“Dr. Ravi Zacharias: My Tribute to a Distant Intellectual Mentor and Teacher”

The famed Christian philosopher and apologist Dr. Ravi Zacharias has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. We do not know how long he’s going to be with us. As a result, I would like to share a brief testimony with you about how Dr. Zacharias has transformed my life. This is also a way for me to pay a tribute to him.

When I was in College, I began to listen to Ravi Zacharias regularly through his international radio program called “Let My People Think.” Literally, I listened to his philosophical talks every day, both before and after class. He would captivate my mind through his vast knowledge, critical reasoning, and intellectuality. In the process, Dr. Zacharias has become instantly my distant intellectual teacher and mentor. It was through his philosophical and religious writings and lectures that I have learned about the most important philosophers, both from the East and the West. He was through him that I encountered the most leading ideas in the world of philosophy and religious studies (i.e. Hinduism). For example, he introduced me to the central ideas of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, C.S. Lewis, Rousseau, Voltaire, Hume, Sartre, Dewey, Plantinga, Lennox, Craig, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty, James, etc. Although I took four philosophy classes in College, Ravi was my best philosophy teacher. After I graduated from College, I applied to the University of South Florida to pursue an M.A. in (analytical) philosophy. (Unfortunately, I did not enroll in the philosophy program there.) His impact was so strong on me that I wanted to study philosophy professionally and at the academic level.

I must admit that Dr. Zacharias has become the most influential Christian thinker in my life. Language is not adequate to describe his impact on my intellectual development and analytical thinking. In the time of tape recording, I purchased literally every series he produced such as his famous philosophical lecture series at Ohio State University: “Jesus Among Other Gods,” as well as his thought-provoking lecture “Why I am a Christian,” in which he used analytical method and reasoning to argue for theism by deconstructing atheistic ideas in Western Philosophical tradition.

It was Mr. Zacharias who had fueled in me a passion to study in great detail the historicity of the New Testament Gospels, to test the validity of the texts of the New Testament, and to critically evaluate the claims of the resurrection of Jesus. As an Indian philosopher, he had also introduced me to another philosophical tradition beyond the West: Indian Philosophy. He has helped me to explore another worldview and to see the world intellectually from different epistemological lenses. Not only have I learned from him some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers India has produced; he had sparked the fire in me to learn more about Hinduism and Indian poetry and literature. It was also through Zacharias’s rich interdisciplinary knowledge and his impressive expertise on various religious traditions that I became interested in other religious traditions closer to home such as the Haitian Vodou.

Today, my heart is in pain because my teacher and mentor Ravi Zacharias, who had taught me many viable lessons about the life of the mind and the life of the soul (as he himself a devoted follower of Jesus Christ), is in critical medical condition. I pray for his recovery and also wish that his wife Margie and children and friends will find peace and comfort in these difficult times. I also invite you to pray urgently and fervently for Mr. Ravi Zacharias.

#LetMyPeopleThink

#RaviZacharias

Emisyon Chita Koze (10 Me 2020) – Nou te resevwa envite: Dr. Celucien Joseph (@doctorlou1978) – Pwofesè/Teolojyen. Nou te pale sou ide filozofik e teolojik ansyen Prezidan Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

https://t.co/JYrBvBoftw

“Jodi a Nou leve w Pi Wo: A Mother’s Day Poem”

Jodi a nou leve w pi wo pase tout mòn ki pi wo yo.
Jodi a pitit ou yo selebre yon gwo manman ki wo.
Yo di ou toujou rete cho.
Ou toujou pote chaj ki pi gwo.

Lè tèt mwen cho ou retire m nan kacho.

Yo di se ou ki pi bon sou latè dayiti.
Ou toujou fè moun ri.
Bò kote w gen lavi ki pap fini.
Lanmou ki pap janm detwi.
Bèl lèv ou yo fè tout moun dòmi.
Ou gen yon bote ki pap janm pouri.
Zantray ou yo di ou se yon fanm ki fè tout moun souri.
Ou toujou sove ti moun ki pèdi.
Ou pa pè mouye nan lapli.

Yo di ou se yon negrès ki renmen.
Jodi a nou afime tout valè ou genyen, pi pwesye ke demen.
Ou se yon fanm ki geri m lèm blese.
Ou kowe m lèm tonbe.
Ou kenbe menm lèm bwate.

Tout lanati ak pye bwa koube fòn yo pou onore ou.
Ti zwazo nan bwa yo chante bèl melodi pou ou.
Menm rosignòl leve danse pou bèl koulè po ou.
Malfini nan rak bwa pawaze sou tèt ou san rete.
Papiyon chanje koulè lè l gade w.
Cheval nan vale yo kanpe pou di w bonjou.
Mouton pèdi imilite l lè l rankontre.
Balèn lanmè jwe troubadou pou ou.
Lasirèn pèdi bote l lè l fè fas a ou.
Sous dlo nan fowè sovaj yo bay dlo ki pi fre paske se fèt ou.
M ekri yon bèl pwezi pou ou.

Tout vakabon Pòtoprens dakò ou se yon fanm san fot.
Ti mesye Okap yo pè fan m sa a.
Ti gran moun Gonayiv di ou kenbe tèt ou.
M di ou se yon fanm ki gen bon kè.
Zanmi ou yo di ou pa janm kenbe yo nan kè.
Paske ou renmen ak tout kè.

Jodi a tout moun leve w pi wo pase tout mòn ki pi wo.

After my white evangelical Christian friend from College read the article I wrote about the killing of #AhmaudAubery for #TheWitnessBCC, he wrote this heartbroken and insensitive note to me. He still does not understand or does not want to understand the fragility of black life in America.

Click on the link below to read the article:

Ahmaud Arbery, the Killing of Whiteness, & the Preservation of Black Lives in America

Here are his words:

“Plz explain why you are upset about those two guys in Georgia and not upset about black on Black Death that is sky high? I’m not being argumentative…I’m trying to understand. I feel like I only hear from you and others when there’s a white on black killing. It seems like you are possessed of an ideology that believes whites hate black ppl and have created a system designed to kill them. There’s no word from you or anyone unless there’s an interracial crime with a white perpetrator. The way many talk (you included) it would seem like the systemic issues are wide spread and a genocide is happening right before our eyes. 1. Do you believe that all whites want to kill blacks? 2. Do you believe that every single level of government is filled with white people out to kill blacks? 3. Do you believe this is everywhere in our country? Every town…city…state…all completely dedicated to the mission of murdering blacks? Again not offended or being argumentative. I understand that blacks deserve to be angry about what whites have done for hundreds of years. It this is generational hate/resentment then fine. I’m trying to understand…I’m sure I can’t (I guess). Don’t respond if you don’t want to. I’m at peace with knowing the system is slowly improving the more engaged ppl are in it.”

“The Killing of Whiteness and the Preservation of Black Lives in America”

There’s something terribly wrong with this country’s Justice system if we have to celebrate the arrest of an individual who has committed horrific acts of evil or violence against Black and African people.

If black citizens in this country have to demand for justice every time a crime is committed against a black person, there’s something awful and tragic about our democracy, our collective moral conscience, and our regard for human life and dignity.

We need to stop singing “God bless America” until we reconstitute this nation and our selves (on both levels: individual and collective), restructure its Justice system, humanize the black experience, and renew the American mind toward equal and pure justice, moral decency, and a high value of black lives & the most vulnerable in society.

The fundamental reason black people keep shouting that #BlackLivesMatters is simply because the structure of our Justice system and public policies denies the reality that black people’s lives do in fact matter. It is also because white supremacy denies the practical existence and visibility of Black people in society. It is also because our laws and democracy never fully deracinated the hegemonic omnipresence of white power in society and never resolved the overwhelming impact of white privilege in culture.

Black lives and the life of the most vulnerable will matter only if the citizens of this nation, in their diversity and various expressions, deliberately continue to challenge the unjust structures embedded in the nation’s Justice system and public policies, reassess the country’s moral standing, annihilate white dominion, and eradicate the special status of whiteness in society.

Moreover, it may appear the American nation is democratically independent and sovereign, and has enjoyed unrelenting years of political freedom, power, and liberty. Yet since the birth of this nation, our collective soul has been restless to experience genuine internal peace and true freedom among the citizens.

The democracy we have constructed has never been fully tried in every segment of the American life.  America’s lofty Enlightenment ideals have never been extended to radically transform the experience and life of every American citizen. A central reason of this attitude and reaction lies in our personal (ideological) beliefs and collective refusal to confront our internal fears and reevaluate the dark moments of our history and the inhumane side of our laws.

The American freedom we have sustained in the past four hundred years and even championed at world’s stage has never crossed the boundary of race relations and human solidarity, never tested the limits of white supremacy and human hospitality, and it has never transgressed the purity of racial ideas and the politics of racial prejudice that mark the nation’s nascent human relations and social dynamics.

Consequently, we must question our emotional insensitivity toward death and black death, in particular, and interrogate our lack of empathy toward human suffering, especially the tragedy of black pain and suffering in America. It is of vital importance to incorporate in our everyday practices an ethics of responsibility and accountability toward life, black life in specific and that of the most vulnerable groups in our society, also. A true democracy must uphold the value and worth of human life and destroy every deliberate and unjust attempt to eradicate human life and existence.

Toward this goal, it would require that the citizens of this nation and its elected officials to undo the negative aspects of our democratic structure and Judicial system and foster a democratic life in America that is built upon different sets of human and moral values and an alternative category of human nature, such as a democratic experience that is predicated upon a rigorous anti-racist foundation and grounded on the ethics of hospitality, social justirespect for human life, interconnectedness, and mutual reciprocity and accountability.

No matter the cost this nation will pay and should render, the people of this country must kill whiteness for the preservation of black lives and the safety of the most vulnerable in the American society. This is the commitment  we together must undertake to experience genuine internal peace and interracial harmony for the sake of human dignity and the future generation. This choice is mine; it is  yours also, and it is available to every American citizen today toward the path of humility and grace.

———————————————–‘

Every Black father knows #AhmaudArbery is also his son.

Every Black mother knows #AhmaudArbery is also her son.

As a Black father of two Black sons, I know #AhmaudArbery is also my son.

This matter is about the dignity & sanctity of black life that is always being questioned and dehumanized and always at stake, at risk, and in danger in this country.

We mourn about the destruction of #blacklives.

We lament about the end of #blacklives.

We are outraged about the vulnerability and insecurity of #blacklives.

We lose words when #blacklives are gone.

This is not about politics. It’s a question about the moral value and worth, and the preservation and safety of #blacklives. Is #AhmaudArbery your son? Can you see him as your boy? Who is worthy to be called your son?

#theologizinginblack is one of six books The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education recommended last week. Thanks to all who have supported this book, not only by purchasing but by sharing it on various social media platforms.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

https://haitithenandnow.wordpress.com/2020/05/01/haiti-then-and-now-interviews-professor-patrick-bellegarde-smith/

“Haitian Thinkers in the Public Space: An Interview Series”

“Haiti Then and Now” is pleased to share with you our interview with Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith

Please share widely!

“‘Almost Postcolonial’: Understanding Jean Jacques Dessalines’ Postcolonial Practices in the new State of Haiti”

(*** This post is an excerpt from a book chapter I am writing on Dr. Madeleine Sylvain Bouchereau’s brilliant critique of the colonial system and human practices and relations in postcolonial Haiti. In this chapter, I am also interacting with Mocombe’s important book, “Identity and Ideology in Haiti: The Children of Sans Souci, Dessalines/Toussaint, and Petion” [Routledge, 2018]).

“‘Almost Postcolonial’: Understanding Jean Jacques Dessalines’ Postcolonial Practices in the new State of Haiti”

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haiti’s first postcolonial leader and the Father of the Haitian nation, and the First Emperor in the American continent, was determined to establish a truly postcolonial state in the new nation of Haiti. In fact, he laid the elementary foundations and principles that are grounded on the logic of decoloniality and an anticipated postcolonial life and experience in Haiti; yet the structures and systems of a truly postcolonial state never took roots in Haiti because the colonial remnants and practices were never fully eradicated in the new evolving First Black Republic in the Western world. Correspondingly, decolonial stuctures and practices were never never fully integrated in the country’s political institutions and public policies, as well as in Haiti’s civil and political societies :

1. Military force and National Safety: Emperor Jean Jacques Dessalines instituted a new army, composed of former valiant warriors of the Haitian Revolution, to protect the new nation against potential new conquests by the country’s old and new enemies.
2. Structures and Systems: he established the bases for new economic and judicial institutions in the new country that were independent on the slave economic model of the former colonial Saint-Domingue. Yet the postcolonial economic system of Haiti was associated with the agricultural model of Western capitalist economy.
3. Social order and New regulations: the new postcolonial administration established rigorous regulations to administer the social life and order in the country by beginning with the affirmation of individual rights of property and ownership, as well as equitable public policies regulating trade and commerce, and the civil state and the justice system, the assurance of the rights for “natural” children, the army, and the Haitian culture; yet in various ways, these laws were dependent upon the antecedent colonial judicial system of the Metropole (i.e. France), which have also shaped Haiti’s legislating branch. These new regulations would also influence the meaning and workings of the “new” postcolonial Haitian family; while the state encouraged the traditional marriage, it attempted to decline the old concubinage practice in the country—an ancestral tradition that is still practiced in the contemporary Haitian society, particularly in the country’s countryside—because it somewhat contributed to the economic instability of the traditional family and internal conflict between the spouses and natural and biological children.
4. Religion and Politics: while the Emperor enacted a new law to protect and keep the colonial French priests in the country, he passed very strict laws regulating the practice of religion in the country and disciplinary actions against the “new clergy” that could potentially serve as agents of France in the new country (It was until the 1960s, President Francois Duvalier would indigenize the Haitian clergy of the Catholic church.) For example, the 1805 imperial Constitution granted rights and authority to the Emperor to nominate and dismiss the clergy. In this case, the state restricted certain aspects of religious freedom and religious expression. Yet the Catholic Church, led by an overwhelmingly colonial French priests, was not respected in the country and thus unable to ensure the moral formation of the Haitian people. That would change, nonetheless, when the Haitian government, under the leadership of President Guillaume Fabre Nicolas Geffrard (806 –1878), in 1860, officially signed the Concordat with the Saint-Siege to assure the establishment of Catholicism as the state religion in Haiti. Interestingly, in the major urban cities and countryside, the Haitian people continued to practice their most dominant ancestral faith, the Vodou religion, tainted with the traditions, rituals, and practices of Roman Catholicism, under the direction of Haitian “houngans” (“priests”). This syncretic tradition would define the Haitian experience in religion for many years to come. It would also influence every religious tradition and faith organization in the country, including the three major religions in Haiti: Vodou, Christianity, and Islam. Also, this syncretic-metissage lifestyle would also shape the Haitian mind and impact Haiti’s intellectual traditions and literary productions.
5. Colonial Plantations and the Agricultural Sector: the Haitian state, under the leadership of Emperor Dessalines, confiscated colonial plantations, and most of the land became the property of the new state through the adoption of the leasing method, and Emperor Dessalines issued very strict regulations to compel the former slaves to return to cultivating the land. The state policed over both former colonial plantations and the country’s privately-land ownership—which will lead to the immature and anticipated death of the Emperor. The Emperor, driven by an ethics of postcolonial practice and a postcolonial worldview of activism and reparations, distributed land and former privately-owned property to the vulnerable peasants and the marginalized former slave population who were the main engine of (the blossoming of) European economy and Saint-Domingue’s capitalist strength.
6. The right to a Career and the right to Work: according to the imperial Constitution of 1805, every Haitian citizen should have a trade or craft; those who did not have a trade were forced to work the land. While the new Constitution affirmed the dignity of work and promotes that the Haitian citizen must have a career, it established the rapport between work and national progress, an important postcolonial push that would contribute to the country’s economic strength of this emerging postcolonial nation. This interesting relationship between the state, labor, and the individual suggests that Haitian citizens, although independent, are never autonomous and should never live for their own sake, but for the common good and human flourishing in society. Their individual success is also the success of the new nation-state, the first Black Republic in the Western World.