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VOL VII   NO. 8   AUGUST 2006

REV. ROBERT KELLEY

 


The Renewing Of Our Minds - IV

 

Rev. Robert Kelley is the founder and president of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and pastored the St. Mark Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon at the time this was published.

 

(Editor´s Note: This is part four of an article urging men to let God renew their minds through faith in Jesus Christ.)

 

The revolutionary worldview has existed among blacks since the early days of slavery.  It was manifested in slave revolts and the 1960´s radical black power movement. The revolutionary is angry and fed up.  He knows he is outnumbered and outgunned.  But in his mind the glory is not in winning, but in the pride he stood up to fight rather than cowardly bearing with his situation.  He makes the white man fear him if only for an instant.  His coping strategy is the fight and fighting.

 

I was a "wanna be" revolutionary in my high school and junior college years.  Interestingly, history records that "the system" has never failed to put down attempts at violent resistance by black revolutionaries.  I note this not only to point out the self-defeating nature of this worldview, but also the absolute absurdity of fighting as a coping strategy if one considers that ultimately he is fighting against the Lord God Almighty (Lamentations 3:25-39)!

 

The survivalist worldview harks back to slavery too.  Black survivalists are defeated victims making the best of the situation for themselves.  They are legion among us.  Their thinking is rooted in the selfish need they feel to take care of themselves since nobody else will.  While this worldview drives a number of coping strategies including escapism, hustling is prominent.

 

Hustlers use any means at their disposal to live in a white world that is against them.  Never mind that most of the people they are hustling are family members, friends and members of their own race.  Any scheme (criminal or otherwise) that helps them "get over" is the hustler´s tool.  Since he is showing a measure of skill in his survival and evasion of having to bow to whites, successful black survivalists have been historically accorded a measure of status and protection by a wide range of rationalizing admirers in the black community.  But few are successful long-term. Prisons and graveyards are filled with them.

 

This is why, of course, the survivalist worldview and hustling coping strategy are self-defeating.  They arise from sin motivated selfishness.  Good community by its very definition assumes self-denial and sacrifice by its members for the good of all.  Everything the survivalist does is motivated by self-interest.  It is this self-interest that has been the perpetual barrier to black unity.  But that´s not all.  This worldview and coping strategy bear the distinctive markings of Satan the original self-seeking schemer (Genesis 3:1-5; James 3:13-16).  The judgment of God awaits him and every unrepentant human protégé (Revelation 20:10-15).

 

Many blacks across the socioeconomic spectrum hold the hedonist worldview.  I was once faithfully among them.  Denied it seems every other kind of right, we have felt it is our irrevocable entitlement to at least have some pleasure in this life made so difficult by the racism and oppressive acts of whites.  Naturally, sex is the primary pleasure followed by the mood enhancing experiences of religious expression, alcohol, drugs etc.  Escape (even temporary) is the coping strategy that flows out of the self-destructive hedonist worldview.

 

What could possibly be wrong with pleasure?  Nothing when it is sought within the righteous will and instructions of God from the Bible.  As it concerns sex for example, it is God´s gift to humanity to be enjoyed by a man and his wife within the bonds of marriage exclusively.  Why?  Because God´s priority is not our pleasure, but the bringing forth of children in accord with His command to Adam: '"be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth…,"' (Genesis 1:28, NKJV).  After the flood, God gave the same command to Noah and his sons (Genesis 9:1).

 

God gave us our drive to have sex and made it very pleasurable so that out of the expression of a husband and wife´s love to each other, children would be conceived and brought forth in fulfillment of His will.  These children would be purposely welcomed into the world by loving parents committed to each other in a lifelong relationship.  The parents would also very importantly be committed to their children.  After the childbearing years, sex continues to be a pleasurable expression of marital love and relational unity.

 

Sex outside of marriage then, is an affront to the will of God, sin and a debasement of the act as well as the persons involved.  It also becomes quite selfish as each party seeks only their own gratification.  Children that result now are put to death in the womb because of the inconvenience they have created or born, but abandoned by fathers or perhaps, neglected by mothers who both move on.  So it is with the pursuit of pleasure outside of the will of God; it´s all about personal escape.

 

As I have already pointed out historically, even the so-called worship of God by many professing black Christians really boils down to personal escape through seeking religious ecstasy.  We are an emotive and uninhibited people; God made us this way!  However, worshipping God is not about me and what I get out of it emotionally.  It´s about God and what He receives from me as a heartfelt expression of my love and devotion to Him.  I don´t worship to escape; I worship to give God pleasure (Psalm 147:11a)!  To this end my worship is to be free from sin and authentic (John 4:15-26).

 

To Be Continued Next Issue 


 

©2006 Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc