By Rev. Jevon O. Neely
SO I finished my devotion this morning and now I turn to write two things. First of all I write FOR MY PEOPLE and secondly I write an alternative reasoning to the theological culture surrounding FAITH and NATURAL DISASTER…
For my people in all over singing their slave songs and Negro spirituals from lungs of polluted experience; their laments and ole hymns and their classic blues and tearful songs, praying their prayers nightly to a mysterious God, bending their knees to a hidden creator;
For my people lending their muscle to the years, to the gone years and the now years and the maybe years; washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing, babysitting, feeding, cutting, planting, pushing, pruning, patching, exploited, raped and lynched, all along never gaining, never reaping, and never knowing
For my playmates on the roads, yards and homes of Sans Souci (life without cares), riding bikes, softball, basketball, dashing, karate, bush hunting, debating, sprain ankles, talking, dominoes, chasing girls, trading cards, church going, swimming, and laughing
For my people in the years we went to school to learn the reasons why, the answers to and the people who and the places where and the days when, in memory of the seconds we discovered the thick richness of our “Blackness” in this covert and systemic and racial global community where few cared and even fewer understood
For my people, the boys and girls who grew in spite of these things to be law abiding men and women, to laugh and dance and sing and play, enjoy get married to their playmates, bear children and love life – to effect change
For my people crowding urban Nassau, lost, disinherited, glad, dispossessed, and exuberant people filling the night clubs, lounges and bars – filling other people’s pockets, while still in the need of bread and shoes and milk and land and money, in need of education, in need of something – something to call all our very own
For my people tramping without feet and seeing without eyes, feeling without eyes, spreading joy, losing time being lazy, sleeping while hungry, talking while stupid, dying without “salvation”, shouting when dead, drinking as if life is over, drugged and intoxicated, tied and shackled, and tangled among the unseen global hegemonies that blatantly tower over us and laugh
For my people with shattering groans, struggling in the dark pews of sanctuaries and hard plastic chairs of schools, distressed and deceived and devoured by money-greedy, ego-filling and glory-craving leeches, preyed on by shallow fads of novelty, by false prophet, pedantic professors and holy believer
Yes, for my people in Haiti standing and staring, dusty, grimy and moldy; trying to carve a better way, a way away from stigma, contempt, discrimination and hermeneutics of suspicion; from hypocrisy and misunderstanding, trying to carve your existence not by nefarious means but with innate divinity, in a way that all the restored Adams and Eves and their countless generations can hold and be thankful…
For my PEOPLE we come!!!
LET ME BRIEFLY RESPOND TO THE SECOND POINT. Many religious people try to find a reason for everything, because they think that all things happen for a reason. I must say there is truth to the declaration of “to everything there is a season”. However, inclusive in that is the simple logic that a natural disaster can randomly kill thousands of people. That is a hard concept that many cannot understand or are not willing to understand. Now, where the natural disaster came from is a sensitive and comprehensive and deeply scientific and theological conversation that cannot be limited to the Pat Robertsons of the world.
Rev. Pat Robertson said “Haiti Cursed After Pact to the Devil.” This is not the first time the former Republican presidential candidate of the United States has made such controversial and divisive comments in the aftermath of natural/ national disasters. Remember he has connected Hurricane Katrina and terrorist attacks to legalized abortion.
Two days after 9/11, Mr. Robertson had his friend and fellow televangelist, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell on his show. Mr. Robertson agreed when Falwell said God allowed the attacks because of moral decay – specifically abortionists, feminists, and gays. Robertson later distanced himself from the remarks.
Then recall Mr. Robertson on Nuclear Bombs in 2007. Mr. Robertson said God helped him with another prediction – a bomb attack on the United States. "I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear," he said on the "700 Club" Jan. 2, 2007. "The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that." The following year, Robertson explained the lack of an attack this way, "Somehow the people of God prayed, and God in his mercy spared us." (Note how he used God and the success of prayer to escape a failed divine prediction.)
On the "700 Club" in Jan. 2006, Robertson suggested Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was given a debilitating stroke because he was trying to make peace with the Palestinians and give them land. "He was dividing God’s land and I would say woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course…God says ‘this land belongs to me. You’d better leave it alone.’" He apologized and said he was taken out of context. (Be careful how we make connections between sickness and faith).
At another time he said, "The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians," (Utter misogyny.)
Then in an August, 22, 2005 taping of "700 Club" Robertson said if Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez "thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop… We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." (Why is all this violence and hate wrapped in the Christian message?)
And let us not forget that Pat Robertson, and others in the political and Religious Right totally ignored the long history of racial and economic injustice and its continuing impact on poverty among African Africans and other racial-ethnic groups in North America. This is why they supported government cutbacks in aid for the poor and the disenfranchised while, at the same time, agreeing with the massive military budgets of the Reagan-Bush administrations.
Is this a voice we wish to listen to or is this a theology we wish to follow. Ultimately, the problem of sin and evil confronts us not as a puzzle to be solved, it will always be here. However it is a mystery to be experienced, as it is part of the human journey. Let us approach this tragedy with grace and humility as we support of brothers and sisters in love. At this time my prayer for Haiti and the global community, is that we would have a kind of strength and vision to construct humanity; a sense of the imperative for practical service, community and love; and that in all of this, God emerges from the ashes for them as a faithful presence and a trusted Savior. God alone knows. We do not have to think for God, speculate God’s mind or be so ready with "questinable" God-language. Let us remember the words of Jesus in the finals days of his life, "Love one another as I have loved you, by this they will know that you are my disciples."
Peace and Love, let us make today a better day for someone. God Bless!!!♦bf
Rev. Neely has a Master’s Degree in Divinity and a certificate in Black Church Studies. At present, he serves as an Associate Minister at Bethel Baptist Church in the capacity of Minister of Institutional Ministries (serving at hospitals, prisons, schools, children homes, and senior citizens homes). He is also a lecturer of Theology at Bahamas Baptist Institute and a Marriage Officer of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. His e-mail address is: jevon_neely@hotmail.com.