In the days of slavery, there were small groups of black people who stood up and said, “This isn’t right.” They refused to be treated as property; as lesser people who were brought around in carts, and lined up to have their teeth inspected by potential owners. Something deep inside of them refused to be chained and beaten and worked like dogs for the simple privilege of living another day. So they began a revolution. Few and alone, they began to speak and to organize those who were brave enough. They were met with opposition, even by the majority of their own people, who thought that they were crazy to dare to dream of freedom. But the more they talked and the more they shared their dream, the more determined they were to escape to a better way of life. So this small group of people began to link their arms together. And these people, taken from their homeland and devoid of a traditional education, became strong enough to overcome their bonds. And though they had been mocked by their own people, those very brethren gained more than they could ever dream by the sacrifices of this small group; a small group that made a big difference.
In the 1960’s there were small groups of black people who stood up and said, “This isn’t right.” They refused to be treated as lesser people who were not given the basic rights most other Americans enjoyed. Something deep inside of them refused to ride in the back of the bus, drink out of separate fountains, or be denied service in restaurants. So they began a revolution. Few and alone, they began to speak and to organize those who were brave enough. They were met with opposition, even by the majority of their own people, who thought that they were crazy to dare to dream of equal rights. But the more they talked and the more they shared their dream, the more determined they were to be treated as equals. So this small group of people began to link their arms together. And these people, deprived of basic human rights, began to claim their place as American citizens, deserving of equal value. And though they had been mocked by their own people, those very brethren gained more than they could ever dream by the sacrifices of this small group; a small group that made a big difference.
In 2010 there is a small group of black people who are standing up and saying, “This isn’t right.” We refuse to be treated as lesser people who must be spoon-fed by the liberal government for everything that we get. Something deep inside of us refuses to be told that we will forever live off of welfare and be given a free ride through college only because we are needed to fill a quota or because we can play a sport well. So we are beginning a revolution. Few and alone, we are beginning to speak and to organize those of us who are brave enough. We are being met with opposition, even by the majority of our own people, who think that we are crazy to dare to believe that we can live our lives through faith in God and our intelligence, ingenuity and creativity. But the more we are talking and the more we share our dream, the more determined we become that we will not compromise our faith and values to serve a system that does not believe in us. So, this small group of people are linking our arms together. And we, standing strong on our faith in God, and our belief in our own people, are beginning to claim our place as African-American conservatives. And though we are being mocked by our own people, our brethren will gain more than they could ever dream by the sacrifices of this small group; a small group that will make a big difference.
About Author
I am moved by the power of this article.
Liberals are creating a new type of slavery, the slavery of government dependence. Government cannot give us what God gives us; Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Great article.. I am amazed what common sense soulbrother has used. I agree with alot of what he says especially about the politicians at the end of the day they sell out for their own agenda..That is why I choose to work at the grassroot levels on abortion..We Are Gonna Be The Answer to Our Problems..I am white but have tried for 20yrs to bring the awareness of the original purpose of abortion..I use to pass out booties at abortion clinic in NC until I notice cats feasting out of their dumpters..I thought then I knew the reality of abortion but that picture made me really realize how blinded by the horrors of what we do to each other and the tiniest of of God’s creation..It haunts me to this day..Dr. Alveda King & Father Pavone have come to the conclusion USA need “SHOCK” treatment..I agree.I try to promote all I can for info purposes, homes for pregnant girls, adoption, but it seems POLICIES make it horrific for nice average couple to adopt these babies..I agree both parties failed USA. It is time to clean out starting at our local levels..But I can never support the democratic platform..I think it is time to take our churches back & honor the families again.It is gonna start there..It is time for women to be proud of being females, wives, mothers again and make our boys into responsible Men again..I was raised in military family when we were overseas serving and protesters showed up by the thousands..we united as Red ,White & Blue Americans.
Marie
Glad to be apart of the discussion. And thank you for welcoming me.
BRAVO! Moving. Brilliant piece! I’m so proud to see you standing up for the TRUTH regardless of how you’re ridiculed by the black race. I’ve quoted you on my pages and want you to know you are in my prayers. Keep these excellent pieces coming.
Thanks so much, Asia — for your kind words and support, and for quoting us!
Wonderful, just wonderful the way this was put fourth. Although I am excited to see a strength of all races finally starting to join together for one thing, Freedom!. If I may, the voice of the woman in this video from the Washington DC Rally states it all to me, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CY5aFvRe2E if we ALL! can think and live like this, WHAT A COUNTRY we can RE-Make America! God Bless us all!
Jane
I just wanted to add that I don’t believe abortion will end anytime soon. It’s too advantageous for both political parties and more specifically the GOP.
Abortion translates into money and votes for political parties. It really resonates with the GOP as demonstrated by your passion. So, you have to ask yourself if the goal of politicians and political parties is the acquisition of authority or power and the issue of abortion resonates with their political base, why would they end it?
I want you to think about that question not from an emotional, moral, or Christian perspective but one of authority and power. Why give up that which you know makes you powerful?
BTW, I can be a Christian and a Democrat because at the end of the day I make a political decision not one based on faith. I can’t act as if a political party is moral when the very nature of the beast is power and authority. What drives us (you and me) are our own preferences and responses to political rhetoric.
Personally, I can’t put my trust and religious faith in Obama, Palin, McCain, Gingrich, Clinton, etc. because they’re all politicians. And as such they will all compromise their so-called values, political positions, etc. for their own acquisition of authority and power. They’ve all done it and their respective parties and leaders within those parties have too.
So, the best we can do as Christians is pray for those in power to be just and for God to influence them and their decisions. And to vote for politicians who we feel will be good stewards of this country. Notice I didn’t say share our values and faith because that’s political rhetoric.
How many politicians do you know who claim to be Christian act in a biblical fashion through their own actions and words? I can’t think of any and never knew any!
First off, SoulBrother, I want to thank you for being here and being part of the conversation. I (Marie) may not agree with you ideologically, but it is only through dialog such as this, stripped of vitriol and infused with a passion to truly understand one another, that will propel us to a place where we can focus far more on areas where we agree, rather than stay mired in the areas where we don’t.
That said, I have to say, I read an article a few years ago by Huntley Brown that said, “many of my friends process their identity through their Blackness. I process my identity through Christ.”
Jesus said that we are in the world, not *of* the world. In the Old Testament it says God abhors the shedding of innocent blood. So, *my* political decisions *are* based on faith, and not the politician’s faith! I agree few espouse the integrity our Lord did, but neither will I face Barney Frank or John McCain for my salvation or loss of it. No politician has a Heaven or *** to send me to. Thus, I have to walk as child of God in this world and reprove & expose darkness (Eph. 5:11) when I see it.
I *do* agree with you about praying for *all* of our leaders, regardless of party 😉
Jane
“Soul Brother? I would truly appreciate your perspective on being a Christian and a Democrat when the Democratic Party is so entrenched in supporting abortion”?
I’m happy you asked that question. Let me give as forthright an answer as possible to your specific question and then elaborate in general.
When you look at both parties the results are the same. Abortion is still legal. Again, I’m not talking about rhetoric, I’m talking about the end of abortion as we know it.
The GOP at one time had the White House, control of the Senate, Congress and nominated I believe roughly 11 out of the last 14 SCOTUS or something close to that number. Basically, a clear and lopsided GOP majority. So, why are we having this discussion? Abortion should have been outlawed years ago considering the above. Does the GOP need to nominate another 11 SCOTUS to say the Democrats two (2) in order for abortion to finally end? Or for us to be closer to the probability of it ending?
I don’t place my Christian faith in political parties because frankly politics is about about gaining authority or power. And since that’s the true goal of any politician and political party it automatically collides with faith and more importantly Christianity. Why?
The acquisition of authority or power in the political sphere comes with moral compromise. Or, those who enter the sphere no matter how good intentioned eventually become compromised because they want to hold on to their power. How many times have we witnessed career politicians move to the political left or right in order to fend off a challenger? They make the moves in order to maintain power which has nothing to do with conviction, morals or Christian faith.
And the goal for acquisition of authority or power is counter to a belief in a divine power (For us Christians it’s Jesus Christ) and the tenants of the Christian faith.
Simply put, Jesus authorized Peter to be in charge of His Church not a political party. There’s a reason why Jesus himself did not place his faith in the political realm.
A moving piece. Better than yesterday’s sermon, and that’s saying something!
Sebastian…..Excellent post……maybe some day we’ll be able to refer to each other by name only….not hyphenated Americans, but simply Americans……it only makes sense doesn’t it.
I was raised to judge a man by his character, not the color of his skin, just as Dr. King stated over forty years ago. I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. We as a country have come a long way since then, but we still have a ways to go. Hopefully my grandchildren will see Dr. Kings vision finally realized.
I’ll be sure to pass on the link to this blog.
Mike, we hope you will listen to our last podcast….it really does help to explain “The Hyphen.” Not everyone agrees with using it, and we certainly could go either way, but we chose it because our acronym AACONS is a play on ACORN. You may not agree with everything we discuss in the podcast, but we thought it was time to present some information in a way maybe people had not considered before.
Soul Brother? I would truly appreciate your perspective on being a Christian and a Democrat when the Democratic Party is so entrenched in supporting abortion? Abortion kills more Black babies than any other people. How do you reconcile your Christian beliefs with this?
Back in the early 60s one John Campbell had this to say on slavery, “The only thing that makes slavery possible is the slave.” Given John’s own long held racism and conservatism one could say that he supported slavery for black people, but that was not his point. Which was that there has been, and there always will be, people who are most comfortable being told what to do by others. White or black, Christian or Muslim, there are people most comfortable with being led, with being followers.
The mistake certain parties make lies in assuming that people in a subordinate position enjoy being subordinate. They find it hard to accept that people may want to have a say in how they are led, and to resent incompetent leadership such as we are seeing today. They don’t understand that people don’t always want to be slaves, that many want to be free.
For all his flaws John Campbell had the courage to listen, and to change his thinking when shown he was wrong. In an earlier editorial he posited that negros were just as intelligent and capable as whites, they were just different in how they were intelligent and capable. When set straight by his good friend Mack Reynolds (African-American) he changed his thinking. Would that parties on the current left had that sort of courage and wisdom.
Dana?
What makes you think I’m a fan of Sharpton or Jackson? To be blunt, I think black conservatives spend more time thinking and talking about the two men than the majority of black folks.
How many people were at the Sharpton counter rally in D.C this weekend? How many votes did Sharpton recieve in the 2004 Democratic primary when he ran for POTUS? Well, he received roughly 150,000+ total votes. And I doubt all were from blacks.
My 90% figure was based off the usual percentage of blacks who vote Democrat. That’s who Sebastian was referring to when he talked about his own people and the “majority”. So, let’s be honest shall we?
No, I assume the postion of being being condescended to when the commentator with a different opinion decides to act as if his ideology is somehow related to belief in God. Not to mention the welfare references.
Such talk is not biblical in nature. It’s just partisan rancor. And it demonstrates Sebastion is trying to merge his political ideology with his faith which is just worldy not biblical.
Black conservatives don’t have the most faith, aren’t the most Christian, etc. To imply God is somehow the domain of the select few of blacks who don’t go along with the majority i’s awful close to one of those original sins :Vanity.
However, I think you’re too busy looking at the words through ideology instead of looking to see if it’s biblically based. And it fails in the latter.
Finally, there a millions of blacks who are college educated or technical trained, white collar and/or blue collar professionals/workers. To imply otherwise and focus soley on those blacks who are on government assistance is not helping the dialogue. Sure, there are millions of us on public assitance ,etc. And there are millions who are not. Let’s have some balance with the conversation.
The commentary is condescending to blacks who don’t think like you. Let me rephrase that, it’s condescending to 90+% of blacks. Furthermore, Sebastian decided to mix his belief in God in with his political ideology.
If you see this as condescending toward blacks, surely you must agree that the Sharptons and Jacksons are equally just as condescending toward conservative blacks who strongly disagree with their stereotyping of blacks, yes? And, how is it that you know it’s 90% of blacks that disagree with this post – considering the lack of visibility given to conservative black Americans by the mainstream media, it would seem a guess at best.
It’s curious you assume the position of being condescended to just because someone shares an opinion different than yours – isn’t that permitted? Or is group think amongst the minorities only permitted?
The author is simply expressing a view that is concise, insightful and challenging and different than yours, yet you become defensive.
Newsflash, millions of blacks have faith in God and have never lived off of welfare or been given a free ride through college. We live through faith in God and our intelligence, ingenuity and creativity. I’m one of them. And I’m not a black conservative.
There are no doubt many, many like you who have gotten where they are by sheer tenacity, intelligence and grit. You would admit, however, that clearly there are as many or perhaps even more who cannot make your honorable claim but rather have lived off the government most of their lives and perhaps even witnessed it become multi-generational in their families.
I believe this post by Sebastian demonstrates why black conservatives in general have such a difficult time relating and gaining any traction in the black community.
The positive response from black conservatives on this site only reinforces that view.
The commentary is condescending to blacks who don’t think like you. Let me rephrase that, it’s condescending to 90+% of blacks. Furthermore, Sebastian decided to mix his belief in God in with his political ideology.
Newsflash, millions of blacks have faith in God and have never lived off of welfare or been given a free ride through college. We live through faith in God and our intelligence, ingenuity and creativity. I’m one of them. And I’m not a black conservative.
I too will be linking this blog post on my Facebook page as I increase my link postings from black conservatives.
Thank you, Bev (and all who have linked!)!
This is awesome! Very well written . . . and so true. I’m going to post this on my FB page. Thank for standing strong and standing true. God bless you.
Excellent post! Reposting and may God Bless You, and us all. Keep up the good work!
It has to start somewhere.
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here.
What better time than now?
wow!
i am sooooo posting this on my facebook
Thanks so much for your support, Tracy!