The Scourge Of Racism
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Released October 5, 2023
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In what is intended to be the celebratory start of Black History Month was this year tragically marred days before on January 27th by the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department’s release of video showing the vicious beating of twenty-nine year old black male, Tyre Nichols. The beating took place earlier in the month on January 7th. Nichols later died from his injuries on the 10th. In the ensuing weeks five black male police officers shown in the video images from various angles doing the beating were indicted of second degree murder among other charges, arrested and fired from their jobs. Protests around the nation have been mostly subdued as the Nichols family requested.1
In black history, black on black violence has run parallel to white on black violence since slavery. Many masters beat their slaves and other whites could assault them for any notion of offense. Slaves also often violently assaulted each other if not over the petty issues that frustrate social cohesion more widely in every gathering of sinful mankind into the close quarters of community, then, from acting out of the oppressive suffocation and rage of bondage (Exodus 2:11-15). After slavery, hate groups, mobs and virtually any white man could violently assault a black man with rare serious consequence until after the George Floyd murder by a white police officer in 2020.
Meantime, black on black violence through domestic incidents, neighborhood street and school fights, bar brawls and gang warfare has also been taking place with rare serious consequence by the white dominated justice system because after all, these are just blacks harming each other. Indeed, culturally known and feared is the rage of innumerable black males who uncontrollably exercise violence to vent it.2 While I do not assume to know exactly what was in the hearts of the black male police officers that beat Nichols, I have seen this movie enough to recognize the possibility that besides abuse of authority, rage, black self-hate and bitterness driving it may have been at work too.3
Clearly, beyond the normal pressures of life that causes males from all hues to take it out on others, untold black males carry rage as such a burden that not even assuming the responsibility of law enforcement removes it. Now, in what many blacks stand amazed to see is among the swiftest moves ever to hold police officers accountable, the five black officers that mercilessly beat Tyre Nichols to death were charged, arrested and fired. In the sight of the God I serve who shows no favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17), this is righteous and should be the case in every instance the police are guilty of unwarranted force. These black males also need His deliverance from any inner rage, self-hate and bitterness I too, know from personal, painful experience and am a witness He can do!4
1 Information was taken from an AP News article.
2 Black male rage especially is so widely known in American society, policing authorities expect to see and brace for it in most any confrontation with us. The media and entertainment industry (to include sports) exploits and even makes fun of the “angry black man” while the average white citizen lives in terror it will find them.
3 Read the February 21, 2016 post, Ties That Bind Black Male Souls, under the category, The Cause.
4 I give testimony in many places about my own struggle with anger including my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available at your favorite internet book- seller or brick and mortar bookstore and the Strong Man Store. As well, the FSTVEP Resource Store on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site has the newest of my audio single message releases, Freedom From Bitterness. I introduce this timeless 2007 message relaying how bitterness caused me to maltreat a former band mate, Kennard Jefferson. He gave me permission to disclose his name because now, reconciled as brothers in Christ, we jointly want anyone (and partic- ularly fellow descendants of slaves professing to be Christians) captive to the sin of bitterness to let God set you free (Ephesians 4:25-32)! Get the CD or download it.
By the grace of my God I am pleased to be writing this 500th post since I began making them back in 2011! I am so grateful to God for saving and putting me into His service; granting that I could have a life of meaning and purpose far beyond my wildest imagination! And how fitting that the Lord would give me a word to launch out Black History Month 2024 given that I have been writing on the occasion presenting a biblical worldview of the black American experience since 1986 in some form or another. Again, all of my heartfelt praise and thanksgiving to God for His grace and mercy in using a wretch like me to serve in His Kingdom causes and work (1 Timothy 1:12-17)!
So, why a Black History as though it were somehow special and above all others? In line with all that the Lord has had me writing in this Blog since this past September 2023 stemming from my latest book release, The Scourge Of Racism,1 the existence of a purposeful celebration of blacks in American history is not about being special, but overlooked! In yet another outcome of the nation’s bigotry, discriminatory acts and oppressions arising from systemic racism, the many positive contributions of blacks to America from slavery were scarcely mentioned in the textbooks used to teach white students much less black and other hues in segregated schools through the 1950s.
As he taught in the early 20th century segregated educational environment, black educator, Carter G. Woodson, sought to address the purposeful injustice he saw in dismissing the vital role of blacks in America’s development. In 1915 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History through which he participated in research, writing many articles and the publishing of scholarly publications that presented the abundant historical facts about blacks and their contributions to the American experiment. By 1926 Woodson was instrumental in establishing what was first Black History Week in February and later morphed into the entire month to further promote the cause.2
In 1933, perhaps Mr. Woodson’s most incisive work was published, The Mis-education Of The Negro.3 In it, he pulls no punches criticizing the American educational system and the way its deliberate actions to exclude blacks from history was hurting all students not just those that were black. Nevertheless, black students deprived of a healthy representation of the positive historical contributions of those from their culture were reinforced in their supposed inferiority systemic racism loudly sounded they possessed. Woodson did not limit his critique to whites, but blacks too, among those that were finding success and amidst the churches who he felt had a wider educational role.
Woodson’s book was among the first I was introduced to as I took newly minted Black Studies courses in the mid-seventies. It was eye-opening, direct, honest and humbling reading what this black man was saying to this young radical who wanted to make it all about what “the white man” had done to us as victims. Far from the victim mentality progressive liberal proponents of Critical Race Theory (CRT) advance in their educational reform efforts today, Mr. Woodson kept it real about black failures; calling for taking more responsibility in educating our children and building up the community while also rightly acknowledging the purposeful oversights and harm done by guilty whites.
Indeed, what the proponents of CRT fault guilty whites of is sin pure and simple. Sin cannot be fixed by intellectual theories nor through returning evil for evil God condemns as it seems some are bent on doing with CRT (Romans 3:9-31, 12:17-21).4 And there it is. By naming God and citing Scripture in the foregoing I have purposely introduced what is the overarching reality of all history as well as black history. As I was led by Him to discuss in last week’s post, God is the invisible active Sovereign behind the existence of all nations.5 In a biblical worldview then, blacks are not victims in our American historical experience, but the just recipients of a lighter than death sentence for the sins of our West African forefathers and our own as God judges all nations (Jeremiah 25:15-29).6
In the educational spirit of Carter G. Woodson behind Black History Month, the Lord has enabled me to write about the black American experience from a biblical worldview through many posts in this Blog and other writings on our dedicated From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site.7 Besides the stark reality and undercurrent of judgment, I have been blessed to speak of God’s good ends through all of our suffering. This was originally a matter of personal inquiry of the Lord because as Mr. Woodson wanted, I had become very acquainted with the many outstanding black historical figures and their accomplishments with some inspiration. However, I was left empty without understanding why our suffering; an answer only God could and did satisfactorily provide to me.8
1 The Scourge Of Racism print version is available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. The just released E-Book is available at major E-Book sellers. Watch the book trailer.
2 Learn more about Carter G. Woodson and the renamed organization he founded.
3 The Mis-Education Of The Negro, by Carter G. Woodson, Copyright 1933, 1969, The Associated Publishers, Inc., Washington, D.C.
4 Sin can only be fixed as God does in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ! Those that profess to be Christians attempting to repay evil for evil should heed the Lord’s call to return to Him, for you have surely gone far away from Him. Hear the Lord’s merciful call to return through this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord on YouTube.
5 Read the January 28, 2024 post, Global Dominance A Stewardship, under the category, Call To Repent.
6 Reconciling God’s permitting of evil oppression in the context of judgment on the one hand and His disapproval of it on the other is marvelously seen in His Word for those that will accept it (Deuteronomy 28:15, 29-33; Psalm 103:6). Blacks walking in the delusion of innocent victimhood should carefully note in Jeremiah 25:29 that unless you consider all the African nations better than Israel and not among the world’s nations, God asserts none were to go “unpunished,” (NKJV).
7 Visit the Web Site at https://fromslaverytovictory.org.
8 See the two-part post beginning June 2, 2019, Message From A Redeemed Black Man, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History.
I have an additional important concern in the aftermath of Black History Month and posts I made this year beginning with the cautionary anecdote of twentysomething, Devontay Rhodes, and followed by the one in two parts just concluded conveying God’s response from His Word to black American invented forms of counterfeit Christianity with all others.1 Counterfeit anything has negative consequences for those deceived and hurt by not having the real thing. Disconnecting the faith from God’s Word and obedient practice as counterfeit Christianity does has hurt especially black American men I share an affinity with among all those this Ministry targets in its cause to restore men!2
As the Lord had me to make clear in the two-part post, Willful Ignorance Destroys, manmade Christianity is not the genuine article. Whatever is not within the doctrinal confines biblically of “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” including all of its inherent freedoms and those not specified, but easily discernible as granted by God in conformity with what has been written in His whole Word is outside of it and counterfeit (Romans 14-15:6; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, 8, 10-11:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; Galatians 5; Colossians 2:16-23; Jude 1-4, NKJV). And while no one of us that professes to be followers of Christ is perfect, we aspire to it in God’s plan (Philippians 3:1-16)!3
Godly aspiration to perfection is not what many black men from slavery have encountered with whites or those that share their ethnicity because of intervening counterfeit manmade Christianity as religion. With whites, conveniently selected, self-serving practices of the Law and New Testament teachings maintained their supremacy while also permitting abusive conduct which many continue to this day. The same religious hypocrisy and corruption among blacks has turned many of our males away from God and the biblical faith they rarely saw displayed except by the family matriarchs. Today, even the faith and example of the black family matriarch is fading into historic memory.4
For those that demand specific examples to authenticate what I am writing, use your chosen search engine to find any number of white professed Christian duplicities and abuses from slavery and after to the present involving special slave Bibles, marital infidelity with and rape of black women, brutal beatings, lynchings and wanton murder of black men. The hypocritical sins and abuses of guilty black clergy and other leaders are searchable too. In recent times, the now, deceased Bishop Eddie Long, is slickly shown on video preaching against homosexuality from the Bible while allegedly having gay trysts by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. without comment in his black church documentary.5
In my labor among black males, I have met so many that want nothing to do with Christianity whatever its organized religious form. Their numerical absence in the churches reaches back to slavery and forward to this hour when their presence as thirty percent of a congregation is considered miraculous! Wired in their brains with logic and reason as most males, using these many black males easily deduce and see right through the inconsistencies of practice in the churches and the faith the Bible presents. It does not help when preachers in large numbers are found to be fleecing the flock financially, practicing sexual immorality, being abusive or abusing drugs and alcohol etc.
Add to the foregoing the ongoing hurtful acts of systemic racism by professed Christian white men that is allowed by their counterfeit forms of Christianity, the spiritual, mental and emotional injuries suffered and the even unconscious humiliation of usurpation by women within the churches of black religious invention they may have grown up in and it is not difficult to understand the typical unsaved black male’s disinterest in Christianity, agnosticism, embrace of religions such as Islam and hostile atheism. I have engaged a few that though they claimed to reject religion, are into New Age self-worship as their own gods. Still others are comfortable with counterfeit Christianity and care nothing about what it is or does since they are Christian impostors living as they please anyway.
Despite the challenges involved, reaching unsaved black males with the biblical Gospel toward the end of divine restoration is an absolute urgent imperative for their own eternal soul’s sake, the families they create and our wider community under lawless siege from their lost spiritual condition and anger.6 As a black male, I am a living witness of what God can do when He is allowed to through His cause of salvation and restoration in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ! What is needed are more individual sold out holy vessels and faithful churches they make up to stand with Him (and us) in His cause; preaching, teaching and practicing sound doctrine from “the whole counsel of God” as it is written to include His order of mankind from creation electing men as leaders (Acts 20:27, NKJV).
1 Read the January 31, 2021 post, A New Year Cautionary Anecdote, under the category, The Cause and the two-part Willful Ignorance Destroys that begins on February 21,
2021 under the category, Black History.
2 Learn more about the cause of Strong Man Ministries to restore men, their families and communities on our Web Site.
3 This is the heart of every Christian man and woman that respectively aspires to be like Christ as strong men and great women of God I write about in my book, The Strong
Man Of God: Back To Basics. The book is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and is available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers.
You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the two-part post beginning June 21, 2015, Mama’s Boys, under the category, Black History.
5 Dr. Gates wrote, produced and hosted the four hour, two-part documentary, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song that aired this past February for Black
History Month on PBS. A brief clip of Bishop Long is shown as the consummate (and implied across the board hypocritical) Christian black biblically conservative outcry
against the God condemned practice of homosexuality in the Bible.
6 Read the February 19, 2017 post, Who Is Weeping For My People?, under the category, The Cause. Also, on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site,
learn more about how the spiritually bound up condition of black males is negatively impacting the family and community on its Help For Men Page.
So tragically, lawless, mass gun violence struck again this past week in our nation. I pray for the healing and salvation of the grieving families who lost loved ones along with survivors that do not know Jesus Christ. In the same week the evil concocted theme, “Battle Of The Sexes” is in theatres, I was greatly impressed former NFL player, Ray Rice, sat with his wife, Janay, here in Portland to speak out against the more common domestic violence. When the 2014 video of him hitting his wife in an elevator made national news, I hoped for this day and said so in radio interviews. Domestic violence concerns me because contrary to the slander of some, I am not a misogynist as anyone who reads my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and the blogs I have written will see.
My God inspired cause to restore men as His appointed leaders in the home, churches and larger society (if it would receive it) does not equal toleration for or condoning male abuse of anyone. In the image of Christ, the aspiring strong man of God understands abuse is evil. In my book and Strong Man Minute radio spots such as “Girls,” and “Women: God’s Gift To Men,” I transparently share my shame over being violent out of anger issues in my youth before becoming a Christian.1 After becoming a developing believer, I still struggled with the anger fed tendency to be too physical as many men in the churches until the Lord set me free (another benefit of restoring men) as I write about in this 2012 Commentary I am posting for this week’s blog.2
Originally Published October 2012
No honest discussion of violence in America, indeed, the world, could be conducted without also including the tragedy of violence against women by men. While as a matter of addressing domestic violence, women do assault men, the number of such incidences is very small compared to male on female assaults and murder. Interestingly, even in this epoch of the woman created and championed by feminists from all persuasions, violence against women has continued unabated. God is not pleased about this nor should any aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ! Truly, we are required--as did our Lord--to protect our weaker partners (John 12:3-8; 1 Peter 3:7).
Before getting too far into this Commentary, let me quickly state that I come to this subject with the due humility of past guilt and shame in having been a male starting as a teenager, that has unleashed violence upon females. No, as I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God, Back To Basics, I have never hit my wife of over thirty years. However, I have experienced the kind of anger that as a teenager with little self-control led to my striking a few of the females I was coupled up with. Also, in complete transparency, out of that same often, quick anger I have fought other males and struck or disciplined my children as a father. Much of what is behind violence is anger.
My quick anger is one of many personal flaws that are the result of a sinful nature and “type A” personality inherited from my mother in particular. Even so, I watched helplessly as a little boy while my father beat up my mother after repeated warnings to stop assailing him verbally (and sometimes physically) on a number of occasions including holidays where alcohol fueled things. I became very angry with dad for hurting mom, but reserved my greatest anger for her because I clearly saw how so often she provoked him. It was not hard for me thereafter, as a seething hot head and bully, to start fighting males and dealing out violence upon females.
Violence and murder are the next recorded displays of sin after Adam's original fall in the Bible. Cain rose up violently against and murdered his own brother, Abel (Genesis 4:1-8). For all we know Cain's act was premeditated (examine Genesis 4:6-8 carefully). Regardless, note that Cain was angry (vs. 6). Again, whether it is quick rising, simmering or buried internally as bitterness, anger plays a major role in violence; some of which leads to murder. This is why that when alcohol and/or drugs are added to the mix loosening inhibitions and self-control, violence is a natural result. Cain's anger driven murder brought God's judgment and left a legacy (Genesis 4:9-24).
The Lord Jesus Christ also made the connection between anger in all of its forms and violence as He gave greater light behind the command of God not to murder in Matthew 5:21-22. The Lord places the person angry without a cause in the same peril of divine judgment as the murderer. However, even with cause (provocation), acting on that anger in just calling folk names was subject to judicial reprimand and/or dispatch to the lake of fire. In other words, sin influenced human anger in the divine assessment is very serious because of how it can lead to escalating evil including violence and murder (Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32). Truly, violence does not easily arise from a tender heart.
As sinful creatures, separated from God, it has been easy historically since Cain for men to bully, batter and murder women. Since they are naturally physically smaller and weaker generally speaking, bigger and stronger men in sin use violence or the threat of it to impose their will. It has been an oppressive, tyrannical headship sinful men from all cultures have exercised over their female partners and in the natural, I understand why given the opportunity in these last days, women have risen up in protest and rebellion. However, as rising domestic violence reports confirm, this, or jails are not fixing men or women as sinners, which is the real problem according to God's Word.
The remedy for reducing domestic violence is life change through the power of God in the Gospel and the Holy Spirit as well as teaching men from His Word their proper roles and responsibilities. As aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ, for example, we men are to cherish our wives as our own bodies. No sane man harms his own body (Ephesians 5:28-29). Those with anger issues like I had own them to God in repentance and seek deliverance along with renewal through the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:12-13, 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16-25). Also, let aspiring great women of God respect their husbands at all times (Ephesians 5:33; 1 Peter 3:1-6). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Listen to the Strong Man Minute Web edition here.
2 I speak a little more about the Lord’s work to deliver me from anger bondage in part 2 of the March 6, 2016 blog, When The Messengers Are Bound, under the categories, Black History and The Cause.
On this thirty-third anniversary since the Lord led me to found Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc., the organizational parent of Strong Man Ministries, He has me continuing to deal with two themes: violence against young black males and folk practicing Christianity as a religion of manmade invention. In this post of an edited 2012 Commentary,1 however, the violence against and killing of young black males comes purposely at their own hands, while it is predominantly black Americans as professed Christians in many churches practicing their own form of Christianity completely powerlessness to reverse this evil to any extent that are addressed.2
Without repentance, total community self-destruction is assured! With repentance and embrace of biblical Christianity in genuine Holy Spirit empowered revival, there is still some hope and a little time left to make a difference for good among our spiritually lost, young black males and entire community. This hope is not a fantasy like that of the fictional, comic book Black Panther king, his other world magical flower and cloaked kingdom of Wakanda. Our hope is fully grounded in the reality of the Son of God, His anointed King, Jesus Christ, revealed from Heaven who died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again to bring salvation and its exceedingly great benefits including His eternal power and Kingdom rule to all mankind now (Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:8)!
Originally Published August 2012
The mostly Portland, OR area black American men and pastors that walk the streets to intervene with our boys and that recently came together to address how churches should handle gang related funerals are to be commended for their efforts. Formerly in my pastorates and through Strong Man Ministries I have witnessed to gang members. Eight years ago, I also attended a community meeting in the aftermath of yet another uptick in gang violence and was pierced deeply by the statements of one gang member who shattered all of our presumptions about gang bangers. His words made me realize Spirit led Christians can help curtail gang violence, but must be more assertive about it.
Let me be clear that I fully understand the problem with gangs and all forms of lawlessness in our communities are complex and multi-faceted. Even so, at its core, the criminal enterprise of gang banging with all of its associated lifestyle props is a spiritual issue of sin and evil. For example, the gang member that greatly disturbed me and others in the community meeting said that they are not all from single female led homes and poverty. This particular gang member had come from a two-parent, middle class home and was banging for the thrill of it--so much for viewing and solving the problem solely as a matter of political, economic, social and educational victimization!
Secular governments and police agencies are frustrated along with the few engaged church leaders that deal with the gang problem having rejected a biblical worldview and approach to curtailing it. Biblical Christianity is plain that gang bangers are sinners and need the Gospel like all other sinners to face up to the fact that a holy God has condemned them and their wicked behavior (criminality, violence and murder are sin). However, God loves and sent His Son, Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners that will repent from their sins and believe in Him (John 3:16-18a)! Those who believe become new creations with renewed minds by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:17-24).
Sinners who refuse to repent and believe in Christ from the heart remain condemned before God (John 3:18b-21; Romans 3:9-20; Galatians 5:19-21). With our continued attempts to reach gang members in and out of prison,3 they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to include receiving the death penalty when they harm and murder others respectively (Genesis 9:4-6; Romans 13:1-4). Churches mocking Christ's words should not provide a Christian burial service to those killed while banging (Matthew 7:21-23). But such tough love will never happen until pastors repent from not preaching the Gospel and the whole counsel of God with a unified voice into our communities.
Again, in having rejected a biblical worldview, secular governments and police agencies are outwitted and gunned in their struggle with the gang problem while too many church leaders appear to be willfully ignoring or helpless against the reality of the evil that supports it. Biblical Christianity also presents lawlessness as the spiritual outworking of evil (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9). According to the Bible, Satan is the original gangster as well as author of gang violence among angels and murder among men (Ezekiel 28:11-16; John 8:44). Because of this reality, faithful Christians or the world will never totally eradicate gangs for lawlessness even increases as the Lord foretold (Matthew 24:12).
However, just as our Lord went about destroying the works of the devil for the love and liberation of oppressed humanity, so must we for the sake of our sons, families, churches and communities (Acts 10:36-38; 1 John 3:8). Aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ understand that we are not as a first priority wrestling against human beings, but territorial fallen spirits; demons whose mission it is to oppose God by destroying the men of His love (Daniel 10:1-14, 20-21; Ephesians 6:12).4 Therefore, we properly suit up and begin to attack the gang problem where it originates: in the spiritual realm among demonic hordes arrayed against us (2 Corinthians 10:3-6; Ephesians 6:10-18).
Such warfare requires that sinning pastors turn back to and lead their churches in the way of biblical Christianity which is routinely the power of God on display (Mark 16:15-18)! And since they have failed to do this until now, much fasting and prayer in revival must precede and bathe the warfare (Mark 9:14-29). Our liberated children will still need to be mentored spiritually in faithful, Bible teaching churches and encouraged to pursue an education as well as positive activities, employment or entrepreneurial opportunities. Our boys in particular must no longer be given mixed messages about what a man is and does as a leader in the home and churches!5 The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 This Commentary originally launched a trilogy on violence that ended with Arresting Violence Against Women that posted on October 6, 2017, under the category,
Biblical Worldview. Lord willing, the middle Commentary--a follow up to this one entitled, Valuing Human Life, will post August 19, 2018.
2 The Lord has led me to write many commentaries and blogs over the years to professed Christian black Americans and our churches calling for repentance from re-
ligion and revival because of the sinfully lost opportunities to showcase the life changing power of the Gospel and power of God in our community. Read for exam-
ple, the February 8-15, 2015 two-part post, Strong Through God, Not Religion, under the category, Black History.
3 Since 2005 Strong Man Ministries has been intentionally engaged in reaching young males with the Gospel using media, on the streets, in sports and the prisons.
Learn more about our activities in summary on our Web Site or for our work with youth go directly to the Strong Man Minute Page. This Ministry stands ready to
come along side of and stand with any Kingdom driven church of Jesus Christ to reach especially our males--God’s chosen family heads with the Gospel and make
a difference for good among all of our community members.
4 I write about Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all
major internet book sellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
5 Males are purposely introduced to the Christian faith and taught biblical manhood which includes divinely willed Christ-like character in traits to help them mature in
Christ through The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study, available in the Strong Man Store. My book also teaches about purposeful mentoring by way of spiritual
fathering. This is spiritually maturing Christian men working with younger men and boys to help them grow in the faith. They also model to and teach them what it
means to be a man by God’s design and walk in His assignment of family headship and church leadership.
As God’s preacher, I am compelled by His love to contend for the souls of humanity bound by Satan’s ties through preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I fish for men as a first priority because we are His chosen leaders in the human family as He constructed it. Among men are those for whom I am deeply burdened because of our shared experience of being born black in America. If it is true that Satan binds men with spiritual, mental and emotional ties that are common to the human experience, then why have black American males historically had such an extraordinary and disproportionately difficult ordeal in terms of dysfunction, criminality and incarceration?
Nearly two million men are presently on lockdown and just at fifty percent or more of them is black American. They are there for murdering or harming mostly one another through gang and other crime related violence along with all manner of conscience and natural self-control breaching lawless conduct. They are there not only because of a cycle of poverty, low educational attainment, unemployment, fatherless households, culturally conditioned poor choices or the very real white controlled societal apparatus still adverse to them, but also their own self-sabotage as I wrote in June 2015 blogs reflecting on the state of black Americans one hundred and fifty years after slavery.
However, even the foregoing does not get to the root ties Satan has used to bind the black male soul so tautly there is self-hatred enough not only to self-sabotage, but as well, lash out violently on our own people. Again, these root ties are common to mankind, but have been applied during the excruciating events of the black American historical experience; root ties that are the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism. By stating this, please do not hear me to be making excuses for the evil behavior of black males as criminals--set free by Christ, I no longer embrace victimization--or somehow diminishing the pain of those hurt by them.
Nevertheless, I can testify to the fact the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism as root ties that at some point have bound nearly every black male soul are actual, understandable and hallelujah, removable! As a result of the work of Sigmund Freud and those that have come after him since the turn of the last century, the soul business has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the West. Exploding in the middle of the last century, the troubled souls of mostly whites have paid educated persons to help them identify and cope with any number of mental and emotional maladies through counseling, therapy and drugs. It is even trendy to have a “therapist.”
If the souls of white folk cannot “just get over it” (whatever it is that leads to seeking help), why do the souls of black males have to? Because of the stigma of perceived weakness as a man that remains to this hour though, many pride filled men do not voluntarily present themselves to the soul doctors for help. For black American men, it is also the sense of final capitulation in seeking help after clinging so long to the delusion self-remedies will finally successfully handle the root ties that bind their souls. Besides, if the dismissive attitude from guilt toward the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism by white professionals dominant in the soul business is anything like white society at large, why should a troubled black male soul bother?
Among the root ties Satan uses to bind the black male soul as continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism I have identified in my research and from personal experience are anger, victimization, powerlessness and frustration. Examining just anger for a moment, hostile, violent and subtle oppression as a bully creates anger in its object in short order. Imagine being oppressed almost 400 years with very little relief. Now, imagine being threatened to suppress that anger short of being killed by the bully and add to the mix other sources of anger such as an absent or neglectful father. Any normal human being without any intervening positive coping mechanisms such as Christian forgiveness would be beyond angry (Matthew 6:9-15, 18:21-35)!
I bring up the issue of the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism in a number of published works in my “Journal” on our www.fromslaverytovictory.org Web Site. The site beginning on its Home Page points the willing toward the biblical worldview and truths that can begin to bring help, healing and hope to the seeking soul. Too, I mention the legacies related to barriers to black male professing Christians aspiring to become strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics with an eye toward future elaboration.
In light of all of the trouble black males are having with the police among other white authority figures and their non-coincidental high rate of incarceration, this Black History Month I plead with my brothers by race to recognize we need help; help only God the soul’s Creator can provide through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Genesis 2:7; Psalm 139:13-14; Luke 4:16-21; 1 John 5:4-5). He alone has the superior power to one by one break every chain as ties Satan has used to bind our souls and enable us to live victoriously as aspiring strong men of God in Him going forward!
As the 25th 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 23rd 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.
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