Saturday, April 23, 2011
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Mathematics and Music Meld
Mathematics and music meld:
Intuitive and innate
Yet both separate and cognate.
Symmetrical and asymmetrical:
So mellifluous and true, that
Notations and symbols endue.
Rhythmic and eurhythmic:
Measured and inspired,
autochthonous and acquired.
Both beautiful equations:
Enticing and repulsing
the soul’s inner fold,
with harmonics and metrics
at once nuanced and bold .
Each devoted disciple--
Answers non-negotiable decrees:
reverentially working
beyond their lees.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
A MORE PERFECT WAY
A MORE PERFECT WAY
Saturday, April 09, 2011
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords
The election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America was surely an “Act of God,” comparable with any miracle in the Bible. This statement is no bluster, nor mere exaggeration. So surreal was Obama’s election, given this nation’s history, this epochal development can only be termed “dream” like. “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” Psalm 126:1
In every way our President and his family is “perfect.” No artist could have sketched a more balanced or beautiful First Family. From the most compelling First Lady, Michelle, to their two beautiful daughters, Malia and Sasha, and to their matriarch, the First Grand-Mother, Mrs. Marian Shields Robinson, they all excel! No anthropologist or sociologist could have woven so many disparately fine strands of African and American life into so taut a cable of American power and complexity. Finally, no politician, or foreign policy wonk, could have assembled a more dissembling avatar of insipid American imperial power than the vertiginous Obama’s, whose lives certainly are real, not mirages, to a gaping world!
The President’s academic honors are second to none. Yet, so are his “common touch” bona fides. Rooted in single- parented childhood, his father, was a brilliant, though driven, Kenyan with a Master of Arts degree in economics, from Harvard. Barack Obama, Sr. divorced his white, Wichita, Kansas –born wife, Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who had a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawaii. She raised him to be a black man with pride in, and knowledge of, his own history and culture.
She is where the real tribute lies. “In an interview, Barack Obama referred to his mother as "the dominant figure in my formative years... The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics."[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Dunham
His father, a Muslim, was inspirational, but absent. His mom, who later remarried, and her parents, being ever present, did the heavy lifting. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
The President’s childhood sojourn in Hawaii and Indonesia with its rosette of races, religions, languages and customs further sensitized him to the “diversity of gifts but the same spirit” 1 Cor. 12:4, which unites and animates all of mankind, as if his own family background was not evidence enough. Then, his studies at Occidental College in California, and his later transfer to Columbia University in New York, prepared him for the pressure cooker job of “community organizer” on the South Side of Chicago.
There, he witnessed, and was emboldened by, the historic and transformative, Harold Washington’s election as Chicago’s first black mayor. And there, in “black metropolis,” he encountered the black church, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ, who became his pastor for over 20 years. It was also there, on the south side of Chicago, that he married his beautiful black wife, conceived his future, and understood his destiny. That destiny was not unlike another former Chicago South Side denizen’s, novelist Richard Wright, author of Native Son, Black Boy, The Outsider and others, all emblematic of densely diverse doyen that is President Barack Obama. Both exploded onto the world stage.
Barack Hussein Obama’s destiny entailed, preliminarily, being accepted into the very prestigious Harvard Law School. There, “Barry” Obama became the first black Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review. In so doing, he reprised and exceeded the sterling example of the great Charles Hamilton Houston, former Dean of Howard Law School, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Director of Litigation, who was the first black person to become an editor of the Harvard Law Review, after having been a valedictorian at Amherst College in 1915.
Houston is also credited with devising the legal strategy for destroying the “separate but equal” doctrine spawned in 1896 by racist judicial activists in Plessy v. Ferguson, who were intent on repressing the legal and human rights of blacks, in every way. Houston also obtained accreditation for Howard Law School, by the American Bar Association, which, did not permit black members. Lastly, Dean Houston produced the lawyers, the “social engineers” meet for relentless battle, like Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, George E.C. Hayes, and others, whose litigious largesse culminated in the historic Brown v. Board of Education, victory, which judicially reversed the hated Plessy v. Ferguson.
President Barack Obama personifies the utter destruction, in fact, of that pernicious “separate but equal” doctrine, and that of its one-eyed parent, “white supremacy,” from whose head it sprang, which injures and alienates, and poisons and pollutes, each and every American invidiously and insidiously. His person and his persona tacitly deracinate lingering vestiges of that ideology which actuated American life, until the Civil War; and afterwards, when the Constitutional and statutory “Reconstruction” was betrayed on the table of “white power” rapprochement in 1876, in the Hayes-Tilden Compromise, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South and white domestic terrorists ran amok freely, in exchange for Republican Rutherford B. Hayes’ assumption of the Presidency.
“Tacit deracination,” or quiescent quashing of repressive racial force fields, however hopeful and invigorating, is not redemptive. More is required. Though the racist ideology may be gone, its malevolent effects bind and blister like a bumble bee’s barb, like Pavlov’s dog, like Schrodinger’s Cat and like the Stockholm Syndrome.
It is in this politically volatile venue, the centuries-long deferred—some would say, “denied”—economic, legal, and political fulfillment of the amended Constitution’s and its enabling statutes’ specific promises of fairness and equality to American-born blacks, which the Judiciary has repeatedly abridged or hobbled, that President Obama will either irreparably establish or irreparably betray his enduring and historic legacy among, and for, the “least of these,” his oft-betrayed, fellow persons of African descent.
Accomplishing this extraordinarily difficult, equitable maneuver, known as restitution, which satisfies blacks without estranging whites and others, is the real reason he was elected. It is the principal, though inaudible, part of the Obama promise of “change we can believe in.” Already, hands-down, the greatest politician in American history, opening up these opportunities; that is, making the union “more perfect” economically, legally and politically, will firmly establish him the greatest President in American history.
#30
Saturday, April 09, 2011
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords
The election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America was surely an “Act of God,” comparable with any miracle in the Bible. This statement is no bluster, nor mere exaggeration. So surreal was Obama’s election, given this nation’s history, this epochal development can only be termed “dream” like. “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” Psalm 126:1
In every way our President and his family is “perfect.” No artist could have sketched a more balanced or beautiful First Family. From the most compelling First Lady, Michelle, to their two beautiful daughters, Malia and Sasha, and to their matriarch, the First Grand-Mother, Mrs. Marian Shields Robinson, they all excel! No anthropologist or sociologist could have woven so many disparately fine strands of African and American life into so taut a cable of American power and complexity. Finally, no politician, or foreign policy wonk, could have assembled a more dissembling avatar of insipid American imperial power than the vertiginous Obama’s, whose lives certainly are real, not mirages, to a gaping world!
The President’s academic honors are second to none. Yet, so are his “common touch” bona fides. Rooted in single- parented childhood, his father, was a brilliant, though driven, Kenyan with a Master of Arts degree in economics, from Harvard. Barack Obama, Sr. divorced his white, Wichita, Kansas –born wife, Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who had a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawaii. She raised him to be a black man with pride in, and knowledge of, his own history and culture.
She is where the real tribute lies. “In an interview, Barack Obama referred to his mother as "the dominant figure in my formative years... The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics."[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Dunham
His father, a Muslim, was inspirational, but absent. His mom, who later remarried, and her parents, being ever present, did the heavy lifting. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
The President’s childhood sojourn in Hawaii and Indonesia with its rosette of races, religions, languages and customs further sensitized him to the “diversity of gifts but the same spirit” 1 Cor. 12:4, which unites and animates all of mankind, as if his own family background was not evidence enough. Then, his studies at Occidental College in California, and his later transfer to Columbia University in New York, prepared him for the pressure cooker job of “community organizer” on the South Side of Chicago.
There, he witnessed, and was emboldened by, the historic and transformative, Harold Washington’s election as Chicago’s first black mayor. And there, in “black metropolis,” he encountered the black church, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ, who became his pastor for over 20 years. It was also there, on the south side of Chicago, that he married his beautiful black wife, conceived his future, and understood his destiny. That destiny was not unlike another former Chicago South Side denizen’s, novelist Richard Wright, author of Native Son, Black Boy, The Outsider and others, all emblematic of densely diverse doyen that is President Barack Obama. Both exploded onto the world stage.
Barack Hussein Obama’s destiny entailed, preliminarily, being accepted into the very prestigious Harvard Law School. There, “Barry” Obama became the first black Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review. In so doing, he reprised and exceeded the sterling example of the great Charles Hamilton Houston, former Dean of Howard Law School, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Director of Litigation, who was the first black person to become an editor of the Harvard Law Review, after having been a valedictorian at Amherst College in 1915.
Houston is also credited with devising the legal strategy for destroying the “separate but equal” doctrine spawned in 1896 by racist judicial activists in Plessy v. Ferguson, who were intent on repressing the legal and human rights of blacks, in every way. Houston also obtained accreditation for Howard Law School, by the American Bar Association, which, did not permit black members. Lastly, Dean Houston produced the lawyers, the “social engineers” meet for relentless battle, like Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, George E.C. Hayes, and others, whose litigious largesse culminated in the historic Brown v. Board of Education, victory, which judicially reversed the hated Plessy v. Ferguson.
President Barack Obama personifies the utter destruction, in fact, of that pernicious “separate but equal” doctrine, and that of its one-eyed parent, “white supremacy,” from whose head it sprang, which injures and alienates, and poisons and pollutes, each and every American invidiously and insidiously. His person and his persona tacitly deracinate lingering vestiges of that ideology which actuated American life, until the Civil War; and afterwards, when the Constitutional and statutory “Reconstruction” was betrayed on the table of “white power” rapprochement in 1876, in the Hayes-Tilden Compromise, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South and white domestic terrorists ran amok freely, in exchange for Republican Rutherford B. Hayes’ assumption of the Presidency.
“Tacit deracination,” or quiescent quashing of repressive racial force fields, however hopeful and invigorating, is not redemptive. More is required. Though the racist ideology may be gone, its malevolent effects bind and blister like a bumble bee’s barb, like Pavlov’s dog, like Schrodinger’s Cat and like the Stockholm Syndrome.
It is in this politically volatile venue, the centuries-long deferred—some would say, “denied”—economic, legal, and political fulfillment of the amended Constitution’s and its enabling statutes’ specific promises of fairness and equality to American-born blacks, which the Judiciary has repeatedly abridged or hobbled, that President Obama will either irreparably establish or irreparably betray his enduring and historic legacy among, and for, the “least of these,” his oft-betrayed, fellow persons of African descent.
Accomplishing this extraordinarily difficult, equitable maneuver, known as restitution, which satisfies blacks without estranging whites and others, is the real reason he was elected. It is the principal, though inaudible, part of the Obama promise of “change we can believe in.” Already, hands-down, the greatest politician in American history, opening up these opportunities; that is, making the union “more perfect” economically, legally and politically, will firmly establish him the greatest President in American history.
#30
SCIENCE AS SOLVENT OF COMMUNITY INIQUITY
Saturday, April 09, 2011
SCIENCE AS SOLVENT OF COMMUNITY INIQUITY
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Throughout history, science has been viewed with awe, wonder or fear. Approached with trepidation or eagerness, it has been treated discreetly or rashly. Sometimes, it has simply been ignored, to the extreme prejudice of those who ignored it.
Popular science and the spirit of scientific inquiry is the solvent and the solver of iniquity and ignorance in America and in the world. By “solvent,” I mean its method and its results can dissolve contemporary doubts and fears about individual and collective capacity, as it has done throughout history. By “solver,” I mean its disciplined pursuit can render plain the answers to knotty equations that distort and demean human aspirations and expression.
The example of George Washington Carver is illustrative. Born a slave in rural, southwest Missouri, during the Civil War, whose mother was cruelly ripped away from him during infancy, by Confederate night-riders, he went on to become one of the greatest scientists in American and world history. Though a sickly child, his “masters”, the Carvers raised him as a family member, and imparted skills and values to him he was to employ throughout his life. One of those values was faith.
Dr. Carver, despite his many wonderful discoveries, was a very religious man who believed in Jesus Christ. His was not a stultifying belief, though. On the contrary, his was a liberating belief, by means of which he was able to appreciate the hand of God in nature and the spirit of God in all life. His communications with God, through science and faith, he claims, produced his myriad agricultural discoveries and innovations. These scientific creations and techniques not only saved southern agriculture from ruin, and with it southern people and property, but they also produced a wholly new science now known as “chemurgy.”
Chemurgy is the development of new industrial chemical products from organic raw materials, especially from those of agricultural origin. It is the branch of chemistry dealing with the utilization of organic products, esp. from farms, in the manufacture of new products not classed as food or clothing (e.g., soybeans as a base for plastics or the production of methane from animal waste or garbage.
The tools of science are readily at hand: eyes to see, ears to hear, nose to smell, fingers to touch, tongue to taste, a mind to understand, a soul to intuit, a heart to guide, and the whole person’s faith to believe in one’s ultimate success. Dr. Carver used these God-given tools, his innate gifts, plus certain skills acquired in school to prepare him for his life’s work, and to catapult him into immortality.
These tools are available and accessible to all. Everyone has unique, innate gifts. Everyone has senses. Everyone has access to education. Therefore, science is available to all, as it was to that sickly, motherless, black boy from southwest Missouri, who was born a slave, and who was discriminated against, but who refused to quit in his quest to become all that he could be. Today, we all are beneficiaries, directly or indirectly of his legacy, and that of others like him, and are commensurately obligated to go and to do likewise, as he and others have done. Achievement in science and in life requires application, sacrifice, refusal to say “no” when obstacles obstruct, and belief in one's self and one's purpose.
Science has the capacity to alter our lives and society for good or ill. Far too long, the ill has held sway, leading to iniquity of all kinds. But now, through the science festival movement coming to the fore in America, (see link below) the promise and potential of science can trickle all the way down to elementary school children, whose shining curiosities are primed for inquiry. They already have science fairs in their schools, which many of their parents help them to prepare for. These presentations can and should be shared with entire communities, at community facilities, and supplemented by individual, group, government and corporate presentations, annually, at the same place and time. These city or region wide “science Mardi Gras” or carnivals will not only celebrate science, itself, but they may afford an updraft for positive community-wide improvements through the institution and pursuit of new values, that of scientific inquiry and creation.
http://www.sciencefestivals.org/
#30
SCIENCE AS SOLVENT OF COMMUNITY INIQUITY
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Throughout history, science has been viewed with awe, wonder or fear. Approached with trepidation or eagerness, it has been treated discreetly or rashly. Sometimes, it has simply been ignored, to the extreme prejudice of those who ignored it.
Popular science and the spirit of scientific inquiry is the solvent and the solver of iniquity and ignorance in America and in the world. By “solvent,” I mean its method and its results can dissolve contemporary doubts and fears about individual and collective capacity, as it has done throughout history. By “solver,” I mean its disciplined pursuit can render plain the answers to knotty equations that distort and demean human aspirations and expression.
The example of George Washington Carver is illustrative. Born a slave in rural, southwest Missouri, during the Civil War, whose mother was cruelly ripped away from him during infancy, by Confederate night-riders, he went on to become one of the greatest scientists in American and world history. Though a sickly child, his “masters”, the Carvers raised him as a family member, and imparted skills and values to him he was to employ throughout his life. One of those values was faith.
Dr. Carver, despite his many wonderful discoveries, was a very religious man who believed in Jesus Christ. His was not a stultifying belief, though. On the contrary, his was a liberating belief, by means of which he was able to appreciate the hand of God in nature and the spirit of God in all life. His communications with God, through science and faith, he claims, produced his myriad agricultural discoveries and innovations. These scientific creations and techniques not only saved southern agriculture from ruin, and with it southern people and property, but they also produced a wholly new science now known as “chemurgy.”
Chemurgy is the development of new industrial chemical products from organic raw materials, especially from those of agricultural origin. It is the branch of chemistry dealing with the utilization of organic products, esp. from farms, in the manufacture of new products not classed as food or clothing (e.g., soybeans as a base for plastics or the production of methane from animal waste or garbage.
The tools of science are readily at hand: eyes to see, ears to hear, nose to smell, fingers to touch, tongue to taste, a mind to understand, a soul to intuit, a heart to guide, and the whole person’s faith to believe in one’s ultimate success. Dr. Carver used these God-given tools, his innate gifts, plus certain skills acquired in school to prepare him for his life’s work, and to catapult him into immortality.
These tools are available and accessible to all. Everyone has unique, innate gifts. Everyone has senses. Everyone has access to education. Therefore, science is available to all, as it was to that sickly, motherless, black boy from southwest Missouri, who was born a slave, and who was discriminated against, but who refused to quit in his quest to become all that he could be. Today, we all are beneficiaries, directly or indirectly of his legacy, and that of others like him, and are commensurately obligated to go and to do likewise, as he and others have done. Achievement in science and in life requires application, sacrifice, refusal to say “no” when obstacles obstruct, and belief in one's self and one's purpose.
Science has the capacity to alter our lives and society for good or ill. Far too long, the ill has held sway, leading to iniquity of all kinds. But now, through the science festival movement coming to the fore in America, (see link below) the promise and potential of science can trickle all the way down to elementary school children, whose shining curiosities are primed for inquiry. They already have science fairs in their schools, which many of their parents help them to prepare for. These presentations can and should be shared with entire communities, at community facilities, and supplemented by individual, group, government and corporate presentations, annually, at the same place and time. These city or region wide “science Mardi Gras” or carnivals will not only celebrate science, itself, but they may afford an updraft for positive community-wide improvements through the institution and pursuit of new values, that of scientific inquiry and creation.
http://www.sciencefestivals.org/
Thursday, April 7, 2011
WITHIN ONE HOUR OF EXECUTION
WITHIN ONE HOUR OF EXECUTION
CONNICK, District Attorney et al V. THOMPSON, Case No. 09-571, Decided 3/29/2011
U.S. Supreme Court Opinion review
By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
In a 5-4 decision the United Supreme Court, on March 29, 2011, reversed a $14million dollar civil judgment in favor of a black man, John Thompson, of New Orleans, who had sued the District Attorney of New Orleans, after being twice wrongly convicted of armed robbery, and murder, in separate trials, due to illegally withheld evidence, showing his innocence. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-571.pdf
The District Attorney’s office “conceded” that its prosecutors had violated the law in being failing its obligation turn over “Brady” materials, prior to either trial, to counsel for the Respondent Thompson. They admittedly failed to turn over an exculpatory lab report, or its analysis of a bloody cotton swatch containing the alleged perpetrator’s blood, as required by the 1963 landmark case, Brady v. Maryland, which was earlier decided by the Supreme Court .
Thompson had type “O” blood, and the withheld cloth swatch from the crime lab showed Type “B” blood from the robber. Clearly, then, Thompson was the wrong man. But, he came within one month of execution, having sat on death row for 14 years, and having served 18 years altogether, before this discovery was made by his investigator. Four New Orleans Parish prosecutors had knowledge of this evidence, and refused to disclose its existence to Thompson. He had also lost appeals and collateral actions in both state and federal court in unsuccessful attempts to gain his freedom.
Even so, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Thomas, ruled that the civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. 1983, which prohibits violation of federal rights under color of state law, could not be used to establish municipal liability based on merely one incident—particular one’s own—rather, a pattern of similar abuses would have to be established. An evenly divided Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal en banc decision to the contrary was reversed by the Supreme Court, leaving Thompson with nothing.
Somewhat remarkably, the Court found that four (4) similar violations over ten (10) years was insufficient to show a pattern of deliberate indifference under Canton v Harris, another Supreme Court precedent on which Thompson relied, because a jury had rule against Thompson on his pattern or practice claim. Thus, Thompson was left only with his failure to train claim as a basis for municipal liability, which the Court described as “nebulous.” The Canton v Harris Court also found that where a violation is “obvious,” one need not establish a prior practice of similar abuses.
Respondent Thompson argued, unsuccessfully, it was “obvious” that the prosecutors’ failure to turn over the exculpatory evidence, which only it had, or had knowledge of, and its pursuit of criminal convictions, notwithstanding non-disclosure of these “Brady” materials, was an “obvious” constitutional violation. But, the Supreme Court found its prior, Canton v. Harris decision’s “obvious” alternative dicta was not applicable, for reasons which strain credulity, considering that all licensed attorneys comprising the DA’s staff are sworn to uphold and to enforce all this nation’s laws, their knowledge of such laws being presumed.
The real handicap for Respondent Thompson, and for all others with similar claims, is that there is no vicarious liability attributable to the municipal employer under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for federal civil rights violations of its employees, the Supreme Court had previously ruled in other cases. Instead, municipal liability, itself, would have to be established which could only be done by showing “decisions of government lawmakers, acts of government policymaking officials, and practices so persistent and widespread as to practically have the force of law.” The policymaking official herein, Harry Connick, Sr., father of the entertainer of like name, claimed Thompson could not prove that he had knowledge of the need for “Brady” training and was deliberately indifferent to affording such training. The Court agreed, and took away a $14,000,000 damages award, plus over a million dollars in attorney’s fees and costs which had also been awarded.
Ironically, earlier in March 2011 the Executive Branch, through the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, issued a scathing report of its investigation of the New Orleans Police Department’s deep and wide-spread statutory and Constitutional violations in its operation. Such violations could not have been unknown to the District Attorney’s Office, and were probably well known to that office, whose cases come exclusively from that City’s police. Because this judgment was reversed outright, and not remanded in any respect for new trial, Thompson’s counsel may never be able to use that Justice Department Report to establish a pattern and practice of similar violations in the DA’s office, itself. http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/nopd_report.pdf
Although this decision sounds horrific, it is consistent with prevailing U.S. Supreme Court precedents in all respects, unfortunately, despite the arguments of the four dissenting justices.
#30
CONNICK, District Attorney et al V. THOMPSON, Case No. 09-571, Decided 3/29/2011
U.S. Supreme Court Opinion review
By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
In a 5-4 decision the United Supreme Court, on March 29, 2011, reversed a $14million dollar civil judgment in favor of a black man, John Thompson, of New Orleans, who had sued the District Attorney of New Orleans, after being twice wrongly convicted of armed robbery, and murder, in separate trials, due to illegally withheld evidence, showing his innocence. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-571.pdf
The District Attorney’s office “conceded” that its prosecutors had violated the law in being failing its obligation turn over “Brady” materials, prior to either trial, to counsel for the Respondent Thompson. They admittedly failed to turn over an exculpatory lab report, or its analysis of a bloody cotton swatch containing the alleged perpetrator’s blood, as required by the 1963 landmark case, Brady v. Maryland, which was earlier decided by the Supreme Court .
Thompson had type “O” blood, and the withheld cloth swatch from the crime lab showed Type “B” blood from the robber. Clearly, then, Thompson was the wrong man. But, he came within one month of execution, having sat on death row for 14 years, and having served 18 years altogether, before this discovery was made by his investigator. Four New Orleans Parish prosecutors had knowledge of this evidence, and refused to disclose its existence to Thompson. He had also lost appeals and collateral actions in both state and federal court in unsuccessful attempts to gain his freedom.
Even so, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Thomas, ruled that the civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. 1983, which prohibits violation of federal rights under color of state law, could not be used to establish municipal liability based on merely one incident—particular one’s own—rather, a pattern of similar abuses would have to be established. An evenly divided Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal en banc decision to the contrary was reversed by the Supreme Court, leaving Thompson with nothing.
Somewhat remarkably, the Court found that four (4) similar violations over ten (10) years was insufficient to show a pattern of deliberate indifference under Canton v Harris, another Supreme Court precedent on which Thompson relied, because a jury had rule against Thompson on his pattern or practice claim. Thus, Thompson was left only with his failure to train claim as a basis for municipal liability, which the Court described as “nebulous.” The Canton v Harris Court also found that where a violation is “obvious,” one need not establish a prior practice of similar abuses.
Respondent Thompson argued, unsuccessfully, it was “obvious” that the prosecutors’ failure to turn over the exculpatory evidence, which only it had, or had knowledge of, and its pursuit of criminal convictions, notwithstanding non-disclosure of these “Brady” materials, was an “obvious” constitutional violation. But, the Supreme Court found its prior, Canton v. Harris decision’s “obvious” alternative dicta was not applicable, for reasons which strain credulity, considering that all licensed attorneys comprising the DA’s staff are sworn to uphold and to enforce all this nation’s laws, their knowledge of such laws being presumed.
The real handicap for Respondent Thompson, and for all others with similar claims, is that there is no vicarious liability attributable to the municipal employer under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for federal civil rights violations of its employees, the Supreme Court had previously ruled in other cases. Instead, municipal liability, itself, would have to be established which could only be done by showing “decisions of government lawmakers, acts of government policymaking officials, and practices so persistent and widespread as to practically have the force of law.” The policymaking official herein, Harry Connick, Sr., father of the entertainer of like name, claimed Thompson could not prove that he had knowledge of the need for “Brady” training and was deliberately indifferent to affording such training. The Court agreed, and took away a $14,000,000 damages award, plus over a million dollars in attorney’s fees and costs which had also been awarded.
Ironically, earlier in March 2011 the Executive Branch, through the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, issued a scathing report of its investigation of the New Orleans Police Department’s deep and wide-spread statutory and Constitutional violations in its operation. Such violations could not have been unknown to the District Attorney’s Office, and were probably well known to that office, whose cases come exclusively from that City’s police. Because this judgment was reversed outright, and not remanded in any respect for new trial, Thompson’s counsel may never be able to use that Justice Department Report to establish a pattern and practice of similar violations in the DA’s office, itself. http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/nopd_report.pdf
Although this decision sounds horrific, it is consistent with prevailing U.S. Supreme Court precedents in all respects, unfortunately, despite the arguments of the four dissenting justices.
#30
“AFRICAN AMERICAN PASSOVER”
“AFRICAN AMERICAN PASSOVER”
BY Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
God, give us the vision to see, the faith to believe, and the courage to do, your will. Amen.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit & Presented by
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Pastor, Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri
E-mail lcole81937@ aol.com
Presented at St. John A.M.E. Church, Kansas City, Missouri
Rev. Ronnie McCowan, Pastor
April 19, 2000, a/k/a 14 Nisan 5760
1. What Is the “African American Passover?”
African American Passover is a religious celebration of the “passing over” of people of African descent from slavery to freedom, and from “Jim Crow” to desegregation. In short, it is a memorial to our corporate deliverance, as a peculiar people, with no citizenship to second class citizenship, and finally after the shedding of blood and sowing of tears, to full citizenship. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”( Psalms 126:5)
2. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to the Passover of Exodus?
In Exodus, God intervened to effect the deliverance of the Hebrew Children from Egyptian oppression through the instrumentality of Moses and Aaron. In America, God intervened to effect the deliverance of African children from American oppression through the instrumentality of the Civil War. In the former case, God divided the Red Sea. In our case, God divided a nation. While the Hebrew Children were able to walk across on dry land, through a divided Red Sea, over 250,000 black soldiers were blessed to fight and to win our freedom, by fighting with the North, against the South, in what our people called “The Freedom War.” The Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox, Virginia.
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
BY Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
God, give us the vision to see, the faith to believe, and the courage to do, your will. Amen.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit & Presented by
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Pastor, Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri
E-mail lcole81937@ aol.com
Presented at St. John A.M.E. Church, Kansas City, Missouri
Rev. Ronnie McCowan, Pastor
April 19, 2000, a/k/a 14 Nisan 5760
1. What Is the “African American Passover?”
African American Passover is a religious celebration of the “passing over” of people of African descent from slavery to freedom, and from “Jim Crow” to desegregation. In short, it is a memorial to our corporate deliverance, as a peculiar people, with no citizenship to second class citizenship, and finally after the shedding of blood and sowing of tears, to full citizenship. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”( Psalms 126:5)
2. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to the Passover of Exodus?
In Exodus, God intervened to effect the deliverance of the Hebrew Children from Egyptian oppression through the instrumentality of Moses and Aaron. In America, God intervened to effect the deliverance of African children from American oppression through the instrumentality of the Civil War. In the former case, God divided the Red Sea. In our case, God divided a nation. While the Hebrew Children were able to walk across on dry land, through a divided Red Sea, over 250,000 black soldiers were blessed to fight and to win our freedom, by fighting with the North, against the South, in what our people called “The Freedom War.” The Confederate General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox, Virginia.
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
3. Why Is African American Passover Being Held Now?
African American Passover is being held now to fulfill Exodus 12:14, “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” April 9, 1865, the date of the “African American Passover,” has never been formally celebrated or recognized, heretofore. Thus, this celebration is being held now to correct this 135 year old lag, omission, sin. By celebrating this Passover, we show our gratitude to God, even as we identify ourselves, as our slave forebears correctly did, with the Hebrew Children of the Old Testament, archetypally. The closest we have come, as a people, to celebrating our freedom is the Juneteenth Celebration. This celebration was initiated when the General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to let the Texas slaves know that they were free.
4. How Does the Church Profit from “African American Passover?”
The Church profits when its people profit. The church is glorified, when its people are glorified. When the people of God are glorified, God is more so glorified. African American Passover can serve as a missing link between the Word of God, and the day-to-day lives of certain African American people. Some may be won to Christ without such a celebration, but others may be won to Christ, because of such a celebration. Thus, as a missionary tool, as a historical tool, as an inspirational tool, African American Passover can prove profitable to the Church. But, most of all, African American Passover, is sound doctrine and scripture for a people who have been “scattered and peeled, from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled....” Isaiah 18:7 African American Passover brings about closure and a new beginning for a people created in Christ
5. What Is Meant by African American People Are “Created in Christ.”
In his book, The Negro Church in American, (Schocken Books, NY: 1972) Dr. E. Franklin Frazier, the great sociologist, explained that the Christian religion provided a new basis of social cohesion among the slaves, whose former culture was obliterated. He states on page 6, “It is our position that it was not what remained of African culture or African religious experience but the Christian religion that provided the new basis of social cohesion. It follows then that in order to understand the religion of the slaves, one must study the influence of Christianity in creating solidarity among a people who lacked social cohesion and a structured social life.” In short, without Christ, we were not a people. Otherwise stated, because of Christ, we became a people. “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10) The Lord has stated, “This people have I formed for myself that they may show forth my praise.” (Isaiah 43:21). “They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Psalms 22:31) “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 102:18)
6. How Does the “African American Passover” Relate to A.M.E. Discipline?
The Doctrine and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church makes no specific provision for “African American Passover.” No such celebration has existed previously. However, the Articles of Religion, section 22 states, “It is not necessary that rites and ceremonies should in all places be the same, or exactly alike; for they have been always different, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.” Thus, nothing in the A.M.E. Discipline proscribes or prohibits the African American Passover celebration.
7. Is the African American Passover Only for African Americans?
No. The triumph of African American people is a story of human triumph. It is one of the greatest epochs of triumph in human history, possibly the greatest. It is the stuff of universal legend. Thus, everyone can delight in it. It shows what is possible for any people to achieve through faith and work. Thus, as Jesus was not only for the Jews, even though he was a Jew, African American Passover is not only for African Americans, even though it is celebration of African American history and spirituality.
8. Will Not the Emphasis on History Overshadow Faith?
No. History is the stage upon which God operates. It is the framework in which God works His will. Hebrews 11 is a beautiful example of how history and faith interrelate and reinforce each other, and how each can be reconciled in Christ. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
9. Are Broader Spiritual Themes Implicit in African American Passover?
Absolutely. In the ultimate sense “Passover” connotes a spiritual transcendency from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, from a natural body to the spiritual body, from a living soul, to a quickening spirit. Passover, in the final sense, is all about the resurrection of the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) It is about victory over the grave and death. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” Passover on an individual level is about choices. None of us had a choice in our sex, in our race, in our place of birth, in our physical characteristics. However, each of us can choose our spiritual characteristics. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
10. How Was “The African American Passover” Concept Created and by Whom?
“Jesus the author and finisher of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) operating through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilized the instrumentality of Rev. Dr. Larry D. Coleman, pastor of Brooks Chapel A.M.E. Church, Butler, Missouri, who is also a Kansas City attorney, to proclaim and to implement the African American Passover. Truly, “Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
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