Religious Forbidden Fruit
By Lucius Gantt
There are a lot of writers that describe themselves as newspaper columnists. Most of those scribes come and go. It’s hard sometimes to write a column for a month because the best writers do research, conduct interviews, they read and they think.
I don’t know an opinion writer that has had more longevity than I have. I’ve lasted for over 40 years because I’m free. I’m not constrained by media devils, community charlatans or the new versions of neo-colonialists.
I’m free to write The Gantt Report because of the publishers that enjoy my column and share it with their newspaper readers and my friends that share TGR with their friends.
Just like the Williams Brothers sing, I been lied to and cheated on but I’m “Still Here!”
In my mind, I’m also here because I kinda know what not to write about.
I try not to opine about HBCUs and I try not to comment about women’s hair.
I oftentimes write about elected officials. If you don’t know, The Gantt Report has economic and political roots. The column is never too far from the editorial tree!
Even if the sentences and paragraphs seem hard, I love my brother’s and sisters in politics. If I truly know them, I know their spouses, their children, their employers and their neighborhoods.
I love them as persons but I do not love some of the things they do, some of the things they vote for and I don’t like some of the bills and legislation they vote against.
The main thing I don’t like about some Black elected officials is how they are fond of taking campaign contributions from Blacks and how they give those dollars to less competent non-Blacks.
Well, the other topic I try to shy away from is religion. A major part of my philosophic studies in college concentrated on theology and ethics so I might have some street cred in commenting on religious topics. I’ve also worked with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Yorubas and other religious leaders.
Everybody in the pulpit or on the stage at a religious service might tell you that God “called them” when they were in prison or wherever they were when they changed paths.
None of the religious leaders I talked to or worked with told me about the African origins of various religions. I was old and gray when I learned the first Christian church was in Africa and not in Rome or somewhere in Europe.
All my life, I was informed that the churches I attended were “Bible-based”. They may very well be just that.
But what Bible? There are several different Bibles but most Blacks read the King James Version.
If you get a chance, an original version of the Bible can be found at the Vatican and another can be found at the British Library in London.
I would also advise readers to study King James. Some say he was a pirate, much like Christopher Columbus, Queen Victoria, Vasco da Gamma, Cortez, Henry the Navigator and other colonialists.
You should already know James was accused of ordering the beheading of Sir Walter Raliegh and some people even claim that James may have had sex with his mother.
Anyway, if you like to read the Bible, read The Maccabees Bible sometimes because writings there were removed from the Bible when it was translated.
The Maccabees Bible talks about Jewish rebels in Biblical days that fought against the powers of that time that used wretched and evil ways to persecute the people.
Oh, what a Bible, that teaches God’s children to stand up and fight oppression and exploitation.
Some messages are forbidden fruit but respect all religious beliefs.
