I&i not much of a Bible-thumper. His Majesty placed a greater importance on the content of the Bible than i do. But besides being RastafarI to the core, i am a scientist by education, practice (37 years), and professional registration, so i instinctively focus on a narrative that is complete, or as nearly so as possible (i.e., presenting just half of the story leads to erroneous impulses and conclusions).
i'm reminded of my maternal grandparents - some of the finest folks you'd ever want to know. "Salt of the earth" many would say. They lived their lives modestly, and never deviated from the highest moral principles. Peaceful, accepting of all people, kind and warm-hearted, helpful, generous & charitable, caregivers, honest, courageous in the face of injustice - these are all attributes that come to mind when i remember them. Not a bad bone in either of their bodies. The kind of folks that a lone Blackman with a broken down car in the middle of the night on the side of a rural road in 1950's Alabama would have wanted to have drive by. They'd have picked him up, given him a place to stay and food to eat, and paid for his car to be fixed the next day if he didn't have the money - all, if need be, while being threatened themselves with violence for their actions by the local Klansmen.
Of course, you can probably see where this story is going. What was the underpinning of my grandparents morality and their mandate to treat every other human being with dignity, respect and charity? Their Christian faith. Yep, the Bible and a genuine zeal to bring the Teachings of Jesus Christ to reality through their own lives. Their position on slavery?: "Appalling and disgusting". Their position on deprivation of equal civil rights for all?: "Morally wrong and intolerable; justice must prevail".
Ships and chains were used to rob our ancestors from Africa and bring them to America to be sold into slavery. Ships and chains have also been used to hoist, secure and convey food to the hungry from lands with abundant harvests. Ships and chains are inanimate objects that are not inherently evil - it's what has been done with them that makes the difference.
The genuinely Righteous works, Peace and Love that have been realized in this world by people, like Haile Selassie or my own grandparents, firmly based upon the Teachings of Jesus Christ and what they have garnered from the Bible demonstrate that it is not the Bible or Christianity that are to blame, but the misuse and abuse of them by people with the same kind of mentality who misused ships and chains. We struggle not against books or other inanimate objects but against a universal evil mentality that induces people to immorality and to the commission of crimes against one another. Clearly the Bible is used by some as a tool of evil and by others as a tool for betterment and a struggle against evil. Certainly the "The Art of War" or "Mein Kampf" or even "Crime and Punishment" have been used as tools for evil in the hands of those serving an evil mentality. But do we burn them all? Do we waste our time chasing down each inanimate object that has been used for evil purposes and burn it? We can, but it would clearly be a misguided and futile effort in the struggle against spiritual wickedness. The energy poured into the negativity of finding and destroying tools used to commit evil is wasted in futility as new tools spring up to replace the old ones at the very moment we are wasting our time vilifying the old ones. To the contrary, the energy poured into Love and positive actions, like those routinely pursued by my grandparents throughout their entire lives, is the power which undermines evil mentality in a way that goes far beyond the measure of the individual righteous act.
RASTAMAN VIBRATION POSITIVE
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