Malcolm X lahir pada tanggal 19 Mei 1925 Omaha, Nebraska. Nama semasa kecilnya adalah Malcolm Little. Ayahnya adalah seorang pendeta bernama Earl sedangkan ibunya bernama Louise Little. Ayahnya aktif dalam organisasi UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) organisasi yang gigih memperjuangkan perbaikan hidup orang negro di amerika namun sayangnya ayahnya tersebut terbunuh oleh kelompok rasis kulit putih Ku Klux Klan tahun 1931. Sepeninggal ayahnya hidup malcolm makin sulit apalagi setelah ibunya mengalami sakit jiwa. Pada tahun 1941 ia pindah ke rumah Ella, kakaknya di Boston. Teman barunya Shorty dan Sophia pacarnya yang berkulit putih ternyata semakin menjerumuskannya. Malcolm menjadi pelaku kriminal dan dipenjara selama tujuh tahun (1946 – 1952) pada usianya yang ke 20.

Penjara tersebut ternyata menjadi awal titik balik kehidupan malcolm. Saudaranya yang sering mengunjunginya seperti Reginald, Philbert dan Hilda mengenalkan ajaran islam kepada malcolm. Saudara – saudaranya tersebut ternyata pengikut Black Muslims / Nations of Islam (NOI) yang didirikan oleh Elijah Muhammad. Setelah itu malcolm semakin sering berkirim surat baik dengan saudaranya maupun dengan elijah sendiri. Pada tahun 1952 ia keluar dari penjara dan tidak lama setelah itu bergabung. Simbol X dibelakang namanya merupakan tanda anggota Black Muslims yang diartikan sebagai generasi yang hilang. Malcolm semakin bersinar di NOI. Hal ini membuat hubungannya dengan sang penidiri, Elijah Muhammad semakin merenggang. Elijah takut pamornya akan meredup dan tersaingi malcolm. Puncaknya malcolm dipecat dari Nations of Islam.

Setelah keluar dari NOI malcolm berusaha mendirikan organisasinya sendiri. Pandangannya terhadap islam juga semakin terbuka setelah dia melakukan perjalanan haji ke Mekkah. Ia menyadari bahwa banyak ajaran dari NOI pimpinan Elijah yang keliru. Islam tidak mengajarkan kebencian terhadap ras kulit putih, tidak membedakan warna kulit. Adapun kebencian antara kulit putih dengan negro waktu itu hanyalah sebatas kesalahan sikap dan prilaku. Salah satu cara untuk mengatasi pertikaian ras tersebut adalah dengan menerima prinsip persamaan derajat dan keesaan tuhan. Dan setelah melakukan perjalanan haji itu, malcolm X merubah namanya menjadi El Hajj Malik El Syabazz. Pada tanggal 28 Juni 1964 ia mendirikan organisasi yang bernama Organization of Afro-American Unity. Pada tahun yang sama ia melakukan kunjungan ke tanah leluhurnya di afrika. Pada tanggal 26 Februari 1965 saat akan memberikan ceramah di hotel di New York El Hajj Malik El Syabazz tewas ditembak oleh tiga orang Afro-Amerika. Meskipun demikian visinya tentang islam yang humanis dan anti rasialis telah menggugah kesadaran banyak orang.

“Saya tahu masyarakat seringkali membunuh orang-orang yang berusaha mengubah mereka menjadi lebih baik. Jika saya mati dengan membawa cahaya bagi mereka dengan membawa kebenaran hakiki yang akan menghancurkan kanker rasisme yang menggerogoti tubuh Amerika Serikat (AS) semua itu terserah kepada Allah SWT. Sementara itu kesalahan atau kekhilafan dalam upaya saya itu semata-mata adalah dari saya sendiri“.

“Perjalanan haji telah membuka cakrawala berpikir saya dengan menganugerahkan cara pandang baru selama dua pekan di Tanah Suci. Saya melihat hal yang tidak pernah saya lihat selama 39 tahun hidup di Amerika Serikat. Saya melihat semua ras dan warna kulit bersaudara dan beribadah kepada satu Tuhan tanpa menyekutukannya. Benar pada masa lalu saya bersikap benci pada semua orang kulit putih namun saya tidak merasa bersalah dengan sikap itu lagi karena sekarang saya tahu bahwa ada orang kulit putih yang ikhlas dan mau bersaudara dengan orang negro. Kebenaran Islam telah menunjukkan kepada saya bahwa kebencian membabi buta kepada semua orang putih adalah sikap yang salah seperti halnya jika sikap yang sama dilakukan orang kulit putih terhadap orang negro“.

ref :

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
http://www.dakwatuna.com/2008/malcolm-x-black-muslim-yang-tercerahkan/

]]> http://underprivilegedjournalism.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/obama-the-fly-the-devil/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:49:08 +0000 Slaughter Lightfoot http://underprivilegedjournalism.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/obama-the-fly-the-devil/

Quote from artnews: “The fly, … …. usually appears as a symbol of evil, plague and pestilence. A small fly seen alongside a saint is a reference to Satan, the great tempter, otherwise known as the Lord of the Flies.

“The white man has met every criteria to have his title ‘The Devil‘ applied to him,” says Yakub Muslim and publisher Antioch Hades. “Prophecies in each of the great books foretold of his failure to change and this shameful & glorifying destruction he is now experiencing.” 

Yakub and Jacob

The name Yakub is a variant of the Semitic name Jacob, which appears in European language versions of the Bible. The Roman transliteration of the Hebrew original is Ya’akov. Fard Muhammad’s Yakub has some parallels to the Biblical Jacob’s role as the father of the tribes of Israel. The idea that Jews were an “artificial race” created by interbreeding and dependent on “tricks and lies” already existed in anti-Semitic theories of the time.^[6]

The claim that descendents of Yakob were artificial included Jews as part of the wider “white” race.

The claim that descendents of Yakob were artificial included Jews as part of the wider “white” race.^[7] In speeches by Malcolm X Yakub is identified completely with Jacob. Referring to the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, Malcolm X states that Elijah Muhammad told him that “Jacob was Yacub, and the angel that Jacob wrestled with wasn’t god, it was the government of the day”. This was because Yakub was seeking funds for his expedition to Patmos, “so when it says Jacob wrestled with an angel, ‘angel’ is only used as a symbol to hide the one he was really wrestling with”. However, Malcolm X also states that John of Patmos was also Yakub, and that the Book of Revelation refers to his deeds: “John was Yacub. John was out there getting ready to make a new race, he said, for the word of the lord”.^[8]

Malcom X Day

This one here is for the All-American Rebel, Malcolm Little A.K.A. El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Born May 19, 1925, he went on to become a Human Rights Activist, African American Muslim minister and public speaker. After experiencing a tumultuous childhood, and a mischievous young adult life, he became a member of The Nation Of Islam in prison. In 1952 he became one of the Nation’s leaders and chief spokesman, for nearly 12 years he was the public face of the Nation Of Islam. He left the Nation in 1964, after tensions between he and Elijah Muhammad boiled over. He went on to become a Sunni Muslim and went on pilgrimage to Mecca, he was later assassinated during a speech in New York City. During his time he was a fierce orator, often making his opponent very flustered with his cool, calm logic. “Nuff Said. Peace!!

GOATMILK introduces its original and exclusive month long series entitled “Facing Race: Muslims and Islam” featuring diverse Muslim writers from around the world discussing race, ethnicity, prejudice, stereotyping and multiculturalism in the post 9-11 world.

YES, WHITE PEOPLE ARE DEVILS. YES, THAT INCLUDES ME.

By Michael Muhammad Knight

No, I don’t believe in Yacub, the evil scientist who grafted the devil from the Original Man, or the 23 wise scientists who trained Master Fard Muhammad to end the devil’s 6,000-year rule; nor do I believe that Elijah Muhammad is alive on the Mothership. These are myths, like our myth of the Prophet flying into space on a horse. But they’re true in a way that runs deeper than facts.

I didn’t see it at the time, but my teen conversion to Sunni Islam was, in part, an attempt to undo whiteness. I loved Malcolm’s righteous anger, the way that he damned everything in my world, making Islam my teen rebellion. While immersed in Malcolm’s autobiography and Public Enemy lyrics, I met my father for the first time. When he turned out to be a white supremacist who threw around the N-word and professed racial separatism, it proved to me the truth of Malcolm—which was, of course, the truth of his teacher, Elijah Muhammad.

I could only access Malcolm, however, through his short life after breaking with Elijah—when he went to Mecca, experienced transcendent brotherhood with Muslims of all colors, and joined the larger Islamic tradition. Islam, Malcolm promised, was the only solution to America’s race problem. Inspired by his autobiography, I formally became Muslim at a Sunni mosque in Rochester, New York, and in my senior year of high school spent two months studying at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Absorbed in Sunni Islam, I would not have accepted Elijah Muhammad or Louis Farrakhan as Muslims, but eventually found cracks in Malcolm’s fairy tale. In terms of racism, the Middle East lagged a century behind America. Bahrain had only abolished its slave trade in 1937; Kuwait, 1947; Qatar, 1952; Yemen, 1962; the United Arab Emirates, 1963; Oman, 1970. Saudi Arabia had officially abolished slavery just two years before Malcolm’s pilgrimage, but still possessed a slave population of 300,000 and executed its captured runaways. In July 1965, less than six months after Malcolm’s assassination, a United Nations report revealed that King Ibn Sa’ud still possessed hundreds of slaves.

More challenging than the crimes of kings and nation-states was the existence of racial inequality at the very core of our tradition, with narrations of the Prophet himself owning black slaves. Classical Shi’a texts quoted Ali as warning against marriage with black people, since they were a “distorted creation,” and an 18^th-century Maliki jurist had said that only unbelievers would claim that the Prophet was black. In stories still included in the Saudi books today, pre-Islamic goddesses such as al-Uzza are portrayed as deranged black women, pulling out their hair in grief when their idols are smashed.

When it came to the disease of racism, I learned that Islamic authenticity was not attached to moral authority. Louis Farrakhan has something for the “real” Muslims, if they’d listen to him. In summer 2008, I returned to Pakistan, and learned from the billboards and my own reception on the streets that Pakistan remains a white supremacist country; I could be God there if I wanted it. In December, I made my own hajj to Mecca, and overheard an Arab mocking a black man as “Abd” (slave) outside the Haram on a Friday afternoon. Sorry, Malcolm, the fairy tale’s dead. The answer to white supremacy isn’t Arab supremacy.

If a religion’s purpose is to explain the presence of evil in the world, Elijah Muhammad has done his job, even teaching some devils. Reading whiteness as a social construct, the Nation of Islam’s teachings become an appropriate response to American history. If you’re born white in a white supremacist society, and you inherit that privilege and negative culture, then yes, you’re the devil. Take out the Yacub stuff and the spaceships, and Elijah Muhammad makes perfect sense. The myths just dress it up, telling the truth with fiction.

Elijah’s son, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed touched on this when, during his reform of the Nation towards mainstream Islam, he spoke of white devilry as a “mindstate.” Islam, Malcolm told me in his autobiography, removed the “white” from Caucasians’ minds. Minister Farrakhan has also stated that the problem was not white skin, but a mentality that created real devils when used as the basis for a social order.

For some time, I’ve been dipping into the Nation of Islam’s initiatory text, the Supreme Wisdom Lessons, a series of question-answer dialogues between Elijah Muhammad and his teacher, Master Fard Muhammad. And I build with the Five Percenters, a movement that began in 1960s Harlem with a man named Allah. A former member of the Nation of Islam, Allah left the mosque and began sharing the Lessons with youths on the streets.

Though the Lessons taught that devils could not be reformed, Allah took a white student under his wing, a teenager who he named Azreal. According to Five Percenter tradition, Allah gave Azreal the “keys to heaven and hell,” allowing him to come and go as he pleased. Nearing 60 and still in the movement, Azreal loves to tell stories about Allah. After watching civil rights demonstrators on TV getting sprayed with fire hoses, Azreal came crying to Allah that he was ashamed of being white. Allah told him that he could not be blamed for his skin. “Allah loved everybody,” Azreal told the New York Times in 1969, after Allah’s assassination.

Whiteness studies pioneer Noel Ignatiev famously called to “abolish the white race.” He didn’t mean physical genocide. The way that I read him, Ignatiev comes off like a Muslim Son putting in his 35-50 (read your Lessons). Allah had reportedly said that when god and devil walked hand in hand, there was no longer a devil. A respected elder of the Five Percent once told me that if I was righteous, I couldn’t be called a devil. In his own Mecca, Harlem, Allah had experienced a rebirth similar to Malcolm’s hajj experience. Like Malcolm, he gave the snake a chance.

Ignatiev declared, “treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.” My engagement of the Five Percenters sometimes feels like a ritualization of that treason, the surrendering of this devil’s head. It’s also my own heritage as an American Muslim, a gift that I wish I could give to the rest of the Muslim world: here, take Master Fard Muhammad. Take the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Take this man named Allah. You need them as much as us.

Michael Muhammad Knight is author of The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip-hop, and the Gods of New York.

Welcome To My Elijah Muhammad Research Forums!

Feel Free to Explore as well as positively contribute to my research on The Elijah Muhammad Temples of Islam. And His Nation of Islam Teachings as he received them direct from Almighty God ALLAH in the Person of Master FARD MUHAMMAD.

Yours in Freedom & Truth!

The Elijah Muhammad Research Staff

The nation of Islam is making a conscious effort to develop a more diversified membership. The organization, founded in the 30s to encourage black nationalism and preach self-reliance, is looking to recruit immigrants, Asians, and Native Americans. Ishmael Muhammad, the son of the late Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, has begun attending immigrant’s rights events and addressing the gatherings in English and Spanish.

I wonder if the poor economy will assist the Nation of Islam in reaching people that would have never considered it before. Evidence shows that during times of crisis some people, looking for something to believe in, turn to religion.

21 Februari 1965,

Malcolm X, pemimpin legendaris warga kulit hitam AS, tewas ditembak

Renne R.A Kawilarang, Edwin Solahuddin

Sabtu, 21 Februari 2009, 10:02 WIB
Renne R.A Kawilarang, Edwin Solahuddin

VIVAnews – Pada tanggal 21 Februari 1965, Malcolm X, pemimpin legendaris warga kulit hitam AS, tewas ditembak dari jarak dekat oleh tiga pria bersenjata.

Menurut laman berita BBC, Malcolm ditembak saat tengah berpidato di hadapan ratusan pendukungnya di distrik Harlem, New York. Pria yang memiliki empat orang anak tersebut tewas dengan lima belas luka tembakan sesaat setelah tiba di rumah sakit.

Malcolm X, yang bernama asli Malcolm Little, merupakan mantan pemimpin organisasi Nation of Islam (NoI). Ia keluar dari organisasi kulit hitam tersebut pada tahun 1964 setelah berseteru dengan pendirinya, Elijah Muhammad.

Malcolm kemudian mendirikan organisasi keagamaan baru bagi warga Muslim kulit hitam bernama Muslim Mosque, Inc. Organisasi baru ini lebih bersifat moderat dan menganut ajaran Islam orthodoks, bukan yang telah dimodifikasi seperti yang dilakukan Nation of Islam.

Perubahan sikap Malcolm X yang telah berganti nama menjadi El Hajj Malik El Shabazz sepulangnya dari Mekkah tersebut, tidak disenangi para pemimpin Nation of Islam. Berkali-kali anggota kelompok tersebut melakukan percobaan pembunuhan terhadap Malcolm dan keluarganya.

Seminggu sebelum peristiwa penembakan, rumah Malcolm di New York dibom oleh orang tidak dikenal. Puncaknya, pada 21 Februari 1965, tiga pria bersenjata menerobos ruangan tempat Malcolm berpidato di Manhattan dan langsung menyarangkan lima belas peluru ke tubuhnya.

Pada bulan Maret 1966, tiga orang pembunuh Malcolm dijatuhi hukuman seumur hidup. Dua di antara mereka merupakan anggota Nation of Islam.

Dua puluh enam tahun kemudian, Kisah hidup El Shabazz diangkat ke layar perak dengan judul Malcolm X. Film yang diperani oleh Denzel Washington tersebut berhasil meraih nominasi Oscar untuk kategori Aktor Terbaik dan Kostum Terbaik.
• VIVAnews

“I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam.” – Malcolm X

Every year, on this day, February 21st, I always get reminded of how this extraordinary man had a profound impact on my life. Reading his autobiography and studying his life in college showed me a human being who epitomized the meaning of a true leader. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t curse or swear, and a lot of that was inspired by Malcolm X. To me, his life represents the life-long human learning experience. Unlike our contemporary politicians and so-called “world-leaders,” he was a man who was never afraid of admitting his mistakes. His humility, passion, and perseverance in the face of sheer adversity will always be admirable to me.

His life also shows how people can dramatically change by the Infinite Grace of Allah subhanna wa ta’ala. Here was a man who was involved in drug dealing, robbery, gambling, lusting after women, and steering prostitutes. Although he did not convert to true Islam in prison, Allah found him and pulled him out of darkness. Malcolm X gave up his old habits and turned towards self-educating himself. It’s amazing how much he would read in prison and take so many notes, and eventually become one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known.

He broke off from the “Nation of Islam” (which is very different from Islam, so much so that the teachings are completely contrary to what Islam teaches) after performing his Hajj in the Holy City of Mecca. Rumi says one must travel to Mecca in their heart first, but there are such places in the world that are just so filled with the Divine Spirit that they touch people’s souls in such incredible ways. Malcolm states in his autobiography that he had never experienced such sincere hospitality and brotherhood as practiced in Mecca. The Hajj, as Malcolm says, made him change his whole way of thinking. He learned that judging people by the color of their skin was not only wrong, but also un-Islamic and represented the worst human being. Malcolm discovered that there were Muslims of all different colors in Mecca. Malcolm says that, in Mecca, it was the first time he had ever stood before the Creator of All living things and felt like a complete human being. When Malcolm left Mecca, he said:

“A part of me, I left behind in the Holy City of Mecca. And, in turn, I took away with me, forever, a part of Mecca.”

It’s heart-wrenching for me whenever I think about his assassination on February 21st, 1965 and how he was murdered in front of his wife and children. I know that if Malcolm were alive today, many things would be different. There would be more understanding and far less ignorance. But his life continues to inspire young Muslims and non-Muslims around the world. His teachings and his message is needed more than ever now, and it should be our duty to carry out that responsibility. As many say, Malcolm was not killed for who he was; he was killed for who he was becoming. Muslims and non-Muslims alike take great offense when Malcolm is labeled a “racist,” a “black supremacist,” or an “extremist.” Anyone who brands Malcolm those things has never studied his life or listened to the beauty of his words.

May we always remember brother Malcolm in our hearts and prayers for he symbolizes the voice of truth, social justice, and equality; the Martyr of God who will never be forgotten. May our Loving Creator bless his beautiful soul and grant him peace.

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem… I am not a racist in any form whatsoever. I don’t believe in any form of discrimination or segregation. I believe in Islam. I am a Muslim and there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, nothing wrong with the religion of Islam. It just teaches us to believe in Allah as the God. Those of you who are Christian probably believe in the same God, because I think you believe in the God who created the universe. That’s the One we believe in, the One who created the universe–the only difference being you call Him God and we call Him Allah. The Jews call Him Jehovah. If you could understand Hebrew, you would probably call Him Jehovah too. If you could understand Arabic, you would probably call Him Allah.”

– Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz (Malcolm X)

The gunmen rose from the crowd and set their sights on Malcolm X. The thunder of shotgun blasts ripped through the ballroom, and Betty Shabazz turned to see her husband float backward, keel over and crash to the ballroom stage. She grabbed her children, hurling them beneath a booth and shielding them with her body while the room erupted into screams and chaos. As she lay there squeezing her family, the Betty Shabazz who was the dutiful and obedient wife of the Civil Rights Movement’s most feared leader ceased to be, and the woman who emerged would become one of the greatest heroines of our day.

Betty Shabazz, Surviving Malcolm X is the first major biography of Dr. Betty Shabazz, the unsung and controversial champion of the Civil Rights era. From her early marriage to black liberation’s raging voice through her evolution into a powerful and outspoken African-American leader, Betty Shabazz was in constant struggle to bring freedom and justice to her people. Yet, at times her greatest fight was to struggle through tragedy and hold on to her faith amidst the stereotypes forced on her by a culture of racism and the very people she was trying to liberate.

To read Betty Shabazz, Surviving Malcolm X is to experience this remarkable life. With eloquent and intimate prose, Russell J. Rickford puts you on the scene as a young Betty Sanders is taken in by foster parents after a troubled childhood. You are there as Malcolm X comes home from a hard day of railing against oppression to hug his children, dote on his wife and laugh. You dive under the table at the Audubon Ballroom as bullets strike Malcolm down. You struggle with Betty Shabazz as she fights to raise six girls alone while earning a doctorate. You stand triumphant with her as she claims her own individuality and fights to build respect for Malcolm. And you stand watch with her daughters as Betty passes away, a victim of yet another tragedy, but this time after a life lived full.

Russell J. Rickford has conducted extensive research to compile this biography, interviewing more than seventy of Betty Shabazz’s family members, friends, colleagues and contemporaries as well as researching countless records and documents, including recently declassified FBI, CIA and New York Police files. This is the first complete look at the life of Betty Shabazz and a new insight into the man who was known as Malcolm X.

Betty Shabazz is the story of a strong woman who faced incredible tragedy and emerged triumphant, compassionate and always full of life. In the end, it is the story of a nation torn apart by hatred learning to heal and forgive.

Betty Shabazz, Surviving Malcolm X is available at Amazon for $15.56. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Growing Up X
• Betty Shabazz: A Sisterfriends Tribute in Words and Pictures
• Betty Shabazz: Sharing the Vision of Malcolm X (African-American Biographies)
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
• Malcolm X (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Feared and revered malcom x crystallized the hopes and dreams of blacks demanding human rights for african americans during the racially tumultuous and divisive decades of this 1950s and 60s until his 1965 assassination in new york at the age of thirty nine. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/08/2005 Starring: Denzel Washington Delroy Lindo Run time: 202 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Spike Lee

Just as Do the Right Thing was the capstone of Spike Lee’s earlier career, Malcolm X marked the next milestone in the filmmaker’s artistic maturity. It seemed everything Lee had done up to that point was to prepare him for this epic biography of America’s fiery civil-rights leader, who is superbly played by Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington, from his early days as a zoot-suited hustler known as “Detroit Red” to his spiritual maturity after his pilgrimage to Mecca, as a Black Muslim by the name of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Do the Right Thing climaxed with the photographic images of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King engulfed by flames of rage; Malcolm X explores the genesis and evolution of that rage over Malcolm’s lifetime, and how these two great figures–held up to the public as polar-opposites within the African American human rights movement (King for nonviolent civil disobedience, Malcolm for achieving equality “by any means necessary”)–were each essential to the agenda of the other. Lee careens from the hedonistic ebullience of Malcolm’s early days to the stark despair of prison, from his life-changing conversion to Islam to his emergence as a dynamic political leader–all with an epic sweep and vitality that illuminates personal details as well as political ideology. Angela Bassett is also terrific as Malcolm’s wife, Betty Shabazz. –Jim Emerson

Malcolm X (Two-Disc Special Edition) is available at Amazon for $15.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)
• Glory
• School Daze
• Amistad
• A Soldier’s Story

President-elect Barack Obama promised to make his inaugural events the most inclusive ever — and he is making good on his promise.  Just over two weeks after gay rights activists condemned his choice of Saddlebackpastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the ceremony itself, the President-elect and his inaugural committee announced the choice of Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly-homosexual Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, to open the mass event at the Lincoln Memorial with prayer.

Predictably, the committee insisted that the invitation has nothing to do with the furor over naming Warren, who angered homosexual activists and their allies by supporting Proposition 8 in California.  “They called up and said this has actually been in the works for a long time,” the bishop told The New York Times.  He added that the committee also expressed, “and at the same time, we understand that people in the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community have been somewhat wounded by this choice, and it’s our hope that your selection will go a long way to heal these divides.”

The event Bishop Robinson will open with prayer will be a huge opening rally featuring major entertainment figures and a mass gathering on the mall.  Artists invited to perform at the event include Bono, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen, along with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.

The choice of Bishop Robinson is not a complete surprise, since the President-elect had met with the bishop during the campaign.  Of course, Bishop Robinson is one of the most controversial figures in the entire history of the Episcopal Church.  Controversy over his election has led to a schism in his church and a rupture that threatens to unravel the world-wide Anglican Communion.

One interesting facet of the controversies over Warren and Robinson is the fact that the inclusion of the one does not placate the critics of the other.  Homosexual activists are still angry over the choice of Warren to deliver the invocation on January 20.  A host of others will be offended by the choice of Bishop Robinson.  These two responses illustrate the depth of the divide over the issue of homosexuality.  The question cuts to the heart of issues including biblical authority and the very nature of humanity.  Representation is undoubtedly symbolic, but Rick Warren and Gene Robinson represent radically divergent worldviews and incommensurate goals.  They are not two very different representatives of one religion.  They are instead two very symbolic representatives of two very different religions.

That point is made clear courtesy of Bishop Robinson.  Consider this section of the report in The New York Times:

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

“I am very clear,” he said, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language that he said he learned from the 12-step program he attended for his alcohol addiction.

Keep in mind that this man is the Bishop of New Hampshire for the Episcopal Church.  He is “horrified” by the character of previous inaugural prayers as “specifically and aggressively Christian.”

We can be fairly sure that, for Bishop Robinson, “specifically” and “aggressively” mean more or less the same thing.  A review of most recent inaugural prayers reveals virtually nothing that could be fairly described as “aggressive” and remarkably little that can be described as “specific.”  The last two inaugurations have included prayers with greater specificity, to be sure.

The bishop’s comments reveal just about everything one needs to know about his theology.  He pledges that “this will not be a Christian prayer” and he “won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that.”  No, nothing like that.

Recent controversies over praying in the name of Jesus Christ will not be a factor here.  Instead, the bishop said he might address his prayer to “the God of our many understandings” — an expression calculated to be vague. Bishop Robinson says that he learned the language in a 12-step program he attended after developing an alcohol addiction.

“The crisis in the Church of England,” wrote Clive James in The Dreaming Swimmer, “is that too many of its bishops, and some would say of its archbishops, don’t quite realize that they are atheists, but have begun to suspect it.”

The “God of our many understandings” is a confused composite — a very postmodern idol.  Clive James is quite right about the theological crisis of unbelieving bishops – but you need go no farther than New Hampshire to find an example.

Albert Mohler’s blog…..

If I may add….

Rick Warran needs to make a bold statement to not only Barack Obama, but to the entire world by politely stepping down from giving the invocation on January 20th. If he were to do that, he would send shock waves across this country as to the importance of not uniting with a heretic such as Barack Obama and Bishop Robinson. For Barack Obama to say he is a Christian and to have an openly gay Bishop say a non-Christian prayer at his inauguration all the while to have a prominent Christian theologian also speak is just outragious.  I know the importance of there being at least one Christian influence in the opening inauguration of Barack Obama, but to be the one among many strong anti-Christian people is to give a sense that there is unity here. The unity of secularized Christianity and Orthodox Christianity and it sends a message that it is okay….

It’s not!

Matt

Q: A deacon gave the homily at this morning’s Mass, where he spoke of how the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad  inspired the boxer Muhammad Ali, just like the teachings of Jesus Christ inspired John the Baptist.

Catholics have literally thousands of authentic saints to whom we can look for inspiration. This deacon picks a couple of people who weren’t even authentically Muslim, and directly compares them to the greatest of the prophets (John the Baptist) and to Jesus Christ, who is both Savior and God!

My question is: How could the pastor/priest (who was sitting right there, listening) allow such a thing to be preached in a Catholic Church? 

A: I suggest you speak directly to the good deacon and to the pastor about this possibly scandalous homily. You may also want to send a note to your bishop,  just to keep him (the bishop) properly up to date on things. 

Here’s a link to some background information on Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, the Nation of Islam, and on traditional  Islam: http://www.islamfortoday.com/nationofislam.htm

It appears that Muhammad Ali later converted to traditional Islam. 

Here’s what the Catholic Church officially teaches about the authentic Muslim faith (from the Catechism):

841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. “The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”³³⁰

You might also find this post useful:

 http://douglawrence.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/10-rules-for-handling-disagreements-like-a-christian/

One of the tragic casualties of our age has been that of the contemplative life–a life that thinks, a life thinks things through, and more particularly, thinks God’s thoughts after Him. A person sitting at his or her desk staring out the window would never be assumed to be working. No! Thinking is not equated with work. Yet, had Newton under his tree, or Archimedes in his bathtub, bought into that prejudice, some natural laws would still be up in the air or buried under an immovable rock. Pascal’s Pensees, or “Thoughts,” a work that has inspired millions, would have never been penned.

What is even more destructive is the assumption that silence is inimical to life. The radio in the car, Muzak in the elevator, and the symphony entertaining callers “on hold” all add up as grave impediments to personal reflection. In effect, the mind is denied the privilege of living with itself even briefly and is crowded with outside impulses to cope with aloneness. Aldous Huxley’s indictment, “Most of one’s life… is one prolonged effort to prevent thinking,” seems frightfully true. Moreover, the price paid for this scenario has been devastating. As T.S. Eliot questioned:

Where is the life we have lost in the living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of heaven in twenty centuries
bring us farther from God and nearer to dust.

Is there a remedy? May I make some suggestions for personal and corporate benefit? Nothing ranks higher for mental discipline than a planned and systematic study of God’s Word, from whence life’s parameters and values are planted in the mind. Paul, who loved his books and parchments, affirmed the priority of Scripture: “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6). And Psalm 119 promises that God’s statutes keep us from being double-minded.

The church as a whole and the pulpit in particular must challenge the mind of this generation. The average young person today actually surrenders the intellect to the world, presuming Christianity to be bereft of intelligence. Many a pulpit has succumbed to the lie that anything intellectual cannot be spiritual or exciting.

Thankfully there are exceptions. When living in England, our family attended a church where preaching was taken quite seriously and one-hour sermons to packed auditoriums were the norm. Cambridge, being rife with skepticism, demanded a meticulous defense of each sermon text. I mention this to say one thing. When we were leaving Cambridge, our youngest child, who was nine years old, declared the preaching of this church to be one of his fondest memories. Even as a little boy he had learned that when the mind is rightly approached, it filters down to the heart. The matter I share here has far-reaching implications. We do a disservice to our youth by not crediting them with the capacity to think. We cannot leave this uncorrected.

The Bible places supreme value on the thought-life as that which shapes all of life. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he,” Solomon wrote. Jesus asserted that sin’s gravity lay at the level of the idea itself, not just the act. Paul admonished the church at Philippi to have the mind of Christ, and to the same people he wrote: “[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). The follower of Christ must demonstrate to the world what it means not just to think, but to think justly. That is, in the words of aging David to his son Solomon, to “acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

Let us serve the God of creation with both hearts and minds. After all, it is not that I think, therefore, I am, but rather, the great I Am has asked us to think, and therefore, we must.

Ravi Zacharias is founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

What is a Christian Worldview?
 
Everyone has a worldview. Whether or not we realize it, we all have certain presuppositions and biases that affect the way we view all of life and reality. A worldview is like a set of lenses which taint our vision or alter the way we perceive the world around us. Our worldview is formed by our education, our upbringing, the culture we live in, the books we read, the media and movies we absorb, etc. For many people their worldview is simply something they have absorbed by osmosis from their surrounding cultural influences. They have never thought strategically about what they believe and wouldn’t be able to give a rational defense of their beliefs to others. 

The purpose of Christian Apologetics is to equip people to think and live with a consistent and cohesive Biblical worldview. Christians believe that God exists (Heb. 11:6) and that He is the standard by which we measure everything else. God created everything that exists (Gen.1:1) and everything is held together by Him (Col. 1:17). Christians believe the Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word, revealed to mankind (2 Tim. 3:16). Christians believe that the fullness of God came to earth and lived in the human body of Jesus Christ of Nazareth 2,000 years ago (Col. 1:19). Christians believe that mankind chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden and because of that act of rebellion, sin and death entered the world (Rom. 5:12-14).  We believe that believing in (John 3:15-19, 5:24), and obeying (Luke 8:21, John 3:20, John 14:21, 23-24), Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life or to be reunited with God (Acts 4:10-12).

The Christian faith is reasonable and makes sense in a world that has lost its moral compass. Truth is absolute, not relativistic, and can only be understood by submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the one who said “I am the way, the Truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

While Christianity is believed by faith, it is most definitely a reasonable and rational faith. It answers the questions of the mind and the heart. We all live by faith. Some people have faith in themselves. Some have faith in the government or in a hope for world peace. Some have faith in their money, their education or their employment. All of those things are temporal and can change. They can all let us down. Our health can fail, we can lose our job, we can end a meaningful relationship with someone we care about. Life changes, but God can be depended on through it all. He will never leave nor forsake those who belong to Him. (Heb. 13:5b)
Our desire for you is Christ will live in your hearts by faith, and that you will come to know and understand with us the height and the depth and the width and the length of the Love of Christ. It surpasses all human knowledge. We pray that you can be filled with the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:18-19)

~Israel Wayne

It troubles me whenever I read something about Christianity that brings into account that Christians pray to the Saints. I became a Christian several years ago and study the Bible as much as I can. Once I found out that Roman Catholic Christians pray to the saints and pray to Mary, the so-called Mother of God, I thought of that as very weird, because in my study, even as a baby Christian, I never once came across any scripture that said that I could or should bring my request to a saint or a dead person from years past. There is not one scripture that utters this in the slightest.

The other day I read a post from someone that complained about he eeriness of Christianity and it’s praying to the saints. It’s practices like that and others in the Roman Catholic Church that turn people off to Christianity because they are weird and not true. We should not be praying to some dead people, the only one that can hear our prayers and intercede for us is Jesus Christ Himself who died and yet rose and is at the right hand of the father interceding for the saints. You see, Jesus has risen. We have not risen yet! Anyone that dies before the return of Jesus has not risen yet. Jesus is not a saint either. He is God Himself!

The so-called Saints cannot hear you! Let me say that again. The S A I N T S cannot hear your prayers period! They are in the ground. Their soules are in Abrahams buxom just as the rich mans was. He did not know what was going on on earth. He only knew that his brothers did not believe and he wanted to go and warn them. But God said no, because if they did not listen to Moses then they would not believe a ghost either.

A Christian that claims that they pray to the saints, is not praying to God, but to the air.

Some say that Revelation 5:8 is an indication that we are to pray to the Saints, but it does not indicate that at all. As I read that chapter I see that the four creatures and the twenty four elders were holding golden bowls full of the prayers of the Saints. It does not say that we are to pray to them and they bring them before God, but rather the prayers of the Saints were in the bowls. The question is, who are the saints? Well, The Saints are those that have given their lives to Christ. The Saints are believers that pray to God through Christ and it is Christ who mediates as it was Christ as the one that was slain and the one that could take the scroll in that same chapter. Neither does this chapter say that the saints heard the prayers either, all it states is that the prayers were in the bowl as incense. No one heard anything. They are prayers of the Saints, not prayers to the Saints

Rev 5:8

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

The apostle Paul explicitly states that there is only one God and only one mediator. He does not stutter when he says this. To explicitly deny this and go against this very important teaching is heresy.

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Some will argue that there is nothing wrong with asking someone to pray for you so that is why the Saints can pray for us. This is not so. There is no indication in scripture that indicates that the saints can hear you and even if they could, they do not have the special designation to bring our prayers to God to be heard by Him. Look, God hears our prayers through Jesus Christ only. Jesus Himself said that we should pray to Him and He will answer our prayers. He did not say to bring our prayers to Paul or to bring our prayers to Mary. That would nullify the need for Him. He said to bring it to Him because of his unique status in the Kingdom. GOD Himself! There is no one under Heaven by which men can be saved, and there is no name under heaven by which men should bring their prayers either.

Matt

Self-esteem is not solution to human depravity. It aggravates it! The problems of our culture-especially the anguish that wracks individual human hearts-will not be solved by the deception of getting people to think better of themselves.  People really are sinful to the core.  The guilt and shame we all feel as sinners is legitimate, natural, and even appropriate.  It has the beneficial purpose of letting us know the depth of our own sinfulness. We dare not whisk it aside for the faulty teachings of humanistic self-esteem.

     Deep in our hearts , we all know something is desperately wrong with us.  Our conscience constantly confronts us with our own sinfulness. Try as we might to blame others or seek psychology explanations for how we feel, we cannot escape reality.  We cannot ultimately deny our own consciences.  We all feel our guilt, and we all now the horrible truth about who we are on the inside.

     We feel guilty because we are guilty.  Only the cross of Christ can answer sin in a way that frees us from our own shame.  Psychology can mask some of the pain of our guilt.  Self-esteem might sweep it under the rug for a time. Other things, such as seeking comfort in relationships, or blaming our problems on someone else, might make us feel better. The relief is only superficial and very dangerous.  Intact, it often intensifies the guilt, because it adds dishonesty and pride to the sin that originally wounded the conscience.

Passage from John MaCarthur’s book : The Vanishing Conscience

Pride is the cancer of the Nation of Islam. Which in itself is the cancer of the United States. Pride is what separated the Angel Satan from God. He thought of himself as wanting to be greater than God and thus was thrown out of Heaven. Separated from God! With this being the sin that got Satan thrown out of Heaven, why are so many people unaware that it is a sin at all. Most people, blacks more than any, think to have pride in oneself. Black pride with a fist in the air used to be the mado. Even blacks in the Black Church teach to have pride in yourself so that you can be successful. African Americans think this of course after hundreds of years of slavery where there African heritage was striped from them. But, that is no excuse! Pride is a sin and needs to be expunged from our thinking. The sooner it is, the better.

What are the things we take pride in?

Well….. We take pride in how much money we make as this places us in a certain status and we are certainly worried about that. God forbid we be poor and have to live in a low income area or what our society calls “The Ghetto.”

We take pride in our looks. What clothes we wear, what hairstyle we have, whether or not we are physically fit or not. Girls get their pride or self-esteem by trying to look good to the point of wearing their pants half way down their wastes, showing their stomachs, exposing their cleavage, even getting breast enhancements to draw attention to themselves because that is where they get their self esteem from that brings them a sense of pride. Very rarely today will you see young women dressing modestly because their pride is not in how they look, but how they conduct themselves. The same goes with men. We have to have big arms, broad shoulders, and flat stomachs and wear our shirts as tight as we can in order to bring attention to ourselves.

We take pride in all of the things we have. The kind of car we drive, how big our house we live in is. These things help our self esteem and how we think other people view us. We don’t want other people thinking that we are poor so we overspend on all of these things and whined up overdrawing our accounts, creating bad credit ratings because we find we can’t py our credit card bill. In these economic times, we find that people have too much house for their little income and are now wondering why their in foreclosure. It’s because of our prideful selves and not being able to live within our means. We don’t swallow our pride, so we get in over our heads.

The type of pride I am talking about is pride in ones self. When you have pride in yourself our your own kind then you think you are better than others. This is what happened to Satan. This is what happened to our country and this is what has happened to the Nation of Islam. I should note it happened to Hitler in Germany, the whites that took the Africans as slaves, the KKK and others. So it is not just something that has taken the mind of the Nation of Islam. It is a sin that can take control of many and has in our society today.

Fard Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad, and now Louis Farrakhan take black pride to the extreme. Fard and Elijah did so to the extent of trying to create self esteem in black people by getting black people to think that they are better than their white counterparts. They did this by coming up with the stories that they teach in their mosques. That blacks are the chosen people of God. Now that would have been something good to think if it was the truth. This was contradictory to scripture that Elijah Muhammad knew because his father was a preacher, but he decided not to accept because of his hatred towards white people. So he came up with the teachings that white people came from blacks, or should I say a black god created white people. Now, when black people buy into this story they inevitably think that they are superior and not inferior. It’s kind of like reverse psychology. This may have seemed to be a just thing, to help resurrect people from a mind set of inferiority, but it was in fact the wrong thing as it was against the real word of God. This teaching was and is against reality itself. His stories are not true,even in the most minute degree. They are falsehoods bent of creating a prideful mindset. A mindset that says ”I am better than ——-” is a wrong mind set. It is just as wrong as the mind set whites had in the days of slavery. Now, I am not saying that whites don’t have that mindset today because some do. But it was not right and is not right today for blacks or anybody to think that they are superior and another race is inferior. That is not Godly at all.

All Elijah Muhammad had to do was look to Jesus to find a true God esteem instead of a prideful self esteem in himself and his own race. Pride breeds hatred. Pride breeds superiority. Pride breeds selfishness. These are all of Satan who is trying to bring us all down.

Matt

Hank Speaks Out on

Lisa Miller’s Newsweek Article on

Homosexuality and the Bible 

This is special pleading because there is no place in the Bible where you find God defending homosexuality. Indeed, there is not even one unambiguous reference to homosexuality in Scripture in which the practice is not condemned or presented in a negative way. Therefore, you cannot arbitrarily read into a very close relationship or friendship between two men some kind of spurious, physical, homosexual relationship. That’s simply reading into the text something the text doesn’t provide us.

What the text does provide us with is very clear warnings against homosexuality. Romans 1:26-27 says, “…even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” I think it would be difficult to miss the relationship between these words and the current healthcare holocaust we’re experiencing in the United States.

In the past, I’ve gone as far as to say there are attendant moral and medical problems with sexual promiscuity in general, but it would be a homophobic act in the extreme to attempt to obscure the scientific realities concerning homosexuality from those who engage in the practice. It is a hate crime of unparallel proportions to attempt to keep a whole segment of the population in the dark concerning such issues.

What the author of this Newsweek article, Lisa Miller, does I think is just preposterous and in many ways hateful because she is obscuring reality. When she says, “the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman , ” this is absolutely false and all it takes is a cursory reading of the Bible to see that this is so. Jesus points out clearly in Matthew 19 that “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” The passage does not say his “wives” but one man and one woman, so Jesus does very clearly define marriage. In fact, in defining marriage he appeals back to the book of Genesis.

Furthermore, when Miller says, “Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married” that is absolutely untrue. The Bible clearly gives all kinds of reasons why homosexuality is unnatural, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. What Miller is doing is assuming that the person that she is deluding is not going to check her out and actually read the Bible. Anyone who’s read through the Bible once knows that this is untrue. Whether you agree or disagree with it is another issue, but the Bible very clearly prescribes the borders of sexuality and says how we should conduct ourselves sexually. The Bible does this because God wants us to express and experience joy that is complete in sexual relationships. God does this not to be a cosmic kill joy but so that we have genuine, safe, enduring, and satisfying relationships.

Finally, Miller raises the issue that there were certain people in the Old Testament who were polygamous so that real marriage was never practiced, so we should not have an issue with gay marriage. Again, the Bible is very clear that marriage is between one woman and one man and when the patriarchs in the Old Testament defied God on marriage they received the penalty or the consequences for their sin. The Bible never commends polygamy; in fact, God explicitly in Deuteronomy 17:17 forbids the kings from multiplying wives — if God requires the kings to refrain from polygamy, even more so everyone else. While the Bible presents people with all their warts, moles, and wrinkles, it never says that their lifestyle of polygamy is okay. The Bible doesn’t airbrush these things when they happen, but it very clearly says when you do these things, they are sin. David, for example, had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba but then asks for forgiveness and is forgiven; but the consequences followed inextricably like night follows day.

For Miller to obscure the topic of homosexuality and the Bible and teach people that this is okay is kind of like having a cancer specialist who doesn’t treat his patients but tells them, “Its okay, you’ll be fine.” This is what is really homophobic.

For further information on the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage, we have in-depth books and free articles on our Website at www.equip.org.

BAGHDAD – On a whirlwind trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the wars that define his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference in Iraq.

“This is a farewell kiss, you dog!” shouted the protester in Arabic, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

“It was a size 10,” Bush joked later.

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

I just finished reading the following blog post and the comment was closed, but I had to respond. 

Come on! There is no evidence of this Mother plane that Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan preach about! 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile square. Do you realize the size of that aircraft and in it are supposedly 1,500 little planes. I don’t know if the reader or the writer of the copied blog actually knows, but Elijah Muhammad teaches that these little planes will destroy the white man in the last days. Think about it………..That is stupid! To say that is what Ezekiel saw and wrote about is irresponsible of Elijah Muhammad to see that in scripture, make up his story and use it as evidence to support his made up nonsense.

Ezekiel did not see a UFO…..He saw the Glory of Jesus in his vision, not reality!

Ezekiel 1:1

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. (See…..Visions, not reality)

Ezekiel 1:28

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. 

The following is the post I am responding to….

Checking up on the Nation of Islam

When we are aware of the presence of God, we become more aware of ourselves as creatures.

When we meet the absolute, we know that we are not.

When we meet the infinite, we know we are finite.

When we meet the the ever present, we know that we are temporary.

When we meet the all knowing, we know that we no nothing.

When we meet the creator, we know we are the created.

When we meet the necessary, we know that we are unnecessary.

When we meet the wisdom, we know that we are fools.

When we meet the light, we know that we are dark.

When we meet the immutable, we know that we change everyday.

When we meet the life, we know that we are death.

When we meet the sustainer, we know that we are the sustained.

When we meet perfection, we know that we are imperfect.

When we meet simple, we know that we are complicated.

When we meet the beauty, we know that we are ugly.

When we meet the immaterial, we know that we are matter.

When we meet the spirit, we know that we spiritless without the Son.

When we meet the omnipresent, we know that we are only where we are at.

When we meet the unsufferable, we know that we suffer.

When we meet the HOLY, we know that we are not.

I’m not talking about meeting Elijah Muhammad.

I’m not talking about meeting Buddha.

I’m not talking about meeting Fard Muhammad.

I’m not talking about meeting Muhammad.

I’m not talking about becoming a Muslim.

I’m not talking about becoming a Mormon, Jehovah’s witness, or Roman Catholic.

I’m talking about becoming a follower of Christ.

I’m talking about meeting God through Jesus.

That’s what I’m talking about………..

Matt