In preparing to navigate what may surely be the sometimes invigorating, sometimes dark and murky waters of 2013, let us prepare for war and peace, joy and challenge, love and forgiveness.
The year 2013 will mark several significant landmark anniversaries including 150 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, 100 years since the formation of the Federal Reserve System, 50 years since the MLK I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH, and 40 years of legal abortion in America with the passage of Roe versus Wade. This will surely be a year of transition and there is a need for a deep spiritual awakening.
As we were nearing the end of the complex yet remarkable year of 2012, two anticipated movies emerged. While on the surface these two films appear to be polar opposites they actually have a lot in common. Both films address the atrocities and pending demise of slavery in America. The star studded LINCOLN film by cinematic genius Steven Spielberg garnered high ratings and surely pierced the coldest hearts frozen by the aegis of racism.
The second film, DJANGO by master of gratuitous violence Quentin Tarantino was shockingly offensive in its array of profanity, nudity and blood shedding violence, with popular Black actors Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and groupie favorite Leonardo DeCaprio is one I generally would never grace the box office with money for a ticket, but surprisingly I’m glad my son offered to take me to see it.
I found LINCOLN to be remarkably refreshing even in the midst of the stoicism and what could have been just another boring historical anal in the tombs of media wannabes. Yet, it wasn’t. There was humor and there was insight, and I learned to love Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln who has often been misunderstood by historians. This movie came just at the right time in history when a bridge between the disenfranchised of America in the horrible flesh peddling that landed in America in the 17th Century and what inhumanity continues to exist in the 21st Century.
How can this be you might ask? Well, one of the earlier American records of selling humans in exchange for goods and services is noted to have occurred in 1619 when John Rolfe noted in a letter to the Virginia Company Treasurer Edwin Sandys that trade of 20 African slaves would be available for food and supplies. These types of exchange occurred and lasted until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
This effort was led by William Wilberforce, William Penn and other European abolitionists. They won the battle to end the sanctioned slave trade over the waters. This Act was followed by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, abolishing most legal slavery in the British Empire.
However, these actions in Europe didn’t end slavery in America, because slave owners came up with the brilliant idea, possibly aided by Willie Lynch, to inbreed slaves on American shores since the off shore flesh peddling was curtailed. Thank goodness that the American Abolitionist Movement, inspired by brothers’ and sisters’ success in Europe, was alive and well in America.
Thank God for the American Anti-Slavery Society which started in 1833. The white abolitionists and Black Freedom Fighters were the forerunners of what is known as the Pro-Life Movement of today. People like Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Arthur Tappen, Lewis Tappen, Fredrick Douglass, John Brown, Wendell Phillips, Lydia Maria Child, Henry Ward Beecher, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Garrett Smith, Elizabeth Stanton, and they had a daughter named Elizabeth Smith, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Calvin Stow understood the sanctity of human existence and that all people were created equal.
Then too, President Lincoln had the courage to fight the battle and gave his life for the cause. The portrayal of Lincoln’s struggles and victories was duly portrayed in LINCOLN. I am grateful.
Now, DJANGO was more vulgar, in your face and disgustingly violent. But remember, so was slavery! For years I have been struggling with how to explain how much the slave masters lusted after the bodies of the Black and beautiful slave women; how the slave masters’ wives and female relatives hated the Black slave women for their beauty and sex appeal; how the Black slave women got beat and brutalized coming and going by the lustful slave masters and their women; and how the Black slave men were castigated and castrated for trying to be men rather than animals and for trying to have families with wives and children. Wow! DJANGO definitely portrayed the violent and inhumane treatment of Black slaves in America.
Now I know that women can hate their husbands’ mistresses, and hate their husbands for having mistresses. We even see that in the Bible with Sarah and Hagar and Abraham. And the same thing happens in every society where there are social class issues and people are taken advantage of by their masters for various inhumane purposes and that type of thing.
But the atrocities of slavery in America just go beyond the pale. All too often there is absolutely no value of human life where sex and money are involved, and that has been the case from the beginning of time, spreading into America’s history; manifesting in the slave trade market and more recently in the abortion market. The things that were done to these unfortunate human beings called slaves is terrible.
One can’t help but consider if disregard for the value of women and children is still at the root of abortion today. Consider this, many if not all of the women abolitionists should have been the forerunners of the Pro-Life Movement. Instead, we have a counterfeit “Women’s Rights Movement” which supports abortion and harmful contraceptive drugs today. Why in the world, how in the world could this be?
Remember, both women and men were allowed to be involved with the Anti-Slavery act. But, women could only go so far because they couldn’t vote, and many could not own property. Non-African Women and all slaves were actually considered to be chattel or property back then. So, it was hard for white and black women to be involved as abolitionists because white women were treated in very similar manner to African Americans, and most Black women were slaves. Unfortunately, the same thing was happening to the Native American Population. They were all considered to be chattels.
So the frustrated slave women often aborted their babies (Pure Breed and Mulatto) voluntarily as an act against sustaining future oppression. The Angry Caucasian Wives often coerced or forced abortion on their husband’s “Black Beauties” as a means of retaliation against their own brand of experienced oppression.
If you think about it, the same issues are at the heart of the Middle East Conflict. Sarah’s and Hagar’s sons are brothers with Abraham’s seed, yet their bitter battle still rages. My, what a bitter root of judgment in all these situations!
While many women who were abolitionists ended up becoming women rights activists, bitterness caused them to adopt a contraceptives agenda and finally an abortion agenda to exercise what they considered to be rights over their wombs. So now we have a war on babies and the wombs often led by women and men controlled by a desire for revenge and avarice.
The movie DJANGO clearly shows the atrocities that Black women had to suffer during slavery. The pain and indignities to the men is clear as well. The film opens two years before the beginning of the Civil War and goes on from there. I’m not recommending that anyone see the film, just telling you that I got an eye opening experience in my seat at the theater.
What connects these two films and makes me want to issue a challenge to Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Tarantino and any other brilliant producers and directors who want to deliver startling and or compelling messages? WHY DON’T YOU MAKE MOVIES THAT SHOW THAT BABAIES ARE TREATED LIKE SLAVES? WHY NOT SHOW WHY RIPPING LITTLE BABIES APART IN THE WOMBS OF THEIR MOTHERS IS BAD????????? HUH?
My friends, it is the beginning of 2013. We are closer to being “free at last,” but we are not yet in the Promised Land. Let 2013 mark a season of enlightenment where change can ignite in every heart. Let this be a time when the reality of the beauty of natural life, natural marriage and natural family will no longer be considered a hopeless dream, but a reality of a promise of Divine Love and Grace.
Even as we consider all of the current arguments regarding human sexuality, we have to consider that all of the cards are not even on the table. In Matthew 19:12, even Jesus explained that some people are born without the natural desire for sex with a woman; some people are castrated so they can’t fulfill sexual desires with a woman; and some choose not to have sex with a woman so that they can serve God better.
In other words, we read in Matthew 19:12 that: “some men are celibate because they were born that way. Others are celibate because they were castrated. Still others have decided to be celibate because of the kingdom of heaven. If anyone can do what you’ve suggested, then he should do it.” (GOD’s Word Translation) Of course being celibate because you don’t desire natural sexuality is different from fornicating. Fornicating, adultery and unnatural
The literal meaning of the word Eunuch in the original languages of the Bible mean: “a man who does not have natural sexual desires or use for a woman.” So, actually some people are born without natural sexual desires at all. And some maybe desire to have sex with someone of their own gender. This doesn’t mean that they have to have unnatural sexual activity though. People won’t die if they don’t have sex at all. That is where being open to Jesus comes in. We all need more enlightenment.
Also, the word Niger isn’t a dirty word. In Acts 13:1 Simeon the Niger was a respected man. The additional “g” to the word Niger made the word “Nigger” and Black slaves from Africa were taught to denigrate that word/name. People become too upset by the word Nigger.
I tell people they can call me Nigger, just remove one g and add Queen in front of Nigger and call me Queen Niger as the word appears in the Bible because a Niger is a royal person. Niger by the way also means “Black” and I add Beautiful to that. In ignorance slavers attempted to denigrate what God made good. Let’s set the record straight.
Friends, we’re dealing with a “three headed monster” – Racism, Reproductive Genocide and Sexual Immorality – all three sustained by a tainted beastly heart.
One of my favorite MLK sermons is REDISCOVERING LOST VALUES. If you study the message, enlightenment will surely come. We all just need to REPENT and learn how to live together as righteous brothers and sisters or perish as fools.
So, let’s pray that everyone can be enlightened in 2013. Let’s pray that we shine the truth in love. My mother once told me that “you can’t clean the house by sweeping the dirt under the rug.”
Well, people are all out of the closet now. Everything is out in the open. Many are wanting to do “his thing,” or “her thing.” Why don’t we just bring everything out in the open in 2013 and take it all to Jesus for a good never lose its power BLOOD WASHING? HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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