WEEKLY WARNING WORDS
May 19, 2004 - Week 35 - Human Misery
BY DR. BRUNO J. KEITH
F.X. von Baader, a German philosopher of the theology species, explained & proclaimed that no orderly state could exist without an endemic inequality of citizens who, actually, were mere subjects. To the surprise of good Frenchmen, this Bavarian professor thereby equalized German Catholicism with its French variety. Thus, the "better society" of both monarchies could ignore the 18th century rationalism which had brought about the nihilism of the Great French Revolution. God must have enjoyed the equal opportunity stance across the River Rhein. He could now restart His dominion the way it had begun under Emperor Constantine I.
But to thinking slaves it remained most appalling to be taught that God, Jesus and their slave drivers were really true & benevolent rulers who deigned to condone slavery without condemning it even once. Does it really help nearly all human kind to learn that the lords & masters on every level are justified in their stewardship for divinity? A most revolting pious tract! No matter how deeply such doctrine was indoctrinated, history recorded more than a thousand vain attempts of slaves, serfs & servant classes to rebel against that pious fixation of god-willed enslavement.
Jews had to practise the unique law of Moses which demanded the freeing of slaves every 7 years. Their Talmud went far beyond this ancient commandment. Israelites were compelled to use all they owned to free any slaves anywhere. Such tradition was already apparent in Genesis chapter 11 which tells that the oldest slave of Abraham, Eliezer of Damascus, would inherit all his wealth if Abraham died without leaving a legitimate heir. This Holy Script also indicates that well-treated slaves might be happy to worship the god of a benevolent master.
Christian Canon Law converted such religiosity of the heart into a mean must-ordinance, ignoring a pagan liberalism which allowed the inclusion of the god or idol even of a defeated enemy. Catholicism demanded proudly & arrogantly the baptism of all subjects high & low. It became a capital crime & death bringer to worship anyone but Jesus.
The Protestant Revolution adopted this death warrant for serfs & peasants who didn't volunteer to worship Jesus their way. Only the free bourgeois & upperclass citizens could save their lives by emigration. Although our modern age permitted the freeing of slaves, low wages, child labor & starving pay for immigrants continue the institution of slavery.
Lovers of our history should keep wondering how southern-fried gentlemen & their gentle ladies approved & defended their constitutional right to use, buy & sell slaves & tear their families apart as a form of Confederate religion & the guarantee of state sovereignty, very similar to those who profess to be the compassionate Republicans of our times. In past centuries only sectarians like the original Baptists, wild Anabaptists, Quakers, Unitarians & Universalists dared to loudly attack that "peculiar institution" like the long-muted Jews.
The poet Langston Hughes may have been the last Black who tried to give credit to many Jewish social workers & lawyers for having supported every fight for freedom & equality of opportunities. After him, the hippie generation of "freedom fighters" felt free to jump on the band wagon of Jew-hatred in order to gain power & influence.
The greatest of all researchers of Negro historians, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, could not have become successful in his many social, economic & historic organizations without the admiration & loyal cooperation of many Jewish labor organizers, lawyers & fellow historians. Add to this greatest one J. H. Franklin & a few more outstandingly highly qualified black historians. All these blamed the misery of black slavery on selfish & cruel African chiefs, Arab slave hunters & western merchants of "black ebony". Not even one of the great historians mentions Jews as sharers of that blood-guilt.
But those lazy hippies who acquired their doctoral qualifications with threats against their teachers & all erudite society used scandalous inventions, fairy tales & outright lies as soon as they took over the African Studies Departments of colleges. Together with jail-graduates among Black Muslims they concocted slanderous & murderous legends of Jews as cause, leadership & profiteers of the African Slave Trade.
They came up with one Truro, the wealthiest Newport Jew. He was supposed to have invested in the Delano African trade. While my friend, Professor Stampp, was polishing up his masterwork on the "…Peculiar Institution…", I got myself the listing of all members of the Truro Synagogue in Newport, RI. List in hand, I rummaged through Providence State archives, Newport manuscripts, documents & archives without finding any of these names in them. Back at the synagogue, an old derelict ventured to remark that if the Boss had supported the slave trade of F.D.R.'s ancestor, Delano, his congregation would have rebelled against their master & bread giver, Truro.
Whoever overheard me reporting my "findings" to Professor Stampp, made history by making up the new canard.
Yet, soon a few young civil rights pioneers who considered their NAACP too tame, quickly tore up the historic alliance of the 2 most persecuted entities against suppression, intolerance & hatred. Even now few black leaders have the courage & integrity to condemn the intolerable & self-defeating zeal which tends to contribute to the world terrorism against Israel, Zionism, all Jews - and Blacks.
It seems that only Morris Dees, Founder of the Southern Poverty Center, has the courage of "convicting" all the teachers & preachers of hate & intolerance in spite of many death threats. His father, a segregationist minister, was preaching moralistic sermons in the South. His great son fully applied all the good social, economic & political messages of great religions to modern life & living in this world without much - mentioning the heavenly bliss in the hereafter. Talk is cheap. Legal action seems unpopular and outright dangerous. But Morris still keeps defying the radical leftist & rightist encouragers, initiators & executors of hate crime. Might Morris Dees be the only real saint during these days of unspeakable selfishness, cowardice & immoral courage?
Week 36- May 26, 2004 - Prisoners For Ransom