The Reverend Doctor Deborah Thomas used the eulogy of my sons’ mother recently to encourage those attending the funeral to consider—merely think about—the possibility that there is a Higher Power, someone greater than themselves, whose shadow they should stand under.
Some older mourners nodded their heads; several muttered ‘amen.’
Several of the younger participants, however, looked confused, uncomfortable, or ill-at-ease.
A couple readjusted themselves in their seats, a few walked awkwardly around the back of the funeral chapel, looking in every direction save the pulpit.
(At the House of Grace Ministries Sunday service, our resident evangelist suggested the spirit may have come upon those who seemed unnerved; they were uncomfortable because they were in spiritual conflict.)
I sat in silence during the funeral service, listening to the relevant message of Pastor Thomas, while trying to figure out how many in attendance were Christians—whatever that definition entails—and/or whether they believed in God, by whatever name?
Two weeks after the funeral, my initial list of questions have ballooned:
Is Christianity going the way of Black marriage?
Has the majority of today’s Black youth—Generation X-Z—discounted or walked away from the primary religion of our American-born forefathers?
Or maybe the X and Zers apparent apathy is linked not to atheism but a reflection of their ignorance, skepticism, or disdain toward religion in general.
Have they embraced Deism?
Do they view Christianity as overly restrictive, its leaders and congregants overly judgmental or irrelevant in today’s open society?
If asked, I’m sure most Black millennials would define themselves as neo or quasi-Christians–doubters, skeptics who view the church as suffocating and its tenets outdated.
Studies show 80% of Black Americans view themselves as religious. But without further data, I have no idea what that means.
However, what is known is that many—if not most—view the Bible and Christianity as an evolving religion, in the same sense as Democrats view the U.S. Constitution.
In fact, that analogy is essentially at the root of this paradoxical conflict.
There are two political trains of thought in America today—those who believe the bible and the Constitution are definitive, unalterable documents.
The bible must be taken literally. The Constitution is also a sacred document and cannot be altered.
Conversely, the other side believes both manuscripts are ever-evolving documents that should consider societal and cultural changes.
Simply put, it’s Republican vs. the Democrats, conservatism/evangelical vs. liberal/progressive. Fundamentalist vs. naysayers and new pseudo-Christians.
There was a time when the old adage of Black folks being ‘culturally conservative but political liberal’ defined us. That is no longer the case. At least not among the generations that followed mine.
Most of the new generation leadership is culturally confused and politically pimped.
Their general acceptance of abortion, homosexuality, and fornication—specifically out of wedlock births—have pushed many Black millennials so far to the left, they are close to falling off the face of the earth.
Some will because they can’t see the edge for the cloud of marijuana smoke there are emersed in.
Remember the old R&B song, ‘I can see clearly now?’ Well, that’s not the effect of the new weed, vapes, and candy.
You may disagree with my using political references. And in truth, I’m somewhat facetious.
But before you dismiss the basic premise out of hand, consider this:
Fifty years ago, most Black households were headed by two parents. And I would guess 60% attended church regularly, and 72.3% followed scripture—or at least most of it until the Eagle was sighted. (That’s Friday and Saturday nights for the uninformed.)
Today, 72% of Black households are headed by a single mother, 70-plus percent of whom are poor, or worse, have subscribed to the Culture of Poverty.
On average, those sisters—bless‘em–have 2.5 children, often by as many sperm donors as possible. Men who reject marriage but believe in the gospel about being ‘fruitful and multiplying.’
Neither this single mother and by proxy and example, her children go to church, have a bible or Koran in their homes.
They don’t watch Sunday morning services on television, and the only ‘gospel’ they listen to is an occasional Kirk Franklin song when it is played on an R&B station.
What is the common denominator?
Could it be Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican?
Hold the press! I’m not trying to suggest, even remotely, that the victims of systemic racism return to the GOP. Hell, to the naw, naw, naw!
I’m just stating a fact.
The ‘Republican’ts’, (which ironically is what biblical tax collectors were referred to) may oppose abortion. Still, they have not been pro (Black) life since the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.
My point is that when we blindly embraced the Democratic Party platform as a solution to the stalemate of Black progress, we also accepted their disingenuous platform, which is far removed from that of our forefathers.
We have, in essence, tried to have it both ways, without understanding politics and religion don’t mix. In fact, African culture and Democratic Party politics don’t mix either. And the Democratic Party ‘disciples’ showed us how they really felt when Nancy Pelosi and crew showed up wearing kente at a press conference a few years ago. Some confused Black politicians smiled. But most of us felt insulted. It was a pimp slap that ‘us hoes’ didn’t feel.
The truth of the matter is, not only have we not achieved the promised social, economic, and educational gains promised by the Democrats, but we lost our cultural way along the journey.
We not only have followed a Democratic Party ‘Moses’ in the wilderness for 200 years, but there has been no ‘Canaan’ in sight. We have not visited King’s ‘mountain top.’
Indeed, the final 70 years of our journey have been used to wipe clean our minds of who we were while living in the natural promised land of Egypt (Kemet).
I speak not from a political standpoint but from an Africentric perspective.
The Black nuclear family is the center of the African universe. Or should I say, they build their home on a spiritual foundation.
That home is surrounded by a commune, which operates for the good of the village or tribe.
In many cases, even among those who adopted (or were forced to accept) Christianity or Islam, there existed in the subconscious an Africentric paradigm that transcended religion.
My two DNA analyses, including one from African Ancestry, which I encourage you to take, also reveal that my lineage goes back 2,000 years to the House of Rameses III.
R-3 was pharaoh/king of Kemet, which is where both Moses and Jesus/Yeshua were raised and educated.
But that information takes this docudrama to another episode I’m not going to reveal at this point.
Consider that last bite of information a commercial break. Back to the docudrama:
Our community is not a community by any stretch of the imagination.
The Black church, whatever its faults, is not as influential among Generation X and Zers as it was among my generation. It is no longer viewed as our primary source for moral guidance.
That reality has resulted in a new definition of family that (love’em as we must) has eaten away at the core of our culture.
The resulting ‘Culture of Poverty’ has been a catalyst for most of the social ills that plague us. We can deny that fact as much as we want. But the replacement of my culture with a Culture of Poverty has brought with it the highest Black incarceration rate in the country (one in 36 of our men), unprecedented poverty (the highest in the country), and the lowest fourth and eighth-grade reading proficiency rates in North America.
With the Democratic Party Moses in charge, we have the highest Black male unemployment rate in America, record homelessness, and, while pro-choice, the country’s highest Black infant mortality rate.
Hold up, horsey. Maybe there’s something there that I’ve missed. Maybe there is a direct link to our illiteracy and our disconnect to religion of any sort.
Since most of our children and their parents can’t read well, they can’t enjoy the bible, Koran, or any other theological book?
And since most of them went to government schools, where they are only taught His-story, they don’t know they are the decedents of African greatness that includes the development of math, reading, science, and medicine.
Most are not taught that fact, nor have they been exposed to the richness and cultural relevancy of the Motherland culture we left behind. The slave owners made sure of that, as they forebode even the mention of our past.
They then raped the Blackness out of our queens and beat the chiefs into submission to the point where they used axle grease on their hair to look like the massa.
Whew, that’s a lot to absorb.
Let me suggest that following our current course, the end days will soon be in sight. That’s a ‘Revelation.’
What we must decide to do beforehand is have a new ‘Genesis’ to get ourselves together. And then an ‘Exodus’ from this political and Eurocentric cultural devil that has taken hold of us.
Hotep.
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