A few weeks ago, I was walking around my neighborhood just trying to clear my mind. I could not help but see how many signs appear in the yards of Berwick. The signs were not just campaign driven. The signs varied from statements on the value of Black Lives, monitoring the state of the police, and people of faith signifying their God does not affirm inequity and harm to humankind.
The most difficult reality of looking at all of these signs is that our world has been reduced to sound bites, social media characters, and easily verbalized statements. I guess my heart is torn. One thought is that people are in the embryonic stages of rediscovering the soft nature toward humanity. Another thought is that humanity devolved so deeply that we have to even investigate our collective empathy.
We are living in a high stakes game surrounded by bitterness, contempt, anger, and disillusionment. We are inundated with finding ways to live with stable understanding of nuance, intentional approaches to expressing the truth, and discovery of methods of empathy. This season is so challenging.
I am not attempting to write my usual lengthy dissertation about the issues of society. Honestly, I have grown physically and mentally weary of where we are now. I am saddened by the reality that people live in this micro thought age. How can we even beginning to find our way to a new method of living and engagement.
The truth is we must finally admit to ourselves that we need to embrace the unfiltered experience with God. I’m not talking about your limited, imagined, and created understanding of God. I am challenging us to find the God who requires us to worship in spirit and in truth. I’m talking about worship the God that tells us that holiness is right beyond superficial activity. I’m talking about worship the God that has the imago dei who recognize others who are the imago dei.
We can no longer piece mill our understanding of God to fit our comfort. We can no longer attempt to place God in boxes that can not confine the powerful nature and power of the Creator. We must learn how translate our growing relationship with God into active practice that impacts the world.
Signs are easy to post anywhere. The world is looking for transformation that changes our circumstances. Take the hint and be more than a caption on a moment in time.
After watching The Social Dilemma, I have found myself reassessing how I view the thoughts and ideas of others via the medium of social media. I read many different concepts and thought processes on a daily basis. While taking in the information, I realize how much discord is associated with the ideas and thoughts of many.
One of my friends made a simple post regarding the acceptance of white supremacy by leadership. That post turn into a monster full of angst, vitriol, and lack of nuance. The defense of hateful ideology and the rejection of insightful research and information caused me to step back and consider how far humanity has devolved.
While reading the thread, I was reminded of how much indoctrination, isolation, and whitewashed worldview can influence the means by which people address the challenges of our society. It is no wonder that has a black man, a Christian man, and a human being I weep at the sight of this current reality.
I once heard Cornel West speak at Columbus State Community College. He spoke about the mini misnomers surrounding the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. Many people have framed the southern preacher through the lens of non-violence with a hint of soft overtone. Many people have deified Dr. King in order to strip the power of the message by co-opting the movement.
Many people continue to extract pieces of the movement and message in order to manipulate it for the purposes of maintaining a status quo of a nation that is never lived up to its creed nor its potential. People continue to use ideas and concepts in order to embolden and strengthen the position of supremacist thought and ideology. I, for one, cannot continue to watch and listen to inept thinking.
Imagine being a black man who understands that everything about him is not monolithic. Imagine someone who doesn’t have the same experiences, live in the same skin, nor has the same perspective telling you that being black should have white comfort attached to it. Imagine having to listen to someone say love it or leave it in their own tone while recognizing they will never take the time to possibly realize that they might be wrong. Then you understand the daily journey of being black in America.
As I’ve written many times, my job is not to make anyone feel comfortable about their current condition. As a preacher, the gospel is not supposed to give you ease. It is supposed to compel you to action and movement on a daily basis. By doing the will of God, you discover what peace truly feels like.
As a black man in America, my very presence is a protest to white supremacy. My approach to all of life circumstances is an affront to every oppressive ideology that exists. My education declares that I know how to navigate in a society that does not want me, while using my efforts to make certain that all people become free. Therefore, I am not obligated nor willing to capitulate and bow down to make any individual with evil or even misguided intentions comfortable in there sin.
Brothers and sisters, talkin is not getting us anywhere. I no longer can endorse anyone continuing to speak to brick walls. I cannot in good conscience ask anyone to continue to cast their pearls to swine. I cannot look towards anyone attempting to convince the stubborn to change. Much like many of our experiences in life, a hardhead will make a soft behind.
Do not waste your energy on those who just need to get warped. Your energy, intelligence, spirit, and intellect is better suited in the dismantling and developing of a new thing. Do not continue to recall that which is unwilling to be developed for all. Give yourself over to the original nature of human beings. God made us an image and likeness. Therefore, we have innate creativity, authority, and power to rise up and to bring about the world God intended.
Here is my Facebook post from this morning. Yesterday in sports is proof that you can do more than one thing. Let us remember the following: 1. Organize 2. Articulate 3. Control your dollar 4. Focus your dollar 5. Demand and apply ungodly pressure to those who are supposed to represent 6. Build a different system 7. Stop selling out to what doesn’t love you 8. Quit trying to fuse your faith/belief with corrupt systems 9. Have a complete personal theology that forms concrete living and actions 10. Remember unity does not mean monolith. Unity has foundation with diversity of execution. 11. Find your corner and execute well 12. Protect yourself (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically) 13. Above all, don’t quit!
I wrote this from the seat in my TV room while watching First Take on ESPN. I should be just minding my business, enjoying the remaining days of my vacation, and preparing for my return to preaching this Sunday. However, my mind and heart have once again been inundated with the same call to awareness of Black bodies being abused, harmed, and devalued.
Jacob Blake is a man who was attempting to break up a domestic dispute. When the police, he was attempting to return to his car to take his children to their next destination. However, the police attempted to subdue this man as if he were apart of the issue that was taking place. Rusten Sheskey then took the liberty of shooting Jacob Blake in the back 7 times. Jacob Blake is currently paralyzed from the waist down. Jacob Blake now has 3 children who will live with the image of watching their father being shot.
I am not writing to be seen at this moment. I am attempting to communicate once again my contempt and disdain for individuals who desire to maintain a society and structure that has never once been built for Black people. I am writing to place a clear line of demarcation for my hatred and disgust for the construct and democratic lie known as the failing project named the United States of America.
Many people will find ways to approach my line of thinking has possibly un-American, devoid of perspective, or emotional. Many people will find ways to attempt to justify why it appears I am engaging in some form of liberal agenda or some other false ideology. Well may God help us all in this moment.
Exposure of our true condition in this country has caused the benefactors to become extremely defensive. They attempt to espouse an ideology that has been constantly spoken and understood from a revisionist history. My marketing degree reminds me that it is not profitable to tell the truth about one’s true history. The only way a person could profit in the long run is taking accountability along with measurable, identifiable point of systemic change.
The idea of a nation speaking to the nature of being founded on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is truly laughable when the means to this end were executed through stealing the land (Native people were already here), brokering monetary transactions for imported workers (chattel slavery), and implementing imperialism through the vehicle and guise of a democratic government (the electoral college must go).
When the greatness of a nation is rooted in the need to impose dominance, deceit, cruelty, and insufficiency to payoff the American promise, we must ask ourselves are we really engaged in a true level playing ground for all. (Spoiler Alert: The answer is HELL NO!!!) I can’t be convinced on any level that we are set up to receive the totality of the American dream.
Racism in all forms is not my problem to fix. It is not my creation. I am the recipient of its fruit. But why? Why must I be party to the inferiority complex of others? Why must I endure the hatred that people demonstrate toward all Black people? Why must I continue to talk about my experience when you have not acted upon your avowed contempt for the inaction of people toward the sacred nature of the created?
I am a man. I am a black man. I am a black man who follows the religion of Jesus (coined term by preacher/theologian Howard Thurman). I am not obligated to make you comfortable while “attempting” to figure out the problem. I am telling you that white supremacy is the problem. I am telling you that disrespecting black women is the problem. I am telling you that shooting and killing unarmed black people is the problem. I am telling that constant disenfranchisement to maintain your comfortable state of living is the problem.
Don’t give me platform BS. Don’t talk about pro-life when you continue to foster a world that is prepared to kill said children you want to save. Oh I’m sorry. You want to be pro-life as long as it produces children who grow into entertainment to numb your sense of human decency. (Sounds like 2020 slave tactics)
Don’t tell me about loving all people without condition when everything about acceptance is based on embracing an ideology intended on my demise. I do not want to hear about solidarity until you ask God to make you of solid material. Don’t attempt to soft talk me. Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Be different.
Remember the previous list? Here are steps and ideas that can be taken. 1. Organize–We must demonstrate to this current construct that business as usual will no longer do. We must develop a foundational platform that is not only undisputed, but causes comfort to run away from the status quo. 2. Articulate–We must speak and act on all levels. We must occupy all areas of human affairs to reflect what God intended. We must call a thing a thing. Do not give room for any person or entity to run away from the opposition of a prophetic and righteous movement 3. Control your dollar–Control the economics of our community. We must do business (all areas) with excellence and place full value (play your friends what they are worth and not seek hook ups) on our people. 4. Focus your dollar–Don’t give away your hard earned means to those who don’t mean you well. 5. Demand and apply ungodly pressure to those who are supposed to represent–Make people do their jobs (politically, socially, etc) or fire them (Vote, dismantle, build new) 6. Build a different system–Seek methods and practices that seek the complete and true welfare of all people. Do not continue to permit hatred, manipulation, etc to be the tools of a thriving society. 7. Stop selling out to what doesn’t love you–Psalm 23 teaches that God will prepare table before you in the presence of your enemies. You are not to beg for a seat at a table not meant for you. Seek the tables that God will establish for you. Embrace the prosperity that rests within you. (Black Wall Street was not a fluke!) 8. Quit trying to fuse your faith/belief with corrupt systems–Your faith should inform how you live. Your political platform should not be your God. Political affiliation has nothing to do with serving God. Yet, it may give insight into whether you serve the Jesus that flips tables or shows up in propaganda art of the 50’s and 60’s. 9. Have a complete personal theology that forms concrete living and actions–God cares about you making it to Heaven. However, God cares about how you live and interact right here on earth. Your responsibility is to make sure your view of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. That means more than quoting and talking. It requires action even when its inconvenient. 10. Remember unity does not mean monolith. Unity has foundation with diversity of execution.–I do not have to agree with your methods if the goal is the same. (Remember Martin and Malcolm were killed. Method does not absolve you from persecution or trouble.) 11. Find your corner and execute well–Use your talent and skill for the common good. 12. Protect yourself (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically)–Self care is necessary for the long haul. 13. Above all, don’t quit!
I am no longer engaging in discussions that perpetuate the same emphasis on talking. Action is the only language of consequence in this season. Otherwise, we will not reach the promise land. Something must give and I’m tired of giving. Your move….
Dr. Charles W. Ferguson 