Can you feel the love tonight?

When I was in High School in the early 1990s, I used to listen and even sing Bryan Adams’ remarkable song “Please forgive me,” which came out in 1993. Consider these enduring words of pure gold:

“So if you’re feeling lonely, don’t
You’re the only one I’ll ever want
I only want to make it good
So if I love you, a little more than I should….
The one thing I depend on
Is for us to stay strong
With every word and every breath I’m praying
That’s why I’m saying”

Bryan Adams, “Please Forgive Me”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EHAo6rEuas

Another favorite song of mine was “Ne me quitte pas” (“Do not Leave Me”) by the renowned Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, which he composed in 1959. I truly believe this is the most beautiful love song every written in the history of romantic music. The words of the songs are deeply grounded in covenantal love. Consider the eternal words from this stanza:

Moi, je t’offrirai
Des perles de pluie
Venues de pays
Où il ne pleut pas
Je creuserai la terre
Jusqu’après ma mort
Pour couvrir ton corps
D’or et de lumière

Je ferai un domaine
Où l’amour sera roi
Où l’amour sera loi
Où tu seras reine
Ne me quitte pas

[I, I will offer you
Pearls of rain
From lands
Where it doesn’t rain
I will dig the earth
Until after my death
To cover your body
With gold and light.

I will create a domain

Where love will be king

Where love will be law

Where you will be queen

Don’t leave me]

“Ne me quitte pas,” Jacques Brel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz6r0TP4FBI

At any rate, I used to sing both songs frequently as if I had broken a girl’s heart and I was seeking her forgiveness and begging her to return to me. 🙂 🙂 🙂

The fact was that I did not have a girlfriend in 1993 or was I even dating in my freshman and sophomore years. Hey, I was not even in love or maybe, I “Wanna Be Loved,” in the words of Buju Banton 🙂 🙂 🙂

Buju Banton, “Wanna Be Loved” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSU0rcVTaE

Wanna be loved
Not for who you think I am
Nor what you want me to be
Could you love me for me?
I wanna give you me heart
Don’t want to take it back
This is my chat-cho

Everybody’s laughing
Some say I’m silly
No infatuation, no love fantasy
Woman you lead my life on a string
I can’t tale the on and off thing
I’m oh so lonely inside so I sing…

Cross my heart, every day I live I pray
And I know she’ll come my way
Night and day for this woman I pray

“Questioning Religion: The Urgent Call for Mental Emancipation and Decolonial Practice”

About a year ago, I announced online that I will be writing an academic article on this beautiful, thought-provoking, and groundbreaking song “E Si’ L Pavle Vini” (2014)/ (“What if He Doesn’t Want to Come”) by the talented Haitian rasta artist Tiga Jean Baptiste. I also added another song to my analysis, “Guede/Gede” (2004) by the famous Haitian band Rasin Bwa Kayiman. I am pleased to inform you that I have written the article and submitted it to one of my favorite academic journals on religion, theology, and cultural criticism.

In my essay, I offer an exegetical reading of the rhetorical (postcolonial) language and (decolonial) message of the two songs that are written or sung within the framework of a postcolonial critique of imperial and neo-colonial Christianity. In both songs, the artists make counterclaims toward missionary Christianity and call upon the Haitian people to reject its colonized form and reclaim their ancestral traditions. I examine the songs from four different and complementary lenses: political theology, liberation theology, postcolonial criticism, and decolonial framework. At the end of the essay, I make some recommendations to both Christian and Vodou practitioners to engage in healthy interreligious dialogue and education that will contribute to greater religious tolerance and understanding toward the common good in society.

Both songs address the cultural alienation and enslavement of the Haitian people brought by European colonization and imperial Western Christianity, supported by American imperialism. The songs call for the decolonization and emancipation of the Haitian mind and to reject both the colonized version of Christianity and for the Haitian people to embrace the Haitian cultural identity rooted in the practices of African ancestral retentions in Haiti and Haitian Vodou.

I shall hear from the editor maybe in two to three months if the article has been accepted for publication. I will keep you posted during the reviewing process. While both of us are waiting to hear from the reviewers, let us enjoy together this beautiful lyric: “E Si’ L Pavle Vini”

Happy listening!.

“Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Memory and the Birth of Haiti”
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Topic: Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Memory and the Birth of Haiti
Time: Aug 14, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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Here’s my recent interview (July 30, 2023) with Josué Lexidor, the host of Pwen Wouj. The title of this conversation was “Can Haitian Evangelicals save Haiti by themselves?”

If you want to know how I responded to the question, go listen to this wonderful conversation:

**The interview is in Kreyòl

10 Reyalite Fondamantal sou Relijyon: Yon Apwòch Konparatif
https://youtu.be/z5oT1By8YGY

I have not written a poem for months. To bid farewell to the month of July, it is my pleasure and delight to share with you my new poem called “Before You Come.” This poem is also intended to pave the way to salute the month of August. I also played with another title “Unlock My Heart.” Which one of the two titles do you like and the one that goes with the meaning of the poem?


“Before You Come”

My life was a guitar with no melodic chords.
A poem with no rhythmic pattern to remember joy;
A song with no refrain to spark emotions;
You poured love into my old griefs.
You relaxed my dried smiles with blue waters.
I only knew tears of blues and gloomy memories.
You unlocked my heart with the new story you created in me.

Before you moved in me, I wandered in the shades of night like a lonely dream.
False lovers dragged me to places where it did not rain.
They sketched a fake image of me with an ink that was made to fade.
With a single click, you deleted their story across the plane of despair.
You pulled me back in to find rest in thee.
You wrapped me in your smile.
I knew the words of the song, but you wrote the full song.
I memorized the steps to the dance, but you were the Lord of the dance.

Before you found me, my lips were hungry for a kiss.
My body has wallowed in the darkness.
I have closed my soul to men.
You looked into my eyes and spoke softly, “I’ll be your lock.”
Your hands around my waist,
We moved to the last beat.
You showed me the way to the studio,
We played the tune with no end.
I made my heart a home for you to rest.
Each word of our story will be tattooed on our skin as one.

“Center for Faith, Reason, and Dialogue with Dr. Joseph”

“Diskou Vodouyizan an Ayiti”

“Center for Faith, Reason, and Dialogue with Dr. Joseph”

“Apprenons à vivre ensemble: Dix thèses sur le dialogue interreligieux et la compréhension entre le Vodou et le Christianisme en Haïti”

“Center for Faith, Reason, and Dialogue with Dr. Joseph”

Here’s the second part of my conversation on Bishop Gregory Toussaint, Vodou, & the Christian discourse in Haiti.

“Pastè Gregory Toussaint, Vodou, ak Diskou Kristyanis lan (Dezyèm Pati)”

“Center for Faith, Reason, and Dialogue with Dr. Joseph”

Pastè Gregory Toussaint, Relijyon, ak Chanjman an Ayiti (Premye Pati)