Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The HOOD Needs aLOT of help









The faith system that I subscribe to suffers from the maladies of what surmounts to be bad PR, and brittle leadership at the very least; in columns where the world is to believe that we are a pillar of hope to the world. I follow a faith system where glee and joyful banter drown out the suffering of those who are sleepwalking in the slums of skid row and ghettos across the nation. This is the only time in history that anyone can pride themselves on coming from the ghetto, but during WWII ghettos were a place where people went to be killed. It still serves the same purpose in my time; but it is a shame that the inhabitants of these ghettos don’t see the star that marks them for death. In fact it would be an insult to the creator I know to call the sense of pride some of my brethren call living in any ‘hood’ here in Philadelphia or anywhere else. To be a star by definition is a beacon of the creator’s providence, love, commitment, and eternal love for his children. like the halo that is donned by my fellow Americans that inhabit the ‘ghettos’ of America’s metropolises to the plight of the sodomites in the Old Testament. Those people were offered a better alternative to the life that they were living, and the instead choose to carry on their mindless lifestyle. I am not condemning homosexuality, as this story is repeatily misconstrued to condemn the actions of out brothers and sisters in the gay community. The sodomites were condemned for abusing their earthly vessels, because they insisted on raping the angels (visitors) that came to town, and rejected the offer of Lot’s daughters. Lot was just making his guests feel welcome by protecting them from an impending rape from the local towns people. I know it sounds messed up and sexist but children were extremely pious towards their parents, and of Lot told his daughters to go out and offer themselves to the mob they probably would have done it without any protest.

To return to my point in the above paragraph; I believe whole heartedly in a faith system that shelters leaders that pound a nail in the flesh of the crucified  Christ on a perpetual basis. I have seen churches that are housed and established literally; garrisoned in the heart of west Philadelphia, which unfortunately means that there are dozens of drinking establishments and delis in a dozen directions (no an exaggeration). I guess the question I am trying to pose if any is that what is the role of the contemporary black church in reparing thier delapidated communities?