By Rev. Lainie Dowell
The United States Constitution has recognized our God-given rights to have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, among other recognized freedoms. However, over decades, each congressional assembly has chipped away and revised the meanings so much that Americans are left to fend for themselves as to what does and does not constitute violations of the constitution. Unfortunately, the government has taken over so many of our rights that, in 2010, under the Obama Administration, it has become commonplace for them to do exactly that, as it pleases them; and many such acts are not even lawful.
On the one hand citizens are being told there is a "Separation of Church and State," while on the other hand the state has interjected so much of its secularism into the affairs of the church. And that includes even determining what is and is not a church to force religious organizations to be approved by the government in order to become tax exempt.
In recent years federal, local, and state legislatures have criminalized certain acts under the Civil Rights and Human Rights statutes, rolling in what they call, "Hate Crimes." All of those laws are designed to silence, particularly, Christians who preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and the only way to gain God's salvation. At the same time, our government has introduced bills into law to protect homosexuals and Muslims and others of all stripes -- except Judeo-Christian Americans. In fact, our elected government representatives have become so "internationalized" that they pay more attention to foreign affairs than domestic. What's more, Americans seem to be missing the fact that the government is moving us closer to becoming subjected to the United Nations laws and giving up our sovereign rights as citizens of the United States of America.
Obama Nominates American Clergy to Commission on International Religious Freedom
When I recently saw the televised and internet headlines which read, "Obama Nominates [Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson] Cook for Religious Freedom Ambassador: Obama also intends to nominate Felice D. Gaer and William J. Shaw as members to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom," written by Sarah Pulliam Bailey (June 15, 2010), then as a Christian Woman of the Cloth, I had to respond, because too many men and women of faith are going along in lock step towards all that is far removed from God's will, way, and Word. If that were not so, then we would not tolerate an increased ungodliness all across this nation and in the world.
I posted a comment on the "Christianity Today Political Blog," but I believe I must now enlarge on the warning that I posted there on June 28, 2010. Christians continue to lose too much precious ground in America by trying to smile through the destruction and by not wanting to understand Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 KJV.
I have personally known both Rev. Dr. Johnson-Cook (aka Dr. Sujay) and Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw for well over 20 years. And it appears the reported invitation from Barack Obama to Rev. Dr. Sujay and Rev. Dr. Shaw is more than rumor, but they may be headed for congressional approval. Therefore, I would remind my clergy colleagues just how real God is. There are so many preachers we have known, loved, served with, and also rebuked who have gone on to glory. Nevertheless, we know that many of them knew enough not to play with God, the things of God, or the people of God (i.e., If God alone called them).
This manmade position being offered for my clergy colleagues to serve on the United States Commission of International Religious Freedom reportedly also mandates that in order for Christians to serve, they must first either deny or not state that Jesus Christ is "The Only Way." That policy (albeit unstated) will take them further away from God and not draw them or anyone else closer to Him. And, given that the Obama plan includes literally taking steps to wipe out all knowledge of our Judeo-Christian faith and of our God from off the earth, I would caution neither of you to be deceived into thinking that this sinful man's "honors" will ingratiate you to God or to the people of God. It will not. Look how far from the faith popular opinion has caused the corporate church body to stray. These are the days when too many people still have no idea that God is real and is alive; yet, they believe that by their merely speaking, they are preaching. These are the days when gospel songs are used in televised commercials complete with church-robed choirs bopping to the beat of detergent sales. The church needs to show God's power more than ever before all puny mankind who have control over nothing, not even themselves.
Remember your faithful walk of old, as I do. And understand that, if you accept this United Nations mandate from Barack Obama, many people will be led astray by what you will be asked to do in order to remain in that position, up to and including blocking the church door. Please decline this role and glorify our God by continuing to live and to freely preach the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ only as God Himself has called us to do.
Here is another reminder for you of how far the Lord has brought us. Don't slip now. Is it worth it to "gain the world and lose your soul?" I know Rev. Shaw, that "You know the story!" Even if politicians continue to try to mimic the preachers all day, they will still go down into Hellfire and brimstone, if they have not heard from heaven. Do you want that previous statement to be called a "Hate Crime?" Are any of you willing and able to say you will not be silenced on the matter of our faith? Decision time is at hand. Fence sitting time is over. Jump on one side or the other. Don't straddle the fence of faith. Life or death by God's hand is the result, and no one should have as their excuse to God that nobody told them. I just did. See the reprinted article quoted below about how God moved within our denomination and why our God is still not pleased with what is going on in the church today:
REPRINT
The Baltimore Sun Article Collections
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-04-19/news/1998109089_1_muhammad-spunk-dowell
Challenger of churchmen full of spunk
April 19, 1998 By GREGORY KANE
"IT'S THE sheer spunk of the woman that I like. "
[Rev.] Lainie Dowell, who will open her own church in Howard County on May 10, [1998] backs down from no one. The Rev. John Wright of First Baptist Church of Guilford in Howard County had her tossed out of the congregation in August 1992 for allegedly "disrupting the the service. Police escorted her from the property Dowell says her only crime was "refusing to shut up and do as I was told."
See what I mean? Spunk. How can you not like the spunk of a woman who writes about liberal black leadership:
"If I owned NIKE, I would take every sneaker I ever made and kick their holier-than-thou butts because they use 'black' as a badge to pick on 'whitey' and cry foul when the brother points out the specks in their eyes," she wrote in an essay.
In January 1990, Dowell fired off a testy letter to Benjamin Hooks, then executive director of the NAACP, protesting "sexism in the black Baptist churches in the U.S." and charging the Rev. Emmett Burns, then a regional official of the NAACP, with excluding female pastors.
In July 1993, she sent a letter to then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer, portions of which are reprinted below:
"Dear Governor Schaefer:
Several years ago, I wrote to tell you, Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Rev. Dr. Benjamin Hooks that the problems we have across our state and this nation among the African-American population have been caused, primarily, by the lack of accountability of the NAACP and the black Baptist ministers, many of whom are in top leadership positions within the NAACP.
"Who oversees the accountability of the NAACP? To whom do the black Baptist ministers answer for accountability? These black leaders need to get their own houses in order before they are allowed to continue to snoop in other business and government files and shout them down in public about their discriminatory practices when they discriminate in the worst way with impunity and have been doing so for years. They are the new 'untouchables,' the black mafia who go underground, lie, cheat and steal and will look you in your eye and lie about what they have done."
Dowell considers herself a prophet. In this case, she was indeed prophetic. Soon the Rev. Ben Chavis -- now Nation of Islam tTC Minister Benjamin Muhammad -- was head of the NAACP. He was ejected under a cloud of scandal and accused of misusing NAACP funds. The Rev. Henry Lyons, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, has been charged with theft and racketeering and accused of taking church money for his personal use. Dowell apparently wasn't just whistling Dixie in her letter to Schaefer. But her critics dismissed her as something of a loony.
Actually, she's more like the women prophets in Ayi Kwei Armah's novel "Two Thousand Seasons" who urged African men to abandon sexism, corruption and slavery before it destroyed their society. The men didn't listen, with disastrous results.
Dowell has long challenged the sexism she sees in the Baptist church.
In 1992, the Rev. T. J. Jemison was president of the National Baptist Convention USA and came under fire for kowtowing to Mike Tyson -- then accused of rape -- to get a large donation. Dowell was interviewed by the Washington Post about the matter.
Jemison's support of Tyson, Dowell said, was "typical of the sexism black women encounter regularly from some Baptist clerics" and "illustrates a continuing lack of regard for women."
Wright chided her after the April 1992 article appeared, Dowell recalled.
"Only the pastor speaks for the church," Dowell remembers Wright telling her. Then, according to Dowell, he wanted to know if she had contacted the Post or if it had contacted her.
"I don't have to tell you that," Dowell says she answered. "You don't tell me when you talk to the press."
With two wills this strong, a parting of the ways seemed inevitable. Wright is known for having more than a bit of spunk himself. The Dowell-Wright clash shows what happens when irresistible spunk comes up against immovable spunk.
A Howard County court handed down an injunction that prevents Dowell from setting foot in Wright's church, one she has sought to have lifted on grounds that her removal was unjust and based on falsehoods.
For those wondering why she doesn't simply forget about the injunction and move on, she has a revealing answer. "I'm a pit bull on matters of injustice," Dowell said. "I'm not going to turn it loose until it's the way it's supposed to be."
Article Pub Date: 4/19/98 "The Baltimore Sun." Authored by Gregory Kane.
(LINKS TO MORE ABT REV. LED DOWELL's CHURCH ARREST & VINDICATION)
http://www.voiceink.blogspot.com/2008/08/dowell-archivenews-sundaysun1998.html
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Sources:
Nomination of Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook and Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw , June 15, 2010
International Religious Act, 1998. Amended by Pub. Law 106-55. Pub Law l06-113. Pub. Law 107-228.
105th Congress of USA (H.R. 2431)
United States Department of Justice, Overview
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
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