Many have asked me what I thought of the comment last week by Alabama Republican Governor Robert Bentley stating that “only Christians are his brothers and sisters.” Many took his statement in so many ways but many were offended. This didn’t just stand for the dyed in the wool Christians but obviously those who are non believers also.
Now understand that while some were offended there were a whole lot of people who were not. They said that they understood the spirit in which he spoke. Many Blacks didn’t take offense because in actuality what many didn’t know was that it was a Black church where he made this statement.
he thought that this was a way to get brownie points in the Black community.
Now while I wasn’t present to be able to speak on the reaction of those in attendance, I am going to pretty much guess that there wasn’t a riot afterward because if there were, it would have most definitely made the news even more so than his badly presented comment. In reading a few of the many articles in the blogosphere that originate from that part of the world called Alabama and other neighboring parts of the south, I’ve read in plenty of them that Governor Bentley didn’t really mean it in the way in which it came out, that he was speaking “in-house” to others who would understand.
Now I am intelligent enough to consider that THAT could be a valid scenario and a possible reality, but remember that this man is a politician with years of experience on the public podium so it is highly unlikely to me that he would say something out of character that he didn’t truly feel whether he was in the company of Black people or not.
Politicians are professionals when it comes to twisting words.
Let me preface MY words by saying that my perspective on writing this is not about being a Black thing, no not at all. But I will say that there may be some sprinkling of the arrogance that southern White men have that have given this country and especially the White people (Not all!) Deep South the rich history of being deceitful hypocrites that the entire world has learned them to be.
Here I go starting trouble again…….
But really, let’s dig a little deeper and let me ask an open question to those that might defend the beloved Governor in this issue:
What Jesus does HE worship as a Christian for him to make such an asinine statement when the very tenet of Christianity is about accepting all who want to believe? What Jesus does HE claim when in the United States of America alone, there are literally THOUSANDS of different sects of Christianity all claiming to be the right way to go. That being said, as far as having a church is concerned, in this country, all you need to GET a church is a license and a storefront as well as a few followers. No big deal. But according to the World Christian database there are just over 9,000 different splinter groups of followers but if you go by the official count in the United States there are over 250 different sects of Christianity here on these shores.
So how can this man make such a statement as a public official when the Christian set of beliefs here in this country are so blurred and undefined? I guess maybe you have to be Baptist like him also? Where does he draw the line?
The accepted practice of Christianity here in America as I have gotten older began to scare me when I saw how it could coexist with the murderous conditions of the deep south during slavery and the civil rights movement as well as in present times. I saw many people just like Governor Bentley who would claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ yet turn there head when another Black man or woman had to taste the injustices that are so abundant in this still wicked system. I saw Baptist church’s where the congregation would become so quiet that you could hear a pin drop when a person of color or a so called “non-believer” entered their house of worship merely to sit peaceably to worship the one God who created us ALL. A frightening thought when you understand that it was the slavemaster’s brand of Christianity that made us subservient and easier to control because the image of Jesus was changed into something that look like the man who was cracking that whip on our backs on the plantation every single day of our lives.
Yes, we all know this and many want to sweep it under the rug and forget about it but the mental effects on an entire people are still here and comments like the one made by Governor Bentley to me is a call for subservience on a deeper psychological level. I mean, what if I were a Muslim who was in attendance who happened to be Black? What if Minister Louis Farrakhan said to the world on a public podium that anyone who does not honor Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the last Prophet of God is not a brother of his? OMG! The media would eat it up and all you would hear about is how he is hate mongering just because of who he is!
Traditionally from what I see, especially in the south as of recent, the Blacks here who are afraid of ruffling the feathers of the establishment will bend over backwards to prove that they are not troublemakers and are not a “threat” to the same very system that holds them in check in a very bad way. Isn’t that something? I have personally spoken to people down here in the south when I first moved down that told me that they were raised to not get a White person angry by saying anything that they would disagree with or make them suspicious that you were not like those “northern niggers!” You see, it was us “northern niggers” who moved down here who didn’t give a damn about the predetermined lines, boundaries and silent agreements of where a Black person COULD live and where they COULDN’T live. We went where ever the HELL we wanted and if you stepped to us the wrong way you would learn very quickly that we are a different breed! While you may have your in-house “Negros” in check you weren’t about to put us from the north in that position because we know too much about your history and the history of this country overall to fall into that backward way of thinking!
Am I just an angry Black man with a blind vendetta against “The Man at all costs?” Hell no!
But I am not also going to be scared to speak on these issues because I am afraid to be labeled as that. If you want to call me that, then call me that if it makes you feel better. Truth must be told. And this country has too many other issues to worry about than to worry about a guy who tells it like it is and speaks it from the heart and hip.
I couldn’t believe the amount of Blacks down here in Orlando Florida that I have heard say to me personally that “you can’t go on talking about those controversial things because you don’t want to lose your job!” Or “I’m sorry but I can’t be seen with you because the boss might think that I think the way you do, I am still your friend but we have to keep a distance!” Well, I have lost jobs because of who I am and what I say and I am still eating VERY WELL and living so much better, and those who felt that they had to keep their distance are really NOT the type of cowardly people that I need in my presence in this stage of my life. Freedom fighters, truth tellers and revolutionaries only please.
Damn! This is 2011 people, why are so many of us acting as though we are only two steps away from coming off of the slave plantation?
But I really want to hear an answer to that question. So when Governor Bentley made this statement I guess if you didn’t fall all over yourself to prove to him that you were a Christian then what would be the consequences of not showing him your subservient negro pledge of subservience? You see, we are all in denial in this country by the way we skirt around the major issues and speak to one another. we are an emotionally constipated people on BOTH sides of the coin but even more so in the Black population here in America. We will agree that we have these major issues but when it is time to stand up and speak about it then no one wants to be the first one to talk about it. We hold on to our misconceptions and prejudices like a cherished keepsake yet refuse to put ourselves in a position to melt them away and make real progress as a people instead of handing down these same dysfunctional sets of secret and well hidden beliefs down to our children to further continue this mess of a situation well into the future!
If I were present at the Church where Alabama Governor Robert Bentley made these comments I would have challenged him on the spot! I don’t care if the other mentally beat down Negros present would have fled my presence forever more, I would have told him right then and there that I guess he was NOT my brother but it wouldn’t have surprised me anyway in the State of Alabama and the rich history of two faced Christian love that they have always shown the people who look like me.
Maybe if the good Governor was paid a visit from the real Jesus at his home, he would probably get his shotgun because he would have thought he was being robbed! Or maybe he would merely have called the police because of a “suspicious person” at his front door! To tell the truth if Jesus first physical manifestation was in the State Of Alabama in the early twentieth century then Christians wouldn’t be wearing a cross around their necks as a symbol to show the world that they are followers of their Lord Jesus Christ, but they would be wearing a NOOSE around their necks because if Jesus were to come to save the world from their sins in the deep south, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN LYNCHED! And THAT’S the type of Christian love that I have had to endure all of my life here in Amerikkka so when I hear a comment like that uttered by a man to whom Lord knows WHAT his old ass was doing when Dr. King walked the earth, I know EXACTLY what he meant!
It’s business as usual in Amerikkka people. Either speak out on it or drop down from a heart attack from being afraid to speak your mind.
Heck, I’m trying to live as LONG as I can!
