Here is a clip that expresses my sentiments on the critical issues facing the Black community as it relates to violence and lawlessness.

Please be advised, some of her language may be a bit ‘coarse’  but please listen to the points that she is trying to make.

Unlike the speaker,  I was born and raised in the inner city (Roxbury MA) and have spent almost most of my adult life ministering with and to the people of our community.  Despite this difference, I concur with Sister Stacey’s assessment of the nature of our problems and on her recommendations for what we need to do to address the problems we continue to face as a people.  In fact the week before this was posted I spoke to our Church family about some of these very things she mentions in her post.

She mentions many things in her post.  I would like to highlight just a few.

1. We need to come back to God (Church)

Get back to God, (go back to church) is an appeal for us as a people to turn back to the one thing we know worked and somehow have now forgotten.  We believed and Trusted in Jesus Christ.   His Word and His will were central to our lives.   We need to find our moral compass. For apparently we have certainly lost our way morally (spiritually).

2.  The purpose of the ‘Civil Rights’ movement

The Civil Rights movement was not just a political movement but it was a movement based on solid ‘moral’ principles.  Christian principles of right and wrong.   It was a movement birthed out of our Christian Faith, nurtured by the Word of God and our willingness to obey God rather than man!

We were marching, protesting, and fighting for the rights that other Americans were already enjoying.   We were willing to endure indignities, insults for God’s sake, and risked life, and liberty for the same.  Our struggle was not for new rights, not for spite, not for political advantage, not just to vent our feelings and emotions, and certainly not to incite and encourage others to respond with violence against those who treated us in violent and demeaning ways.   There were some who called for that type of response, but that was not our fight.  We were ridiculed and scorned by many of our own because we responded to hate with forgiveness, and hurt, with kindness and patience.  Our Faith taught us that if we would endure these things that our God would vindicate us and He would fight for us.   “We shall overcome some day” was not a song of empty hope and wishing things would be better,  it was a song that encouraged us to keep the faith, and keep on fighting the good fight of Faith until we achieve the victory that God had promised.

3.  The Police who do bad things should be brought to justice

Because of the nature of their responsibilities the police have to operate at a very high standard of behavior.   When they fail to do so,  they should not be given a pass, but should bear the brunt of the judicial system and process to full extent that the law allows.  We have plenty of laws already in place to address this problem and there is no reason not to enforce these laws against  Police personnel who commit crimes against the citizenry.

4.  As a people we are not being honest with our “Black Lives Matter” mantras and marches, pontificating and protesting.

If “Black Lives Matter”  Why do so many of our people refuse to take any responsibility for the killing, maiming of black people that goes on everyday in our communities.  Why is there a ‘no snitching’ code among us that allows the killers, and rapists, drug dealers and other criminals to operate open in our communities with impunity?

A person can be shot down in the street right in front of us, but when we are asked to identify them,  we suddenly get ‘amnesia’ and can’t remember,  or refuse to cooperate with the authorities to are simply trying to do the job we asked them to do.

If “Black Lives Matter” why are we killing millions of our own children in the name of the God called ‘Abortion on Demand’, or “The Woman’s Right to Choose”?  Sister Stacey gave the statistics for the average number killed per day ($4300).  According to her account 43% of that number are Black babies!  In some parts of NY we are aborting more black babies than are being born in the same area.

If “Black Lives Matter” why are so many black families leaving the rearing of their children to the ‘system’.   Why are there so many black men who are unwilling, or unable to be a father to the children that they create?  Why are there so many black women allowing men to use them, leave them, to fend for themselves and their children?   If we don’t care and respect ourselves,  how and why do we demand that others respect us?

The word reminds us in 2 Peter 2:20-22   New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^[a] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Though this scripture is speaking of false leaders and teachers it all reminds me about the condition of us as a people who once knew and followed the truth.  This Truth we learned from God’s word about who we are and why we were created, allowed us to escape the corruption of the world by our knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   But we as a people seem to have forgotten the God who brought us out.  It would have been better off to not have known freedom, than to be in the place now were we freely surrender our freedom for the sake of political and/or ideological correctness.  We need to get back to basics!

As always your comments are welcome and appreciated.