UNITED WE STAND

“So, Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: ‘How can Satan drive out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”   Mark 3:23-25 NIV

“We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among

ourselves.  We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first

proven acceptable to ourselves.  One can’t unite bananas with leaves.”

Malcolm X

We live in a divided nation, conservatives against liberals, the educated against the uneducated, Republicans against the Democrats, the rural against the urban, the rich against the poor, Red States against Blue States, the young against the old…

The last thing Black people need in our struggle for freedom and equality is to be divided amongst ourselves.  It is time out for divisiveness that defeats us.  For decades, our enemies have used a “divide and conquer” strategy against us.

We need to remember that no matter if you are middle class or upper-middle class, light-skinned or dark-skinned, degreed or not decreed, live in the hood or a gated community, work in corporate America or self-employed, WE ARE STILL BLACK.  We are and will always be identified as Black.  We need each other.  We must work together.  We must pray with each other and stand united!

Pray this stanza from our Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing which emphasizes unity:  “God of OUR weary years, God of OUR silent tears, Thou who hast brought the US thus far on the way; Thou who hast by thy might, led the US into the light, Keep US forever in the path we pray. Lest OUR fee strays from the places, OUR God, where we met Thee, Lest OUR hearts drunk with the wine of the world, WE forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May WE forever stand, True to OUR God, true to OUR native land.”  Amen!

© 2020 Dr. John Ogletree – Houston, TX