WEBVTT
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(choir singing)
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Let us bow our heads for the invocation.
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Dear Lord,
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giver and sustainer of all life,
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we thy humble servants have come,
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at this appointed hour
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to worship thee in spirit and in truth.
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We come, O God,
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humbly seeking
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thy presence,
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seeking to draw nearer to thee,
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seeking to be more like thee.
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We ask, O God,
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that you would bless us in this worship experience,
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that whatever part we are to play we will be able to play it
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with the assistance of thy Holy Spirit,
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that the songs will be lifted from fervent hearts,
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that the Word will be preached
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from the power of thy Holy Spirit,
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that these songs, words, and prayers will go forth
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and find fruitful soil
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and bare fruit in our lives.
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This we pray in the name that is above every name,
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in the name of Jesus the Christ.
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Amen.
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For our opening congressional hymn would you join with us
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in singing What A Friend We Have In Jesus,
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number 261 in our hymnal.
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All our sins and griefs to bare,
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what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
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Oh, what peace we often forfeit.
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Oh, what needless pain we bare all because we do not carry
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everything to God in prayer.
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Let us stand and sing together
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this wonderful hymn of praise.
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(choir singing)
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At this time we are happy to have two selections by
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the Damascus Road Experience
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followed by the scripture lesson by Brother Herald Spears.
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(soft singing)
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(choir singing softly)
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Our scripture for the day is the 95th Psalm.
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"O come let us sing to the Lord,
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"let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
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"Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving,
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"let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
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"For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods
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"and his are the depths of the earths
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"and the heights of the mountains are His also.
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"For the sea is His, for He made it,
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"for His hands formed the dry land.
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"Oh come, let us worship and bow down,
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"let us kneel before the Lord, Our Maker,
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"for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture
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"and the sheep of hand.
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"Owe that today you would hark into His voice.
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"Harden not your hearts as at Merrillville
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"as on the day is messiah in the wilderness
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"when your fathers tested me and put me to the proof,
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"though they had not seen my work.
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"For 40 years I loathed that generation and said,
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"there are people who air in heart
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"and they do not regard my ways,
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"therefore I swore my anger
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"that they should not enter my rest."
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Could we bow in prayer?
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Thank you dear Lord for all that you've done for us.
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Many of us have it so easy, many of us hard.
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We pray first of all Lord that
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you search each of our hearts, we all have concerns
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and that you lift our burden through Jesus.
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We also pray that
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you work through our institutions, our universities,
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and governments and clean out the hearts of those people,
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our nation.
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Lord, be with us always and we know you are.
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Help us not to harden out hearts so that
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we can't find that love that you're always giving us.
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Bless each and everyone of us Lord,
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bless us worshiping hearing.
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In the name of Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
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This time we shall be favored my a number
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coming from the senior choir
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of the Russell Memorial CME Church of Durham,
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Reverend L.H. Welchol, the pastor.
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We are happy to have you and look forward to your part
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that you will play in the service at this time.
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(choir singing)
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It is a great privilege to introduce to some,
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but I'm sure present to most the speaker of the hour,
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the Dr. Tom Skinner,
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president of Tom Skinner Associates in Brooklyn, New York.
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Born in Harlem in 1942
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and since I was born in 1943,
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I feel he is a very young man.
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Now chairman of the board of Urban Ministries
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and member of the board of directors of Barrington College.
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The author of Black And Free,
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Words Of Revolution, How Black Is The Gospel,
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and his latest work,
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If Christ Is The Answer, What Are The Questions?
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Following this selection, Dr. Skinner will come
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to us as led of the spirit to bring the message of the hour.
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I would like to add to this service
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by singing to you a Negro spiritual,
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one that I love very much
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and one that I often sing.
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It's called Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow
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and it gives you and I the opportunity to eavesdrop
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on someone who long ago and possibly even today,
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communicated with the Creator
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by singing this expression
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which is an out-pouring of one's spirit.
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I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow.
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♪ I ♪
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♪ Am a of pilgrim of sorrow ♪
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♪ I ♪
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♪ Lived in this wide world ♪
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♪ Alone ♪
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♪ No have I thought tomorrow ♪
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♪ Lord ♪
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♪ I'm just left in this wide world ♪
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♪ Alone ♪
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♪ My mother done gone on me ♪
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♪ My father still walking 'round here ♪
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♪ My prison relation ♪
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♪ Don't own me ♪
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♪ I'm ♪
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♪ Just left in this wide world ♪
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♪ Alone ♪
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♪ Sometimes I am talked about ♪
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♪ And driven ♪
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♪ So many times ♪
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♪ I don't know where to go ♪
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♪ Where to go ♪
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♪ Where to go ♪
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♪ I head out the sea ♪
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♪ For heaven ♪
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♪ And I'm trying big heaven my boat ♪
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♪ One day I'll get within my stay ♪
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♪ This old body be laid in ♪
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♪ The grave ♪
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♪ But I'm goin' on home with Jesus ♪
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♪ And then I'll never ♪
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♪ Know ♪
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♪ Sometimes ♪
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♪ I am tossed in the river ♪
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♪ So many times ♪
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♪ I don't know ♪
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♪ Where to go ♪
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♪ Where to go ♪
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♪ Where to go ♪
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♪ I didn't see ♪
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♪ I'm heading ♪
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♪ And I'm just a trying ♪
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♪ Everyday of my life ♪
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♪ I'm just trying ♪
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♪ Sometimes (mumbles) ♪
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♪ Sometimes I'm still trying ♪
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♪ To make heaven ♪
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♪ My home ♪
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Thank you brother.
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That song reminds me of the history
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of the struggle of a people who developed
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an attitude about God out of their struggle.
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You see, what most people didn't realize was that
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when slavery existed in our country,
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most people pictured the slave as a docile individual
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who just kind of lived with his circumstances,
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but most of the spirituals that grew up out of slavery
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grew up out of a hard-nosed relationship both with God
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and a hard-nosed relationship with the circumstances
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that they encountered from day to another
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and often times the spirituals
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psyched out the people who were listening to them,
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example,
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you take a song like steal away,
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steal away all,
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I aint got long to stay here.
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Well you see, originally the song was the introduction
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or the basis for a prayer meeting
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and so when the slaves were down in the slave quarters
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and begin to sing, steal away, steal away
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steal aways long, a aint got long to stay here,
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the master back at the house got real excited
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because he knew that the slaves were
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gettin' together for a prayer meeting
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and stealing away meant stealing off into the secret closet
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where we were praying and prevail with God
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and it meant that,
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but it was also a code song,
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which also meant that tonight that Sister Tubman
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and the underground railroads coming through
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and we stealing out of here.
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(audience laughs)
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Or the take the song Wade in the Water.
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Wade in the water, God's gonna tumble the water
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and when folks got together and sang that
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that was baptismal song
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and whenever the folks were gonna have baptism
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they began a baptismal service by singing,
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wade in the water, wade in the water,
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God's gonna trouble the water.
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But it also had another meaning
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because you see the way the song really got started was
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that out in the slave fields,
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whenever the slave driver,
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the guy who was responsible for supervising
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the slave activities in the cotton fields would pass through
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when he got to the far end of the field,
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quite often a slave at the other end would take off
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and start running to freedom.
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Sometime later when the slave driver
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found out that a slave had escaped,
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he immediately made haste to the master's house
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to report that the slave was missing.
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The master immediately had someone go
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and get the dogs to track down the slave
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and the moment the dogs were sent for,
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a house slave who was working in the house
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would begin to sing wade in the water,
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wade in the water, God's gonna trouble the water
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and then the folks in the field would start singing,
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♪ Wade in the water ♪
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♪ Wade in the water children ♪
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♪ Wade in the water God's gonna trouble the water ♪
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and before long they would all be out there singing,
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wade in the water, wade in the water.
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Now of course, the master back at the house
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thought that revival was breaking out in the cotton fields
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and so he didn't pay too much to the singing,
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but the problem was that the singing was picked up
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and went from one plantation to another
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and slaves working in fields for miles
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would pick up the song and start singing,
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wade in the water, wade in the water
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God's gonna trouble the water
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when really the song was a signal
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to the slave who was escaping.
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The dogs are loose, make for the water,
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in order to throw off the scent.
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And so that the songs, the spirituals
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that grew up out of slavery had a double meaning.
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They grew up out of the hard-nosed reality
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of a relationship with God and the circumstances of slavery.
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Or songs like going home on the chariot in the morning,
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going home on the chariot in the morning.
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Of course, whenever the slave master heard the song
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he thought they were talking about he rapture,
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the great gettin' up morning
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when all the folks and saints would be gathered together
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and that was true, that was part of what it meant,
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but on the other hand, it also meant,
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come morning time master, we aint gonna be here.
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And so there all kinds of ways
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in which they dealt with their circumstances
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out of the songs that they sung.
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And I really appreciated hearing that.
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I'd like to take the time that we have left
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to share with you this afternoon some of the observations
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that I have made in the
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kind of world in which we live.
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And I don't think that there has ever been a period
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like the period in which we live in human history
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where a great number of people are looking
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for alternatives to the world's situation.
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And most people confess that they are frustrated
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00:36:48.830 --> 00:36:51.370
in an attempt to put it together
270
00:36:51.370 --> 00:36:54.100
and an attempt to really discover what it's about.
271
00:36:54.100 --> 00:36:56.260
Back in my neighborhood, we have an expression
272
00:36:56.260 --> 00:36:58.170
whenever guys see each other, they walk up to each other
273
00:36:58.170 --> 00:37:00.690
and say, hey man what's happening?
274
00:37:00.690 --> 00:37:02.130
And everybody says, hey man what's happening,
275
00:37:02.130 --> 00:37:03.760
hey baby what's going on, what's happening?
276
00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:04.730
The reason everybody asks what's happening
277
00:37:04.730 --> 00:37:07.780
is 'cause nobody has the slightest idea what's happening.
278
00:37:07.780 --> 00:37:10.300
And it's very much like the world in which we live,
279
00:37:10.300 --> 00:37:12.780
most people really don't know what's going on.
280
00:37:12.780 --> 00:37:16.330
Most people are trying to put it together
281
00:37:16.330 --> 00:37:18.660
because it's like running into a guy back at my block
282
00:37:18.660 --> 00:37:20.430
and I ask him, how you doing brother?
283
00:37:20.430 --> 00:37:22.970
And he says, trying to get it together
284
00:37:22.970 --> 00:37:24.197
and about a week later, I run into him and say,
285
00:37:24.197 --> 00:37:25.400
hey brother how you doing?
286
00:37:25.400 --> 00:37:27.890
He says, trying to get it together.
287
00:37:27.890 --> 00:37:29.670
And about a month later I run into him again,
288
00:37:29.670 --> 00:37:30.790
and say, brother how you doing?
289
00:37:30.790 --> 00:37:32.250
He says, trying to get it together.
290
00:37:32.250 --> 00:37:35.330
Just one time, you'd like to run into him and hear him say,
291
00:37:35.330 --> 00:37:37.050
got it together, you know,
292
00:37:37.050 --> 00:37:40.910
because most people are spending their time
293
00:37:40.910 --> 00:37:42.830
tying to get it together.
294
00:37:42.830 --> 00:37:47.691
Trying to really discover what it's all about.
295
00:37:47.691 --> 00:37:50.890
And there are at least three issues that I have discovered
296
00:37:50.890 --> 00:37:53.020
that people are trying to overcome,
297
00:37:53.020 --> 00:37:54.030
they're trying to face.
298
00:37:54.030 --> 00:37:57.050
The first issue is the issue of identity.
299
00:37:57.050 --> 00:38:00.400
Where large numbers of people are trying to discover
300
00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:03.385
who in the world they are.
301
00:38:03.385 --> 00:38:05.120
Most people don't know who they are.
302
00:38:05.120 --> 00:38:08.040
Most people have never even answered the question,
303
00:38:08.040 --> 00:38:11.170
who am I, why am I alive, what do I exist for,
304
00:38:11.170 --> 00:38:14.362
and what the name of the game is for me?
305
00:38:14.362 --> 00:38:17.537
It's summed in the words of that
306
00:38:17.537 --> 00:38:20.090
great contemporary composer, Burt Bacharach
307
00:38:20.090 --> 00:38:22.390
in is description several years ago
308
00:38:22.390 --> 00:38:24.099
of a young man who goes from
309
00:38:24.099 --> 00:38:26.506
one bed experience after another,
310
00:38:26.506 --> 00:38:29.380
one trip out after another, one bottle after another.
311
00:38:29.380 --> 00:38:33.010
Finally wakes up one morning in a drunken stupor,
312
00:38:33.010 --> 00:38:36.240
looks himself square in the mirror and says,
313
00:38:36.240 --> 00:38:39.228
what's it all about Alfie?
314
00:38:39.228 --> 00:38:41.360
Who's going to sort it out Alfie?
315
00:38:41.360 --> 00:38:46.333
Is it just for the moment we live?
316
00:38:47.290 --> 00:38:48.838
Think about it for a moment,
317
00:38:48.838 --> 00:38:51.860
what is it really all about for you?
318
00:38:51.860 --> 00:38:52.810
Why are you alive?
319
00:38:52.810 --> 00:38:57.810
What difference does it make that you ever lived?
320
00:38:57.930 --> 00:38:59.570
Kid goes to his old man and says,
321
00:38:59.570 --> 00:39:01.380
hey dad, straight from the shoulders,
322
00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:03.470
I want the facts of life,
323
00:39:03.470 --> 00:39:05.821
what's it all about dad?
324
00:39:05.821 --> 00:39:08.350
Well son, it's all about going to school
325
00:39:08.350 --> 00:39:12.668
and getting a better education.
326
00:39:12.668 --> 00:39:14.580
Yeah, but why dad?
327
00:39:14.580 --> 00:39:17.140
Well, so son you'll be able to get a better job
328
00:39:17.140 --> 00:39:20.273
and make more money.
329
00:39:20.273 --> 00:39:21.627
Yeah, but what for dad?
330
00:39:21.627 --> 00:39:24.700
Oh, so son you'll be able to make the proper investments
331
00:39:24.700 --> 00:39:28.866
in the right stocks, securities, and bonds.
332
00:39:28.866 --> 00:39:29.940
Yeah, but dad why?
333
00:39:29.940 --> 00:39:34.288
Well, so son you'll be able to retire comfortably.
334
00:39:34.288 --> 00:39:35.980
Yeah, but dad what for? (chuckles)
335
00:39:35.980 --> 00:39:39.363
Well, so son you'll die and leave something.
336
00:39:39.363 --> 00:39:41.710
Now, as cynical as that may sound,
337
00:39:41.710 --> 00:39:43.270
that is what most people live for.
338
00:39:43.270 --> 00:39:45.920
That's the vicious cycle the world of which we live.
339
00:39:45.920 --> 00:39:48.140
We go to school to get a better education
340
00:39:48.140 --> 00:39:50.380
to get a better job to make more money
341
00:39:50.380 --> 00:39:52.280
to make the proper investments
342
00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:54.930
to make the right kind of retirement
343
00:39:54.930 --> 00:39:57.484
so that we can die and leave something
344
00:39:57.484 --> 00:40:02.106
and that becomes the sum total of most people's existence.
345
00:40:02.106 --> 00:40:05.350
In fact, you go up to most people on campus today
346
00:40:05.350 --> 00:40:08.480
and say, hey, what's going on, how you doin',
347
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:10.030
what are you trying to accomplish?
348
00:40:10.030 --> 00:40:14.063
Man I'm just trying to get over.
349
00:40:14.063 --> 00:40:16.070
You ask people when they go to work from day to day,
350
00:40:16.070 --> 00:40:19.360
what are you doin', what are you working for man?
351
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:21.220
I'm trying to make a living
352
00:40:21.220 --> 00:40:23.550
and everybody's out trying to make a living,
353
00:40:23.550 --> 00:40:28.543
everybody's gotta hustle.
354
00:40:29.451 --> 00:40:32.140
And the tragedy is while most of us
355
00:40:32.140 --> 00:40:34.260
hustle day by day to make a living,
356
00:40:34.260 --> 00:40:36.870
most of us never learn how to live,
357
00:40:36.870 --> 00:40:40.577
we spend our lives making a living
358
00:40:40.577 --> 00:40:45.271
and gorillas in the jungle make a living,
359
00:40:45.271 --> 00:40:46.820
and a gorilla eats more in one day
360
00:40:46.820 --> 00:40:48.900
than you and I eat in two months
361
00:40:48.900 --> 00:40:51.150
and I've never heard of a gorilla going to college
362
00:40:51.150 --> 00:40:56.150
to learn how to make a living.
363
00:40:56.210 --> 00:40:59.440
You see because anybody can work their way out of any
364
00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:03.590
of the bags that the system creates to get to their dinner,
365
00:41:03.590 --> 00:41:05.430
getting to your dinner is not the issue,
366
00:41:05.430 --> 00:41:07.750
the issue is not how to make a living,
367
00:41:07.750 --> 00:41:12.401
how do you live.
368
00:41:12.401 --> 00:41:14.690
And most people have never answered that question
369
00:41:14.690 --> 00:41:18.510
and they spend all of their lives, 60, 70, 80 years
370
00:41:18.510 --> 00:41:20.910
living without ever putting it together
371
00:41:20.910 --> 00:41:25.818
as to what it was really all about.
372
00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:35.580
Which is why a large number of people
373
00:41:35.580 --> 00:41:39.710
commit suicide in our society
374
00:41:39.710 --> 00:41:41.380
because they can't put it together.
375
00:41:41.380 --> 00:41:45.210
Large number of people live of a bottom of an alcohol bottle
376
00:41:45.210 --> 00:41:48.285
because they can't put it together.
377
00:41:48.285 --> 00:41:50.610
Large number of people escape through drugs
378
00:41:50.610 --> 00:41:54.335
because they can't put it together.
379
00:41:54.335 --> 00:41:57.587
They can't answer the question.
380
00:41:57.587 --> 00:42:00.850
There are five million chronic alcoholics in America
381
00:42:00.850 --> 00:42:05.792
who day by day are trying to get it together;
382
00:42:06.800 --> 00:42:11.800
who haven't answered the questions as to what it's all about
383
00:42:12.310 --> 00:42:14.310
and as people look within themselves
384
00:42:14.310 --> 00:42:15.490
they don't find answers.
385
00:42:15.490 --> 00:42:17.640
In fact, it might interest you to know
386
00:42:17.640 --> 00:42:19.970
that the professional group in America
387
00:42:19.970 --> 00:42:24.260
that has the highest rate of suicide are psychiatrists.
388
00:42:24.260 --> 00:42:26.630
That more psychiatrists as a professional group
389
00:42:26.630 --> 00:42:30.010
commit suicide than any other professional group in America
390
00:42:30.010 --> 00:42:32.860
because you see what introspective analysis does
391
00:42:32.860 --> 00:42:34.560
is that the more you look within yourself
392
00:42:34.560 --> 00:42:37.930
and analyze yourself and the more you analyze human nature
393
00:42:37.930 --> 00:42:39.600
the more disillusioned you get
394
00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:44.492
and the more the disillusion that leads to despair.
395
00:42:49.718 --> 00:42:51.380
And so people suffer an identity crisis,
396
00:42:51.380 --> 00:42:53.763
they don't know who they are.
397
00:42:53.763 --> 00:42:55.670
Try this, don't tell me your name,
398
00:42:55.670 --> 00:42:58.670
without telling me your name,
399
00:42:58.670 --> 00:43:00.519
who are you?
400
00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:05.519
And don't give me your address don't tell me where you live.
401
00:43:06.090 --> 00:43:07.907
Who are you?
402
00:43:07.907 --> 00:43:09.210
And don't tell me your vocation,
403
00:43:09.210 --> 00:43:12.145
don't say you're a student, a lawyer, an architect,
404
00:43:12.145 --> 00:43:14.520
or an engineer, or whatever it is.
405
00:43:14.520 --> 00:43:15.890
Don't tell me your a house-wife,
406
00:43:15.890 --> 00:43:19.285
or a truck driver, or a cab driver.
407
00:43:19.285 --> 00:43:21.260
Without telling me your name, your address,
408
00:43:21.260 --> 00:43:26.259
or what kind of work you do, who are you?
409
00:43:27.220 --> 00:43:32.220
Most people have difficulty with the answer.
410
00:43:32.490 --> 00:43:35.410
The second issue is the issue of community.
411
00:43:35.410 --> 00:43:40.036
Now once I found out who I am and what I'm about,
412
00:43:40.036 --> 00:43:42.620
the question is who are the people sitting next to me
413
00:43:42.620 --> 00:43:44.953
and what are they about?
414
00:43:44.953 --> 00:43:48.450
What is my responsibility to the people I live with
415
00:43:48.450 --> 00:43:51.740
and I work with and I have to relate to everyday?
416
00:43:51.740 --> 00:43:53.200
And the amazing part about it
417
00:43:53.200 --> 00:43:56.750
is that we are now 3/4 of the way through the 20th century
418
00:43:56.750 --> 00:43:59.660
and the number one issue in American society
419
00:43:59.660 --> 00:44:04.618
is still whether we can relate to each other.
420
00:44:04.618 --> 00:44:08.400
That we're still dived between young and old;
421
00:44:08.400 --> 00:44:11.550
we're still divided between labor and management;
422
00:44:11.550 --> 00:44:13.840
we're still divided between black and white;
423
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:18.611
rich and poor; the educated and the uneducated.
424
00:44:18.611 --> 00:44:23.588
And the question is who's gonna bridge the gap?
425
00:44:25.500 --> 00:44:28.910
We all remember back in 1968
426
00:44:28.910 --> 00:44:32.340
during the presidential election that year
427
00:44:32.340 --> 00:44:34.650
when Richard Nixon was steam-rolling
428
00:44:34.650 --> 00:44:37.880
through the state of Ohio on the back of a Caboose car
429
00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:40.980
speaking to a crowd, we all remember that sign.
430
00:44:40.980 --> 00:44:42.190
There was the people gathered,
431
00:44:42.190 --> 00:44:44.860
this young girl held the sign high in the air
432
00:44:44.860 --> 00:44:48.660
that later became the beam of Mr. Nixon's campaign,
433
00:44:48.660 --> 00:44:52.238
bring us together again.
434
00:44:52.238 --> 00:44:55.133
Bring us together again.
435
00:44:55.133 --> 00:44:57.590
Because what that young girl was saying
436
00:44:57.590 --> 00:45:00.310
is that we need some kind of catalyst,
437
00:45:00.310 --> 00:45:04.120
we need somebody or something in the society
438
00:45:04.120 --> 00:45:05.980
that is able to bridge the gap
439
00:45:05.980 --> 00:45:08.920
between the powerful and the powerless,
440
00:45:08.920 --> 00:45:11.470
between the haves and the have-nots,
441
00:45:11.470 --> 00:45:14.951
between the educated and the uneducated,
442
00:45:14.951 --> 00:45:17.390
between the penniless and those with money,
443
00:45:17.390 --> 00:45:20.020
between the decision-makers and the people
444
00:45:20.020 --> 00:45:23.110
who only react to decisions.
445
00:45:23.110 --> 00:45:28.110
Who's gonna bring us together?
446
00:45:28.610 --> 00:45:33.610
Who's gonna bridge the gap that separates us?
447
00:45:34.260 --> 00:45:36.590
Now, we're in our 200th year in America,
448
00:45:36.590 --> 00:45:39.627
celebrating the bicentennial
449
00:45:39.627 --> 00:45:41.480
and of course, there're a great number of people
450
00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:44.930
who are hoping that the bicentennial will become the basis
451
00:45:44.930 --> 00:45:46.530
that would bring America together,
452
00:45:46.530 --> 00:45:48.440
that we'll all come together around
453
00:45:48.440 --> 00:45:52.075
celebrating our 200th birthday.
454
00:45:52.075 --> 00:45:55.220
And of course, there will be the familiar platitudes
455
00:45:55.220 --> 00:45:58.280
we'll be reminded of our great American heritage
456
00:45:58.280 --> 00:46:00.240
and we'll be reminded of the forefathers
457
00:46:00.240 --> 00:46:02.720
who fought and died for liberty and freedom
458
00:46:02.720 --> 00:46:03.840
and there'll be a revival
459
00:46:03.840 --> 00:46:06.480
of the old patriotic songs and hymns,
460
00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:11.330
but the question is will it really bring us together?
461
00:46:13.370 --> 00:46:15.630
That as we stand up in the bicentennial
462
00:46:15.630 --> 00:46:18.090
and we celebrate the land of the free
463
00:46:18.090 --> 00:46:20.310
and the home of the brave,
464
00:46:20.310 --> 00:46:22.700
I wonder which braves we're talking about
465
00:46:22.700 --> 00:46:25.180
when there're 500 thousand to a million
466
00:46:25.180 --> 00:46:26.960
of our Indian brothers in this country
467
00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:30.100
who've been raped, shot, pillaged, driven from their land
468
00:46:30.100 --> 00:46:33.560
and forced to live in isolated pockets called reservation.
469
00:46:33.560 --> 00:46:38.548
The home of which braves?
470
00:46:44.190 --> 00:46:46.982
Who will bring us together?
471
00:46:46.982 --> 00:46:51.568
And the tragedy, the tragedy is that most people today
472
00:46:51.568 --> 00:46:52.700
don't want to be bothered.
473
00:46:52.700 --> 00:46:55.930
In fact, most people don't even want to be reminded
474
00:46:55.930 --> 00:46:57.920
that we are divided.
475
00:46:57.920 --> 00:47:00.840
Folks say, speak to us good things,
476
00:47:00.840 --> 00:47:05.623
let's not stir up trouble, let's be positive.
477
00:47:09.830 --> 00:47:11.700
And if you look at the word community
478
00:47:11.700 --> 00:47:14.420
it's got at least three root words in it.
479
00:47:14.420 --> 00:47:17.280
It's got the word comm, C-O-M-M
480
00:47:17.280 --> 00:47:20.670
from which the get the base word commitment,
481
00:47:20.670 --> 00:47:24.170
it's got he word commun in it, C-O-M-M-U-N
482
00:47:24.170 --> 00:47:25.810
from which we get communion
483
00:47:25.810 --> 00:47:28.300
and it's got the word unity in it, U-N-I-T-Y
484
00:47:28.300 --> 00:47:33.300
which means singleness of preference.
485
00:47:34.010 --> 00:47:36.130
Where is there a model of people
486
00:47:36.130 --> 00:47:37.840
who are committed to each other,
487
00:47:37.840 --> 00:47:41.330
a group of people who are in common union with each other,
488
00:47:41.330 --> 00:47:43.710
a group of people which singleness of purpose,
489
00:47:43.710 --> 00:47:46.730
who have lived, who have entered into a covenant
490
00:47:46.730 --> 00:47:51.508
with each other to be the kind of people they ought to be?
491
00:47:58.010 --> 00:48:01.050
There will great platitudes like we ought to come together
492
00:48:01.050 --> 00:48:02.600
and love one and other,
493
00:48:02.600 --> 00:48:06.420
but how can you love people you don't know?
494
00:48:06.420 --> 00:48:08.230
People that we don't rub shoulders with,
495
00:48:08.230 --> 00:48:10.480
people we don't ache and bleed, hurt with
496
00:48:10.480 --> 00:48:15.388
and celebrate with and rejoice with and overcome with.
497
00:48:20.896 --> 00:48:23.013
The people who are gonna be the leaders of the future,
498
00:48:23.013 --> 00:48:25.140
the people who are going to be the outstanding leaders
499
00:48:25.140 --> 00:48:27.010
of the future are gonna be the people
500
00:48:27.010 --> 00:48:29.250
who can help people discover who they are
501
00:48:29.250 --> 00:48:32.423
and who can bring people together,
502
00:48:32.423 --> 00:48:33.870
but even in business today,
503
00:48:33.870 --> 00:48:36.040
they're discovering that while a great number
504
00:48:36.040 --> 00:48:38.320
of people are moving into management positions,
505
00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:41.295
who understand economics and they understand the bottom line
506
00:48:41.295 --> 00:48:43.760
and they understand return on investment
507
00:48:43.760 --> 00:48:46.530
and they can work out the kinds of economic decisions
508
00:48:46.530 --> 00:48:49.000
that need to be made to make a business go
509
00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:51.060
that businesses are deteriorating in America
510
00:48:51.060 --> 00:48:53.460
because they can't get people to work together
511
00:48:53.460 --> 00:48:54.530
and the people who are going to be
512
00:48:54.530 --> 00:48:56.730
the great leaders of the future are gonna be
513
00:48:56.730 --> 00:49:00.070
the people who can create in people the desire
514
00:49:00.070 --> 00:49:05.070
to want to share their lives with each other.
515
00:49:05.210 --> 00:49:08.630
How many folks do you know get up in the morning and say,
516
00:49:08.630 --> 00:49:13.630
can't wait to get to work today, wow?
517
00:49:13.860 --> 00:49:16.390
How many folk do you know come home at the end of the day
518
00:49:16.390 --> 00:49:19.090
say, had an exciting time on the job today,
519
00:49:19.090 --> 00:49:23.630
can't wait until tomorrow?
520
00:49:23.630 --> 00:49:25.690
Most people are bored stiff with their work,
521
00:49:25.690 --> 00:49:27.280
they can't stand what they do
522
00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:32.280
and they can't stand the people they work with.
523
00:49:33.280 --> 00:49:38.218
Who's gonna bring us together?
524
00:49:39.710 --> 00:49:43.090
The third issue is the issue of power,
525
00:49:43.090 --> 00:49:46.718
P-O-W-E-R because once I find out who I am
526
00:49:46.718 --> 00:49:49.600
and once I found out what my responsibility
527
00:49:49.600 --> 00:49:54.600
to other people is, how do I do it?
528
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.640
You see, it has never been a question in American society
529
00:49:59.640 --> 00:50:01.010
of knowing right from wrong.
530
00:50:01.010 --> 00:50:04.860
Most of us have the intellectual capacity to analyze
531
00:50:04.860 --> 00:50:07.400
and sort out what is right and what is wrong,
532
00:50:07.400 --> 00:50:12.260
but we don't have the power to pull it off.
533
00:50:13.480 --> 00:50:17.440
Even our four fathers, when they wrote 200 years ago,
534
00:50:17.440 --> 00:50:19.900
that all men are born and created equal endowed
535
00:50:19.900 --> 00:50:22.350
by their creator with certain inalienable rights
536
00:50:22.350 --> 00:50:25.540
and among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
537
00:50:25.540 --> 00:50:28.009
I have no problem believing
538
00:50:28.009 --> 00:50:30.320
that they were sincere when they wrote those words,
539
00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:35.320
but they could not pull it off, they couldn't do it.
540
00:50:35.930 --> 00:50:37.377
In fact, when Tom Jefferson wrote,
541
00:50:37.377 --> 00:50:40.370
"all men are created equal endowed by their creator
542
00:50:40.370 --> 00:50:42.360
with their certain inalienable rights"
543
00:50:42.360 --> 00:50:45.270
he would of had his mind blown in two or three dozen
544
00:50:45.270 --> 00:50:50.120
of his slaves would have said, me too.
545
00:50:50.120 --> 00:50:52.510
Because while he was committed to that for himself
546
00:50:52.510 --> 00:50:54.470
he was not committed to his slaves,
547
00:50:54.470 --> 00:50:59.450
he was powerless to make that happen for everybody.
548
00:51:04.779 --> 00:51:09.779
Where will we get the power to be where we want to be?
549
00:51:10.123 --> 00:51:13.700
How many times have you run into people
550
00:51:13.700 --> 00:51:16.840
after committing some kind of act of violence
551
00:51:16.840 --> 00:51:21.216
will certainly say, I don't know what got into me.
552
00:51:21.216 --> 00:51:23.460
How many times have you read the news paper
553
00:51:23.460 --> 00:51:27.560
where some tragedy took place between one human and an other
554
00:51:27.560 --> 00:51:30.530
and the person replies, I don't know what made me do it.
555
00:51:30.530 --> 00:51:33.500
What he's saying is, I lost control,
556
00:51:33.500 --> 00:51:35.930
I'm powerless to control myself,
557
00:51:35.930 --> 00:51:40.860
to control my own future, my own destiny.
558
00:51:48.950 --> 00:51:53.896
Where will we get the power from to control ourselves?
559
00:51:55.330 --> 00:52:00.330
It is summed up in the words
560
00:52:00.900 --> 00:52:03.720
of a man who lived about 30 years after Jesus,
561
00:52:03.720 --> 00:52:06.493
the Apostle Paul.
562
00:52:06.493 --> 00:52:08.770
In the sixth chapter Romans he puts it's this way,
563
00:52:08.770 --> 00:52:11.967
he says, "the will to do is present with me,
564
00:52:11.967 --> 00:52:14.737
"in my mind I know precisely what I ought to be,
565
00:52:14.737 --> 00:52:16.977
"I know what kind of human being I ought to be,
566
00:52:16.977 --> 00:52:21.067
"I know the kind of person that God created me to be.
567
00:52:21.067 --> 00:52:24.527
"In my mind I want to be what God wants me to be
568
00:52:24.527 --> 00:52:27.340
"and I want to live up to my full potential,"
569
00:52:27.340 --> 00:52:31.120
but he says, "how to do that I can't not discover."
570
00:52:31.120 --> 00:52:34.230
He says, "that which I don't want to do, I do it
571
00:52:34.230 --> 00:52:37.110
and that which I do want to do, I don't do it."
572
00:52:37.110 --> 00:52:40.467
He said, "I find another law present with me
573
00:52:40.467 --> 00:52:45.097
"that when I would do good, evil is present."
574
00:52:45.097 --> 00:52:47.600
In other words he is saying I don't have control,
575
00:52:47.600 --> 00:52:52.600
I don't have the power to even be what I want to be.
576
00:52:53.160 --> 00:52:56.600
Have you ever sat down January 1st
577
00:52:56.600 --> 00:52:59.060
and made New Years resolutions
578
00:52:59.060 --> 00:53:03.390
and broke 3/4 of them by January 3rd?
579
00:53:03.390 --> 00:53:05.570
Because you found yourself powerless
580
00:53:05.570 --> 00:53:09.356
to live up to your own standards, your own demands?
581
00:53:09.356 --> 00:53:11.522
That's what Paul is saying, Paul is saying,
582
00:53:11.522 --> 00:53:13.978
that "everything I want to do, I can't do it
583
00:53:13.978 --> 00:53:15.787
"and that which I don't want to do, I do it.
584
00:53:15.787 --> 00:53:17.330
"I find myself powerless"
585
00:53:17.330 --> 00:53:20.527
and then he makes a fantastic statement he says,
586
00:53:20.527 --> 00:53:24.028
"what a messed up person I am.
587
00:53:24.028 --> 00:53:29.028
"who will deliver me from the body of this death?"
588
00:53:29.553 --> 00:53:32.220
Now the body of his death is very interesting.
589
00:53:32.220 --> 00:53:35.900
You see, during Roman days when a man committed a murder
590
00:53:35.900 --> 00:53:37.560
and they caught up with him,
591
00:53:37.560 --> 00:53:41.119
they chained him back to back of the dead, stinking corpse
592
00:53:41.119 --> 00:53:44.210
of the man he killed and he literally had to carry
593
00:53:44.210 --> 00:53:47.650
on his back the dead corpse of the man he murdered
594
00:53:47.650 --> 00:53:51.310
until somebody liberated him.
595
00:53:51.310 --> 00:53:54.430
The Apostle Paul is saying, there's like a dead man on me,
596
00:53:54.430 --> 00:53:57.240
there's a dead corpse on me and that every time
597
00:53:57.240 --> 00:54:00.660
I try to lift myself to be the kind of person
598
00:54:00.660 --> 00:54:02.330
I know God wants me to be,
599
00:54:02.330 --> 00:54:05.280
there's like this dead corpse keeps dragging me
600
00:54:05.280 --> 00:54:08.330
back to the common level that I do not seem
601
00:54:08.330 --> 00:54:13.330
to have the ability to shake it.
602
00:54:13.390 --> 00:54:17.821
It's what the drug addict calls the monkey on his back.
603
00:54:17.821 --> 00:54:21.820
You see an addict who is taking hard drugs
604
00:54:21.820 --> 00:54:24.140
can kick the habit in 72 hours
605
00:54:24.140 --> 00:54:27.443
with what we call cold turkey.
606
00:54:27.443 --> 00:54:30.703
You take him, tie him to a bed
607
00:54:30.703 --> 00:54:33.630
so he can't break loose, cover him with warm blankets
608
00:54:33.630 --> 00:54:37.190
because after 24 hours he's gonna reach a high fever.
609
00:54:37.190 --> 00:54:39.480
You feed him with dextrose and simple sugar
610
00:54:39.480 --> 00:54:42.340
because he won't be able to keep anything on his stomach,
611
00:54:42.340 --> 00:54:44.750
he will be regurgitating all the time.
612
00:54:44.750 --> 00:54:46.820
He will scream and beg you to let him go,
613
00:54:46.820 --> 00:54:49.761
he will cry out and as hard for another shot,
614
00:54:49.761 --> 00:54:52.690
but if you hold him and keep him there after 72 hours,
615
00:54:52.690 --> 00:54:54.920
the fever will break and subside
616
00:54:54.920 --> 00:54:57.610
and he will physically have extricated himself
617
00:54:57.610 --> 00:54:58.690
from the drug.
618
00:54:58.690 --> 00:55:01.310
As soon as you let him go, he takes to the street,
619
00:55:01.310 --> 00:55:04.260
he will look for anther drug pusher and take anther shot,
620
00:55:04.260 --> 00:55:07.500
because while he has kicked the physical habit,
621
00:55:07.500 --> 00:55:10.520
he's not been able to kick the psychological habit,
622
00:55:10.520 --> 00:55:13.205
the monkey on his back and what Paul is saying
623
00:55:13.205 --> 00:55:15.040
is that there is a monkey on my back,
624
00:55:15.040 --> 00:55:17.940
there is something that keeps me from being
625
00:55:17.940 --> 00:55:22.898
what God wants me to be.
626
00:55:23.860 --> 00:55:26.443
He says, "who will deliver me
627
00:55:26.443 --> 00:55:30.675
from the body of this death?"
628
00:55:30.675 --> 00:55:35.346
And then amazingly he answers his own question,
629
00:55:35.346 --> 00:55:40.277
he says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ."
630
00:55:42.010 --> 00:55:46.390
Now the question is how does he arrive at Jesus?
631
00:55:46.390 --> 00:55:50.930
I mean of all the possible solutions in the world today,
632
00:55:50.930 --> 00:55:52.730
of all the possible alternatives,
633
00:55:52.730 --> 00:55:55.390
of all the things that a person can do to discover
634
00:55:55.390 --> 00:55:57.410
his identity, to live in community,
635
00:55:57.410 --> 00:56:02.410
to have the power to be what the ought to be, why Jesus?
636
00:56:02.550 --> 00:56:05.020
Well let me suggest to you that he arrives at Jesus
637
00:56:05.020 --> 00:56:08.645
by the process of elimination.
638
00:56:08.645 --> 00:56:11.270
Nothing else works.
639
00:56:11.270 --> 00:56:13.990
Nothing else works.
640
00:56:13.990 --> 00:56:17.107
If you don't believe it, check it out.
641
00:56:17.107 --> 00:56:20.910
Look at the alternatives that our society has tried.
642
00:56:20.910 --> 00:56:22.140
First the society said,
643
00:56:22.140 --> 00:56:24.010
hey there's a way to get folks together,
644
00:56:24.010 --> 00:56:26.010
there's a way to change the course of history,
645
00:56:26.010 --> 00:56:28.470
there's a way to put things back together again.
646
00:56:28.470 --> 00:56:29.390
It's economic.
647
00:56:29.390 --> 00:56:32.090
All we have to do is supply enough money
648
00:56:32.090 --> 00:56:36.457
to the problems of the world and that will solve it.
649
00:56:36.457 --> 00:56:38.930
If we can get enough money in people pockets,
650
00:56:38.930 --> 00:56:43.906
that will solve the problem, it's economic, they said.
651
00:56:45.330 --> 00:56:48.070
Now, part of some solutions are economic
652
00:56:48.070 --> 00:56:53.000
but the situation in our society is not economic.
653
00:56:55.170 --> 00:56:58.770
We are today the most affluent society
654
00:56:58.770 --> 00:57:02.205
in the history of man.
655
00:57:02.205 --> 00:57:04.660
We throw away in the garbage pails
656
00:57:04.660 --> 00:57:09.660
what the rest of the world would like to have for dinner.
657
00:57:10.390 --> 00:57:14.060
We burn and waste more fuel and more energy,
658
00:57:14.060 --> 00:57:18.680
we waste more things in our society in the name of freedom
659
00:57:18.680 --> 00:57:21.230
and democracy than any nation of the face of the Earth.
660
00:57:21.230 --> 00:57:25.000
In fact, we in the United States only make up 13%
661
00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:27.210
of the total population of the world
662
00:57:27.210 --> 00:57:32.210
and we consume more than 65% of it's resources.
663
00:57:33.170 --> 00:57:36.621
We're an affluent society.
664
00:57:36.621 --> 00:57:38.027
But has it solved our problem?
665
00:57:38.027 --> 00:57:40.370
Has it put us back together again?
666
00:57:40.370 --> 00:57:41.740
Has it told us who we are?
667
00:57:41.740 --> 00:57:43.860
Do we know how to relate to each other
668
00:57:43.860 --> 00:57:45.120
with all of our affluent?
669
00:57:45.120 --> 00:57:50.111
Do we have the power to be what we ought to be?
670
00:57:54.650 --> 00:57:58.630
Of the 37, or rather of the 52 thousand Americans
671
00:57:58.630 --> 00:58:01.160
who committed suicide last year
672
00:58:01.160 --> 00:58:04.740
the average income among those 53 thousand Americans
673
00:58:04.740 --> 00:58:09.005
was $37,500 a year.
674
00:58:09.005 --> 00:58:14.005
Now a person ought to be able to squeeze by on 37 thou,
675
00:58:14.560 --> 00:58:18.470
he might have to miss a couple meals,
676
00:58:18.470 --> 00:58:20.100
you know, tighten his belt a little,
677
00:58:20.100 --> 00:58:23.650
but he ought to squeeze by.
678
00:58:23.650 --> 00:58:27.300
Yet, 52 thousand Americans said in spite of the fact
679
00:58:27.300 --> 00:58:31.860
that they lived in the top 2% tax of income bracket
680
00:58:31.860 --> 00:58:34.590
of most Americans, it was not enough
681
00:58:34.590 --> 00:58:39.590
to give them a reason for living.
682
00:58:40.890 --> 00:58:42.710
It's kinda funny you know,
683
00:58:42.710 --> 00:58:46.170
in the late 60s and early 70s
684
00:58:46.170 --> 00:58:49.270
we ran into this rich kid you know.
685
00:58:49.270 --> 00:58:52.770
He was tying and gagging the president of his college.
686
00:58:52.770 --> 00:58:56.410
Ransacking the files, took over the administration building.
687
00:58:56.410 --> 00:58:59.868
Remember your brothers and sisters when that yeah.
688
00:58:59.868 --> 00:59:01.590
And they were into that man
689
00:59:01.590 --> 00:59:05.090
and when they arrested this kid man, he had Carte Blanche,
690
00:59:05.090 --> 00:59:08.840
American Express, and Dyna Club cards in his pocket.
691
00:59:08.840 --> 00:59:12.940
He had charge cards to the major department stores in town,
692
00:59:12.940 --> 00:59:15.320
he was driving his first T-Bird
693
00:59:15.320 --> 00:59:17.040
when the average poor kid was trying
694
00:59:17.040 --> 00:59:19.420
to get his first bicycle.
695
00:59:19.420 --> 00:59:21.350
Now what was his problem?
696
00:59:21.350 --> 00:59:22.950
These kids who were leaving home,
697
00:59:22.950 --> 00:59:24.220
cutting out on their parents,
698
00:59:24.220 --> 00:59:25.970
going to live in Greenwich Village
699
00:59:25.970 --> 00:59:28.200
and Sunset Strip and other places;
700
00:59:28.200 --> 00:59:30.460
they want no part of their life of their parents,
701
00:59:30.460 --> 00:59:33.210
they were coping out, leaving home, running away,
702
00:59:33.210 --> 00:59:35.580
tripping out on drugs, they had money.
703
00:59:35.580 --> 00:59:40.360
They came from wealthy homes, what was their problem?
704
00:59:44.530 --> 00:59:49.430
Because they discovered that economics doesn't do it.
705
00:59:50.973 --> 00:59:54.620
And they discovered that all of that wealthy accumulation
706
00:59:54.620 --> 00:59:56.800
that their parents had made was not really for them.
707
00:59:56.800 --> 00:59:59.020
Of course, you see, parents were tricky,
708
00:59:59.020 --> 01:00:00.690
parents wanted have all those things
709
01:00:00.690 --> 01:00:04.540
and they told their kids that we built all this for you.
710
01:00:04.540 --> 01:00:07.330
We moved out here and built this fine house and big lawn
711
01:00:07.330 --> 01:00:12.038
and swimming pool and summer cottage all for you.
712
01:00:12.038 --> 01:00:14.110
And the kid was saying, I never wanted it.
713
01:00:14.110 --> 01:00:16.870
It was you I wanted and you were so busy building that,
714
01:00:16.870 --> 01:00:20.170
you gave me no time.
715
01:00:20.170 --> 01:00:25.170
I don't want your money.
716
01:00:25.710 --> 01:00:30.558
Money hasn't put us together, hasn't solved our problem.
717
01:00:33.460 --> 01:00:35.820
So the second thing we came up with was education.
718
01:00:35.820 --> 01:00:37.510
We said that all we had to do is produce
719
01:00:37.510 --> 01:00:41.060
a more informed society and that would solve our problem.
720
01:00:41.060 --> 01:00:41.977
We are the most educated society
721
01:00:41.977 --> 01:00:44.150
in the whole history of man.
722
01:00:44.150 --> 01:00:47.620
Information in our country doubles now every six years,
723
01:00:47.620 --> 01:00:50.690
by 1980 is will double every three years.
724
01:00:50.690 --> 01:00:54.850
Last semesters text book is already obsolete this semester
725
01:00:54.850 --> 01:00:58.610
because of the fantastic increase in knowledge,
726
01:00:58.610 --> 01:01:01.502
90% of all the scientists
727
01:01:01.502 --> 01:01:04.526
who ever lived are alive right now
728
01:01:04.526 --> 01:01:07.670
and the average student who graduates from high school
729
01:01:07.670 --> 01:01:10.670
knows more about the physical laws of the universe
730
01:01:10.670 --> 01:01:15.670
than the greatest scientist knew 25 years ago.
731
01:01:16.180 --> 01:01:21.010
We are informed, but with all of our information
732
01:01:21.010 --> 01:01:22.890
why can't we destroy poverty?
733
01:01:22.890 --> 01:01:24.810
Why can't we wipe out racism?
734
01:01:24.810 --> 01:01:27.650
With all of our information why can't we eliminate war?
735
01:01:27.650 --> 01:01:32.518
Why can't we bring people together?
736
01:01:35.760 --> 01:01:38.070
Keep in mind that the people who make decisions
737
01:01:38.070 --> 01:01:42.800
to drop bombs on people are educated.
738
01:01:42.800 --> 01:01:44.790
The people who have created a situation
739
01:01:44.790 --> 01:01:46.760
which allow half the world to go to bed
740
01:01:46.760 --> 01:01:50.573
hungry every night are educated.
741
01:01:50.573 --> 01:01:52.490
The people in this country who decide
742
01:01:52.490 --> 01:01:55.790
that it is alright to spent $90 billion
743
01:01:55.790 --> 01:01:57.640
on weapons and missiles,
744
01:01:57.640 --> 01:02:00.530
but who do away with programs like Head Start
745
01:02:00.530 --> 01:02:03.690
and other programs who help poor people who wipe that out,
746
01:02:03.690 --> 01:02:05.900
those are educated people who say
747
01:02:05.900 --> 01:02:08.380
that missiles are better than eduction,
748
01:02:08.380 --> 01:02:10.470
that bombs are better than food,
749
01:02:10.470 --> 01:02:14.520
that weapons are better than the right to people to eat,
750
01:02:14.520 --> 01:02:19.465
educated people make that decision.
751
01:02:21.510 --> 01:02:26.477
I'm sorry it doesn't solve the problem.
752
01:02:28.614 --> 01:02:32.260
And so we came up with a third solution.
753
01:02:32.260 --> 01:02:35.316
The third solution was religion.
754
01:02:35.316 --> 01:02:38.250
We said if we could simply give people something to believe,
755
01:02:38.250 --> 01:02:41.470
a song to sing, a flag to wave, a creed to believe,
756
01:02:41.470 --> 01:02:44.620
that would solve our problem.
757
01:02:44.620 --> 01:02:47.390
So we came up with good old Americanized religion.
758
01:02:47.390 --> 01:02:50.060
We said, I'm for God, country, motherhood,
759
01:02:50.060 --> 01:02:53.338
the girl back home and apple pie.
760
01:02:53.338 --> 01:02:56.250
We put God's name on our money, in God we trust,
761
01:02:56.250 --> 01:02:58.280
we stuck his name in the solute to the flag,
762
01:02:58.280 --> 01:03:02.150
one nation under God, we even put bumper stickers on our car
763
01:03:02.150 --> 01:03:07.150
saying, support God and country, as they go together
764
01:03:07.720 --> 01:03:10.600
and some people even went so far as to assume
765
01:03:10.600 --> 01:03:15.245
that the vision that John say was the American dream
766
01:03:15.245 --> 01:03:18.023
and we got it all mixed up.
767
01:03:18.023 --> 01:03:21.130
And so we all hustle, you see, and in this bicentennial year
768
01:03:21.130 --> 01:03:22.580
people are gonna be running around, you know,
769
01:03:22.580 --> 01:03:24.760
God bless America and all the rest
770
01:03:24.760 --> 01:03:26.920
and trying to create a civil religion
771
01:03:26.920 --> 01:03:30.050
which will not rescue us because it hasn't rescued us
772
01:03:30.050 --> 01:03:35.044
in 200 years.
773
01:03:36.960 --> 01:03:40.223
We got churches on every street corner,
774
01:03:40.223 --> 01:03:43.770
we got more than 65 major denominations and religions
775
01:03:43.770 --> 01:03:48.448
in American society, we are religious.
776
01:03:48.448 --> 01:03:50.070
Most people go to some church
777
01:03:50.070 --> 01:03:55.026
or synagogue once a week, we're religious,
778
01:03:58.389 --> 01:04:01.855
but has it brought us together?
779
01:04:01.855 --> 01:04:05.524
The same men who sit down in church on Sunday morning
780
01:04:05.524 --> 01:04:07.210
go back to their boards of directors
781
01:04:07.210 --> 01:04:09.840
and their executive offices and make decisions
782
01:04:09.840 --> 01:04:13.790
that oppress people.
783
01:04:13.790 --> 01:04:16.660
The same people who stand up in church
784
01:04:16.660 --> 01:04:19.050
and sing we are one in the spirit,
785
01:04:19.050 --> 01:04:21.540
we are one in the Lord, put up their for sale signs
786
01:04:21.540 --> 01:04:24.820
and move out the neighborhood when different people move in.
787
01:04:24.820 --> 01:04:28.565
Same folks.
788
01:04:28.565 --> 01:04:30.220
Religion hasn't solved our problem,
789
01:04:30.220 --> 01:04:35.215
hasn't done a thing for America.
790
01:04:37.300 --> 01:04:38.640
So you see it brings us back
791
01:04:38.640 --> 01:04:41.880
to the front door of Jesus again
792
01:04:41.880 --> 01:04:46.880
who says, "I am the way, truth, life,
793
01:04:47.160 --> 01:04:49.750
no man comes to the father but by me."
794
01:04:49.750 --> 01:04:51.960
You say, wait a minute Tom, you got me confused.
795
01:04:51.960 --> 01:04:53.740
You just stood up there and said that religion
796
01:04:53.740 --> 01:04:55.890
hasn't done anything for America
797
01:04:55.890 --> 01:04:57.910
and you keep laying this Jesus thing on us.
798
01:04:57.910 --> 01:04:58.770
Now make up your mind,
799
01:04:58.770 --> 01:05:02.928
either religion is an answer or it isn't.
800
01:05:02.928 --> 01:05:07.895
Or you see there is a difference between Jesus and religion.
801
01:05:09.480 --> 01:05:11.640
Religion is that which a person feels
802
01:05:11.640 --> 01:05:16.050
to be of ultimate value in taking action in the light of it.
803
01:05:16.050 --> 01:05:18.620
So you could be a communist, a Hindu, Methodist,
804
01:05:18.620 --> 01:05:21.700
Baptist, Predestinarian, agnostic, or atheist
805
01:05:21.700 --> 01:05:23.720
and be religious.
806
01:05:23.720 --> 01:05:27.550
Whatever is of ultimate reality or ultimate value to you
807
01:05:27.550 --> 01:05:29.700
and the action you take in light of it,
808
01:05:29.700 --> 01:05:33.361
that becomes your religion.
809
01:05:33.361 --> 01:05:34.790
I wouldn't cross the street
810
01:05:34.790 --> 01:05:38.441
to get you interested in religion,
811
01:05:38.441 --> 01:05:41.320
but I would walk around the world to get you interested
812
01:05:41.320 --> 01:05:43.060
in Jesus and what he is about,
813
01:05:43.060 --> 01:05:47.763
because Jesus is not a religion, Jesus is a person
814
01:05:47.763 --> 01:05:50.430
and he is the only person who ever broke through
815
01:05:50.430 --> 01:05:53.160
into the human scene who was both the truth
816
01:05:53.160 --> 01:05:55.780
about God and the truth about man.
817
01:05:55.780 --> 01:05:57.790
If you want to know what God is like,
818
01:05:57.790 --> 01:06:00.090
you have to check Jesus out and if you want to know
819
01:06:00.090 --> 01:06:01.870
what man is suppose to be like,
820
01:06:01.870 --> 01:06:06.813
you have to check Jesus out.
821
01:06:08.480 --> 01:06:10.610
See a great number of people then take you into the bag,
822
01:06:10.610 --> 01:06:12.470
but what about other religions.
823
01:06:12.470 --> 01:06:14.570
Surely there must be other religions
824
01:06:14.570 --> 01:06:17.310
superior Christianity, that's true.
825
01:06:17.310 --> 01:06:20.550
There probably other religions superior
826
01:06:20.550 --> 01:06:22.767
to the Christian religion.
827
01:06:22.767 --> 01:06:26.670
And if you laid Christianity down next to Zoroastrious,
828
01:06:26.670 --> 01:06:29.800
Zoroastrianism down to Confucianism, down next to Buddhism,
829
01:06:29.800 --> 01:06:33.700
down next to Hinduism, down next to Mohammedanism,
830
01:06:33.700 --> 01:06:36.620
I'm almost positive that maybe one of those religions
831
01:06:36.620 --> 01:06:39.815
will be superior.
832
01:06:39.815 --> 01:06:41.740
But if we set the religions aside
833
01:06:41.740 --> 01:06:45.090
and put the personalities involved next to each other
834
01:06:45.090 --> 01:06:47.540
so that we lay Jesus down next to Mohammed
835
01:06:47.540 --> 01:06:49.300
and Mohammed down next to Confucius
836
01:06:49.300 --> 01:06:52.985
and Confucius down next to Zoroastria,
837
01:06:52.985 --> 01:06:55.210
there aint no comparison because I can take you
838
01:06:55.210 --> 01:06:57.655
to the grave yards of them other dudes.
839
01:06:57.655 --> 01:07:01.905
(audience laughing and applauding)
840
01:07:06.540 --> 01:07:09.470
So what we're talking about is not a religion,
841
01:07:09.470 --> 01:07:11.360
we're talking about a person
842
01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:16.355
who is prepared to become the alternative.
843
01:07:17.780 --> 01:07:21.300
And so Jesus says to a society that has lost it's way,
844
01:07:21.300 --> 01:07:24.500
doesn't know who it is, doesn't know how to relate,
845
01:07:24.500 --> 01:07:25.940
and is powerless, Jesus says,
846
01:07:25.940 --> 01:07:27.817
come on to me all you that labor
847
01:07:27.817 --> 01:07:32.646
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
848
01:07:32.646 --> 01:07:34.340
Now, when I first heard that I use to say,
849
01:07:34.340 --> 01:07:36.640
well man, I can't see the Christian thing
850
01:07:36.640 --> 01:07:39.580
because you see my impression of being Christian was
851
01:07:39.580 --> 01:07:41.270
that Christians were people who carried around
852
01:07:41.270 --> 01:07:44.490
in their pockets a bunch of rules and regulations.
853
01:07:44.490 --> 01:07:46.940
Don't do this, stay away from that,
854
01:07:46.940 --> 01:07:51.703
don't touch that, don't go near that and for Gods.