Franklin Graham posted on Facebook a statement that was probably meant to appear as if it was "not racist." Indeed and in reality, it is racist. He called on anyone - "blacks,whites and Latinos, and everyone else - to obey the police when they tell you to do something, even if you do not agree with it. It is as simple as that. This is the way to not get shot by police."
He called on parents to teach their children to respect and obey those in authority and President Obama to declare to the nation the measage he espouses. And added, "The Bible says submit to your leader and those in authority."
Graham chooses to overlook the fact, apparently not because of his naivete, that it is unarmed blacks who are profiled and being killed by police. He had no advice for a police officers such as Ferguson Police Officer Darnell Wilson who killed Michael Brown and racist policemen in general.
It is strange that Graham would call on President Obama whom for three years he questioned as to whether he was a Christian but believed him to be a Muslim to deliver to the nation the massage he posted on Facebook. It is true , however, that after some black religious leader in and open letter that included signatories of presidents of the National Baptist Conventrin USA and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church criticized him for his comments questioning President Obama's faith, that Graham on Feb. 21, 12012, one week after the had said in an interview on MSNBC, "that he does not know for sure if Obama is a Christian, but he knew that Rick Santorum and Nwet Gingrich are Christians," apologized to Presidenrt Obama and to those who may have been offended by his comments questioning Obama's Christian faith.
The truth is black parents do teach their children to obey authority. Obeying authority is not sufficient to prevent black boys and men from being shot by the police. Moreover, obeying all authority at all times is not the wise thing to do. It was refusing to obey authority after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white person that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Four days after her arrest, I was one of eighteen persons that included Martin Luther King, Jr., who at the time was not nationally known, organized the Montgomery Improvement Association to direct the bus boycott. King was elected President and I was elected secretary of the MIA.
About eight years later, in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" King criticized white religious leaders. He writres: "I must confess I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negroes great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate." I recall during MIA board meetngs we criticized Franklin's father, Billy Graham, for having not supported, at least in words, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and desegregation. As a matter of fact, his father said "The Bible does not have anything to say about segregation." I say that is a lie.
As for the Bible, "on obeying your master." During slavery, it was preachers like George Whitefield who left England two years after another Englishman, Charfles Wesley who had come to America and preached against slavery, to preach in support of slavery, making the claim that slavery was ordained by God. In 1778 Whittefield was one of the Trustees of Georgia to introduce salvery into that colony. The favorite text of Whitefield and other pro-slavery ministers was:
Slaves, be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in
singleness of your heart, as unto Christ." (Ephesians 6:5)
The Bible tells us that Shadrach, Meshach and Abdnego did not obey King Nebuchadnezzar and was cast into the firy furnance, Daniel refused to obey King Belshazzar and was cast into the lion's den, Apostle Paul refused to obey authorities and was put in prison and Jeuss refused to obey authorities and was crucified.
It appears that Graham's call for blacks who were enslaved for 244 years and subjected to legal segregation and discrimination for nearly a 100 years, to submit to their oppressors, even worse, to their murderers is ludicrous. God forbid!
Let me ask Graham this question: If a white policeman orders a black woman to submit to being raped by him should she obey? Who can she turn to for justice if she is raped, not killed? Remember, in Ferguson, Mossouri, the judges were in cahoots with the illegal behavior of the police.
About the same time Graham posted his prescription for "how to not get shot by police" Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz published a full page ad in the New York Times with the tiny captioin "Shall We Overcome?" In the middle of the page are the words "RaceToegether" with the company logo on the bottom. Schultz is encouraging employees of the 4,700 Starbucks coffee stores in the United States to engage with customers and stimulate conversation and dialogue about race in America.
Even though I do not drink coffee I may begin drinking coffee at Starbucks.
My kudos are for Howard Schultz, not Farnklin Graham.
Uriah J. Fields
Encoruager-in-Chief
World Community Church
Copyright 2015 by Uriah J. Fields
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I've tended to drive fast all my life and have been stopped by police, and sometimes in speed traps, many times. Most of the time, the police just warned me not to speed, and let me go on my way, politely. A few times I received tickets and paid them. I only objected to one and took it to court. I was fined, anyway, but got to have my say before the judge in court.
While traveling with my friends, a Pakistani, a Bangladeshi, the black president of our university, my black girlfriend and my Asian partner (both driving and not) we were not speeding, but were pulled over because of racial profiling, plain and simple. We were always polite, but that did not stop unwarranted tickets. You have to have experienced racial profiling to understand the insidious nature of it.
Ron