Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

When we look seriously at the statics, it is surprising how many of our young men end up not fulfilling their enormous potential because the sin of the fathers. The emasculation of black male under colonialism has taken its toll on the rest of the family. And so today we have many families that are headed up by females. Do we think this is strange? Let us look at what the slavers did to bring about this situation!

They destroyed the language of the slave.

They treated the male of the race as a stud and took him from plantation to plantation to ‘breed’.

They beat the young men to the point of death, to make them weak. This engendered in them anger and rage that was seldom dealt with.  Also a mistrust and antagonism against authority figures.

They introduced the curse of incest. So we end up with situations where some children have the same father and grandfather.

They instituted fear and distrust among the community. The result is that we still work against each other as the default rather than the exception.

Although the slave trade and slavery was abolished in the Caribbean in the 19^th century, the legacy of rage, anger, illegitimacy, incest, worthlessness, pity and blame are still very much at the forefront of our psyche. So how do we move forward?

We need to deal with the past. Blessing and curses are a reality. Someone needs to draw a line for your generation, your family and your community, so why not let it be you.  Other ethnic groups have their stuff to deal with too. But the African Caribbean community need to endeavour to re-construct the building blocks for growth. This starts with fundamental structure, the family. The man needs to get in his rightful position as the head and priest of the house. It is he who should call his family to worship and instruct them in righteousness. We have the biblical narratives that teaches us about God’s people who were trapped in slavery for over 400 years but were delivered and set free to become a nation of kings and priest to him (see 1 Peter 1:9ff).  And so using this model, we are precious to God our father.  It is He who has delivered us from the curse. So let us not be ignorant. Let us remove the scales that blur our vision and causes us to work against each other and put on Christ.  Read 1Peter 2 and focus on verse 9&10.