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When President Abraham Lincoln constantly used the word "Union" there were then and now many interpretations as to why, and implications for us to wonder about in our own daily unions with each other as believers during our relatively short visibility in the universe. The word is cause to be amazed by attempts at union beyond the womb into the light of wonders achieved by King Solomon of African heritage and builder of the great temple in praise of God. Go further and wonder about the astounding "Sermon On The Mount" that unionized the least of us into believers and threats to the dominating world around them.
In our view, the next great amazement in human history was the writing and adaption of the "American Declaration of Independence" that in reality was an affirmation of divine intervention in the affairs of humanity. What inspired Thomas Jefferson, an aristocratic slave owner, to write such uplifting thoughts that rang out like a cannon fired around the world. African-Americans still lean and learn on those immortal words, ... not the constitution that made it a preamble. Mind you to keep in mind Jefferson's words advanced the thinking of John Locke, ... and should not be confused or denigrated to level of the constitution authorizing slavery and authored by others after the revolution and often cited by Clarence Thomas as his personal bible. The question of interest to us and difficult to answer is how much of what we believe was inherited from our ancestors? In our case, we are inclined to believe Hemings and Lee ancestors were baptized as Episcopalians, ... but had a Jeffersonian view about organized religion and kept it at arms length. Our view is that none of the greatest known minds during the past centuries such as Thomas Jefferson have ever been able to use their vast gifted faculties for "reasoning," ... to define the Jesus in which we believe because science is based on evidence and observation that essentially ends where faith begins, ... that ends where "belief" begins in existence of a deity no one can define, not even perfumed pretentious preachers propagating evidence they have never seen. Yet, we hasten to add that even the best educated men in theology can only tell what they have seen or heard by experience and study; and that what matters most is what an individual believes or does not believe because of what others claim as their beliefs. The genius of Jefferson was his ability to know what he did not believe or know about Jesus, ... and yet proclaim HIM as the greatest philosopher (Ph.D) in human history over and above all the earned and honorary doctorates ever given or proclaimed. Enlightened and educated men and women in the history of Christianity have long valued the critical importance of Jesus as a teacher and viewed learning to be a virtue gained by research, reading, questioning, listening, observation, travel, writing, etc. to augment lives of common prayers and sermons. The Religion of Thomas Jefferson, Third U.S. President Now, the gifted and talented young reader is ready to digest both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass with all their faults and warts in the cause of HIM that we believe certainly made way for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all those other champions like, ... ... "the Kennedy brothers and Dr. King" who lived and died, though imperfect lives like other men and women believers, ... for "the least of us." So rejoice and be exceedingly glad the spirit of Christ still lives and Babylon has fallen again, again and again despite European Serfdom, the Slave Trade, Chattel Slavery, Murderous Persecutions, the Jewish Holocaust, Rwanda Genocide and even Apartheid South Africa now gone with the winds of change that believers believe began on Christmas Day and their most holy of all births for all humanity, ... not just a chosen few or many who wanted, willed or ruled otherwise than believers still sing aloud for those with eyes to see, minds to learn and ears to hear, OH, HOLY NIGHT Click below for another web link to hear the music, read the words your ancestors heard from real preachers of the Good News by women like Sojourner Truth. And remember always the men in blue who did indeed die for you, often with last words calling out to Christ their Lord. Upwards of 100,000 of the killed and wounded were men of color, and some may have been your ancestors. But, Rachel weep no more and rejoice that your ancestral prayers were given and heard in the faith that did indeed lift them up from bondage that you and your offspring might be born with the liberty to live useful lives in the pursuit of happiness.
The United Kingdom of Solomon breaks up, with Jeroboam ruling over the Northern Kingdom of Israel (in green on the map) Most of the Hebrews of the ruling Kingdom of Judah (House of David and his son Solomon with their capitol and famed temple at Jerusalem) ... were utterly slaughtered by conquering Babylonians. Most survivors in surrounding towns such as Bethlehem not hauled into slavery, such as ancestors of Mary like the Prophet Nathan, ... survived to bring forth Jesus on Christmas day as the son of man (humanity) who believers believe was beginning of generation #1 in the cause of goodness from then until now with generation #68 to begin with births in year 2010, ... the 30th year after generation #67 was born some 2010 years after HIM that was born and worshipped as Messiah/Misawa/Christ/Savior. Believers in later years believed HIS birth afforded rebirth of humanity from the old exclusive values to a new philosophy of life that was inclusive of all humanity, ... energized/inspired in union with the body of HIM, born of woman, rejected by most people, both Jew and Gentile, who was wrongly persecuted as many humans often were, subjected to the Roman cruelty of crucifixion suffered by many thousands of people each year in the Empire of Evil, died witnessed by thousands of Jewish and Gentile believers and non-believers, was buried by followers and empowered to life again on the third day now celebrated by believers as Easter Sunday. We believe our moral worth, and own sense of self, is inherited from previous generations in the body and spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, ... not pretentious rituals of worship and praise, though we applaud and uphold all outreach activities in memory of HIM rather than old testament fables, fictions and facts such as the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians that allowed the Jews return to Zion. But, Babylon whether in the body of Greek, Roman, Aksum, Maya, Aztec, Ghana or many other powerful empires that followed, ... rose again in the hearts and minds of many who would emulate it's greed, wealth and power to conquer and enslave other human beings; and, then call it good. As JESUS once noted, "only GOD is good" and the dynamics of that which is not good are often clothed in pious pretentions of righteousness such as turning boys into eunuchs, circumcising girls and many other forms of enslavement not in union with the body or spirit of CHRIST.
In retrospect to the past centuries and generations, our view is the American Civil War was about more than saving a political union from the Babylonian nature of the rebel cause; ... but rather affording people of African heritage and all others in the nation that Lincoln saved, the empowerment that emerges in union with body and spirit of The Christ which is a mystery in our faith. Gifted and talented youth in the process of evolving their own philosophy of life are almost always challenged to contemplate that of Jesus, Jefferson and Lincoln in their thoughts about union. Where does it begin and can we ever end that which is good, ... like the energy of life transformed from a human sperm and egg; pursuit of happiness by adults and children; or government of all people, for all people and by all people so help us God. No one has the same philosophy of life because all persons ever born are uniquely different but in Christ we do believe become one and the same especially in the process of procreation. More than any people on the face of the earth, perhaps enlightened and educated African-Americans wonder about enlightenment of the son in midst of blood, sweat, tears and death in the old world and new world of ancestors, both Black and White. Not unlike the Babylonian Jews, many African-Americans, enslaved and free, were assimilated in the cultural dynamics that destroyed and enslaved their ancestors. Booker T. Washington gives a good account of the emotional bonds that existed between many slaves, former slaves and their owners and ex-masters. Kinship aside, there were many slaves who were life-long friends to offspring of their owners.
Booker T. tells the story of one such relationship that spanned the Civil War. Our view is that in many cases before and after the war, ... the philosophy of Jesus ultimately triumphed over the forces of Babylon and Rome by any other name. And, by time of the Civil War, ... most slave plantation preachers were well aware of old testament stories about people and places like Babylon more so than Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. Equally pretentious was New Orleans, Louisiana where slave owner aristocrats lived in Roman patriarch splendor and were the envy of millions of Whites (and a few Blacks, mostly Roman Catholic) in the south who wanted to be of and like them. But, despite it all, the unions that matter most were achieved and saved by believers free to believe that liberation is gained via the body and spirit of HIM we seek and worship; and mastery of the English as the language of empowerment via education and enterprise. Indeed, African-American emancipation from slavery and all that followed in the eradication of terrorism, segregation and discrimination resulted from the new testament of values that emerged from the philosophy and teachings of Jesus that fostered many aspects of Union from the womb to the tomb. Indeed, without union of the sperm and egg, ... life itself does not come into existence and makes meaningless the historic essence of marriage between man and woman to facilitate the union of sperm and egg in the womb. Slave owners in the vestiges of historic tyrants were guilty of preventing the natural union of men and women in the generation, enlightenment, education and enterprise of new and better generations of humanity. The four million men, women and children African-Americans enslaved in America on the eve of the Civil War plus the half million living semi-free in northern states were greatly influenced by old testament stories of salvation, ... far more so than the philosophy of Jesus that helped enlighten Whites like Abraham Lincoln and men of color like Frederick Douglass. T he issue is significant in understanding that before, during and after Civil War's end, most of the African-Americans most affected were influenced by learned beliefs rooted in the old testament diluted in the name of Jesus cited by Judeo-Christian preachers in the soon dominant Baptist creeds of self-styled born-again preaching. The American slave plantation owners, following the Haitian revolution, had made very extensive efforts to indoctrinate and train their slaves in the belief that slavery was God's will. Many slave owners between 1800 and 1860 actually hired and encouraged Judeo-Christian preachers to conduct religious services and train slave preachers to preach obedience. Indeed, some of these slave tamers were Jewish who came down from New York City and other locations with an emphasis on the old testament stories such as that of The lesson most sought by slave owners was that of slave obedience to their masters in the name of God, Jesus, Paul, Moses, the Prophets or any other source that helped rationalize the existence of slavery. In the context of religious environments created for slaves, it is small wonder that even today many bible quoting descendents internalize biblical references to the mythical Ham and his offspring as "bearers of water and hewers of wood."
For the humanist it is perhaps a good way to view the beginnings and extent of human progress with the beginnings of HIS life and philosophy, ... rather than the Roman calendar of centuries and millennium that brush over the realties of life everlasting, the how and why gifted births like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and others were able to generate liberation for over four million African-Americans? Be sure to understand that Babylon wanted to grow, expand its institutions of slave breeding, trading and chattel bondage to new states in a union wherein property was more valued than human lives or challenges of Christian beliefs rooted in Jesus. We believe African-Americans owe their liberty to sacrifices and toils of gifted and talented souls beginning with Jesus through men like William Wilberforce and beyond to the great Abraham Lincoln who we must never forget in remembering gifts given and received. To be sure about it, the literature suggests that a gifted child is born at least every 100 births, .... so who were the gifted births in your lineage and what did they do with their lives? Can you count back far enough to measure a hundred babies with your DNA links? Does it matter to you? Did you matter in the thoughts of Harriet Tubman on left, ... holding a wash-pan for posterity to remember those that cleaned away the moral filth of chattel slavery. |
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Abraham. 