Posted on 12/21/2013 8:07:37 PM PST by grundle
Thanks for the props, Red. You're right that I usually have a thought or two on topics like this, but I'm long past the point where such news items cause me to become impassioned. In all honesty, it takes a bit to stir me up on such stuff.
I like your analogy of the vicious circle. That's very close to what I've observed occurring with the pathology in the black community, but it's more like a dwindling spiral to me. There's a certain degree of force that, once it reaches out to touch someone, then pulls the person into an orbit that drives their entire life into a deepening - worsening series of loss.
That swirling, irresistible vortex is, of course, the big lie of nanny state Socialism, which blacks have fallen prey to in increasing numbers for over half a century. And they were very easy prey from the very beginning.
Fast forwarding to the present day, we find a sub-culture that is, for all intents and purposes, a ward of the state. The state of disability and failure among blacks today is almost too severe to get your wits around. It's so vast, that I hardly know where to begin when talking about it. I actually have far to much to say about it, to fully make the points I want, on a discussion forum. Perhaps I'll take the time to write a book about my observations and experiences one day.
That's if I ever get stirred up enough to do so :-)
It’s easy to get discouraged when there doesn’t seem to be anything plausible that could help.
I am unabashedly spiritual about it, however. Get these folks interested in God somehow, and that personally — not just as some kind of nominal social religion. THAT will break the impasse. And it is a color blind solution.
Evangelists can help, but ultimately the people have to want it. Not even God is going to forbid people to go to hell who are adamant about going down there. Some people, and I believe from what you have told me you are one, have an implicit private grasp of God, enough to keep them relatively sane in this mortal coil. But the more usual model is explicit evangelization.
Nope, not even a little bit, and quite frankly, I’m not particularly concerned about it either.
Blacks are, on average and historically, very religious people. For generations, the church was the conscience of that community, and was its undisputed seat of social leadership. To a large degree, that's still true, but today we see black church leaders of the ilk of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton steering that community.
These people are unabashed hyper liberals, who all subscribe to the bankrupt social grievance mechanisms which enrich that leadership, but impoverishes their congregations - in both body and spirit.
When I was a kid, black preachers used the wisdom of the Bible to promote concepts of self-reliance, self-improvement, honesty, industriousness, and moral living. The lessons they taught from the pulpit were very much in alignment with our nation's founding principles, and helped that community to better themselves and to steadily improve their lot in life.
The spread of leftist ideals has all but killed that in the black community today. Now we see 'churches' like Jeremiah Wright's, where concepts like black liberation theology are taught. It's a horrible, despicable trap, and millions of black folks are being poisoned by it.
I don't have an easy solution to offer for this dismal state of affairs. I can only hope that black people wake from the insanity and spiritual illness that pervades that community, one person at a time.
Certainly “God damn America” churches are not the Christianity of yesteryear. It looks like even “black churches” are getting spiritually hijacked.
Serious missionaries don’t let buggered churches stop them, however.
And on the note of missionaries.
Wouldn’t it be quite an irony if black native missionaries FROM AFRICA came and managed to carry a divine message to American black communities?
That’s what it might take. For centuries, Africa was considered a prime target for missions. Now maybe it’s time for it to return the favor.
There's always hope. We may yet see a new breed of young black preachers bring back the timeless lessons that once helped lift black people from misery.
Well, treating God as real, always is consequential.
It happens in white churches too; the gospel all too easily morphs into a bunch of human centered feelgood philosophy. And then God can use the resulting mess to alert them to the need to get serious again, and sometimes that works.
You know, that's actually a strong possibility. Blacks who've emigrated from Africa, and who've built new lives in America, are some of the more successful blacks in this country. They don't carry the same poison within them that has crippled American born blacks.
I've worked for several such folks, and they're as squared away as any successful mainstream Americans are. I'm pretty sure that American blacks who come into their orbit, wind up with a few severe cultural adjustments.
Could work!
And people sometimes talk about a Protestant work ethic but really it’s a Christian one.
To follow in God’s footsteps means being willing to carry out work. Making widgets tends to beat out making trouble for good consequences.
Black women are at least 27 times more likely to (i) be using intravenous drugs, or (ii) have sex with a man who is using intravenous drugs or having unprotected sex with prostitutes. So, the math works. What’s the problem?
You’ve noticed something interesting that I’ve noticed too. I’ve met postbellum African immigrants and they usually do not sport sucky ‘tudes. If anything they are a bit cocky and yet are not frivolous (it is not empty cockiness). Very interesting people.
Seems the idea of being able to work a grudge against Whitey doesn’t fly. And being a Christian, to me it is obvious why it doesn’t. God flatly said to forgive. Not forgiving means not getting forgiven either, and you can’t get yourself out of holes. I call it the spiritual blowback principle and it’s the way moral lessons are self teaching.
That is interesting. Thanks.
IBTZ
The ones I've met have been very interesting people. They've got different conditioning and responses than American blacks. The ones I've known have been very upwardly mobile people who seemed to be taking full advantage of the freedoms in this country that many American blacks seem oblivious to.
For instance, the last African guy I worked for (maybe a couple years back), lived with his wife and one small child in a huge home in a very upscale neighborhood. This couple had great material wealth, with a cultural orientation to match. In speaking with them, it was apparent that they were highly educated, and focused on their personal path in life. The guy owned some sort of business that was obviously doing gangbusters. He was taking business calls the whole time I was working there.
There wasn't an ounce of shuck and jive in that guy. He was friendly, but all business. That's the sort of dynamic individual who can make a real difference in the black community today. That's if they want to. I haven't seen that they feel any special attachment to the black American community.
It would take a heartfelt Christian faith to get the connection going. If these people could see that they would be the most likely missionaries, they’d likely want to undertake it. I could well believe there would not be a secular sense of brotherhood. It would be like trying to get oil and water to mix.
Oh stifle it.
I'm a black American who's descended from African slaves. Maybe I'm a dead, soulless, and demented loser too.
Sheeesh....
Sounds like a kooky theory to me. Most of the slaves, I have heard, came from intertribal warfare, though the bribes of the traders probably accelerated the pace of hostilities between tribes that might have otherwise grudgingly tolerated one another. If anyone proved it I would like to see that, but off the cuff B.S. like that is zotworthy.
Now one thing I could believe, and again I do so as a frank Christian supernaturalist, would be evil angels (demons) that followed the hapless slaves. But those evil angels wouldn’t necessarily be stuck to one sub-race once they got over here. They might well be involved with larger black society. All under God’s strict control, however (God is hoping the people thus afflicted will get a clue and beat these demons).
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