Newsday.com is reporting that gospel music legend, Dr. Timothy Wright and members of his family were involved in a tragic auto accident in Pennsylvania late Friday. Wright’s wife, Betty, died in the crash and he and the couple’s teenage grandson were critically injured.

There is no update yet on Pastor Wright’s condition. Please keep he, his grandson, and their family in your prayers. Condolences to the Wright family and the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center family as well concerning the tragic loss of Betty Wright.

Well, according to the United States he was a terrorist, but now he is a highly respected international diplomat. Mandela was on the United State’s Terror Watch List which made sure he had to jump through extra hoops to gain entry into the U.S. I’m sure his name being on that list also authorized the CIA or FBI to take some “other” actions against him as well. [read: wiretapping and other surveillance activities. I'm sure we'll read about it in a book after Mandela has made his final earthly transition.]

While most world leaders applaud Baba Mandela today (some going so far as to suggest that he is nearly a saint), he wasn’t always so celebrated - of course most of us know about his being an anti-apartheid political prisoner for 27 years in Robben Island Prison, but I wonder if most people know that Mandela came to be a proponent of armed self-defense in South Africa. Consider this quote from his Opening Statement in his defense case before the Pretoria Supreme Court in April 1964 entitled, “I Am Prepared To Die.”

At the beginning of June 1961, after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the Government met our peaceful demands with force.

This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). We did so not because we desired such a course, but solely because the Government had left us with no other choice. In the Manifesto of Umkhonto published on 16 December 1961, which is Exhibit AD, we said:

“The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices - submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom”.

They say that the conservatives of today were the radicals of yesterday. While I wouldn’t say that Mandela is a “conservative” it is interesting studying his development. I have serious doubts about whether or not he would support armed self-defense today. Or maybe he would. Who knows.

What I do know is that the revolutionary spirit is alive and well in the world, especially in Nigeria where members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), are engaged in guerilla warfare against Western oil companies (Shell, Chevron, and others) who are extracting the “liquid gold” from their land and leaving the indigenous people to live in extreme poverty. Being that the government of Nigeria is not advocating for the masses of poor in the nation and non-violent rallies and protests are not working, groups like MEND have begun a campaign of sabotage, kidnapping, and murder of Western oil workers in order to aggressively reconstitute the redistribution of resources in their nation.

Now who are the terrorists in Nigeria?

How does this apply to other conflicts in the world? (i.e. Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinians, the Israeli Government, FARC, the Columbian Government, etc.)

How does this apply to historical conflict and its traditional re-telling? (i.e. the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, Pilgrims, Black Muslims, Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the Central Intelligence Agency, Bloods, Crips, Black Guerilla Family, Young Lords, the Weathermen, MOVE, etc.)

The death of a 19-year-old found slumped in his cell a day after he was jailed on charges of running over and killing a police officer has been ruled a homicide, authorities said Monday.

The Maryland Medical Examiner ruled Monday that Ronnie White’s death in Prince George’s County Correctional Center the previous day was from asphyxiation and strangulation.

Maryland State Police and the FBI are investigating the death. The FBI is focusing on possible civil rights violations.

Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson said at a news conference Monday, “If we have vigilante justice, our society will fall apart.”

Officials said seven guards had access to White at the time of his death, as did an unspecified number of supervisors. Authorities are also investigating whether anyone from the outside had access to the inmate.

Johnson said that he believes the death was “unrelated to any act by the Prince George’s County Police Department.”

Curtis Knowles, president of the corrections officers’ union, said he was working that day but not in the unit. Officers involved in monitoring the inmate told Knowles that they came to feed White, tapped on the window and yelled through a slot in the door, but White didn’t reply. They went in and shook White, but he didn’t respond, Knowles said.

Knowles also cautioned that the investigation needs to take its course before any conclusions are reached.

“We’re not going to speculate. We’re going to depend on the FBI and the state police,” Knowles said.

June White-Dillard, head of the Prince George’s branch of the NAACP, said that she was pleased the FBI was investigating the case but disturbed by the nature of the death of the inmate.

“No one should have had access to him that could have caused him harm,” she said.

White was found on the floor of his cell at the Prince George’s County jail at 10:30 a.m. Sunday with no pulse, according to officials. Jail medical staff who treated him reported no visible signs of trauma on his body, and he was declared dead an hour later at a hospital.

White had been held by himself in maximum security since he arrived at the jail around 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

He was charged with first-degree murder in the death Friday of 39-year-old Prince George’s County Cpl. Richard Findley during a traffic stop in Laurel. Findley, who was part of a team investigating car thefts, was killed after he got out of his cruiser and was dragged by a truck, which had been reported stolen. Authorities said White was driving the truck.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey said Monday that his office would review the circumstances of White’s death.

White was one of four people taken into custody by police after the truck was found at a nearby apartment complex shortly after Findley was killed. The three others were questioned and released, according to Officer Henry Tippett, a county police spokesman.

White received medical and psychological assessments that jail officials said did not uncover any problems. He was placed in a maximum security cell because he was considered a “high profile offender.”

Guards checked him every half hour. At 10:15 a.m. he was sitting on the side of his bunk and was alert, according to a timeline provided by jail officials. But fifteen minutes later, he was found unresponsive.

There have been several problems recently at the county jail, including a former police corporal convicted of murdering a man who was found with a handcuffs key. The county’s director of corrections was fired in early June when four handguns went missing from the jail armory.

According to court records, White pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm last year, and in another case, to drug possession. In 2006, he was charged with first-degree assault and armed robbery, but the case was dropped, records show. Last November, he was sentenced to more than six months in prison, but it’s not clear when he was released.

Findley was a 10-year veteran of the county police and was also a volunteer firefighter in the county, according to Vince Canales, president of the police union. A viewing was scheduled for Wednesday, followed by a funeral Thursday in Beltsville. Findley is survived by a wife and two young daughters.

“He was a wonderful person,” said Al Schwartz, chief of the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department where Findley served for 20 years. “He could make you smile in a heartbeat.”

Gambling Away Our Principles
Sunday, May 18, 2008; B08

It is easy to get caught up in the false promise of slots — of easy money and a quick fix to all that ails Maryland. But the simple truth is that Maryland can’t win and that Marylanders will lose if slots are legalized.

Gambling is becoming an increasingly pervasive element of American society, and legalizing slot machines in the state would be one more example of our society’s eagerness to abandon hard work and ingenuity in favor of a Band-Aid for a gaping wound. Encouraging gambling in our communities would be irresponsible and would result in lasting and irreversible harm.

Proponents of slots contend that their legalization would help finance public education. We ask: What lessons are we teaching our children? That they should throw hard-earned money away in the false hope of a big payday? Those who say slots will create revenue for the state don’t acknowledge the catastrophic ramifications of such a decision. For the state to win, the player must lose. As people of faith, we are called on to speak out to protect Maryland from the insidious vice of gambling.

As with many bad habits, playing slots can begin the downward spiral toward addiction. Those who begin to gamble with slots can find themselves craving a bigger rush and a more exciting payoff. And legalizing slots would create a new state-sanctioned industry that would take advantage of those who already struggle with addiction. What might seem like an innocent game would have negative repercussions for our entire community.

We know from experience that slot machines lead to crime and corruption and that they can destroy the fabric of our families and the foundations of our communities. And slots are an equal-opportunity predator; they do not discriminate on the basis of color, community or social and economic status.

There are those who will say that we are being alarmist. But it is our responsibility as people of faith, community leaders and role models, to act in accordance with moral principles and make the well-being of our community our first priority. As Christians, we believe that gambling, at its core, is a means of tapping in to human weakness and exploiting it for personal gain. We are proud Marylanders because we, as a people, value hard work, integrity and dedication. We know that the means of attaining our goals are as important as the ends. We do not want to live in a state that sacrifices long-held moral principles in favor of quick money.

We are better than that.

We call upon all our fellow citizens to vote against the constitutional amendment that would legalize slot machines in Maryland this November. Do not allow our government to condone a habit that capitalizes on the basest of human impulses.

We say, not in our state, and we think that the more Marylanders learn about the unintended consequences of slots, they will say so, too.

– The Rev. Jonathan Weaver (Bowie)

– The Rev. Byron P. Brought (Annapolis)

The writers are members of Marylanders United to Stop Slots.

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

Too tired right now, but my full take on this is forthcoming. Stay tuned.

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.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a reporter for The Dallas Observer Newspaper. He wanted my take on the then recent news regarding the new president of the NAACP. He had read the piece I did about this issue and wanted me to elaborate and provide some quotes for his article.

Unfortunately, he called me on a late Friday afternoon and needed my input before a Monday afternoon deadline. Well, I’m extremely suspicious of mainstream press these days because of recent mischaracterizations so I wouldn’t be rushed into an interview on the spot. Also, I’m quickly learning that weekends are extremely busy for Pastors so long story short we weren’t able to conduct a full interview before his deadline, however, he did pull some quotes from my blog.

His focus was on Dr. Freddy Haynes - one of the frontrunners for the position of President of the NAACP. The piece is entitled, “The Man Who Would be King” with the byline: “Freddy Haynes seemed a shoo-in to lead the NAACP. Then Obama’s Ex-Pastor came to town.”

Here is the reporter’s reference to me and the Faith in Action blog:

Not long after [the election of Benjamin Jealous as President], on blogs across the country, supporters of Haynes expressed their disappointment with the decision. Some wondered if NAACP chairman Julian Bond’s alleged support of Hillary Clinton had been a factor. Others wondered if Haynes was too polarizing a figure for the organization at a time in which it seemed a great possibility the United States would elect its first black president. Heber Brown III, a black liberation preacher in Baltimore, wondered on his blog, Faith in Action, if Haynes’ ties with Wright had been a problem for the board.

“It’s no secret that Haynes is a protégé of Wright and is doing a fantastic job continuing in the Black Liberation Theology tradition,” Brown wrote.

Click here to read the full Dallas Observer article with Faith in Action quote included. (Who knew that eventually this blog would bubble up to “mainstream” press?)

HAPPY OPEN THREAD FRIDAY!