Reynolds Rap

How do UMC racists interpret slavery in the Bible?
The Hypocrisy of Mark Holland

Mark Holland, Executive Director Mainstream UMC c/o Grace United Methodist Church 11485 S. Ridgeview Road Olathe, Kansas 66061	If all Americans had died of COVID-19 at the same rate as White Americans, 12,000 Black Americans, 1,300 Latino Americans and 300 Asian Americans would still be alive. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race	If “Black lives mattered” George Floyd and thousand of other unarmed and innocent Black men and women would still be alive.
	UMC cares more about LGBT+ than people of color.

Hello, Mr. Holland:

“Interpreting Slavery in the Bible,” is yet another article by a White man stupidly equating slavery with the LGBTQIBPP issue. It’s very lily-White of you to state, “It (slavery) survived 1,800 more years until outlawed in the United States, the Land of the Free,” only to blatantly ignore the fact that the United States of America has NEVER been a “Land of the Free,” especially to Native Americans and Black people.

FACT 1: Your forefathers (White people) were actively engaging in genocide against Native Americans and actively enslaving Black people when on July 4, 1776 they wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

FACT 2: The majority of White men involved in the signing of the Declaration of Independence owned slaves.

FACT 3: Twelve-(12) Presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives; eight-(8) owned slaves while in office.

FACT 4: Slavery did not end as a result of a religious “euphoria” from Christians, Jews, or Muslims, or a consensus of God-inspired altruism from White people, but only because the northern States could not compete against the economic might of “free” labor successfully being exploited by the southern states. Jews, Muslims, and Christians, including Methodists, did absolutely nothing (except for an occasional placid oratory) to prevent or stop slavery, but their rank and file members profited from slavery. Learn your history.

FACT 5: As literally validated by thousands of sources, including the June 2014 issue of “The Atlantic” magazine, LGBT were not recipients of 250 years of slavery, beatings, and lynchings; and 90 years of Jim Crow incarceration, discrimination, beatings, lynchings, racism, and oppression; 60 years of separate but equal discrimination, racism, and oppression; 35 years of state-sanctioned redlining; and perpetual abuse by both police and judiciary that endures through today! Again, learn your history.

It’s ridiculous to cite the Bible as the “Word of God,” when history consistently documents how White people literally: (1) stole the creation of the Abrahamic religions [Judaism (seventh century BCE), Christianity (first century CD), and Islam (seventh century CE)] from ancient Black civilizations, such as the Kemet and Kush civilizations (“Nile Valley Contributions to Civilizations” by Anthony T. Browder); and (2) White people unilaterally “pick and choose” what was or was not the “Word of God,” and equally important, (3) White people and their flock of religious lackeys (including brainwashed Black people) “pick and choose” whether or not to be compliant with “God’s word.” History consistently documents how White religious leaders, politicians, and people of "wealth and privilege," have always disagreed on the authenticity of the so-called "inspired word of God" as a tool to indoctrinate and unilaterally control, manage, and organize followers of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religions. Note the following:

First Council of Nicaea - AD 325 -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Nicaea

Second Council of Nicaea - AD 787 -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

Then, nearly 1300 years later, with the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, the King James Version (KJV) was begun in 1604 and finally completed in 1611. The King James Bible (KJB), is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England. James gave the translators instructions intended to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. Plus, the scope of religious disagreement on the "inspired word of God" is not confined to the Old and New Testaments, but also to the original biblical apocrypha that were created before, during, or as an appendix to the New Testament.

The original books of the Bible were deemed “unworthy” for mass consumption and were spurned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Bible

Conversely, for the Islamic religion, the Quran mentions by name at least three main Islamic scriptures, which came before the Quran.

1. Tawrat or Torah:
2. Zabur: The Book of Psalms
3. Injil or Gospel or New Testament
4. Here are all of the books (Surahs) of the Quran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surahs_in_the_Quran

Of course, not all White people are racist, or evil. There are literally millions and millions of great, smart, kind, generous, and simply wonderful White people all across the planet. However, it’s extremely common and overtly deceitful for White people to ignore or distort historical facts – as you have! With the signing of the Declaration of Independence only “elite” White men were allowed to vote and to own property. Again, learn your history (https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/us-elections-2016-who-can-vote/index.html). If White men truly believed in democracy and egalitarian principles, the Declaration of Independence would have been written like this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Instead, even after signing of the Declaration of Independence two-hundred-and-forty-four-(244) years ago, and as perpetually validated by the Glass Ceiling, White people (primarily White men) make the rules (laws) and all exceptions to the rules! There are literally millions and millions of very smart and talented minorities and women, who proudly do not seek or require any kind of preferred treatment or a handout, but we’re perpetually denied “fair and equal opportunity” unless we primarily fall into the stereotypical vocations of sports and entertainment.

As a third-generation United Methodist minister you should be immediately aware of the blatant racism that has permeated the Methodist Church since John Wesley launched the Methodist Church predominately with Black people back in 1786; but Black people subsequently left to escape the blatant racism and hypocrisy of "White-privilege-based-religion" in 1816 and created the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.); and left “en masse” again in 1870 to create the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. But, instead of cleaning-up the existing mess of the UMC, the United Methodist Church, consistent with all other religions, has yet again decided to pick and choose which portions of the so-called “inspired words of God” it deems worthy to believe or not to believe.

It’s racist for you to believe and/or to state the United States of America is the “Land of the Free,” because it is not – unless, of course, you’re a White man. Oh, but you are! So, your agenda to provide even more “liberties” that will primarily benefit gay and transgender White men and White women makes sense.

Racism? You’ve dedicated your time at Mainstream UMC to champion the Johnny-come-lately LGBTQIBPP issue, while ignoring and allowing the perpetual enslavement of the Republic of Lakotah (https://youtu.be/8tEuaj4h8dw), and the legacy of racist treatment of Black people by the Methodist Church. Oh, the blatant indifference and hypocrisy.

YOUR COMMENT: So what changed? The scriptures have not changed. It is the interpretation of these scriptures that has changed.

RESPONSE: That’s right, the Bible is “always” open to interpretation . . . because White people make the rules, and White people unilaterally decide all exceptions to the rules. LGBT? Oh, no, that’s not nearly “inclusive” enough. So, a very linear projection must ultimately include queers, and intersex, and bigamists, and polygamists, and pedophiles – because all of the aforementioned “sexualities” have been and are practiced around the world! Well, golly gee whiz, Mr. Holland, what do you and your ilk have planned for the next juicy “interpretation” of the Bible?

No matter, consistent with the overwhelming majority of White people, you’re more focused on LGBT than racial equality. Without regard to race or colonialism, people have always strived to feed and protect themselves and their families, which is essentially tribal, local, and is simply called “survival.” Indigenous, free people, never needed a pseudo-religious White man to tell them about freedom, because they were already free. For many people of color, true independence and freedom stopped the minute they encountered White people and their extremely trendy and oppressive religious beliefs.

And the church said, “Amen.” ‘Nuff said.

I welcome your feedback.