YeKengalé

Yesterday, I attended Sons of the Father – a movement to affect the rescue, restoration and repositioning of the Male in Jamaican culture.

In all our doings, God moves. And He most certainly moved in emphasizing repeated themes throughout the day through the various speakers…synchronized without collaboration or collusion. Spirit talks.

• Remembering the pillar of family – fatherhood
• Encouraging the attitude of victory – focus, confidence,
• Reflecting on the disconnection and dysfunctionality in relationships – father/son,  man/woman, pastor/male flock, church / community,

It’s all a good start. Everyone means well. For me, the most welcome observation made was an acknowledgment of the nature of the male psyche.

I doubt anyone, pastor or parishioner conditioned in the Jamaican church system will be sufficiently aware to process the information immediately, but all creative human endeavors begin with an acknowledgment of truth.

Man no wire like likkle pickney fi unda yu control, but fi exercise authentic power. 

Most pastors (particularly Black of the Pentecostal/Charismatic variety) cannot even begin to recognize just how much the culture of control (rather than the influence of inspiration) typifies the church experience in the eyes of men …especially men who have never been acculturated and inoculated in that environment as children.

And evangelical pastors are not disposed to give up their title as the fourth person of the Godhead. Its great to call the shots. Given the choice, we all prefer to be Mr. Big Mouth…than silent sufferer.

I must say, I appreciated Clinton Chisholm’s approach – he was perhaps the most effective of the lineup of speakers. – A humorous presentation of academically referenced sources of information with power point, followed by engaging the audience in questions/comments and responses. No whooping or histrionics. No “sit now, stand now, raise your hands now” directives. No ‘turn to your neighbor and tell them this or that’ every second, harping back to primary school recitation. Just brutal frankness, candor, self-effacing humor and raw information…(and did I mention ‘brief’?)

I have an internal attention-meter. I can look around a room and measure the collective focus. I know when it is lost … by whom and where.  As an educator, I taught the skill set to my staff. We had regular 100% student focus in religious devotion and class time. (No idle boast – reporters came …we got written up in the newspapers for it, the experts came and expressed amazement, the community said we must have hypnotized the kids…it didn’t seem natural … are those my kids? is this a Jamaican school? etc….But it was validated in unprecedented achievement – MOE recommended, published and distributed my program Creating High Morale In The Public School to hundreds of schools island-wide)

Clinton scored highest in keeping male attention rapt and engaged from start to finish. For all the whooping, hollering and hullabaloo that has become standard fare in the evangelical tradition, (and I must say the brothers take the culture very well…i.e. those who have been seasoned in church); but he (Clinton) kept the attention of the students to my right and the inner city crew to my left mostly from beginning to end. (and just about everyone in the room).

I appreciated  Rev. John Francis’ charisma and Dr. Moshe Halak Gurion’s easy scholarship – but after a while, I saw the heads turn, the eyes dim, a few walked out…Please, for me these are mere observations, I’m not seeking to qualify/compare the unique giftings of the tremendously versatile and able cadre assembled by the organizers.

Let me explain my position: My most comfortable ‘church’ space in the last 25 years (since my internal exile) was an inner city men’s breakfast hosted once a month by CLF’s Bruce Fletcher. Most everyone attending were-ex shottas and former dons. Many had had Damascan encounters with Jesus and most were new to the church scene…still speaking the language of the streets.

Refreshing authenticity. I felt at home…again…briefly.

The idea that church does more than teach good news, but still is into the Christianization business started by Columbus was unfortunately confirmed  in the frank testimony of one ex-prisoner who exhorted -“Bredrin Give yuself to Jesus…but don’t give yuself to no pastor” – a spontaneous and thunderous applause erupted from the massive and crew…with a group of pastors present, earnest about their Christianity, a bit bewildered, still not quite getting the picture …

Stop trying to hew the rock with human hands…unless you are building a limestone structure rather than the lively stone model mentioned in scripture; (but then count me out….an’ a whole heap o man who naaa bow…until like the rastaman, or street warrior, we see a worthy model of majesty.)

Rispeck due to all…especially the organizers. An earnest start.

[Candid comments and responses are welcome]