Running to and from Church

Papi (Photo -Baba Omi Ademi)
Papi (Photo -Baba Omi Ademi)
Papi
(Photo -Baba Omi Ademi)

The Gantt Report

Running to and from Church

By Lucius Gantt

      I attend church services about 35 times a year. I go to my neighborhood church every Sunday unless I am not feeling well, working, traveling or visiting some other “Holy” place like a mosque, temple, synagogue or an African religious ceremony.

As a child, my mother and grandmother insisted that my sister and I go to Sunday School to learn about God and to get some idea about morals and values. Father and grandfather didn’t encourage us as much but they didn’t discourage us either.

If you go to religious places you will realize most of the people there are female. Women attend church the most, contribute more and they also sing, dance and shout more.

But church women have company.

It seems two groups of people make quick and sudden dashes to religious gatherings. They are men and women fresh out of bad relationships and people that participated in failed crimes!

No disrespect but many Black believers in Islam find Allah, or God, once they find themselves behind bars!

And, many women imagine God will send them a “good” man after they’ve made one bad relationship choice after another.

Well, you never know who you’ll fall in love with or where you will fall in love and you never know where you’ll find God. Some find God in the hospital or on their death bed. Some find God on the mountain or by the lake. You just never know.

I, nor you, have to find your God in a church or any religious building. You shouldn’t run to church because of a bad marriage or relationship. You shouldn’t run to the mosque because you read the autobiography of Malcolm X and you shouldn’t run away from the church or run away from God because some fake ass “social media militant” or false prophet posted something on the internet that said church goers are idiots and fools or that Jesus, or other historical religious men and women of whatever faith are not real.

I hate to tell you but God is very real. It is the scriptures, the versions and the translations of Godly signs, signals, messages and acts that are not real, in some cases!

The Bible is not necessarily “God’s” word. The Bible is man’s words about God. The Quran is not Allah’s word. It is man’s word about Allah!

Put your faith in God, Allah, Jehovah, Oludumare or the name for God that suits you.

Believe in God and believe in yourself and the God in you!

You don’t, or shouldn’t, go to church to serve God. You go to church to worship God then you go into your homes, neighborhoods and communities to serve your fellow men and women!

If you don’t believe or agree with anything you’ve read so far, believe this!

I hate it when popcorn and parking lot militants suggest all they have to do is change their names to become religious scholars and experts of religious truths and untruths!

They take on Hebrew names, Muslim names, African names and other names and convince you that the name (first name, not the “slave name”) your parents gave you is a bad and undesirable name. That is ignorant, disrespectful to your parents and doesn’t have a damn thing to do with knowledge of God and self!

Now, everyone knows by now that the first woman and man came from Africa. Don’t take my word for it, look it up, but the first knowledge of God and the first organized practice of religion also came from Africa.

I’m not going to get into all of that so if you’re truly interested in religion study for yourself.

I want to make a brief comment about Christianity; the most criticized and hated religion practiced by African Americans.

Understand me, whatever your religious belief is, or is not, you have to accept the culture of that belief!

If you are a Jew, you have to accept the culture of Judaism. If you are a Muslim, you have to accept the Muslim or Arabic culture. If you are a true Christian, you should accept the TRUE culture of Christianity and so on for all other religious practices!

If you take on an African name to suggest you know something about Africa you should know “real” Christianity originated in Africa, not Rome.

The real idiots and fools make posts on social media and make stupid comments about Black people and their religious choices and don’t have a clue about what they are talking about!

The Coptic Church of Egypt is the earliest Christian church in the world, going back to around 42 AD. According to Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, as well as Coptic traditions, Saint Mark the evangelist, who wrote the earliest of the four New Testament gospels, was the founder and first bishop of the Church of Alexandria, even before the Church of Rome was established and also way before the devilish King James put out his crazy and wrongful, so to speak, Biblical version or translation.

So, how can you love Africa and hate the religious origins of true Christian religious beliefs?

If you don’t know, Islam too has African origins!

I’m not going to go point by point but the social media religious attackers should read the book “African Origins of The Major Western Religions” by Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan and start posting facts instead of fantasy and innuendo!

Religious haters should also read “The Book of the Dead” (The Papyrus of Ani) if they can put down their smart phones for a minute.

Anyway, even though I attend my neighborhood church almost every Sunday I am not a member of the church and I don’t participate in any of the symbolic activities such as communion.

I don’t go to church for the denomination, the preacher, the choir, the grape juice and crackers or any of that. I go to churches, mosques etc., to worship. Most of the time I worship God at home, or wherever I am.

Well, I get along with people of all faiths, or non-faiths. I took theology in college and studied and researched many religions but everyone has to believe or not believe what is best for them but I am most comfortable worshiping with true African religious believers.

My personal religious leader was (Silo Crespo) the late Baba Omi Ademi, formerly a chief in the Yoruba Culture and Priest of Yemanja (Babalorisha) ordained Chief Araba of Lagos by Chief Fadunmoya Awontumba and his Royal Highness Oba Adeyinka Oyekan II, the Oba of Lagos.

His house of worship, Temple Unity, in Miami, Florida is the only place of worship I have ever been officially associated with as a member. I accepted God, I accepted Baba Omi Ademi and I accept the true African religious culture!

And, that is why I respect whatever you believe, or don’t believe, and I despise religious fakers that post and repost spiritual nonsense!

 

 

About Carma Henry 24481 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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