Personhood For All Now

My Brothers In Christ …

Personhood was the answer for the Abolitionist Movement from 1830 to 1870.

Personhood was the answer to Racial Segregation from 1849 to 1950.

Personhood was the answer for the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1968.

Since Monday, January 22nd, 1973, Personhood has been and is now the answer for the Pro-Life Movement.

Personhood effectively combats the language of anti-Semitism, Racism, Indian derision, sexism, human trafficking, population control (i.e., eugenics) and war.

Personhood is what “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [Human] Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” looks like in public practice.

However, in case after case, after we have rallied and won hard fought struggles, we have relaxed our grip on “these truths” by growing quiet in our pulpits and allowed those who do not hold “these truths” to come behind us and attack the very foundation of our country and our faith.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act is a case in point.

After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three (3) Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status. The Thirteenth (13th) Amendment abolished slavery. The Fourteenth (14th) Amendment provided citizenship. And the Fifteenth (15th) Amendment guaranteed the right to vote.

Yet, in spite of these Amendments and the 1964 Civil Rights Act to enforce these Amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually voided our victory.

How was this possible?

“Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!” (Amos 6:1, The Bible In Basic English)

I believe we were resting in comfort in Zion.

Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states.

In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy versus J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth (14th) Amendment.

Nevertheless, we once again we regained our grip on “these truths” and won another hard fought battle against the ever-malevolent forces of evil. Yet again, instead of tenaciously holding to “these truths” for dear life in our public practice of preaching, like Job we were “at ease” and loosened our grip on “these truths” (Job 16:12, King James Version).

So while we were applauding the Brown versus Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 that found the “separate but equal” doctrine adopted in Plessy versus Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, had no place in the field of public education, those that do not hold “these truths” voided our victory by somehow influencing the Supreme Court to again retreated from it’s own decision by approving the far reaching Pupil Placement Law.

So by 1959, the total of 376,000 Southern Negro schoolchildren, which were enrolled in integrated schools, went up by only 511 additional children despite the desegregation of 87 more school districts. At this rate it would take four (4) thousand years for all Southern Negro children to achieve their right to equal educational opportunity.

Again, how was this possible?

“In the thought of him who is in comfort there is no respect for one who is in trouble; such is the fate of those whose feet are slipping.” (Job 12:15, The Bible In Basic English)

I believe we were comfortable in our churches.

The Pupil Placement Law allowed states to decide where school children might be placed according to family background, special ability and other subjective criteria. In his acclaimed 1963 discourse, “Why We Can’t Wait”, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had to this say about the Pupil Placement Law:

“Without technically reversing itself, the Court had granted legal sanction to tokenism and thereby guaranteed that segregation, in substance, would last for an indefinite period, though formally it was illegal.”

Sure, the 1964 Civil Rights Act barred unequal application of voter registration requirements, however, it did not abolish literacy tests sometimes used to disqualify African Americans and poor white voters.

Yes, the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce, still, it exempted private clubs without defining “private,” thereby allowing a loophole.

Absolutely, the 1964 Civil Rights Act encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the U. S. Attorney General to file suits to force desegregation, nevertheless, it did not authorize busing as a means to overcome segregation based on residence.

I agree, the 1964 Civil Rights Act authorized the withdrawal of federal funds from programs that practiced discrimination, however it stopped short of requiring the withdrawal of federal funds from programs that practiced discrimination.

So while the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination in employment in any business exceeding twenty-five (25) people and creates an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to review complaints, it lacked by design meaningful enforcement powers.

Brothers, I firmly believe Personhood is the answer, but we, that is to say, Pastors, Christian Leaders, Holy Men of God that believe God created all men equal, must firmly and unrelentingly hold “these truths” in our public practice of providentially inspired preaching without ever letting go. In other words, we must preach and publicly practice the practical application of holding “these truths” in this present age.

I believe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an ordained, Southern, Black Baptist, Pro-Life Preacher, understood this critical role of Church leadership when he said:

“The Church must be reminded that [she] is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. [She] must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the Church does not recapture [her] prophetic zeal, [she] will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963.

The Bible says …

“In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, King James Version)

Brothers, it is time we remembered that Genesis 1:1 is the foundation of God’s Word and thus the sure foundation of our eternal Salvation.

Our founding fathers were right about holding “these truths” and it is time we whole-heartedly embraced them in the practical application of living and preaching the gospel in the public square.

I like the idea of preaching the gospel at all times and when necessary, using words.

Brothers, let us live it in our homes and preach it from the housetops!

PERSONHOOD FOR ALL NOW!

Why I Can’t Wait

On more than one occasion it has been suggested to me … to wait.

The cause is just, but wait.

The cause is worthy, but wait.

The cause is righteous, but wait.

That is, wait for a more opportune or favorable time to pursue the just, worthy and righteous cause of the California Human Rights Amendment.

This suggestion to wait, has come to me by way of men and women:

• Who love me and have proven themselves under trying circumstances to be my friends.
• Whom I highly respect, whose moral credentials are infinitely greater than mine.
• Whose wisdom has been tried, forged in the raging fires of spiritual warfare and found true.
• Whose commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ is beyond question.
• Whose lives reflect the sacred beauty of sacrifice for “love’s sake” itself. (Philemon 1:9)

To each and everyone of these wonderful saints of God, I want to say thank you for the time you have spent with me. Thank you for your wisdom, for your prayers and for your love. I want you to know that I have taken every word to heart.

Yet, I cannot wait.

With all due respect, I cannot wait for a more opportune or favorable time to pursue the just, worthy and righteous cause of the California Human Rights Amendment.

You see, my people are dying.

Arnold M. Culbreath, the Urban Outreach Director for “Protecting Black Life,” reports since 1973, over 14.5 million black babies have been killed by abortion and that 1,200 black babies die by abortion daily.

My people are dying.

According to Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), the research arm of Planned Parenthood, Black women are nearly five (5) times as likely as non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion.

My people are dying.

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) report entitled, “Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2006,” the abortion ratio among black women, defined as the number of abortions per 1,000 live births, is 450 abortions per 1,000 live births. The abortion ratio for Black women far exceeds the abortion rate for any other people group.

Considering the fact that abortion is not the only reason a baby in the womb of his or her mother dies, today a Black American child has less than a 50% chance of being born. It is safer on the streets for a Black child in the worse neighborhoods America has to offer than on the inside of the womb of his or her mother.

My people are dying.

Abortion remains the leading cause of death in the Black America. Abortion alone accounts for three (3) times more deaths in our community than HIV/AIDS, Violent Crimes, Accidents, Cancer, and Heart Disease combined.

My people are dying.

The U.S. fertility rate is an indicator that shows the potential for population change in the country. A rate below 2.1 indicates populations decreasing in size and growing older. Today, according to the 2006 U.S. Census, our fertility rate is below the replacement level at 1.9. Black America is no longer replacing herself.

My people are dying.

According to the National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11, the abortion rate among married Black American women is three (3) times greater than it is among white women.

My people are dying.

Again, according to the National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 58, No. 4, October 14th, 2009, today for every 100 Black babies born alive, there are another 77 Black babies killed by abortion. Said another way, for every 1 Black baby born alive, practically 1 Black baby is killed by abortion.

My people are dying.

According to the archives at the Tuskegee Institute, between 1882 and 1968, 3,446 Negroes were lynched by the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) in the United States of America. Today, abortion in the Black community kills more Black Americans in less than three (3) days than the Klu Klux Klan could kill in eighty-six (86) years.

My people are dying.

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), since 1973 (i.e., the year abortion was legalized in the U.S.) more Black American babies have been killed by abortion than the total number of Black American deaths from all other causes combined.

My people are dying.

If we were to ask the average high-school student how many U.S. soldiers died in the Vietnam War, the most probable answer would be roughly 58,000. This is the number of American military personnel deaths. Today more black babies are killed in less than two (2) months from abortion than the total number of American military personnel that died in the Vietnam War.

My people are dying.

According to a study in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 13 Number 4, Winter 2008, entitled “Does Induced Abortion Account for Racial Disparity in Preterm Births, and Violate the Nuremberg Code?” Black American women have three (3) times the risk of suffering an early preterm birth (EPB, birth under 32 weeks) and four (4) times the risk of an extremely preterm birth (XPB, birth under 28 weeks).

This report, authored by Brent Rooney, M.Sc., Byron C. Calhoun, M.D., M.B.A. and Lisa E. Roche, J.D., reports a “statistically significant” increase in the risk of EBP or XPB in women who have a history of induced abortion (IA) when compared to women with no history of induced abortion.

When one considers the fact that XPB babies have a 129 times higher risk of being born with the horribly debilitating effects of cerebral palsy (CP) and that according to Rooney, Calhoun and Roche, “about 43% of pregnancies in Black American women end in induced abortion” alone and when you understand that these numbers describe a rate of death in the Black community that only reflects the impact of induced abortion, you are at a point where you are beginning to understand that …

My people are dying.

The targeting of Black America by eugenic minded, pro-abortion forces is easy to see when you consider that black Americans make up about twelve (12) percent of the population of the United States of America and yet according to Planned Parenthood’s Alan Guttmacher Institute, 37 percent of all abortions in the country are performed on Black American women and their preborn children.

In other words, twelve (12) percent of the population of this country, Black Americans, is responsible for thirty-seven (37) percent of all abortions in the United States of America.

If you consider about half of Black America is female then you’re looking at around six (6) percent of the population of this country being responsible for thirty-seven (37) percent of all abortions in the United States of America.

If you consider child bearing age from 15 to 44 then you’re looking at around three (3) percent of the population of this country, Black Americans, being responsible for thirty-seven (37) percent of all abortions in the United States of America.

Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council says:

“Preliminary data currently being compiled on all abortion facilities in the U.S. shows that over twenty (20) states have abortion facilities in areas where the African-American population is fifty (50) percent or higher,”

Tony goes on to say:

“In fact, ten (10) states and in Washington, D.C. have abortion centers located exclusively in minority areas.”

I cannot wait, my people are dying.

Abortion is the Darfur of the Black American community.

If nothing changes.

If America does not become more efficient at killing babies in the womb of their mothers in the future.

If we do not take into consideration the number of chemical abortions.

If the rate of death, due solely to the impact of induced abortion in the Black community, remains constant and does not increase or decrease over time.

Black America will face the very real possibility of being an endangered species by the year of our Lord Jesus Christ two thousand one hundred (2100).

That is, I said, if nothing changes …

However, everything is changing.

If President Obama is successful in his efforts to install his health care vision for America, the numbers of Black babies killed by abortion will skyrocket.

Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has said:

“Those of us who care about the civil rights of all Americans, born and unborn, oppose Obamacare because we oppose the expansion of the most racist industry in America – the abortion industry.”

Frankly, time for my people is running out.

The time for me to act is now.

I simply cannot wait.

Perhaps others can afford to wait.

Nevertheless, I cannot wait because the abortion numbers are higher in my community, among my people than in any other people group.

Perhaps others can tell the future.

However, I do not have the power to tell the future.

I can only tell you about the One who holds the future.

Perhaps others are wiser than I am.

After all there are “certain political realities” at work in our world today and the mere presence of such realities surely calls for an experienced hand.

While I am sure others are wiser, have more experience and know how to come in and go out, I still cannot wait.

I cannot wait for …

• Public opinion to favor me.
• Political equity or capital necessary to guarantee victory to be voted into office.
• Proper funding required to meet the surely inevitable challenges that will come.

America is changing, my people are dying and I cannot wait.

I believe faith in Christ along with a repentant heart will allow us to receive His forgiveness and boldly face the wickedness in high places that walks among us today.

I believe such faith in Christ will allow His Body and Bride to perform the works of life that will overcome the works of death.

I believe the California Human Rights Amendment, by embracing the issue of “Personhood,” addresses the most profound and the most serious ethical dilemma this country has ever faced.

I believe the California Human Rights Amendment offers all of us an unprecedented opportunity for dialogue centered on the core issue of the abortion debate, the “humanity” of us all.

Imagine the power of Christ at work in us as we engage the culture for His sake by asking such questions as:

What does it mean …

• To be made in the image of God?
• To be fearfully and wonderfully made?
• To be respected as a person?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in defense of his belief in “Nonviolence” said:

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro’s cry for justice, nonviolent direct action proved that it could win victories without losing wars, and so became the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963.”

I believe the California Human Rights Amendment today is what nonviolent direct action was to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. It is a powerful, just and righteous weapon.

I believe the California Human Rights Amendment “ennobles the man who wields it.” It is the kind of weapon that God favors and will honor as His people engage the world around them in dialogue for Christ’s sake.

I believe the California Human Rights Amendment is both a practical and moral answer to the preborn’s cry for justice, for righteousness and for life itself.

I believe, on this side of heaven, it is never too late to start doing right.

Maybe you believe in God the same way I do and/or maybe you see the same divinely inspired opportunity that is set before us today, as I do?

If you can, then help me today, because you cannot wait either.

Stay tuned, there is more to come.

Persons Not Property

By 1830 slavery was primarily located in the Southern United States of America and it existed in many different forms. African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, inside homes, out in the fields, and in industry and transportation.

By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Historian James L. Huston emphasizes the role of slavery as an economic institution. Huston, a leading advocate of secession, placed the value of southern held slaves at $2.8 billion. At about $3 billion in 1860 currency, the economic value of slaves in the U.S. was more than the combined value of all the factories, railroads and banks in the country or about $12 trillion in U.S. dollars today.

Much of the North’s economic prosperity derived from what Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, called “the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil.” President Lincoln was asking Americans to consider the obligations created by slavery. The first of those obligations is to acknowledge the full truth.

The Full Truth

The full truth is African American Slaves were considered property, and they were property because they were black. Their status as property was enforced by violence and by public policy. Slaves throughout the South had to live under a set of laws called the Slave Codes. The codes varied slightly from state to state, but the basic idea was the same: the slaves were considered property, not people, and were treated as such. The killing of a slave was almost never regarded as murder, and the rape of slave women was treated as a form of trespassing. So intolerable were the conditions under which African Americans slaves suffered from day to day that some went as far as committing suicide or mutilating themselves to ruin their property value.

As an African America, I have asked myself these questions:

1. How could this be justified?
2. Was it not obvious that African Americans were persons, living, breathing human beings?
3. Where was the outrage from the American public?

The Language of Oppression Past

Haig Bosmajian, UW professor of speech communication says. “While names, words, and language can be, and are, used to inspire us, to motivate us to humane acts, to liberate us, they can also be used to dehumanize human beings and to ‘justify’ their suppression and even their extermination.”

In order to justify the inhumane treatment of African American slaves and soothe the conscious of the Americans, dehumanizing terminology or the “language of oppression” was established and propagated by way of both “academic” and “legal” opinion at the very highest levels of our educational and legal communities.

From 1815 to 1830, the American Colonization Society: “Free black in our country are … a contagion.”

In 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court decided: “A negro of the African race was regarded … as an article of property … a subordinate and inferior class of being.”

In 1858, the Virginia Supreme Court decision declared: “In the eyes of the law … the slave is not a person.”

In 1867, Buckner Payne, Publisher: “The Negro is not a human being.”

In 1900, Professor Charles Carroll: “The negro is … one of the lower animals.”

In 1903 Dr. William English: “The negro race is … a heritage of organic and psychic debris.”

In 1909, Dr. E. T. Brady: “They [Negroes] are parasites.”

The Language of Oppression Present

Today, even while modern medical science clearly and overwhelmingly supports the humanity and personhood of the pre-born child, the same financial motives and oppressive language strategies that were used to oppress African American slaves are being used, right now, to justify killing pre-born children.

For example, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided: “The Fetus, at most, represent only the potentiality of life.” Again, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court declared: “The word ‘person,’ as used in the 14th Amendment does not include the unborn.”

In 1979 Professor Joseph Flectcher: “Pregnancy when not wanted is a disease … in fact, a venereal disease.” In 1980 Dr. Mariti Kekomaki: “An aborted baby is just garbage … just refuse.”

In 1984, Professor Rosalind Pollack Petchesky: “The Fetus is a parasite.” Again, in 1984, Rabbi Wolfe: “A fetus is not a human being.”

In 1985, Dr. Hart Peterson on fetal movement: “Like … a primitive animal that’s poked with a stick.”

In 1986, Attorney Lori Andrews: “People’s body parts [embryos] are their personal property.”

This year, in the Sunday, July 12th, 2009, edition of the New York Times Magazine, the power of the language of oppression to corrupt our conscious was revealed in the words of sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said in an interview that she was surprised at a 1980 court ruling that prevented the restoration of Medicaid funding for abortions, because, in her opinion, when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 “there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Entirely Indefensible

History teaches us, time and time again, that the use of oppressive language to demonize and dehumanize certain segments of the human race is incontestably evil.

In Germany, the persistent portrayal of the Jews as “vermin,” “bacilli,” “parasites,” and “disease” contributed to Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution.”

In the antebellum South, the deliberate and systematic labeling of African Americans as “chattel,” “property,” “beasts,” “feebleminded,” and “useless eaters,” eased the conscious of many and paved the way for the subjugation and suppression of African Americans.

From the East coast to the West coast the defining of the American Indian as “non-persons,” “savages,” and “Satan’s partisans” led to the extermination of a significant portion of the American Indian population.

Yet, today, it appears we have not learned our lesson.

Just as the Jewish holocaust in Germany, the African American slavery in the antebellum south, and the death of countless American Indians were despicable events in our human history that were accompanied by the use of dehumanizing language, so today is the deliberate dismemberment and destruction of the bodies of those most vulnerable among us, among the human race, that is to say the pre-born child, entirely indefensible.

Persons Are Not Property

Human beings are persons and persons are not property. As a civil society we must move beyond the loathsome language of oppression of powerful elite and recognize the inherent, inalienable and self-evident humanity of all human beings. Regardless of the means by which we were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability, all human beings need to be and deserve to be protected by love and by law.

The Unarmed Truth

When Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10th, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said: “I believe that ‘unarmed truth’ and ‘unconditional love’ will have the final word in reality. This is why “right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil” triumphant.”

Today, the “unarmed truth” is that the pre-born child is a person not property.

I believe personhood is God-given and not government-granted. It is not offered to the elite and denied to the “least of these.”

I believe personhood, addresses the most important RIGHT of all … the RIGHT to LIVE, without which all other rights are meaningless.

I believe personhood is RIGHT.

The “unconditional love” for the pre-born child in my heart, is rooted in the love Christ has for all. While the current conditions may have “temporarily defeated” the personhood of the pre-born child.

I believe the “righteousness of personhood” is stronger than the “evil of pre-natal murder” and will ultimately prove triumphant.

I believe personhood is the final word in reality of the pro-life movement.