Be Alert To Others That Have Been Hurt

2 Corinthians 1:4 --who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be
able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith
we ourselves are comforted of God.

Well, the grandest Inauguration I have ever heard of is behind us. We survived. I’d like to bring up something different for those that didn’t weep, salute or beamed with pride over our new President. You saw the lovefest going on and didn’t get it. No problem. Here’s what happened. They were celebrating HOPE. When you perceive that your life has been in darkness a long time or that your country has been then this Inauguration represented change. Hope is powerful. It is usually followed by love and faith. Regardless of how you feel about President Obama personally, politically or racially you need to understand the human condition of those millions that love/like him. They are as American as you. This is an admonition to those that communicate.

We who blog, Tweet*, and podcast may want to be more careful with our words. If you consider yourself a teacher, trainer, activist or a thought leader, one wrong tweet for example can damage your credibility and future effectiveness. If you offend your audience, they will tune you out. If your mission for example is to promote the rights of gun owners, you do a disservice to the cause if you make comments that show the red side of your neck. When God made me a pastor, comforting others became a part of my spiritual DNA. I know I am right on this one. I don’t want you to miss this. If the shoe fits…

I know of one case in particular where a pro-gun young woman was extremely offended and insulted because she like most African American women I know, absolutely love, President Obama. Comments sent to her and that she read from her online “friends” in the gun movement hurt her to the point where she unplugged from several podcast and stopped her own. The damage done is greater than it seems on the outside. Diversity is a strength few understand. There can be no United States without first being a US. I read some pretty negative Twitter comments during the Inauguration that I know influence people. There is a season for everything. Know when to shut up. Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won significant struggles with nonviolence. By shaming their oppressors they expended less energy and resources to win for us all. Don’t give the opposition proof that you are not nice. You do know that stuff you post on the ‘net stays forever right? If you want to save our right to keep and bear arms, respect the rights of others. You have the right to say(tweet, post, podcast) whatever you want but I don’t have to respect you for it.


*A tweet is a 140 character mini-blog posted on the website Twitter.

Friday Night Right

I finally did something right. I took the time to take my wife out to hear live music at the Bare Bones Grill & Brewery restaurant in Ellicott City, MD. The food was good, the wait long, the service, so-so. Spending time away from our house and the world made it priceless.

The band was great. The drummer Chuck Ferrell, has been a long time friend and a percussion virtuoso. He teaches in Maryland and plays for several bands in different genres. This group named Blue Funk was led by Damon Foreman, a brilliant guitarist and teacher also played the best covers of Santana that I have ever heard infused the night with music ranging from Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Parliament, Santana, and his own creations. The group was silly and very entertaining to watch. I have never seen four people look like they were having so much fun entertaining other people.

The wife was happy, that I was happy and that makes for a good home. We laughed at the fearless but rhythm challenged groups that danced inches away from the band on a small dance space in front of the bar where a good time was had by all.

Violence

How can we stop the violence in our society? What can we do to repair our communities without given up the essential liberties that made this a great nation? And before you parrot others, I submit to you that guns are erroneously blamed for violence. I say that boldly because violence occurs without the presence of a firearm. Having a gun in your vicinity does not embody you with demonic murderous spirits. In communities with Central and South American, Southeast Asian and some African ethnicities, violence and crimes of passion are often done with edged weapons instead of firearms. What are you willing to do to protect your family from violence? What are you working in to make that a reality? Can we stop violence?

If you wear a fur coat, you run the risk of having a rabid PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals) advocate throw paint on you (a dumb move). If you keep a dog chained up and isolated in your backyard for an extended period you can be fined and jailed for animal cruelty. Both of these will evoke the ire of thousands of animal lovers. But if a person left a child alone in almost the same situation for an extended time in pursuit of their unfulfilled dreams, job fulfillment, travel or something else, few eyebrows are raised. I don’t think that the same compassion for human life doesn’t exist any more. When that child becomes like an unsocialized dog, a sociopath, and or a menace to society we are quick to blame everything under the sun for the problem except the lack of parenting. If it really takes a village to raise a child, we are in trouble. Most children don’t have a village, or at the least, a stable home.

We have time saving devices on just about everything we use today from wrist watches to appliances. What are we doing with all the time we are supposed to have saved? We aren’t spending it with others. Like the automated teller machines, we prefer machines to humans in more and more things. So much so, that the lack of interpersonal skills is a growing concern to employers but no one is talking about it at home. Even in this day in age, humans still need contact with others. Criminal predators and gangs have been using this need as an opportunity to exploit and recruit our children, the lonely and the confused. Pornography and deviant sexual behavior are also promulgated through this necessity for acceptance, and personal contact.

Children and the elderly have become the targets of everything wicked. Why because their innocence offends the very nature of the world today. What are you going to do about it?

Crime

By the time you finish reading my thoughts, here, a violent crime has occurred somewhere or reporting about it is being sold to the media. Unless it happened to you, before the internet you didn’t read or hear about it as often, and we weren’t able to tally up the events as fast. Humanity has changed. We used to read about all of the evils that men do from the Department of Justice Uniform Crime Report once a year (if it was prepared) for statistics. Now all you have to do is set your browser to pull up all the mayhem daily. As a people we have a morbid fascination with crime. Look at what we watch on television.

As a result, there is money to be made in carrying stories that scare us. Our society is violence loving. Our children dulled by it, accepting of it and apathetic. Our morals overall are dying. We care more for our pets than our children. We care more about our appearances and food than we do our overall good. Common sense is not as common as it used to be. We believe most of what is printed or endorsed by celebrities no matter how dumb it is. We want instant results, faster food and less wait time on everything. We love to adopt a hopeless solution if it sounds good. This is evident in the prevalence of “Gun Violence” articles.

People kill with vehicles, garden tools, kitchen utensils and everything possible but it doesn’t evoke the same response as the word “gun”. We don’t appreciate life as much as we should. Nor do we think much of ourselves and how ignorant we sound when we parrot incorrect statistics, sound bytes or get enraged by the skillful manipulation of video or words. We have become weaker, easy to extort, and even easier to control.

Analytically, the term “gun violence” really means guns are perpetrating violence on other guns. You have to admit the term sounds good though. It is a successfully used emotional hot button for anyone who is or has been a victim. It also sounds good to anyone trying to persuade you into buying something. But we don’t want to deal with reality. We have a problem with respect of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have a problem with equality and justice. We have a problem with education and communication.

Some version of a gun has been around since the Chinese invented gunpowder. Can you see how far we have come? Crime happens now because we have changed. Few of us have noticed. I can get elected, increase my ratings; make money on your response to fear and loss all in the name of gun violence. The emperor has no clothes. Who do you want to blame for that?

Touched by a Fire

Over the holidays, tragedy struck a family four blocks from the church and reminds me on how fragile life is and how connected we really are, if we choose to be. As I watched the news and mourned with the family I wished I had some soothing words, a bundle of money and a way to help. My wife echoed my thoughts a few days later when we talked about it.

“Isn’t that near the church?” she asked. "Yep, it's about four blocks away."

We prayed. On Sunday, one of the associate ministers asked the church to pray for them before I brought it up because he knew them personally. They are going through some rough times right now and will have multiple funerals at a larger church down the street.

Please pray for the Smith-Wilson family.

My church (historicbereanbaptistchurch.org) is in a once rough part of Northeast Washington, DC, known as Brookland and Brentwood. In a small building that has been an auto dealer, and a bank for some time, we have converted it to a place of worship. The bank vault and reinforced glass were the biggest obstacles to remove but the greatest obstacle that needs to go is the stigma of churches today. For me, that means we need to serve this community and not just reside in it.

The foundational hub of our congregation is octogenarian African American gentry. It is my desire to blend this group into a community church represented and supporting “Brookland and Brentwood and Beyond.” These are the type of moments we need to serve. Please pray for the church as well as we seek to do God’s will.


A complete story of the incident is here.