Some Preachers Say That It Is God’s Will and a Judgment on Black People When Our Youth Are Killed.
We Say: Bullshit! Such a God Would Be a Horrible God. But God Does Not Exist Anyway! It Is the System to Blame—And We Need to Wake Up, Face Reality, and Prepare to Make Revolution!

By the Revolution Club, with Joe Veale

September 12, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In the last two weeks, the Revolution Club has been to two funerals. These were, like thousands of others here in Chicago, very painful deaths. Two unnecessary deaths. The last one was that of a 16-year-old. He was gunned down in broad daylight, allegedly witnesses say, by a Chicago fireman. The police say this youth was attempting to steal a car and therefore deserved to die. But there are eyewitnesses who say this is a lie. Even if what the pigs say is true—what kind of society—what kind of system do we live in that values a car over the life of a human being? A system that needs to be overthrown at the soonest possible time.

At the funeral the preacher had the nerve to get up there and say that the cold-blooded murder of this young kid was an act of god. That god was acting through this vigilante pig fireman. That god was chastising Black people and all people in the inner cities who get caught up in the gang life. In drug dealing. In worshiping money. This preacher said god is angry—he is passing his judgment on those who have went astray—god is seeking his revenge.

This preacher, a representative of a non-existent god, compared Chicago to the city of Jerusalem in the story of the Bible. He read from the book of Ezekiel. Where god tells Ezekiel to “go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” And in instructing others god says, “follow him [Ezekiel] through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mother and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark.” Again comparing Chicago to the Israel of the Bible, this preacher says: “The Lord has forsaken the land ... the sin of the people is exceedingly great ... the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice.... The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see. So I will not look upon them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their heads what they have done.”

What kind of god is this? He is a mass murderer who slaughters human beings, including little children. He leads his followers to commit acts of mass rape—taking virgin girls as sex slaves—and to pillage and plunder others. The book of Ezekiel, the book of Numbers, the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Leviticus, the book of Isaiah (Jesus’ favorite book), and the whole damn Bible is dripping in blood with these kinds of stories. It is a god that is more bloodthirsty than Dracula. Note well: this preacher did not think the things that god commanded Ezekiel to do—all this murder of children and everything else—was “detestable”.

This is how this preacher got up and talked about this Black youth who was brutally gunned down by this vigilante (unofficial police). That his killing was an act of god. That there will be more acts of this kind to cleanse the city of those who are doing “detestable” things that anger this non-existent god. So said this preacher.

This Black preacher—and that damn Bible he read from—is calling, straight up, for genocide. In order to cleanse Chicago and Amerikkka of those who he accuses of doing “detestable” things.

Some Black Preachers Unite With the Racist Fascist Trump

It sounded like the fascist Trump threatening North Korea with “fire and fury” for doing “detestable things” by developing weapons it can use to hit back at the U.S. if the U.S. attacks North Korea as they are threatening to do.

It sounded like Trump saying he’s sending the feds into Chicago to stop “the carnage.” Like Trump saying a Chicago cop told him he and his fellow pigs could stop the violence here in Chicago in a couple of days if they were given a “green light” to do so. This is the fascist Trump—who is recruiting Black preachers to join him—threatening to unleash his cops to beat down, arrest, and even murder Black and Brown people for breathing while Black and Brown.

Now let’s be clear: some preachers play a positive role in fighting the power, and the revolution seeks to unite with them, even as we discuss our differences. But this preacher of the “good book” joins those Christian fascists who are at the core of the Trump/Pence fascist regime who are aiming to turn Amerikkkan society into one that is governed by biblical law, religious law—turning it into a Christian theocracy.

Trump already said the police need to stop treating “suspects” they arrest in a “nice” way.

What does he mean? Police and vigilantes have already murdered many people. Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Laquan McDonald, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Natasha McKenna, Andy Lopez, Antonio Zambrano-Montes, Terence Crutcher, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, to name a few. These Christian fascists—like the one at this funeral—are calling for raising this up to another level—putting it on steroids—under the label of “law and order.”

This Black preacher sounded like Trump’s buddy in the Philippines—Duterte, the fascist president of that country. Duterte has given his police and vigilantes the authority to shoot down without warning those they accuse of being drug dealers and drug users. Those they consider “trouble makers”—those they and their god judge to be a “stain” and “drain” on society. They have murdered thousands in this way.

Look for Real at That Bloodthirsty Bible

Again, let’s look for real at this Bible. What does it say? Kill women who are not virgins when they get married. Execute women alleged to be witches. Execute homosexuals. Kill children who rebel against their parents.

It promotes the belief in superstition and fear, and fear-inspiring ignorance, such as demon possession and exorcism. The cruel notion that sickness and disease is caused by sin—and according to the Christian fascist, if people get sick and can’t pay for medical care they should be left to die because they are “undeserving,” “undesirable,” “they are making trouble for society,” and they are a “stain” and “drain” on society.

According to the Bible you got to accept Jesus as the son of a non-existent “one and only true God”—who was crucified but then raised from the dead. If you don’t, god and his son Jesus will condemn you to eternal damnation and unbearable suffering in hell.

“Let’s call this what it is—it is a slave mentality, with which people are being indoctrinated. All this ‘thank you Jesus!’ is a slave mentality.” Bob Avakian, BA, the leader of the revolution said that, in the handbook for revolution, BAsics 4:18.

Think about all this. The pain and suffering it has caused down through tens of thousands of years. The unnecessary pain and suffering it causes today—and the greater horror these Christian fascists have in store for humanity. These lunatics believe in hurrying on the “end of times” so that the “believers” can go up to heaven. And they have their hands on the seat of state power—the executive branch of government—and their finger on nuclear weapons.

Looking at All This Scientifically: How Did We Get in This Situation?

Let’s pull the lens back even further and make further use of the comprehensive scientific method that has been developed and given to us by the leader of the revolution, Bob Avakian, BA. Let’s use that to briefly examine why people get caught up into the gang life, into petty drug dealing, into chasing after and “worshiping” that mean, mean green... money. And the other things this preacher called “detestable.” How this is not the fault of the people who get caught up in this but it is the fault of this fucking capitalist-imperialist system which has left millions and millions in the inner cities in the U.S.—and tens, if not hundreds of millions more in places like the Philippines, Brazil, Somalia, the Middle East—with nothing.

As BA shows in his latest talk, “The Problem, the Solution, and the Challenges Before Us,” the workings of capitalism drew Black people out of sharecropping in the South after WW2 and into the factories in the South, the North, and out West. They ended up on the bottom layer of these workers, but they were able to raise families. But over the past several decades the capitalist-imperialist system in the U.S. has had to become leaner and meaner in order to compete with its global rivals—it has become even more vicious in pursuit of expanding this system that creates a world of war, sweatshops, slums, and environmental devastation.

All this has driven those factories that millions of Black people and others used to work in to move to other parts of the world where they can more cheaply exploit people and more easily compete with their competitors. This has left generations of Black people in the inner city in the position of growing up with little access to legitimate ways to survive. It has led to the growth of an illegal underground economy.

People are taught from the time they are born—from everything they see and everything they do: the only way you get any respect in this system is if you are financially successful—if you can take care of those you care about—so no matter what, if you are on Wall Street or on the street corner everybody is trying to “come up.” To be “the man” or the “woman.” This is the outlook—these are the values of this system. If you are one of the lucky ones who is able to make it through the meat grinder and do it legally you are a role model, but if you are cast out by society—by the system—but still you try to get some respect and you do it illegally, you are a criminal. A “troublemaker.” You need to be taught “law and order”. You need to be locked up. You deserve to be shot down like a wild animal.

BA shows how this isn’t just happening here in the U.S. In Brazil, over several generations 15 million people were driven off the land in the rural areas—the farming areas—by capitalist interests buying up all the land for logging, for wood, for paper, things that can be sold on the world market for profit. What happened to these millions of people? They ended up in slums in the cities, forced into the illegal underground economy—many joining gangs—as a way to survive. The authorities in Brazil have set loose their police as death squads to execute people they label as “drug dealers.” It is the same in other countries around the world. In the Philippines in addition to this kind of horrific murder they also assassinate journalists. On more than one occasion Trump has stated his admiration for this.

So what the fuck is this preacher talking about?! We do NOT need a god who does NOT exist. A god that could only be a cruel monster—worse than Dracula—if he did exist.

What We Need to Do NOW to Change This Fucked-Up World

Now, again, just to be clear, the revolution will work and has worked with any religious people who are motivated by their religion to fight against the injustices that are being brought down on the people. And what the masses of people here and around the world are facing today is the nightmare of a fascist regime at the head of the U.S. empire—a fascist regime that is saturated with a mob of howling and snarling Christian fascists who are being led by Trump. Trump and Pence are going after the immigrants, the Muslims, women, the LGBT people (gay people), they are threatening war and they are destroying the planet we must live on—and yes, they are threatening Black people with genocide. We have to unite with others and go all out to STOP this nightmare by driving out this regime.

And while we do this, uniting with millions around this urgent demand to drive out the Trump/Pence fascist regime, people in the Revolution Club are representing for the only way out of ALL this capitalist-imperialist madness: revolution, getting people ready for the time when millions can be led to go all-out to make revolution, with a real chance of winning.

Pull the Lens Back

Now let’s pull the lens back even further. Life on this planet began 3.5 billion years ago. It has evolved over all that time. Human beings—that’s us—are only 200,000 years old. Back then we did not understand things we understand today. Back then we did not have science. Back then when the solar eclipse happened like it did a few weeks ago—when the moon moved between the sun and earth and suddenly in the middle of the day there was darkness for a few minutes—human beings did not know what the fuck was happening. It was scary. They made up stories to explain this, often attributing such natural events to the anger of some imaginary god. Back then they did not know better. But today we do.

Today we also know there are causes in the real world: there is a social system, capitalism-imperialism, that can NOT change—but people can change and we can change the system. This system, capitalism-imperialism, puts people in “detestable” conditions and makes them do all sorts of ugly things to survive. This is the root cause.

We also know that through communist revolution this system can be radically changed, radically transformed into a new system that brings out the very best in humanity, the best in the ability of people to discover what is true, to act on that truth in the deepest way. Overturning—overthrowing this system—changing circumstances in the most deepest way, at the root, and changing ourselves in the process—laying down an entirely new foundation from which human being interact with each other, in ALL aspects of human interaction, and in our interaction with our environment. Having leadership that is both revolutionary and scientific leading us to act in the highest interests of humanity, in ways where increasingly growing, and growing numbers of the oppressed and exploited of society together with those who out of basic human aspiration desire a better world than this dog eat dog shit... leadership which brings us all together in the revolution to where we, in our millions and millions, ultimately in our billions, where we take hold of the driver's seat, steering human society on a radically different course, consciously embarking on the journey to free ourselves the only way we can—by striking deep at the root—to emancipate humanity from the divisions which are rooted in deep-seated, underlying antagonistic conditions that have divided human society into master and slaves, oppressor and oppressed, exploiter and exploited going back thousands of years.

Divisions which today are no longer necessary... which can be surpassed with the communist revolution... the revolution to emancipate all humanity. This is a radically different and far better world than what we have today.

Stop believing in things that do NOT exist. Throw off the chains of Mental Slavery. Join the Movement for Revolution and let’s radically change the whole world.

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.