CHAPTER 33 A Fear For Others (A brief and simple sermon)
In the genealogical research of my own family, I have turned up the fact that one of my ancestors William Henry Wortham, was kidnapped by a Spanish soldier and sold as a slave in America. He was a slave in this country, an indentured servant, until he reached the age of 21. This, years before the first black slaves were sold here from a Dutch ship.
Many of my relatives have enjoyed a semi-aristocracy, but most of us have worked and sweated just as hard as many of our black counterparts. It takes real effort to give birth to nation that may literally some day, save what really is a beautiful world. So with that as background information; I speak here then to our brothers, both black and white. Forgive my preachiness. The sermon will be brief. This may not be GOOD advice so there will be no collection takebn up at the end.
The hand of the Slave Masters have been pried open. It has been a measure of many lives and much bloodshed to accomplish your freedom. It has been a matter of brothers killing brothers to decide your equality. This too, at the cost of many birthrights. We have clasped hands in friendship and being misunderstood perhaps, the hand of friendship has been wrestled to the
ground.
We - You, have stopped seeking what is fair and forthright and our desire for wealth has caused the black man too - to WORSHIP Mammon. We are being devoured again consequently, by the beast of bigotry and greed. It's just above the bedcovers, it just ate your brother. You heard every bite.
In the struggles for equal civil rights, some have mistaken the moment of political agreement as a moment of weakness and capitulation. It is the most difficult task in the loosening of the chains of the children of slavery, to not try to place those same chains upon the hands of the children of the masters.
In the inevitable and deserved success of the black civil rights movement, it is a most profound mistake to assume that the sweet taste of revenge is not deadly
poisonous. It is. Consider then; it is a far more disastrous error to want to make the white man pay for the mistakes of his ancestors, than to acknowledge that he too, has been born into a strange world. Some demand that we sons of Slave Masters should pay for the sins of our forefathers. They seek unkowingly, to sell their souls in exchange for such reparations.
Mammon.
If that kind of money were available and it were part of the deal, would you en masse' return to your ancestral homeland of Africa? You should demand a better price for your American birthright. The temptation is to assume that the fight for equal Civil Rights should not have a conclusion, ending or at least a pause. The temptation is to set aside equality and strike while the sword is in hand; that might is right, that success means overthrow. The assumption is, that an open hand and bent knee means weakness. That the civil rights of others are not just as sacred as your own, that it is not important to stay the swing of the pendulumn and sword and to stop and learn something of forgiveness and temperance.... the lesson forgotten by the Masters.
The lesson is being taught all over the world as black man murders black man in the African nations, and in the streets of America's cities. God is trying to tell us something.
Mammon.
We cannot help but hear. We will be made to understand. Free men are the true Kings of this world. Those who are our friends, we draw closer to us to share our food, our wine, the things we love.
Those with whom we do not share our lives, we share money. Money is a
cold but sometimes necessary, replacement for a handshake or embrace.
Money really, is designed to keep us apart from the kind of lives we
might really prefer.
The most difficult task then, has just begun. It is not in winning freedom, but in recognizing it and cherishing it. It is in all of our birthrights. It is in our destiny as a nation.
The key to slavery (and freedom) is the desire for money and wealth at the expense of others.
Mammon.
This may also be the strongest argument for Socialism.
End of sermon.
I won't even pass the plate.
Many of my relatives have enjoyed a semi-aristocracy, but most of us have worked and sweated just as hard as many of our black counterparts. It takes real effort to give birth to nation that may literally some day, save what really is a beautiful world. So with that as background information; I speak here then to our brothers, both black and white. Forgive my preachiness. The sermon will be brief. This may not be GOOD advice so there will be no collection takebn up at the end.
The hand of the Slave Masters have been pried open. It has been a measure of many lives and much bloodshed to accomplish your freedom. It has been a matter of brothers killing brothers to decide your equality. This too, at the cost of many birthrights. We have clasped hands in friendship and being misunderstood perhaps, the hand of friendship has been wrestled to the
ground.
We - You, have stopped seeking what is fair and forthright and our desire for wealth has caused the black man too - to WORSHIP Mammon. We are being devoured again consequently, by the beast of bigotry and greed. It's just above the bedcovers, it just ate your brother. You heard every bite.
In the struggles for equal civil rights, some have mistaken the moment of political agreement as a moment of weakness and capitulation. It is the most difficult task in the loosening of the chains of the children of slavery, to not try to place those same chains upon the hands of the children of the masters.
In the inevitable and deserved success of the black civil rights movement, it is a most profound mistake to assume that the sweet taste of revenge is not deadly
poisonous. It is. Consider then; it is a far more disastrous error to want to make the white man pay for the mistakes of his ancestors, than to acknowledge that he too, has been born into a strange world. Some demand that we sons of Slave Masters should pay for the sins of our forefathers. They seek unkowingly, to sell their souls in exchange for such reparations.
Mammon.
If that kind of money were available and it were part of the deal, would you en masse' return to your ancestral homeland of Africa? You should demand a better price for your American birthright. The temptation is to assume that the fight for equal Civil Rights should not have a conclusion, ending or at least a pause. The temptation is to set aside equality and strike while the sword is in hand; that might is right, that success means overthrow. The assumption is, that an open hand and bent knee means weakness. That the civil rights of others are not just as sacred as your own, that it is not important to stay the swing of the pendulumn and sword and to stop and learn something of forgiveness and temperance.... the lesson forgotten by the Masters.
The lesson is being taught all over the world as black man murders black man in the African nations, and in the streets of America's cities. God is trying to tell us something.
Mammon.
We cannot help but hear. We will be made to understand. Free men are the true Kings of this world. Those who are our friends, we draw closer to us to share our food, our wine, the things we love.
Those with whom we do not share our lives, we share money. Money is a
cold but sometimes necessary, replacement for a handshake or embrace.
Money really, is designed to keep us apart from the kind of lives we
might really prefer.
The most difficult task then, has just begun. It is not in winning freedom, but in recognizing it and cherishing it. It is in all of our birthrights. It is in our destiny as a nation.
The key to slavery (and freedom) is the desire for money and wealth at the expense of others.
Mammon.
This may also be the strongest argument for Socialism.
End of sermon.
I won't even pass the plate.
posted by freespeak@gmail.com at 10:03 AM
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