Faith in Action

I was privileged to be a part of this gathering of the NAACP and others who pledge to vote against the November 4th Slots Referendum in Maryland (Question 2). As it has been stated, Barrack Obama will win Maryland handily. It is time for Maryland Voters and particularly African American voters who are charged by what’s going on on the national scene, to re-direct that energy to the anti-slots fight - an issue that no doubt will disproportionately adversely impact our communities. Slots proponents are counting on you to be ignorant on this issue. They are counting on you to just listen to the misleading ads flooding Black radio. They are counting on you to be so excited about voting for Barrack Obama that you won’t even care about the other questions that you’ll have to answer on the ballot as well. (As a side note: one of the things that I plan to do is print out a sample ballot and have a Teach-In at my church making sure to cover the Statewide and Local Ballot Questions.)

Please take a few moments and listen to these passionate speakers address the issue of slots at the NAACP’s Stop Slots Speak Out. If you don’t have time to listen to all 52 minutes and 59 seconds of it, no problem - but please listen to Dr. Tyrone Powers speak on the issue - jump to 11:17 and listen through 21:25…..CLASSIC!

This is one of my favorite weekends in Baltimore! The Baltimore Book Festival is a few steps from paradise for me. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful books…the smell of untouched pages, the magnetic titles that beg you to at least read the Table of Contents, the authors seated in front of eager crowds relishing the opportunity to talk about their creation.

One of the authors in town is Amy Goodman. She’ll be speaking tonight (Friday) at Morgan State discussing her latest book, Standing Up To The Madness. Iyanla Vanzant and Bishop T.D. Jakes will be speaking tonight (Friday) 5:15PM at the Walters Art Museum. Dr. Cornell West, Walter Mosley, and Morgan State’s own - M.K. Asante will be speaking on their latest books as well along with more than 200 other authors.

You don’t want to miss this great literary event. I sure won’t

Click here for more information.

so much was going on in the world! I must admit that sometimes my fingertips itched for a keyboard to broadcast my thoughts and questions, but I resisted. Now, however, I can let loose! Here are a few stories that caught my eye while I was away.

First, thanks for everyone who voted for me in the 2008 Black Weblog Awards. Faith in Action was a finalist in the running for best Faith-based site of the year, but we came up short. A blog called Gospel Fab won the People’s Award and The Infidel Guy Show won the Judges Award. (I must have gotten it wrong about this “Faith-based” Category. Gospel Fab is a gospel concert promotion site and The Infidel Guy Show is run by a self-described atheist. Not knocking the winning sites for what they do, but I thought that the category was supposed to recognize those who talked about…oh…I don’t know - their Faith maybe?) Again, thanks for everyone who voted for FIA and a special thanks to Chip for nominating this site. Click here for the full list of winners.

Now what in the world is going on in Detroit!?

This whole situation is a crying shame. The “Hip Hop Mayor” is going to jail. I remember reading a very inspiring article about Kilpatrick in Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s Trumpet Magazine a few years ago. It’s sad to see the Brotha fall like this. Who knew sitting mayors could get thrown in the slammer. Something in me wonders if this is an ominous foreshadowing of events for Baltimore.

Did anybody catch the Republican National Convention? I must admit, I loved it! Not for the talking heads who spewed venom into a highly amplified microphone broadcast across the world, but I loved the RNC and the DNC for that matter for the everyday citizens who interrupted the regularly scheduled puppet show to decry what is happening in this country. Live TV is great for so many reasons and The Uprising would not be hid from the focus of the government’s media glare. I saw “9-11 Truthers” disrupting “political” conversations, protestors giving riot police fits, and journalists like Amy Goodman getting arrested while trying to report what was going on outside the propaganda convention halls. Even the “ground noise and static” that was John McCain’s speech fell victim to the courageous expression of Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against The War. Check out this vid of Iraq War Vet, Adam Kokesh, at the RNC Convention.

By the way, you’ll remember my admonition not to sleep on the Green Party, but keep your eyes open as well for the “Ron Paul Movement“.

Paul has attracted a very dedicated following which gathered in Minnesota to hold its own convention called the Campaign for Liberty after the Republican National Convention wouldn’t allow him to speak. Ron Paul’s convention brought together some 10,000 people! The “Ron Paul Movement” does a fantastic job of breaking through the mainstream blackout on their candidate. Ron Paul gets more coverage on mainstream media than any other grassroots or third party candidate and that’s largely due to the demands of his followers. They flood the mailboxes and clog the phone lines of mainstream press until Paul is invited as a guest. This political machine is very organized and strategic. In addition, I must admit that after watching Paul’s convention on the greatest show on television - CSPAN - I may have been baptized a bit into the Ron Paul pool. If there was ever a modern republican that I agreed with on some major policy issues, then Ron Paul is that republican. In a move to strike against the establishment, Paul will have a major press conference today encouraging his followers and all others disenchanted with the two-party political system in this country to vote for a third party candidate. Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Bob Barr are among the candidates invited to the press conference. I’ll post the vid as soon as I have it.

Kucinich delivers a powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention. Not his best, in my estimation, but a great presentation nonetheless.

But what I’m really intrigued by is the revolutionary energy outside of the Democratic National Convention. Beyond the whitewashed theatrical production taking place on center stage every night, is a mass of people who are fed up with this oligarchical society and the fourth branch of its government - the media. Check out these clips of protests happening outside the building. (Note: there is some harsh language in some of the clips. If you don’t want to hear it - don’t click “play”)

FOX NEWS REPORTER GETS JACKED UP!

DEAD PREZ PUTS TRUTH TO MUSIC AT DNC!

POLICE SLAM CODEPINK PROTESTER!

IF THIS IS GOING ON OUTSIDE OF THE DNC, CAN YOU IMAGINE THE CARNAGE THAT WILL UNFOLD OUTSIDE OF THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION!?!

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.

Ok, so Mark Scandrette, author of Soul Graffiti, has a little Will Ferrell slash Vince Vaughn thing going on, but I dig his message. (no surprise there) He’s challenging us to think of Jesus differently - not as the head of an organized religion called Christianity, but as a homeless prophet who turned the world upside down (or right side up depending on who you ask) with a message and a movement known in its earliest form as The Way. My challenge now revolves around how to rediscover The Way and provide a safe haven for it inside the infrastructure of the local church. Is it even possible?

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!”

Revolutionary Freedom Fighter, George Jackson, said:

“The ruling clique approaches its task with a “what to think” program; the vanguard elements have the much more difficult of promoting “how to think.”

And that conceptual statement guides me as I lead the Bible Study at the church where I am blessed to serve as Pastor - Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Northeast Baltimore.

Bible Study has never been something that I’ve been overwhelming excited about namely because in my many experiences it has been either an opportunity for the Pastor to “preach” a lesson or it has looked like a facilitator standing in front of the audience telling them what they should think with very little meaningful interaction. I always said that if I ever became a Pastor that I would have a Bible Study that folks would want to come to.

So far we’re well on our way to creating that type of study experience. Pleasant Hope Baptist Church is on track to have the most dangerous Bible Study in Baltimore simply because I push the people to THINK. I don’t answer a whole lot of questions. I help folks to re-read the scriptures with “fresh eyes” and question what they read. I dissuade them from taking anything they read in the Bible at face value. EVERYTHING is open to questioning, criticism, challenge.

We read the scripture in its context understanding that it was written at a certain time, in a certain location, by a certain person (or persons) within a certain culture, for a certain reason.

The amazing thing is that as we engage in textual criticism and exegete the text in a way that honors the scripture’s original meaning (or likely meaning), my students then begin to draw parallels between the context and/or meaning of the passage we’re studying and their everyday realities.

Two weeks ago as we were studying the persecution of Jesus a discussion was born about the persecution of so many others who stood up against the status quo power structure and were viewed as a threat capable of organizing the masses thus necessitating their assassination or exile. It was such an invigorating discussion. It eventually led to us analyzing the Roman Empire and the Religious Order of Jesus’ time and looking at Baltimore’s Government and Shadow Government today. (We love dealing with “problem texts” by the way - like when Jesus called the syrophoenician woman a dog.)

In addition, we’ve started our studies off with warm up activities designed to get people’s juices flowing. We started with analyzing a Baltimore Sun article one night, we played a Jill Scott song the following week, and we read a Paul Lawrence Dunbar poem the following week. Who knows I might drop some Kanye West on them next time. They don’t know what to expect from week to week. I keep people on their toes and prayerfully am helping them to realize that critical study of the Holy Writ is just as much an act of worship as singing songs on Sunday morning.

We even have the teens coming out to Bible Study faithfully…and bringing their friends!

As we continue in our time of weekly critical study, it is obvious to me that this group will be a very dangerous sect of Believers. They won’t be walking around talking about “Bless me indeed” and “enlarge my territory” while hiding behind sofas when the Jehovah Witnesses knock on their doors.

They’ll be walking around with a heightened awareness of how the revolutionary message of God’s love toward humanity was understood over the centuries and how it applies to their lives and responsibilities to community today.

This Bible Study is a Bad Mutha - Shut yo’ mouth! What? I’m only talking about the MOST DANGEROUS BIBLE STUDY IN BALTIMORE!

Be there!

Every Tuesday 7:00PM
Pleasant Hope Baptist Church
430 E. Belvedere Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 435-0851

This will probably go down as one of the top news stories of 2008 that you’ve never heard about. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) presented articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush on June 9, 2008. (It’s amazing that as Kucinich is presenting the articles of Impeachment in this C-SPAN video, his colleagues are not just ignoring him, they’re carrying on in conversation as if he’s not even speaking!)

Mainstream media gave very little attention to it - if any at all - because as the Fourth Branch of the United States Government their job is to control what you think and what you are exposed to. The Democrats and the Republicans are not interested in initiating impeachment proceedings against Bush though for different reasons.

The Republicans, naturally, wouldn’t want a sitting Republican President to undergo the scrutiny that comes along with the process - doing damage to the party and its future prospects of political leadership.

The Democrats, strangely enough, don’t want to support impeachment of George Bush because with his historically low approval rating, participation in war crimes, inattention to domestic programs, and general malfeasance in office, he has become a political pinata that the Dems can hold up and rally the masses toward the polls with. They wish to use him as a springboard for their return to power and are less interested in being faithful to their constitutional duty. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has even said as far back as two years ago that impeachment was off the table.

Which reminded me of a conversation that Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance clergy had with a popular Maryland Congressman last summer. When one of the clergy mentioned the prospect of impeachment against Bush, the Congressman laughed in our faces. Therefore, they are culpable in this mess as well.

I caught up with Troy Johnson from 105.7FM (Baltimore) this past Saturday at the African American Men’s Health Conference and he let me know that Congressman Kucinich may be joining him on his radio show on Monday, June 23, 2008 10AM - 12NOON on 105.7FM to discuss his plans to impeach Bush. I will be tuning in and I hope you will as well.