Opinion

OP-ED: Reclaiming True Religious Decorum

Published

11 years ago

June 3, 2015

By Richard Wembe Johnson, Folsom Prison

It’s time that people stop with the veiled innuendos and a subtle jab toward each other’s professed religions. Not only is it irresponsible and disrespectful, it is dangerous.

There are certainly enough religious beliefs, faiths and denominations to reach every single person on earth.

A close examination of unrest and turmoil in the world, putting aside the almighty dollar, will reveal that religion is the root cause of most of the carnage and evil toward other faiths in the name of devotion, love and religious fervor

The two most exalted and glorified are Islam and Christianity. For example, during the 11^th, 12^th and 13^th centuries, the Christian Crusades were launched against the Muslims to take the Holy Lands.

Within the Christian faith there are numerous separations and denominations with unresolved differences, often creating chaos and disorder.

This same characterization of internal differences can equally be attributed to the State of Islam throughout the world. And, also here in America, we observe numerous variations such as the Black Nation of Islam, Sunnis, Shiites and other believers, all following different edicts of Islam.

With so many opposing factions there is a basis for eventual violence and mayhem, and this is exactly what is going on all over the world and in the United States.

Even though people are entitled to their differences, they are not entitled to disrespect other religions or beliefs under the guise of free speech.

You don’t have to agree, like, or practice someone else’s religion in order to show them the same consideration that you would like to be afforded for your belief or non-belief.

I was raised a Christian, yet I respect all others religious beliefs. I believe that they also have the fundamental right to practice their beliefs.

I firmly disagree with anyone trying to cram their faith down another’s throat by means of intimidation, coercion, force or violence.

The very core essence of any religion is supposed to be about a real connection to God, Allah, or whatever you choose to refer to as God.

Through this understanding, your life is supposed to be guided by divine righteousness in compliance with showing love, respect and tolerance toward one another.

Instead, we are witnessing conflicts over the Bible and guns, the Torah and precision guided missiles, the Koran and I.E.D, (improvised explosive devices). This is blasphemy under any examination.

According to some reliable sources of religious data, there are at least 72 different sects practicing Islam and untold versions of Christianity. At the same time, research shows the fastest growing segment relative to religion is the masses are abandoning religion out of pure disgust.

George Jackson, the renowned prison activist and revolutionary author said, “Settle your quarrels, come together, and understand the reality of your circumstances that poor half-butchered lives can be saved. Reclaim your humanity:”

These words are even more meaningful today than they were many decades ago.

The fate of religion rests not on what is said but rather what is done to ensure that all religion is given its due diligence, unfettered by crookedness.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

3 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.