From Sunday’s Old Testament reading we know of the claim that “all nations” will worship “the Lord.” Western history would seem to bear this claim out. The U.S. continues to show a majority of people still worshiping the Bible’s “Lord.” We also know from the Old Testament and Sunday’s second reading, that “whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges.” We therefore know “the Lord” and his “love” are abusive.
We know “the Lord” in the Bible was simply the strongest male slave owner of the time who projected himself into the heavens as Yahweh. The slave owner / “The Lord,” demanded god-like worship and obedience from his slaves and, if unmet, scourging ensued – abusive love. To this day much of humanity is indoctrinated to obey and at least revere if not worship the Bible and its abusive slave owning “Lords” who “scourged” those they “loved.” The Old Testament is the sociology of the slave owner promoted as theology for the slave. We know it has been used by U.S. slave owners / Lords to justify their “scourging” of slaves whom they “loved.” So it is we are still indoctrinated to revere if not worship slave owning abusers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and others. We know something of these abusive “Lords” through what Frederick Douglass knew, “(M)y master attended a…camp-meeting…and there experienced religion.” “I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” We know it is that same Bible sanctioned cruelty abusive “Lords” use to “scourge” every African American’s life for centuries; human trafficking, family separation, slavery, torture, terrorism, lynching, convict leasing, black codes, land theft, Ku Klux Klan policing, Jim Crow segregation and discrimination, white race riots, red lining, vote theft, church bombings, predatory lending, unfunded/defunded schools and businesses and health care, media stereotyping and bias, mass incarceration, and being the most frequent targets of hate crimes. The scourging always makes use of every possible weapon; physical scourging is combined with scourging that is verbal, psychological, economic, and spiritual. Abusive “Lords,” whom many of us continue to worship still do the scourging. Politically it includes Reagan, the Bushes, the Clintons, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump and others. Religiously it includes Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, and others. All “the Lords,” in different degrees, want us to know they are good Christians and this is a good Christian nation. But what we need to know is that all “the Lords,” to different degrees, have built a plantation of white supremacy that continues to scourge African Americans. We know this.
“I am a believer in the power of knowledge.” (Toni Morrison (1931-2019) – Rest In Peace)
Prayer: Spirit, with your power we will love Lords into conversion.
Question: Knowing the pain that shapes the life of every African American what are we doing to end it?
August 25, 2019 Gospel Luke 13:22-30 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time