The Scourge Of Racism
E-Book Availability 4/12-26
Released January 5, 2024
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The centuries of brazen bigotry, discriminatory acts and oppressions of systemic racism by guilty whites professed to be Christians does not grant blacks or other hues as objects the right to do the same.1 Indeed, their bad example should have served to warn any seeking to live out biblically conservative Christianity not to go there since God’s displeasure would and has taken many tangible forms. Nevertheless, as I also note in my book, The Scourge Of Racism, a number of blacks and other minorities professed to be Christians have not paid heed and have become embittered racists with guilty whites; participating in what is truly an American Church failure on the issue of racism.2
The reaction of anger leading to bitterness is an optional response to racism by its objects. I have written about God’s righteous anger and testified about my own at the unrighteousness and injustice of bigotry, discriminatory acts and oppressions spawned by racism.3 However, God as God makes “a path for His anger” in judgment and holy wrath (Psalm 78:43-51, NKJV)4 while unless we dispose of ours appropriately, it festers and morphs into bitterness that works evil, self-harm and finally destruction in us (Job 5:2a; Ephesians 4:26-27, 31; James 1:19-20). And from where does being an embittered black or other minority racist spring but bitterness as an entitled victim?
Though being an embittered racist as one that has been harmed by racists is to be expected from among those who do not know God in relationship, such an outcome is not to be the case for those of us who know Him. In the first place, while we may become temporarily angered by whatever mental, emotional or even physical injury we may suffer from a racist, we entrust ourselves to God the righteous Judge as our Lord Jesus taught and set the example (Matthew 5:43-48; Luke 23:33-34; 1 Peter 2:21-23). I will be the first to confess the teaching and example of the Lord as biblically conservative Christianity is far beyond my grasp in the natural. Nevertheless, God has not called us to do Christianity in the flesh, but the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 4:18-20)!5
In the important second place, though we suffer injury from others often without direct cause in this sinful, fallen world, we know God does not see any of us sinners as innocent victims. None of us has received what we justly deserve for our sins which is instant death! This should birth humility in us at God’s mercy as it did godly men of old (Psalm 51:1-17; Micah 7:5-10). Are you being taught these truths in the church you attend? No, not if it is far from objectively reading, interpreting and applying God’s Word as it is written and conserving biblical Christianity from its beginning (Jude 3). To be clear, a black racist will suffer the same end as one that is white since God who judges shows no partiality (1 Peter 1:17).6 Depart from a church that facilitates rather than repudiates racism!
1 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
2 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 17-18. The print version of the book is available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. The E-Book is available at major E-Book sellers. Watch the book trailer.
3 See the November 26, 2023 post, Salvation The Best Thing Ever, under the category, Glory To God!
4 If through repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, you have turned to God for salvation, you will be saved from the coming global outpour of His full on wrath (Romans 5:9; Revelation 16:1, 17-21)!
5 Here is why biblically conservative black men as aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ are so desperately needed and can help at this hour. They display and can faithfully teach other men about the enabling power of God in the Spirit to please Him and do His will as I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get it in the Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
6 All practicing racists that profess to be Christians have wandered far from the biblical faith. Hear and respond to the Lord’s gracious call to return to Him before it is too late through this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube.
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.
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.
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!
My heart has gone and goes out to the young black males especially that believe our people have suffered long enough and that white authority--most outwardly represented by the police--must be stood up to; respect for their black person insisted upon. Tragically, too many in history and our times have not lived to report that this posture turned out positive for him. While saying this is not to commend those that have abused their authority or devalue human dignity, nevertheless, our sons must accept all authority originates from and is granted by God with the expectation it is to be respected. He holds any of us sinful mortals wielding authority accountable (Romans 13:1-7)!
While I humbly confess to still not having mastered the ways of the Lord in this myself, my born again soul assents to them as righteous and what pleases Him. Thus, as it concerns submission to sinful mortal authority for example, as did Christ my Lord and every aspiring strong man of God in His image through history,1 it is done without regarding oneself as inferior or robbed of dignity, but honoring God who ordained authority no matter how inferior in station, ugly in attitude or behavior or unworthy in merit the authority figure(s) or is not Christ the Son of God? Even so, one can speak up calmly to evil in strength under control as Christ also exemplified (Matthew 26:47-56; John 18:1-11).2
Knowing the foregoing, I am all the more appreciative of the black aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ from slavery that have endured great evil against themselves in conscious humble submission. This space is limited, but as the Lord has led, I am pleased to be able to post this edited 2010 Commentary to at least acknowledge, honor and hold up such men from my community as examples for all of us that must stand for Christ in the current and worsening evil days we live in. As well, I joyfully continue to fulfill the mission of this Ministry’s From Slavery To Victory Education Project in its 25th year!
Originally Published June 2010
On the nineteenth of this month black Americans will celebrate the 145th anniversary of the day Texas slaves heard about Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation some two years earlier on January 1, 1863. For the last sixteen years in another work of our parent Ministry called The From Slavery To Victory Education Project, we have tried to inform especially black Americans of our incredible spiritual legacy created in the caldron of our suffering. The story of aspiring black American strong men of God is not the least portion of that legacy and should be an inspiration to all men, but especially our own sons.
Before just only scratching the surface of the story of aspiring black American strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ, we must first properly link it to the larger story of all of them God has forged in this New Testament era. Indeed, Jewish men who fifty days earlier had been found huddled together in fear for their lives, stood to face the same crowds that had chanted against their Master, “Crucify Him,” (John 19:5-7, NKJV). In holy fire and languages previously unknown, on the “Day of Pentecost” they with the women present declared “the wonderful works of God” before them (Acts 2:1-13, NKJV). Then, one of the men, Peter, who had even denied three times that he knew his Lord, boldly preached His resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:14-36)!
Empowered with strength from on High, the apostles of Jesus Christ mightily proclaimed the Gospel about Him throughout the Roman Empire. They did so with a relentless passion to please God and do His will regardless of the cost. History and tradition tell us most of these men paid for their zeal with their lives! In fact, the first place to look for evidence of aspiring strong men of God throughout this New Testament era is the trail of blood left by the martyrs. While not every aspiring strong man of God since the 1st century has been a martyr, all would have suffered in some measure as part of His overarching purpose to conform them to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 5:8-9, 12:1-11; 1 Peter 2:18-25).
God in His sovereignty chose to shape willing men taken from the tribes of West Africa into the image of His Son through the refining fire of slavery and bitter trials. In the New World far from their land of origin, He humbled proud black men through forced labor (Psalm 107:10-16). Those that called to Him for deliverance had their souls saved and gratefully waited in hope for Him to unshackle their bodies as it occurred first at the end of the Civil War, then finally, among Texas slaves. But their trials continued. They were severely tried through Jim Crow segregation, racially motivated discrimination and other oppressive acts of terror and murder through the mid-20th century.
At that time, in the spirit of European church reformers from centuries past, black churchmen and supporting godly women led by men like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose up to peacefully protest our nation's comfortable mistreatment of its black citizens. They suffered arrest, violent opposition and even martyrdom as they marched to highlight and seek relief from America's legally sanctioned oppression of blacks. The walls of oppression began to tumble one by one as the nation's conscience could no longer bear to see the morally indefensible mistreatment of its citizens due exclusively to the color of their skin and the hate filled, ugly side of violently enforcing it.
The names of the Christian black men from slavery through the Civil Rights Movement that willfully chose to suffer in order to please God and do His will while waiting on His intervention are many and not widely known. The few that are well known such as Booker T. Washington, also made peaceful assaults on the status quo by working to improve the lot of their people through education and enterprise. A great number wore "Reverend" in front of their names such as Aaron Johnson of North Carolina and John Perkins of Mississippi. Today, in sports, Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith stand out as longsuffering victors in Christ. All of these Christian black men are inspiring role models for any man that will aspire to be a strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ!
1 To learn more about what is involved in becoming a strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ, get a print copy or digital download of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get the book in either format in the Strong Man Store.
2 The four Gospels of the New Testament clearly show that while being direct, penetrating, truthful and prophetic, the Lord Jesus never insulted, cursed angrily at or
threatened those that arrested, falsely accused, tried and carried out His crucifixion. Also, His words became fewer and expressed concern for others as He made His
way to the cross in total submission to His Father’s will (Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 23:26-43; John 19:25-27). Foretelling His disciples would face similar circumstances,
He gave instructions right down to words to speak that emulated how He handled His experience (Mark 13:11-13).
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