Prayer Request

For those who are so inclined, I could really use some prayers in the next few weeks. I tend to be my own worst enemy when it comes to taking tests, and first term finals tend to be very important to a law school student.

I feel a little weird asking you to pray just for me, so keep this in mind too:

The night before Thanksgiving, I was walking around Times Square with some friends. After I walked them to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, I was heading to the subway when I saw some "Black Israelites" shouting on the corner. In case you haven't seen them on public access television, these are men who believe that blacks, Indians (in the Native American sense), etc. are the descendants of Abraham and thus God's favored children (the real Jews, in fact). Whites, Orientals, etc. are the descendants of Cain and as such as marked for subjugation; in Heaven, these shall be the slaves of the true Jews.

Those who know me won't be surprised that I stopped and talked with them for about an hour and a half late that Wednesday. I would ask some questions, they would shout back Bible verses taken thoroughly out of context. Towards the end of our "dialectic" the leader of the group suddenly called me a murderer, rapist, pedophile, faggot, etc. for no apparent reasons. That upset me, needless to say, so I extended my hand and thanked them for their time. Not a one acknowledged me. So, I tipped my hat to them, said I sincerely hoped that God would bless them and soften their hearts, and made my way to the subway.

I spent the next two hours or so fervently praying for them.

These were men who believe that God boils down to power (there is no free will because, if we had the ability to disobey God, then God wouldn't be God, for instance). Their insane "theology" is born of such ugly hate. I knew, looking into the eyes of those men, that they would kill me if they ever had the chance. I was the oppressor, the descendant of a race of conquerors. To support their hate they distort history and the Bible (Did you know that the New Testament was actually written in Hebrew, and that Jews in the time of Jesus spoke Hebrew because Aramaic isn't real? Did you know that, until Alexander the Great expelled the blacks from North Africa and replaced them with a white elite, blacks were the true Egyptians? Unfortunately, I didn't think at the time to ask why a black and therefore Jewish Pharaoh would enslave the Jewish descendants of Joseph until a black Moses freed them.)

In short, pray for such men. Pray that God pours out his grace onto them to the point of overflowing, and that He softens their stone hearts and teaches them that Love, and not power, if the fundamental principle that explains existence. Pray for the "Black Israelites" and all who are made crooked and wretched by their own malice.