Digital Deliverance

When a Tiger Falls...

2009-12-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

Scriptural Reflection
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ~ Proverbs 16:18 (NRSV)

It is a tremendous understatement to say that Tiger Woods is having a rough holiday season. Mr. Woods' downward spiral began in late November when he crashed his car outside his Florida mansion. Under an increasing cloud of suspicion, the local police issued Tiger a citation for careless driving and a $164 fine roughly five days later. Ever since his late-night "car accident" during Thanksgiving, the pro golfer's legendary marital infidelity has fueled a media firestorm for tabloids and talk shows for roughly a month already. Even as Tiger's list of mistresses has continued to grow beyond comprehension (currently 14 and counting), his wife, Elin Nordegren, reportedly "is not going to file for divorce immediately" although she has been sighted without her wedding ring and has retained a notable divorce lawyer who is nullifying the couple's pre-nuptial agreement as well as securing her custody of their children. In a year that witnessed the violent meltdown of Rihanna and Chris Brown's relationship, the heavily publicized marital woes of Jon and Kate Gosselin (of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame), and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's "hiking the Appalachian trail" all the way to his extramarital affair with his Argentinian mistress in Buenos Aires, Tiger's outrageous exploits as an adulterer have surpassed those salacious stories by leaps and bounds. Even more alarming, this episode has marked the end of the media's love affair with Tiger Woods. Once considered the most mild-mannered and congenial of all Black male athletes of his generation, this fiasco reveals that his public persona has been a carefully crafted façade. Until now, that is...

As Mr. Woods faces this undeniably difficult moment in both his personal and professional life, there are three main issues that he ought to address as he prepares to face his future. First, amid the great controversy that has besieged him during these trying times, Tiger's great accomplishments in the world of professional golf are rapidly being overshadowed by his his sexual misconduct. In the last week, even though Mr. Woods has received acclaim as the "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press as well as being voted PGA's "Player of the Year" by his fellow golfers, these groups practically had to apologize to the American public for paying attention to and acknowledging his dominance of his chosen sport for his entire adult life. Instead of being able to enjoy these greatly deserved accolades for his triumphant years as a pro golfer, this recognition is going to be obscured from now on by the titillating nature of his sexual misadventures.

Next, even though Mr. Woods has spent the bulk of his life trying to transcend his being identified racially as "Black", the media has pretty much "blackened" Tiger whether he likes it or not. Since sharing his childhood term for his hybrid cultural roots,“Cablinasian,”on The Oprah Winfrey Show twelve years ago, Woods has purposefully tried to avoid the messy complexity of Blackness during the last half-century since Brown v. Board of Education. As can be imagined, there is much discussion that is needed regarding how Tiger's current woes are affecting his notion of being Cablinasian nowadays. Whenever an African American male celebrity reaches iconic status within our society--for example Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Eddie Murphy, and Kobe Bryant among others--their public shame and tragic downfall were plugged directly into presumed notions of racial inferiority and sexual immorality of Black men. All of these men were hovering at the heights of their respective fields before revelations that made them less desirable as role models for young Black men who are already sorely lacking heroes. Moreover, in an interesting twist of fate, Tiger's umpteen mistresses were able to accomplish what his PGA competitors could never do: force the world's first Black golf champion to voluntarily sideline himself from the sport he loves during the prime of his life.

Finally, as more details of his adulterous affairs are revealed, there is a steady demonstration of both self-denial and self-destruction by Mr. Woods. According to the confessions of his mistresses, Tiger's repeated decisions to engage in unprotected sex without consideration of sexually transmitted diseases is reckless behavior with potentially devastating consequences. The inability for this otherwise intelligent, successful, and self-possessed young man to lose sight of the countless risks of such sexual misconduct is too severe to be accidental. It is very little wonder that Tiger's recent dilemma has prompted a mounting level of clamor about the current state of marriage and monogamy within our society. Like too many folks, Mr. Woods chased after empty sexual conquests because true love demanded more than he could give to in his life, including intimacy, inspiration, and introspection. Put another way, there is no way to love anyone else if first you do not cherish and love the God in you. Therefore, as Mr. Woods takes his self-imposed sabbatical from the PGA golf tour, he needs to work on his personal faults such as immaturity, insecurity, and lack of integrity if he ever hopes to restore his reputation and regain his place in the sun. If he can allow himself to be vulnerable enough to own up to his own failing--as we all must do daily--Tiger Woods can rebuild his life in such a way to move beyond humiliation to humility.

Why the Right is Wrong about Race

2009-11-03T21:43:00.000-08:00

Scriptural reflection
Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. ~ Psalms 68:31 (KJV)

Last week, the Republican Party’s Facebook page had a photo of President Obama eating fried chicken with the caption: “Miscegenation is a crime…Repeal Loving v. Virginia. Whereas the racist stereotype surrounding the candid snapshot of the nation’s first African American president eating fried chicken speaks volumes by itself, the words attached to the graphic are equally distressing. The photo’s negative reference to both miscegenation (an archaic and pejorative term for cohabitation, sexual relations, marriage, or procreation involving persons of different races) and Loving v. Virginia, the milestone U.S. Supreme Court decision that that end the prohibition against interracial marriage as a civil rights issue, is a particularly hateful attack on the president’s biracial ancestry; interestingly, Newsweek posted a blog that the appearance of this anti-miscegenation image coincided with the news story that Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Louisiana, refused to issue a marriage license to a white woman and an African American man. Bardwell later told the Associated Press "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way…I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." When asked about this incident, Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are an interracial couple and, if they say yes, he will not marry them. When trying to figure out what this picture represents about the current mindset of the GOP, the image speaks a thousand words. This follows closely on the heels of another incident where Rusty DePass, a Republican activist and former chairman of the South Carolina Election Commission, posted a so-called joke on Facebook suggesting that an escaped gorilla from a Columbia zoo was related to First Lady Michelle Obama. Although these items were removed from Facebook and the perfunctory apologies were made, these are only a few examples of the hateful insults that conservatives are circulating regarding the Obamas.

Conservatives ultimately loathe President Obama because they fear that the future he represents: that Blackness is neither a shameful defect nor a divine detriment but a bona fide asset. For too many of these irate right-wing activists and the angry mobs they spur to dizzying heights of intense outrage, President Obama represents a future for this nation and this world that means that God’s children of a darker hue will share their voices and visions to the destiny of all humanity.

Since the end of the Second World War, men and women from underrepresented groups based on race, class, ethnicity/national origin, religious creed, or sexual orientation have been so essential to galvanizing the contemporary conservative movement that without us, the current crop of conservatives would tear themselves to shreds. As historian Manning Marable contends, “the one threat that once unified conservatives was communism. Now that the Soviet Union has gone out of business, American reactionaries don’t have a common ‘enemy’” except attacking people who represent racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity in this country. The various branches of the hard-right conservative coalition—the neo-conservative militarists, the corporate industrialists, the "Constantinian Christian" fundamentalists (philosopher Cornel West’s phrase for reactionary Christian’s who conflate God and government), the Social Darwinian eugenicists, and the white supremacists—would have been at each other's throats long ago if they did not have their hatred of "Others" to keep them on the same page. Let's face it: these racist acts and statements represents nothing less than an utter lack of imagination as well as a firm desire to reassure the "real" GOP base that, despite the increased number of colored faces in high places, the power brokers within the contemporary Republican Party want to make sure that the Party of Lincoln is going to be a party of white supremacist whackos.

For instance, when Rush Limbaugh was recently kicked out of an investment group bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams football team, a minor media firestorm erupted by conservative commentators who claim that Limbaugh was being falsely accused of making racism. At the forefront of their feeble defense is the argument are remarks allegedly made by Limbaugh—in which the right-wing radio host supposedly praised slavery and James Earl Ray, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin as well as –that cannot be proven and therefore must be may be phony. Many of Limbaugh’s conservative comrades-in-arms proclaimed that Limbaugh was being lambasted on little more than the two dubious quotes. On October 15, 2009, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed that besides one well-documented racist remark Limbaugh made in the 1970s, the case that Limbaugh repeatedly says racist things on his radio broadcasts is nonsense: "The reason that Limbaugh is not going to be able to buy into the NFL is because a bunch of made-up stuff became legend. And he got hammered." O'Reilly later added: "So what we have here are accusations without merit. But in our hypermedia age, that's enough to paint someone as a racist." So now Bill O’Reilly gets to decide and declare who is racist and who is not? However, what O’Reilly and Limbaugh’s other defenders have completely ignored is that the very nature of the current nature of the conservative movement is deeply saturated with racist and race-baiting remarks that are both well-documented and easily verifiable over a long period of time.

Meanwhile, under the leadership of Michael Steele, the first African American chairman Republican National Committee’s the GOP revamped their website a few weeks ago with what it hoped would be a snazzy, eye-catching, hip new design, especially Steele's ridiculously named blog, “What Up?” which was intended to fulfill his promise of an edgy, "off the hook" outreach initiative that would take the GOP to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” Although the site did get quite a good deal of attention, none of it was favorable; in fact, most of the comments were pretty scathing in nature. Critics and detractors like the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann correctly lambasted the party’s new website’s flawed content and format including Steele’s blog, the blog was renamed virtually overnight. Nevertheless, as national party chairman, Steele tries to give the GOP an extreme PR makeover without even acknowledging the enduring legacy of the Republican Party's "Southern Strategy" which systematically used racist stereotypes and euphemisms such as "busing", "affirmative action", "welfare queens", "quotas", “illegal immigrants”, and "underclass", etc. to whip white voters' racial anxieties into a full-blown frenzy to be effectively manipulated by Republican candidates ranging from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush in order to win elections and dominate US politics. Another, more subtle example of this approach was evident each time W offered up his once-trademark stump line about "the soft bigotry of low expectations." The GOP operatives made certain that as the former president made this statement, fundamentalist Black church congregations or African American school children were often targeted as the most fitting mosaic backdrop for national issues such as faith-based initiatives or "No Child Left Behind" but these gestures proved to be little more than lip service and photo-ops to milk his "compassionate conservative" facade. More importantly, Steele does not say a mumbling word about the fact that many of the key players in the conservative movement—like Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Orly Tatiz, and Glenn Beck among others—have been major voices behind making sure that the "Southern Strategy" remains a persistently poisonous element of today’s partisan politics. Therefore, while making a crass political overture to target a broader spectrum of voters, Michael Steele and the GOP presented Africans Americans specifically and all American citizens generally with an inherently inaccurate and dishonest portrayal of how race and racism functions in contemporary American politics.

Why are conservatives so pathologically obsessed with mobilizing public support for white supremacy and xenophobia in the Age of Obama? Because conservatives recognize that America is the most multiracial, multicultural, and multiethnic society on the globe, they envision that by pushing people of color out of school classrooms, television programs, middle-class neighborhoods, and voting booths is necessary in order to push back all the gains of political rights and freedoms of the last half-century. With the Obama-Biden campaign of 2008, conservatives are feeling threatened and are demonstrating a desperate urgency to shore up their personal power and vested interests even using white supremacy to achieve their goals. The growing demographic shift in the United States from a predominantly white nation to a more racially diverse society, conservatives seek to crush all efforts to solidify the civil rights and human rights victories of the past century in the efforts to tap into what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the great wells of democracy.” The problem with this creeping fog of white conservative fears is that it completely ignores the reality that the vast majority of American electorate is no longer middle-aged, white, or of European descent but is steadily becoming younger, darker, and more international in nature. It is important for all people—regardless of political perspective and cultural background—to recognize that both equality and diversity are part of God’s plan for humanity. As the scriptural passage suggests, people of color—particularly women, men, and children of African descent—will have a role in shaping the future of this nation and the world. Their failure to see the promise and potential of people of color as a blessing rather than a cure is why the Right is wrong about race.

Something You Should Check Out…

Race Matters by Cornel West analyses moral authority and critical debates concerning race relations in the United States. When first published in 1994, this book became a runaway best seller that helped to make West the nation’s foremost public intellectual. Fifteen years, his insights are still as invaluable as ever. West’s thought-provoking essays address several controversial issues of vital concern to African Americans: nihilism in black America, the crisis of black leadership, affirmative action, Black-Jewish relations, sexuality, and other. His writing style is scholarly yet straightforward and he does not mince words. Throughout the book, his viewpoints are passionately radical (or should we say radically passionate?) in his insight regarding the urgent need to promote a “love ethic” as the solution for many of America’s woes regarding race and racism. By virtue of the controversial subject matter West discusses in this book, not everyone will agree with his point of view but, more than anything else, he wants to make readers at least think critically about the social problems we face as a nation. As an introduction to thinking more deeply about the contemporary state of racial identity and American culture at the dawn of the twenty-first century, West’s Race Matters is a wonderful start.

When Will the Healing Begin?

2009-09-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Scriptural Reflection

After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew^* Beth-zatha,^* which has five porticoes. ³In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.^* ⁵One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ ⁷The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ ⁸Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ ⁹At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ ¹¹But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ ¹²They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ ¹³Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in^* the crowd that was there. ~ John 5:1-13 (NRSV)

The great challenge of our time is to finally establish universal health care in the United States. While most of the nation was seized this weekend by the outpouring of warm sentiment and high praises during the memorial services for the late, great Senator Ted Kennedy, we attended the funeral of a young child who died entirely too soon. As the so-called “lion of the American senate” was being laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with the tribute and fanfare typically reserved for heroes and heads of state (of which he can be counted amongst in his finest hours), it was sitting in a church pew listening to the eulogies and testimonies of how a sickly child who was now deceased had made such a profound impact on an entire community. Dying just a week before turning 13 years old, Angel (this is a pseudonym to respect the privacy of the family) was the most cherished heart of a large family that was both loving and hard-working. Although Angel suffered from debilitating chronic illnesses from birth that made it impossible for the child to speak and suffer countless developmental delays, both Angel’s biological family as well as church family saw the child as a rare and precious jewel. Although Angel’s family could never imagine the inconceivable level of fame, fortune, and celebrity enjoyed by the Kennedys, they met the challenge of meeting Angel’s special needs with all the love and care that they could possibly muster knowing that would make all the difference in the life of this beloved child. But, contrary to all the wildly outlandish allegations by the likes of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin and other conservatives, Angel’s young, pain-filled life was neither compromised nor cut short by some make-believe “death panel” but rather by an ineffective health care system that refuses to attend to the needs of the least of these.

Too much of the recent health care debate—or should we say “debacle” because that is what it truly seems to be—has been dictated by politicos, pundits, and public relations gurus who have gone so far into the absurd realm of gun-toting protesters as town hall meetings and “Obama-as-Hitler” tirades that they have lost sight of the sick and dying people in our country. With the best estimate, there are roughly 46 million American men, women, and children without any health care coverage in a national population of 300 million. Simply put, nearly 1 out of 6 people in our society has no reliable or consistent access to health care and therefore are in jeopardy of some catastrophic health crises that will devastate not only them but also the entire fabric of our society. Moreover, this number has leapt by 10 million since the early 1990s when the Clinton administration’s attempt to enact health care reform was stalled due to the mounting scare tactics used by the health care industry and their conservative Republican mouthpieces. In the span of more than a decade, all leading indicators on the health and wellness index suggest that Americans are getting sicker rather than healthier as a people. How many more millions have to fall by the wayside before it becomes apparent that health care is a right of the multitude and not a luxury for the privileged few?

The widening gap in health care particularly along lines of race and class is quite literally a matter of life and death. In his book, Where Do We Go From Here? (1967), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. states, “Depressed living standards are not simply the consequence of neglect… They are a structural part of the economic system in the United States.” The reality that United States spends more on health care than any other country, and still lags behind virtually every other industrialized nation in providing health insurance coverage, limiting infant mortality and increasing life expectancy for all its citizens is not merely a disgrace but it is also virtually a death sentence. Despite all the social and political progress that has been made since the civil rights era, this fact is especially true for African Americans who are consistently subjected to subpar access to medical care in our society. When one looks at recent health statistics for African Americans, the estimates are absolutely appalling. Even today, with all of our medical advances, Black infants are still nearly twice as likely that their white counterparts to die before reaching their first birthday. Nearly half of African Americans do not visit a dentist on a regular basis—a vital means of personal health maintenance—for lack of a dental health plan. Furthermore, the rates of long-term, life-threatening ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, and various forms of cancer for African Americans are among the highest in the nation. African American women remain most likely to contract and potentially die from HIV / AIDS –related illnesses than any other demographic group in our society. Finally, at least one in five African Americans have no health insurance at all, a statistic that is bound to skyrocket given the current rise in unemployment. Since health care benefits have been linked to a person’s employment status in our society, this sets up a deadly equation for Black people: since we are most often “the last hired and first fired,” the underlying message here is anyone who is unfit to work is also unfit to live. This ought not be the case in the American society that has promised all its citizens “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as the benchmark of human fulfillment.

Most recently, President Barack Obama has stepped into the political fray in order to try and provide greater clarity to the situation. In a New York Times op-ed column, Mr. Obama outlined the main goals of his administration’s intended health care reform plan, namely providing health insurance coverage for all currently uninsured people, lowering health care costs, ensuring the longevity of Medicare and Medicaid for future recipients, and making the entire health care industry—especially health insurance companies—more accountable to those people who are in the greatest need of its services. But, in the face of all the confusion and uproarious behavior surrounding possible health care reform in the United States, the most persuasive point Mr. Obama offers regarding this debate is when he says that “the cynics and the naysayers will continue to exploit fear and concerns for political gain. But for all the scare tactics out there, what’s truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing. If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day. Premiums will continue to skyrocket. Our deficit will continue to grow. And insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against sick people.” When the health care industry cannot see its way clear to doing the right thing to guarantee that every man, woman, and child can have a decent quality of life, the government can and should step into the gap in order to save the lives of the many millions of uninsured folks if this debates continues for another decade.

When thinking about the biblical story of the paralyzed man waiting by the healing pool for his healing to come, the narrative has so much relevance to the world in which we currently live. According to the gospel writer, the man had been so close to the possible cure to his body’s ailment yet remained so far away that it taunted him for nearly forty years. As he lay on the ground, unable to carry him to the healing pool or convince others to draw him closer to its life-renewing waters, it is interesting to note that SOMEONE must have been sustaining the man in a veritable form of life support for all those years. What sort of “stinking thinking” would make it possible for a society to keep its sickest, most deprived members alive in the depths of their pain and suffering but not empower them to receive desperately needed healing that is well within reach. Even as Jesus walks into the paralyzed man’s life as the miraculous manifestation of answered prayers, the man was so engrossed by his history of deep hurt and denied healing that he could not respond to the simple question “‘Do you want to be made well?” For those of us committed who seek to live according to good faith and conscience, we ought to work unceasingly to bring forth a comprehensive system of national health care that will address the health needs of millions of people. Let the healing begin now.

Something You Should Check Out…

Given the increasingly wretched state of contemporary U.S. health care as well as the desperation it breeds in so many people, it is impossible to walk away from the film John Q. without thinking about the timeliness of its edgy material. Academy Award winner Denzel Washington plays John Quincy Archibald, a struggling blue-collar factory worker whose job is tenuous and his family’s house is on the verge of being repossessed and his lovely, hardworking wife (played by Kimberly Elise) is completely stressed out. When their young son unexpectedly collapses while rounding the bases in a Little League baseball game, the diagnosis reveals that the child is in urgent need of a heart transplant. To make matters even worse, when he learns that the heart transplant his son needs won't be performed because his health care doesn't cover it. Pushed to his wits' end by the desperate situation that threatens to destroy his family, John Q. takes the takes an entire downtown Chicago emergency room hostage including the surgeon, staff, and numerous patients. As the police and hospital officials try to negotiate with him, his threat is that he will kill the captives unless his son receives a new heart. While not interested in ruining the movie for anyone who has not seen it, the most agonizing moment in the film occurs when Denzel Washington utters the line “I will not bury my son, my son is going to bury me!" Although this film oversimplifies or overlooks many of the complexities of the current health care crisis, the film John Q is an effective tearjerker set for viewers who are fed up with the health-care system. As an added feature, there are a number of added short documentary films that discuss various aspects of our nation's broken health care system.

Confronting Racism in Obama's America

2009-07-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Spiritual Reflection
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ~ Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)

Can a Black man catch a break anymore? After all the hoopla surrounding the untimely death of Michael Jackson, every media outlet was bragging about how the "King of Pop" had transcended every racial barrier that mainstream society had pitted against him. Moreover, according to most of the media pundits and talking heads, the brilliant artistry and extraordinary humanitarianism allegedly made the world safe for Negroes. Ask Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, Venus & Serena Williams, Chris Rock, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Soledad O' Brien, and even President Barack Obama just to name a handful of "exceptional" Black folks who arose to global prominence in the wake of Michael Jackson's epic successes in the midst of Reagan-era America. It is deeply ironic that, even as this week marks the 40th anniversary of the NASA lunar landing, the overwhelming majority of people have greater recollections about Jackson's legendary moonwalk on the televised Motown 25th anniversary extravaganza than the outer space exploits of astronaut Neil Armstrong. With the Jackson mania reaching a fever pitch, there was an odd, somewhat forced "Kumbaya" moment upon which numerous members of the media elite wanted to capitalize since
Michael Jackson represented the epitome of W.E.B. Du Bois' concept of double consciousness: “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels [a] twoness—an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body.” Although Du Bois wrote that assessment of the Black condition in his masterpiece The Souls of Black Folk over a century ago, it still rings true even now, For all of his plastic surgery, family dysfunction, questionable sexuality, and undeniably strange behavior, Michael Jackson was the quintessential example of the ironic tragedy of Black genius--exceptional folks who want to escape their race due to self-hate and internalized oppression when it was being Black that made them so extraordinary in the first place.
In light of all that supposed racial goodwill from the Jackson memorial service, it seemed that mainstream America deluded itself into believing that racism was over and done with in this "sweet land of liberty." Then, lo and behold, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., renowned professor of literature and African American Studies at Harvard and foremost Black public intellectual, got locked out of his own house at 17 Ware Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts last week. When his neighbors reported seeing two Black men breaking into the residence to the local police department, the police responded to the crime as a perceived threat to the the quaint neighborhood right next to the nation's oldest, most prestigious institution of higher learning. Like a moment ripped from a Dave Chappelle comedy routine, the Cambridge police officers who responded to the 911 call actually confronted and arrested Prof. Gates for breaking into his own house. According to the thinking and actions of Sgt. Crowley and his fellow law enforcement officers, no Black person could (or should) be a homeowner on that block much less a professor at Harvard. To make matters worse, the incident is a clear example of racial profiling but not the only one that has happened this year, this month, this week, or even this day! Although the arrest of Prof. Gates is a travesty, it is an awful situation that is multiplied a thousand times over by Black women and men who are not affluent, world-famous Ivy League scholar who is close friends with celebrities and garners national media attention. Even as President Obama desperately tried to present his case for why his health care plan is vital to the national interest to the American people, a journalist broached the question of Prof. Gates' arrest in an attempt to provoke Mr. Obama. In the last moments of that prime time press conference, the president's initial response to the inquiry was succinct, sweet, and sincere. However, in the face of the frenzy of media scrutiny, especially prompted by the virulently bigoted faction of American conservatives, Mr. Obama is now inviting Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley to the White House for a chat over a couple of beers!?! Is the president of the United States really trying to solve one of the most pernicious and hateful expressions of legalized racism by having the offended victim of racial profiling and the offending officer while drinking brews? Sadly, this is a foolhardy proposition that will serve as a photo op but does not get to the heart of the matter: race and racism is at the core of American life.
As legal theorist Ian Haney López notes in his book Racism on Trial, notions of race typically operate as a complex set of background ideas that people routinely draw upon but rarely ever question in their daily encounters. Taken further, Haney López argues that "most people think little about race, save perhaps to deny its continued importance. Yet most people uncritically accept racial distinctions as a natural and necessary component of society. We depend upon racial ideas in conceiving of ourselves, in concluding our relationships with others, and in with great certainty, and yet we give this question little or no thought. Race informs how we view, and treat, the 'white,' 'black,' 'brown' and 'yellow' people we interact with even if we do not think about them in racial terms." Viewing race as a matter of "common sense" according to Haney López implies that "when we uncritically rely on racial ideas, we often, in turn, practice racism. We treat people according to their place in the racial hierarchies created by society and, by doing so, perpetuate those hierarchies." Simply put, no matter how celebrated and successful a person of color becomes in the United States, racist attitudes and actions are deeply embedded in how we function on a daily basis, even when doing something as mundane as walking into our own house or interacting with police officers. All things considered, as Prof. Gates, not every Black person in America can have the influence of Harvard University or the intervention of the U.S. president working on their behalf to drop criminal charges, squash negative publicity, and the like. Sadly, most Black folks in this country are not so fortunate yet we ought to recognize the challenges posed by racism in today's society. When the biblical scripture mentions that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers," there is just cause to view racism as a manifestation of evil in this world. For those who believe in the Lord of hosts, we have to discern the nature of "spiritual wickedness in high places" in order to understand how racism affects people of color on various levels but we also know that God is greater than the individual and institutional acts of racism. What believers need to understand and fully recognize is that the struggle for social justice is not merely an academic debate but a n actual battle for our hearts, minds, and very souls. What gives us the strength, wisdom, and courage to withstand the onslaught of hate, prejudice, bias, and discrimination is the knowledge that we fight the good fight from a position of victory in God.

Something You Should Check Out…

Written, produced, and directed by visionary filmmaker Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing is one of the most thought-provoking and groundbreaking films of the last two decades (it is hard to believe that this movie is twenty years old!). With the story centering on the hottest day of the summer, the film deals with rising levels of racial conflict in the multi-ethnic neighborhood community of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. Demonstrating the anatomy of a deadly riot to show how such a volatile outburst can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings, Do the Right Thing is an undeniable masterpiece, probably the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial stereotypes, deep-seated prejudices, and rampant hostilities in all their guises. As an interesting historical note, despite—or maybe because of—all the controversy surrounding this film when it originally debuted, Barack and Michelle Obama went to see Lee’s Do The Right Thing on their first date. Having said all this, the movie needs to be viewed and discussed over and over again.

The Audacity to Vote

2009-07-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

Scriptural Reflection
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”~ Galatians 3.27-29 NRSV

Even as the nation celebrates the Fourth of July, many of us take for granted the rights that have come to us by virtue of the blood, sweat, and tears of our ancestors in this so-called land of liberty. Case in point is the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, No. 08-322 concerning the viability of the Voting Rights Act. After months of debate and deliberation, the New York Times reported that the court faced a crucial question: Had Congress overstepped its constitutional power in 2006 by reauthorizing the act’s Section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of discrimination to obtain federal permission before altering any aspect of their local voting practices? When all was said and done, the Supreme Court offered an 8-1 decision in favor of retaining the Voting Rights Act. Writing on behalf of the majority Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. upheld the court’s approach saying that it stretched the statutory text, but he ultimately the consensus for most of the justices indicated that court should avoid deciding hard constitutional questions whenever possible. This basically meant that they chose to defer any meaningful judgment on the cornerstone of American democracy—the right to vote—until some unforeseen future date. While this is helpful in the short term, much work has to be done within the American electoral process in order to avoid the sort of political controversies as demonstrated in the now infamous 2000 Bush v. Gore recount and 2004 presidential election debacle . Moreover, this statement highlights the fact that voting, as the core of our highly prized democracy, is still not clearly defined and established within the US Constitution but is contingent upon the whim and will of either Congress or the Supreme Court. The need to change this troubling reality is clearly necessary.
Moreover, during this decision, Justice Clarence Thomas was the only one among his colleagues who felt that Section 5 was unconstitutional. As the only African American on the high court, for him to say that ''the violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains,'' is a sad and baffling fact. It is truly pitiful that Justice Thomas has been totally brainwashed and bamboozled by such a massive level of self-hatred and delusion to allow him to voice dissent against civil rights legislation that made his ascendency to the Supreme Court possible! When first enacted in 1965, the Voting Rights Act literally made it possible for millions of African Americans to the polls but only after several years of protest marches, lobbying, and sacrifices in terms of imprisonment, personal injury and even death of countless civil rights advocates. Even the most hard-hearted and vindictive members of the Republican-controlled Congress agreed by an overwhelming margin to renew the part of the legislation in 2006, which provided for the act’s advance approval requirement for another 25 years. Interestingly, President George W. Bush—certainly not the poster child for fair and free democratic practice—signed the renewal. If they could see that, why can’t Clarence Thomas? In this day and age, we can look at the history of the Constitution and the court in this nation, we need to consider critical race theory more closely. As a school of legal thought, critical race theory asserts that the consolidation and preservation of societal power, rather than the dictates of judicial principle and legal precedent, has been the underlying basis of legal judgments and race have served as a prime mover in that endeavor. Whereas law professors and critical race theorists such as Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw consider judicial rulings to result from the workings of the complex intersection of race with other social phenomena (such as gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.), racism is deemed as the primary factor for discrimination and exclusion within modern society.
Moreover, even if the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States marks a historic shift in the power of the ballot in our society, the failure of Clarence Thomas to acknowledge what is at stake for full citizenship in terms of freedom, justice, and equality if we do not secure the Voting Rights Act not only for ourselves but for future generations. Anyone who has a doubt about this situation needs only look around the globe to see the electoral crises in places like Iraq, Honduras, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Pakistan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and most recently the turmoil in Iran. Our hope and expectation has to be invested in ensuring that all of God’s people can represented in their government and secure the destiny that God has in store for each of us.

Something You Should Check Out…

As former chair and longest-serving member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Mary Frances Berry chronicles the enduring struggle of this body to maintain its independence in monitoring the U.S. government and encouraging the nation to remain true to its ideals of equality. Since its creation by President Eisenhower in 1957, Berry illustrates how the commission became the nation’s conscience during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Although Democratic presidents—including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton—have had their respective difficulties with the commission, it has been Republican presidents such as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the Bushes who worked to undermine the commission’s independent fact-finding and reporting functions in the hopes to garner complete support for their administrations’ policies. Using her consummate skills as both a historian and lawyer, Berry is peerless when she offers examples of how the commission’s vision has expanded over the last half-century. It becomes quite evident that even though race—particularly discrimination against blacks—was the group’s foremost focus, attention gradually shifted over time to include women, gays / lesbians, immigrants, and the disabled. Looking ahead to the future, she proposes that the commission ought to refocus on its original commitment as well as expand its scope to include both civil and human rights. She states that doing so will facilitate America’s compliance can be placed in the context of international human rights standards to provide some much-needed self-reflection and constructive criticism.

Terror from the Barrel of a Gun

2009-06-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Scriptural Reflection
“If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. See, it is I who have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon fit for its purpose; I have also created the ravager to destroy. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, says the Lord.” ~Isaiah 54: 15-17

Last week, legal professor and news commentator Jonathan Turley wrote a US Today column that denounced the use of the term “terrorist” to describe the lethal actions of Scott Roeder and James Von Brunn, preferring to call them “criminal.” There has been a considerable outcry about the killings of Dr. George Tiller at his church in Wichita, KS and the Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Johns in Washington, DC respectively. However, the US has demonstrated an incredibly jaded, almost ho-hum attitude towards these heinous crimes. According to Turley, he thinks that naming Roeder and Von Brunn as domestic terrorists for their fatal shootings of Tiller and Johns respectively detracts from the validity of the charge since their crimes seem to fall into the more mundane patterns of criminal behavior. When considering the Department of Defense’s definition of terrorism as "the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological," the actions of these shooters fall well within the context of this nation’s culture wars. Given the current state of affairs the United States has confronted since the fateful terror attacks of September 11th, 2001 and their aftermath, most Americans have only now begun to catch up with the rest of the globe’s all too intimate knowledge of such grizzly and heinous acts. In his Oct. 2006 lecture entitled "The Gift of Black Folk in the Age of Terror," the celebrated philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West has argued so persuasively that the fear, horror, and devastation wrought by those selfsame terrorist attacks brought the majority of Americans more closely aligned with and aware of the deeply traumatic and profoundly tragic reality of what it has meant to be Black in this country for the past two centuries. But if that horrible event was the apex of our national consciousness about the brutality of violence borne of terrorism, it seems that we are rapidly approaching the nadir, the lowest point of public awareness about the problems we confront.
Sadly, it appears that we have been lulled into a fleeting sense of confidence and security that the entire American population would embrace the exuberance associated with all the talk of “hope” and “change” ushered forth by the historic election of President Obama. Nevertheless, in a recent Newsweek article entitled “Rebranding Hate in the Age of Obama,” it is becoming conventional wisdom that, with the Black president in the White House and the overall economy in wretched shape, white supremacist organizations and other hate groups are trying to enter the mainstream with increasing levels of success. Moreover, recent columns by New York Times writers Paul Krugman and Frank Rich have drawn connections between the recent shootings and the type of belligerent intolerance and gung ho lack of self-restraint that masquerades as machismo for too many conservatives nowadays ranging from Rush Limbaugh to the FOX News crew to members of the extreme right-wing fringe.
Contrary to Professor Turley’s protestations, when pondering the crimes of Roeder and Von Brunn in the context of the broad sweep of our dysfunctional national culture, these men and all those individuals they claim to represent are terrorists for one simple fact: these killers sought to win arguments based on weapons rather than reason. In both cases, the use of gunfire to replace honest and reasonable debate on issues such as reproductive choice, racial equality, religious freedom, and countless other hot-button issues in our society, might never makes right. More than anything, such craven, cowardly acts definitely prove the growing insecurity and gross inferiority of the white supremacist cause. However, make no mistake about it: these men are terrorists! But we serve a God that is so much greater than the flawed individuals who seek to rob us of our peace of mind as well as our right relationship with God and our fellow human beings. The Word of God reveals to us in this passage that no matter whatever forces might rise against us, it is clear that we will have absolute victory in God as long as we are governed by faith and not by fear. Until the day comes when all people acknowledge and affirm everyone else’s right to live in an unequivocal and universal sense, we must stand in God’s promise to safeguard us and those we love as we seek to bring forth a better, safer world.

To Live and Die for Hip-Hop?

2009-05-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Scriptural Reflection
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:11 NRSV

On May 26, hip-hop artist and actor “T.I.” (aka Clifford Harris) reported to a Georgia federal prison in order to serve a yearlong sentence for his felony weapons charge. What is incredibly mystifying about this situation is how did T.I. get caught up in this madness in the first place? When T.I. was arrested roughly a year ago on federal weapons charges, he was best known for his numerous bestselling albums, starring roles in box office hits such as ATL and American Gangster, and growing reputation as one of the most impressive rappers of the past decade. Unlike many of his contemporaries in hip-hop, T.I. had not emphasized any sort of gangsta rap pretenses or thug mentality in his musical output during his brief but stellar career to date. However, just like too many of his contemporaries in the rap game, T.I.’s unfortunate run-in with the federal authorities sparked a life-altering instance of responsibility and reflection.
When thinking about the rapper’s recent MTV reality show, "T.I.’s Road to Redemption," it seemed like a custom-made publicity stunt to rehabilitate his public image as well as cash in on the nation’s insatiable hunger for reality TV programs at first glance. By agreeing to a probationary period of house arrest as well as logging 1,000 hours of court-ordered community service, T.I. was able to reduce his jail sentence to one year instead of a possible 30-year stint. With that as his overarching motivation, T.I. set forth on his community service assignment of working with high-risk youth while also counting down the days to his incarceration. As "Road to Redemption" progressed, however, T.I. dedicated himself to trying to scare a group of troubled youngsters away from the perils of street life in compelling and compassionate ways that softened the hearts of the most cynical critics. As a body of work unto itself, "Road to Redemption" might serve as an effective means of mentoring and ministry to Black adolescents and teenagers who are under pressure about the ways to avoid personal self-destruction.
Yet, the real tragedy as we see it is that a young Black man with such promise and influence found himself caught up in this sort of bad situation in the first place. What was T.I. thinking when he was buying those illegal weapons: did he fall prey to the vain and elusive fantasy of the “hard-core rap lifestyle” that sees one’s manhood linked to the ability to tote and use guns at a moment’s notice (might makes right), usually to kill another Black man? Was he thinking that his newfound fame and wealth was at risk by a growing parade of “haters” who –whether real or imagined—were coming to take away everything he had accomplished and this was the only way to secure his peace of mind? Or was T.I. looking at the guns in question as simply a “good” investment that could not only solidify his credentials as a rapper but also pad his wallet in the never-ending “paper chase” that substitutes money for morality? While not trying to litigate any of the points of the case again, the deep concern about this situation is that this situation was clearly avoidable and still this young man found himself caught up in a situation wherein the system eventually got what it desires most: the downfall of another young Black man. As the late great Tupac Shakur, another famous rapper / actor, once said, the system of institutionalized anti-Black oppression that fuels the prison-industrial complex really wants to see young Black men “either dead or in jail.” Seeing how that equation has played itself out in the lives of countless rappers such as Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Proof, Jam Master Jay, Shyne, C-Murder and untold others who found themselves either in coffins or incarcerated, the everyday struggle for today’s hip-hop community is to learn how to overcome the damaging life choices that lead young Black men to keep adding to these negative statistics. Also, as the recent shooting of the up-and-coming rapper Dolla in Los Angeles reminds us all too clearly, the links between hip-hop and gun-related violence remains a deadly one within the African American community. Obviously, the election of the first African American president in our nation’s history has not ended the more lethal aspects of hip-hop.
Despite whatever his initial rationale for getting himself into this situation, it is crucial that he “gets his mind right”, to borrow a phrase from the hip-hop community. Regardless of his celebrity status as a bestselling musical performer and bankable Hollywood actor, T.I. now has landed in the U.S. criminal injustice system along with over 1 million Black men and women who never had the advantages and opportunities he has had in his relatively young life. Just as on the “Road to Redemption” show, T.I. is now going to have to do the more vital work of seeking the spiritual wisdom, personal maturity, and moral consistency that only God can bring to his life. Whereas no one should go to prison behind such foolishness—that’s another blog entry altogether—what’s important now for T.I. and his millions of fans and supporters is that he reflects the reality of his reckless decisions as well as the consequences but also demonstrates the power of positive transformation that can come about at the end of this particular phase of his life’s journey. Inevitably, all of us discover at a crucial point in our lives that we are desperate people caught in dire situations but that is not an invitation to hopelessness. What faith and trust in God reveals is that it is how we confront these trying times and eventually rise above the negativity rather than surrender to it that shows the mark of the truly better person. In his hit song, “No Matter What”, T.I. even offers the remarks “I learned just do it, you get courage from your fears right after you go through it...God will take you through hell just to get you to heaven.” While that song was written in the wake of his woes, let’s hope he recognize that God is still at work in his life as an example of God’s desire to make us into new and wondrous creations. If we show that we are willing to turn away from “childish ways” as the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth nearly two thousand years ago, God will always be there eagerly awaiting to renew, restore, and redeem us…no matter what.

Something You Should Check Out…

In The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture, journalist and author Bakari Kitwana identifies the cohort of African Americans born between 1965 and 1984 are part of the so-called "hip-hop generation.” Notably, the author says that the frequently used term “Generation X" mainly describes white Americans without much attention to the realities and concerns of their Black counterparts. Don’t let the title fool you—this book is not just about hip-hop as a music and culture; this very thoughtful book takes a long, hard look at the current state of Black America in the post-civil rights era by examining the multiple social crises that have arisen for nearly forty years, including growing rates of homicide, suicide, drug convictions, imprisonment, domestic violence, single-parent families, police brutality, unemployment, poverty. Furthermore, the author argues quite strongly that the most demeaning types of hip-hop have been used within popular media—especially in terms of television shows, music videos, movies, and YouTube—by multitudes of hip-hop lovers in order to extol the virtues of "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, and criminal lifestyles." Alas, Kitwana asserts that hip-hop is "arguably the single most significant achievement of our generation," he also blames it for causing severe devastation to Black youth by perpetuating self-destructive pathological behavior, portraying negative stereotypes, and promoting poor role models. All of these social problems might seem overwhelming indeed, but Kitwana’s book acknowledges that members of our generation also have more opportunities than their parents had. Although this book was written in 2002, it predicted the vast untapped potential of America’s youth, especially amongst Black hip-hop heads, to come together to make possible the election of candidates like Barack Obama not only to the Senate but ultimately the White House. On the whole, Kitwana’s The Hip Hop Generation is an insightful, well-researched, and straightforward work that is equally critical and constructive in the ways it challenges members of the hip-hop generation (and, in many cases, their children) to step up their games respectively in order to make positive and profound changes. Whether you were born and raised listening to hip-hop music or you have no earthly idea about the music and culture, this book is an excellent introduction to the hip-hop generation.

To Do Justice

2009-05-16T23:40:00.000-07:00

Scriptural Reflection
“and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” ~ Micah 6:8 NRSV

This weekend marks the 55th anniversary of the monumental Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka U.S. Supreme Court decision that officially ended the legal concept of “separate but equal” within public education and effectively jumpstarted the rise of the modern civil rights movement. Whereas this date should always serve as a period of thoughtful consideration and serious reflection, the commemoration of this transformative event in American history is especially noteworthy. In CNN commentator Roland Martin’s recent article, “What's a 'qualified woman or minority'?”, illustrates how the continuing obstacles to full citizenship and social equality still plague American society despite the all the hoopla surrounding the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. In response to a roundtable debate about President Obama's potential Supreme Court pick on the website Politico.com, Mr. Martin observes the absurdity of having a group of the nation’s leading scholars address whether or not the president should “feel obliged to appoint a qualified woman, African American or Hispanic to the Supreme Court.” In considering this matter, Mr. Martin poses an invaluable question, namely “why isn't the word "qualified" used often for white men?” For instance, whereas American men of European descent in this country only account for roughly 36% of the U.S. population, why are they always the first group to proclaim that everyone else (including women, who technically comprise at least 50% of the population) are “minorities”!?! While the question is not surprising, it is certainly regrettable in this day and time to have to even ask about such an issue.
The conversation that is going to take place about the upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court and who will fill it is very much connected to the historic concerns surrounding the Brown decision. To make sense of this situation, we need to look at the circumstances of how one of the most essential players in the Brown decision became involved in this story. In 1952, Governor Earl Warren of California was an extremely popular candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. President, but withdrew in support of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. A year later, President Eisenhower appointed Warren as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Typically considered a moderate Republican, Eisenhower chose Warren because he reportedly wanted a conservative justice on the bench. In light of this desire, the president commented that Warren represented “the kind of political, economic, and social thinking that I believe we need on the Supreme Court.... He has a national name for integrity, uprightness, and courage that, again, I believe we need on the Court". Warren’s conservative credentials were marked during his governorship by his support for the internment of Japanese immigrants and Americans of Japanese descent during World War II; this wartime strategy served in violation of their civil rights and civil liberties in a fashion similar to the use of Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba established by the Bush administration at the height of the so-called “War on Terror”. This tough guy stance by Warren ensured that he was hailed as a favorite son amongst the growing numbers of conservative supporters in California and elsewhere around the nation.
Ironically, despite his reputation and the expectation that he would be a right-wing ideologue, Warren arguably became the most liberal chief justice the nation has ever seen in its history. As a result, President Eisenhower once remarked that nominating Warren for the Chief Justice seat was "the biggest…mistake I ever made.” Beginning with his official baptism by fire, the act of leading the highest court in the land to a unanimous decision in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, Warren proved that God can use anyone to achieve divine justice in this world. As phenomenal as the work done by the NAACP's brilliant chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall (who was later appointed in 1967 to the U.S. Supreme Court as the first African American justice in American history) and the stellar legal team assembled to argue the amicus case we know of as Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court for the million of school children of all backgrounds in order to transform the nation, there needed to be Supreme Court justices on the bench who were both sensible and sensitive to the fact that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted to uplift the downtrodden and liberate the oppressed. Taken another way, Thurgood Marshall established a passionate, sophisticated and morally superior legal case that made ending segregation in schools a logical effort but it required that the Supreme Court justices actually listened and thought about the arguments put before them. Even though Warren went against conventional political wisdom, he ultimately chose to make a difficult stance that was right as opposed to making a wrongful pronouncement that would have been easy. Regardless of what conservative pundits have said about “activist judges” who legislate from the bench, Americans depend on the Supreme Court justices to be authoritative in their legal expertise, neutral in their politics, focused on guaranteeing human dignity and personal freedom under the law, and absolute fairness in their reasoning abilities—that ultimately represents the most “qualified” person to occupy a seat on the high court.
Another reason this anniversary of the Brown decision is so important is because, for the first time in this nation’s history, the Obamas, as the President and First Lady of the United States, have been directly influenced and shaped by the blessings of the life in the wake of the Brown decision. Not only have Barack and Michelle Obama both received top-notch educations from Ivy League schools but also they are now raising their two beautiful Black daughters who have amazing opportunities that could never have been imagined 55 years ago. The great challenge nowadays is that we encourage our leaders in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government to ensure that future generations of Americans will be able to relish in the abundant blessings set in motion nearly half a century ago. It is our prayer that we can do this without fail.

Something to Check Out…

In a nation still reeling from decades of heated, often toxic, arguments about affirmative action, quotas, hate crimes, racial profiling, “culture wars” disputed election results, and race-based political redistricting, these three books are excellent resources to explain the interplay of race, racism, and the law in the United States. Historian, law professor, public policy analyst, and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Berry ‘s classic study, Black Resistance / White Law, directly links federal policies to racial inequities. This landmark book shows how the American government has used the U.S. Constitution to maintain a racist status quo. Berry analyzes the reasons why African Americans whose lives have improved both socially and economically are still at risk of police abuse and largely unprotected from systemic prejudice, hate crimes and racial bias. In 1978, the late federal judge and legal scholar A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. published In the Matter of Color, that charted the racial progress and regress over the past three centuries. The sequel, Shades of Freedom, documents a history of American racial law from the 17th century to the late 20th century. This long and often unknown chronology is examined with impressive precision Much like Berry, Higginbotham’s analyses, particularly major decisions such as the Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) are compelling and elegant with levels of moral outrage and righteous indignation that have undeniable intensity. These books provide ample proof not only about how far America has come in overcoming so many aspects of oppression, discrimination, and inequality yet still has so far to go.

The Promise of a Better Tomorrow

2009-05-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Scriptural reflection
“They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity;*for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” ~ Isaiah 65: 21-25 NRSV

On February 24, 2009, President Barack Obama declared that his presidency on using "bold action and big ideas" in order to transform the very nature of politics. During his first speech before a joint session of Congress as president, Mr. Obama reasserted his commitment to leading the United States out of the economic depression (yes, we said depression!) and his deep desire to revitalize the role of government in people's lives. “While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times… I want every American to know this," President Obama said. "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
Following the ruinous failure of George W. Bush’s presidency, such a statement by Obama might seem completely unrealistic. It is important to realize that the vision of material and spiritual renewal through positive political action is related to the promise implied in the biblical passage quoted above from the prophet Isaiah. In theological terms, this sort of vision is called eschatology. Based on the Greek word eschaton meaning “last thing”, eschatology is a fancy scholarly word that refers to the concept of the “end times”. The eschatological age is pictured as both present and future, for its essential idea centers around divine coming, especially where such thinking introduces the idea of a resurrection to renewed life both here on earth (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2) as well as the eternal hereafter (I Corinthians 15). In his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s bold proclamation that “I still have a dream that one day justice will roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” is a more recent example of eschatology. Uttered at the height of the civil rights movement, King’s words challenged the nation to live in accordance to God’s eschatological vision.
In a similar sense, Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party have a great opportunity to overcome the many obstacles facing the United States. Despite two ongoing wars abroad, the economic struggles domestically, threats of disease pandemics like the “Swine Flu”, global climate change, and other troubles currently plaguing the country, the Democrats under Obama’s leadership has inherited a world on the verge of chaos. However, the great difference between the Obama and all his conservative critics is that he refuses to relegate and reduce his vision only to the negativity of what is presently going wrong. The vision of the Obama administration is also seeking to create an agenda for a better tomorrow by providing a vision that is also relevant for possibility of a hopeful future. It is precisely in times like these that we witness the power of faith and the challenge of hope. It is all well and good to believe that everything will be worked out in the afterlife. It is another thing entirely to trust in God’s awesome ability to redeem, heal, and restore us in the midst of our current situation right here and now. Even with the laughable comments by out-of-control conservatives like Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, the FOX News folks, and others who would rather kick such things to the curb by saying that such thinking is crazy and foolhardy. As Limbaugh has open said, he and his fanatical followers want President Obama to fail. But think about this: why would anyone want to listen to their desire to watch the cruel and unjust realities of the past 8 years under conservative Republican politics to continue? Recognizing the desires of such haters to bring down our chances for a brighter future, those of us of who are devoted to loving mercy, we need to only anticipate but also work for the radical change that marked the historic candidacy and election of Obama in the first place.
The promise of a better tomorrow is finally in front of us. With the US Senate’s transformation to a possible filibuster-proof 60 person majority (thanks to Arlen Specter’s switch from Republican to Democrat and Al Franken’s inevitable seating) as well as the recent announcement of Justice David Souter’s impending retirement from the US Supreme Court, President Obama has the ideal chance to begin redefining American politics and society into the “more perfect union” described in the US Constitution. No matter how touchy the debate might seem about issues like the economy, universal health care, criminal justice, education, housing, jobs, civil rights legislation, religious freedom, environmental responsibility, reproductive choice (abortion), marriage equality (same-sex marriage), and countless other concerns in American life might be, the chance that America will be able to awaken to witness a better tomorrow lies in our ability as a nation to at least have the necessary debates about these crucial matters. Now that the hype over Obama’s “first 100 days” is finally settling down, it is exciting to see the future that is already unfolding before us.
Of course, there is nothing altogether reasonable about living the Christian life in keeping with a biblical vision from a secular or worldly perspective. Moreover, the wealthy and powerful people who enjoy all the privileges and benefits of the world remaining just as broken as it is currently do not want to see any sort of improvement take place. Nevertheless, faced with all the problems that confront this nation and the world, promises that are backed up by practical thinking and positive action is what we need now more than ever. The vision of transformation and new life in Christ as represented in the expectation of new heavens and a new earth is nothing but radically audacious. Even as it seems like things are going absolutely crazy, the continually manifestation of hope is visible all around us. Therefore, living a life informed by a deeply Christian faith is nothing short of revolutionary because it involves us bearing witness to the blessings to be found in a world turned upside-down by God’s wondrous power. That is exactly what we are called to do when faced with the promise of a better tomorrow—allowing God to use us in every way imaginable through “bold actions and big ideas” to make this forsaken and forlorn world a new creation in God’s sight. To have such a dream does not have to be considered wishful thinking or foolishness but rather it can stands as a testament of faith and hope in what Almighty God can and will do right now.

Something to Check Out…

Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise by Tavis Smiley with Stephanie Robinson provides real-life examples of how crucial issues—including health care, education, the economy, unequal treatment in the criminal justice, and the environment—manifest themselves in our communities. The book demonstrates the urgent need to hold politicians—as well as ourselves—responsible for the transformations we want to see in Black community and the nation as a whole. We highly recommend this book because with all the issues that confront us as both a people and a nation, the stakes have never been higher and the best hope for the success of America’s recovery is by becoming better informed about both the problems and possible solutions. Much like his earlier book, The Covenant with Black America, the razor-sharp examination of present-day social conditions and their devastating consequences especially for Black America, Smiley’s Accountable is not just a book but also a resource-filled tool with which the community can evaluate the successes or failures of its political leaders and of itself. Ultimately, while offering very hard-hitting insights about the current state of affairs, Accountable also does a remarkable job of offering hope and inspiration for a better future.

2009-02-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

Friendship-West Baptist Church is proud to announce the start of Digital Deliverance, the virtual theological reflection group that is a part of the STUDY Program. Digital Deliverance is an ongoing blog authored and maintained by FWBC theologians-in-residence Drs. Juan and Stacey Floyd-Thomas, and accompanied by various ministries at the church.

In keeping with FWBC's mission of "equipping changed people to change the world," the blog focuses on the role of Black Liberation Theology in contemporary American society and culture. In essence, it's digital delieverance from social crisis! It is our hope that this site will help people of all backgrounds find and utilize theological and spiritual resources that foster comfort, hope, clarity; strength, courage and joy.

Whether visitors to the blog are church members or curious seekers who are exploring how they can understand their faith in relation to current political events, trends in popular culture or better understanding African American Christianity alongside other spiritual traditions. Digital Deliverance provides readers with inspiring devotional tools, thought-provoking commentary and religious discourse, online access to nationally renowned theologians and religious scholars and the creation of a supportive online community.

Digital Deliverance Begins

2009-02-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Friendship-West Baptist Church is proud to announce the start of "Digital Deliverance," the virtual classroom that is a part of the STUDY Program. Digital Deliverance is an ongoing blog authored and maintained by FWBC theologians-in-residence Drs. Juan and Stacey Floyd-Thomas, and accompanied by various ministries at the church.

In keeping with FWBC's mission of "equipping changed people to change the world," the blog focuses on the role of Black Liberation Theology in contemporary American society and culture. It will also help people of all backgrounds find and utilize theological and spiritual resources that foster comfort, hope, clarity; strength, courage and joy.

Whether visitors to the blog are church members or curious seekers who are exploring how they can understand their faith in relation to current political events, trends in popular culture or better understanding African American Christianity alongside other spiritual traditions, this blog provides readers with inspiring devotional tools, thought-provoking commentary and religious discourse, online access to nationally renowned theologians and religious scholars and the creation of a supportive online community.