"The more things change the more things stay the same."
"What goes around comes around."
And it is STILL only the tip of the iceberg.
If you are so led, I would greatly appreciate if you could send this around. As a black Baptist Preacher over the past 20 years, I learned first hand how dangerous the black church really is. However, too many white officials and black lawyers and officials, too, have looked the other way and still do. Many parishioners who don't like what they are seeing and hearing in the church, do get up and leave to go elsewhere. But, they just won't speak out to do anything about it to hold the leadership accountable.
I know first-hand that black Preachers could have people investigated by FBI parishioners (and have done so). And, in my case, nothing happens in our community (MD), except that it first goes past the desk of the black Preacher. Why and how so? Because of the political influence of the Pastor and other church affiliations, many parishioners are also county and state employees who are privvy to personal information about the citizens in the community, especially the parishioners.
TV channels and radio stations are all abuzz trying to figure out why Barack Obama (I call him, "BARAMA") has stayed in the same church for over 20 years. I know that it had to do with the religious and political influence and mentorship of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Chicago, IL.). And it was a deliberate move on Obama's part to garner black votes, when he (Obama) decided to make his move to campaign for political office. During his speech on race, he threw his grandmother under the bus. And, if given more time to explore what he tries to keep hidden from public view, we'll find out there's more to prove why he would not be acceptable to become President of the U.S. And that has nothing to do with his race.
I began to speak out about the same kinds of rhetoric that the press now holds over Obama's Pastor, as though it was something new. Not so.
I stood up and spoke out against that same kind of hate-filled speech over 20 years ago. I was all alone and I was ignored, except that my pastor had me arrested falsely inside of the church for privately rejecting his sermons and for publicly exposing those kinds of double standards within the black community churches all across this nation. Therefore, I know that, being a black Baptist preacher, if I could stand up and speak out against it, then why couldn't Obama have done the same thing 20 years ago (i.e., speak out against his Pastor)? It was because he did not want to lose his place in his Pastor's good graces and miss out on "just such a time as this." But he has done just that.
By speaking out publicly about the black Baptist church rhetoric and the NAACP, they made me outcast. In other words, I believe I am the only one alive today who can speak directly to the race issues today exactly as they were 20 years ago, at the time Obama said he first joined Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Church (Chicago, IL.) And anything else reported by pundits and others is mere conjecture, speculation, supposition, and a mixture of everything else but context.
I spoke out against it and, at that time, I also witnessed men and women coming into the church where I ministered (in Columbia, MD), because they knew that the Pastor, Rev. John L. Wright, had religious and political influence. Not only that, but if the newspapers would conduct research, they would find (in my case) that the Senators and Representatives from Maryland are closely linked with Rev. John L. Wright in this county and the entire state.
Newspaper reports contain, and I am an eyewitness to confirm, just how those politicians came into the church to get Wright's influence to pick up black votes. In fact, an attorney in this county (one of Rev. John L. Wright's cronies) is quoted in one news article as saying that nobody can get in office unless they stop by that church. And Wright, himself, said in a publication interview that, "Nobody bothers me (Wright), because they know -- they know I have people and all I want to know is if you're ready." That was in 1992, after he had falsely accused me and had me arrested inside the church.
The press does not really want to know the bombshell I am sitting on about the black Baptist church and black preachers, in particular. The race question will remain a troubling concern as long as the ones who are in positions of authority refuse to acknowledge and consider valid complaints.
Here is the link to my story, which remains unknown. Other links are included on the site. http://www.clergywomen.org/dowell_sundaysun.html
/s/ Rev. L. Dowell, Five-Fold Minister
