Strong Man Of God Blog

            As the 25^th Year Anniversary of The From Slavery To Victory Education Project (FSTVEP) conducted by the organizational parent of Strong Man Ministries, Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. (both of which I have been blessed to lead) draws near on Juneteenth this year, I am filled with excitement and gratitude to God.¹  I write this post as the Lord leads in obedience to the instruction of the ancient Psalm writer He commissioned to exhort “the redeemed” above all to give thanks to Him for His goodness (Psalm 107:1-3, NKJV)!  As well, with that Psalmist’s heart, to express the spiritual “what for” of the FSTVEP to the children of men among fellow black Americans.

            Talk about amazing confluences.  I write this realizing that it will be fifty years ago this upcoming September that I was asked by my no longer standing Fremont Junior High School, Seaside, CA, English teacher, Mr. Earle Rosenberg, to write a column reporting on our flag football teams.  I have not stopped writing since and am overjoyed to have done so in the Lord’s cause for nearly forty of those years!  As it turns out, 1969 was also another of a long string of great years for Rhythm and Blues or if you will, Soul Music.  On September 23^rd that year, the Temptations released their Temptations Puzzle People on Motown’s Gordy label with a number of impressive songs.

            One of those songs composed by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong was entitled, Message From A Black Man.  Arriving as it did just over a year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the bold and yet reasoned lyrics of the song directed to white America were delivered deftly by the singing of the Temps as well as the catchy, forceful rhythms of the band.  Bold were such lines as, “Yes, my skin is black, but that’s no reason to hold me back…I have wants and desires just like you.  So, move on the side ‘cause I’m comin’ through.  No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop me now.”  Call to action words for a thirteen year old who had been angrily watching the revolution on TV.

            Even today, it is hard to honestly refute the logic in the lines, “Black is a color just like white.  Tell me: how can a color determine whether you’re wrong or right?”  Whitfield and Strong wrote and the Temptations delivered Message From A Black Man as decent “every black man” who were still coming out of the shell shocked silence of intimidation caused demoralization to firmly, yet, peacefully stand up to their oppressive and abusive intimidators.  This is not unlike women today who are applauded for standing up to their abusers.  While the message from a black man was certainly cathartic and necessary at that moment in 1969, it needed to also be given biblical feet and built on.

            I carried the raw message throughout the rest of my secondary education and the first two years of college; leading out as a Black Student Union President giving speeches, helping to organize events, engaging white authorities, publishing materials and writing editorials.  At Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) I also began to take the many newly rolled out Black Studies Courses offered and did well because of my intense interest.  A desire to attend historic Howard University in 1976 was fueled by my interest in all things black.  But as I have testified in other places,² my passion for pursuing an education began to lose steam as I lost my way at Howard--itself a serious reality check.³ 

            Coming to Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord who redeemed me from a life that had become empty, without purpose and meaning began to change me as a person to include my thinking and worldview after full surrender to Him.  Now, for example, nobody could ultimately stop me from being who God created me to be and doing what God wanted me to do with Him working on my behalf (Romans 8:28-39; Philippians 4:13).  Moreover, being black skinned in the human skin color spectrum was not a curse or something contemptible, but a blessing because God made me this way (Acts 17:26).  Indeed, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” by God (Psalm 139:14, NKJV)!

            After receiving the Lord’s call to serve Him in broadcasting in August 1979, I returned to school at MPC that spring, then San Jose State University in San Jose, CA in fall 1980.  There, I celebrated God as the inspirational, sustaining hand among black Christians in a radio documentary on the history of Black Gospel Music I wrote and produced.  Inevitably, though, even after seminary studies I was stuck attempting to understand why the black American experience beginning with slavery was so in the first place.  I had all of the major facts of our historical experience, but of themselves, they brought no satisfying appreciation for why.  Instead, as is the case for so many black Americans, the painful facts of our history alone brought nothing but hopeless futility, grief and anger.

1 Too, I am grateful to the 1993-94 Ministry Board of Directors, Rev. Ira Gay, Jr., Rev. Richard Young (with the Lord), Rev. Ron Oliver and Mrs. Linda Beard that gave
   unanimous  approval  for  the project and the 2018-19 Directors, Messrs. Alvin Johnson, Richard Anderson and Philip Lovings who also in one accord approved this
   year’s  anniversary celebration.  Not to be left out is my wife, Mary, and our three daughters Sherie, Roberta and Patricia at home at the time as youth and having to
   bear  with  my very involved work on the project.  You can learn more about the FSTVEP along with its flagship national Radio Special and now Webcast, From Sla-
   very To Victory: One Man’s Journey, to be rolled out Juneteenth 2019 on its newly revamped Web Site, https://fromslaverytovictory.org.

2 For my most recent sharing on this aspect of my testimony, read the February 17, 2019 post, Surrendering All To Jesus, under the category, Glory To God!

3 Howard  brought me face to face for the first time with the full mix of socio-economic classes, their divergent political thought and corresponding worldviews in what I
   soberly learned was truly not a monolithic black community.  Among other sobering realities, I especially had my conscience awakened to the contradictions inherit in
   my  chosen  field  of  Marketing and the black struggle after spending an afternoon giving away free, addictive and destructive cigarette samples in Southeast DC--its
   most  economically  challenged  section.  I  also had to face my own hypocrisy in personally contributing not to the uplift of my community as I loudly called for, but its
   destruction  through  abusing  drugs  and  alcohol,  sexual  promiscuity,  mistreatment  of  our women in that lifestyle and practical abandonment of two children I had
   fathered.