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Voddie Baucham - The Nation of Islam · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do something tonight that I never do.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: So bear with me as I do this. Let me
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: explain to you first why I started studying and then
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: writing on the Nation of Islam. When I was a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: seminary student, there were two events that really caused me
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to think very pointedly about the relationships between Christians of
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  Speaker 1: various ethnicities. It was one thing to see events in
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  Speaker 1: the culture at large that made me question whether or
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: not there were certain ethnic tensions, so to speak. Some
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  Speaker 1: would say racial tensions. I don't say that because there's
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  Speaker 1: only one race. The idea that there are multiple races
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  Speaker 1: is not a biblical idea. There is but one race.
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  Speaker 1: There are multiple ethnicities. But there is one race, all
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  Speaker 1: derived from the one man, Adam. You could possibly argue
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  Speaker 1: that there are two races, the race of the first
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  Speaker 1: Adam and the race of the last Adam, who are redeemed.
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  Speaker 1: But beyond that, there are no racial distinctions between human
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  Speaker 1: beings as far as biblical Christianity is concerned. But there
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  Speaker 1: is much ethnic strife, and one would assume that within
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  Speaker 1: the body of Christ you wouldn't see that. especially among seminarians,
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  Speaker 1: two things happened. One was the Rodney King trial. And
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  Speaker 1: I remember, you know, that there are a lot of
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  Speaker 1: cameras in a lot of places on that day. And
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  Speaker 1: the news when the verdict came down, excuse me, not
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  Speaker 1: the Rodney King trial, but the OJ trial, two things,
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  Speaker 1: Rodney King and OJ put together. News cameras when the
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  Speaker 1: verdicts came down and the distinction between the response of
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  Speaker 1: black people and white people on both of those things
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  Speaker 1: was just amazing. For one of those, I was in
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  Speaker 1: the sort of common area and I watched, I watched
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  Speaker 1: a group of seminarians have the exact same ethnic divergence
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  Speaker 1: in their response on verdict day that the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the culture at large did. White seminarians largely responding one
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  Speaker 1: way and black seminarians largely responding another. And I filed
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  Speaker 1: that away. Another event happened in 1995. And that was
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  Speaker 1: the Million Man March. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation
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  Speaker 1: of Islam, called for a Million Man March. And a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people remember Million Man March, and that sounds familiar,
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  Speaker 1: the idea of Million Man March. It was on October
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  Speaker 1: the 16th. So two days ago was the 18th anniversary
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  Speaker 1: of the Million Man March. But the Nation of Islam
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  Speaker 1: is not celebrating the anniversary of the, quote, Million Man March.
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  Speaker 1: They're celebrating the anniversary of a holy day of atonement,
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  Speaker 1: because that's what the Million Man March was called. a
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  Speaker 1: day of atonement for black men. Why was this significant
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  Speaker 1: for me during that period of my life? Louis Farrakhan,
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  Speaker 1: the head of the Nation of Islam, came to Houston
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  Speaker 1: and he had a press conference in Houston leading up
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  Speaker 1: to the Me and Man March. There were half a
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  Speaker 1: dozen or so black pastors in the Houston area who
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  Speaker 1: were standing shoulder to shoulder with Louis Farrakhan promoting the
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  Speaker 1: Million Man March. Now remember, the Million Man March was
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  Speaker 1: a day of atonement. Among this half a dozen black
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  Speaker 1: pastors who were standing with Louis Farrakhan, two of them
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  Speaker 1: I was in seminary with at the time. And one
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  Speaker 1: was the moderator of the then Union Baptist Association in
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  Speaker 1: the Southern Baptist Convention. Now, I have some knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the nation of Islam. So I'm conflicted. This is a problem.
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  Speaker 1: Number one, I was bothered by the fact that these
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  Speaker 1: men were standing shoulder to shoulder with Louis Farrakhan promoting
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  Speaker 1: an event that Farrakhan was calling a day of atonement.
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  Speaker 1: Just straight blasphemy to the blood of Christ. And the
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  Speaker 1: second thing that really struck me were that my brothers
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  Speaker 1: in seminary of other ethnicities were confused. And on the
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  Speaker 1: one hand, they were disturbed because they said, why would
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  Speaker 1: these guys be standing with and uniting with Muslims on
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  Speaker 1: something called the Day of Atonement? But on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: they immediately had that white guilt reaction that says, it's
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  Speaker 1: a black thing, I must not understand. So the response
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  Speaker 1: was to not engage. Well, that sort of started me
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  Speaker 1: on a journey and on a quest to bring to
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  Speaker 1: light more information about the Nation of Islam, thinking, naive
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  Speaker 1: as I was, that if you just let people know
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  Speaker 1: what we're dealing with, then maybe we can make some
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  Speaker 1: headway in some of these issues. So that resulted in
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  Speaker 1: me turning my doctoral thesis in the direction of the
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  Speaker 1: Nation of Islam. The title of my doctoral thesis is
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  Speaker 1: was a critical analysis of the history and theology of
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  Speaker 1: the Nation of Islam with a view toward an effective
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  Speaker 1: Christian response. It's boring. But since then, I've written a
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  Speaker 1: number of articles about it and more bite-sized pieces for
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  Speaker 1: other publications. And one of those I want to share
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  Speaker 1: with you tonight. I wrestled with how best to present this.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want you to think that I'm mocking the
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  Speaker 1: Nation of Islam So there are a lot of quotes
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  Speaker 1: directly from Nation of Islam sources in this. Because if
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  Speaker 1: I were to just tell you these are the things
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  Speaker 1: that these people believe, you would think that I was
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  Speaker 1: mocking the Nation of Islam. But I want you to
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  Speaker 1: keep this in mind. I want you to keep in
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  Speaker 1: mind that picture of half a dozen black pastors in Houston, Texas,
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  Speaker 1: standing shoulder to shoulder, with Louis Farrakhan and other representatives
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  Speaker 1: of the Nation of Islam because they thought the Million
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  Speaker 1: Man March going to Washington for a National Day of
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  Speaker 1: Atonement for black men was a good idea for them
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  Speaker 1: and for their churches. And many of their brethren of
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  Speaker 1: other ethnicities, most, the overwhelming majority, almost nobody took it
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  Speaker 1: upon themselves to challenge them on it because of this
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  Speaker 1: fear that we have. And it was wrong on both instances.
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  Speaker 1: So here we go. The Nation of Islam is often
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  Speaker 1: characterized as a black Muslim sect. However, a closer look
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  Speaker 1: reveals that the movement is best classified as a quasi-Islamic
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  Speaker 1: black nationalist cult. These folks aren't Muslims at all. That's
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  Speaker 1: the great irony. You'll understand that more. The movement was
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  Speaker 1: established in Detroit around 1930 with the appearance of an
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  Speaker 1: enigmatic silk peddler named Wallace Fard. That name is incredibly important.
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  Speaker 1: You may have heard of Fard Muhammad or Farad Muhammad.
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  Speaker 1: That's the individual Wallace Fard. He blended allegorical interpretations of
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  Speaker 1: biblical texts, popular black nationalist rhetoric, strict legalistic morality, and
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  Speaker 1: Jehovah's Witness teaching to form the basis of what would
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  Speaker 1: become the nation of Islam. You notice what's not present there?
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  Speaker 1: There's allegorical interpretation of biblical passages. And here's what you'll
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  Speaker 1: notice with the nation of Islam and with Louis Farrakhan.
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  Speaker 1: If you hear Louis Farrakhan speak, he's almost always quoting
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  Speaker 1: the Bible, not the Qur'an. So there's these allegorical interpretations
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  Speaker 1: of biblical passages, popular black nationalist rhetoric. There were a
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  Speaker 1: lot of different black nationalist groups at the time. There
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  Speaker 1: was a big back to Africa movement. There were other,
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  Speaker 1: you know, black nationalist organizations at the time. So he
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  Speaker 1: blended some of their teachings, the black Moors and so
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  Speaker 1: on and so forth. Strict legalistic morality and Jehovah's Witness teaching.
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  Speaker 1: What's missing there is the Quran. What's missing there is
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  Speaker 1: Islamic teachings. The theological distinctives. The Nation of Islam claims
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  Speaker 1: to be an Islamic movement. However, much of their theology
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  Speaker 1: undermines that claim. And due to the vast nature of
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  Speaker 1: this topic, the scope of this presentation is limited to
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  Speaker 1: the movement's doctrine of God, revelation, cosmology, anthropology, soteriology, and
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  Speaker 1: eschatology in a very limited sense. The reason for this
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  Speaker 1: delineation is threefold. One, these categories comprise much of the
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  Speaker 1: basis for Islamic theology. Second, these are areas where Christianity
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  Speaker 1: and Islam can be compared and contrasted with the nation
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  Speaker 1: of Islam. So you can see the difference between them
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  Speaker 1: and Christians and between them And third, due to the
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  Speaker 1: reactionary nature of the movement, the Nation of Islam doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have a well-documented theology apart from these categories. It's not
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  Speaker 1: even well-documented in these categories. So let's look at them. First,
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  Speaker 1: the nature of God. And so it begins. Nature of
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  Speaker 1: Islam teaches that, quote, God is a man, and we
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  Speaker 1: just cannot make him other than a man, lest we
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  Speaker 1: make him an inferior one. For man's intelligence has no
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  Speaker 1: equal in other than man, end quote. Elijah Muhammad also
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  Speaker 1: argued that, quote, if he were a spirit and not
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  Speaker 1: a man, we would all be spirits and not human beings.
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  Speaker 1: Do you follow this? God has to be a man
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  Speaker 1: just like you and me. Not that the second person
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  Speaker 1: in the Trinity took on a human nature, as we
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  Speaker 1: would say. No, no, no, no, no, no such thing.
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  Speaker 1: But that God is actually a man just like you
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  Speaker 1: and me. He attributes all the qualities of a man
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  Speaker 1: including marriage, sex, frailties, weaknesses, and mistakes. All of those
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  Speaker 1: are attributed to God. So when the nation of Islam
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  Speaker 1: says Allah, they do not mean the same thing. That
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  Speaker 1: Sunnis or Shiite or other, they do not mean the
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  Speaker 1: same thing that Muslims mean when they say Allah. More specifically,
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  Speaker 1: Inouye theology teaches that God is a black man. That he,
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  Speaker 1: the black man, created himself out of the blackness of space.
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  Speaker 1: Took the color from the darkness from which he emerged.
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  Speaker 1: All that exists in the universe according to this teaching
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  Speaker 1: was created by black intellect. There's the other idea. Again,
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  Speaker 1: which is why this was so shocking to me. When
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  Speaker 1: you understand the nature of this movement and their understanding
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  Speaker 1: that the black man is divine. By the way, the
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  Speaker 1: other shoe drops. The white man is demonic because blackness
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  Speaker 1: in its purity represents pure deity. The further away you
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  Speaker 1: get from blackness, the closer you get to pure evil
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  Speaker 1: so that white people are pure evil. And black people
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  Speaker 1: are pure deity. Remember, six black pastors in Houston standing
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  Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder with this movement for a day of atonement.
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  Speaker 1: How about the person of God? The focal point in
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  Speaker 1: NOI theology is the belief that Allah revealed himself in
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  Speaker 1: the person of Wallace Farrad. in 1930. Remember, I told
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  Speaker 1: you that name was going to be important. Not just
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  Speaker 1: a guy, this was God. So when they say Allah,
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  Speaker 1: they're referring to this particular man, Wallace Farr. In Message
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  Speaker 1: to the Black Man in America, and this is Elijah
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  Speaker 1: Muhammad's sort of magnum opus, if you will. He states,
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  Speaker 1: I teach not the coming of God, but the presence
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  Speaker 1: of God in person. He continues, quote, Allah came to
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  Speaker 1: us from the holy city Mecca, Arabia. In 1930, he
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  Speaker 1: used the name Wallace D. Fard. He came alone. Today,
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  Speaker 1: if you get the newspaper that the Nation of Islam sells,
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  Speaker 1: in the back of it they have sections, what the
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  Speaker 1: Muslims want and what the Muslims believe. And they still
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  Speaker 1: state that Allah was the person Wallace Fard. That Wallace
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  Speaker 1: Fard in 1930 was Allah. That was God. Again, these
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  Speaker 1: people are not talking about the same thing that Muslims
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  Speaker 1: are talking about. There's also the idea of the plurality
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  Speaker 1: of God. God's not the only God in Nation of
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  Speaker 1: Islam teaching. In fact, at the core of the Nation
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  Speaker 1: of Islam doctrine of God is the idea that while
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  Speaker 1: there is only one God at a time, no God
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  Speaker 1: lives forever. Hence, there must be a succession of supreme
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  Speaker 1: gods throughout the course of history. This is said to
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  Speaker 1: happen once every 25,000 years. They believe in these cycles
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, 25,000 years. The supreme god is the
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  Speaker 1: ruler of a divine council of 24 black scientists who
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  Speaker 1: govern the affairs of the world during each successive cycle.
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  Speaker 1: That council of 24 black scientists is going to be
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  Speaker 1: very important later on. Now, a critique of this, one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that they teach, if you remember the
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  Speaker 1: idea of blackness is divine, the further away you get
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  Speaker 1: from blackness, you get toward pure evil. Well, one of
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  Speaker 1: these 24 scientists was a scientist by the name of Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: And Jacob went to perform some experiments on the island
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  Speaker 1: of Patmos. Does that sound familiar to anybody? The island
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  Speaker 1: of Patmos, okay. Okay. So Jacob is performing these experiments
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  Speaker 1: on the island of Patmos. And it's these experiments that
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  Speaker 1: he's performing that actually creates the white race. And the
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  Speaker 1: further he got away from blackness, the more evil these
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  Speaker 1: products of his experiment became until he created the white man,
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  Speaker 1: which is the devil himself. Okay? So that white people
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  Speaker 1: are demonic. Now, The Nation of Islam calls this practice grafting.
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  Speaker 1: And they say in no uncertain terms that the grafting
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  Speaker 1: process cannot be reversed. So once you move away from
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  Speaker 1: pure blackness and you get to individuals who are white,
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  Speaker 1: you get to someone who is purely demonic, and you
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  Speaker 1: can't go back from there. Why is this so significant? Well,
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  Speaker 1: remember they say Wallace Fard was God, that he was Allah?
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  Speaker 1: First of all, obviously there's no evidence to support his deity. Secondly,
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  Speaker 1: there's his flawed humanity. For instance, he was a bootlegger.
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  Speaker 1: He was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. He
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  Speaker 1: was sexually promiscuous. He abandoned his family, so on and
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  Speaker 1: so forth. Not very God-like behavior. But he was also white.
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  Speaker 1: If you've ever seen Louis Farrakhan at an official Nation
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  Speaker 1: of Islam event, if you've ever seen one of his
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  Speaker 1: speeches in one of their halls, there's a couple of
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  Speaker 1: days that are very important. One is that day in October,
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  Speaker 1: this Holy Day of Atonement commemorating the Mayan Man March.
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  Speaker 1: Another one is Savior's Day. It's at the end of February,
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  Speaker 1: Savior's Day. And there's often a big to-do and a
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  Speaker 1: big speech that Farrakhan makes in February for Savior's Day.
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  Speaker 1: And behind him, there's always a picture. There's a picture
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  Speaker 1: of a guy who's not a black guy, not at all,
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  Speaker 1: not close to a black guy, not even kind of
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  Speaker 1: a black guy. It's a picture of Wallace Fard. This
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  Speaker 1: is the guy they say was Allah. but by their
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  Speaker 1: own definition, he would be a demon. Not only that,
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  Speaker 1: Elijah Muhammad, first main leader of the nation of Islam,
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  Speaker 1: who came after, he's the main disciple of Wallace Fard.
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  Speaker 1: He was bi-ethnic, which means at least half demonic. Malcolm X,
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  Speaker 1: who became the most prominent teacher in the nation of
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  Speaker 1: Islam before he converted to Islam. He was bi-ethnic, which
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  Speaker 1: means he was demonic. Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the nation of Islam is, you guessed it, bi-ethnic, which
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  Speaker 1: means by their own theology, these men are demons. And remember,
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  Speaker 1: the grafting process can't be reversed. There's also the idea
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  Speaker 1: of polytheism in the Nation of Islam. The idea of
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  Speaker 1: these 24 scientists. Again, island of Patmos, the number 24.
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  Speaker 1: These things are coming from Revelation. There's also the idea
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  Speaker 1: of pantheism in the Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan, in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: his book, A Torchlight for America, uses terminology reminiscent of
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  Speaker 1: the New Age movement in attributing deity to all mankind,
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  Speaker 1: in particular the black people. In one instance, he states,
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  Speaker 1: one of the things that separates man from the beast
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  Speaker 1: is knowledge. Knowledge feeds the development of human being so
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  Speaker 1: that the person can grow and develop into the divine
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  Speaker 1: and become one with the creator. Here he gets to
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  Speaker 1: the idea that what keeps the black man from asserting
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  Speaker 1: his deity is a lack of knowledge. A lack of knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: He has to come to the knowledge of who he
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  Speaker 1: is so that his deity is sort of activated, if
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  Speaker 1: you will. For them, as we'll see, that is salvation.
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  Speaker 1: What about their doctrine of revelation? How do we know God? Well,
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  Speaker 1: like most cults, they have a Gnostic hermeneutic Nation of
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  Speaker 1: Islam believes that the knowledge of God was withheld from
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  Speaker 1: the world until the coming of Wallace Fard. Elijah Muhammad taught, quote,
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  Speaker 1: this is the first time that the true knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: God has ever been revealed. And we, the poor, rejected,
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  Speaker 1: and despised black American people are blessed to be the
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  Speaker 1: first of all the people of earth to receive this
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  Speaker 1: secret knowledge of God. That's the very definition of Gnosticism.
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  Speaker 1: There's a secret knowledge of God that was never revealed.
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  Speaker 1: And guess what? We are the first ones in the
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  Speaker 1: history of the world to get this secret knowledge of God.
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  Speaker 1: More specifically, Nation of Islam argues that white people are
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  Speaker 1: incapable of understanding either the Bible or the Quran, and
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  Speaker 1: that only those blacks that have experienced mental resurrection can
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  Speaker 1: attain this true knowledge. This approach is fortified by a
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  Speaker 1: claim that both the Bible and the Quran have been
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  Speaker 1: tampered with and are thus not trustworthy. No Muslim would
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  Speaker 1: make this claim. So here we go. We have a
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  Speaker 1: secret knowledge of God that was withheld from the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the world until Wallace Fard came. This is Elijah
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  Speaker 1: Muhammad who just happens to be Fard's disciple and now
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  Speaker 1: his disciple who's currently there today. In order to understand
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  Speaker 1: this secret revealed knowledge, you can't get it from the Bible. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because the Bible is not trustworthy. Why? Because white people
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  Speaker 1: touched it. You can't get it from the Quran. Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because Quran is not trustworthy. Why? Because white people touched it.
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  Speaker 1: So where do you get it? You can only get
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  Speaker 1: it from a black person who has been enlightened, received
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge from and of the nation of Islam. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe you. Well, that's because you're trusting in
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  Speaker 1: tainted documents and you haven't accepted what it is that
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  Speaker 1: we teach. Do you see the circular reasoning there? Alleged
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  Speaker 1: corruption of the Bible and the Quran. The black nation
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  Speaker 1: is said to be the author of both the Quran
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  Speaker 1: and the Bible. However, like all evil, the corruption of
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  Speaker 1: the holy books is attributed to the white race. The
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  Speaker 1: enemy has tampered with the truth in both books, for
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: he has been permitted to handle both books. The NOI
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: teaches that the Bible was changed in order to make
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  Speaker 1: slaves docile. This is a very popular argument. For example,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: the Nation of Islam is the fastest growing religion among
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  Speaker 1: black men, especially in prison. The idea is that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what you think is a result of you being programmed.
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  Speaker 1: The white man has programmed you. He's taught you things
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  Speaker 1: that were designed to docilize slaves. All that stuff about
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  Speaker 1: turning the other cheek, that was just so the slaves
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't rebel. You know, Christianity is slave religion. You need
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  Speaker 1: to get away from that slave religion. How do you
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  Speaker 1: know it is? Well, because white people taught it to you.
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  Speaker 1: And you can't trust them. Now we go back to
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  Speaker 1: the idea of Jacob and the 24 scientists Hence, the
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  Speaker 1: Nation of Islam doctrine of revelation does not account for
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  Speaker 1: the preservation of the essential documents of its faith. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: followers are relegated to dependence upon their enlightened leaders for
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: instruction in all matters. This teaching has two main consequences. First,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the movement is forced into an apostolic hierarchy. You have
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: to have an apostolic hierarchy You've got nothing. How do
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you get truth? You can't read your Bible and get truth.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You can't read Quran and get truth. You can only
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: get it from your enlightened teachers. And you can only
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: get your enlightened teachers through the apostolic hierarchy. Second, there's
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: a need for either a restored text or a replacement text,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: which conveniently is something that has been promised. The NOI
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: argues that We are to change the two worlds, meaning
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Christianity and Islam, then surely we need a new book.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Elijah Muhammad went on to promise, there is another book
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that none has been able to see or read, its
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: contents coming soon from Allah. The last book. So they
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: were waiting for a last book. Again, critique. Number one,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: circular reasoning. But here's number two. They're constantly using and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: referring to flawed texts. You listen to them and they're
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: quoting the Bible. What's the Bible? It's a flawed text.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: You can't trust it. On occasion, they'll quote from Quran.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: What's the Quran? The Quran is a flawed text. You
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: can't trust it. But you can trust me. So whatever
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I say about these texts, you know that that's the truth.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: What about their cosmology? I won't spend much time on this.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: But the Nation of Islam cosmology, what they believe about
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the created world, is a mixture of science fiction and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the misinterpretation of key texts in the Bible and the Quran. First,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the movement offers a fascinating account of creation. Quote, In
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: the beginning, there was blackness, a triple blackness of space, water,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and divinity. The one supreme God came into existence at
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the origin of the universe 76 trillion years ago. He
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: willed himself into being in the form of a black man,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: cell by cell, in a process that took 6 trillion years.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: The first supreme one was a warrior who, in order
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: to combat darkness and shed light, created the sun, which
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: represents freedom and creativity, out of his fire, which is truth.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: He imbued the planets with life and had them submit
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: to the sun and called it the solar system. The
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: story includes life on other planets, an explosion that separated
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the earth and the moon, and not just any kind
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: of explosion, this was an explosion of TNT, It was
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: an explosion of TNT. It wasn't even a nuclear explosion.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: An explosion of TNT that separated the earth and the moon.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: The god of the world at that time was actually
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: trying to destroy the world because of evil, obviously, of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the white race. But he failed in destroying the world.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And instead, the explosion just separated a part of the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: earth off that became the moon. What about their anthropology?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: They believe about man. The world, according to NOI anthropology,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: is divided into two segments, one black and one white.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: By the way, when they say one black and one white,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: everybody who's not white falls into the black category. For example,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of these individuals were arrested during the Second
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: World War because they would not register with selective service.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Two reasons for this. One, they refused to fight against
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: dark-skinned people on behalf of white people. Secondly, they believed
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that they were actually citizens of Mecca, and they would
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: change their names. They would either take, you know, the X.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: A lot of people would become so-and-so X, but they
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: would change their names, arguing that The other names that
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: they had were slave names. And they would take the
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: X until they came up with some Islamic word that
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: they would then identify themselves with. So when they say
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: black world, white world, it's not that they don't recognize
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: other ethnicities. It's just that if you're not white, you're
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: almost one of them, one of us. The black man
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is divine while the white man is demonic. Again, a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: black scientist named Jacob created these white men in a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: process that happened 6,600 years ago. When he did it,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: he also gave a decree. The decree was that the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: white man would rule for 6,000 years, but then his
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: end would come. Let me move ahead. Their doctrine of salvation.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Many argue that the nation of Islam has no soteriology,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: that they don't have a doctrine of salvation because they
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: don't believe in an afterlife. C. Eric Lincoln explains, in
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: their day-to-day living, the black Muslims are governed by a
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: stringent code of private and social morality. Since they do
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: not look forward to an afterlife... This morality is not
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: related to any doctrine of salvation, end quote. Nevertheless, there
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: is a sense in which the Nation of Islam teaches salvation.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: You have to understand that one of the goals in
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: the Nation of Islam was actually to win black Christians
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: away from Christianity. You got to keep this in mind.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: That was one of the goals. That's why they teach
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: so much from the Bible. They target churches. They target
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: black Christians. And what they try to do is undermine
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a faith in biblical Christianity. You can't trust that book.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: That book was made to docilize slaves. That book is
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: all about slave religion, so on and so forth. So
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: their theology is like a parallel to Christian theology. They
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: call it Islamic theology mainly because that sounds exotic. But
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: as you've already heard, there's almost nothing about it that's Islamic. Nothing. Nothing.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: And so because of that, they do talk about salvation.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Just a different version and a different idea. They try
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: to tell Christians this is not about pie in the sky.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Not about the great by and by. It's about here.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: It's about now. Don't you want yours now? Salvation in
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the nation of Islam is tied to the here and now.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Without a belief in the resurrection, their teaching is centered
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: on the mental resurrection of the black race. This mental
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: resurrection leads the black man to Islam, his true and
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: original religion. The specific practices required include prayer, fasting, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the avoidance of the traditional black diet. It's interesting. If
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: you look at the things that Muslims avoid, it doesn't
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: look like a list that you would find from Judaism
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: or a list that you would find from Islam. It
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: looks like something that you find at a soul food restaurant.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: You know, my soteriology is summed up in Elijah Muhammad's statement. Quote,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: regardless of our sins that we have committed in following
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: and obeying our slave masters, Allah forgives it all today
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: if we, the so-called Negroes, will turn to him and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: our own kind. That sounds like something from the KKK.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Allah promises salvation if we'll turn to him and those
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: like us. Turn away from people who are not like us. Again,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I want you to remember this picture of six black
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: pastors in Houston in 1995 standing shoulder to shoulder with
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: this to go to Washington for a day of atonement. First,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: salvation in the nation of Islam is for the black
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: man only. As noted earlier, they view the black man
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: as divine and the white man as demonic. White people
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: can't be saved. Second, the sins of the black man,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: if you notice in the statement, are directly related to
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: his contact with white men. Finally, salvation is tied to nationalism.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: One of the things that the black nationalists that the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Nation of Islam argue is that black people should be
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: given a state in America. Pick one, just give us
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: a state. It's gotta be a good size state. And
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: give us all the resources of that state so that
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: we can have our own nation. By the way, you
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: have to support us for the first 25 years. That's
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: their idea of separation. We want our people in America
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: whose parents and grandparents were descendants from slaves to be
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: either on this continent or elsewhere. We believe that our
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: former slave masters are obligated to provide such land and
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: that the area must be fertile and minerally rich We
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: believe that our former slave masters are obligated to maintain
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and supply our needs in this separate territory for the
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: next 20 to 25 years until we are able to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: produce and supply our own needs. Again, racism and separatism.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: What about their eschatology? Where's it all going? What are
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: we looking forward to? Well, number one, the imminent destruction
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: of the white devils. The central theme of the Nation
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: of Islam's eschatology is the destruction of the white race.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: In the seminal teaching on this matter, Elijah Muhammad states, quote,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: they were created to rule us for 6,000 years, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: then Allah will destroy them from the earth and give
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: the earth back to its original owners, the black nation.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: In fact, this, according to NOI teaching, was the primary
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: reason for the coming of Allah. What about the mother planets?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and the destruction of the world. This is where it
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: gets a little fantastic, as though it hasn't already. One
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of the most astounding beliefs in the Nation of Islam
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: theology is the idea of the mother plane. This man-made UFO,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: which spans one half mile, exists for the purpose of
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: destroying the white race in the Battle of Armageddon. Elijah
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Muhammad described the plane, listen, The great wheel, which many
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: of us see in the sky today, is not so
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: much a wheel as one may think in such terms,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: but rather a plane made like a wheel. The like
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: of this wheel, like plane, was never seen before. You
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: cannot build one like it and get the same results.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Your brains are limited. If you would make one to
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: look like it, you could not get it off the
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: earth into outer space. This mother plane is out there waiting.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: It's waiting to rapture up the black race right before
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: it sends smaller planes out to destroy the earth and
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: white people. And by the way, that ought to sound
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: familiar to you. Maybe like a movie. Maybe like the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: movie Independence Day. In fact, the Nation of Islam sued
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the movie Independence Day for $ 40 million. $ 40 million. saying
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: that they stole the plot from the movie from the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: nation of Islam's beliefs about the end of the age.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Prior to this worldwide destruction, black people will be given
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: one final opportunity to escape. If they do, they'll spend
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a thousand years on the mother plane until earth is
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: remade and the world begins again with the original man,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the black man. Then comes the hereafter. What's the hereafter?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Describe the hereafter as an Islamic world of righteousness and
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: happiness forever in the presence of Allah. The NOI hereafter
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: is also said to be a place of complete peace, harmony,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: and well-being. Critique. This is fantastic. Purely fantastic. You can
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: see that it's a hodgepodge of things that they've taken
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: from prophetic books in the Old Testament from Revelation. Talk
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: about Ezekiel's wheel in the middle of a wheel. A
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: thousand years that you're on the mother plane, so on
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: and so forth. All of these things are absolutely fantastic.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: The average of this movement at its inception had only
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: a fourth grade education. That would seem to explain the
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: acceptance of such fantastic doctrines. Yet these doctrines remain at
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the core of the movement today. There are at least
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: two possible explanations. First, the theology of the movement could
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: simply be hidden from observers and participants alike. A second
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: possibility is that the sociopolitical or nationalistic aspects of the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: movement relegate the theology to a superficial role. The latter
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: is the strongest argument. Therefore, any attempt to evangelize members
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: of the Nation of Islam must not only understand that
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the movement's theology is distinct from that of Orthodox Islam,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: it must also account for the sociopolitical issues that form
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: its foundation. Again, six black pastors right here in Houston
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: two of them in seminary with me. One, the most
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: prominent pastor in Houston's Southern Baptist life. They stand shoulder
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: to shoulder with the head of this group promoting the
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Million Man March, which was a day of atonement. Nobody
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: said anything. They didn't have mass exodus of members from
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: their churches. They weren't scolded or reprimanded by their counterparts
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: and their denominations. Their white brethren decided not to say
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a word about it to them, choosing instead to assume
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: It's a black thing. We just must not be able
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: to understand. Folks, this is not hard to understand. These
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: people are lost. Not only are these people lost, these
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: people are deceptive. They are intentionally deceptive. And their deception
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: is has a goal behind it. And the goal behind
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: it is that they would reach into the black church
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: community and win converts. That they would be close enough
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: to sound familiar, but distinctive enough to offer an alternative.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: That they would major on sociopolitical issues. That they would
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: measure on the divide between black and white. And that
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: they would do so in such a way that black
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: people who were Christians would feel a tug in themselves
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: between their Christianity and their blackness. And that in many instances,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: they would put their Christianity aside and respond with their blackness.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And that's what happened. 18 years ago this week in Washington, D.C.,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: as hundreds of thousands of black men marched on Washington.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Most of those men were not members of the Nation
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: of Islam. So here's the question that we raise. I mean,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: this is obvious. This is easy. We understand that this
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: is cultic. It's nonsense. Now, here's the question. What is
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: it that has so divided us that black Christians are
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: willing to ignore this and align at times with the
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: nation of Islam and white Christians are willing to ignore
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: that response for fear of being judged racist. This is
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: not a problem of theological distinction. This is a problem
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: of sin and division in the camp. This is a
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: problem of sin of Christians who happen to be black,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: who are willing to put their blackness before their savedness.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: This is a sin of Christians who happen to be white,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: who put their fear of being called racist above their
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: desire to call for truth among those who claim to
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: be fellow Christians. This is also about our ignorance. We've
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: been played. These people put on garb that often looks
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: sort of Muslim, They look more like shriners most of
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: the time, but again, they call themselves Muslims and the
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: name of it is the nation of Islam. And so
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: we go, okay, they're Islamic. And when they pray, they
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: look like they're Islamic and they greet each other with
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: assalamu alaikum. And that's Arabic sounding and there's all this
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: sort of stuff. And then, okay, that's great. So they're
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: this Islamic group, but I don't understand this particular Islamic sect.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: You know now that that's not what it is. We
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: all know now that that's not what it is. And
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: here's my prayer. That because we all know now what
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: it is, that the next time half a dozen black
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: pastors line up at a press conference, standing shoulder to
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: shoulder with these people, that the Christians in their churches
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: would have none of it. And that their fellow Christians
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: who happen to be of other ethnicities will call them
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: on it and have absolutely none of it. But there's
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: a price to pay. Here's the question. Okay, you were there,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: you're in seminary with these guys. How come you didn't
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: say anything? I did. Y'all know me well enough to know.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I did. I did. Here's the response I got. You've
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: been with these white folks too long. That's the response
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: I got. You've been with these white folks too long.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Because in their minds, there were some things that transcended
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: their theological convictions. Chief among them, their ethnic heritage. God
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: help us. For in Christ, there is no Jew, no Greek,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: no slave, nor freak, No male, no female, no black,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: no white. We're all one in Christ. And if we're
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: all one in Christ, then we all have a very
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: simple and unified answer to stuff that sounds like this.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And that answer is that dog won't hunt. It's a
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: simple no. It's a direct no. It's a no that
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: says people who are united with this need to be gospelized.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: It's a no that says people who have a willingness
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: to compromise and be a part of this have some
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: severe deficiencies in their understanding of what it means to
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: be a Christian. Pastors who are willing to unite with
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: these people on something called a day of atonement are blasphemers.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: And there's no other way to look at it. This
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: is a movement that most people don't know much about.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: They go under the radar until a couple of times
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: a year when they make certain pronouncements. But make no
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: mistake about it. It's a movement to be reckoned with.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: My prayer for us is that we'd open our eyes
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: to it, that we'd help others open their eyes to it,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: and that just as we've heard about dealing with Orthodox Islam,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: that we would press the claims of Christ and the gospel,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: because ultimately, that's what these and all other people need.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take five minutes to answer questions because
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be up here again to talk
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: about this. And when we have our other Q & A,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about other stuff that Dr.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: White's teaching us on. Do you have a question or
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: two about this before we go? The question is, did
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: that book actually come yet? The answer is no. No,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: that book didn't actually come. Wallace Farr disappeared mysteriously in 1934.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: It's believed that he was assassinated, kind of like Malcolm
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: X was assassinated by other members of the Nation of Islam. Again,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: Malcolm X becomes an Orthodox Muslim, and before too long,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: he's assassinated in a very brutal, very public assassination by
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: a paramilitary group called the Fruit of Islam. They're the
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: enforcers in the Nation of Islam. They're the ones who
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: killed him. So, no. No book came out. From far,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: there has been no book, and we're still stuck with
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: the same thing. As far as a doctrinal statement, you know,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: you can look them up online, noi.org, and look up
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: their beliefs. And you can do a search for what
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: the Muslims believe and what the Muslims want. You can
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: get a copy of their paper and look at the
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: back of their paper and just read it and shake
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: your head. But it's there. The doctrinal statements are there. Yes.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Do these six pastors, do they still hold true to
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: their response to their brother or whatever? Yeah. Yeah. See,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: this is not uncommon in quote-unquote black church circles. There's
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: this affinity with the Nation of Islam, with Minister Farrakhan,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: because he says things that from a purely socioeconomic perspective...
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: And you can hear him talk about things and about,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: you know, men being responsible and, you know, and taking
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: care of your family and, you know, and not drinking
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: and not, you know, you hear that kind of stuff
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and you go, yeah, you know, and things happen and
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: he'll stand up and, you know, and speak against them
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever. So there's this sort of affinity, you know,
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: for him. And he's kind of a father figure in
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: many parts of the black community. But that's because he's
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: not talking about this stuff. And people just kind of
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: ignore that stuff. So, yeah. Afterwards, you can go look
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: up Freddie Haynes in Dallas. Freddie Haynes pastors a huge
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: church in Dallas. Freddie Haynes had a sermon. That next Sunday,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: after the Million Man March, he dedicated his time in
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: the pulpit to, he called it a message from the march.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: And basically communicating to his people that, the word from
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: God that Minister Farrakhan had at the Million Man March.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: And Freddie Haynes is still pastor in a church in Dallas,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: and it's bigger than it's ever been. Right there on I-20. Big,
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: giant church. Have we passed the time yet? The question is,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: have we passed that time when supposedly the reign of
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: the white devil was supposed to be over? It was
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: supposed to end in 1987. So, We're a little late, man.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Y'all need to be scared. Who are some of the
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: people that fund them? That's a great question. They are
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: the wealthiest, quote, black organization in the United States. They're
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: in Chicago now. They're based in Chicago. And they have
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: massive wealth. Some of the people who fund them are
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Muslims from the Middle East. For example, I mean, several
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: years ago, there was one very prominent leader in the
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: Arab nation that was a known, you know, not a
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: friend to the U.S., who gave a million dollars, you know,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: which was nothing for him. It was oil money, you know,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a million dollars to the Nation of Islam. But there
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: are people, you know, who are funding them from there.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: The big thing that was happening then, here's a big
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: controversy that came up. Slavery. You know, there are as
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: many if not more slaves in the world today than
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: there have ever been. Most of them in North Africa.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Many of them, you know, enslaved Christians in predominantly Islamic countries.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Sudan and Mauritania, huge slave trade. you know, forced slavery there.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: And there was a big article that came out about
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: slavery and the slave trade. Folks went to the Nation
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: of Islam saying, okay, if anybody is going to condemn
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: this and speak on this and bring this to light,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: it would be Louis Farrakhan. Because of some of the
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: folks who were lining his pocket, he said nothing. He couldn't.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of people who support him. Is
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: there a connection between the call for reparation and wanting
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: to have a black state? What do you mean by
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: the call for reparation? Oh, just kind of the general
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: reparation movement? Yes and no. Not necessarily so. But the
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: nation of Islam has been calling for reparations for a
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: long time. There are other people completely unrelated, you know,
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: who have called for reparations from slavery and things like that.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: But no, they're not necessarily connected. And they're definitely not
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: connected to the idea of statehood and having a separate state. Yeah.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Two things. Does Nation of Islam go by other names?
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes they're referred to as black Muslims. Generally, it's either
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Nation of Islam or black Muslims. The black Israelites would
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: be a different group. but they would come kind of
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: from the same stream. Again, you know, there's a whole
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff behind why this thing started in Detroit
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: in that particular period of time, you know, the time
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: during the Depression, and there are a lot of other
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: black nationalist movements. So, yeah, they would come from the
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: same stream, but they wouldn't be the same movement. Yeah. Yeah. Boy,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: isn't that a big question? You know, what can we
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: do to enlighten people and enlighten churches that dwell in
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: that ignorance? Here's the thing. Take care of your circle.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Take care of your sphere of influence. Take care of
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: the opportunities that God gives to you. And if God
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: broadens that sphere of influence, then you take care of that.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: But just worry about your circle, you know? And to
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: the degree that he gives you influence and he gives
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: you opportunity, you can share these things. That may lead
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: to more influence, more opportunity to share these things. It's
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: the same with anything else. You just, you worry about
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: the circle that he's given you, you know? Because people
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: generally aren't too keen on hearing from folks who just
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: kind of parade in saying, hey, you need to know this.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: you know it's just yes one more yeah good question
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: um outside of places like you know chicago new york
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: detroit um is this really a major issue it's a
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: it's definitely a major city issue um it's a it's
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: a it's an issue where there are dense urban populations
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: um It's an issue within our prison system. It's a
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: huge issue within our prison system throughout the country. So, yeah,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: it is. It is an issue, and it is a
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: pervasive one, although it's kind of demographic in nature, obviously,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: you know. The other question about Louis Farrakhan, he's old.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: He had prostate cancer. I don't know if he's been
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: treated for that, if he's in remission, cure, whatever, but
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: he's up there now. You know, what happens when he's gone?
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: A lot of people ask the same thing about Elijah Muhammad.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: Here's Elijah Muhammad. Nobody knew Louis Farrakhan, you know. Who's that?
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: And then Elijah Muhammad's gone. You know, a son of
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: his takes one group one way. Louis Farrakhan, who was
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: head of the Fruit of Islam, you know, goes in
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: another direction. He becomes the guy. They've got a lot
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: of resources, you know. And organizations with a lot of
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: resources tend to have somebody pick it up and move
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: it on. And there are a lot of other groups
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: out there that are very close and very similar. You know,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: these ideas, the new Black Panther movement and things like that.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: You know the guy Quan LX here in Houston. He
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: used to be, you know, a Nation of Islam guy.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: Now he's a new Black Panther, you know, guy or whatever.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: You know, there are tons of streams out there that
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: are very much connected to this. And it's not going
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: anywhere because it has a lot of traction with people, unfortunately.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: So I don't think that Louis Farrakhan's passing will mean
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: the end of the Nation of Islam.