Killin' (in the name of ) Jesus

Killin’ (In the name of) Jesus:

The Conservative Crucifixion of AmeriKKKa

                                      Min. Paul Scott

A while  back,  many  accused rapper Kanye West  of sacrilege  for  proclaiming on his hit  “Jesus Walks” that Christ chills out  with the “hustlers, drug dealers and strippers.”   However, the idea that the “King of Kings”  hangs out with bigots, racists and white supremacists is widely accepted.

On Palm Sunday, National Geographic will premier Killing Jesus, a film based on the book by the same name by head Fox News commentator, Bill O’Reilly. The movie is a recreation of the life of Jesus Christ  (Yeshua) and chronicles his persecution by the  Roman  Empire as well as his fellow countrymen who were hatin’ on his ministry. What is ironic is that O’Reilly  also serves as the chief spokesman for a right wing agenda that is  responsible for the persecution of America’s poor and downtrodden.

Killing Jesus  is not a new revelation as Dr. Hugh Schonfield has written several works  on the political activities of the early believers such as “The Passover Plot” and “The Jesus Party.” Also, Dr.  James Cone has written extensively about  the Messiah  in the context of racial oppression in books such as “Black Theology/Black Power” and “God of the Oppressed.” But  the hypocrisy  of the major mouthpiece of the self righteous right  having his book made into a TV movie about the champion of the poor and oppressed is too much for a member of an oppressed class to ignore.

What is extremely interesting about  Killing Jesus is the striking similarities between the villains of the narrative and The Fox News Nation  and  between the heroic Jesus figure and the people who are  victims of the  Right Wing’s  wrath.

Follow me on this one.

Just like the Caesars, the Right Wingers demand that everybody bows down to their  collective will. Conservatives have a monolithic view of America and  only tolerate those who have similar backgrounds and values. When is the last time that you heard a Fox talking head say something nice  about someone Black or Latino  except  ,maybe,  Geraldo Rivera or one of the members of their regular Crucify Him Choir of black conservatives ?

Another similarity is that  conservative commentators  serve as televangelists  for the big business tycoons who gained their fortunes by exploiting the poor and paying them slave wages, thus creating  the social conditions that cause the pathological behaviors that Fox and Friends demonize daily .  It must be remembered that genocide is not only the act of carrying out the mass murder of a race, but according to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide it is defined as “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part ." So the right wing would have been best buds with the Thieves in the Temple.

Also,  Fox News is notorious for “bearing false witness “ against those who oppose them. Just like the Pharisees  and Sadducees started a smear campaign against Jesus, Fox News and others slander anyone who objects to their tyranny. When ratings need a quick boost , Fox always stages an Inquisition and goes after anyone whom they deem un-American. Many can remember the vicious attack that they waged against President Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 election season.  

In addition, although they claim to love “The Prince of Peace,” they champion policies that favor the biggest warmongers on the planet. Not to mention “get tough on crime” policies that created the prison industrial complex and have a disproportionate number of Black and Latino youth on a never- ending journey down  the school to prison pipeline.

Lastly,  they send their conservative legionnaires  to crucify those who speak the truth, as Rupert Murdoch has transformed an office building in the heart of New York City into a modern day Mt. Calvary.  For instance, during the last National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama incurred the wrath of the  Right  when he dared  to suggest that Christianity had just as much blood on its hands as Islam, using the Crusades,  slavery  and Jim Crow-ism as a backdrop . However, due  to the machinations of a conservative media, what could have been a much needed discussion of the nuances of race and religion in this country was reduced to some idiotic right  wing ramblings about knights in shining armor. The thousands of other examples of church sponsored genocide were ignored.

So, don’t believe everything you see on TV kids.

If  Jesus showed up in America today advocating for the rights of the poor , he would be hanging from the satellite antenna  at the top of the News Corp Building.

Minister Paul Scott is founder of the Messianic Afrikan Nation ministry based in Durham NC.  He has appeared on talk shows across the country discussing race, religion and rap including several appearances on the Fox News Channel. He is also a contributor to the anthology “Hip Hop and the Black Church.” He can be reached at (919) 972-8305 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com

 

Tyler Perry: The Art of Speakin' "Christian-ese"

Tyler Perry: The Art of Speakin' "Christian-ese"

Paul Scott





I once asked my homie, spoken word artist, James Washington how it is that a thugged out brotha like him gets invited to speak at churches all the time and a (relatively speaking) clean cut brother, like me, can't even make it past the front door ?

"Simple," he said. "You don't know how to speak Christian-ese."

Christinese- a type of dialect that will make black folks give you the shirts off their backs. Master the language and African Americans will follow you to the ends of the Earth.

Just ask Tyler Perry, multi millionaire producer extraordinaire.

Over the last decade, Tyler Perry has made a fortune with his Gospel plays, television sitcoms and movies. His next film "Madea Goes to Jail," to be released February 20th, should be another blockbuster as he continues to follow the same formula that has been his bread and butter. Also, there is hardly a night that you can turn on your tv and not see his sitcoms "House of Payne " and "Meet the Browns."

Maybe it's just me but I don't see what's so appealing about Tyler Perry's newer stuff. I mean the plays were funny enough the first couple of years when they first came to dvd but somehow the comedy got kind of old and when it was transferred to tv and the big screen, something got lost in the translation.

However, I'm probably in the minority on this one because come the weekend of the film's release, black church folks across the country will make pilgrimages to their local theaters to get a look at Madea.

Perry, is not the first one to use Christianese to move black folks.

Historically speaking, the Portuguese and other European exploiters first used the language as justification for slavery and later the colonization of Africa.

It was perfected by the slave owners as Christianese was used to inspire the enslaved Africans to pick cotton from sun up to sun down with the hope of a reward in "the sweet by and by."

During the Civil Rights Era, black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King became fluent in the dialect as they were able to convince thousands of black folks to join hands and sing "We Shall Overcome" as they were being bitten by police dogs and doused with water from fire hydrants.

Even today, politicians borrow very heavily from the language as they know one short speech at a black church will translate into a lot of votes come election day.

The strange thing about Christianese is that you don't even have to practice Christianity to speak it. Writer and motivational speaker, Iyanla Van Zandt sold a lot of books to church folks before they realized that she was not a Pentecostal evangelist but a Yoruba priestess.

Not only have entertainers turned the art of speakin' Christianese into a muti billion dollar industry but they have also shown that black folks will forgive a multitude of transgressions because a performer says "Thank you Jesus" at an awards show or puts one Gospel track on an otherwise vulgar cd.

Even with Tyler Perry's movies, how many good old sisters of the church who demonize all forms of Hip Hop bust a gut laughing when Madea pulls out a pistol or rolls a blunt?

The main problem with most Gospel plays that appeal to church folk intellect is the lack of substance. Opportunities to increase social awareness and to explore the depths of theology are replaced with weak story lines and slap stick comedy routines that went out of style with Amos and Andy.

I am not saying that performers like Perry, purposely, dumb-down their productions to reach their target audience but it is a common perception that , for many church folks, their theological understanding does not grow beyond the elementary Sunday school level and their biblical understanding is only a steady reaffirmation of what they learned before they were 10 years old.

So, a Gospel play or TV show can be totally secular but one well placed "Negro spiritual" will make it a big hit with black folks. Not to mention the warn out themes of "the prodigal child returning home," "praying for a good man," or " a sudden conversion after years of substance abuse."

Although, some may argue that these are, indeed, experiences that black folks go through, this is not the black experience in its totality. These are just symptoms of a greater problem that stems, at least partially, from the failure of African Americans to understand the full dynamics of African spirituality and the African American religious experience in the context of the social ills that we have faced in this country.

This raises the age old dilemma as to whether African American film makers are obligated to give us what we need or what will rake in the most dollars at the box office.

Maybe there are socially redemptive values in Tyler Perry productions that I just don't get. Perhaps somewhere between watching Madea threaten to whip somebody's behind and the grand finale that usually includes a Gospel group sing -along, some lives are changed for the better which would make the $10 spent on a movie ticket well worth the sacrifice. Could be that I just don't get it.

But then again, I don't speak Christianese.



Paul Scott, the Hip Hop TRUTH Minista," writes for No Warning Shots Fired.com. http://www.nowarningshotsfired.com/ He can be reached at (919) 451-8283 or info@nowarningshotsfired.com