WHERE BLACK HISTORY AND ISRAEL’S HISTORY INTERSECT:
“OH MARY DON’T YOU WEEP”
Celebrating the Commonality of Black American History and Israel’s History
by William Dwight McKissic, Sr.
The two most persecuted people-groups in the history of mankind are the Jews and Blacks. This has been a major point of identity and bonding between these two groups. Jewish Americans strongly supported the Civil Rights Movement more so than any other ethnic group. They often marched with Civil Rights Leaders to provide a shield of protection and support.
The most celebrated African-American preacher besides Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Civil-Rights Era was Aretha Franklin’s late father, Rev. C.L. Franklin. Rev. Franklin pastored the New Bethel Baptist Church, Detroit Michigan, from 1946-1979. He was also a co-laborer with Dr. King in the Civil Rights Movement and worked to end discriminatory practices against Black United Auto Workers members in Detroit. Dr. King was the premier Civil Rights leader of that Era. Rev. Franklin was the premier revivalist-evangelist in Black churches. These two men cooperated with each other for the common good of God’s people and the advancement of His Kingdom.
After attending the Baptist World Alliance in London in 1955, Rev. Franklin journeyed to Israel to visit the biblical cities and sites. In 1959 on a return trip from India, Dr. and Mrs. King stopped in Jerusalem, rented a car and took the meandering road down to Jericho, “where the walls came tumbling down.”
Did you know that iconic African American pastors now in the arms of Jesus often traveled to the Old Jerusalem, before taking the journey to the New Jerusalem? Dr. E.V.Hill, Dr. Manuel Scott, Sr., Dr. J.H. Jackson, Drs. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Jr., Dr. J.C. Wade, Dr. A. Edward Davis, Dr. Sandy Ray, C.L. Franklin, and Bishop G.E. Patterson would be listed in that number.
Many of the most prominent Black gospel singers have also toured Israel, including Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, James Cleveland, Shirley Caesar and Andre Crouch. They often sang and preached about the geography, the glory, the story and the God of Israel. These preachers and singers are not just satisfied having a spiritual and musical connection with Israel; they also wanted a physical connection. Thus, they made the journey.
It is my belief that Christians, particularly those of us who preach, teach and sing, ought to love Israel and make a pilgrimage to Israel. Just as Muslims love Mecca; and devout ones want to make at least one visit there, Christians ought to more so love Jerusalem. It was the story and Scriptures of the Israelites that God used to provide the salvation and inspiration for our spiritual and physical deliverance.
Think about it: Jerusalem, Israel is the only city in the world that the Bible indicates that peace and prosperity may be granted to those who love the city of the Great King (Psalm 122:6-9; Matthew 5:35). Jerusalem is the only city on earth that can claim to be the geographical center of the world. Israel is the only nation that can claim to be the fountain of vocal and instrumental music (Ezekiel 5:5, 38:12 and Psalm 87:7).
A popular Negro spiritual of yester years is named, “I Want to Walk in Jerusalem Just like John.” Walking in Jerusalem, just like John, has become a physical and historical reality for many. African-American Christians love Jerusalem spiritually and historically. She has loved us back physically; there is a street in the modern day country of Israel named in honor of Martin Luther King. Those of us who love the Kingdom of God today ought to travel to Israel, so that we can walk in Jerusalem just like John. Where does Black History and Israel’s History intersect? My thesis is Black History and Israel’s History intersect in our songs, sermons, scripture readings, names of our churches, names of our sons and daughters, and the common legacy of slavery. Nothing illustrates this thesis better than a historical and biblical analysis of the African American gospel song, “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.”
“Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” was one of the most popular gospel songs during the Civil Rights Era. It addressed the hopes, aspirations, fears and courage of the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King and Rev. Franklin understood the significance of this song to African American people. Dr. King preached a sermon called “The Death of Evil on the Seashore,” that captures the biblical message of the song. His text was Exodus 14:30, “And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.“ The Exodus event was the biblical basis of the song. The historical basis and inspiration for this song was worship event in a Southern church during the slavery era involving an elderly slave woman named Mary. Rev. Franklin preached about the roots and relevance of the song. Rev. Franklin explained why Mary was weeping.
“Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” was first recorded by the Fisk Jubilee Male Quartet in 1915. The original version and various revisions of this song throughout its one hundred plus year’s history, encompasses the themes of dilemma, deliverance, heritage and hope, and comfort and care.
Various versions of “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” has transcended the African American community and has been recorded by soloist and groups as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, the Swan Silvertones, Peter Seeger, Burl Ives, Inez Andrews, the Caravans and Yolanda Adams.
It was the lead song featured on the bestselling gospel album in history, “Amazing Grace” by Aretha Franklin, recorded in 1972. This song was a guaranteed “house wrecker,” which means it simply went over extremely well with Black congregations and gospel music lovers. It remains a favorite and often requested song among older African Americans. Dr. Wallace Best, a current Princeton Religion Professor, selected this classic as one of the “Ten Best Gospel Songs” in a Huttington Post February 2012 blog.
In a biography entitled Give me This Mountain; Life History and Selected Sermons of Rev. C.L. Franklin, edited by Jeff Todd Titon, Aretha’s father provides us with the history of this simple, Scripture based, celebrated, and enduring song. While preaching from the text Psalm 137:1-4 that reveals the reluctance of Israel to sing songs of Zion in a strange land; Rev. Franklin argues the point that it is important for oppressed people to have a song to sing and the benefits thereof. Here is how the song “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” originated, according to Rev. Franklin:
“The story is told by Dr. Miles Mark Fisher about an old woman, either in the Carolinas or in Georgia, in those days when a great English preacher, the brother of John Wesley, came over to preach. Many of the Negroes wanted to see this great preacher. Frequently they could sit in the church, at least in the balcony, if the balcony was not crowded, if most of the regular members were on the main floor. But on this particular occasion the place was packed, and they stood on the outside, looking through the window, listening at this English preacher preach the gospel. And when the sermon was over and the invitation was extended, one old lady walked in the front door, and walked down the aisle, and took the seat to join the church. Pastor came up and said, “Lady, you can’t join this church.” She said, “But sir, I got ‘eligion. I’ve been converted. I felt the power of God here today while the man preached, and I want to jine the church.” He said, “But you can’t join this church. Go and join some other church, some of your own churches.” And when he insisted that she could not join, she went on down the aisle, mumbling to herself, saying, “I’m going to tell God one of these days how you treat me,” as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“It is said that those who were looking in the window began to sing a song. As the old lady’s name was Mary, they sang,
‘Oh Mary, don’t weep, don’t mourn;
Pharaoh’s army got drownded;
Mary, don’t weep, and then don’t mourn.’“Think of the message that is wrapped up in that song. I think that everybody ought to have a song. I think that Israel should have sung down in Babylon.”
Although rejected for church membership and fellowship by a Southern White Pastor during slavery, Mary the slave was comforted, encouraged, and given hope by fellow slaves when they put to melody the story of Exodus 15:4-5:
“Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them;
They sank to the bottom like a stone.”
The Hebrew Scriptures have inspired the songs, sermons, success, salvation, and aspirations of African Americans throughout her sojourn in America. However, the relationship between Africans and the God of Israel did not start in America, but actually can be traced back to the biblical period, as we will examine in the next chapter.
Just as God used the Exodus experience to provide inspiration for physical deliverance, Israel can also inspire deliverance from spiritual bondage. The relationship between Israel and Africa should be strengthened, studied, and celebrated; so that future generations may be inspired, enlightened, and encouraged as previous generations were. The two most persecuted people groups in the history of mankind are the Jews and Blacks. This has been a major point of identity and bonding historically, between the two people groups.
The Bible commands that one generation should praise the Lord’s works to another (Psalm 145:4). The Bible commands that fathers should teach the history of Israel and the wonderful works of God to their children, so that future generations would know God’s acts in history, and “set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God” (Psalm 78:1-7). The Bible commands believers to “Remember the days of old” and what took place in previous generations, so that it might inform our current realities (Deuteronomy 32:7). The Jewish prophet Isaiah informs us that God established Israel and promised to keep her in order to be a “light” to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6). Holding the baby Jesus in His arms (Luke 2:28), Simeon declared that He would be “A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:32).
The Divine purpose of the nation of Israel is to be a “light” to the Gentiles. The purpose of the Incarnation of Christ was to be a “light to bring revelation to the Gentiles.” John said that Jesus was the “true Light which gives light to every man that come into the world” (John 1:9). Jesus came to bring us light and life.
This elderly slave woman named Mary needed light and life in her dejected, downtrodden and discouraging situation. Where did she find that light? Her fellow slaves sang to her to look to Israel for that light.
If ever there was a time in the history of America and Black America that we need a light, it is right now. Mary was weeping not only because of her condition, but the condition of her people.
We ought to be weeping today over the destruction of the family. We ought to be weeping over the divorce rate. We ought to be weeping over the teen-age pregnancy rate. We ought to be weeping over criminal acts, violent senseless acts, and the incarceration rates of our people. We ought to be weeping over the gang and gun violence racking our inner cities. We ought to be weeping over the school shootings in the suburbs. We ought to be weeping over Black on Black crime as well; not just when a White man kills a Black man. We ought to be weeping over the senseless acts of violence and death in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit and Little Rock. We ought to be weeping over the high dropout rates in our high schools. We ought to be weeping over the drug and alcohol addiction and abuse that affect many of our families. We ought to be weeping over the hundreds of people lined up in the streets to legally buy recreational marijuana in Colorado. We ought to be weeping over the proliferation of strip clubs, pornography addictions, adultery, fornication, child abuse, and homosexuality that’s sweeping the land. We ought to be weeping over the approval of same-sex marriage in the United States. Modern Israel remains steadfast opposed to it. We need to ask ourselves, why is it that modern Israel is not experiencing gang violence and school shootings? We ought to be weeping over the high unemployment among our people. We ought to be weeping over the hopelessness, despair, discouragement and depression that have many of our people in a vice-grip. We ought to be weeping over motherless and fatherless children. We ought to weep over the spiritual condition of our nation.
However, because of the God of Israel, we still have hope; the same hope the slaves found effective and fruitful. “Mary, Don’t You Weep” because we serve a God that drowned Pharaoh’s army. We serve a God who gives light in the midst of darkness. We serve a God who leads us in the path of righteousness for His Name sake. We serve a mighty God who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His glory with exceeding great joy. God has given us the “light” of Israel and the light of Christ to guide us out of the current darkness we face.
C.L. Franklin is right: “Everybody ought to have a song.” Our problem may be that we are simply without a song. Don’t under estimate the power of a song. The Bible commands us “to be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spirituals songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18,19). A song can be a sermon put to music (Colossians 3:16). The Book of Psalms was used as a hymnbook in Solomon’s Temple.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16)
This generation and future generations need to understand what God has done in previous generations to deliver His people from darkness and bring them into the light. We need to take the word of God and put it to song again.
God gave Moses a song when He delivered His people from Pharaoh’s army. It is recorded in Exodus 15. He gave Miriam and the women a dance. Whenever God sends deliverance, it’s time to dance. God gave the slaves a song, when essentially, that’s all they had. There was a time when Black people put sermons to song.
When faced with the brutal realities of slavery, and the seemingly, insurmountable, impossibility of freedom and deliverance; they sang, a sermon in a song:
“Go Down Moses, Way down in Egypt Land and Tell Old Pharaoh, to let my people go.”
They sang about the mysteries and majesty of Christ in the midst of a miserable, demeaning, and maniacal situation. They sang:
“Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
And the little wheel run by faith
And the big wheel run by the grace of God
A wheel in a wheel
Way up in the middle of the air”
The old preacher would then say, “Jesus is a Wheel, in the middle of the wheel”! They sang a sermon in a song.
They sang, “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep.” They later added another line, “Tell Martha not to moan.” Why? “Because Pharaoh’s army got drowned in the Red Sea, Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, Tell Martha, not to moan.” They sang a sermon in a song.
They sang the songs of Zion (Israel) in a foreign land. They sang the “Samson” story in “Witness for my Lord.” They sang the drama and the deliverance in “Daniel in the Lion’s Den,” “Hebrew Children in the Fiery Furnace,” and “David and Goliath.” They sang, “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel.” They sang the victory when they sang: “Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John.” They sang “Joshua Fought the Battle At Jericho.” They sang “We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder.” They sang “Twelve Gates to the City.” They sang about the “New Jerusalem.” They sang a sermon in a song.
First Baptist Church Charleston, SC, a predominately White church, was the first large prominent Baptist Church in the South during the days of slavery. They were of a high church tradition—what we call a “silk stocking” church. They sang hymns. The hymn, “All Hail the Power of Jesus,” was written in 1779 during the days of slavery. No doubt the slaves at First Baptist who worshipped in the back pews (section where slaves sat) sang this great Hymn that was born in that Era. I visited this church facility a few years ago and saw where the slaves sat. This song not only exalts Jesus, but also the Israel that produced Jesus. The slaves and the slave masters sang together:
“All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown Him Lord of all.Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race, ye ransomed from the Fall,
hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him who saves you by His grace, and crown Him Lord of all.Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball,
to Him all majesty ascribe, and crown Him Lord of all.
To Him all majesty ascribe, and crown Him Lord of all. ”
The Christian slaves understood that they were grafted into the family of Abraham and they made Israel’s story, their story. How did the slaves endure, overcome, and find hope while being in physical bondage for over 200 years? I’ll tell you how!!! They learned the story of Israel having been delivered from Egyptian slavery. They heard sermons based on the story. They originated songs based on the story. The most succinct, simplest, inspiring and empowering song sang by the slaves that provided hope, encouragement, and care, in the midst of despair was the song-“Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep.” But they also sang based on the story of Israel: “Deep River,” “Didn’t It Rain Children,” “Twelve Gates to the City…”
We are no longer in the bondage of physical slavery, but we are in slavery to debt, drugs, family feuding, fatherlessness, and spiritual bondage. May the Lord continue to bless His people with a song!
There are three things that we should remember that can deliver us from our dilemmas:
- God gave us the Scriptures that He gave to Israel. God promised us that if we would read, study and apply the Scriptures to our lives, we would be successful (Joshua 1:8).
- God gives us songs inspired by His land and people, Israel. Speaking of Israel and her ability to inspire singing, the Psalmist wrote, “Both the singers and the players on instruments say, All my springs are in you.” Israel is the home, the foundation and “springs” of all true Kingdom-centered God-glorifying instrumental and vocal music (Psalm 87:7). God wants you to sing to Him a song everyday throughout the years. He said the origin of that song would “spring” from Israel.
- God gave us a Savior who was born in Bethlehem (Israel), hid in Egypt (Africa), raised in Nazareth, baptized in the Jordan, tempted in the wilderness, performed miracles along the roadside, raised Lazarus from the dead at Bethany, walked on the water in Galilee, brought salvation to Zaccheus house in Jericho, prayed all night long in Gethsemane, was crucified on Calvary, raised from the dead in Jerusalem, and will one day return to the Mount of Olives.
You ought to sing about Him. You ought to shout His praises. You ought to say “Blessed is He who has come in the name of the Lord.” You ought to sing “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, Oh Mary Don’t You Weep, Pharaoh’s army got drowned in the sea. Oh Mary don’t you weep, tell Martha not to moan.”
You ought to go to Jerusalem and see the place where they crucified Him, because, “Surely He Died on Calvary.” You ought to go to Jerusalem and see the garden where He prayed. Then sing, “I Come to the Garden Alone.” You ought to stand in the dungeon where they kept Him all night long before they crucified Him, and then sing “Were You There?”! You ought to sit in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and sing with Mahalia Jackson, “In the Upper Room.” A trip to Israel will physically connect us to what we are already spiritually connected to.
Notes:
1) Later versions of the song inter-mix Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus into the song, without noting the distinctions within the song between Mary the African slave and Mary the sister of Lazarus. When it’s understood that Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, are added to embellish the deliverance—dilemma motif, then this song is not theologically problematic.
Some have criticized and others have rejected this song, because of the seeming inaccurate participation of Mary the sister of Lazarus into the Exodus story. If the historicity of the song is properly understood, then it does not pose any doctrinal accurate questions.
2) Dr. Martin Luther King did not reference this song in his sermon, “The Death of Evil on the Seashore.” I made mention of his sermon because it documents the popularity of the Exodus event in the Black Christian community. Secondly, the song was at its zenith of popularity during Dr. King’s lifetime. Therefore, it was inevitable that he was familiar with it.
Fascinating as always.
Dave,
Thanks.
Dwight,
Good post and excellent statement as to why the children of God should be weeping in this land.
On a side note: Did you ever hear the late Billy Preston and Aretha Franklin sing: Oh Mary Don’t You Weep?
CB,
No. I have not heard Billy Preston and Aretha do “O Mary Don’t You Weep,” but I have heard Aretha Franklin do it with James Clevland’s choir on the ’72 album referred to in the post.
Although this message is filled with historical data, it was the weeping section that received the most feedback and I believe appreciation when I shared this at the church where I pastor.
Mr. V. P., I am so proud of you. You are making a difference for God & good, especially the students. How blessed they are to have a godly, good natured, gun toting, biblically literate, and deer meat eating man, who hate abortion, yet loves sinners, to interact with every day. I might would be able to go hunting with Doug Hibbard, and know how to kill a deer or a duck, if I’d encountered a man like CB Scott in college.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIX6btGIn8w&list=PLBD283550AC89C0A6&feature=share&index=1
Here you go.
David
Volfan,
Thanks for the link. Enjoyed hearing it again.
When we have the Arkansas County Bible Conference, we’ll do it during deer season. Bro. Dwight, that way you can come and see how it easy it is stuff a freezer with the birds of the air and beasts of the field…
Although I’m picturing you, Dave, myself, and a few others getting caught on camera with all the necessary hunting equipment. Can you see it now? We could make that the ad poster “Baptist Ministers gather to deal with the Bible in 21st Century America!” and we’re all carrying shotguns and rifles. That would be fun.
Doug,
If I came just to attend the Bible Conference & hang out in the woods with the hunters, perhaps even in hunting gear, but yet not actually shoot at game, would that be permissible? I’ve never been hunting in my life. I think it would take a trip or two in the woods to get comfortable with the idea of shooting an animal. I really enjoy eating duck meat & deer sausage & steaks though. Although I love to fish, I simply was never introduced to hunting, therefore, it’s like exploring the great unknown to me. Is Dave Miller a hunter?
I don’t think Dave’s ever fired a firearm.
We’d have to set up some practice trips to the farm.
I still think the Bible Conference idea has some merit, but we may need to look beyond Arkansas County for good infrastructure to do it.
And on-topic: I am learning a great deal from your posts regarding Black History. I’m a product of public schools that celebrated Black History Month (African-American came a little later), but never quite taught how it all ought to come together into life history.
I have fired guns before. I’ve never owned one, but I’ve fired them.
I’ve done a little fishing, but I’ve never gone hunting.
Wow a preacher who doesn’t own guns? I keep my AK47 around for business meetings. You never know what can happen when one surly deacon gets out of line.
John Wylie, my deacons are more heavily armed than I am.
Oddly, Bro. Dwight, I think the more trips you make in the woods just to see the setting, the harder it is to shoot. The deer start looking cute rather than looking like dinner.
Preachers without firearms? I though a handgun under the pulpit was SOP.
In all honesty, the most godly man I know packs a pair of .45’s at all times (even visitation) and makes concealed carry holsters on the side.
Very interesting!
I will say though that North American Indians might take exception to being left out of the “most persecuted people groups” delineation.
Tarheel,
Great catch. The Native Americans are often overlooked in these discussions. I believe that I read the statement first in a book by a Jewish Rabbi, highlighting & heralding the shared history of suffering & dreams between Blacks & Jews. I thought it was a true & great statement. But, I never paused to consider, that the native Americans could probably fit that same description. Thanks again for pointing this out.
We should know that slavery is on the rise in North America today. The biggest event of human trafficking in the sex slave industry just occurred: the Super Bowl. But it’s not given much place in the mainstream news and I have to wonder why.
But we also have a bigger slave issue that Dwight touched on: spiritual slavery. We saw it last night as Bill Nye failed to understand the presuppositional argument that Ken Ham put forth. Unfortunately, I doubt many secularists understood the argument. The reason is because they are in spiritual slavery to sin, as we all once were.
And so our song is the gospel and it leads us to also address smaller issues. My wife right now is in Uganda working with orphans, people in the slums, and also encouraging the saints there. There’s much to do in combating the different kinds of slavery we have around us that we not be slaves of sin or one another, but that we be subject rather to the law of grace through the sacrifice of Christ.
Amen and amen, Jim.
Jim,
Is the modern day slavery -sex trafficking- being ignored by today’s church? Are we being as disengaged with it as we were with slavery of Africans from 1619-1863? If so, something needs to be done by the church. What do you propose we do? Cursing the darkness while not lighting a candle is not sufficient. We must do both. Please tell us how to light the candle, or point us to someone who is lightning the candle, so that we can pray for & help that person. Thanks for making the connection between the slavery of yesterday & the slavery of today–sex trafficking. Because one was race based & the other is not may be one of the reasons that sex-trafficking slavery does not get as much attention.
My wife spent 4 or 5 days in New York last week with a group that works each year before the Super Bowl to call attention to human-trafficking industry. They prayed and passed out pictures of missing/exploited kids on the streets and prayed with people on the streets of Harlem. Great ministry (mostly AoG folks – Jenni was the token Baptist in the group).
I think this is a subject that has BEEN ignored but is slowly being brought to light.
Dave,
Thanks for this info. This sounds like it would be an excellent missions trip, and perhaps give me an excuse to go & watch Seattle okay in the Super Bowl next year. Seriously, I would live to have the contact info of the people that your wife were connected with. I will ask my prayer & missions team to consider participating in the future in addressing this issue, and perhaps joining in with the group that your wife worked with. Thanks for sharing this. The church should not sit in the sidelines regarding this issue. Unfortunately, as you know, that’s what happened during slavery and the civil rights movement. This is a matter that we need to be proactive about. When u get a chance please email me contact info. Thanks.
A friend from college works with a ministry trying to help rescue women and children from trafficking.
One of the difficulties they have encountered is that the legal environment has been stacked against the women, though this is changing. In some states, rescuing a woman from sex trafficking resulted in her being charged with prostitution. That’s slowly changing, but it’s a place where you (and anyone else) can start in terms of helping: lobby your state legislature to create safe haven laws for people who escape.
Good info here. I know it hasn’t been brought to light nearly enough. But I do see it more and more. I’d love to get people in my church involved in efforts to help these women and children.
http://enditmovement.com/.
Dave,
I have met your wife. She is no “token.” She may have been the only “Baptist,” but I am sure she represented the Lord’s Kingdom well. However, may her tribe increase among the ladies of the SBC and it would be a good thing if more SBC men would take up that fight also.
Dwight,
No one ever accused me of being a great leader. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t sound off in stirring up awareness of a need for leadership in this area. I know that this is an issue although I’ve never heard from people who are doing hands-on work as to what the best course is. If I were to go hands-on alone, it would be me walking into dangerous situations completely unprepared: you could expect to find my lifeless body washed up on the shore of some urban riverway somewhere. Although, if I felt suicidal, that would be a good enough way to go. Someone out there knows the world of the sex slave trade far better than I do and knows how to work to free them in far more effective ways.
Tarheel,
Thanks for the link to the organization that’s working to end the sex slave-trafficking epidemic that’s active in our nation & the world. Still sorting through it. Something needs to be done and they are doing something. My heart & prayers are with them. Thanks again.
Jim: Slavery of all kinds might be on the verge of increasing. A friend who works for a city water dept, called my attention to the fact that NC has a law on the books that says a boss can ask a worker to work 8 more hrs. at the end of an 8 hr. shift. And the boss can do the same again at the end of the next 8 hrs. In face, there is no limits mentioned. Likewise, the lunch period actually specifies children under the age of 16. While I see the evil of Unions, I am also aware of the evils under the right to work law. Back in the 70s, I had a lady in my church who had 3 children and a husband who was in prison, She worked back to back shifts in a textile mill for years, and then at the age of 39 she had a stroke. In a more unionized state (Mo.), the rule then was that it was the woman’s choice to work one hr. beyond the standard 8. After that no one had a choice. She could not be law. I do know, however, of union control where a man sat in the restroom for the whole shift and got paid, day after day, and the union would not let the company fire him, though other union members complained because they were doing his job.
I think we are being manipulated between two types of socialism, Fascist/Nazi socialism and Communistic socialism, with one group controlling both sides of the issue. After all, I had a theoretician of World Communism as a professor at a small university in Mo, and my son was going to study that professor in a class on Marxian theorists at UNC-Ch. but dropped the course. As one fellow in the 1800s said, “Some evidence is so circumstantial as when one finds fish in his milk.”
Jim just today an AP headline in our local daily paper heralded that 16 children were rescued from prostitution along with 50 adult women. 40 pimps were arrested. Thanks be to God for the GOOD police work in NJSTATEN. keep praying………
Hallelujah!
Those numbers are only scratching the surface, but every person freed is a blessing.
With reference to guns and hunting. I grew up with guns, a normal pastime for farm people who had just ended the frontier. I went hunting at the age of six, received my first gun (a 410 shot gun). The last time I shot a pistol was about 30 years ago, when I did a fast draw from a pocket and put five shots in a tree at about 25-30 paces. The Catawba Indian fellow who had been in the Airborne seemed impressed. I didn’t want to tell him, what my family would have said. Sort of like B.H. Carroll’s brother, J.M., said of B.H., when he was in the Texas Rangers, and took a shot at bird in the air and hit it, “That was a lucky shot. B.H. was the poorest shot in the family.” Only my family was a little bit tougher as Grandpa with eyes almost gone could hit a dime at a 50 yards with a 22 rifle. He was nothing in the way of a shot to another great grandfather who could do a fast draw and shoot the head off of guinea hens from the back porch for Sunday dinner (that’s what I was told). And then there was the fellow in Ky, at who at the age of 80 could split three aces turned edge wise at a 100 yards with a Kentucky Long Rifle. The real shootists did not go out to kill or hunt people unless they were law enforcement officers. There was a black deputy U.S. Marshall in the Indian Territory, sent out, if I remember correctly by the Hanging Judge himself. Once in a gun fight and wounded, He still managed to shoot the outlaw.
On a more serious note. It is impressive to learn that Dietrich Bonhoeffer should have been so touched by the Negro Spirituals that he took them back to Germany with him to inspire his church people, the Confessional Church (I forget the title now)(but cf. Eric Metaxas’ book; it is worth reading). Likewise, Bonhoeffer enjoyed the preaching of the African American ministers more than he did the liberals of those times when he came to America. In my address in the Summer Afternoon Lecture series at Columbia University in 1971 on the subject, “The Stanley Elkins Thesis: A Critique,” I pointed out that, in addition to the information I had come across in my researches (Blacks and their knowledge of theology, participation in church life, and awareness of American political realities, including the idea of unalienable rights, if memory serves me correctly), the African Americans (or Black Americans as a Black Historian would have put it then) had made a major contribution to music, the Negro Spirituals. If there should be any who doubt this, let them consider the fact that within 10-20 years, a Black College choral group (the Fiske Jubilee Singers) was touring the capitals and major cities of Europe and America, where they and the music they sung was recognized and acknowledged for being momentous. Even to this day, people are moved to tears by the singing of those songs from long ago, from a people who were, indeed, like the Israelites in Captivity in Egypt. What a debt the world owes to African Americans for that tremendous contribution. And don’t forget that they had 180,000 who volunteered to fight in the Civil War for freedom. There were Blacks who volunteered to fight for the South (and some who actually did, but not in an official way) with a view to obtaining their freedom. Blacks were also a part of the South’s reason for surviving so long, and some 70,000 or so drew Confederate Pensions after the War, due to the contributions they made by way of building fortifications.
Nevertheless, the ones who remained still wanted their freedom, and they proved it by what they did when freedom came. After the War in Columbia, South Carolina, they had traffic jams of African Americans from the hills and mountains going to the coast and those from the coast going to the upland part of the state. Then when they returned to the communities in which they were born and raised (if they were fortunate enough not to get sold away from their families), they usually secured a job on the next plantation, just to demonstrate that they were free (which the Jubilee journey also demonstrated (no need for a pass, no fear of the Patrollers). The issue in the South has ever been one of control, the playing off of forces and classes and parties against one another, for the benefit of a few.
Metaxas’ book is titled Bonhoeffer. Good read.
Pastor McKissic! I just came across your article online. Remember you talking about it in church couple of weeks ago. Looking forward to singing Mary Don’t You Weep and Elijah Rock!! Some of my favorites of all time.
It’s good to keep focused on the light in the darkness, these past few years things just seem to get harder and harder or worse and worse – further and further into bondage but I can see God moving still. I love all the old spirituals and hymnals, help me keep my mind stayed on freedom no matter how long them shackles around.
See you on Sunday!
Trace,
Thanks. The renditions of “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” were “off the chains” today. I love the passion & enthusiasm by which you sing. “Elijah Rock” is one on my all time favorites as well. Can’t wait to hear the choir sing it. Look forward to more dialogue surrounding the old hymns and spirituals. You add much to our church and choir. Be blessed.
Trace,
Thanks. The renditions of “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” were “off the chains” today. I love the passion & enthusiasm by which you sing. “Elijah Rock” is one on my all time favorites as well. Can’t wait to hear the choir sing it. Look forward to more dialogue surrounding the old hymns and spirituals. You add much to our church and choir. Be blessed.
I really appreciated this post. I am Jewish and have been thinking about incorporating this song into our yearly Passover Seder, where we retell the story of Exodus. Every year, we talk with our children about what slavery looks like, where it still exists, and how as Jews, it is our responsibility to always fight for oppressed people. With the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act this year, it seems like an opportune time to introduce this song to my children and our friends’ children. I first heard this song performed by a folk group, The Nields, on a children’s CD. I cried and then thought, this is our song, too. As I’ve been researching, I am blown away with the history of this song. Thanks for adding to the conversation. Glad I found you via Google!
Sarah,
Thanks. I feel indebted and connected to Jews in a powerful way because of the role that they played in the Civil Rights movement, and their heart for oppressed people. It means a lot to me for you to stop and acknowledge this connection, also. Thanks again.