Saturday, November 30, 2013
NEGROES IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION...EXCERPT
“The commanding general soon discovered that he was amongst a different people from those with whom he had been accustomed to associate. New Orleans, though captured, was not subdued. The city had been for years the headquarters and focus of all Southern rowdyism. An immense crowd of “loafers,” many without regular occupation or means, infested the streets, controlled the ballot-boxes, nominated the judges, selected the police, and affected to rule everyone, except a few immensely wealthy planters, who governed them by money. These rowdies had gradually dissolved society, until New Orleans had become the most bloodthirsty city in the world, a city where every man went armed, where a sharp word was invariably answered by a stab, and where the average of murdered men taken to one hospital was three a day. The mob were bitter advocates of slavery, held all Yankees in abhorrence, and guided by the astute brain of Pierre Soule, whilom ambassador to Spain, resolved to contest with Gen. [Benjamin Franklin] Butler the right to control the city….He at first retained the municipal organization; but, finding the officials incurably hostile, he sent them to Fort Lafayette, and thenceforward ruled alone, feeding the people, re-establishing trade, maintaining public order, and seeing that negroes obtained some reasonable measure of security. Their evidence was admitted, ‘Louisiana having, when she went out of the Union, taken her black code with her;” the whipping-house was abolished, and all forms of torture sternly prohibited.
“The following interesting narrative, given by a correspondent of ‘The Atlantic Monthly,’ will show, to some extent, the scenes which Gen. Butler had to pass through in connection with slavery.—
“’One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down to the breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons assembled in the library.
“’When I reached the door, a member of the staff took me by the arm, and drew me into a room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the system of repression to which they have been so long subjected.
“’Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more revolting than I trust ever again to behold.
“’The poor girl’s back was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of the affair, scanned the various persons about the room….
“’To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded, but urged, in extenuation, that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality, no matter the color of the casket in which it is hidden.
“’I say ‘drawn from the veins of her abuser,’ because she declared she was his daughter; and everyone in the room, looking upon the man and the woman confronting each other, confessed the resemblance justified the assertion….
“’A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the general that Mr. Landry was not only a ‘high-toned gentleman,’ but also a person of unusual ‘amiability’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered, that, no consideration of the prisoner’s ‘high-toned’ character, and especially his ‘amiability,’ of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet those views; and therefore ordered that Landry pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit.’
“It was scenes like the above that changed Gen. Butler’s views on the question of slavery, for it cannot be denied, that, during the first few weeks of his command in New Orleans, he had a controversy with Gen. Phelps, owing to the latter’s real antislavery feelings. Soon after his arrival, Gen. Butler gave orders that all Negroes not needed for service should be removed from the camps. The city was sealed against their escape. Even secession masters were assured that their property if not employed, should be returned. [It is said that pledges of reimbursement for loss of labor were made to such.] Gen. Phelps planted himself on the side of the slave, who would not exile them from his camp, branded as cruel the policy that harbored, and then drove out the slave to the inhuman revenge that awaited him.
“Yet the latter part of Gen. Butler’s reign compensated for his earlier faults. It must be remembered, that, when he first came to New Orleans, he was fresh from Washington, where the jails were filled with fugitive slaves, awaiting the claim of their masters; where the return of the escaped slave was considered a military duty. Then how could he be expected to do better? The spring cannot rise higher than the sprung.
“His removal from the Department of the Gulf, on account of the crushing blows which he gave the ‘peculiar institution,’ at once endeared him to the hearts of the friends of impartial freedom throughout the land…
“It is probably well known that the free colored population of New Orleans, in intelligence, public spirit, and material wealth, surpass those of the same class in any other city of the Union. Many of these gentlemen have been highly educated, have travelled extensively in this and foreign countries, speak and read the French, Spanish, and English languages fluently, and in the Exchange Rooms, or at the Stock Boards, wield an influence at any time fully equal to the same number of white capitalists. Before the war, they represented in the city alone fifteen millions of property, and were heavily taxed to support schools of the State, but were not allowed to claim the least benefit therefrom.
“These gentlemen, representing so much intelligence, culture and wealth, and who would, notwithstanding the fact that they all had negro blood in their veins, adorn any circle of society in the North, who would be taken upon Broadway for colored and educated Cuban planters, rather than free negroes, although man of them have themselves held slaves, have always been loyal to the Union, and when New Orleans seemed in danger of recapture y the rebels under Gen. Magruder, these colored men rose en masse, closed their offices and stores, armed and organized themselves into six regiments, and for six weeks abandoned their business, and stood ready to fight for the defense of New Orleans, while, at the same time, not a single white regiment from the original white inhabitants was raised.”
pp. 86-92, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “General Butler at New Orleans,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923).
“The following interesting narrative, given by a correspondent of ‘The Atlantic Monthly,’ will show, to some extent, the scenes which Gen. Butler had to pass through in connection with slavery.—
“’One Sunday morning, late last summer, as I came down to the breakfast-room, I was surprised to find a large number of persons assembled in the library.
“’When I reached the door, a member of the staff took me by the arm, and drew me into a room toward a young and delicate mulatto girl, who was standing against the opposite wall, with the meek, patient bearing of her race, so expressive of the system of repression to which they have been so long subjected.
“’Drawing down the border of her dress, my conductor showed me a sight more revolting than I trust ever again to behold.
“’The poor girl’s back was flayed until the quivering flesh resembled a fresh beefsteak scorched on a gridiron. With a cold chill creeping through my veins, I turned away from the sickening spectacle, and, for an explanation of the affair, scanned the various persons about the room….
“’To the charge of having administered the inhuman castigation, Landry (the owner of the girl) pleaded, but urged, in extenuation, that the girl had dared to make an effort for that freedom which her instincts, drawn from the veins of her abuser, had taught her was the God-given right of all who possess the germ of immortality, no matter the color of the casket in which it is hidden.
“’I say ‘drawn from the veins of her abuser,’ because she declared she was his daughter; and everyone in the room, looking upon the man and the woman confronting each other, confessed the resemblance justified the assertion….
“’A few days after, a number of influential citizens having represented to the general that Mr. Landry was not only a ‘high-toned gentleman,’ but also a person of unusual ‘amiability’ of character, and was consequently entitled to no small degree of leniency, he answered, that, no consideration of the prisoner’s ‘high-toned’ character, and especially his ‘amiability,’ of which he had seen so remarkable a proof, he had determined to meet those views; and therefore ordered that Landry pay a fine of five hundred dollars, to be placed in the hands of a trustee for her benefit.’
“It was scenes like the above that changed Gen. Butler’s views on the question of slavery, for it cannot be denied, that, during the first few weeks of his command in New Orleans, he had a controversy with Gen. Phelps, owing to the latter’s real antislavery feelings. Soon after his arrival, Gen. Butler gave orders that all Negroes not needed for service should be removed from the camps. The city was sealed against their escape. Even secession masters were assured that their property if not employed, should be returned. [It is said that pledges of reimbursement for loss of labor were made to such.] Gen. Phelps planted himself on the side of the slave, who would not exile them from his camp, branded as cruel the policy that harbored, and then drove out the slave to the inhuman revenge that awaited him.
“Yet the latter part of Gen. Butler’s reign compensated for his earlier faults. It must be remembered, that, when he first came to New Orleans, he was fresh from Washington, where the jails were filled with fugitive slaves, awaiting the claim of their masters; where the return of the escaped slave was considered a military duty. Then how could he be expected to do better? The spring cannot rise higher than the sprung.
“His removal from the Department of the Gulf, on account of the crushing blows which he gave the ‘peculiar institution,’ at once endeared him to the hearts of the friends of impartial freedom throughout the land…
“It is probably well known that the free colored population of New Orleans, in intelligence, public spirit, and material wealth, surpass those of the same class in any other city of the Union. Many of these gentlemen have been highly educated, have travelled extensively in this and foreign countries, speak and read the French, Spanish, and English languages fluently, and in the Exchange Rooms, or at the Stock Boards, wield an influence at any time fully equal to the same number of white capitalists. Before the war, they represented in the city alone fifteen millions of property, and were heavily taxed to support schools of the State, but were not allowed to claim the least benefit therefrom.
“These gentlemen, representing so much intelligence, culture and wealth, and who would, notwithstanding the fact that they all had negro blood in their veins, adorn any circle of society in the North, who would be taken upon Broadway for colored and educated Cuban planters, rather than free negroes, although man of them have themselves held slaves, have always been loyal to the Union, and when New Orleans seemed in danger of recapture y the rebels under Gen. Magruder, these colored men rose en masse, closed their offices and stores, armed and organized themselves into six regiments, and for six weeks abandoned their business, and stood ready to fight for the defense of New Orleans, while, at the same time, not a single white regiment from the original white inhabitants was raised.”
pp. 86-92, THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REBELLION, “General Butler at New Orleans,” by William Wells Brown (BiblioLife, LLC: 1867, 1923).
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Pope Francis' November 24, 2013, encyclical
http://www.scribd.com/doc/187329248/Pope-Francis-s-Nov-24-2013-Evangelii-Gaudium
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
DON'T HOLD BACK!
"Don't hold back!"
Don't hold back on the struggle within. Open the door and let it in.
You'll never know whether it's foe or friend, till you open up and let it in.
Passion is power and power must flow, or leave for another in the know.
Passion must flower, for such is its mission; whether with you is your decision.
Would have, could have, should have are kin: like all frustrated gentlemen.
They all held back on their struggles within; suppressing, not letting it in!
Monday, November 25, 2013
ANCIENT HELIOPOLIS: WORLD LEARNING CENTER
IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN: ARCHITECT OF THE COSMOS, by Robert Bauval & Thomas Brophy (Disinformation Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, San Francisco. CA: 2013), PP. 6-9
“Today, the local Arabs call the spot where the Temple of Heliopolis once stood El Massalah, the Obelisk. This is because the only visible thing that remains—other than a very small part of a temple's foundation and a few pitiful broken statues—is a lonely free-standing obelisk. When the city of Fustat (medieval Cairo) was built by the Arabs starting in the late 7th century, the remains of the temples and buildings of Heliopolis were systematically ransacked and used as a quarry for building material...
“We vividly recall our first trip to Matareya, ancient Heliopolis, in March 1993... A congregation of impressive-looking Coptic bishops had come into the gallery with their bodyguards. Upon seeing us, one of the bodyguards, indicating that he was armed by placing his hand inside his jacket, shouted “no photos!” But one bishop, named Baba Moussa, asked who we were. After we explained that we were taking pictures for a book, he signaled his bodyguards to let us take all the photos we wanted.
“It was still early when we finished, so we decided to go to Matareya to take some photographs of the obelisk of Sesostris I (a 12th-Dynasty king) and whatever else remained of ancient Innu. The obelisk, 120 tons of solid granite towering some twenty meters, stands like a forlorn sentinel helplessly watching the ever-encroaching slums of Cairo. A beggar approached me with one palm outstretched and his other pointing at the obelisk and cried “El-massalah! El-massalah! El-massalah! Bakshish! Bakshish!” We wondered if he, or indeed any of the locals today, were aware that this quasi-abandoned archaeological site was once the greatest center of learning of the ancient world, where scholars from as far off as Greece came to be tutored by the Egyptian priest-scientists of Innu. For thousands of years luminaries like Pythagoras, Eudoxus, Cnidus, and even, it is said, the great Plato came to be taught the sacred sciences of ancient Egypt: geometry, mathematics, medicine, divination, and, above all, astronomy.
“The various epithets given to Heliopolis make this more than evident-- “the chosen seat of the gods,” “the horizon of the sky,” and “the sky of Egypt,” to cite but a few....
“So important was Heliopolis as a seat of high learning that, even though some of the great scholars from Greece may not actually have made the journey to study there, their biographers nonetheless feigned that they had in order to enhance their scholarly prestige. Even Christ did not escape such a connection, for the district of Matareya was once an enclave of 'Followers of Jesus,' later to become the Copts, the Egyptian Christians who fervently believe that the Holy Family received sanctuary at Heliopolis. The canonical gospel of Matthew in fact says that the Holy Family sought refuge in Egypt from King Herod's campaign to kill all baby boys in Palestine. Indeed, to this day, just a few hundred meters down the road from el-massalah, the small Church of the Holy Family stands, its interior walls decorated with scenes of the family entering on a donkey into the semi-ruined city of Heliopolis.”
“Today, the local Arabs call the spot where the Temple of Heliopolis once stood El Massalah, the Obelisk. This is because the only visible thing that remains—other than a very small part of a temple's foundation and a few pitiful broken statues—is a lonely free-standing obelisk. When the city of Fustat (medieval Cairo) was built by the Arabs starting in the late 7th century, the remains of the temples and buildings of Heliopolis were systematically ransacked and used as a quarry for building material...
“We vividly recall our first trip to Matareya, ancient Heliopolis, in March 1993... A congregation of impressive-looking Coptic bishops had come into the gallery with their bodyguards. Upon seeing us, one of the bodyguards, indicating that he was armed by placing his hand inside his jacket, shouted “no photos!” But one bishop, named Baba Moussa, asked who we were. After we explained that we were taking pictures for a book, he signaled his bodyguards to let us take all the photos we wanted.
“It was still early when we finished, so we decided to go to Matareya to take some photographs of the obelisk of Sesostris I (a 12th-Dynasty king) and whatever else remained of ancient Innu. The obelisk, 120 tons of solid granite towering some twenty meters, stands like a forlorn sentinel helplessly watching the ever-encroaching slums of Cairo. A beggar approached me with one palm outstretched and his other pointing at the obelisk and cried “El-massalah! El-massalah! El-massalah! Bakshish! Bakshish!” We wondered if he, or indeed any of the locals today, were aware that this quasi-abandoned archaeological site was once the greatest center of learning of the ancient world, where scholars from as far off as Greece came to be tutored by the Egyptian priest-scientists of Innu. For thousands of years luminaries like Pythagoras, Eudoxus, Cnidus, and even, it is said, the great Plato came to be taught the sacred sciences of ancient Egypt: geometry, mathematics, medicine, divination, and, above all, astronomy.
“The various epithets given to Heliopolis make this more than evident-- “the chosen seat of the gods,” “the horizon of the sky,” and “the sky of Egypt,” to cite but a few....
“So important was Heliopolis as a seat of high learning that, even though some of the great scholars from Greece may not actually have made the journey to study there, their biographers nonetheless feigned that they had in order to enhance their scholarly prestige. Even Christ did not escape such a connection, for the district of Matareya was once an enclave of 'Followers of Jesus,' later to become the Copts, the Egyptian Christians who fervently believe that the Holy Family received sanctuary at Heliopolis. The canonical gospel of Matthew in fact says that the Holy Family sought refuge in Egypt from King Herod's campaign to kill all baby boys in Palestine. Indeed, to this day, just a few hundred meters down the road from el-massalah, the small Church of the Holy Family stands, its interior walls decorated with scenes of the family entering on a donkey into the semi-ruined city of Heliopolis.”
PROVERBS 23:23
Consider Diligently what is Before You
…22Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old. 23Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding. 24The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who sires a wise son will be glad in him.… Proverbs 23:
Sunday, November 24, 2013
10 YEAR SENTENCE FOR HAVING UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
A black preacher, Rev. Samuel Green, a Methodist from Dorchester County, Maryland, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in the 1850's for having in his mere possession a copy of UNCLE TOM's CABIN, an internationally renown, abolitionist, novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe! President Lincoln reportedly quipped upon meeting her, that she was the little lady, whose book had caused the Civil War.
Reading anything was outlawed in Missouri in 1847 by blacks, as were black preachers!
Read all good things!
Contemporary Notice
utc.iath.virginia.edu
2 CORINTHIANS 12: 8-10
Paul's Thorn and God's Grace
…8Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor. 12:
ONE'S ONE TRUTH PATH
Through study, activity, and chance, one eventually may find one's mission in life and may prove one's purpose for being, from among a multitude of alluring verisimilitudes pretending to be one's one true path.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
EMERSON...EXCERPT
"Asked to preach at his old church, [Ralph Waldo] Emerson used the occasion to signal his change of direction... 'The end of being is to know; and if you say the end of knowledge is action, -- why, yes, but the end of action again, is knowledge.'... He told his hearers that this point of view revived old Stoic maxims and precepts. Emerson made a little sequence of them, beginning with 'KNOW THYSELF.'... That realization leads in turn to the injunction 'REVERE THYSELF.'...
"Though he was no scientist, he was extremely interested in the mind of the scientist and in the meaning of science for modern life. In 1793 Thomas Paine had said.., 'science is the true theology' because it is the study of the power and works of God. Emerson now recalled that Bacon had also said that 'man is the minister and interpreter of nature' and that we are intended 'not only to explain the sense of each passage but the scope and argument of the whole book [of nature].'"
P.153, EMERSON A MIND ON FIRE, by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. (1995)
QUOTAS AND THE CIVIL WAR
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/civil_war/years-ago-slaves-enlist-in-union-army/article_71e7ab70-538e-11e3-9929-001a4bcf6878.html
Slave enlistment in the Union army not only counted toward the Missouri enlistment quota of 13,516 men--exempting whites from conscription or enlistment--but each owner received $300 per slave enlisted, as compensation for the slave's freedom.
JOHN F. KENNEDY'S LEGACY
A friend of mine, who is a gifted writer and poet, used the memory of the Kennedy assassination being to her tantamount to the loss of her "emotional virginity."I was struck by her metaphor, and told her so on that post below.
Others affirmed her sentiment comparing her metaphor to innocence. Now, however, I have another, slightly different view of the Kennedy's and the assassination through study.
Rather than "innocence," I would suggest "naiveté" as more apt, Peggy Love.
That the last President assassinated before John F. Kennedy was James A. Garfield, whose background was little known to us, some 80 years prior, had lulled us into lowering our guard, to subconsciously reducing our vigilance. Although, we fully expected black people to be killed, in 1963, as happened with the Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church bombing; or that of Mississippi NAACP leader, Medgar Evers; or that husband and wife team in Florida, Harry T. Moore, et ux., NAACP leaders and teachers who were bombed while asleep in bed in 1951, somehow, we did not expect it to obtrude upon the beauty, the purity, the promise of our "Camelot."
These were rich, powerful white folks and national leaders, not poor black folks, seeking "freedom." Texas, after all, was not Mississippi or Alabama; it was more "West" than "South," so, no that bad!
Camelot was an illusion, it now turns out, with its share of scandal and skulduggery, albeit suppressed by the press, who were participants in the fabrication of the facade, that it foists upon us even now, as the theme of "innocence" or the loss of "emotional virginity" surreptitiously connotes.
Others affirmed her sentiment comparing her metaphor to innocence. Now, however, I have another, slightly different view of the Kennedy's and the assassination through study.
Rather than "innocence," I would suggest "naiveté" as more apt, Peggy Love.
That the last President assassinated before John F. Kennedy was James A. Garfield, whose background was little known to us, some 80 years prior, had lulled us into lowering our guard, to subconsciously reducing our vigilance. Although, we fully expected black people to be killed, in 1963, as happened with the Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church bombing; or that of Mississippi NAACP leader, Medgar Evers; or that husband and wife team in Florida, Harry T. Moore, et ux., NAACP leaders and teachers who were bombed while asleep in bed in 1951, somehow, we did not expect it to obtrude upon the beauty, the purity, the promise of our "Camelot."
These were rich, powerful white folks and national leaders, not poor black folks, seeking "freedom." Texas, after all, was not Mississippi or Alabama; it was more "West" than "South," so, no that bad!
Camelot was an illusion, it now turns out, with its share of scandal and skulduggery, albeit suppressed by the press, who were participants in the fabrication of the facade, that it foists upon us even now, as the theme of "innocence" or the loss of "emotional virginity" surreptitiously connotes.
Friday, November 22, 2013
EMERSON..EXCERPT
"The Instructed Eye"
"While Emerson waited in his room in Liverpool, he returned in his journal to the problems he had left behind. With a new decisiveness and clarity he formulated for himself what he called the 'errors of traditional Christianity as it now exists' and of 'religionists.' The latter, he thought, 'are clinging to little, positive, verbal, formal versions of the moral law...while the laws of the Law, the great circling truths whose only adequate symbol is the material laws, astronomy etc. are all unobserved and sneered at when spoken of.' He now counted Calvinism and Unitarianism among the imperfect versions....Here Emerson made his explicit break with most of orthodox, formal Christianity. 'I feel pledged,' he wrote, 'to demonstrate that all necessary truth is its own evidence: that no doctrine of God need appeal to a book; that Christianity is wrongly received by all such as take it for a system of doctrines... It is a rule of life not a rule of faith.'...
"Rushing on--working now in bold strokes--Emerson outlines the purpose of life not in terms of the traditional catechism but in terms of Goethe's 'Bildung,' or self-cultivation: 'The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself.' He declares himself free not only of the conventional past but of the conventionally conceived future: 'He is not to live to the future as described to him, but living to the real future by living to the real present.' He closes his sketch of main points with a simple statement of the central truth of religious--not secular--humanism, the idea that is also the fundamental foundation of democratic individualism: 'The highest revelation is that God is in every man.' This is not anthropomorphism but its antithesis, theomorphism."
Pp.151-152, EMERSON THE MIND ON FIRE, by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. (University of CA Press, Berkeley: 1995)
ISAIAH 55
The Compassion of the Lord
55 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
STUDY!
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge....Study to show thyself approved unto God..."
These simple instructions were abandoned by the blacks long before the European or Muslim slave trades in Africans were conceived; long before Africans began internally trading themselves and lost their knowledge of God/self.
Consequently, study is the key. Ignorance, fear, and superstitions, have been our racial undoing. Perhaps it was foreordained in our stars; perhaps that explains why ancient blacks left pyramids, monuments, temples, statues, papyri, holy books, fractions, geometry, arts and sciences behind for their blind to see!
No need to stupidly ask any more, "What must I do, what can we do to help?" Study!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
SPINOZA, EXCERPT
"Prop.I. Our mind is in certain cases active, and in certain cases passive. Insofar as it has adequate ideas, it is necessarily active, and insofar as it has inadequate ideas, it is necessarily passive.
"Prop. II. Body cannot determine mind to think, neither can mind determine body to motion or rest or any state different from these, if such there be....
"Prop. XV. Anything can accidentally be the cause of pleasure, pain, or desire.
"Prop. XVIII. A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.
"XXI. He who conceives that the object of his love is affected pleasurably or painfully, will himself be affected pleasurably or painfully; and the one or the other emotion will be greater or less in the lover according as it is greater or less in the thing loved.
"Prop. XXV. We endeavor to affirm, concerning ourselves, and concerning what we love, everything that we conceive to affect pleasurably ourselves, or the loved object. Contrariwise, we endeavor to negative everything, which we conceive to affect painfully ourselves or the loved object.
"Prop. XXVIII. We endeavor to bring about whatsoever we concede to conduce to pleasure; but we endeavor to remove or to destroy whatsoever we conceive to be truly repugnant thereto, or to conduce to pain.
"Prop. XXX. If anyone has done something which he conceives as affecting other men pleasurably, he will be affected by pleasure, accompanied by the idea of himself as cause; in other words, he will regard himself with pleasure. On the other hand, if he has done anything which he conceives as affecting others painfully, he will regard himself with pain."
Pp.129- 151, "Origin and Nature of the Emotions," ETHICS, by Benedict de Spinoza ( Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY: 1667, 1989)
"Prop. XV. Anything can accidentally be the cause of pleasure, pain, or desire.
"Prop. XVIII. A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.
"XXI. He who conceives that the object of his love is affected pleasurably or painfully, will himself be affected pleasurably or painfully; and the one or the other emotion will be greater or less in the lover according as it is greater or less in the thing loved.
"Prop. XXV. We endeavor to affirm, concerning ourselves, and concerning what we love, everything that we conceive to affect pleasurably ourselves, or the loved object. Contrariwise, we endeavor to negative everything, which we conceive to affect painfully ourselves or the loved object.
"Prop. XXVIII. We endeavor to bring about whatsoever we concede to conduce to pleasure; but we endeavor to remove or to destroy whatsoever we conceive to be truly repugnant thereto, or to conduce to pain.
"Prop. XXX. If anyone has done something which he conceives as affecting other men pleasurably, he will be affected by pleasure, accompanied by the idea of himself as cause; in other words, he will regard himself with pleasure. On the other hand, if he has done anything which he conceives as affecting others painfully, he will regard himself with pain."
Pp.129- 151, "Origin and Nature of the Emotions," ETHICS, by Benedict de Spinoza ( Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY: 1667, 1989)
EUCLID'S PROPOSITION 35
The Republicans are the Tea-Party. The Tea-Party is the Republicans. This is proven geometrically by Euclid's Proposition 35.
Euclid's Elements, Book I, Proposition 35
aleph0.clarku.edu
MAINTENANCE
Maintenance
Getting something engages an additional set of responsibilities known as maintenance.
Be it a car, a house or a spouse, maintenance is an ongoing condition of keeping it, whatsoever it may be!
So, don't just look at the purchase price, look also at the equally considerable costs of maintenance.
If not, the car will protest and breakdown; the house will fall down or be foreclosed; and that lovely spouse will be long gone!
Getting something is one thing, but maintaining it well is quite another!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
"HEIGHTENING CONTRADICTIONS"
The old militants used to practice, "heightening the contradictions" back in the 1960's and early 70's. That meant engaging in activity to induce evil to express itself against the scrim or background of its purported goodness. In theory, the disparity, hypocrisy, the gap, would expose itself, reveal itself. This would bring about consciousness and change. Movement physics. Evil abhors the light, thrives in the dark, waiting secretly.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
HOW VILE... WAR.
"How vile and despicable seems war to me! I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. My opinion of the human race is high enough that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the peoples not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the Press." Albert Einstein, IDEAS AND OPINIONS, p.10-11 (Three Rivers Press, NY: 1954, 1982)
Monday, November 18, 2013
HOLY SPIRIT
THERE IS NO SPIRIT APART FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT. EMBRACE IT AND BE BLESSED. IT IS OF GOD AS ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD INCLUDING US ALL.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
SEWARD AND TUBMAN NEXUS
WILLIAM H. SEWARD AND HARRIET TUBMAN: A LESSER KNOWN NEXUS
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
11/17/13
William H. Seward is remembered primarily today by the phrase “Seward's Icebox or Seward's Folly.” While U.S. Secretary of State he purchased Alaska from Russia for 2 cents per acre in 1867.
However, he was also a former U.S. Senator, New York Governor, Republican Party founding member, lawyer, land speculator, Presidential candidate; was nearly assassinated with Lincoln on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth's accomplice in a coordinated attack; husband, father, and dedicated abolitionist.
For me, however, William H. Seward most stands out as the decades-long benefactor of Harriet Tubman. Her most substantial financial contributor, along with his wife, Frances, Seward “sold” Tubman a 7-acre homestead in Auburn, New York, he had inherited to Tubman, which Tubman worked and inhabited with her family, friends, and freedmen seeking shelter, from 1859 forward.
In that respect, Kate Clifford Larson, author of BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO (2004), writes:
“During the late winter or early spring of 1859, William H. Seward offered Tubman a small parcel of property on the outskirts of Auburn, New York. Seward had inherited a seven acre farm from his father-in-law, Elijah Miller, on South Street, near the tollgate on the Auburn and Fleming town lines. For a total of $1200, Seward sold the property to Tubman. Originally known as the Burton Farm, the lot consisted of a house, a barn, several outbuildings, and tillable land, providing ample room for Tubman, her parents, and any other family members or friends who were in need of a home...
“Seward's wife, Frances, may have been instrumental in the transfer of the property. Their son, William H. Seward, Jr., may have negotiated the deal with Tubman, handling the financial and legal terms in his father's absence. According to Sanborn, 'to the credit of the Secretary of State [Seward] it should be said, that he sold her property on very favorable terms, and gave her some time for payment.' This was not the first time Seward had sold property on 'favorable terms' to individuals in need. Seward, and later his son, built small frame dwellings in and around Auburn on property they owned, selling them for sums ranging from $300 to $500 to immigrant and black families. Seward had long been a supporter of immigration and sought to protect the rights of immigrant families, and his commitment to the abolition of slavery and the attainment of equal rights of African Americans was well-documented by this time. Though the property was larger and more valuable than the other properties Seward sold to needy families, Seward's decision to assist Tubman was consistent with his other philanthropic and community commitments.
“In lieu of a $1200 payment, Seward accepted a mortgage on 'easy terms,' that is, Tubman put down $25 on the home and contracted to make quarterly payments of $10 with interest. This offer is remarkable for several reasons. First, Seward was selling the property to a woman, a black woman at that, with no obvious and steady means of income. Property ownership by women was uncommon in this period, and Seward could have required that the property be sold to her father, who was legally free. But Tubman must have made a strong argument for selling the property to her and her alone. There were legal considerations, however: What if her husband, John Tubman, appeared and demanded his rights to the property? Did her suffragist friends advise her as to the best legal course to protect herself, her property, and her family? As a New York resident, Tubman would have had limited citizenship rights. But her status as a fugitive slave lent legal complexity to an already unusual legal transaction. Tubman was not a citizen; she held no rights either as a free black or a slave. The Dred Scott decision handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857, had denied that blacks, free or enslaved, could be citizens. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 also placed Seward in a precarious position. Seward was probably commiting an illegal act by selling the property to a known fugitive slave. Conceivably, he could have been arrested for aiding Harriet Tubman.... (pp.163-165)
“On October 10, 1872, William H. Seward died, and his son, Frederick, inherited the note on the property which had grown to over $1500.... On May 29, 1873, Frederick Seward signed over the seven-acre property to Tubman in exchange for a lump-sum payment of $1200, the original mortgage on the home. The rest of her debt to the Seward estate was forgiven.” (p.255)
The Wikipedia link below affords further information on William H. Seward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Seward
William H. Seward is remembered primarily today by the phrase “Seward's Icebox or Seward's Folly.” While U.S. Secretary of State he purchased Alaska from Russia for 2 cents per acre in 1867.
However, he was also a former U.S. Senator, New York Governor, Republican Party founding member, lawyer, land speculator, Presidential candidate; was nearly assassinated with Lincoln on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth's accomplice in a coordinated attack; husband, father, and dedicated abolitionist.
For me, however, William H. Seward most stands out as the decades-long benefactor of Harriet Tubman. Her most substantial financial contributor, along with his wife, Frances, Seward “sold” Tubman a 7-acre homestead in Auburn, New York, he had inherited to Tubman, which Tubman worked and inhabited with her family, friends, and freedmen seeking shelter, from 1859 forward.
In that respect, Kate Clifford Larson, author of BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND: HARRIET TUBMAN, PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN HERO (2004), writes:
“During the late winter or early spring of 1859, William H. Seward offered Tubman a small parcel of property on the outskirts of Auburn, New York. Seward had inherited a seven acre farm from his father-in-law, Elijah Miller, on South Street, near the tollgate on the Auburn and Fleming town lines. For a total of $1200, Seward sold the property to Tubman. Originally known as the Burton Farm, the lot consisted of a house, a barn, several outbuildings, and tillable land, providing ample room for Tubman, her parents, and any other family members or friends who were in need of a home...
“Seward's wife, Frances, may have been instrumental in the transfer of the property. Their son, William H. Seward, Jr., may have negotiated the deal with Tubman, handling the financial and legal terms in his father's absence. According to Sanborn, 'to the credit of the Secretary of State [Seward] it should be said, that he sold her property on very favorable terms, and gave her some time for payment.' This was not the first time Seward had sold property on 'favorable terms' to individuals in need. Seward, and later his son, built small frame dwellings in and around Auburn on property they owned, selling them for sums ranging from $300 to $500 to immigrant and black families. Seward had long been a supporter of immigration and sought to protect the rights of immigrant families, and his commitment to the abolition of slavery and the attainment of equal rights of African Americans was well-documented by this time. Though the property was larger and more valuable than the other properties Seward sold to needy families, Seward's decision to assist Tubman was consistent with his other philanthropic and community commitments.
“In lieu of a $1200 payment, Seward accepted a mortgage on 'easy terms,' that is, Tubman put down $25 on the home and contracted to make quarterly payments of $10 with interest. This offer is remarkable for several reasons. First, Seward was selling the property to a woman, a black woman at that, with no obvious and steady means of income. Property ownership by women was uncommon in this period, and Seward could have required that the property be sold to her father, who was legally free. But Tubman must have made a strong argument for selling the property to her and her alone. There were legal considerations, however: What if her husband, John Tubman, appeared and demanded his rights to the property? Did her suffragist friends advise her as to the best legal course to protect herself, her property, and her family? As a New York resident, Tubman would have had limited citizenship rights. But her status as a fugitive slave lent legal complexity to an already unusual legal transaction. Tubman was not a citizen; she held no rights either as a free black or a slave. The Dred Scott decision handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857, had denied that blacks, free or enslaved, could be citizens. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 also placed Seward in a precarious position. Seward was probably commiting an illegal act by selling the property to a known fugitive slave. Conceivably, he could have been arrested for aiding Harriet Tubman.... (pp.163-165)
“On October 10, 1872, William H. Seward died, and his son, Frederick, inherited the note on the property which had grown to over $1500.... On May 29, 1873, Frederick Seward signed over the seven-acre property to Tubman in exchange for a lump-sum payment of $1200, the original mortgage on the home. The rest of her debt to the Seward estate was forgiven.” (p.255)
The Wikipedia link below affords further information on William H. Seward.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Seward
Saturday, November 16, 2013
IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN...EXCERPT
"A lonely obelisk stands in the northeast part of the modern city of Cairo. It represents Heliopolis, the most revered "center of learning" of the ancient world. Most Egyptologists believe that Heliopolis existed long before the pyramids. It was known as Innu by the ancient Egyptians; later, the Hebrews called it On; much later still, the Greeks gave it the current name of Heliopolis, which means "City of the Sun." Today, local inhabitants call it Ain Shams, "Eye of the Sun.
"Egyptologists tell us that Heliopolis was headed by a high priest--the 'our mau,' or Chief of the Observers--whose main function was to observe the night sky and the motion of the stars. One such high priest, indeed the earliest known to us by name and the most revered, was a man called Imhotep, "He Who Comes in Peace." So famous and admired was Imhotep that, during the latter part of Pharaonic civilization, he was venerated as a god. Later the Greeks regarded him as the Father of Medicine associating him with Asclepius and thus bestowing on him the unique position of being a historical human, not a king, who was officially deified....
"The truth, however, is that very little is known about Imhotep the man. Although he receives high praise from Egyptologists and historians alike and is often referred to as a genius--or the inventor of architecture or the father of science--Imhotep's true identity is largely the subject of guesswork and speculation. In fact, as the high priest of Heliopolis during the 3rd Dynasty of Egyptian kings, Imhotep's name appears less than half a dozen times in contemporary texts. The recent academic work on the 3rd Dynasty refers to him in only seven of its 300 pages, with most of the information culled from writings long after Imhotep's time. In short, one could say that Imhotep is a Jesus of deep antiquity--highly mythologized and eventually divinized, but with little or no contemporary archaeological or textual evidence to support the myth. The main reason for this huge lacuna is that Egyptologists have generally ignored one of Imhotep's most important proficiencies: his highly advanced knowledge of astronomy."
P.1-2, IMHOTEP THE AFRICAN, ARCHITECT OF THE COSMOS, by Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Ph.D. (Disinformation Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, San Francisco, CA: 2013)
OF RIGHT AND PRIVILEGE
OF “RIGHT” AND “PRIVILEGE”
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Saturday, November 16, 2013
A “right” is from God. A “privilege” is from man. Don’t get them twisted.
No one and nothing has a “right” to life. Life is a “gift” from God.
Ephesians 2:8-10
King James Version (KJV)
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
“Rights” are from God, not from man. "Right" is to life as shadow is to substance. The life-giving light of God gives rise to both “right” and “shadow.” Without that life-giving light, neither right nor shadow could be.
In short,” rights” are not derivable from man. Neither are rights conferrable by man.
"Privileges" are from man, and may be bestowed by man.
Man through conquest, persuasion, or mutual convenience, allots conditional privileges to those who pay tribute to him, who defer to him or trade with him.
It is frequently foolish to trade one's God-given "rights" for man's arbitrary "privileges". Yet, many people do precisely that without coercion, voluntarily!
The Declaration of Independence recognizes, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...” Yet, the U.S. Constitution converts those “rights” into “privileges” accorded only to some, not to all, men.
There is a historical disconnect between the aspiration and the manifestation!
Blacks, whether enslaved or free, were excluded as “free persons” from that phrase in the Constitution by the U.S. Supreme Court in its infamous, Dred Scott v. Sanford decision in 1857. Being deemed “Non- free persons,” blacks were judicially deemed to be “all other persons.”
“All other persons” is found in the 3/5’s clause of the Constitution: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
ARTICLE I, SECTION 2, CLAUSE 3”
Our black and enslaved forebears were irrepressible in celebration of their right to life! For our sake, and our children’s sake, they suffered the denial of the privileges afforded to those judicially-defined “free persons,” in accordance with the teaching of Job 14:14, “until my change comes”… “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”
When, that change came, when their chance came, they took it! Whether on land or on sea; whether by running away or by stowing away; whether by armed mobilization or by nonviolent demonstration-- self-liberation of their God-given “right” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness , joy, was their aim.
Our enslaved forebears intuitively understood that “rights,” our “joy” was from God, even if America’s courts still do not!
“This joy that I have the world didn’t give it and the world can’t take it away,” sings Shirley Caesar out of the righteous wisdom idioms of our enslaved forebears. That song most fittingly concludes this essay ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlgl54RaMmY
#30
Friday, November 15, 2013
THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS
THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
11/15/13
As grade school children we were indoctrinated with the myth that our national Thanksgiving holiday had to do with starving Pilgrims being fed by benevolent “Indians” at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. Accordingly, we would participate in pageants in celebration of the kindness of the natives and of the gratitude of the English-speaking, religiously-persecuted, immigrants in the ocean-crossing big canoes.
Bonnets, Indian headdresses, corn and turkeys were its symbols in those days of innocent ignorance.
Much later as an adult, I learned that our real national Thanksgiving holiday came into being by another Executive Order of President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During the Civil War, his more notable Executive Order of 1863 had been the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in rebellious states, and which enabled the enlistment of black troops in the Union Army, on January 1. These new 200,000 troops, this “sable arm,” in conjunction with their “contraband” kindred, turned the tide victory in favor of the Union. For this more favorable turn to the war, Lincoln was thankful and vindicated.
Hence, the Thanksgiving holiday, that we first met in grade school, had less to do with benevolent natives “up North.”and had more to do with self-liberating, Union-saving, Negroes “down South!”
Linked below is President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation. Happy Thanksgiving!
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
Thursday, November 14, 2013
VERY COMMON SAYINGS MISTAKEN FOR SCRIPTURE
http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/sayings.cfm
THESE VERY COMMONS SAYINGS ARE NOT IN THE BIBLE, BUT COULD EASILY BE FROM THE SOUND OF THEM AND THEIR SENSE!
FALSE APOSTLES
…13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. 2 COR. 11:
THE SUM OF IT ALL
THE SUM OF IT ALL
Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Thursday, November 14, 2013
In my study of history, I was led into the presence of God.
I went so far back back back into the black black black that I was blinded by the fact fact fact of the omnipresent, omniscient light of God.
Whether in the study of the humanities, the arts, the sciences, nature, the mathematics, philosophy, theology, astronomy, poetry: always, unerringly, to God I was led and returned.
God's omnipotent, illuminating, infinitely unfolding, and infinitesimally loving, paradigm is life's richest drama and life’s most enabling lesson; indeed, it is the life and the lesson, itself!
The sum of it all is this: All roads lead to God and all roads radiate from God. Amen.
St. Louis' massacre in 1917 of Negroes
"In New York, the Age republished an eyewitness account by a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [July 3, 1917].
"For an hour and half last evening I saw the massacre of helpless Negroes at Broadway and Fourth streets, in downtown St. Louis, where a black skin was a death warrant... I saw man after man, with hands raised, pleading for his life, surrounded by groups of men--men who had never seen him before and knew nothing about him except that he was black--and saw them administer the historic sentence of intolerance, death by stoning. I saw one of these men almost dead from a savage shower of stones, hanged with a clothes line, and when it broke, hanged with a rope which held. Within a few paces of the pole from which he was suspended, four other Negroes lay dead or dying, another having been removed dead, a short time before... I saw Negro women begging for mercy and pleading that they had harmed no one, be set upon by white women of the baser sort, who laughed and answered in coarse sallies of men as they beat their faces and breasts with fists, stones, and sticks."
P.100-101, HARLEM'S HELL FIGHTERS, by Stephen L. Harris, (Potomac Books, Washington, D.C.: 2003)
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
THE GREAT AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT GAP
There is a curiously illogical, great, "hue and cry" about closing the achievement gap between oppressed black, and privileged white, school children, all over America.
That shrill shill puts the cart before the ox. Frankly, it is dumber than a door nail!
Close the well-known, centuries old, and purposefully imposed, American monetary-property gaps, and the legal-civil rights gaps, first! Then, the so-called, and much ballyhooed, "achievement gap" will close on its own, being the inexorable product of the others!
God is Spirit 2 Cor. 3:17
Where the spirit of The Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Cor. 3:17
"Church" has come to be identified as a place rather than a spirit. So, people wait until they get to church before opening up to the spirit, many times.
However, the "church" being a building not made by hands cannot be so easily confined or defined. The Lord is spirit and where the spirit of The Lord is, there is freedom.
Where was Jesus' church home? Or Paul's? Or any of the disciples'?
In this materialist age, we forget that God is not material, nor metamaterial, but spiritual. So God cannot be confined within this planet, or within, a continent, country, city, building, race, or creed!
God is spirit! We meet that spirit each day -- "life" is what we call it. We meet it on Facebook; we meet God in the most unexpected and unusual places, because God is spirit.
I remember meeting God once at a bar, the Epicurean, during a discussion. All of a sudden one participant said "This is too good, let's pray!" To my amazement those in our group and those nearby joined hands in open prayer of thanksgiving right there at the bar! Amen. Slaves had bush arbors where they met God. Saint and prophets from Paul and Silas to Martin Luther King Jr. Have met God in jail!
God is a spirit, and where the spirit of The Lord is, there is freedom! Amen !
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
History and God
Einstein said time is an illusion. The Bible teaches that what is, was; and what was, shall be. History is all three, it would seem. Both past and future being illusions, and the present being too fleeting to access. The miracle is that we can conceive and perceive at all! What a mighty God we serve!
ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
Standing on the shoulders of giants?
November 12, 2013
by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Sitting on one's behind is not standing on the shoulders of giants.
Neither is sleeping in one's bed, nor resting on one's knees.
One must climb the upward way to reach the shoulders of giants, even as the giants had to do, too.
Bear that in mind, when next you hear this expression:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants
Monday, November 11, 2013
WHY THE DELAY?
WHY THE DELAY? LET'S DO IT TODAY.
Procrastination is a terrible thing. Many of my most pressing regrets are based on it; are based on unnecessary delay; are based on putting off for tomorrow what could and should be done today.
In the end I have had to cram. To pull all-nighters. The end result was never as good as it might have been had I not delayed, had I not procrastinated.
The Ethiopian Eunuch pulled Philip, Jesus' disciple, back from the precipice of procrastination, when he pointedly asked Philip "What's preventing me from being baptized right now? There is water over there." Acts 8 says:
"35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?"
Whether you plan to preach, to teach, to help, to clean, to cook, to paint, to wash, to write, to give, to build, to go, to apologize--whatever it may be; don't delay. Do it today, especially if all you need is at hand!
ACTS 8-- PHILIP AND THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH
26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
OAKEN LEAVES
EXHAUSTED OAKEN LEAVES WAFTING INEXORABLY TO EARTH, LIKE BRONZED SNOWFLAKES, IN BURSTS OF TAPESTRY, ON A GRAY NOVEMBER DAY...
Sunday, November 10, 2013
GOD OF THE LIVING
…26"But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob '? 27"He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken." MARK 12:
materiality of living things
Materiality of living things
If living things, which one cannot see, are material to one's existence and well-being, then it follows, necessarily, that living things that one can see are also, at least, as material to one's existence and well-being. In short, all living things are material to life and to well-being, be they seen or unseen.
EMOTIONS by Spinoza
"On the Origin and Nature of the Emotions"
"Most writers on the emotions and on human conduct seem to be treating rather of matters outside nature than of natural phenomena following nature's general laws. They appear to conceive man to be situated in nature as a kingdom within a kingdom: for they believe that he disturbs rather than follows nature's order, that he has absolute control over his actions, and that he is determined solely by himself. They attribute human infirmities and fickleness, not to the power of nature in general, but to some mysterious flaw in the nature of man, which accordingly they bemoan, deride, despise, or as usually happens, abuse: he, who succeeds in hitting off the weakness of the human mind more eloquently or more acutely than his fellows is looked upon as a seer. Still there has been no lack of very excellent men (to whose toil and industry I confess myself much indebted), who have written many noteworthy things concerning the right way of life, and have given much sage advice to mankind. But no one, so far as I know, has defined the nature and strength of the emotions, and the power of the mind against them for their restraint."
P.127, THE ETHICS, by Benedict de Spinoza (Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY: 1667, 1982)
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
FEED MY SHEEP, FEED MY LAMBS
“FEED MY SHEEP, FEED MY LAMBS”
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
11/08/13
The fact that, in a “SNAP,” on November 1, 2013, 47 million low-income Americans have experienced a food stamp cut of approximately $36.00 per month is both repugnant and unconscionable to me.
The hypocrisy of such a cut is glaring and gross! Hundreds of billion of dollars are expended yearly in federal taxes for crop supports and corporate subsidies. When these are contrasted with food cuts for the working poor, the poorest of the poor, and for their 23 million children, even the rocks cry out!
“Luke 19:40
King James Version (KJV)
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I am one such “stone.” Indeed, a stone-to-the-bone believer in human capacity.
Another remarkable Christian cornerstone, the poor's last true champion, was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That man was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was wrapped up in the throes of a Memphis garbage workers' strike, which had turned violent, compelling his fateful return to Memphis. How, ironic returning to demonstrate the efficacy of “nonviolence,” only to be felled by an assassin's bullet on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel, a triple whammy: fallen leader; besmirching black business; blasting nonviolence's legitimacy.
At the same time, and more to the point of food stamp cuts, Dr. King was enmeshed in a floundering “Poor People's Campaign,” with its garish tent-display of poverty--“Resurrection City”--on the National Mall. King's murder was arguably a respite for him. So great were the pressures—and the forces—under which, and against which, he labored and struggled, as rigorously outlined in David Garrow's award-winning compendium, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, it is a marvel that he lasted that long! These pressures and forces included J. Edgar Hoover's FBI's surveillance, harassment, dirty tricks, and wiretaps; money woes both personal and organizational; including the usual litany of greed, cowardice, desuetude, betrayal, deceit, and all the rest-- common to any movement, including Jesus'--from within and without the civil rights ranks, from clergy and laity, blacks and whites, friend and foe.
It was too much for one man or for one movement; for any man, for any movement.
Hunger and deprivation are well-described in the Bible, a fact upon Dr. King meditated day and night.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 26:11 New International Version (NIV) “11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me.” This statement was true for Christ and true for King; the poor have survived them both!
Yet, the question remains unresolved: Is concern for the poor futile, then, if they are “always” with us? I reply “No!” Never. That inherent, natal, divinity in me, and in Christ, repulses such a preposterous proposition! Indeed, Jesus' teaching about “the least of these” renounces such notions, themselves.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states as follows: “37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Therein lies the answer. Just as we must keep on breathing, breath after breath, and “always,” if we are to remain alive, so must we “always” live up to our natal divinity by doing for “the least of these.” Now, if only someone would tell Congress and state, local and national politicians, the meaning of Jesus' words!
#30
The fact that, in a “SNAP,” on November 1, 2013, 47 million low-income Americans have experienced a food stamp cut of approximately $36.00 per month is both repugnant and unconscionable to me.
The hypocrisy of such a cut is glaring and gross! Hundreds of billion of dollars are expended yearly in federal taxes for crop supports and corporate subsidies. When these are contrasted with food cuts for the working poor, the poorest of the poor, and for their 23 million children, even the rocks cry out!
“Luke 19:40
King James Version (KJV)
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I am one such “stone.” Indeed, a stone-to-the-bone believer in human capacity.
Another remarkable Christian cornerstone, the poor's last true champion, was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That man was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was wrapped up in the throes of a Memphis garbage workers' strike, which had turned violent, compelling his fateful return to Memphis. How, ironic returning to demonstrate the efficacy of “nonviolence,” only to be felled by an assassin's bullet on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel, a triple whammy: fallen leader; besmirching black business; blasting nonviolence's legitimacy.
At the same time, and more to the point of food stamp cuts, Dr. King was enmeshed in a floundering “Poor People's Campaign,” with its garish tent-display of poverty--“Resurrection City”--on the National Mall. King's murder was arguably a respite for him. So great were the pressures—and the forces—under which, and against which, he labored and struggled, as rigorously outlined in David Garrow's award-winning compendium, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, it is a marvel that he lasted that long! These pressures and forces included J. Edgar Hoover's FBI's surveillance, harassment, dirty tricks, and wiretaps; money woes both personal and organizational; including the usual litany of greed, cowardice, desuetude, betrayal, deceit, and all the rest-- common to any movement, including Jesus'--from within and without the civil rights ranks, from clergy and laity, blacks and whites, friend and foe.
It was too much for one man or for one movement; for any man, for any movement.
Hunger and deprivation are well-described in the Bible, a fact upon Dr. King meditated day and night.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 26:11 New International Version (NIV) “11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me.” This statement was true for Christ and true for King; the poor have survived them both!
Yet, the question remains unresolved: Is concern for the poor futile, then, if they are “always” with us? I reply “No!” Never. That inherent, natal, divinity in me, and in Christ, repulses such a preposterous proposition! Indeed, Jesus' teaching about “the least of these” renounces such notions, themselves.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states as follows: “37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Therein lies the answer. Just as we must keep on breathing, breath after breath, and “always,” if we are to remain alive, so must we “always” live up to our natal divinity by doing for “the least of these.” Now, if only someone would tell Congress and state, local and national politicians, the meaning of Jesus' words!
#30
hunger is curable
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Thursday, November 7, 2013
MOSES WAS A BLACK MAN, AN EGYPTIAN
MOSES WAS A BLACK MAN, AN EGYPTIAN
Thursday, November 07, 2013
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Moses was a black man, an Egyptian.
Therefore the phrase ‘BLACK MOSES’ is unnecessary, being redundant; and tautological.
Moses was black. Period. No need to double-down on the obvious.
An album title of Isaac Hayes even bears that duplicative, misguiding legend “Black Moses.”
Sadly, many black and white Americans have been brainwashed to believe that Moses was ‘white.’
After all, Charlton Heston, the dead movie star, who played Moses in the movie, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, was white. That was proof enough for many of them!
Yet, before either Charlton Heston or the film industry was born American writer, Mark Twain, himself a white man from Missouri, had already written in his travelogue classic, THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, the following, respecting the residents in Tangiers, Morocco in 1869:
“There are stalwart Bedouins of the desert here, and stately Moors proud of a history that goes back to the night of time; and Jews whose fathers fled hither centuries upon centuries ago; and swarthy Riffians from the mountains—born cut-throats—and original, genuine Negroes as black as Moses…”
The Bible, itself describes the miracle of a black man’s hand being turned white as “snow:”
6 And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. EXODUS 4:6
Elsewhere in Midian, Moses was also mistaken for an Egyptian. Exodus 2 says:
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?" 19 They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock." 20 "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat." 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. EXODUS 2:18-21.
Moreover, the Bible says that Moses was “wise” in all Egyptian wisdom: Acts 7:22
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.
That would make Moses equivalent to an Egyptian scribe, savant or hierophant. Moses was very wise, as one might suspect, being raised in Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s daughter, since an infant.
He had spent 40 years being educated as an Egyptian, and away from the Israelites, according to Acts 7:23--
t “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites.”
Unquestionably, Moses was a black man, because the Egyptians were black people. Yet, one is free to “believe” whatever one wishes despite the evidence.
#30
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
cotton picking
I PICKED COTTON ONCE, SYMBOLICALLY, DURING A HOWARD UNIVERSITY STUDENT ASSN. VOTER REGISTRATION FIELD TRIP TO MISSISSIPPI IN 1971, TO SUPPORT CHARLES EVERS' GUBERNATORIAL BID. OUR BUS DRIVER STOPPED, SO I COULD ALIGHT AND JOIN A FARMER AND HIS SON, AS THEY PICKED THEIR COTTON. THEY LAUGHED ALOUD TO LEARN THAT I HAD COME ALL THE WAY TO MISSISSIPPI FROM THE GREAT HOWARD UNIVERSITY IN D.C. TO PICK COTTON WITH THEM. I LAUGHED TOO IN RACIAL FELLOWSHIP. PICKING COTTON IS A WHOLE LOT TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS!TRUST THAT!
A MERE VERSIMILITUDE OF FREEDOM
A MERE VERSIMILITUDE OF FREEDOM
by Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
11/06/13
This morning, as I reflected on last night's (Nov.13, 2013) presention of PBS' outstanding program, “MANY RIVERS TO CROSS,” dealing with the African American Experience in America in the period 1861-1896, that was so expressively narrated by Harvard professor/historian, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., I was reminded of a similarly-themed program that we presented here in both Kansas Cities, Missouri and Kansas, in September and October 2011, at the National Archives and Records Administration Center and at the Kansas City Kansas Community College, respectively.
The thematic thrust of our two panel discussion programs, which I designed and moderated was:
—“If the African Freedom War began on the slave-ships, among captive Africans, during the Middle Passage, and culminated among captive Africans, with victory by the North in the American Civil War, when did the African American Freedom War, actually end?”
a. In December 1865 with ratification of 13th Amendment?
b. In 1965 with passage Voting Rights Act, and ’64 EEO Act?
c. In 2008 with President Barack Obama’s election?
d. It has not ended there’s merely a verisimilitude of freedom!
Like Dr. Gates' televised program, our lively discussions, led by Missouri and Kansas scholars, concluded that (d) was correct: “It (the African American Freedom War) has not ended there’s merely a verisimilitude of freedom!”
The group that organized and presented these twin historical-panel discussions was the Civil War Committee, of the Lorenzo J. Greene branch, of the Association of African American Life and History,(ASALH) Dennis Robinson, Branch President. Mrs. Brenda Vann was invaluable to the process.
The scholars/historians appearing on the respective panels were:
Sub-Topics for discussion and elucidation
Missouri 9/22/2011
Kansas 10/20/2011
1. 13th Amendment, U.S. Const.
Dr. Antonio Holland
Dr. Jennifer Weber
2. CRA 1964 & VRA 1965
Mr. Joe Mattox
Dr. Jimmy Johnson
3. Election of Pres. Barack Obama
Dr. Shawn Alexander
Rep. Valdenia Winn
4. Not ended, Mere Verisimilitude
Dr. Gary Kremer
Mr. Chester Owens
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
SBK OR SOBEK OR SEBEK
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Sobek?o=2800&qsrc=999
Had to look up Sbk or Sobek or Sebek today. This ancient Egyptian deity was unknown to me. h/t Tiffani Balashange Ashemu.
Monday, November 4, 2013
criticism
Criticism is only abrasively destructive when it is not accompanied or mediated by constructive witticism.
As any ass can bray, so any fool can criticize.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
PLATO'S "TIMAEUS," EXCERPT...
PLATO: COMPLETE WORKS, “TIMAEUS,” edited by John M. Cooper (Hackett Pub., Indianapolis, IN: 1995), 1241-1242
“For before the heavens came to be, there were no days or nights, no months or years. But now, at the same time as he framed the heavens, he devised their coming to be. These are all parts of time, and was and will be are forms of time that have come to be. Such notions we unthinkingly but incorrectly apply to everlasting being. For we say that it was and is and will be, but according to the true account only is is appropriately said of it. Was and will be are appropriately said about the becoming that passes in time, for these two are motions. But that which is always changeless and motionless cannot become either older or younger in the course of time—it neither became so, nor is it now such that it has become so, nor will it ever be so in the future. And all in all, none of the characteristics that becoming has bestowed upon the things that are borne about in the realm of perception are appropriate to it. These, rather, are forms of time that have come to be—forms that imitate eternity and circles according to number….
“Time, then, came to be together with the universe so that just as they were begotten together, they might also be undone together, should there ever be an undoing of them. And it came to be after the model of that which is sempiternal, so that it might be as much like the model as possible. For the model is something that has being for all eternity, while it, on the other hand, has been, is, and shall be for all time, forevermore….”
beyond ones and zeros
BEYOND ONE’S AND ZERO’S----
Sunday, November 03, 2013
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
While reading this morning, I was struck by this quotation:
“The synaptic transistor offers several immediate advantages over traditional silicon transistors. For a start, it is not restricted to the binary system of ones and zeros…
“[B]ecause real biological synapses have a practically unlimited number of possible states -- not just 'on' or 'off,'" explains Dr. Shi, in a November 3, 2013 Science News article entitled “Synaptic Transistor Learns While It Computes,” a question naturally arises:
Are there not more “possible states” available to mankind, which embodies “real biological synopses,” than just: on and off ; either-or; this or that; good or bad, given the above quotation?
In fine, don’t many routes get mankind—from “here” to “there” other than our current binary, silicon, paradigms, like one’s and zero’s? Aren’t multiple possibilities prevalent in mankind?
Saturday, November 2, 2013
EYE OF HORUS
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Eye_of_Horus?o=2800&qsrc=999&ad=doubleDown&an=apn&ap=ask.com
The eye of Horus, mathematically and mystically, consists of 64 parts, like the 64 squares on the chess board or 2 cubed; 1/64 being the incommensurable, holy, spiritual dimension of God.
FIXING AMERICA'S LEGAL SYSTEM
FIXING AMERICA'S LEGAL SYSTEM
11/02/13
By Larry Delano Coleman, Esq.
My 33-years of active law practice have shown me the presence of remediable deficiences in the legal system as relates to African American people, traditionally a discrete, despised underclass, judicially.
I would propose that black lawyers, primarily, black people secondarily, and all others, tertiarily, come up with changes to civil, criminal, and administrative rules and procedures in order to expedite justice.
The nation's Attorney General, Eric Holder, in a brilliant address before the American Bar Association this year, admitted that the “justice system is broken.”
Steps to fix that system fall on all citizens, not just judges and lawyers, because it affects all citizens!
To that end, each may begin where they are, by 1) recording on video or writing down an unfortunate encounter with the legal system, along with 2) proposals for improvement to that system based on it.
Then, after consulting with family, friends, neighbors and associates, who may have had similar experiences, combine yourself into legal improvement clubs to edit and perfect your presentations.
Next, either after joining efforts with other clubs, or independently, submit your finding and proposals for improvement to your local and state bar associations and to the chief judges of the various courts, including federal and state legislators. Submit these proposals publicly in front of media to spur on others, if possible, or tape them to the court house door as Martin Luther did in 1599, if nothing else.
It is hoped that this grass-roots effort will mobilize the people to effect the changes so desperately needed. While great media attention is affixed on the “Obamacare” website difficulties, none is on legal changes that are even more necessary to assure justice! Let us fix America's legal system, starting now!
#30
My 33-years of active law practice have shown me the presence of remediable deficiences in the legal system as relates to African American people, traditionally a discrete, despised underclass, judicially.
I would propose that black lawyers, primarily, black people secondarily, and all others, tertiarily, come up with changes to civil, criminal, and administrative rules and procedures in order to expedite justice.
The nation's Attorney General, Eric Holder, in a brilliant address before the American Bar Association this year, admitted that the “justice system is broken.”
Steps to fix that system fall on all citizens, not just judges and lawyers, because it affects all citizens!
To that end, each may begin where they are, by 1) recording on video or writing down an unfortunate encounter with the legal system, along with 2) proposals for improvement to that system based on it.
Then, after consulting with family, friends, neighbors and associates, who may have had similar experiences, combine yourself into legal improvement clubs to edit and perfect your presentations.
Next, either after joining efforts with other clubs, or independently, submit your finding and proposals for improvement to your local and state bar associations and to the chief judges of the various courts, including federal and state legislators. Submit these proposals publicly in front of media to spur on others, if possible, or tape them to the court house door as Martin Luther did in 1599, if nothing else.
It is hoped that this grass-roots effort will mobilize the people to effect the changes so desperately needed. While great media attention is affixed on the “Obamacare” website difficulties, none is on legal changes that are even more necessary to assure justice! Let us fix America's legal system, starting now!
#30
Friday, November 1, 2013
DESCENT OF MAN, EXCERPTS...
THE DESCENT OF MAN, by Charles Darwin, with an introduction by James Moore and Adrian Desmond (Penguin Books, London: 1879, 2004), pp. Xi-xv, xvii-viii
“No gentleman-naturalist seemed an unlikelier candidate to write the Descent of Man than Charles Darwin (1809-82). And no book stirred up such a lasting storm, stretching from Victorian to modern times, with its argument for human evolution and mechanism of racial divergence that Darwin called 'sexual selection'. ...Did ever a book impinge more on the world of science, literature, theology, and philosophy?
“Darwin was an affable, old-world gentleman, and already sixty-two in 1871 when the Descent of Man first appeared. Cambridge-educated, once intended for holy orders, he settled into a rural life, becoming the perfect squire only six years after returning from his circumnavigation aboard HMS Beagle in 1836. He was never the professional 'scientist' in the modern sense, more the last great virtuoso whose home was a living laboratory, and whose wealth released him to lavish time on innovative tomes that themselves bore the stamp of rank. Hardly a man, one would have thought, to shake the world with the Origin of Species (1859)--which avoided the subject of human evolution—let alone the Descent of Man, with its frontal assault on mind and morality.
“Yet, there were always two sides to Darwin. He was the grandson of not only the libertine physician Erasmus Darwin, whose evolutionary poetry stirred democrats at the time of the French Revolution, but also of the potter-industrialist Josiah Wedgwood, a devout Unitarian in a day when Unitarians were persecuted for denying the Holy Trinity and banishing miracles from science. The only reason Darwin was packed off to Christ's College, Cambridge (1828-1831), to study for the Church was because he had failed at medicine. Originally he had attended the more secular Edinburgh University (1825-7)...
“Historically speaking, the Descent was not primarily a book about 'human evolution' as we think of it today. True, Part I compares human and animal anatomies; it controversially delves into the emergence of morality; and in one place it tentatively broaches an ancestral lineage for mankind. But this cannot disguise the fact the book was written to an idiosyncratic agenda. It originated in Darwin's worries about slavery and ended in an explanation of racial divergence...
“Much of Darwin's core work on the evolution of the human races was fired by his revulsion to slavery. He felt not only scientific curiosity but a moral imperative to explain how racial differences arose naturally within one human species. This singular agenda left him viewing life differently from most naturalists of his day...
“Here, then, we trace the roots of his concern for the plight of enslaved races, a concern that would lead to the emancipation of humanity from creationist bondage in the Descent of Man....
“Darwin dreaded publishing Descent. For thirty years he marked time, until colleagues forced his hand. Watching the Origin of Species take a pounding in 1859 in a prim Anglican society, he trembled to reveal the full extent of his heresy: 'How I sh[oul]d be abused if I were to publish on the relation of the human mind to that of lower animals'. A decade later, when Descent did go to press, he warned friends that it would seem 'very wicked'. Churchmen would think him 'an outcast and a reprobate.' He expected 'universal disapprobation, if not execution', meaning, as he told a critic, that the book would 'quite kill me in your good estimation'....
“Race, slavery and sex are the keys to unlock the Descent of Man. But to understand why a minor member of the gentry should have tackled tough questions about racial diversity, let alone the evolution of mankind, we need to start at the beginning—with young Darwin's sensitivity to slavery....
“The evidence of slavery abroad mounted as Darwin grew up. Slavers with packed ships would dump their wretched cargo at sea rather than face arrest. Planters in the West Indies were writing off their investments, working a million slaves to death. Campaigners demanded that slavery itself be abolished to stop the atrocities. In an age of laissez-faire, many saw chattel slavery 'as the symbol of all forces which thwarted individual liberty.'...
“Darwin took in abolitionism with his Wedgwood mother's milk. Among anti-slavery families, the Unitarian Wedgwoods and free-thinking Darwins stood prominent. They joined forces around 1790, when the potter Josiah Wedgwood I cast the famous cameo 'Am I a man and a brother?' and his poetic friend Erasmus Darwin described its 'poor fetter'd SLAVE on bended knee/From Britain's sons imploring to be free' in his masterpiece The Botanic Garden. The fetter'd slave became a fashionable icon, copied on hairpins and snuff boxes. The families grew closer after Darwin's son Robert married Susannah, Wedgwood's eldest daughter, and six grandchildren were born....Josiah, elected a Whig MP in 1832, supported Lord Grey's reforming ministry, which abolished slavery throughout the Empire in 1833.
“This was the world that gave Darwin his moral compass. At Edinburgh University in 1826, John Edmonston, a freed slave from British Guiana, gave young Darwin taxidermy lessons in the museum. The bird-stuffing proved invaluable, and in the Descent of Man he remembered this 'full-blooded negro', whose 'many little traits' showed the similarity of their minds. Edmonston belied those pundits who classified 'negroes' as a separate species. He was proof of the biblical view that all humans belong to one stock descended from Adam. At Cambridge Darwin heard this made into Anglican doctrine: one species needed only one Savior. Later he would ignore the Book of Genesis, but the unity of the human races remained central to his science....”
“No gentleman-naturalist seemed an unlikelier candidate to write the Descent of Man than Charles Darwin (1809-82). And no book stirred up such a lasting storm, stretching from Victorian to modern times, with its argument for human evolution and mechanism of racial divergence that Darwin called 'sexual selection'. ...Did ever a book impinge more on the world of science, literature, theology, and philosophy?
“Darwin was an affable, old-world gentleman, and already sixty-two in 1871 when the Descent of Man first appeared. Cambridge-educated, once intended for holy orders, he settled into a rural life, becoming the perfect squire only six years after returning from his circumnavigation aboard HMS Beagle in 1836. He was never the professional 'scientist' in the modern sense, more the last great virtuoso whose home was a living laboratory, and whose wealth released him to lavish time on innovative tomes that themselves bore the stamp of rank. Hardly a man, one would have thought, to shake the world with the Origin of Species (1859)--which avoided the subject of human evolution—let alone the Descent of Man, with its frontal assault on mind and morality.
“Yet, there were always two sides to Darwin. He was the grandson of not only the libertine physician Erasmus Darwin, whose evolutionary poetry stirred democrats at the time of the French Revolution, but also of the potter-industrialist Josiah Wedgwood, a devout Unitarian in a day when Unitarians were persecuted for denying the Holy Trinity and banishing miracles from science. The only reason Darwin was packed off to Christ's College, Cambridge (1828-1831), to study for the Church was because he had failed at medicine. Originally he had attended the more secular Edinburgh University (1825-7)...
“Historically speaking, the Descent was not primarily a book about 'human evolution' as we think of it today. True, Part I compares human and animal anatomies; it controversially delves into the emergence of morality; and in one place it tentatively broaches an ancestral lineage for mankind. But this cannot disguise the fact the book was written to an idiosyncratic agenda. It originated in Darwin's worries about slavery and ended in an explanation of racial divergence...
“Much of Darwin's core work on the evolution of the human races was fired by his revulsion to slavery. He felt not only scientific curiosity but a moral imperative to explain how racial differences arose naturally within one human species. This singular agenda left him viewing life differently from most naturalists of his day...
“Here, then, we trace the roots of his concern for the plight of enslaved races, a concern that would lead to the emancipation of humanity from creationist bondage in the Descent of Man....
“Darwin dreaded publishing Descent. For thirty years he marked time, until colleagues forced his hand. Watching the Origin of Species take a pounding in 1859 in a prim Anglican society, he trembled to reveal the full extent of his heresy: 'How I sh[oul]d be abused if I were to publish on the relation of the human mind to that of lower animals'. A decade later, when Descent did go to press, he warned friends that it would seem 'very wicked'. Churchmen would think him 'an outcast and a reprobate.' He expected 'universal disapprobation, if not execution', meaning, as he told a critic, that the book would 'quite kill me in your good estimation'....
“Race, slavery and sex are the keys to unlock the Descent of Man. But to understand why a minor member of the gentry should have tackled tough questions about racial diversity, let alone the evolution of mankind, we need to start at the beginning—with young Darwin's sensitivity to slavery....
“The evidence of slavery abroad mounted as Darwin grew up. Slavers with packed ships would dump their wretched cargo at sea rather than face arrest. Planters in the West Indies were writing off their investments, working a million slaves to death. Campaigners demanded that slavery itself be abolished to stop the atrocities. In an age of laissez-faire, many saw chattel slavery 'as the symbol of all forces which thwarted individual liberty.'...
“Darwin took in abolitionism with his Wedgwood mother's milk. Among anti-slavery families, the Unitarian Wedgwoods and free-thinking Darwins stood prominent. They joined forces around 1790, when the potter Josiah Wedgwood I cast the famous cameo 'Am I a man and a brother?' and his poetic friend Erasmus Darwin described its 'poor fetter'd SLAVE on bended knee/From Britain's sons imploring to be free' in his masterpiece The Botanic Garden. The fetter'd slave became a fashionable icon, copied on hairpins and snuff boxes. The families grew closer after Darwin's son Robert married Susannah, Wedgwood's eldest daughter, and six grandchildren were born....Josiah, elected a Whig MP in 1832, supported Lord Grey's reforming ministry, which abolished slavery throughout the Empire in 1833.
“This was the world that gave Darwin his moral compass. At Edinburgh University in 1826, John Edmonston, a freed slave from British Guiana, gave young Darwin taxidermy lessons in the museum. The bird-stuffing proved invaluable, and in the Descent of Man he remembered this 'full-blooded negro', whose 'many little traits' showed the similarity of their minds. Edmonston belied those pundits who classified 'negroes' as a separate species. He was proof of the biblical view that all humans belong to one stock descended from Adam. At Cambridge Darwin heard this made into Anglican doctrine: one species needed only one Savior. Later he would ignore the Book of Genesis, but the unity of the human races remained central to his science....”
the personal question
Religion is an intensely personal experience, and a very private one, too. No one can answer for you, but you, like no one can eat, drink, or breathe for you, but you. That is why Jesus' question in this scripture is more important, by infinity, that Peter's answer! Yet, most Christian doctrines and dogmas elevate, Peter's answer above Christ's question. "Who do you say that I am?" Is the most seminal question in and outside the Bible for the last 2,000 years! What say you?
Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 16:13-15 - New International Version
www.biblegateway.com