As a Catholic I believe that eulogies have no place at a funeral. Of course I also understand that other people have different ideas. Aretha Franklin’s family has stepped forward to condemn the eulogy given at her funeral by the Reverend Jasper Williams, Jr., senior pastor of Salem Bible Church in Atlanta, Georgia. I guess this aroused their ire:
At one point, Williams asked: “Where is your soul, black man? As I look in your house, there are no fathers in the home no more.”
As for black women, he preached that “as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do, a black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man.”
Williams described as “abortion after birth” the idea of children being raised without a “provider” father and a mother as the “nurturer.”
He negated the Black Lives Matter movement altogether in light of black-on-black crime, falling back on a rhyming pattern of yore:
“It amazes me how it is when the police kills one of us we’re ready to protest, march, destroy innocent property,” Williams began. “We’re ready to loot, steal whatever we want, but when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything, nobody does anything. Black on black crime, we’re all doing time, we’re locked up in our mind, there’s got to be a better way, we must stop this today.”
Do black lives matter?
“No, black lives do not matter,” Williams said. “Black lives will not matter, black lives ought not matter, black lives should not matter, black lives must not matter until black people start respecting black lives and stop killing ourselves.”
Go here to read the rest. His main message was that the only hope for Black America was to return to God. That of course is a message that applies to all Americans, and all of humanity, whatever their skin color. This whole uproar reminded me of this line from Scripture:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Timothy 4:3
A great homily that everyone, regardless of race, should heed. This kind of honest preaching is particularly needed in our vulnerable minority communities. With God all things are possible.
Alleluia! The truth shall set you free.
Jesus is the answer, not just for white folks. There was a time in this country when that wasn’t controversial. I guess it is so today. Thank God there are still men in this country like Pastor Williams. God bless him!
the eulogy is what Aretha Franklin would has wanted.
Controversial or not, he said it. And only the media kicked up a stink about it. But those words went right to the ears of the people who matter, and those words will resonate to the people who matter. God is good.