When Will Black People Wake Up?

Fox news reported that Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth church received $20 million in donations last year, including over $1 million donated specifically for Long’s personal “love offering.”  During a video I watched, droves of people walked up and dropped piles of money on the stage while Long screamed and preached about how much he loved it.

Now if that ain’t hustlin’ like a “playa playa,” I don’t know what is?

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Creflo Dollar’s World Changers church made $60 million in 2006.  And Tyler Media Services say that all Black churches collected $17 billion in 2006.  But the kicker is, according to LiveSteez research, Black churches have collected about $420 billion since 1980.

So I wanna know where in da Hell is all that money?  What did them shiny suit-pimp-shoe- wearin’ hucksters do with the money?  And why is the Black community still struggling with so much poverty?  In fact, there’s practically a church on every corner in some cities so they can’t say they’ve been helping the poor.  What they really did is rob the poor then move to bigger, newer churches in the suburbs.

Based on census information, the US government says that 25.9 percent of Blacks lived in poverty in 2009, compared to 9.4 percent of non-Hispanic Whites.   Last year in Atlanta, 30,000 mostly Black people stood in excessive heat to fill out an application for only 400 units of public housing in East Point.  This is shameful.  So you can just imagine how bad things are for Blacks all across the country?  And why isn’t that chump Obama – who collected 93 percent of the Black vote – saying anything about our condition?  He’s on TV yapping about everything else – Libya, Egypt, gay rights, getting along with Republicans.

But I digress.

Anyhow, when will Black people realize that Holy Roller Pimps like TD Jakes, Eddie Long, and Creflo Dollar (I mean, really, is this his real name?) don’t mean Black people any good?

As human beings, we have an opportunity to build an on-going, growing relationship with our spirituality that can last throughout our lives.  By “getting quiet” and meditating as often as possible, we are able to tune into our spirituality and use it empower us, give us the calm, cool and collectedness that we need to live a happy life.

However, most people have tunnel vision when it comes to understanding spirituality and they rely on their church and/or organized religion to sustain them.  But organized religion all too often defeats its own purpose, to bring people to God, because religious leaders are simply mortal men who use the Dogma Hammer of religion and God (or a Higher Power) to control those who don’t want to think for themselves.   And the use of guilt is a big part of this process.

But not all people are gullible and allow their pastors to take their money or tell them who they should and shouldn’t be with or marry.   In fact, most people – although they still believe in their Higher Power — have stopped going to church on a regular basis because men have corrupted and misused religion so much.

Too often, the weak and troubled – be it because of addiction or other issues – gravitate to religion, somewhat clean of their addictions but not their “behaviors” and they become addicted to religion and use it to judge others to cover up their own inadequacies; thus, the victims become the victimizers.  You notice this with a lot of women who have had “issues/problems” or are not good at thinking for themselves; they demand that anyone who dates or marry them be a bible-toting Christian.  Wrapped in delusion, using religion, and robotically carrying out the orders of a Pastor Daddy, these women cannot maintain good relationships.  In fact, many will even date and marry a bad boy ex-offender (need counseling, away from women) sitting up in the church or a weak man before dating and marrying a “good” Black man who simply may not want to become another follower of her Pastor Daddy.

The bottom line is that your relationship with your Higher Power is personal and not for some mortal man to dictate.  You came into this world alone and you’ll leave alone so you have to take control of your life and live the spiritual life you must live for you.

Black children need parents who act like adults and make their own decisions; they don’t need grown folks who feel they must be told how to live their lives by a man who will never know who they really are and what they really need to be happy and free.

God put you here, on earth, to figure that out . . . so get to work.