We Are Becoming the Problem Now!

By Michael Abayomi Alabi

When we leave our destiny in the hands of others and live our life in the past, we immediately destroy our future. Scientists in the human genome industry have proved that all humans are 99.9 percent the same. Why then are some ethnicities progressive and others nonprogressive? Our current problems are not with the slave or colonial masters. We Are Becoming the Problem Now! Had we continued in the legacy of our ancestors simply known as slaves, we ought to have been the pride and joy of the whole world. They went through unimaginable pain, sorrow, hardship, and torment. They survived and even succeeded by leaving a godly legacy behind in the Negro spiritual songs and in arts, education, industry, and every conceivable field. Our current major problems as blacks in Africa and all over the world simply put are leadership and disunity. We do the dirty work by self-destroying ourselves and each other. Only few illiterate Caucasian would engage in overt discrimination. The majority of us have been trained in the art and act of covert self-destruction and in the destruction of the whole. We have so much zeal but without knowledge. We must bear in mind that zeal without knowledge is dead, so also knowledge without zeal is equally lifeless (Romans 10:2). Not until we harness our zeal and knowledge comprehensively can we live a progressive life. It has been said that if the West is to stand still and halt all development and progress, Africa would never catch up. Yet we have PhDs in every conceivable field. Do we blame that on the ancestors of the slave or colonial masters? No! We are to be blamed. We Are Becoming the Problem Now! Those who have ears to hear, let them hear because time is of the essence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644162910

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We Are Becoming the Problem Now!

Michael Abayomi Alabi

ISBN 978-1-64416-290-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64416-292-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64416-291-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2018 by Michael Abayomi Alabi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

In Perpetual Memory

To the memories of the men and women who birthed me, whose life and humanity was reduced to mere property. Even though you were reduced to being slaves, you maintained your dignity, humanity, and, even more importantly, spiritual virtues by the legacy you left behind in the Negro spiritual songs. You proved conclusively that faith without faithfulness is a sham. Without you, we cannot be. You were the yesterday, we are the today, and some others will be the tomorrow. The same thread knits us together. We are one. Thank you for going through such an inhumane and a horrible ordeal (without a doubt by God’s grace) that many of us cannot even smell before we crumble and die. You tasted the physical and emotional pain, bondage, and sorrow; we taste the freedom, laughter, and joy. What others will taste and feel tomorrow (if the Lord delays His coming) I don’t know, but this I know: We are one. I am very sorry for letting you down by compromising your legacy of wisdom, strength, courage, dignity, uprightness, faithfulness, and deep religious fervor, even in the face of opposition. You’ll always be remembered and loved.

My Maternal Granny

Mrs. Felicia Awero (Mama Abeokuta)

This book is dedicated to the memory of my ancient fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters known as slaves and to the fallen heroes who stood for justice, truth, and human dignity. You will always be remembered, appreciated, and loved. I also dedicate this to the memory of my beloved godly maternal granny who was and still is my war room hero. Mrs. Felicia Awero (Mama Abeokuta) was my first conduit of God’s grace in the salvation of my soul. To my faithful, beloved mother, Adunola Agbeke Alabi; my courageous father, Michael Akinola Alabi; and my beautiful beloved daughter, Justice Oluwasade (God made this crown) Alabi, you’re my greatest earthly gift from God. In you I feel the gift of God’s adoption of me into His family. I love you and will always love you. You are very special to me; you have blessed me more than you realize. This book was birthed and became a reality by God’s grace and your encouragement.

Acknowledgement

It was Martin Luther who said, Every Christian ought to be a type of Christ to his neighbor. He did not mean it in a salvific sense, because none of us can be like Christ in that sense. He meant in kindness, love, faithfulness, patience, perseverance, prayerfulness, and so forth.

Reverend Steven Good of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California, you have been that to me and for me. Thank you for your faithfulness, kindness, and wise and godly counsel. Most importantly, from the first day we met, you have given me desire of my heart. You have prayed with me and prayed for me. You truly live out your name by being a good minister of the gospel. I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to serve the body of Christ as initiated by you. May the Lord richly reward you for being His conduit for my good and His glory.

Thank you very much, Sister Martha Bowers of Greater Union Baptist Church in Compton, California. Your encouraging words are a constant reminder of God’s love for me. I truly appreciate your diligence by painstakingly correcting all my errors in the introduction of this book. May the Lord continue to bless you with good health and everything you desire for your good and His glory.

Late Fred Hearns of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California, thank you for your brotherly love, kindness, and encouraging words. You proved conclusively that the body of Christ is one by living it out regardless.

Thank you very much, Nancy Bell of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach California for being a great usher. You were the first person I met on the day I attended the worship service. Your welcoming and genuine love for Christ and His church is simply amazing. For the next few weeks, you always welcomed me like an old friend. May the Lord continue to bless you with all your heart’s desires for your good and His glory.

Dr. John Fry and the entire Divorce Recovery Workshop (DRW) volunteers at Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California, I thank you very much for helping me navigate one of the darkest periods of my life and for being true to your calling. You proved conclusively from the scripture that the darker the night, the closer God is to His own. I praise the Lord for your service to me and countless others. As you continue to be the hands and feet of Christ for His church, may the Lord reward you richly and abundantly and strengthen and sustain you all.

Greg Marchman and Robert Hopkins of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California, thank you for giving me an amazing gift, by allowing me to serve the body of Christ. This is an amazing blessing I’ll forever be grateful for. May the Lord continue to strengthen your resolve to serve Him faithfully.

A hearty thank you to Cara Hagan, Tim Martin and every member of Divorce Care in Cypress California for opening your heart and home to assist those going through the crisis of life. May the Lord richly reward you for being His conduit for the good of His body and for His glory.

Abbey Parker, my publication specialist, I sincerely appreciate your gentle and kind approach to the process.

Introduction

First and foremost, I’m addressing this book to blacks; to every lover of justice and truth; to those who have been maligned, abused, and dehumanized; and to every human being who speaks but has no voice, who lives but has no platform, and who is alive but dead. I am writing from a dual perspective: first and foremost, as a human being and, second and even more important, as a Christian whereby the truth will be addressed and confronted.

I’m writing this book out of my own anger, frustrations, and anxiety about the future of the coming generations and sorrow over our collective lost opportunities, our self-deceit, the lack of awareness of our present predicament, and our collective future pitfalls. Martin Luther King Jr. said, We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability…we must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. I’m also writing because of my love for us as an ethnicity because the truest test of love is truth. When you profess to love someone and you decide not to tell that person the truth, there is no clearer evidence of lie, deceit, and hatred than that.

As we all know history is never 100 percent accurate. History from the oppressor’s vantage point is always skewed to portray him or her in not so bad light. The same history from the vantage point of the oppressed is totally different. Not until we look at both histories comprehensively and truthfully can we come to an almost true history. Even then it’s impossible to reconstruct history with 100 percent certainty and accuracy. It’s been said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. We as an ethnicity are in a state of quiet desperation and not even aware of it. I’m afraid the majority of us have fallen asleep and become complacent and we are almost in a state of comatose. All the gains of our ancient parents called slaves we’ve squandered and put to waste. I’m not advocating that we roll back the hand of progress or that slavery should be forgotten (God forbid), but we must not use it negatively whereby we destroy the future of the coming generations because of our past sad and sorrowful predicament, deepen our present quagmire, and even destroy our future or make it more deplorable. Yes, without a doubt we have been damaged by our past, but we must never, never, never, remain damaged or be imprison to the past. If anyone should be angry, distraught, and hopeless, it ought to be our ancient fathers and mothers called slaves, whose life was wasted in terms of material success but not in terms of spiritual virtues, faithfulness, and usefulness. They were very hopeful, resourceful, courageous, wise, discerning, godly, forgiving, and very optimistic about the future. Consider what this amazing soul, Wintley Phipps, said, It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God’s greatest gift are given in compensation for what you’ve been through. I can personally relate to that. It’s when we go through the darkest agony of the soul that our best is achieved. Yes, it’s painful, agonizing, and almost debilitating and despairing; but that is when God becomes more real and His presence felt more closely. I submit to you that slavery is the grace and gift of God to us. Again I say slavery is the grace and gift of God to us. Our ancient fathers and mothers known as slaves knew that, but we have almost destroyed their legacy by having a myopic view of slavery. I’ll forever be grateful and thankful to God for the true remnant descendants of our ancestors known as slaves. I’m referring to the family members of those true Christians murdered in Charleston, South Carolina, who displayed true Christlike forgiveness in the face of deep tragedy. They are the true remnant of our ancient parents called slaves; they are the very best part of us. They are not mere Christians; they are the true believers and worshippers of almighty God in spirit and truth (John 4:23). We cannot focus on the evil done to us without looking at the evil in our own hearts that we actually did to others and are still doing to each other. Whom do we blame for that, the descendants of the slave masters or the descendants of the colonial masters? No, we are to be blamed. We are becoming the problem now. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear because time is of the essence.

There are many in our ethnicity who would love to chain us to our past, because they profit greatly from our collective ignorance, naïveté, and tragedies. Yet they pretend to be fighting for our common course. They make us think that we are thinking right thoughts, but in reality we are not. The only thing they think about is their belly, making a fool of us all the way to the bank every day. They are one of us physically because they look like us; but emotionally and spiritually they are the enemy of our body, mind, and soul. Beware of them. Leadership is not a position but a disposition of the heart; it’s a responsibility. Some of our leaders who tantalize our ears with lies and great deceit but temper it with humor just to make us comfortable are very dangerous. For any man, woman, or children, to forget slavery or use slavery as a tool to further deepen the sorrow and tragedy of his or her people is a great tragedy indeed. It is the tragedy of all tragedies.

Whom do we blame for that, the descendants of the slave masters or the descendants of the colonial masters? No, we are to be blamed. We are becoming the problem now. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear because time is of the essence. The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies. That’s the more reason betrayal hurts so much, because it always comes from those who are supposed to be friends, confidants, and loved ones. One of the brightest and brilliant ministers and theologians of our generation, one who was born to preach the Word without a doubt, by the name of Kenneth Jones, who dedicates his ministry to teaching sound reformed theology once said while preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes while he was the minister at Greater Union Baptist Church in Compton, California:

Every Christian is an ambassador for Christ. The question is: How do you represent Him? We are all a walking billboard for the Lord. What type of a message do you carry?

I meditated on this statement for a long time in its original context relating to the sermon he preached. I know that it was brilliantly articulated. I then turned the statement around to me and us as an ethnicity and a community. Thus:

Every black man, woman, and child is the ambassador for the ethnicity. The question is: How do you represent the ethnicity? We are all a walking billboard for the ethnicity. What type of message do you carry?

I pray you’ll meditate and chew on this statement and ask yourself, How do I presently represent the ethnicity? Slavery must be seen as a source of strength, a means to praise God and of thanksgiving to Him at all times for His manifold blessings, strength, and courage. I’m not trying to minimize its impact, trivialize the damage, or exonerate those who perpetuated this deadly cruelty or turn a blind eye on yesterday. No! No! No! There’s no doubt in my mind that all of our ancient fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters known as slaves went through unimaginable physical and emotional pain and trauma. One thing that is obvious is that they knew God, not just knowing something about God as most of us today for convenience’s sake, merely making verbal affirmation of Him without a committed heart, mind, and soul. This can be seen and heard in their devotion and commitment by carefully studying the Negro spiritual songs in depth. Even though the majority of their works had been lost and will never be retrieved, we have enough to study and know, whereby attaining greater knowledge of their lives. If you endeavor to know someone’s mind, listen to their words carefully. If you endeavor to know their hearts, watch their actions intently. The hearts, minds, and words of our ancient parents known as slaves can be known and even studied by simply listening to their songs we commonly call Negro spiritual songs. In fact, I’ve heard more of the Negro spiritual songs not in black churches but in other ethnic churches. If our hearts, minds, and words are to be examined by the unborn generations to come, what would they say about us? If our songs, lifestyle, and morality are to be revealed, how would we compare to other ethnicities and cultures around us? Our ancient parents known as slaves were the most successful beings ever to set foot on American soil. Despite our advancement, we are not as successful as they were, but we think we’ve arrived due to our advancement in technology. It was this venerable soul, Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856–1915), who said in the book Up from Slavery, Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed. Our ancient parents known as slaves travailed very serious, dangerous, and unthinkable terrain that most of us cannot even think of before we give up, fizzle out, and die. They never gave up. Consider what this honorable soul, Martin Luther King Jr., said concerning their plight:

More than seventy-five million black people were lost, murdered and died in the midst of that two hundred and some years of slave trading. Don’t ever romanticize slavery. It’s one of the darkest evil periods in the history of the world. But the Negro is still going and he never had the disease of giveupitis. He knew somehow that there was an agreement with an eternal power and he’d look out and say, You ain’t no nigger. You ain’t no slave, but God’s Children.

The courage and hope they displayed against all odds is truly remarkable and out of this world. Can we boast of the same courage and hope today? We are becoming the problem now. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear because time is of the essence. You and I are either part of the present problem or part of the solution. There is no middle ground indeed. We must not allow our emotion to overrule us and detach ourselves from the reality of the life we are presently living in. Our emotion ought to be the indicator of our reality, not the fabricator of our reality. God gave our emotion to us. He did not give us to our emotion. We must control our emotion; it must not control us. Yes, human beings are emotional creations, but we must, at all cost, avoid emotionalism whereby we allow our emotion to dictate our beingness. So, also, we must avoid being stoic whereby we also remove our emotion from our beingness. Both of these extremes in the spectrum must be avoided, maintaining a balance. We’ll examine how our ancient parents known as slaves were able to use their emotion wisely in such a way that brought them relief and also glorified God’s name. We will examine how they allowed the scripture to guide their emotion, because they felt what they believed and experienced the truth of it. The premise of our initial beliefs is very important. If our initial belief about God and His Word is wrong or faulty, everything we build on it will be wrong. Hence, if our belief about God is right, everything we build on it will be right. I’m not a masochist. I hate pain and cannot even stand to see others in pain without doing something about it. I sincerely believe that some amount of pain is needed in life and living, even more so as a Christian. There’s an African proverb that says, A soul that cannot contain sorrow can never maintain joy. Sorrow and joy are twin sisters; the more sorrow you can endure, the more joy you can also maintain. I sincerely believe that slavery ought to be a means of giving thanks to God. Yes, the slaves were very angry and distressed. Even some fought very valiantly for their freedom as they should. Listening to their songs and especially their dirges I’m comforted to know they were men and women of great wisdom and understanding because even in their distresses they still proved to be more humane than their oppressors in their acknowledgment of God. Anyone and everyone can say Praise the Lord when all is well. Not everyone can praise Him when nothing is going right. This is not to exonerate the slave owners and those who perpetrated this evil deed, far from it. This is to prove that those ancient souls known as slaves knew something that the slave owners didn’t and we, their descendants, don’t know. Many times when God does what is good, we say that He’s doing something bad. When He allows what is bad to happen, we say that He’s doing something good. We must bear in mind that zeal without knowledge is dead, so also knowledge without zeal is equally lifeless (Romans 10:2). It’s when we harness our zeal and knowledge in a constructive way that we can truly experience full and comprehensive living. Since the Word of God would not return to Him void, it must accomplish all of God’s decrees and purposes. Then we must