BLACK in AMERICA

poster of black man hanging from Statue of Liberty

It had been too long a break. I'd not attended any session with the young adjudicated  men at SAFE PASSAGES the entire month of August of this year. Spirit told me to carry my prayer pipe and a pouch of Tobacco with me to the group. I wasn't feeling enthusiastic about going. Years ago, as a young man in my early 20's, I asked Bishop Green, of Free Gospel Church of Christ in Coral Hills, Maryland, some hard hitting questions. I wasn't alone. There were a few other young men, most from the Carribean Islands or West Africa. I was the only African Native American. Back then Bishop admitted, publicly, he was not an educated man, and should any of his sermons raise questions, for any reason, come and see him to get clarity and understanding. That's all I needed: a quest. It cost me dearly years later, but the acquisition of knowledge is full of risks, and worth the risks.

One of the answers he gave to one of our questions changed us profoundly because Bishop's openness was raw and unashamed. Bishop said, "If a pastor, any pastor, leaves his church for 3 or more weeks 2/3's of his congregation will leave. The third who stay are the tithers, the backbone of the church." I thought hard about this in the context of my group. In my absence I knew my co-facilitator, Eric Turner, was holding it down with the assistance of two of Dr. Kristal C. Owens-Gayle's adult male students from Bowie State University, but I wasn't pastoring a church. I was leading what was supposed to be a Rites-of-Passage program as an Elder. The difference lay in simple facts: no one tithes, I am not pastoring, and the young men are court ordered to be in attendance, and if they don't comply they are returned to jail, if they do comply and complete the course good for them.

What I felt was a rested restlessness. Healers had to to work on me for a couple of weeks in August. My spirit had worn down because of the amount and the kind of spiritual work with a continual flow of souls coming and coming over a long period of time. During the restoration process after the ceremonies my youngest son and I spent time together. He is 18 years old, and finding his footing at that age is a challenge. I remember being 18, and what that felt and looked like to me. My father became my strongest supporter. It is a pivotal time in a young boy's life, and not the time to abandon him to his own whims. Gregory E. Woods, 4.27.12




 

a STORY of MONEY

actress Kim Basinger

THE STORY

Kim Basinger bought a small town for $20 million and declared bankruptcy four years later. The rapper, and one of the best dancers of the 20th century, MC Hammer, earned $33 million at the height in his career and found himself bankrupt before the 1990's were done. He has since rebound, and Kim Basinger, I think has rebound. 

I don't know how to think about bankruptcy properly, as well as money or wealth. I am not alone. Most anyone who graduated from an American school graduated financially illiterate. By the time a person has plunged into marriage, the raising of a family and spent their first earned check they've been thrust into a rapid moving game bent on taking from you everything you earn, could earn, and any dream you have within you! That is how the world of money, credit and ownership presented itself to me as a young man. 

There was no time for the detail and the depth of study of finance. My pastor at the time, Bishop Ralph E. Green, was the first visionary I met on the subject of money. His ministry was a deliverance healing one. Finance was not his primary goal. He recognized a major problem in his church, studied it, and addressed it in the form of a 'wish list'. What I mean is a lot more than a simple-minded sermon about tithing to balance a budget. Bishop invited a small group of young men to his office one day to discuss business. In that meeting he discussed a multi-level marketing company, Shakley, and its income producing possibilities. He and his wife were making money from the product, and using it! The health benefits were noticeable, and the financial rewards and knowledge he wanted to pass on to us for our families financial security. He wanted to build a common sense legacy within each and everyone of his members. 

Bishop had a large church at the time. This meeting led to an announcement. He wanted 100 business owners and 100 ministers to arise from the ranks of his congregation, and that happened. He continued along the party lines of the movement of economic development espoused by Malcom X, Booker T. Washington, and later Jim Brown and other Black athletes in the late 1960's and back to the others who promoted economic independence within the Black American community. 

It was the drive of the vision from the man that first empowered me that eventually led me to a mentor. That is not to say I've become a wealthy man with a lot of money and property. No. It ain't so. My understanding has increased, but what I discovered was my relationship with money! 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.27.13

$20 gold coin worth $7.6 million in lobby of Federal Reserve Bank of New York in lower Manhattan

EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: Rene D. Batts-Fouts

Rene D. Batts-Fouts
on July 13, 2009 

"Reni, your sense of joy and the intelligent depth of it has been worth the thought I put into applying it into my consciousness over the years. It is still evident in you." - Gregory E. Woods (5/4/10)

Rene Fouts, when we were young men, was the standard of the high values we believed women possessed who would  be good companions in life.  In our small Bible study groups it would not be uncommon for someone to use Rene as the image to hold in one's mind when discussing or contemplating the 31st chapter of the Book of Proverbs.
- Gregory E. Woods

BISHOP RALPH E. GREEN

I have been on different sides of Bishop's evolving spiritual force. I felt then, and more so now, a part of his evolution. Seeing his creative pattern of greatness from my view was controversial within the counsel of my soul, my own evolution, among my elders, and my development into a man. There was a rugged, sometimes rude quality within Bishop that made him the force we all identify with. I remember the dark, the light, the revelations, and disclosures I detested, studied, or didn’t have the depth to understand. I was in awe of him, at times, learning a lot about mysteries and service!

The very complexity of a man from humble beginnings, from the hardships he spoke of so often, and the minimum of education that taught him to become a Bishop, a man, is the essence of what we Native folks call strong medicine powers. Those who develop from flaws into power are what we traditionally admire and respect, and Bishop Green's medicine powers followed me into the ceremonial circles my medicine carried me into. Elders in Greenland, people in Europe, and across Turtle Island have felt the stories, and teachings, and power of Bishop Green weaved into healing stories. These powers move people in their souls sometimes shifting their consciousness into higher realms of knowing or relationship with the Great Mystery!

This isn’t the time to tell the stories now, but there has been enough expansion within people who have learned from the stories I carry in my medicine from Bishop to change and grow into their calling. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories. AHO! (2-13-10)