OLD JIM CROW GOTTA GO! – A Stand Against Racism

As many of you know, I stand positionally against racism in any way, shape or form. I honestly believe that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, and I stand for the oppressed, and against the oppressor, whenever called upon to do so.

Over the years, I have begun to learn the stories of the host peoples of America, the treachery, the atrocities, the broken treaties, and I have publically made the statement: In American history, the black man has suffered incredible injustice under slavery, segregation, and under racist policies today, yet to the credit of this great nation, we have had a civil war to end slavery, and a cival rights movement to begin the process of true integration into mainstream society. Obviously, there is much to be done, to provide true freedom, liberty and justice for all in our black communities. Yet, in the case of the red man in America, historically, anytime, anywhere a strong native leader rose up to speak for his people, he has been shot.

I am beginning to develop relationship here in Tulsa with the Afro-American resource section of the public library, and through them, have been introduced to the wonderful work of the John Hope Franklin Center for reconciliation.

As I have participated in several events over the past years, I was invited to read a tremendous book entitled “The Warmth of Other Suns’ by Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize winner.

It is the story, of many, many black American’s that migrated six million strong, from the oppression of segregation in the South, to the more relative freedom from racisim, to the north.

I was reading this account of the possible history of the Jim Crow laws, and the following Bible verse came to my attention.

Galatians 6:7

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Galatians 6:8

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

From Ms. Wilkerson’s book I quote:

“In the darkest hours of this era, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass saw his health fade just as everything he spent his life fighting for was falling apart.  He said, in his last great public lecture, delivered in Baltimore in January 1894, a year before his death, “I hope and trust all will come out right in the end but the immediate future looks dark and troubled.  I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me.”

It was during that time, around the turn of the twentieth century, that southern state legislatures began devising with inventiveness and precision laws that would regulate every aspect of black people’s lives, solidify the southern caste system, and prohibit even the most casual and incidental contact between the races.

They would come to be called Jim Crow laws.  It is unknown precisely who Jim Crow was or if someone by that name actually existed.  There are several stories as to the term’s origins.  It came into public use in the 1830s after Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New York-born itinerant white actor, popularized a song-and-dance routine called “the Jim Crow” in minstrel shows across the country.  He wore blackface and ragged clothes and performed a jouncy, palsied imitation of a handicapped black stable hand he had likely seen in his travels singing a song about “Jumping Jim Crow.”  Jim Crow was said to be the name of either the stable hand or his owner living in Kentucky or Ohio.  Rice became a national sensation impersonating a crippled black man, but died penniless in 1860 of a paralytic condition that limited his speech and movement by the end of his life. “

Seems this verse was proven true in the life of Thomas Dartmouth Rice. He acted as a palsied black man, promoting segregation and Jim Crow laws, and died in a paralytic condition, not unlike the role he acted out as ‘Jim Crow’, to promote segregation across America.

Racism in any form, is evil. People are people, and no matter their station in life, are to be loved, honored, respected as people created in the image of God. Let us stand against racism, wherever it is found, in the name, authority, love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is another article I wrote about racism some time ago, that you might enjoy: https://chrisaomministries.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/using-racial-privilege-to-promote-the-kingdom-of-god/

Let’s Pray:

‘Father God, we come before you, in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, you told us, that we could speak to mountains, in Your power and authority, and they would move. Truly, Racism, is a mountain in the United States of America. So, we command this mountain, MOVE, that Your love, honor, respect, and true freedom might prevail across this land. Amen’

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Give in faith!

1 Corinthians 9:11 If we have sown [the seed of] spiritual good among you, [is it too] much if we reap from your material benefits?

1 Corinthians 9:14 [On the same principle] the Lord directed that those who publish the good news (the Gospel) should live (get their maintenance) by the Gospel.

Paul goes on to say, that he did not use his position as a minister of the gospel to take up offerings, rather he worked, making tents, to support himself. You might notice here, that Paul was not married, nor did he have children. Family responsibilities take time, and just as you bust a move on your job to provide for your family, I work every bit as hard, doing this, faithful to the Lord in prayer and the ministry of His Word, to you.

I will never charge for this: it my responsibility to God, my calling. Freely I have been given, now, I freely give…

As you give, hear Holy Spirit what to give, and honestly expect God to reward you for your giving.

Matt 10: 41 He who receives and welcomes and accepts a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives to one of these little ones [in rank or influence] even a cup of cold water because he is My disciple, surely I declare to you, he shall not lose his reward.

I am a five-fold ministry gift and office – this is my life – I pray, I hear, I write, and wonderful things happen. You have your job description, I have mine – this is mine….

I have ‘see through’ faith for you, in this: Gal 3: 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

I believe I have a responsibility before God to be like Jesus, in every offering I receive. I receive it with thanksgiving, just like Jesus did the little boys lunch.

Then, because I walk and live by faith according to the blessing of Abraham, I believe that God will take your seed sown, and multiply it, according to what the blessing of Abraham promises:

Genesis 22:17 In blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies

It has been a joy to me, to see the hand of the living God act in the lives of those of you who have supported us this year!

Many have seen tremendous blessing come into your households, and for this we give thanks, and give Jesus all the glory!

Wisdom of the Elders

The Wisdom of the Elders

Some years ago, up in Canada, I was driving to work, and happened to tune the radio into CBC to catch the morning news. Instead, I heard a wonderful interview with an Ojibwa elder, an older women who was being interviewed, about some of the high suicide, alcohol, and abuse rates that were being reported on the ‘Grassy Narrow’s’ reservation. Seems that a social worker had reported that eight infants, had been literally dropped in the snow, in sub-zero temperatures, on ‘check-day’ on the reservation, while their mothers and fathers, were getting drunk and high at some party.

The interviewer was trying, with some degree of compassion, to understand the dynamics that would cause such behavior, and had quoted some serious statistics regarding alcohol, drug abuse, domestic violence, and suicide and substance abuse related deaths on the reservation.

The interviewer asked: ‘With so much money, and resource available to help your people, why is this so?’

The reply of this wise woman, has stayed with me all these years, and as a minister, I have used her story, several times over the years. She replied:

“Let me tell you a story. There were four Canadians who had travelled all the way to the Pacific ocean, to walk the beach. There was a black man, a Chinese man, a white man, and a native American Indian. It was the time of Spring solstice, when the moon is full, and tides are great, and this particular afternoon, the tides were especially low, exposing miles and miles of tide pools, as far as the eye could see along this great beach. They decided to take advantage of this, and each grabbed a bucket, and headed out on the beach to attempt to catch crabs for an evening meal. Several hours later, they came together again, and the white, black and Chinese Canadians had empty buckets, while the Indian had a full pail! The white guy immediately exclaimed: ‘I don’t believe it! How did you catch so many crabs? Seems every time I caught one, and then turned around, it quickly climbed up the side of the bucket, and escaped to freedom, hiding under a rock before I could re-catch it!’ The black and Chinese men nodded with understanding, having had a similar experience, when the Indian exclaimed: ‘Well, I only catch Indian crabs.”

“Indian crabs? What on earth is an Indian crab? They all look the same to me!”

“Well,” the Indian continued, “All I do, is catch two crabs at once, and put them in the bucket together. When the first one tries to climb out to freedom, the other one grabs his back legs, and pulls him back into the pail!”

This elder then went on to say, that this was the plight of her people. Yes, there was great poverty, substance abuse, and heartbreak on the reservation, but when a young person decided to try to escape, and to get a job off the reservation, or go away to school, that when they came home, they were usually called ‘a disgrace to the race, a red apple, red on the outside, but white on the inside,’ That unless that person was exceptionally strong, they were rarely if ever able to escape the peer pressure and ostracization of family and friends, and usually fell back into the cycle of partying and substance abuse.

I have used this illustration over the years, as I taught an alcohol drug rehabilitation course.

In the Bible, we learn that close relationships have the power to either promote, drag us back into our horrible habits. That it is important to make a clean break with people, places and things, that would bring us down, and until we are strong and healed enough, certain people needed to leave our lives, whether friends or family, in order that we get free of our addictive and destructive lifestyles.

Yet, over the past year, I have been studying intensely, the history of the North American First Nations peoples, and it is a story that needs to be told. Horrible atrocities have occurred in terms of broken treaties, genocides, forced removals from tribal lands on to reservations, and children placed in boarding or residential schools, where dehumanizing things occurred.

As I listened to Ivan Doxstator speak, an Iroquois counselor to First Nations people’s, he made a statement, that is a far deeper answer to that question that many white people ask, with respect to suffering Indians living in dire circumstances upon reservations. “Why don’t the leave the reservations?” Ivan replied: ‘Because they feel that the government will take their land.”

This is no nebulous fear, if you understand the history of broken treaties, in the occupation of traditional Indian lands by treachery or the power of the cavalry across North America, and one that needs to be addressed adequately by both the church, and the US and Canadian governments, if we are to see justice, healing, and true reconciliation come to the Indian reservations of North America.

Let’s pray:
‘Father, forgive us for destroying our lives away from You. Where we need to leave unhealthy relationships, places, or spaces that are destroying us, give us strength, courage, wisdom, direction, and provision to get to where we need to be. Deliver us from our fears, and grant to us healing, true justice, grace, and protection. We choose to forgive those who have lied to us, stolen from us, and tried to steal our destiny, language, culture, lands, and identity in You. If there be any real danger, of predatory businesses, or corrupt governments still attempting to steal from me, my family, or my people, STOP them, in the name and authority of Jesus I pray, Amen.’