My fellow Americans and those who have chosen to call themselves Americans,
The soon approaching presidential election is not just about racism; it is also about classes. Frightening arrays of problems caused by these trying times have pitted the rich 1 percent verses the poor’s increasing 99 percent. In America, we evolved to a state where we no longer see just the race of the person in front of us. Because of our continuous desire to chase after the American dream, our reality devolved to a position where the only color that matters in America is green and who has the most of it gets heard. When was the last time any of our elected officials said anything about the great divide that exist between the haves and the have not’s. Think about it. What is the only way any of us are heard, elected, or very soon even given a job? In America, it is now ALL ABOUT THE DOLLAR BILL and how many of them you have.
All of the issues I am addressing go deeper than I can ever represent on paper or expound upon though any of my many sermons. I am just a tool that is being used by God to get people to talk about the things that we refuse to discuss. We refuse to discuss these issues because they are hurtful and are deemed politically incorrect. However, the hidden truths behind these thought provoking statements will spark the flames of our mind. Once the flames are sparked, the cinders of our consciences will ignite as we ponder and imagine upon our renewed viewpoints of our existence on earth.
The biggest killer of the human race is not the multitude of illnesses that infect us nor the weapons of mass destructions created to preserve us. The biggest threat is the disease of the ignorance of who we are and the injustice done by us because we do not understand whose we are. Although I did live in Oklahoma and will always love the state of Oklahoma, it is not my home state. I am of American slave heritage, which I am very proud of who I am. The reason is my ancestors came to this country as slaves. Most of my slave ancestors upon being freed from the bounds of slavery were left behind in poverty for years upon decade because of who they were. They were not allowed to traverse the trail that leads to the great American dream for generations because of who they were. Nevertheless, despite the pain from the whip of slavery and in spite of the threats from lynch mobs in the segregated south, because of their belief in God, the African-American race thrived solely because of whose they were regardless of who they were deem to be.
Thankfully, in America, it is no longer about race. Regretfully, it is now about the green dollar bill. The reason we, as a nation, are going broke is we will quickly deny others what is rightfully granted to them by our legal documents to protect the money we have. In this country, we will gladly kick our own blood off the reservation if it means more money for us. Because of this America is no longer the exceptionally righteous nation it used to be. Capitalism or the love of money is the root of all evil and it is evident that America loves and worship money because we are a capitalistic nation.
Nevertheless, we must continue to love each other in the name of Jesus because whether we believe it or not there is only one race for human beings. The fact is we are all of the same race, the human race. There is no such thing as white, black, red, or yellow people. We are all different shades of brown. If you do not believe this, take this test. Take a sheet of white, black, yellow, or red paper, which ever corresponds to the color label that has been given to you and hold it close to your skin. Are you the same color that the paper represents?
Yes, to an extent I would agree with the saying birds of a feather tend to flock together. I might have quoted it wrong. Still, we are creatures of habit. Habitually, we tend to stick closer to those that maintain the same opinion that we share because that make us feel safer and more comfortable. Nevertheless, in spite of our upbringing, our current economic reality has forced us out of our closets of comfort. We have been forced to rethink all the opinions that once were taught to us in our segregated upbringing. The reason we have had to rethink these things is life is too short for us to continue to overlook the fact that we are not the only ones born with a mind or an ideology.
Everyone has an opinion and a voice. Just because our opinions are not in line with the opinion of our brothers and sisters, that does not make us right and them wrong. The only thing that can make us right or wrong is the way we decide to treat our brothers and sisters regardless of their differing opinion. Reality and the scriptures dictates that if we cannot love and get along with our differing siblings down here on earth , how do we expect to be able to get into the kingdom of the God we serve. If we cannot love our siblings who God created then how can we love the God who created us?
In the idealist society, none of us should ever be seen or judge by anything but the content of our character. Regardless of the vast differences in the pigmentations of our skin color and various ideologies we hold onto, the ultimate revelation is we need each other to survive. No man or country is an independent island surviving in this vast world alone; we must depend upon each other. We must respect each other and treat each other the way we would want to be treated. When cut, we all bleed red blood. When we reach the age of death, we all will die the same way. We simply cease to exist.
However, time will be the ultimate judge of our contributions to this wonderful yet confusing world in which we live. The most important question is how are we increasing the worth of the years we are allow to spend on the biosphere that has been suspended in time and space. If we tend to spend them in the futile fight to make or esteem ourselves better than others do, we lose. We lose because in spite of the material and cultural differences, we are all human beings. If we spend them trying to uplift those around us that have fallen, we win. We win because we have come to understand that we are indeed our brother and sister keeper. This has become even more apparent because of the current global economic crisis. When one country’s economy started to fail, the rest of the world followed suit. This is also apparent in the spread of diseases around the world. When a disease infects one person, it quickly spreads because our societies are undeniably interconnected.
As always, may God bless each of us,
Pastor Reginald Levi Walker
