The Grand Rapids Times
March 21, 2008
Commentary By Ron Walters
NNPA Columnist
What I’m wondering right now is why none of the other candidates for president have been held to account for the sermons of their pastors. It’s not like the other instances where John McCain’s surrogate pastor was speaking for the campaign when he went off the deep end pronouncing Barack Obama’s full name repeatedly, or Geraldine Ferraro, Chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign finance committee, who said that Obama would not be where he is were he not black. No, I could not find any instance where Trinity United Church of Christ or the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was connected to the campaign. So, the media, especially Fox TV, where Hannity and Combs began this witch hunt last year, by calling Trinity a “Cult” has found Obama guilty by association. Why? This is a less than transparent attempt do what race sensitive whites always do to a high-flying Black figure in a White majority country who is about to gain some real national authority, they put him in a Black box. We saw this in the 1984 and especially the 1988 presidential campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson when, regardless of the fact that his campaign was more integrated than any other, and that he reached out to more diverse groups than any other, they considered him the “Black” candidate. Some of this could be justified because of Rev. Jackson’s long history as a civil rights leader. Barack Obama, however, is another case. The massive vilification of Trinity and Rev. Wright and the gross misunderstanding of the Black church have me wondering why “the Black church” does not throw the considerable arms of love support and power behind them. It is patently clear, for example, that no other church with the stature of Trinity would be so maligned without a considerable pushback from the community they represent. The media simply does not understand Black preaching, which has always used apocalyptic language to cut deep into the heart of the truth and they really do not understand the perspective by which blacks view public events which comes from the pain of their disproportionate sacrifices. Nevertheless, in this we see a culture clash, that of the Black community and the arena in which presidential politics is conducted. In that arena, one must display an unerring patriotism whether or not the country has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people in pursuit of a misguided, illegal and disastrous war policy. The president of the country – and running to succeed him – must uphold the dignity of the country at all cost. So, there is a level of official symbolic ritual that clashes with the level of truth telling where people grapple with who they are and where they are in relation to public events. Thus, to associate Obama with Rev. Wright’s statements is to attempt to negate his legitimacy in the official symbolic arena and tie him to that level of belief that is the often the harshest critic of America. I have also seen the attempt to pain Obama in the black corner by media commentators who are obsessed with the black vote as the base of Obama’s victories. Rev. Jackson won the lion’s share of the black vote, so that expectation should not the story in this campaign – unless one is tilting toward the Clinton’s explanation of his victories. No, the real story of this campaign is why he has been legitimized by so many white voters black vote, why they have pushed into the leading position in this race. To answer this question forces an analysts to go beyond the easy explanation of race, and to deal with what is really hurting the American people. When you do that accurately, you must go beyond the official symbolic level and explain some nasty, undemocratic, inhuman and economically rapacious things that have been done in the name of America. So many Americans have vowed that this will not be done on their watch, meaning that they have joined the movement for change to redirect the course of the country. And I cannot help but believe that to kill the messenger, Obama, is to try to kill the possibility for change. That is what sends them back to the tool kit every week, trying to find something to stop this movement. We must be clear that there are powerful forces in this country that do not want real change and they will fight back to retain their status and power. But we should understand that and not go for the weekly rope-a-dope. Dr. Ron Walters is the Distinguished Leadership Scholar and Director of the Africa American Leadership Center and Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park. One of his latest books is: Freedom is Not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates and American Presidential Politics (Rowman and Littlefield Press).
Friday, March 21, 2008
Obama vs. Eurocentrism, Privilege In The Democratic Party
The Grand Rapids Times
March 21, 2008
Commentary by Rev. James Williamson
At the 1972 National Black convention that was held in Gary, Ind., Rev. Jessie Jackson made a very insightful if not prophetic statement. Rev. Jackson stated that “African Americans can ill afford to rest in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party or lay in beds of laurels of the Republican Party.” Here we are in 2008 and the vast majority of African Americans are still in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party. Because of our resting in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party, are we being taken for granted (bamboozled)? When I was a graduate student at a university in Ohio, I made a decision to register as a Republican. This decision was based on the amount of personal, social and financial support that I had received for Afrocentric projects and community based programming (1976-1997) from individual members of the Allen County Republican Party. What I saw in Ohio especially in Allen County was a grand illusion of support from the Democratic Party on issues that were particularly impacting the African American community. This illusion, if people will open their eyes, has come front and center in Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency of the United States. Although I am a registered Republican, I am pro Senator Barack Obama. Being pro Obama, I have been diligently following the political battles between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I have religiously, on a daily basis, channel surfed back and forth between Fox, MSNBC, ABC and CBS television stations to analyze the media coverage of Barack Obama. What I have discovered is a subliminal Eurocentric mindset among former President Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as those operating her presidential campaign. When I was an undergraduate student, I majored in political science and sociology. The word politics is a derivative of the word polity (games). I also recognize the subtle messages of race. The subliminal message of privilege was injected into the presidential race from comments made in South Carolina by President Clinton in reference to Jessie Jackson in his 1980’s when he ran for the presidency. Since South Carolina and because of Obama’s primary victories, especially with the wide support among African American, subtle race baiting escalated. The attacks on Senator Obama have a flavor of Eurocentrism, privilege and patronage. The patronage applauds him in his ability to draw large audiences that cut across race, class, gender and ethnic lines. He is further applauded in that he has progressed further in his bid for the office of the president of the United States than any African American in the history of this country. Eurocentrism comes into play when he is attacked because of his charismatic ability to inspire and rally the same groups of people, then having his speeches dismissed as nothing but empty rhetoric (fluff) lacking substance. These attacks were not initiated by Republicans but Senator Clinton, members of her campaign committee and her supporters. When I was an undergraduate student in Ohio (1970’s), I had undergraduate and graduate friends who were majoring in music, art and literature. During my undergraduate years there were many militant arguments being made by my friends in their perspective college departments. These friends of mine as well as myself were engaged in verbal intellectual battles with some professors who were questioning the aesthetic legitimacy of African American art, music, literature and scholarly aptitudes. This questioning by some Caucasian professors, characterized African American poetry as “protest poetry”, African American art as being “too subjective”, and African American music as not being “sophisticated” or “legitimate” as Euro-classical, symphonic or operatic music and our scholarship lacking proper analytical substance. When I look back at the anger and frustrations of my undergraduate and graduate colleagues, I now understand the academic ethnocentric conflict and Euro-American attitudes that existed amongst some Caucasian professors. These ethnocentric attitudes did not die in the 1970’s. When I returned to graduate school in the1980’s, I discovered amongst some of my professors that subliminal ethnocentric attitudes were alive and dawning new mask. It is these types of patronizing paternalistic attitudes that I classify as the “Euro-American Mindset” that are linked to subconscious and conscious “privilege” (rite-of-passage). Eurocentrism is the known practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously, in the pre-eminence of Euro-American culture, concerns, beliefs and values at the expense of non-European Americans. Privilege as defined by Dr. Stephanie Weldman is “a systemic conferral of benefit and advantage, triggered not by merit but by affiliation, conscious or not and chosen or not to the dominant side of a power system.” Because of the success of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential primary campaigns, some of the “chickens in the Democratic Party have come home to roost.” What is meant by the “chickens coming home to roost”, is that whether it’s Senator Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro or members of Senator Clinton’s campaign, we are witnessing the unveiling of a Euro-American Mindset, sprinkled with privilege. It is this mindset that has now opened the door to right wing radio talk show hosts (Sean Hannity etc.) and right wing Republicans to viciously attack Senator Obama. The same Eurocentric Mindset that denigrated the legitimacy of African American art, music, literature and questioned our scholarship during my undergraduate and graduate college years is now in-play against Senator Obama. The Eurocentric mindset says that we can be charismatic and inspiring but not analytical, practical or scientific. The correlation of these hypothetical arguments carried over into the world of sports. African American men could be great tight ends, running backs and wide receivers but what haunted predominantly Caucasian colleges and the NFL was whether African American men could think fast enough to be quarterbacks. The Euro-American Mindset would applaud Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison and Authur Mitchell but would give a rousing standing ovation to Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly and the New York Ballet. The Euro-American Mindset would applaud novels by James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Charles Chestnutt and Zora Neale Hurston but give rave reviews to novels by William Faulkner, Eugene O’Neil, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Alan Poe. The Euro-American Mindset would recognize poets such as James Weldon, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Gwendolyn Brooks as protest poets but embrace Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Henry W. Longfellow. The Euro-American Mindset would remove Egypt from Africa and not recognize the impact of African civilizations on Greco-Roman culture; philosophers (Aesop, Plato and Pliny who studied in Timbuktu) and the father of medicine (Imhotep vs. Hippocrates). The Euro-American Mindset would dismiss the historical scholarship of Carter G. Woodson, J.A. Rogers, Cheikh Anta Diop and Asa Hilliard but embrace Eric Foner, Alfred Knopf and the racist southern historian U.B. Phillips. The Euro-American Mindset would dismiss the illicit relationship of president Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemming and their mulatto offspring as well as the mulatto lineage of President Warren G, Harding. This exaltation of Euro-American culture over African American culture whether subconsciously or consciously has a lot to do with the psyche of “color confrontation” (Dr. Francis Welshing, “Theory of Color Confrontation”) real and unreal beliefs of race and privilege. I am of the belief that most of the attacks upon Senator Barack Obama to gain political ground have a lot to do with the hidden belief of privilege (rite-of-passage). If a person would analyze Senator Clinton carefully, they would discern that she believes that she has some type of rite-of-passage to the White House and standing in her way is an African American man named Obama.
March 21, 2008
Commentary by Rev. James Williamson
At the 1972 National Black convention that was held in Gary, Ind., Rev. Jessie Jackson made a very insightful if not prophetic statement. Rev. Jackson stated that “African Americans can ill afford to rest in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party or lay in beds of laurels of the Republican Party.” Here we are in 2008 and the vast majority of African Americans are still in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party. Because of our resting in the hip pockets of the Democratic Party, are we being taken for granted (bamboozled)? When I was a graduate student at a university in Ohio, I made a decision to register as a Republican. This decision was based on the amount of personal, social and financial support that I had received for Afrocentric projects and community based programming (1976-1997) from individual members of the Allen County Republican Party. What I saw in Ohio especially in Allen County was a grand illusion of support from the Democratic Party on issues that were particularly impacting the African American community. This illusion, if people will open their eyes, has come front and center in Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency of the United States. Although I am a registered Republican, I am pro Senator Barack Obama. Being pro Obama, I have been diligently following the political battles between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. I have religiously, on a daily basis, channel surfed back and forth between Fox, MSNBC, ABC and CBS television stations to analyze the media coverage of Barack Obama. What I have discovered is a subliminal Eurocentric mindset among former President Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as those operating her presidential campaign. When I was an undergraduate student, I majored in political science and sociology. The word politics is a derivative of the word polity (games). I also recognize the subtle messages of race. The subliminal message of privilege was injected into the presidential race from comments made in South Carolina by President Clinton in reference to Jessie Jackson in his 1980’s when he ran for the presidency. Since South Carolina and because of Obama’s primary victories, especially with the wide support among African American, subtle race baiting escalated. The attacks on Senator Obama have a flavor of Eurocentrism, privilege and patronage. The patronage applauds him in his ability to draw large audiences that cut across race, class, gender and ethnic lines. He is further applauded in that he has progressed further in his bid for the office of the president of the United States than any African American in the history of this country. Eurocentrism comes into play when he is attacked because of his charismatic ability to inspire and rally the same groups of people, then having his speeches dismissed as nothing but empty rhetoric (fluff) lacking substance. These attacks were not initiated by Republicans but Senator Clinton, members of her campaign committee and her supporters. When I was an undergraduate student in Ohio (1970’s), I had undergraduate and graduate friends who were majoring in music, art and literature. During my undergraduate years there were many militant arguments being made by my friends in their perspective college departments. These friends of mine as well as myself were engaged in verbal intellectual battles with some professors who were questioning the aesthetic legitimacy of African American art, music, literature and scholarly aptitudes. This questioning by some Caucasian professors, characterized African American poetry as “protest poetry”, African American art as being “too subjective”, and African American music as not being “sophisticated” or “legitimate” as Euro-classical, symphonic or operatic music and our scholarship lacking proper analytical substance. When I look back at the anger and frustrations of my undergraduate and graduate colleagues, I now understand the academic ethnocentric conflict and Euro-American attitudes that existed amongst some Caucasian professors. These ethnocentric attitudes did not die in the 1970’s. When I returned to graduate school in the1980’s, I discovered amongst some of my professors that subliminal ethnocentric attitudes were alive and dawning new mask. It is these types of patronizing paternalistic attitudes that I classify as the “Euro-American Mindset” that are linked to subconscious and conscious “privilege” (rite-of-passage). Eurocentrism is the known practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously, in the pre-eminence of Euro-American culture, concerns, beliefs and values at the expense of non-European Americans. Privilege as defined by Dr. Stephanie Weldman is “a systemic conferral of benefit and advantage, triggered not by merit but by affiliation, conscious or not and chosen or not to the dominant side of a power system.” Because of the success of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential primary campaigns, some of the “chickens in the Democratic Party have come home to roost.” What is meant by the “chickens coming home to roost”, is that whether it’s Senator Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro or members of Senator Clinton’s campaign, we are witnessing the unveiling of a Euro-American Mindset, sprinkled with privilege. It is this mindset that has now opened the door to right wing radio talk show hosts (Sean Hannity etc.) and right wing Republicans to viciously attack Senator Obama. The same Eurocentric Mindset that denigrated the legitimacy of African American art, music, literature and questioned our scholarship during my undergraduate and graduate college years is now in-play against Senator Obama. The Eurocentric mindset says that we can be charismatic and inspiring but not analytical, practical or scientific. The correlation of these hypothetical arguments carried over into the world of sports. African American men could be great tight ends, running backs and wide receivers but what haunted predominantly Caucasian colleges and the NFL was whether African American men could think fast enough to be quarterbacks. The Euro-American Mindset would applaud Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison and Authur Mitchell but would give a rousing standing ovation to Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly and the New York Ballet. The Euro-American Mindset would applaud novels by James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Charles Chestnutt and Zora Neale Hurston but give rave reviews to novels by William Faulkner, Eugene O’Neil, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Alan Poe. The Euro-American Mindset would recognize poets such as James Weldon, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Gwendolyn Brooks as protest poets but embrace Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ralph Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Henry W. Longfellow. The Euro-American Mindset would remove Egypt from Africa and not recognize the impact of African civilizations on Greco-Roman culture; philosophers (Aesop, Plato and Pliny who studied in Timbuktu) and the father of medicine (Imhotep vs. Hippocrates). The Euro-American Mindset would dismiss the historical scholarship of Carter G. Woodson, J.A. Rogers, Cheikh Anta Diop and Asa Hilliard but embrace Eric Foner, Alfred Knopf and the racist southern historian U.B. Phillips. The Euro-American Mindset would dismiss the illicit relationship of president Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemming and their mulatto offspring as well as the mulatto lineage of President Warren G, Harding. This exaltation of Euro-American culture over African American culture whether subconsciously or consciously has a lot to do with the psyche of “color confrontation” (Dr. Francis Welshing, “Theory of Color Confrontation”) real and unreal beliefs of race and privilege. I am of the belief that most of the attacks upon Senator Barack Obama to gain political ground have a lot to do with the hidden belief of privilege (rite-of-passage). If a person would analyze Senator Clinton carefully, they would discern that she believes that she has some type of rite-of-passage to the White House and standing in her way is an African American man named Obama.
Teens Talk - Damage
The Grand Rapids Times
March 21, 2008
This week I was going to write a follow up article on the ways one can contribute to their community through community service, etc. However, my heart has encouraged me to talk to my readers about another issue, DAMAGE. Damage is an illness that has been in the world for many years and an illness that isn’t leaving any time soon. This year has just begun and already changes have been made that many individuals are displeased with.I am referring to the issue of race specifically when I speak of damage. Damage has been occurring in our communities because everyone believes that they are in a race, everyone wants to become the alpha dog or the head honcho. When I see damage I say, “OH BOY!” don’t we all know that we were all created from the same flesh, don’t we all know that there isn’t any superior race, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, because ever since I was a little boy I never knew it to be o.k. to say nigger, hunky, spick, or any other derogative racial term. Now I hear people say these terms around me frequently, have people lost their minds, Oh Boy, we need some damage control. Damage will one day be the down fall of the world if we do not get a hold of the issue now. I have a news flash for all damage creators, I don’t care if you all are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or any other race, but change is happening in politics and in the social environments of the United States. Damage creators are just going to have to trust in God’s decisions in choosing a minority presidential leader if that is his final decision. It isn’t our plan, it is always God’s. So many individuals including myself have been disturbed to even see damage within our own peers. Not necessarily damage within the issue of race but damage within the issue of hatred. Why teens are we always hating on each other? If someone has something that you admire, that doesn’t give you the right to hate them or hate on them for owning what they have. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, if someone has an attractive significant other don’t hate, go find you one, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Just because someone owns magnificent materialistic items doesn’t mean that they have it all together on the inside. Just because someone has all of the riches, education, and power in the world, without God and the Power of God to protect him and guide him through this sometimes cruel world, he has nothing. Oh Boy! we need some damage control. I pray to God to send down some damage control. Deuteronomy 32:5 “They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.”A corrupted generation is just what we are creating when we forget about God’s plans for ourselves in order to create damage. Oh Boy! some of us need damage control when we hate others for having higher education when all we have to do is go out and obtain the same knowledge. As long as we allow damage to take control of our lives we will continue to distance ourselves from God. On a clearer note if we as teens, keep hating and not empowering each other in true brotherhood and sisterhood we will not be able to lift each other up as I see the generations before us have. We will need each other someday. I am taking observations from three wonderful organizations that I am glad to have learned from The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority of Grand Rapids, Our Kitchen Table, and Martha Chapter No.1 of the Order of the Eastern Star. These organizations are active in our community and are actively enriching each other in love and grace as they work together with teens in Grand Rapids. May the Grace of God be with you ladies and thank you for your dedication to the youth, we appreciate it; you have forever changed my life. I’m going to leave you all with this: Psalm 53:3 “Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Not all of us are right with the Lord and damage is not helping that situation or encouraging any of us to walk in Gods footsteps.
March 21, 2008
This week I was going to write a follow up article on the ways one can contribute to their community through community service, etc. However, my heart has encouraged me to talk to my readers about another issue, DAMAGE. Damage is an illness that has been in the world for many years and an illness that isn’t leaving any time soon. This year has just begun and already changes have been made that many individuals are displeased with.I am referring to the issue of race specifically when I speak of damage. Damage has been occurring in our communities because everyone believes that they are in a race, everyone wants to become the alpha dog or the head honcho. When I see damage I say, “OH BOY!” don’t we all know that we were all created from the same flesh, don’t we all know that there isn’t any superior race, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, because ever since I was a little boy I never knew it to be o.k. to say nigger, hunky, spick, or any other derogative racial term. Now I hear people say these terms around me frequently, have people lost their minds, Oh Boy, we need some damage control. Damage will one day be the down fall of the world if we do not get a hold of the issue now. I have a news flash for all damage creators, I don’t care if you all are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or any other race, but change is happening in politics and in the social environments of the United States. Damage creators are just going to have to trust in God’s decisions in choosing a minority presidential leader if that is his final decision. It isn’t our plan, it is always God’s. So many individuals including myself have been disturbed to even see damage within our own peers. Not necessarily damage within the issue of race but damage within the issue of hatred. Why teens are we always hating on each other? If someone has something that you admire, that doesn’t give you the right to hate them or hate on them for owning what they have. Oh Boy! we need some damage control, if someone has an attractive significant other don’t hate, go find you one, Oh Boy! we need some damage control. Just because someone owns magnificent materialistic items doesn’t mean that they have it all together on the inside. Just because someone has all of the riches, education, and power in the world, without God and the Power of God to protect him and guide him through this sometimes cruel world, he has nothing. Oh Boy! we need some damage control. I pray to God to send down some damage control. Deuteronomy 32:5 “They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation.”A corrupted generation is just what we are creating when we forget about God’s plans for ourselves in order to create damage. Oh Boy! some of us need damage control when we hate others for having higher education when all we have to do is go out and obtain the same knowledge. As long as we allow damage to take control of our lives we will continue to distance ourselves from God. On a clearer note if we as teens, keep hating and not empowering each other in true brotherhood and sisterhood we will not be able to lift each other up as I see the generations before us have. We will need each other someday. I am taking observations from three wonderful organizations that I am glad to have learned from The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority of Grand Rapids, Our Kitchen Table, and Martha Chapter No.1 of the Order of the Eastern Star. These organizations are active in our community and are actively enriching each other in love and grace as they work together with teens in Grand Rapids. May the Grace of God be with you ladies and thank you for your dedication to the youth, we appreciate it; you have forever changed my life. I’m going to leave you all with this: Psalm 53:3 “Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Not all of us are right with the Lord and damage is not helping that situation or encouraging any of us to walk in Gods footsteps.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Teens Talk - What Have You Done?
What have you done for your community is the question? Well, personally I can say that I have done a lot for my community but is that really true? What my community has done for me is what matters. Since I like to be real with my readers, I’m going to tell you the negative and the positive things that my community has done for me. Others may call my community a ghetto, but I call it home. Home is where I was transformed from a little boy into a Christian man that walks with God. I want to applaud my community for its support, the inner city of Grand Rapids. Home is where I was introduced to the gang life, which has encouraged me through consequences, that I faced to begin my walk with God. Because of my community I learned immediately that the gang life wasn’t for me. I applaud my community for helping me take control of the decisions that I made in life. I’m not going anywhere. I love my home. Some people do not realize that God places us in our surroundings for a reason. Everyone is on different levels with their relationships with God. Some individuals like myself need to be placed in ruff environments in order to see that a relationship with God is very important. Some people need to see, including myself, that all people learn differently. You can tell certain people not to do things and they won’t do it, but there are other people who have to learn the hard way and find out for themselves. Growing up I was an individual that had to learn the hard way. Joshua 22:18 “Are you now turning away from the LORD? If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community.” God did not just put me in my surroundings for me to learn. He put me in my community so that I can teach others the same thing that he has taught me. Remember you might not like your homes, but know that God has reason for you to be living where you are. Don’t be quick to judge your communities. Try and take the time out and applaud them. I’m going to leave you all with these words of wisdom, “You can go very far in life but never forget where you came from.”
Friday, March 7, 2008
Teen's Talk - Wash It Out
Back in the day when I was a young child, there wasn’t any timeouts or endless hours of my parents pleading with me to behave, There were only two effective punishments; the good old fashion belt on your backside and the unforgettable washing the mouth out with soap. Every time I used profanity, my mother and father wouldn’t hesitate to cleanse my mouth with soap. Boy times have changed, the other day I discovered that people don’t even need a reason to swear anymore, they just do it! During the last two weeks I conducted a study of swearing at school, in my community, and even at church events. I listened as swear words were dropped by the second. (Leviticus 24: 13-16) 13 ‘Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 “Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible;” 16 “Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.”Yes, I am guilty, two swear words came from my mouth this week. The problem is that nobody chooses to wash it out anymore; I know not to swear in front of my parents now. Adults aren’t even trying to set examples for the children, they are swearing constantly. Teens are finding it hard to relate to adults that are teaching us not to swear in church and in school but as soon as they are with that same adult, outside of the mentoring program on the basketball court or at a game, that adult is swearing. Adults, please remember that teens are just like babies they mimic the behavior and language that they hear and see, teens are inspiring to be their mentors someday. We are constantly watching and listening even when you think that the mentoring is over. How are we going to tell younger people to wash it out when we can’t wash it out ourselves? I know we are too old to wash it out with the old fashion punishment of the bar soap in our mouths but we still have to hold ourselves accountable and find alternative ways to wash it out. Please join me in asking for God’s help in deliverance of profanity. Pray that God will deliver you from this sin and annoying habit, and he will. We are quick to brand the word of God on people when they are in the wrong but when we do wrong it seems like we become clueless to the messages we are trying to instill in others. So before we tell others to wash it out we must wash it out ourselves.Q. Do you think swearing is allowed in any settings when you are mad? “Well, to me swearing is sort of a reflex. There are people who just have to swear. Personally, I don’t swear when I get mad, but I’m not going to lie, I have yelled out a few words in Spanish and sometimes in English. So, I guess it shouldn’t be allowed because it’s rude and they aren’t nice words.” Ariel Israel Sosa — Kelloggsville High School
“Most of the times people reach a point that leads them to swearing when they get mad. When I get mad sometimes I say a swear word but that barely happen. Sometimes it’s difficult for some people to not swear at all, but for me I can control it.”Henok Melaku — Kelloggsville High School
We have to wash it out when we are choosing to expose young children to words that shouldn’t be in their vocabulary. We have to wash it out when we feel comfortable recording records that has nothing but derogatory terms and vulgar language incorporated in them. We have to wash it out when we feel comfortable walking down the street and feel it is o.k. to yell out swear words.
Q. Why do you swear? “It is a bad habit that I only picked up after I married your dad. I never swore when I was young, my parents didn’t allow it. Your dad swears and I picked up some of those awful words from him. I pray that God will deliver me from profanity and he has. I have been improving, I have only had to pay for three bad words in the last six months and I put that payment into my offering at church.”
Q. What other steps have you taken in your personal journey to end profanity in your life? “I am a Christian first. I am trying to only promote Christian businesses and it takes a lot of dedication. I won’t give my business to a business that has profanity music playing or open profanity conversations. It is hard to find a nice place to take my sons or daughters, even to get their hair done because of the language, music, or videos that the establishments portrays. ” Oscatte Hendler
I’m going to share with you all, if there is a little dirt somewhere it must be cleaned because if you let dirt go it will spread out of control. Dirt is like our mouths, when there is nothing but profanity in them we must “Wash It Out”. Blog me. Let me know if you are ready to make the commitment to “Wash it Out” as my mother did. It is difficult, and she still struggles sometimes; but she said that she had a habit and gave it over to God. Can you do the same? BLOG me, and let’s talk about it.
“Most of the times people reach a point that leads them to swearing when they get mad. When I get mad sometimes I say a swear word but that barely happen. Sometimes it’s difficult for some people to not swear at all, but for me I can control it.”Henok Melaku — Kelloggsville High School
We have to wash it out when we are choosing to expose young children to words that shouldn’t be in their vocabulary. We have to wash it out when we feel comfortable recording records that has nothing but derogatory terms and vulgar language incorporated in them. We have to wash it out when we feel comfortable walking down the street and feel it is o.k. to yell out swear words.
Q. Why do you swear? “It is a bad habit that I only picked up after I married your dad. I never swore when I was young, my parents didn’t allow it. Your dad swears and I picked up some of those awful words from him. I pray that God will deliver me from profanity and he has. I have been improving, I have only had to pay for three bad words in the last six months and I put that payment into my offering at church.”
Q. What other steps have you taken in your personal journey to end profanity in your life? “I am a Christian first. I am trying to only promote Christian businesses and it takes a lot of dedication. I won’t give my business to a business that has profanity music playing or open profanity conversations. It is hard to find a nice place to take my sons or daughters, even to get their hair done because of the language, music, or videos that the establishments portrays. ” Oscatte Hendler
I’m going to share with you all, if there is a little dirt somewhere it must be cleaned because if you let dirt go it will spread out of control. Dirt is like our mouths, when there is nothing but profanity in them we must “Wash It Out”. Blog me. Let me know if you are ready to make the commitment to “Wash it Out” as my mother did. It is difficult, and she still struggles sometimes; but she said that she had a habit and gave it over to God. Can you do the same? BLOG me, and let’s talk about it.
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