Faith in Action

I remember it as if it was yesterday. It was about 4 years ago. I was pulling up to the church on a Sunday morning and one of the members approached my car as I was getting out. She said, “Here Rev. Brown, take one of these. It’s only $2. I’ll get the money from you later.”

What she shoved in my hand was one of those yellow, magnetic ribbons that donned the message, “Support Our Troops!”

I remember not knowing what to say for fear that I might offend her, but deep within me I knew that I wanted nothing to do with that yellow, magnetic ribbon. At that time, there was this blind patriotism drenching popular culture supported by right-leaning religious groups who declared that God gave the “Divine OK” to utterly destroy human beings in Iraq with shock and awe in Jesus name.

As a Believer in Jesus and a Follower of The Way, I disagree with war and believe that it is inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. How could one follow a man who was called The Prince of Peace and encouraged loving one’s enemies and at the same time champion war and the killing of other human beings?

Soon after that parking lot experience, I began preaching sermons as I had opportunity against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I also started preaching against the military activity between Israel and Hezbollah. (and particularly Israel’s murdering of innocent civilians and unjust occupation of Palestine.)

Sometimes with reckless abandon, prophetic zeal, and perhaps doses of self-righteousness I tried as best I could to send a clear message that Followers of Jesus could not waver on the issue of war. The teachings of Jesus just don’t support it.

Now, however, I’ve had a few more experiences in life. Now, I’m a pastor who possesses a greater level of concern for the well being of the sheep. I’m not some itinerant minister who can run to a foreign pulpit, unsheathe my blade, cut up the sheep, leave the sanctuary bloody, and walk out satisfied because I told it like it T. I. is. Now, to a much greater degree, I’m concerned about preaching the truth in such a way that will bring about spiritual growth…that will help build people up -not just tear them down and leave them crippled. And even if I cut them I attempt to extrapolate the cancerous growth with a surgeon’s precision leaving the healthy cells in their proper place.

Now, I can say that I’ve sat down with some of my family members who are in the Armed Forces and had conversations with them about how they are wrestling with being the one who makes sure the screws on the missile launcher are tight. Now I can say that I’ve seen the residue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in family members who still have nightmares about bombing schools in Iraq. Now I can say I’ve met men who were in Vietnam and who still can’t speak about what they saw or participated in while there. Now I can say that I have friends who work for some of the largest weapons manufacturers in the U.S. and who engineer some of the most deadly weapons that the general public has not been made aware of yet.

And now, as of a couple of weeks ago, I can say that two young people who are dear to me have informed me that they have chosen to join the Armed Forces and submit themselves to a process where they will be forced to surrender their ability to think independently, silence their conscience, and dehumanize other human beings so that pulling the trigger will be easier. They’ve agreed to become a part of the world’s war machine - a highly profitable system utilized by the principalities of this world to control the general population of the global community. They’re not the only young people in my circle who have made this decision. I know many young people who have opted to take this path…despite the scriptures, despite Dr. King, despite their religious beliefs, despite Jesus. It baffles me why young people join the military.

And yet - How do I minister to them? How do I support them while maintaining my ardent disagreement with their decision? I try to think of them as if they were my own children. What would I say to my daughter if she wanted to enlist? What would I say to my son? Surely, I wouldn’t picket against them. I wouldn’t kick them out of my house. I wouldn’t disown them. I wouldn’t barrage them with deep philosophical arguments that prove that “I’m right.” But my deep, unyielding, and longstanding love for them would compel me to say something.

I don’t know if these are the right answers, but I think I’d say something like:

“Son, God did not create you to kill other human beings.” …or

“Daughter, there are better ways to expand your horizons and see the world than by signing your life away to the government.”…or

“Son, I sense that you feel your options in life are limited and that you have to enlist in order to pay for college, but I guarantee you that there are other ways to fund your education.”…or

“Daughter, I urge you to read the stories of other young people who walked this path before you and consider what you’re really getting yourself into.”…or

“Son, before you enlist do your homework on what you’re getting yourself into and don’t just count on the word of the recruiter. Like a used car salesman, it’s their job to embellish and fabricate benefits in order to get you to sign.”…or

“Daughter, I know you’ve already enlisted, but there is still time…you can still change your mind”…or

“Son, it is remarkable that you have expressed your willingness to die for your country’s causes, but have you considered enlisting in a different type of army where you can still face injury and possibly death for PEACE instead of for war?”…or

“Daughter, I want you to know that there is a Federal Law that would prohibit me from discouraging you to join the Army, but I am willing to face being arrested if it will help you to think again about this decision.”

What would you say, Faith in Action family if you were in my shoes? Have any of your children, family, or friends joined the military? For those who are in the military and are Believers in Jesus, how have you reconciled what Christ says versus what your Commander says? For any clergy out there how do you minister to your parishioners who are either in the military or have loved ones overseas? For any activists out there, what strategies have you found to be effective in the effort to get military recruiters out of our schools and off of our college campuses?

Help. Our children are marching off to war.

July 28, 2008

Laura Washington
Chicago Sun-Times
350 N Orleans St
Chicago, IL 60654

Dear Mrs. Washington:

I am writing you this letter in response to your July 28, 2008 column. In it you describe our mother, the honorable Dorothy Wright Tillman, as having a “dismal” record as Alderman of the 3rd ward.

Webster defines dismal as: 1. obsolete , disastrous, dreadful 2: showing or causing gloom or depression3: lacking merit : particularly bad, devoid of cheer or comfort. indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess

I stand to disagree wholeheartedly with your imaginative interpretation of her hard work and her history of accomplishment in our beloved community.

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You’ve heard by now the news concerning the death of Bernie Mac. The Chicago native died over the weekend from complications of pneumonia. Mac was 50 years old.

Many are also mourning the death of soul crooner, Isaac Hayes. Best known for his Shaft theme song, Hayes died Sunday at his Memphis home. Hayes was 65.

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A Baraka success story
Teenager talks about his life-changing experience at the school in Kenya
By Makeda Crane | Sun reporter
August 3, 2008

UniSun recently caught up with 18-year-old Devon Brown, one of 20 boys from the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Baltimore who was chosen to attend the Baraka School in Kenya, a two-year experimental boarding school that was supposed to separate the students from their city lives in hopes that they would focus on their education while in Africa.

Brown is one of the success stories from the program. Last spring, he graduated from the Academy for College and Career Exploration. Later this month, he will attend the Maryland Institute College of Art on a full scholarship from the Abell Foundation, which also sponsored the Boys of Baraka project. He plans to major in film production.

Brown was the kid preacher featured in the 2005 documentary The Boys of Baraka. Although the school closed after one year due to political unrest in Kenya, it altered his life, he said.

Unlike many of his peers, Brown had the support of his grandmother, who encouraged him in his passion for preaching in the pulpit of Zion Baptist Church, which he began doing at an early age.

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For the record, I think that CNN’s “Black in America” special was abysmal. If you missed it, believe me - you’ve seen it before. If you watched Dateline NBC’s special on Black Women in Nov. ‘07, Tavis Smiley’s State of Black America, Real Talk with Al Sharpton, or Upfront with Jesse Jackson - you’ve seen the CNN Special before. More of the usual suspects (for the most part) sitting around talking about how bad Black folk got it with a sprinkling of how some Black folks pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made something of themselves in spite of their blackness. Not surprisingly, there was no talk of institutional racism and how that plays a part in the current situation. Of course the acrobat of adjectives, the ringmaster of run-on sentences, the prime minister of pronouns himself - Michael Eric Dyson represented us “Black folk” real good to massa ‘nem. And keeping in line with a growing trend in mainstream media’s depiction of Black Women, the CNN special made sure to talk about how more and more Black Women are choosing White Men as mates - in fact, mainstream media is so obsessed with separating Black Women from Black Men that they covered African American Women and Families on one night and covered Black Men alone on another night! (:sigh: I can’t do it again. I already dropped my thunder on this issue when NBC did it.) Sorry, Mr. Media Men - no matter what you do, there are still many Black Women who deeply love and cherish Black Men. Likewise, there are many many many Black Men like myself who not only see royalty in Black Women, but who see love personified in them. A grade for CNN’s WACK attempt at telling OURSTORY? D-

Here is a link to Dr. Maulana Karenga’s commentary on CNN’s docu-drama entitled “Peddling Pathology in the Media: Selling Dream, Drama, and Dread.” Thanks Bro. Jahi!

Now let me find out that the Sultan of Surveillance himself, Martin O’Malley, is outraged by the recent findings released by the ACLU that peace activists in Baltimore were monitored over the course of 14 months and 288 hours for planning lawful, nonviolent, protests against war and the death penalty. Those in Baltimore know that Overseer O’Malley led the way in hanging Blue Light Cameras like Christmas lights all over the city keeping Big Brother’s Eye on Bmore’s Black and poor citizens. Illegal arrests skyrocketed under O’Malley’s iron grip and in the run up to the gubernatorial election he had sections of the city barricaded to restrict movement seemingly to decrease the likelihood of an embarrassing criminal event that his political opponent Robert Ehrlich could take advantage of during the campaign. O’Malley cares about First Amendment rights?! Oh stop it - I CAN’T BREATHE - BWAH HAHAHAHAHA (BTW - if you are a part of an organization that has planned a march, rally, protest in Maryland, the ACLU is offering to help you find out if you were spied on. Click here for more info.)

In other news, Maryland’s Speaker of the House, Mike Busch, is in a bit of a tizzy right now being that his wife was arrested on DUI charges shortly after midnight for driving through two flashing red lights in Annapolis. Busch brushes it aside as a personal family matter. No worries, Busch - mainstream media has your back. Your wife was arrested on Wednesday, but the Baltimore Sun chose not to shine its light on the issue until Friday at 3:32 PM - you know…a time when most folks aren’t even thinking about politics, world affairs, or drunk drivers who happen to be married to the third most politically powerful man in the state!

Closing on a…good note? The House of Representatives passed a resolution (boy, they love those non-binding resolutions don’t they?) Tuesday apologizing for Slavery. Great. Maryland expressed profound regret (along with many other states) and the U.S. House apologizes - fine. Now make the apology mean something. Bring on REPARATIONS! A nationwide, institutional effort to level the playing field between Africans and all other nation groups represented in these so-called United States of America. For more about reparations check out Dr. Ray Winbush’s blog and book.

Hat Tip: Bridges for Kids
by Phillip Jackson, Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel, February 23, 2005

The problem of Black male failure in education and the corresponding issue of high unemployment for Black youth are huge and complex, but they are still solvable. This may not be the case in 10 to 15 years.

Anyone who only wants to talk about the massive failure of Black males in the American education system is now officially part of the problem. Empty words become an unnecessary diversion from one of the worst educational and economic catastrophes to ever confront America. Either we will get into action to solve this problem, or we will watch multiple generations of young Black males become expendable in our society, and literally perish from our communities and our nation.

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Big ups to Nas for his role in helping to challenge Fox News on the racist and wrong-headed propaganda that they continually present to the American public as “fair and balanced news.” Recently, Nas joined Color of Change in delivering more than 600,000 petitions to Fox News decrying the depiction of the Obama’s fist jab as some sort of terrorist symbol and calling Michelle Obama, Barack’s “baby mamma.” (Shout out to Nas as well for his latest album self-entitled, NAS, where he devotes a song to Fox “News” entitled “Sly Fox“.)

In the video above, Nas calls Fox News a propaganda machine - not a news network. A statement that many have believed to be true for a long time, but now we can know for sure that it’s true. Why? Because on Hardball with Chris Matthews last Friday, former Press Secretary of the White House, Scott McCllelan, admitted that the White House sends Fox News talking points for their nightly commentators and political pundits - you know Bill O’Reilly and the crew. I couldn’t believe what I was watching! (So much for the First Amendment’s attempt to create a separate checks and balances organism with a Free Press.) I know that most of you understand the gravity of this collusive alliance between media and government. You do understand that you must question everything that comes through the one eyed devil box don’t you? I believe Fox “News” is only the tip of the iceberg.

Finally, some proof that mainstream media works as the 4th Branch of the American Government controlling what the masses think…and as Dr. Carter G. Woodson so eloquently put it in his seminal work, The Mis-Education of the Negro - if you can control what a person thinks you don’t have to tell them to go here or there, you don’t have to tell them to go to the backdoor - they will automatically go and if there is no backdoor they will cut one out for their own benefit.

Now I’m just waiting for some disgruntled former employee of Black Entertainment Television to let it be known once and for all that “Black Evil Television” purposely broadcasts movies like “Baby Boy” and “Soul Plane” on a regular basis to instill, protect, and maintain a “ghetto mentality” in the minds of African people. Even the youth are catching on to the madness of that very evil network.

“Power to the People!”

“Power to the People!”

The crowd swayed and chanted in a thunderous roar pumping clinched fists in the air as if they were literally striking out at the oligarchical american government and its fascist functionaries that provide safe haven for racism, economic exploitation, discrimination, and ultimately an oppressive existence.

No, this crowd of dedicated change agents weren’t members of the Black Panthers. They weren’t members of the American Indian Movement. They weren’t Weathermen.

They were members of the Green Party - some would say they are the descendants of all of those forenamed revolutionary groups. The Green Party is founded on 10 key values:

The Green Party Convention was Saturday, July 12, 2008 in Chicago. I just happened to flip it on TV (Thank God for CSPAN) as I was on my way out the door. An hour and a half later, I hadn’t left the house yet, but I had watched the entire convention. It was really inspiring. I got a sense that I was watching the beginning of a movement. It had all the right ingredients: small, dedicated crowd of supporters, little notice from “mainstream”, progressive agenda that most people could identify with in some way.

And at the center of it all were two awe-inspiring women: Cynthia McKinney - the Green Party nominee for President of the United States, and Rosa Clemente, Afro-Buricua, Community Organizer and Hip Hop Activist for Vice President. (You’ve gotta read Clemente’s powerful piece, “Russell Simmons, you are not Hip Hop!“)

Barack Obama may have the momentum that inspires Black people, but Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente have the message that will uplift us. Obama as President will provide an infinite amount of symbolism to the Black community, McKinney as President will render infinite amounts of substantive policy shifts that will create a new type of country which will help usher in a new kind of world.

As I’ve shared many many times before on this blog, mainstream media works in cooperation with the government to control what you think so chances are most of you have never heard of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and if you have it’s because of how Big Brother sensationalized an incident at Capital Hill involving her hair. An incident that was blown up about a year after she grilled then Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, over 11 trillion dollars that went missing at the Pentagon, DynCorp’s slave trade, and the 9/11 wargames. (Note: There are always consequences for challenging Empire. She was soon out of office.)

Since “they” are working to keep you blind to it, I urge you to work to open your eyes to this Party and these two fascinating women. Talk to your children about the Green Party. As the two mainstream political parties are now controlled by corporate interest; it is incumbent upon the people to search out alternative political choices - or as Clemente said - the Green Party isn’t the alternative, it’s the imperative.

This does raise an issue though that I’d love your feedback on particularly as it relates to Black voters. What should Black voters do? Vote for symbol and help a Black man become the first African American President of the United States? OR Vote for substance and support a political party whose nominees most likely don’t stand a chance of winning (in the traditional sense) in this presidential election cycle? (Glen Ford, Executive Director of the Black Agenda Report chose the latter of those two options saying that McKinney deserves the Black Vote, Obama does not.)

Whatever happens - don’t sleep on the Green Party. They are not going quietly into the night. I sense that this is only the beginning.

So I’m sitting in a meeting with ministers from across the city discussing social issues when I get a text message from one of my seminary brothers.

“Hey man, is Jesse Jackson still a pastor?” Perplexed, I responded, “I’m not sure why?”

He responds, “Of course the media doesn’t give the full context, but what they do show is him saying he wants to cut Obama’s [genitalia] off.”

Wow. It’s difficult to imagine the context that would justify a statement like that. It’s disappointing to say the least, and perhaps it is a bit symbolic of the generational friction that sometimes occurs when the Elders who have been in the seat of The Celebrated for decades, finally meet a young person who has the wherewithal to take the baton from them and continue running the race. Of course, that means that the Elder must prepare for a different, less acknowledged role - sometimes that is very difficult.

Or perhaps something about Sen. Obama’s message at Black Churches has struck a personal chord with Rev. Jackson. “Talking down to Black people,” as Rev. Jackson put it may really be, “Barack is talking down to me.” Rev. Jackson’s challenges in his personal life are no secret and maybe Sen. Obama’s message of personal accountability and responsibility for our families has hit a sore spot.

Some may even say that Jackson’s remarks, as coarse as they are, may in some way reflect the frustrations of some Black people who perceive that Senator Obama strategically and with great effort has worked to assure White & Jewish voters of his allegiance while not doing the same for the African American voting bloc. (Many though chalk this alleged strategy up as a part of “playing the game.”)

Who knows what happened in Jackson’s notorious whisper into a hot mic. What we do know is that Rev. Jackson said it, apologized, and Sen. Obama accepted his apology. What we also know is that this will be fodder for mainstream media and particularly a right-news propaganda network like Fox who will play this over and over again for their own devilish purposes.

Mainstream media will fill the minds of the nation with this in an attempt to distract the American people away from the signing of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) into law - a move that one Maryland lawmaker called “the death of the 4th Amendment” (that sound you hear is ATT and Verizon execs cheering at the top of their lungs - can you hear them now?) and you’ll be distracted away from the sheer disregard that Karl Rove displayed by defying a congressional subpoena and refusing to testify before Congress about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department.

The real “news” will get a backseat while Jackson’s salacious soundbyte about Barack Obama’s privates will be front center. A most unfortunate reality in this increasingly oligarchic society.

I am encouraged to see the revolutionary spirit alive and well in these young people from Cali who are Young Black Panthers dedicated to projecting the true image of The Panthers. They call themselves “The Riders” and they are all former Bloods and Crips who have evolved in their thinking to a higher, revolutionary consciousness. Their spokeswoman is extremely impressive. My favorite soundbyte from her was: “You can’t be a revolutionary if you don’t read!”