What Are Black People For? Part 1

About two years ago I was surfing the internet looking for something – I don’t remember what, but like a dog who loses its scent, I wandered off the path a bit and came upon some other more interesting piece of information.

The page read, “Treasures of the African Americans, History Can’t Take Away What God Has Given to You.”  So, I was intrigued and not just because the DVD’s were free either.  I ordered 3  because I was so sure that other friends would enjoy this gift, but before I gifted them to anyone I was going to watch it first.  Good old hedonism!  Anyway, I got my copies in the mail and eagerly popped it in the DVD player.  After a few moments, I paused it, grabbed a pen and paper and started writing, word for word (as much as possible) what I was hearing.  I probably had a smile on face up til the point that I paused the video.  I want to share with you why my mood changed.

The speaker was a white guy named Arthur Burk who spoke to a largely if not completely black audience.  His purpose was to teach black Americans what treasures they possessed.  What had God intended in creating black people?  I suppose because he spoke to a room full of Americans, he went the route of discussing the purpose of African Americans.   He made six points that I will share with you.  The following are the apparent gifts that African Americans have and their contribution to the rest of humanity (as dude saw it) and particularly to white people, ie “European-Caucasians.”

African Americans [AA] have:

1. “Introduced us [white people] to the Holy Spirit to give revelation of himself through the world that the white man can’t get.”
2. On meditation of Scripture v. studying Scripture: “God has designed the European-Caucasian mind to study the word of God using the Greek Logic model of the New Testament.”
3. “[AA's] have an understanding of the spiritual dynamics of rhythm… black people have written in their spirit a knowledge of the beats of heaven and the ability to take our spirits to places in heaven.  We can’t get there with a white man’s beat.”
4. “[AA's] have an incredible understanding of dignity, and [AA men] have the ability to express dignity through their clothing.”
5. “The black culture is renown for its sexual prowess… God has designed you to be sexually intense and to be sexually immense and to teach the rest of us what it looks like for sex and spirit to meet in holy union in the presence of almighty God and to redeem sexuality that our white culture has degraded through Hollywood in the last fifty years.”
6. [AA's] have an unique understanding of protocol for royalty.

Just a few reflections, I will tackle them briefly and point by point below:

First of all, I don’t get how he got away with saying any of this stuff especially to a room full of AA’s.  Read black people: *In my best Denzel Washington is Malcolm X voice* “You’ve been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok!” I sincerely believe that this room thought that what was being presented was meant to encourage them to some sort of strange cultural entitlement.  How?  What about this list sounds even remotely flattering?

Enough with the monkey business! Whose going to come up with a scholarly approach to the question of the gifts that the races of mankind are given?  That was actually a trick question.  Don’t answer it!  The foundation is shaky just like the theory of race.  Race is a social construct with no essential biological reality.  Burks’ premise is flawed.  He’s making allusion to illusions.  Researchers argue that the term “race” is in fact, meaningless.  The Bible, oh The Bible! The Bible teaches us that we are all of “one blood.”   Adam is your poppa and Eve is your momma! 1 Corinthians 15:45, “The first man Adam became a living being…” Ken Ham feels about like this:

Personally, because of the influences of Darwinian evolution and the resulting prejudices, I believe everyone (and especially Christians) should abandon the term “race(s).” We could refer instead to the different “people groups” around the world.   Are There Really Different Races?

1. Any apparent “introduction” to the Holy Spirit, his person and work that does not come from the Son of God is hocus pocus.

Burk thanks William Seymour and his Azusa Street Revival for ushering in this understanding of the Spirit.  Briefly, Seymour was instrumental in advancing the doctrine of the “baptism of the Spirit” as believed by Pentecostals.  Ironically, Seymour is hailed as leading interracial worship services in 1906, at a time “when there were more lynchings of black men then in any other year of America’s history.”

Barring the doctrinal differences I have with Pentecostals, namely the view that espouses that baptism in the Spirit is evidenced by speaking in tongues, I can appreciate the significance interracial worship would mean in 1906.  Sadly, the true significance cannot be fully appreciated in a context that seems to lift supposed racial identity as a catalyst for spiritual growth or awakening.  A worshipper at Seymour’s revival was quoted as saying, “The blood of Jesus washed the color line away.”  Well, Burk and the hundreds of people applauding him have just reintroduced it.  But Ephesians 2:11-22 is sufficient to correct this error.  Are we not one in Christ?  The people of God enjoy the spiritual benefits of the reconciliation that Christ made when he satisfied the Father’s wrath on the cross.  “So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” WWPS?  What (else) would the Apostle Paul say to this?  Romans 10:12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Scripture teaches us well, (1) the Holy Spirit is the gift to all believer’s as they trust in the person and work of Christ for salvation.  Read John 14:15-31, he is given to us from the Father in the name of the Son.  Seymour is not the conduit of grace, Christ is.  (2) The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment… he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority , but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it you.” [John 16:8-14] The Holy Spirit that Burk speaks of glorifies AA’s (even if it’s condescending).  Burk states, “the races are not equal.  You do not need equality.  You need access to what God designed you to receive.  The black folk have this huge untapped potential to see things in Scripture that we white folk will never see.”  (3) The Holy Spirit of the Scriptures is the life giving Spirit who glorifies Christ and is given to all men who are Christ’s sheep at the moment of rebirth.

2. I can’t even begin to talk about how insulted I was by this comment.    Burk refers to seminary as “the white man’s seminary.”  They teach a “white methodology, a white understanding, a Greco Roman mind set.”  The good news is that God has designed the AA to meditate on Scripture and to understand the Old Testament Hebraic mind set far better than we [European- Caucasian] do.  How laughable is this?  Burk doesn’t explicitly state this, but I couldn’t help but question his motive behind this statement.  Does he feel the AA is incapable of grasping seminary level work since he reduces the “Hebraic mindset” to merely meditating on Scripture and extracting Biblical principles?  Of course, to have a handle on either Greek or Hebrew thought would require rather rigorous academic pursuit that many graduating AA’s and Caucasian’s have excelled in.  Guess the proof would be in the pudding there.  But again, I think that Burk makes the mistake of linking Greco Roman with the modern “white man.”  If white is Irish, Polish, Dutch, or Slavic, that ain’t Greek and it ain’t Roman either.  The thing is, notions of the “white race” much like those of the “black race” are misnomers.

3. Just when I didn’t think it could get any worse Burk locks in on dancing and spiritual rhythms.  ”In Africa and in America beats have been produced that have a highway into the demonic.”  He goes on to say that AA’s have a “big anointing,” which allows them to have a bigger influence for producing music that is evil.  The AA must redeem that gift for rhythm and beat to become a spiritual thing… undoing “the mischief done in the past and bring into the body of Christ the beat that will usher people into the presence of God.”  Now I know what to do next Sunday…

Gimme a Break!  No, I mean literally, until next time.  I can’t take much more of this.

By the way, I still have these DVD’s and can’t decide if I should throw them away or save them for white elephant gifts at someone’s next Christmas party.  Always thinking ahead (smile)… unless of course you’d like one *wink*

Okay, here’s the preview you all have been waiting for.  Looks like the whole thing is uploaded on youtube… Ta ta! til Part 2.

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