the Left flank

I came into the knowledge of Christ (or what I perceived as the true knowledge of Christ) at a church baptistery in Tallahassee, Florida 1994. @that time of course, the International Churches Of Christ (Click Here) (a particular sect/collection of churches bound by radical doctrinal & Social beliefs and practices) was led by Kip Mckean whose authority was fortified by a small but growing cadre of renegade preachers and break-away congregations of the main line Churches of Christ similarly gifted. For all their faults, they achieved what so few could in that time: a brotherhood of believers truly united beyond the confines of race, creed, or culture. How fortuitous that I should have been converted under such fertile conditions. The church's more recent converts of today would be envious had they any clue of how much more lively the church had been. Our leaders reveled in the mania surrounding them, believing themselves quite capable of virtually overcoming any and all obstacles. And we, the adoring fans i.e. the congregation were also swept up in this euphoric craze. We encouraged this behavior all the more with our endless adulation and sycophancy so that it became an endless cycle. Their words alone could melt the hearts of men instantly, or fill an entire auditorium to well beyond capacity. The experience for me was akin to witnessing a triumph (4th definition)(Click Here) in the streets of ROME as a highly privileged Roman citizen in the time of Caesar and being mesmerized by his imposing figure and preeminence. Kip's oratory skills might have even given the great Roman orator, Cicero, a run for his money. We were on an endless campaign (much like Bush's war on terror) to save the world from itself. The Preachers were like the Roman generals of antiquity with their lieutenants, sub commanders, and tacticians to aid in the logistics of maintaining the various legions and advancing them for yet another conquest.

I'm not exactly sure by what means, but in those days sermons didn't contain so much hilarity as they do now.  Instead, they were a whole lot more serious and hard hitting; they spoke on recurring themes of racism, bigotry, personal accountability, and devotion to others in the faith.  Today's sermons are full of usually witty statements, soft-palate, egregiously non-threatening, but with a slightly fair amount of interestingly thought-provoking esoteric verbiage. Sad truth is that the ICOC as we know it can no longer be distinguished from the endless sea of other mediocre Evangelical Christian voices out there. It has in effect, lost its crown. As for me, I was a mere foot soldier in the early days happily and haplessly captivated by the romantic idea of living for a cause much greater than self. I suppose that's why I had such a love affair with Greek and Roman history. Novels and other various historical accounts today still tend to idolize their exploits and forays into foreign lands. My rediscovery of African History would prove to be the counterbalance to all I had learned. It would eventually bring me to equilibrium...but that is another blog entry.

In 1054 A.D., the Patriarch of Constantinople and the pope excommunicated each other. That was the end of holiness for both churches. After that they became instruments of Satan. I'm convinced of it.   - Frank Herbert, The White Plague (1982)

When the various member-churches around the world decided to formerly unseat Kip as World Mission's Evangelist of the ICOC, it was a big surprise to all of us, but to Kip most of all...for he had been on sabbatical working to resolve family issues that were the result of the tiresome burdens of command. It is impossible to know precisely what took place in the upper echelons of church politics, but I'd imagine it being something close to the partitioning of Alexander's great empire in 323 B.C. by greedy Macedonian generals. Kip Mckean's timeline (Click Here) gives a very definitive look at the long fought battle essentially for the hearts & minds of men between himself and the ICOC, who ultimately emerged victorious given their direct control over the various churches.  Now apparently, he (Kip) seems to have lost the confidence of even the Portland ICC church. Doubtless, most will see it as confirmation of his unyielding pride. Still though, I find it rather curious that so many could be so dead set against someone they've known all this time. All of a sudden Kip has become irrational, insane, and unreasonable! And there was never any hint of this, years back!? Who's more the fool, the fool himself or the one who follows the fool?  Hard to believe anything these guys say now. Many of us knew that Kip was sort of a firebrand preacher. And he hasn't changed much from what I can tell. His sermons can still be heard at the LA City of Angels International Christian Church website (Click Here). Wouldn't it be something that if in the end, we were all to find that Kip who like Paul was deserted by the church (Click Here), had actually been in the right. I understand he wanted to come here and speak before the member churches of South Florida but was categorically rebuffed time and time again, like Paul. The local leaders probably thought us intellectually impotent and therefore incapable of deciding for ourselves whom to believe. How generous of them.  They were however, more likely protecting their own livelihoods. Had he come, his words would have easily resulted in schisms causing major disruptions in church capital. I remember having this conversation with a brotha and saying the following:

Yes, they may be Christians but they are also humans with mortgages, health care plans, retirement benefits, and even vacation packages...you know, all the stuff neither you or I can afford presently if ever. Do you sincerely think every decision they make is for the benefit of the Church?

My friend finally conceded that a growing number of their decisions warranted serious scrutiny by the obliging but reticent congregation. Regrettably, this was as far as he was willing to go.  He’s also black. Funny, those who have the most to gain by speaking up, quite often tend to be those least likely to do so; In point of fact, a good number of them even become ardent defenders of the status quo hoping for some random opportunity to prove their blind and irrational loyalty. Incidentally, most of my toughest critics in and out of the church have been blacks. I try to tell all of them this message but so few listen and even fewer perceive: Within a multicultural/multiracial society if you fail to speak out on behalf of your own people i.e. blacks, you ultimately lose ground and become a spring board for more unified peoples! If you try to make light of the situation or commend it into the hands of the Almighty out of some vain notion of being spiritual, you invite disaster! You may think it heavenly or noble to do such a thing but where I’m from, we call it cowardice! In truth, you court the scorn and disrespect of your Latino, Anglican, Asian, and Indian colleagues; for when the immutable laws of a predacious financial system like our ‘precious and infallible’ Capitalism force the powers that be to make even greater cuts to the budgets of local municipalities, who do you think they are going to take it from first? Eventually, they’ll come to revile even you and then suddenly, you’ll find your ass with nowhere to go but down!  Most of this will come about out of the necessity for self-preservation than by some deep-seeded racial animus given the dictates of casino capitalism which invariably operates under scarcity especially in rapidly diminishing economies. Question: If blacks, regardless of their various cultural foundations or intellectual pursuits, by and large grossly fail to support and esteem their own kind in any significant measure…why the hell would anyone else do it? This will in fact encourage other groups (some mortal enemies of one another) to converge and despoil them (that is to say, us) of what little hard assets they have left e.g. Jews and Arabs jointly gentrifying formerly black neighborhoods in Harlem, New York.   

I’ll conclude by enumerating a few personal anecdotes regarding my time there @this church establishment in no particular order: 

1 - One evening, after a bible talk session (a small group of usually 5 or more individuals reading and discussing bible topics) we ate and conversed about frivolous topics to unwind a bit before leaving as we often do/did. Someone  made a hapless comment about black ghetto names. Not thinking too much of it and in the spirit of things, I also laughed. But they persisted and a few others began to join in, so I finally spoke: Let's give them some credit for their creativity. After all, you guys still have your slave names...Irish,French,English. Not me though, my last name is actually from Africa by virtue of my Nigerian father. Needless to say, my words soured the moment and they began to saunter off in all directions.

2 - One early Sunday afternoon, a white preacher of the church and I had arranged to meet at a local Star Bucks not far from the church itself to speak on some issues of concern to me. [Before I continue further, I must signify the impossibility  of condensing  that conversation adequately enough to do any real justice. So I will instead mention only a few things. My principle question was the following:] Why did  you guys (the clergy) concede to having everyone choose their own bible talks? He didn't really have an answer other than alluding  to the aftershock of Henry Kriete's letter (Click Here), which I thought was rather vague. I can only surmise that such a decision was a concessionary measure to whites who sought a clever pretext in disassociating themselves with members whose cultural likes and dislikes were all too dissimilar. Maybe they didn't want their precious little white children mixing genes/jeans with ours. (Whatever!) In any case, there was noticeably fewer mixed bible talks since then. My ensuing question was a bit more direct,"Surely, you've noticed the resegregation of these bible talks?" His response was carefully put together with all the skill and craft a seasoned preacher could muster, but in the end...it was the length and hesitation of his words that belied his intentions. In making a 180° about-face from the established tradition or practice of purposefully configuring each and every individual bible-talk with as much diversity as possible, the church wound the clock back, setting in motion the real beginnings of it's own descent into anonymity and worst of all, mediocrity. What does that mean? It means that the whites and Spanish quickly and quietly retreated to their own perspective corners of the universe, leaving nearly the whole remaining mass of black-singles to convene @our humble abode for Friday night bible-talks eventually split into two large bible talks. Strangely enough, I should be thankful because the real lesson in all that was this: You can legislate action, but you can't legislate heart. In the end, the whites did not want to be with us beyond the minor contrivances of an unnecessary inconvenience - despite our unqualified and slavish devotion. Many of us - most of us -  left our churches to join theirs; we sang songs and did virtually everything in a manner consistent with white or Latino culture and in doing so, acquired many of their customs and beliefs (even the bad ones). Getting back to the conversation...it went from his family owning slaves all the way to black preachers he knew who couldn't be waited on respectfully by the attending (redneck) waitress. [What the hell are those guys doing in there anyway, don't they know those cowboys don't like'em? Idiots!] As I said before, trying to delineate the contours of our convo was not and is not possible. Doing so was probably a bad idea as it is only my side of the story. yeah? But this is my blog and I have dominion over it so.  In any case, the actions of the church cannot simply be explained away. This "man of god" made other errant statements, at other times, on other days, suggesting rather unequivocally, that blacks could have gained freedom without the civil war thereby implying some peaceful transition. When has there ever been an easy release of slaves in the bible? Almost never! Even the pharaoh having witnessed the power of god firsthand, went down after the children of Israel to recapture his slaves according to Exodus 14. Frederick Douglass taught us that  power concedes nothing w/o demand!

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