Gun Culture

Our Pastors have failed Those Who are Suffering and Mourning This Sunday Morning!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Colonial Christianity, Gun Culture, Uncategorized , , ,

Our Pastors have failed Those Who are Suffering and Mourning This Sunday Morning!

In such a  time as this (This Sunday morning (July 10, 2016)), many pastors and  preachers had a great opportunity to preach on the race issue and the culture of death that are destroying us and causing so much suffering and death in our society; the problem of racism and racial harmony has already divided and segregated American churches nationally. Unfortunately, this morning, many of these preachers have failed the victims and those who are suffering and mourning the death of someone they knew or the death of a friend or someone’s else friend. As many preachers have said in their sermon today, “only Jesus can change someone’s heart.” “Only Jesus can heal our land.”

While both statements are true, I refuse to believe that Christians in America are good for nothing, and that they’re unable to contribute anything meaningful and constructive to change the culture of death and the desecration of  human life in our society. Sometimes, I believe Christians who have answered in that manner are seeking an easy way out; they refuse to be agents of change and light of the world– an important responsibility Scripture has called them to perform in the public sphere. A Christianity that refuses to engage the culture meaningfully and biblically is a dead Christianity. A Christianity that is afraid to defend the oppressed, the disheartened, and the victims of  systemic racism and structural oppression is a faith that is not worth saving and celebrating. I also refuse to believe that Christianity  or Evangelical Christianity does not have the adequate resources to engage the culture of death, violence, and human degradation in American society.

Consequently, I would like to ask my White Evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ these three honest questions:

1. Is there biblical and theological argument to justify the sanctity of black life and the dignity of black and African American people?

2. In the same line of thought, is there biblical and theological argument to support Black Lives Matter Movement?

3. On a comparative note, is there biblical and theological evidence for the pro-life/anti-abortion movement?

If you believe there’s biblical and theological warrant for any of these questions, please share your perspective here. How should then we Christians respond to these sensitive issues in these times of trouble and political correctness?
For example, I’m thinking about the various ways American Evangelicals have brilliantly and ethically defended the life of the unborn child and passionately argue against legal abortion.

For change to happen in our hearts and in our society, Christians or Evangelical Christianity must confront the predicament of black history and the hurt of the black experience in America.

* As a black Evangelical minister and christian, I honestly would like to have this conversation with you. If you don’t feel comfortable answering these questions through this venue, please email your response to me at celucien_joseph@yahoo.com

Let’s Talk about Port-au-Prince’s Gun Culture Problem!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Gun Culture, Uncategorized, Violence ,

Port-au-Prince (Note: I said Port-au-Prince not Haiti) has a serious gun culture problem similar to the gun crisis in Southside of Chicago, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Philadelphia, Miami, New York City, Memphis, Oakland, Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, etc.However, this culture of violence in Haiti’s capital city is linked to the country’s high level of unemployment, the country’s backward political process, and the disregard for law and order. The gangstarization of the country’s Police forces just like in the United States also contributes to this predicament.

Interestingly, many gangsta politicians and the gangsta bourgeois-elite minority in the country make a grand economic profit out of the non-regulating gun ownership and the kidnapping activity in the capital city. What makes it worst is that many Haitian public intellectuals and cultural critics remain silent about this pivotal issue. An Ayiti tout moun se chef!

If we are serious about radically transforming our civil and political societies, we need to be engaging in critical self-reflection and bring to surface (in meaningful conversations) our internal forces and Haitian-made woes that are destroying us and deferring future emanticipating possibilities.