Month: October 2017

FOR YOU CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS OVERSTAND YOUR BIBLE, IT IS TALKING TO AFRIKAANS NOT TO ANY OTHER RACES OF PEOPLE!

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

ye are godsDe 6:14 Ye shall not go after other gods (Supreme beings), of the gods (Supreme beings) of the people which are round about you;

De 13:13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods (Supreme beings), which ye have not known;

Jud 18:24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods (Supreme beings) which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?

1Ki 18:25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods (Supreme beings), but put no fire under.

2Ch 13:8 And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of Afrika in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods (Supreme beings).

2Ch 13:9 Have ye not cast out the Leaders of Afrika, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you Leaders after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods (Supreme beings).

Ps 82:6 I have said, Ye are gods (Supreme beings); and all of you are children of the most High.

Isa 41:23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods (Supreme beings): yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Isa 42:17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods (Supreme beings).

Ho 14:3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods (Supreme beings): for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods (Supreme beings)?

Ac 19:26 Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods (supreme beings), which are made with hands:

Ga 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods (Supreme beings).

Phoenix AZ this event is for those who are ready for change— Today @ 12-2pm 10/29/2017 Are you ready to unite?

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom
Admiral LeRoy Published 11:00 p.m. CT June 14, 2014 | Updated 11:11 p.m. CT June 14, 2014
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In a meeting I had recently with an editor of the Pensacola News Journal, I was asked if I thought there was unity in the black community. My answer was an absolute no! I went on to tell her that there has been no semblance of unity in the black community since so-called integration took place.

Much, if not all, of our heritage, including our togetherness, and many of our institutions have been mostly lost or destroyed. With the exception of one or two organizations, we pretty much say nothing and do nothing to effectively hold on to our rich heritage in the Greater Pensacola/Northwest Florida area. We are probably the most divided people in the area, when, in fact, it should be the opposite. We don’t support each other nearly as much as we should, in business or anything else. Maybe an exception is the black church. Maybe!

Whites, Asians and other minorities have their differences also. But the one thing they don’t have a problem with is “the crabs in the basket” mentality from which we blacks suffer.

We will run downtown in a heartbeat and “sell each other out” just to gain temporary favor from the white conservative power structure in the city of Pensacola, while realizing but not caring about the detriment it does to the African-American community and the divisiveness it promotes.

We are very envious and jealous of each other especially if it appears that one or more of us are climbing the ladder to success.

A group of close friends I grew up with meet once a month for lunch. At our last get-together, I expressed disappointment about how blacks continue to criticize and negate one another at practically every turn, trying to gain “one up” on the other. My friend simply replied that “Unity is the key to our success.”

As much as I detest racism in any form, a great deal of racism is practiced by “us against us” with little signs of any change coming anytime soon.

I was also told by another friend recently that the next time I enter any retail establishment run by foreigners in the black community to notice how they communicate with each other after transacting business with their clients. My friend said that when they finish speaking with you in English, they immediately go back to speaking to each other in their native language in the customers’ presence. My friend asserts that their language is a way of staying in unity with each other. After thinking about his remark, it made a lot of sense to me.

With all that African-Americans have endured in this nation and in Pensacola/Escambia County, Florida, it would seem to me that we would be the first race of people to unite and move forward. But we remain desperately divided and fragmented.

Another example of spreading and creating division in the black community is the recent edition of local weekly newspaper, The Independent News, printing a list of the most powerful leaders in the black and white communities. As the publisher of Out Front Magazine, a bimonthly publication targeting African Americans, for the past 24 years, I can say unequivocally that The Independent News and its publisher know nothing about the African-American community or anything about its real leadership. It’s just another case of whites wanting to select and dictate who our leaders are, a situation which in many ways further divides an already divided community.

One form of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Until we truly unite as a people in the black community, according to my friend at our luncheon, we can expect to continue to be left out of almost everything.

All that I have said in this Viewpoint regarding a failure to unite most definitely includes me. I’m just as guilty as others in the black community, which means I need to “tighten up my game” on unity. I hope a great majority of others will do the same.

Admiral LeRoy is the founder and publisher emeritus of Out Front Magazine and can be reached at (850) 453-4835 or leroy.admiral@yahoo.com.

Black, American, and Armed Ira Berkley July 6, 2017 With concerns about police violence and white supremacist groups mounting, some black gun owners have decided to take charge of their own safety.

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom
Scott Takushi/Pioneer Press via AP, File

An activist hangs a sign on the gate of the Minnesota Governor’s Residence in St. Paul.

African Americans who exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms find themselves caught between the two irreconcilable narratives of gun rights and racial justice. One storyline justifies African American deaths to assuage whites’ fears of violence by blacks, and the other regularly forces blacks to prove that they are reaching for a wallet or a driver’s license, not a gun.

What is irrefutable, however, is that a black person carrying a legal weapon can face deadly consequences. On July 6, 2016, a police officer pulled over Philando Castile for a routine traffic stop in St. Anthony, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. In a video live-streamed by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reyes, Castile calmly told Officer Jeronimo Yanez that he is a licensed gun owner and has a firearm in the car, facts that he did not have to disclose under Minnesota law. Yanez told Castile not to reach for the weapon and Castile and Reynolds both repeatedly reassured Yanez that he would not do so. Moments later, Yanez fired at Castile.

A jury acquitted Yanez of murder last month.

The senselessness of Castile’s death is more than a travesty—it strikes real fear into law-abiding black gun owners like Louis Dennard, an African American Army veteran and a gun-owner for more than 30 years. Dennard’s answer to this deadly conundrum is the African American Gun Heritage Club, the Minnesota chapter of National African American Gun Association (NAAGA). “We are a civil rights organization focused on self-preservation of our community through armed protection and community building,” reads the national association’s vision statement. Dennard purchased his first handgun because he worried about people shooting in movie theaters and other crimes. Now, the police are “a portion of society [that] you have to worry about,” he says.

African Americans have carried guns for decades to protect their communities. During Reconstruction, Southern states enacted Black Codes that prohibited African Americans from owning guns, while white vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan invaded black settlements to seize weapons from newly freed slaves. Many years later, black gun owners protected civil rights activists who embraced nonviolence. Martin Luther King owned guns in the early years of the civil rights movement and supported the right to bear arms. The issue later disappeared from public discussions until the late-1960s when the Black Panthers called for African Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights to protect their neighborhoods from racist police officers.

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Although Dennard has seen an increase in fears about police violence within the black gun-owning community, he believes that the worries of the black gun owners have not been embraced by groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) or individual white gun owners. The NRA has had little to say about police brutality or the rights of black gun owners. Two days after Castile’s death, the NRA released a vague statement that failed to even mention Castile’s name.

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment.

Dennard, who is not an NRA member, feels that the group’s “rubber stamp” response typifies how the NRA ignores black gun owners’ concerns. Moreover, white gun owners are not tuned in to national conversations surrounding race and police brutality. A new Pew Research Center study found that politically conservative and/or Republican-identified white men are the most likely to own guns, with both black and Hispanic Americans about half as likely as whites to have a gun at home.

Not surprisingly, there are stark differences between the attitudes of gun owners and anti-police brutality and racial justice activists.

Not surprisingly, there are stark differences between the attitudes of gun owners and anti-police brutality and racial justice activists. A 2013 “Racism, Gun Ownership, and Gun Control” study published by the National Institutes of Health found that, for American whites, every 1 percentage point increase in stereotypical beliefs about blacks meant a 50 percent increase in the odds of having a gun at home. The report also found that whites who hold negative stereotypes about blacks often oppose gun control policies and keep a firearm at home.

Black Americans overall and Democrats, the groups most likely to “strongly support” Black Lives Matter, are also likely to support tighter gun control restrictions. Dennard does not find comfort in public conversations on racism and police violence in the Black Lives Matter movement. Dennard, who describes himself as more “anti-bad-policing” than “anti police,” believes that conflict resolution and de-escalation is the key to quelling police violence. Tactics like blockading streets and chanting are ineffective, he says. “[BLM activists] are different than their parents and grandparents that marched during the 60s,” Dennard says. “They’re loose cannons and they haven’t helped.”

Today black support for gun ownership is markedly lower in black communities than in white communities. Where does that leave Dennard and other black gun owners who do not feel that they fit in with gun-rights conservatives or the pro-gun control progressives? They have decided to band together with like-minded people. Since Trump’s inauguration, NAAGA’s membership has doubled, and Dennard says that there has been a spike in interest in his own Minnesota chapter in recent months, with some new members citing Trump’s “craziness” and those who put him in office as reason for arming themselves.

SOMETHING TO PONDER ON!

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

7 Things I’ve Learned As A Black Woman Who Dates White Men

By Francesca Gibbs,

My dating resume is pretty typical; it consists of a few long term relationships and a couple meaningless flings. If one were to go through each relationship in my past however, it would become obvious that all of my past love interests except for one have been white. (If you asked my family members, they would say that the one doesn’t even really count because he looked white and had a British accent, despite being part-Jamaican.) This would normally be a fine dating pattern, but the fact that I’m a black hispanic woman does bring up the question as to why I haven’t dated other races including my own. Growing up, my cousins would tease me relentlessly for dating white men, but I didn’t let it discourage me enough to abstain from dating them. I should note that my cousins weren’t any less selective; they solely dated black men.

I will readily admit that part of me does fear I’ve missed out on an essential life experience by not dating my own race. I wonder if my life would be drastically different or if race truly isn’t a huge factor when it comes to love. I also know that at the end of the day, my heart has made its choice and I have to respect that.

Over the years I’ve thought about the potential reasons as to why most of the men in my past have been white and I have come up with a list of reasons why I may have fallen into this pattern:

1. I was surrounded by white people.

 First of all, I grew up in McLean, Virginia. Although the DC metropolitan area is fairly diverse, the student body at my old high school is currently 70.25% white and 2.99% African-American. The demographic was probably just as skewed when I attended school. McLean H.S. was a great school — don’t get me wrong, I have zero regrets about my time there — but it just didn’t really give me the opportunity to meet a ton of people from other races to potentially date. I never had that early experience of being with someone that was both racially similar to me and also compatible with me. People would automatically assume that the two black kids of opposite genders in class should pair up, but I’m actually proud of my 16 year-old self for breaking the norm and dabbling in the interracial pool.

2. I am still surrounded by white people.

 You can take a girl out of McLean but…just kidding. I do have friends of other races, but my friend group is primarily white. I love them and have great experiences with them, but it does affect where we may go out on weekends and what kind of guys we attract into our circle. We tend to go to trendy bars, but I almost feel as though we aren’t “in the know” when it comes to venues that are a little more diverse and off the beaten path. I willingly take some of the blame; I don’t actively seek out different scenes because I’ve gotten comfortable going to the usual locations, that’s on me. I often think about what my life would be like if I had a more racially diverse group of friends, but who knows, maybe it wouldn’t be all that different after all.

3. Black men are confused by me.

 I don’t know what it is about me, but it’s almost as though black men can sense that I’m not really familiar with dating my own race. On the off chance that a black male does approach me, usually by the time I open my mouth and share my background, they don’t really know how to relate to me. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it does hinder any chance of me getting to know them any further. I don’t think of myself as some mythical unicorn, but I am complex and it takes a lot more than a similar racial profile for there to be a connection. I also wonder if black men instinctively pull away from someone like me who has mostly white friends and is unaware of certain cultural nuances. I can’t fault them for seeking out someone with similar friend groups and interests, but once again, it takes me out of the running.

4. My experience with black men is mostly negative.

 When I’m walking down a street in D.C. and I approach a group of black men, I can almost guarantee that something will be said to me and it usually isn’t anything that makes me feel good about myself or comfortable in the situation. Out of all the men in the mixing bowl of D.C., black men have by far made me feel the most uncomfortable and unsafe in this city. When I’m walking alone, I usually get comments about how I look that day or what they would like to do to me. If I’m walking with my white boyfriend, that’s when they get really imaginative and throw insults at mostly me for ‘betraying my race.” I wear sunglasses most of the time to avoid eye contact and I catch countless black men looking me up and down and making me feel completely naked. Some people would perhaps find this flattering, but rest assured that the way they look at me would make most women run for the hills. While I realize that these men aren’t representative of the race as a whole, it does make it even more difficult for me to view them as romantic potentials.

5. I struggle with seeing black males as suitable partners.

 I realize that this is dangerous territory, but let me explain: In addition to the negative interactions with strangers, most of the black men in my life, my father included, haven’t really been favorable romantic partners. The reoccurring themes of infidelity, abuse, and lack of financial stability all permeate my memories and they do affect my ability to trust black men. I have always said that I’m open to meeting anyone, but if I’m being honest, I do think that black men come into the picture with a lot more to prove to me than men of other races. I realize that’s unfair and it’s something that I have to overcome, but it will take some time. I think of cousins and specifically my brother who are genuinely great guys and I do feel incredibly guilty and sad that I feel this way regarding my own race. I want them to be viewed as suitable partners and to be given a fair opportunity when it comes to love. I hope to work through my general perception of the black male and to also better separate my interactions with strangers versus my interactions with potential love interests.

6. My family is accepting of me dating any race.

 Despite the teasing and mentions of my boyfriends coming down with ‘jungle fever,’ I always knew that my family would support me if the person I dated treated me with respect and for that I am thankful. I know various friends of mine who have parents that are still not exactly okay with their children dating outside of their own race. I’ve considered myself very lucky in that I never felt pressure to choose one race over another. I could simply meet anyone and see if we were compatible. Dating is hard enough without the added pressure of worrying about appeasing a family’s racial preference.

7. It’s rewarding.

 The interracial relationships that I’ve been in have taught me more than I think I could have learned in monoracial relationships. Dating someone of a different race gives you the opportunity to learn about their culture and values; it also provides you with a more intimate insight into their racial differences. My current boyfriend is learning what goes into managing black hair (a helluva lot, y’all) and I’ve also shared various Panamanian traditions with him. He has in turn shared his cultural background with me as he is part Lebanese. I find the cultural exchange to be interesting and incredibly beneficial to the relationship as a whole.

Robert Sengstacke Abbott

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom
Robert Sengstacke Abbott
Robert s abbott.jpg

Abbott circa 1919.
Born November 24, 1870
St. Simons Island, Georgia, U.S.
Died February 29, 1940 (aged 69)[1]
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Cause of death Bright’s disease
Resting place Lincoln Cemetery
(Blue Island, Illinois)
Nationality American
Alma mater Hampton University
Kent College of Law
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • Newspaper publisher
  • Editor
Years active 1901–1940
Known for Founder and publisher of The Chicago Defender newspaper and the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic
Spouse(s) Helen Thornton Morrison
(m. 1918; div. 1933)
Edna Brown Denison
(m. 1934–40)
Parent(s) Flora Butler
Thomas Abbott
Relatives John H. Sengstacke (nephew)[2][3]
Robert A. Sengstacke (great–nephew)

Robert Sengstacke Abbott (November 24, 1870 – February 29, 1940[4]) was an African-American lawyer and newspaper publisher and editor. Abbott founded The Chicago Defender, which grew to have the highest circulation of any black-owned newspaper in the country. An early adherent of the Bahá’í religion in the United States, Abbott founded the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic in 1929, which has developed into a celebration for youth, education and African–American life in Chicago, Illinois.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Abbot was born on November 24, 1870, in St. Simons Island, Georgia (although some sources state Savannah, Georgia[5]) to freedman parents, who had been enslaved before the American Civil War. The Sea Islands were a place of the Gullah people, an African-descended ethnic group who continued stronger aspects of African cultures than among African Americans in other areas of the South. His father Thomas Abbott died when Robert was a baby.

His widowed mother Flora Abbott (née Butler) met and married John Sengstacke, an American mixed-race man of unusual background who had recently come to the US from Germany. His parents were Tama, a freed slave woman of African descent, and her husband Herman Sengstacke, a German sea captain who had a regular route from Hamburg to Savannah. In the Georgia port city in 1847, Herman saw a slave sale. He was so distressed he bought the freedom of Tama, a young woman from West Africa. They married in Charleston, South Carolina, before returning to Georgia, where their interracial marriage was prohibited. Their mixed-race son John was born the next year and a daughter in 1848. Tama died soon after their daughter was born, and Herman took the children back to Germany to be raised by family.[6]

John met the young black widow Flora, who had a year-old son Robert. He cared for Robert as if he were his own. Together the couple had seven children together; their family crossed rigid racial boundaries. Robert was given the middle name Sengstacke to mark his belonging in the family. John Sengstacke had become a Congregationalist missionary as an adult; he wrote, “There is but one church, and all who are born of God are members of it. God made a church, man made denominations. God gave us a Holy Bible, disputing men made different kinds of disciples.”[7] Sengstacke became a teacher, determined to improve the education of black children. He also became a publisher, founding the Woodville Times, based in what was then a town named Woodville; it was later annexed by the city of Savannah, Georgia. Given the industrialization under way in the country, from 1892 to 1896, Abbott studied the printing trade at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a historically black college in Virginia. At Hampton, he sang with the Hampton Choir and Quartet, which toured nationally.[5] He earned a law degree from Kent College of Law, Chicago, in 1898.

Career

Abbott tried to set up a law practice, working for a few years in Gary, Indiana; and Topeka, Kansas. He returned home to Georgia for a period, then went back to Chicago, where he could see changes arriving with thousands of new migrants from the rural South.

Chicago Defender

After settling in Chicago, in 1905 Abbott founded The Chicago Defender newspaper with an initial investment of ¢25 (equivalent to $7 in 2016).[8][9] He started printing in a room at his boardinghouse; his landlady encouraged him, and he later bought her an 8-room house.

He wanted to push for job opportunities and social justice, and was eager to persuade blacks to leave the segregated, Jim Crow South for Chicago. A key part of his distribution network was made up of African-American railroad porters, who were highly respected among blacks. (By 1925 they organized a union as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters). They often sold or distributed the paper on trains. Defender circulation reached 50,000 by 1916; 125,000 by 1918; and more than 200,000 by the early 1920s. Credited with contributing to the Great Migration of rural southern blacks to Chicago, the Defender became the most widely circulated black newspaper in the country. It was known as “America’s Black Newspaper.” Its success resulted in Abbott becoming one of the first self-made millionaires of African-American descent; his business expanded as African Americans moved to the cities and became an urbanized, northern population. From the early 20th century through 1940, 1.5 million blacks moved to major cities in the North and Midwest.

They were eager to know about conditions, to find housing, and to learn more about their new lives in cities. Most were from rural areas of the South. From 1890 to 1908 all the southern states had passed constitutions or laws that raised barriers to voter registration and effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. They were utterly closed out of the political systems. Schools and other public facilities reserved for blacks were typically underfunded and ill-maintained. Legislatures imposed Jim Crow conditions, producing facilities for blacks that were “separate” but never “equal” (referring to the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated facilities, such as railroad cars providing “separate but equal” conditions, were constitutional). The northern and midwestern industrial centers, where blacks could vote and send children to school, were recruiting workers based on expansion of manufacturing and infrastructure to supply the US’s expanding population as well as the war in Europe, which started in 1914. The Pennsylvania Railroad and others were expanding at a rapid rate across the North, needing workers for construction and later to serve the train passengers.

The Defender told stories of earlier migrants to the North, giving hope to disenfranchised and oppressed people in the South of other ways to live. Abbott, through his writings in the Chicago Defender, expressed those stories and encouraged people to leave the South for the North. He even set a date of May 15, 1917, for what he called ‘The Great Northern Drive’ to occur.[10] In his weekly, he showed pictures of Chicago and had numerous classifieds for housing. In addition, Abbott wrote about how awful a place the South was to live in comparison to the idealistic North. Abbott’s words described the North as a place of prosperity and justice.[11] This persuasive writing, “thereby made this journal probably the greatest stimulus that the migration had,”.[12][11]

Sengstacke was a fighter, a defender of rights. He listed nine goals as the Defender′s ‘Bible:’

  1. American race prejudice must be destroyed;
  2. Opening up all trade unions to blacks as well as whites;
  3. Representation in the President’s Cabinet’
  4. Hiring black engineers, firemen, and conductors on all American railroads, and to all jobs in government;
  5. Gaining representation in all departments of the police forces over the entire United States;
  6. Government schools giving preference to American citizens before foreigners;
  7. Hiring black motormen and conductors on surface, elevated, and motor bus lines throughout America;
  8. Federal legislation to abolish lynching; and
  9. Full enfranchisement of all American citizens.[13]

The Chicago Defender not only encouraged people to migrate north for a better life, but to fight for their rights once they got there. The slogan of the paper and the first goal was “American race prejudice must be destroyed.”[14] Sengstacke openly discussed African-American history in his articles, including its difficult issues. He wrote, “Miscegenation began as soon as the African slaves were introduced into the colonial population and continues unabated to this day…. What’s more, the opposition to intermarriage has heightened the interest and solidified the feelings of those who resent the injunction of racial distinction in their private and personal affairs.”.[15] He believed that laws restricting personal choice in a mate violated the constitution and that the “decision of two intelligent people to mutual love and self-sacrifice should not be a matter of public concern.”.[16] Abbott also published a short-lived periodical called Abbott’s Monthly. The Defender actively promoted the northward migration of Black Southerners, particularly to Chicago; its columns not only reported on, but encouraged the Great Migration.

Bahá’í Faith

In 1912, Abbott met `Abdu’l-Bahá, head of the Bahá’í Faith, through covering a talk of his during his stay in Chicago during his journeys in the West. By 1924 Abbott and his wife were listed as attending Bahá’í events in Chicago.[7] After inventing the fictional character “Bud Billiken” with David Kellum for articles in the Defender, Abbott established the Bud Billiken Club. In 1929 Abbott and Kellum founded the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic. It became an occasion for African Americans to celebrate their pride and connections[17]

Abbott was seeking an atmosphere free of race prejudice. Even in religious communities, he sometimes found that mixed-race African Americans who were light-skinned sometimes also demonstrated prejudice against those who were darker. Abbott officially joined the Bahá’í Faith in 1934. He had found that its convention to elect its National Spiritual Assembly seemed free of prejudice.[7][18][19]

Final years and death

In 1919, Illinois Governor Frank Lowden appointed Abbott to the state Race Relations Commission. The commission conducted studies about the changes resulting from the Great Migration; in one period, 5,000 African Americans were arriving in the city every week. The Commission collected data to assess the population and published the book, The Negro in Chicago.[5] Though some of his stepfather Sengstacke’s relatives in Germany became Nazis in the 1930s and later, Abbott continued correspondence and economic aid to those who had accepted him and his father’s family. He also assisted descendants of Captain Charles Stevens, the former owner of his enslaved birth father before emancipation. With his wealth, Abbott aided the Stevens descendants in Georgia during the Depression, and paid for the education of their children.[7] Abbott died of Bright’s disease in 1940 in Chicago.[20] He was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois. His will left the newspaper in the control of his nephew, John Henry Sengstacke.

Legacy

See also

References

 

 

  1. “Robert S. Abbott, 69, A Chicago Publisher. Negro Newspaper Founder Was on Permanent Fair Board”. New York Times. March 1, 1940. Retrieved November 27, 2010. Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder and publisher of The Chicago Defender, Negro weekly newspaper, died today in his home here after an illness of several …

Further reading

 

  • Blue, Jr., John T. “Review: The Black Mr. Hearst.” The Journal of Negro Education 25.2 (1956): 149-51. JSTOR. Web. November 17, 2009. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/2293580>.
  • Buck, Christopher. “The Baha’i ‘Race Amity’Movement and the Black Intelligentsia in Jim Crow America: Alain Locke and Robert S. Abbott.” Baha’i Studies Review 17.1 (2012): 3-46. online
  • DeSantis, Alan D. “Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915–1919.” Western Journal of Communication 62.4 (1998): 474-511.
  • Gebo, Dora R. “Review: [untitled].” The Journal of Negro History 41.1 (1956): 89-90. JSTOR. Web. November 17, 2009. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/2715731>.
  • Ottley, Roi. The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Regnery, 1955)

 

 

Largest African-parade in the American nation.

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic (also known as The Bud Billiken Day Parade) is an annual parade held since 1929[3] in Chicago, Illinois, United States; it is the largest African parade in the American nation. Held annually on the second Saturday in August,[4][5]The parade route travels through the Bronzeville and Washington Park[6]neighborhoods on the city’s south side. Robert S. Abbott, the founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, created the fictional character of Bud Billiken, which he featured in a column in his paper. David Kellum, co-founder of the Bud Billiken Club and longtime parade coordinator[7][8][9] suggested the parade as a celebration of African-American life. Since its beginning, the parade has featured celebrities, politicians, businessmen, civic organizations and youth. It is considered the second largest parade in the United States,[10][11][12][13][14] whose focus is on celebrating youth, education and African-American life. The parade is also cited as the “back-to-school” celebration, marking the end of summer vacation and resuming of school for Chicago’s youth.[15][16][17]

Contents

History

Chicago Department of Human Resource float in the 1973 parade. Photo by John H. White.

Barack Obama float for 2004 U.S. Senate race in the 2004 parade.

Miss Black Illinois in the 2004 parade.

U.S. Navy band marches in the 2008 parade.

Anti-violence group for a Chicago high school in the 2008 parade.

Hillcrest High School marching band in the 2008 parade.

Bud Billiken is a fictional character created in 1923 by Abbott, who had been considering adding a youth section to the Chicago Defender newspaper. While dining at a Chinese restaurant he noticed a Billiken. Some of the early Billiken columns were written by Willard Motley, who later became a prominent novelist. During the early 1930s, names of international youth were listed in the “Bud Billiken” section of the newspaper every week. Between 1930–34, approximately 10,000 names appeared and were archived in the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.[18]

During the Great Depression, Abbott featured the Bud Billiken character in his newspaper as a symbol of pride, happiness and hope for black residents.[19] The character gained prominence in a comic strip and the Chicago Defender newspaper.[19] Although the character was created in 1923, the parade did not begin until 1929, when David Kellum initiated it as a celebration of the “unity in diversity for the children of Chicago”. It has since grown to become a locally televised event and the second largest parade in the nation.[18]

The parade, which began on August 11, 1929,[20] now includes politicians, beauty queens, celebrities, musical performers, and dozens of marching, tumbling and dancing groups.[19] It has grown from a locally sponsored event to one with major corporate presence and is seen as a signal of the impending end of summer and beginning of the new school year.[19] As such the parade sponsors raise money for college scholarships for local youth.[19] The parade route has changed over the years. The original route was along Michigan Avenue beginning at 31st Street, then turned east into Washington Park. Complaints for north-south traffic flow caused rerouting the parade route to South Parkway (now named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive), which runs directly into the park. At various times, street repairs have necessitated use of the Michigan route, but the current route is now the King Drive route.[20] Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll of Amos ‘n’ Andy were the first guests in the first parade. Robert S. Abbott led the first parade in his Rolls Royce. Dr. Marjorie Stewart Joyner, president of the Chicago Defender Charities, Inc., organized the parade for over 50 years. Numerous high-profile celebrities and dignitaries have attended the parade over the years, including U.S. President Harry S. Truman[21], Michael Jordan, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall,[22] Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Paul Robeson, Chaka Khan and Billie Holiday.[19][20] Truman rode alongside John H. Sengstacke, who was Abbott’s nephew and took over the Chicago Defender in 1948, and Mayor Richard J. Daley in the 1956 Parade.[23] Recent parades have featured popular musical acts as concert performers at the post-parade picnic. In 2006, approximately 26 million people saw the parade,[24] including 25 million television viewers and 1.2 million attendees.[5] The 2006 parade included 74,000 participants and 160 floats and vehicles.[5] The 2008 parade was dedicated to actor and comedian Bernie Mac (star of The Bernie Mac Show)[25] and a native of Chicago; he died an hour before the start of the parade. In 1993, a request by a black LGBT group to participate in the parade was declined by the organizers. Following legal action and the involvement of Lambda Legal, the Ad Hoc Committee of Proud Black Lesbians and Gays was allowed to participate in the parade the following year.[26][27]

Broadcast

The parade has been televised for over 35 years, beginning in 1978 on WGN-TV; which broadcast the parade until 2012. WCIU-TV covered the parade beginning in 2012 after it was canceled from WGN-TV but later canceled it in 2014.[28]WLS-TV has been broadcasting the parade since 1984. The 88th Annual Parade took place on August 12, 2017.[24] BET and Centric premiered the parade on their networks in 2012.[29]

Restructuring (2017)

The Chicago Defender Charities underwent a major restructuring in 2017. Myiti Sengstacke–Rice is Board President of the Chicago Defender Charities and Bud Billiken Parade Chair. Sengstacke–Rice is the great-grandniece of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, granddaughter of John Herman Henry Sengstacke, founder of the Chicago Defender Charities and daughter of the late famed photojournalist, Robert Abbott Sengstacke. Chez Smith is the SVP of Operations and the parade coordinator.

Parade

Illinois Governor Dan Walker at the 1973 parade. Photo by John H. White.

The parade has categorized contests for participants such as best float, and best marching band.[30] It takes place in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, starting at 35th Street [31] and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive at the southern border of the Douglas community area, south of the landmark Victory Monument. It continues south to 55th Street in Washington Park. This route covers approximately 2 miles (3.2 km). This route takes the parade through the Grand Boulevard and Washington Park community areas.[32]

Theme

Bud Billiken Parade is themed every year by the parade committee. The tradition began in 1940 when the parade organizers themed the parade “Americanism” to demonstrate patriotism in the US within the African-American community.[33] Other themes over the years:

Grand Marshal

A notable person or persons are invited each year to serve as Grand Marshal, often featuring politicians, musicians, or entertainers. Chicago native Chance the Rapper served as the Grand Marshal for the 88th annual parade in 2017. Chicago native and singer Chaka Khan served as the Grand Marshal at the 2014 parade.[51] Rapper T.I. served as Grand Marshal for the 83rd annual parade in 2012.[52]

2007 Parade

At the 78th annual parade in 2007, then–U.S. Senator Barack Obama served as the Grand Marshal for the second year in a row.[53] Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley attended, and march participants included U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn and the Rev. Al Sharpton.[54] One float represented the Chicago 2016 Committee and included past Chicago Olympians Bob Pickens, Willie May, Diane Simpson-Bundy and Kenny Johnson as well as the son of Danell Nicholson. The Chicago Bulls‘ mascot made a guest appearance.[55]

Picnic

The parade begins at 10 A.M. and ends at 4 P.M. After the parade, visitors are welcomed to stay in Washington Park for a picnic. The picnic has various festivities and vendor booths.[32] The post–parade festivities often include a concert. The 2006 parade featured Yung Joc,[56] and the 2007 parade featured Pretty Ricky.[55][57]However, it seems neither picnic included a concert.

Violence

The 2003 parade featured B2K.[20][58] The concert was free with virtually unlimited space in the park for viewing. However, the crowd became unruly causing the concert to be curtailed. Over 40 attendees were taken to hospitals as a result of injuries in the violence, including two teenagers who were shot.[59]

See also

References

 

 

  1. Hope, Leah (August 11, 2003). “Concert chaos raises questions of crowd safety”. ABC Inc., WLS-TV Chicago. Retrieved September 17, 2007.

Know Who your Sustainer is

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

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Worship your Sustainer who created you and these beings before you. Who made the earth a resting place for you, and thereby produce fruits for your sustenance:

Who created you looking like herself Ninti: (Ninti is the Sumerian goddess of life, Ninti means ‘Lady of the rib’ or ‘Lady OF Life’Sumerian Princess) and acting like herself. Ninti, a female Amunnaqu and controller of the Sdhimti Laboratory. Put on your shield of protection againat the deceivers.

Many have gone into the world, and yet still many are not yet born. Ninti is the mother of your procreation. And before Zeus, women were recognized as the mother deities. We have males born of females, yet will restrict them. All of the great prophets and leaders came through the canal of a female.

Only in the reptile family do you find a male transfrom to female and female transform to male, by nature’s call. Associate not with the man that respect not the woman.

For even that man was conceived by the woman: The “Mother” simply the “Metter” or “Matter”.

She reflects the light of a properly lit sun in wisdom. She has four periods as the four phases of the moon. The moon as you see has no light of its own, but has madss and does exist in the purest state, darkness before chaos.

Thus, her weakness comes from the man, Darkness is pure and the moon sits in darkness as an assistant to the Earth; Controlling her tides, as the moon, rightly called Luna, has an effect on the mental state on those who lean toward her the lunatic. Let not the sensitivity of the apparent weakness of the woman, alter your state of consciousness, Stay in control.

If the moon cease to pull upon the tides of this planet, it would overheat as the evening comes and be no more. If a man ceases to respond to the whims of a woman or over responds to the emotional changes of a woman, or over responds to the emotional changes of a woman, he too will overheat, transform into a lunatic, and be no more.

Gaia is her name, She has been worshipped; be they agreeable or disagreeable; Bunbuloama, Buto, Ajysyt, Aditi, Hina, Chalchiuhtlicue, Umm Attar, Maat, Nakia, Sibtu, Amaterasu, Asit, Attis, Amphitrite, Ate, Anatiis, jAndarta, Arianrod, Arinna, Kali, Artemis, Artio, Asase Ya, Arduinna, Yemaya, Ua Zit, Ashera, Asiaq, Badb Catha, Athena, Atugan, Audjal, Mother deities; In many tongues a places.

Motherland Afrika: The Footprint of a Generation

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

 

Keeping Your Crown: The Black Woman’s time to Reclaiming Her Greatness. This is a call to action to challenge for black women to live up to their full potential. Black women are strong, beautiful, astute and invaluable leaders worthy of the title “Queen.” This is a call for the black women to raise their personal standards and lead lives reflective of greatness.

In particular, there are five specific areas black women should improve upon to advance their own lives and the state of Black America.

These five areas include: managing our love lives, understanding men, strengthening our sisterhood, changing our views on single motherhood, and improving our self-image.

Keeping our Crown is an eye-opening that forces the black women to realize, they hold the power and potential of the black community in their hands. Keeping our Crown encourages us as black women to live with purpose and intention and serve as positive agents of change within the black community.

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The Beauty, Power, and Divinity of the Black Woman

Earth is a title the righteous Black woman within the community calleed the Nation of Gods and Earths carries with pride. She is the Mother of Civilization and Queen of the Universe.

The planet Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun and 93 (9=Born, 3 = Understanding) million miles away from that energy source. Here, she is able to born understanding, or give birth to the best part of herself mentally and physically. She is secure in her position and it is through her perfect position that she sees her greatness and understands the divinity of her proper placement in the universe.

3/4ths of the Earth is covered with water. The refined Black woman covers herself approximately 3/4ths of the way, which will often if not always include her head being covered with a crown because she understands her culture and is free to be refined in it. By doing so, she keeps her best part which she considers to be her precious jewels preserved for those and only those who deserve it.

Those precious jewels are her mind and womb, which both have the ability to bring forth life. Her goal is to remain refined and respected. She is not striving to be looked at in a lustful way by men. She knows her worth and knows that being sexy or a “Diva” are not what she aspires to be. She is capable of being so much more. She walks with dignity and self-respect, has high self-esteem, and embraces her natural self.

She is the first teacher, and leads by example. Those who are around her see her wisdom through the example she sets. She also sets the standards by which her daughters want to aspire and her son’s would want their wives to be. She is a person that she herself would admire, respect, and keep close as a friend/sister.

The Earth has a Wise Dome and applies wise words, ways, and actions, respectfully. She is a P.O.E.T. This means tha she applies P.roper O.rder while E.xecuting the T.ruth using Supreme Mathematics as her guide. She is loyal, dedicated, and devoted to righteousness.

The Earth is humble, yet firm. Flexible, but not weak. Confident, but not cocky. She is a student and a teacher, thus will do the knowledge before ever manifesting a thought. She is constantly aspiring to gain wisdom.

The Earth is e-motion-al. Her Energy is ALways in Motion. She is in tune with these emotions, and brings clarity to them through peaceful evaluation of the situation at hand. The Earth remains centered and never allows her emotions to get out of hand by acting like a lunatic. She is always in control of her emotions (and if not, she is constantly working towards mastering them). Her emotions are a motivation to her. They prompt her to be motivated in doing what needs to be done.

There are 4 devils specifically she rebukes. They are Hate, Lust, Greed, and Jealousy

  • The Earth counters Hate  by agreeing to disagree, and by taking the best part of everything.
  • The Earth counters  Lust by avoiding obsession with sex, or anything that may lead to that obsession, like pornography, intoxication, or immoral peers. She understands procreation is a natural urge, but saves that urge for her King and God –  the one worthy of her.
  • The Earth counters Greed  by not misinterpreting material wealth or status as true wealth. She does not harbor selfish desires to obtain more than what is needed, excess material goods, social positions, or power.
  • The Earth counters Jealousy by wanting for her brothers and sisters what she would want for herself. She is secure in her perfect position in the universe and strives for greatness!

The Earth knows God. The 17th letter is Q (1 =Knowledge, 7 = God). She is a Queen. She stands by the side of God who is the Supreme Being. She is very careful when choosing a mate, her king, her God. She knows she is a valuable jewel and whoever should have her will be worthy.

The Earth has respect for her relationship with God. Her dealings with her God and their Universe are sacred. She honors him and what they have together. She knows the value and importance of the family structure; the man, woman, and child, never getting it twisted with monetary value. Therefore, she never has an “I dont need no man” mentality. She need him just as he needs her for life to go on.

How do you feel about Men laying with Men or Women laying with Women, do you think it’s Right and should it be allowed within the Black Communities???

Posted on by Queens & Kings of Afrika of the African People of Love an RBG Kingdom

 

Gay Is Not the New Black

It’s hard to deny that homosexual marriage appears to be a foregone conclusion in America. This is a frightening prospect not only for those of us who understand marriage to be a testimony of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church, but also for all who value the family and its contribution to the well-being of society and human thriving. And while it’s difficult to watch a coordinated, well-funded, well-connected propaganda strategy undermine thousands of years of human history, it’s especially disconcerting to witness the use of the civil rights struggle as the vehicle for the strategy.

The idea that same-sex “marriage” is the next leg in the civil rights race is ubiquitous. One of the clearest examples of the conflation of homosexual “marriage” and civil rights is Michael Gross’s article in The Advocate, in which he coins the now-popular phrase “Gay is the new black.”1 Gross is not alone in his conflation of the two issues, however. At a 2005 banquet, Julian Bond, former head of the NAACP, said, “Sexual disposition parallels race. I was born this way. I have no choice. I wouldn’t change it if I could. Sexuality is unchangeable.”2 Nor is this kind of thinking exclusive to the political left. When asked by GQ magazine if he thought homosexuality was a choice, Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, replied:

Oh, no. I don’t think I’ve ever really subscribed to that view, that you can turn it on and off like a water tap. Um, you know, I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can’t simply say, oh, like, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.” It’s like saying, “Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.”3

Even the California Supreme Court bought in to this line of reasoning. In a February 2008 decision they reasoned:

Furthermore, in contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation—like a person’s race or gender—does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.4 (emphasis added)

The California Supreme Court, like Gross, would have us believe that the homosexual struggle for a redefinition of marriage puts them in the same category as my ancestors. However, they would rather you didn’t take a closer look, lest you see how flimsy the comparison turns out to be.

Unidentifiable Minority

The first problem with the idea of conflating “sexual orientation” and race is the fact that homosexuality is undetectable apart from self-identification. Determining whether or not a person is black, Native American, or female usually involves no more than visual verification. However, should doubt remain, blood tests, genetics, or a quick trip up the family tree would suffice. Not so with homosexuality. There is no evidence that can confirm or deny a person’s claims regarding sexual orientation.5 Moreover, the homosexual community itself has made this identification even more complicated in an effort to distance itself from those whose same-sex behavior they find undesirable. The Jerry Sandusky case is a prime example. Sandusky is accused of molesting numerous young boys during and after his tenure at Penn State. However, try placing the label “homosexual” on his activities and the backlash will be swift and unequivocal. “Pedophiles are not homosexuals!” is the consistent refrain coming from the homosexual community, media, academia, and the psychological/medical establishment.6 Hence, it seems same-sex attraction alone isn’t enough to identify a person as a homosexual. And what about LUGS7 in college, or same-sex relationships in prison? Are these people homosexual? How about men who are extremely effeminate but prefer women, or those who once were practicing homosexuals but have since come out of the lifestyle (i.e., 1 Cor. 6:9-11)?

In short, it’s impossible to identify who is or is not a homosexual. As a result, how do we know to whom the civil rights in question should be attributed? Should a man who isn’t a homosexual (assuming we could determine such a thing) but tries to enter a same-sex union be treated the same as a woman who isn’t Native American but tries to claim it to win sympathy, or casino rights, or votes? But this isn’t the only problem with the civil rights angle.

Unalterable Definition

An additional problem with the “gay is the new black” argument is the complete disconnect between same-sex “marriage” and anti-miscegenation laws. First, there is a categorical disconnect. Miscegenation literally means “the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.” Ironically, the fact that homosexuals cannot “interbreed” shines a spotlight on the problem inherent in their logic. How can forbidding people who actually have the ability to interbreed be the same thing as acknowledging the fact that two people categorically lack that ability?8

Second, there is a definitional disconnect. The very definition of marriage eliminates the possibility of including same-sex couples. The word marriage has a long and well-recorded history; it means “the union of a man and a woman.” Even in cultures that practice polygamy, the definition involves a man and several women. Therefore, while anti-miscegenation laws denied people a legitimate right, the same cannot be said concerning the denial of marriage to same-sex couples; one cannot be denied a right to something that doesn’t exist. It should be noted that the right to marry is one of the most frequently denied rights we have. People who are already married, 12-year-olds, and people who are too closely related are just a few categories of people routinely and/or categorically denied the right to marry. Hence, the charge that it is wrong to deny any person a “fundamental right” rings hollow. There has always been, and, by necessity, will always be discrimination in marriage laws.

Third, there is a historical disconnect. As early as the time of Moses, recorded history is replete with interracial marriages. In our own history, the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas in the 17th century,9 along with the fact that anti-miscegenation laws were usually limited only to the intermarrying of certain “races” of people (i.e., black and white), stands as historical evidence of the legal and logical inconsistency of such laws. Thus, unlike same-sex “marriage” advocates, those fighting for the right to intermarry in the civil rights era had history on their side.

Fourth, there is a legal disconnect. One thing that seems to escape most people in this debate is the fact that homosexuals have never been denied the right to marry. They simply haven’t had the right to redefine marriage. But don’t take my word for it; listen to the Iowa Supreme Court in their decision in favor of same-sex “marriage”: “It is true the marriage statute does not expressly prohibit gay and lesbian persons from marrying; it does, however, require that if they marry, it must be to someone of the opposite sex.” There it is: not only in black and white, but in a legal decision. Homosexuals haven’t been deprived of any right. How, then, do those on the side of same-sex marriage continue to make the claim that this is a civil rights issue? The key is in the next paragraph:

[The] right of a gay or lesbian person under the marriage statute to enter into a civil marriage only with a person of the opposite sex is no right at all. Under such a law, gay or lesbian individuals cannot simultaneously fulfill their deeply felt need for a committed personal relationship, as influenced by their sexual orientation, and gain the civil status and attendant benefits granted by the statute.

I feel the need to remind the reader that this is a legal decision, since phrases like “gay or lesbian individuals cannot simultaneously fulfill their deeply felt need for a committed personal relationship” tend to sound out of place in such a document. Further, this is asinine logic. For example, following this line of reasoning, one could argue, “I have the right to join the military, but I am a pacifist. Therefore, I don’t really have the right (since it would be repulsive to me). Therefore, we need to establish a pacifist branch of the military so that I can fulfill both my desire to join, and my desire not to fight.” However, this reasoning is critically important in order to make the next leap in logic. “[A] gay or lesbian person can only gain the same rights under the statute as a heterosexual person by negating the very trait that defines gay and lesbian people as a class—their sexual orientation.”

Unsustainable Precedent

Perhaps the most damning aspect of the civil rights argument is logical unsustainability. If sexual orientation/identity is the basis for (1) classification as a minority group, and (2) legal grounds for the redefinition of marriage, then what’s to stop the “bisexual” from fighting for the ability to marry a man and a woman simultaneously since his “orientation” is, by definition, directed toward both sexes?10 What about the member of NAMBLA whose orientation is toward young boys?11 Where do we stop, and on what basis? Homosexual advocates are loath to answer this question. In fact, they are adept at avoiding it (and are rarely pressed on the point). However, the further legal implications of court decisions about same-sex marriage are inevitable. Nowhere is this clearer than in Lawrence v. Texas, a decision that struck down anti-sodomy laws. In the majority decision, Justice Kennedy cited his 1992 opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey:

These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State.12

I have no legal training, and I recognize the limits of my ability to fully evaluate the implications of such a decision. However, I do take notice when Justice Scalia responds to this assertion by stating:

I have never heard of a law that attempted to restrict one’s “right to define” certain concepts; and if the passage calls into question the government’s power to regulate actions based on one’s self-defined “concept of existence, etc.,” it is the passage that ate the rule of law.13 (emphasis added)

Inescapable Confrontation

It is very important for those of us who oppose the idea of same-sex “marriage” to do so not because we wish to preserve our version of the American Dream, but because we view marriage as a living, breathing picture of the relationship between Christ and his church (Eph. 5:22ff), and because we know that God has designed the family in a particular way. While the design of the family promotes human thriving (Gen 1:27-28), the testimony points people to their only hope in this life and the next. As a result, silence on this issue is not an option. Unfortunately (and quite ironically), many Christians have been bullied into silence by the mere threat of censure from the homosexual lobby. “Oppose us and you’re no better than Gov. Wallace, Hitler, and those homophobes who killed Matthew Shepard!” is their not-so-subtle refrain. Consequently, we spend so much time trying to prove we’re not hate-filled murderers that we fail to recognize that the Emperor has no clothes. There is no legal, logical, moral, biblical, or historical reason to support same-sex “marriage.” In fact, there are myriad reasons not to support it. I’ve only provided a few.