it and then just started writing this…

Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child…A Long Way From Home…

This spiritual strikes deeply at the heart of African American Alienation…

We were born here…

We didn’t choose to come here…

African Americans are not fully African…

Most of us have no idea what parts of Africa our linage comes from…

Most of us have had that robbed from us…

We don’t know the culture…but our seekign the symbolism of Africa (I’ve done this to..as you can see in the logo of SoulPreaching.Com.

Our African sisters and brothers who come to this country can say they are from Ghana….they are from Kenya…they are from Ethiopia…etc…

But what can we say? Where is our home?

We may say Detroit….We may say Atlanta….we may say New York…

But we are often reminded that we are not fully American either…

When All you ssay is “Black lives matter” and even your Christian brothers and sisters compare you to the KKK…

That ain’t home…

When unarmed blacks are killed and you complain and even your Christian sisters and Brothers want to change the suject to Black on Black crime…as if black criminality exonerates Police misconduct….

We are reminded we ain’t home…

So here we are as DuBois reminded so many years ago….not American…not African….

But there is one place…A place that began in the Bush Harbors…

A place that sustained us during the depths of Jim Crow…

A place that is by no means perfect, but aided in all of our struggles for liberation…

That place…

The Black Church…

That was home…

Now, I do not wish to minimize the complex nature of the interaction that many have had with the church…

The Black church, like the church in general, grapples with its own problems…

We grapple with the role of women in the church…

We grapple with the treatment of some weak members…

We must admit that it is not everybody that has a liberative interaction with the church…

We have cliques like everybody else…we sometimes alienate folks even here…

So we are not everything we should be…

like any home…we don’t treat everybody as we should…but it is a home…our home…

It was a place where we could put our feet up and lean back in the chair….

It was a place where we didn’t have to worry about laws and rules placed on us by those who didn’t understand where we coming from…

It was a place where salve was applied to the recipients of racism…

It was a place where we didn’t have to defend the statement “We matter.” like we have to do everywhere else…

It is home…

Home got problems like everywhere else…but when all else fails…we always try to go back home…

The Black church is not just about worship style…

It’s not just about music….

It’s not just about an entertaining preacher…

It is a place outside of our cookouts, family reunions…that African American’s can go Home…

this rally hit me as I was waiting for my car to have some work on it…

Another African American came up…and we started talking…

And that little room we were in was suddenly transformed…

Into Home….

We talked a little about basketball…

We talked a little about politics…

I know we were working off of a multitude of assumptions that racism has placed in us…a multitude of assumptions that hurts have placed on us…a common belief that we are somebody…we matter…and we don’t have to argue or debate over it…

Every week…we come together and worship the Lord…and praise and sing…But we also have a little slice of home…

So it may take a little longer than other folks…(and I sometimes get a slight agrivation about this)…

We may have to listen to Sister Betty clamor on about her week during the offertory time…

But it’s home….

The Black Church is home…

You can come to my home if you want…

I invite you to it…but remember….this is somebody’s home when you get there…

I know…I know..millennials question everything as they should. They want us to tell them WHY..and they should…Generation Xers like myself ain’t done enough passing on….and the Boomers didn’t pass on enough to us either…

But

My sisters and brothers….don’t give up your home so quickly…cause you are gonna miss it when it’s gone…

And when it’s gone…I really hope and pray that what you are seeking to replace it with is also home…

Where oppressed people don’t have to argue about whether racism even exists and can get to applying the salve so that those people can make it another day…

Let me say that again…The Sabbath was a blessing for EVERYBODY

The Bible says that AIN’T NOBODY gonna do no work… Exodus 20:10

Not You…

Not your Son or Daughter…

Not any slave….

Not even the foreigner who is living among us…

EVERYBODY MEANS EVERYBODY…

The Sabbath is a break for EVERYBODY…

Wouldn’t it be great if we were worried about whether everybody is getting their rest…

That’s a part of the reason we got Sabbath…Cause God demonstrates a care for EVERYBODY…

If your political persuasion or your denominational tradition…or anything else attacks your ability to at least think of the “the least of these…”

Then you ain’t thinking like God…

Cause God made the Sabbath a blessing for EVERYBODY…

There is something about how we sing it and say it…

Probably from years of pain that was passed down to us.

Everybody can’t sing…or preach…by no means…

But…

This “style” is something that is coveted by many…

But there is more to Black singing than style…

Style just fits in with the content….

Listen to a spiritual sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock…

Note how the style supports the content…

That’s great Singing…

That’s great African American Singing…

I have written on African American Preaching…Go hit here…

At any rate, it is more than style…

But sometimes we only want to grab the style and run with it….

But then there are some folks who are not in the community and take the style and preach and sing content that is not in line with the style…

Paula White is an example of this…

She tries to preach it like a sista and then uses that style to preach and teach things that are anatehma to the community…

yep….

Some want to use the style to attack the very people that created the style…

Pastor MyRon Edmonds, in Ohio is with a group of protesters protesting this problematic event.

In case you don’t know…Events like this are examples of dragon-like tendencies of the lamb horned beast…

Our brother, Pastor Edmonds, is standing up for the family and ultimately for all of us…

He did this to protest the treatment of African Americans, especially the number of unarmed African American males by law enforcement.

There appears to be collusion by the NFL owners to keep Kaepernick from finding a job even as a backup in the league.

Personally, I have found that this Kaepernick episode is the last straw for me, and I will stop watching and supporting the NFL, but also any any American football.

Here is my reason.

1) Kaepernick’s treatement.

2) Earl Campbell and all of the football players who can no longer walk due to football injuries.

3) Jim Plunkett and all of the football players who have neurological and other mental problems due to their time in football.

I will no longer support the game and will join with the ministers in Huntsville who have called for this “Black-Out.”

It is certainly refreshing…

But a bit sad that such clear and open denunciations of overt evil that are required by the Gospel of Jesus Christ are so few and far between that it stands out…

Some of the gems from this article are:

It is not sufficient for believers in the Christ to simply despise racism privately in their hearts. Our positions must be forthrightly proclaimed through whatever mediums of communication we each have at our command. Silence is not an option.

and

For followers of Jesus, all of this would seem to be elementary. And yet, as the racist rhetoric has become more public over the last couple years, I’ve been shocked by what I’ve encountered as a white person when in the company of white Christians. On a number of occasions I’ve found myself in conversations with white people of my own denomination in which racist sentiments have been verbalized as if searching for a green light of agreement, and when I’ve revealed my offense at such talk an awkward backpedaling ensues with the empty assurance, “But, I’m not a racist, of course.”

Brother Gibson…may your tribe increase…

Cause frankly…many of us African Americans are just tired of trying to prove to the larger community that Racism exists and that it is us and not white americans who are doing it…

Go read the Brutal Wake up Call by clicking this link.

In The Sabbath, Jewish rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asks is it possible to do all ones work in 6 days?

Heschel’s interpretation is that we should rest AS IF all of our work is done. He goes further to state that we should rest from even the thought of labor.

Just think of the rest that one would get on the Sabbath if that one would rest from even the thought of labor.

Just think of the energy one would bring to the world of work after such a rest. Just think of the spiritual heights one could reach by setting aside the thought of labor as one uses the time of the Sabbath solely for communion with God and others.

This is not merely a nap. Where you leave the cares of the world for a few moments before going back to them….this is a deep and profound rest that is truly a foretaste of a better day…

And it makes THIS day more livable…

Don’t miss your rest.

He was woefully unqualified to be president…

And yet…America (through is electoral college system) chose him…

to lead them…

A man who is on video mocking a handicapped man…

A man who told his followers that he would pay the consequences if they are prosecuted for beating up protestors at his rallies…

A man who is caught on tape bragging about sexual assault…

And then we were told multiple things…

He didn’t mean it…

It is just locker room talk…

Don’t believe what you saw with your eyes…it’s fake news…it’s the liberal media…

And now…

here we are…

The man who we knew had no business in the seat is acting like he has no business in the seat…

And…

Our silence…

Continues…

We are too busy doing everything else…

But telling our people that you don’t vote for a man who brags about sexual assualt…

We were too busy doing other things…

That we didn’t teach that we will not do this…

And now…

The man does what he has always done…

But I ain’t gonna lie…I have heard the dispicable words that Trump has said from Sabbath school teachers…

The “But what about…” itis…

Comparisons of the KKK to the NAACP…

Or today… Black Lives Matter…

Such evil comparisons places those who seek to take away rights on the same level as those who are fighting to give rights…

But we sit quietly when such sentiments that are directly at odds with the Kingdom of God is presented…

But we sit silent…

Some of us are too busy waiting for some persecutions to happen to Sabbath-Keepers that we can’t recognize the evil scourge of racism as even a problem today…

We look the other way when African American’s are gunned down by cops at disproportionate levels and somehow we think that simply spouting Conservative Political talking points will help us…

I fear for us..because we don’t even recognize that Donald Trump is speaking like a dragon…

Before you get mad…tell me who but the Dragon would make fun of a handicapped person?

Before you get mad…tell me who but the Dragon would brag about sexual assault?

Before you get mad…tell me who but the Dragon would encourage people who come to his rallies to engage in wrongdoing?

Before you get mad…tell me who but the Dragon would equate members of the KKK and Nazis to thow who would protest against them…

Oh yes…he speaking like a dragon….

The only thing is, I don’t even see any horns like a lamb…

But that isn’t my point. My point is that whenever these issues come up, we end up with an argument between two sides that I have heard before. No I have heard it many times. I know what the conservative is gonna say. He been saying the same thing since rap sessions when we were in high school. And I know what the so called liberal is gonna say. Ditto.

It is like we have long ago given up thinking through or even thinking about the issue and have instead just become happy with our belief and argumentation all provided to us by a preacher or leader.

I mean no disrespect, but whenever these issues come up, I feel like I am back in high school. Sure the folks are 45, 50, 30, and 60. But it sure feels like I am at a camp meeting rap session waiting for the lunch bell to go to the cafeteria to get my meal.

The answer is to stop regurgitating what you heard. The answer is to go look again at all of these issues. But I guess lack of time and the need to respond because of our position will keep us back again doing what we always have done. And spout common knowledge as research. And stay in the time warp…..