Navigating Race in America - Part 1

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message.

We're here to join you. And this week we have a special guest that is joining me and I'm referring to my very lovely and beautiful wife, Danita. And to our radio audience, she is very beautiful. You have to use your imagination.

Of course, we're on radio. You can't see her. But we have times when we're out in public at a restaurant or at the mall and random strangers just come up to my wife and tell her how beautiful she is. And I'm sitting there next to her. And it's as if I'm invisible, that I don't exist.

And I'm sitting there waiting. They can say anything about me. And there have been a couple of people in which I asked them, what about me?

And they just sort of give me that sympathetic smile as if to say, you will be OK. But very handsome. Well, thank you. But, you know, in all of our years together, when we're out, has anyone ever came up to me and told me that I was handsome? I mean, I'm not a fan of crickets. It's never happened.

Not that I recall, but it's OK. I mean, my opinion is what matters. I'm comfortable in my own skin. And I mean, what matters is you're so beautiful and you're my wife.

I got you. So I guess that must say something about me, right? But she is a very beautiful woman physically. What's most important is the inner beauty. And that is because of the Holy Spirit that lives in you. And so he's got as great as the outer beauty is. And that is great.

But the inner beauty is what's most important. So I'm glad that you are joining us today. And I want to welcome you to the God first program. Not your first time here, of course. And I'm glad to be here. But we are here not to talk about your exterior beauty and my exterior ugliness. But we're here to talk about say that a very important topic, the topic that's been the hot button issue for the last couple of years.

And it's been for several years, but the last couple of years has really became hot. And that's navigating race in America. So you, Donita, just for our listeners, you are a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels. You are the co-founder, administrator and graphic designer for our God First Bible Fellowship.

And you are the homeschool teacher of two. So I'm very grateful for you as a wife, as a mother to our children and as a ministry partner. So I want to thank you for coming on to talk about this issue. So we're going to begin with listening to what Michelle Obama had to say recently concerning the issue of race as it pertains to blacks in general and to her daughter. So let's let's listen to her and clip one.

The goal is to let leaders lead, but in certain times people look to us often. Well, what do you think? How do you feel? And we know that while we're all breathing a sigh of relief over the verdict, there's still work to be done. And so we can't sort of say, great, that happened.

Let's move on. I know that people in the black community don't feel that way because they many of us still live in fear as we go to the grocery store or worry about our dogs, walking our dogs or allowing our children to get a license. I mean, just imagine. Aren't your girls driving? They're driving. But every time they get in a car by themselves, I worry about what assumption is being made by somebody who doesn't know everything about them. The fact that they are good students and polite girls, but maybe they're playing their music a little loud. Maybe somebody sees the back of their head and makes an assumption. I, like so many parents of black kids, have to that the the innocent act of getting a license puts fear in our hearts.

So the innocent act of getting a license puts fear in our hearts. OK, that's former first lady Michelle Obama. And again, we're on the radio. So we have to give this disclaimer that, Danita, you and I, we are people of color.

We are brown skinned black people. And so that was what Michelle Obama had to say. LeBron James said something similar.

We'll hear from him in just a short amount of time. But what is your response to to what she is saying? My first thought is lies and shameful. I really feel like she should be ashamed of saying that most black people are afraid of police officers. I think it gives a false portrayal of police officers as a whole and for her to be a former first lady to put that label on law enforcement. Do that blanket statement.

I feel like that's the first thing that comes to my mind is shameful. And in the fact that she is pretty much basing this on some random events that have happened. I don't know where she's getting her her information from as far as many people being afraid of the police, because most black people want police in their communities. And I think that the first thing she needs to be concerned about is how am I raising my girls? How am I raising my children? Am I teaching them to have respect for authority? Am I teaching them to obey the law of the land? And if they do these things, then they are less likely to have to even interact with the police. Because most of the time, people who are interacting with the police are people who have done something they have not they weren't supposed to do.

Right. They're breaking the law or, you know, thieving, whatever they may be doing. And she's saying they're afraid to go to the grocery store. Well, are you are you going to rob the grocery store?

Are you are you going to steal something from there? Are you going to attack people at the grocery store? I mean, that's the only reason to be afraid to go down the street, to go to the grocery store. And I can probably say that most people who are black and are afraid to go outside and go run errands and do things like that are more likely afraid of other people that look like them. Due to black on black crime, due to gang violence in their neighborhoods, you know, and all these things. So I would think that the lawlessness that is happening in minority neighborhoods between black people, black on black crime is most likely what people are going to be afraid of.

The drug dealer down the street, the gang banger down the street. Those are the things that people are going to be afraid of. I mean, so if she's teaching her children to obey the law of the land and things like that, then she should not be fearful because the police are not going out hunting black people. Yeah. So to sort of recapture what you were saying is that as blacks and for that matter, anybody, if you are not committing crimes, you have no reason to be afraid of the police. I mean, are you afraid of going out?

No. I mean, I'll be honest. If I have to go to a certain area at night, I would be afraid. But it's not because police.

I'm looking for the police to be there in case something does happen. It's usually because of other people who look like me. You know, and I've been places and I can you know, if she wants to use her own experiences or what she's been told, I can use mine as well. And I could say that there have been times I've been in locations or in places like, you know, as simple as a grocery store. And unfortunately, people who are looking like me are the ones that are acting disorderly and, you know, causing a ruckus and making it where I'm afraid to be in that grocery store. I've never experienced being in that grocery store and being afraid of a police officer who's standing at the front doing security.

Yeah. So, yeah, black on black crime is just horrible. But folks, you're listening to two blacks right now. We have no fear of going out in public as it pertains to the police, contrary to what Michelle Obama says, contrary to what LeBron James says. So let's listen to LeBron's take on it in clip two. No people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as black people in America, like men, like women, black kids.

We are we are terrified. You don't know. You have no idea. You have no idea how that cop that day left the house. You don't know if he walked on the good side of the bed. You don't know if he walked on the wrong side of the bed. You don't know if he had an argument at home with a significant other. You know, one of his kids said something crazy to him and he left the house steaming. Or maybe he just left the house saying that today is going to be the end for one is like. So I saw you shaking your head as LeBron was talking, but the audio was not the best in the world. But you heard him say at the end that maybe the officer just left home saying today is going to be the day that it's the end of a black person. Yeah. What do you what are your thoughts?

Oh, LeBron, we have to pray for LeBron. Once again, if you're not breaking the law is no need to be afraid of black people. You say he's saying they're scared and terrified and things like that.

But I mean, anybody who is just wicked in their heart can wake up on the wrong side of the bed and go and do something foolish. The fact that he would would isolate that to just owe the cop, the white cop. He doesn't say anything about a black cop, the white cop that gets up in the morning and he he wants to question their state of mind. But like I said, most people who are afraid to go out and do their day to day activities are not afraid of the police. If anything, they're like I said, the crime in their own neighborhoods. You know, anything can somebody can any person, no matter what color, can have a bad day and do something foolish based on their heart, heart stature.

You know, what is what is their heart posture? If that can be anybody, anybody that has wickedness in their hearts can go out and do something crazy anywhere. So why just focus on a police officer? That that makes no sense to me other than to try to plant a seed, a deception and to make himself look like a victim of something when he is able to buy his own private security. Is he afraid of them? Does he go and make sure that all of them are, you know, a certain you know, does he vet them in a particular way to say, are you going to murder me because I'm black?

No, I'm sure he does not ask that question. And I know that, you know, it's just it's just hard is we're hearing that from him because he I'm sure he's able to hire his own private police and security. But yet he'll go and say we as if he's speaking for the whole black race, we are scared as black people. And I don't I don't see that. I see most fear coming from black people in their own neighborhoods where they're afraid of bullets flying through their homes, where they're afraid to leave their kids out after the street lights come on and things like that.

And I would hope and pray that they would see that. And they have such large platforms, he and Michelle Obama, that if they would stand up and say we need to do this and that to end black on black crime. We need to do more to end the killing of black babies through abortion. Those are the things that are killing way more people, because I guarantee you, if you go and ask a black person today and say, how many people do you know personally who has been killed by a white police officer?

They probably can't give you a number. Not personally. But if they if you ask them, how many people do you know who have been killed by another black person? They can say because and boo boo and all of the other people and they could start reeling off names of people they know personally who has been killed by another black person.

That is the major problem. More cops are being killed by black people than cops killing black people. So I really think they need to check themselves and only speak what is true.

It's a deception and Satan is using them to further his lies. Yeah, because I mean, I know myself, I don't know of any blacks personally that have ever expressed to me that they are afraid of going out in public. I don't know of any blacks that were killed by a white police officer, but I know of numerous blacks that have been killed by other blacks, including family members, unfortunately. You know that that has happened. So, yeah, there's this rhetoric out there and it's just it's a great deception. And as it is so interesting that you see people like LeBron, who is very influential, Michelle Obama, very influential, has a lot of money and they have their own private security. Of course, Michelle's is not coming out of her pocket. It's coming out of our pockets. Taxpayers money. We're paying for her private security. But Maxine Waters, still the same thing. They have their own security.

But yet they are complaining about white police officers, supposedly that blacks are afraid of them. So we're going to take a short break, folks, but please don't go away. On the other side, we're going to continue to talk about this topic of navigating race in America.

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Box 266 Knightdale, North Carolina 27545. So I'm being joined by my wife, Danita. We're discussing the issue of race in America, navigating the race issue in America. And we have heard from LeBron James. We've heard from Michelle Obama. And they're pushing this narrative that, well, blacks are afraid of going out in public because of the police.

So, Danita, why do you think that the media, along with people like Michelle and LeBron and Maxine Waters, why are they so persistent in this rhetoric that our nation's police force is racist against blacks? I think they're just pushing this narrative, which is from the pit of hell. It's from Satan.

It's a lie. And you know how Satan wants to sow division. And the media is just a tool that he's using to achieve that. And so the media, they're helping Satan sow division, to reap discord and hatred and fear and bondage. And all of those things are the spirit of oppression, to gain control over people. And they're also being used to suppress the truth. You know, we think about Satan.

He is a deceiver and he hates truth and there being a tool that he uses. And I think, too, that if they can get the police to be more passive and fearful in their duties, then they can kind of get more control coming from more of a federal level. And I do think the media plays a part in siding with certain parts of government. And I think that they want to, you know, we have the leftists, even up in government, who want to defund the police and push these different narratives.

And really, just to be honest, it's a communist, Marxist, socialist type of a narrative that's being pushed nowadays to gain control over people and have them so fearful that they want to oppress people to the point that they're just fearful. And so that you have this few elites at the top that can control people. But if they can get the police out of fear to be very passive, then they can kind of get rid of local police altogether, I think. And then the government can make the whole act of policing something that's done from a federal level.

That means more control. So when I look at this and what the media is doing is they are, they may not realize it, but everything that's happening is biblical. And these are things that really relate to the end times and conditioning the world to really bow down and be controlled. So that when the Antichrist comes on the scene, he's going to be able to easily control people.

And I don't know if you want to understand what communism and Marxism is like, all you got to do is go and research this. But some of the main things you see in those types of environments is you start to see corruption, oppression, people's freedoms being taken away. And then you have these ungodly people.

Marxism is anti-God. You have ungodly people who are controlled by Satan, controlled by the enemy, who are enforcing their laws, their views, their ideologies upon people. And they are doing it without consequence. And so we already see the left who seem to just condone every sinful activity there is. They're allowing criminals to be released.

They're even advocating for criminals to be released and things like that. So I think about how if you can take the police out, then you got lawlessness increasing, right? And in the end times, the Bible tells us that this would happen.

It would say lawlessness would increase. And if you were to look at Matthew 24 verses 12 through 14, it says, Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So the Bible tells us that before the end comes, there will be an increase in wickedness. And the media is actually playing into that and helping to spread the wickedness. And so this is something that is Christians especially. We really need to wake up and look at all of these things through a biblical worldview, filter everything through the Bible. And just remember that this whole communism, the way our nation is doing things is just like what happens in these communist nations or these socialist nations. These types of, you know, communism and socialism, all of this is evil and it's anti-God.

And the media is just playing right into it and there being pawns for what Satan wants to accomplish. Yeah. And a couple of things as you were talking when when so this move of trying to take police from the state level to the federal level. So that is when you get a what is called a police state and people you may think I'm going to the extreme and what I'm saying. But you're talking about Nazi Germany.

Yeah. When you have a police state, that is when you have policing at the federal level. And that is when you have it to where, well, the leader at the top, he can just order the police to go and do whatever.

Go and take you out of your home, go confiscate your property. And again, I know people may say, well, that's going to the extreme, but it has already happened before in history in more than one case. And it is it is this today in other nations and our country is headed in that direction because so many people do not have a biblical worldview and understand what is taking place. That this is a satanic agenda that is going on. And when you talk about the the spirit of lawlessness, which is the spirit of Antichrist. And like you said, the Bible says very clearly that in the last days that the love of most will grow cold. And we see that happening on so many levels. You see the spirit of lawlessness.

You see the the love growing cold. And yeah, people need to wake up and pay attention because this is not in the ways of God. So now I want to move on to talk about what about and how people should look at raising their kids, because, again, you heard Michelle talking about how many mothers out there that are so afraid for their black children. Well, we have a son that's on the cusp of adulthood and he'll he will be an adult in just a few years. So what will be your our teaching on on how we are going to instruct him on how to conduct himself when he's out in public and interacting with police? Well, first of all, we're going to teach him God's word, God's statutes and how he can be a good Christian.

And there's a quote by a man named Daniel Webster, and it says, whatever makes me and good Christians make them good citizens. And so we've got to just teach him how to be a good Christian and that will make him a good citizen. So it all starts at home and it starts in his heart and what we plant in his heart. So we're going to till the soil of his heart and plant the seeds of God's word there.

And so that way, then, you know, we'll be including every everything about what he does. He can go back and search his heart and do things according to what the word of God says. He'll know how to follow the law of the land. You know, we have to teach him these things. We teach him how to respect and obey authority and also to understand the role of authority according to God's word and let him know, son, if you don't commit crimes, you are likely to not have to deal with the police. But if for some reason you have to, because sometimes the police may stop you based on a tip from some someone, they have a job to do.

Right. So we're going to respect them, you know, for doing their job. But if for some reason they have to interact with authority, you know, we'll tell our child and let him know, you know, be a good Christian and treat them with respect and represent God in everything you do, interacting with anyone. And those are things that, you know, you have to teach your children that type of a foundation. But we're definitely not going to teach him a lie and say that the police are out hunting him or want to kill him and things like that, because we're not going to teach him lies and we're not going to instill in him a spirit of fear.

Yeah. And that is why you see so many today. There seems to be this paranoia again. People are just deceived by the devil. But there's this whole thing of being deceived in the thinking that the police are out hunting people down. I even heard the election last year.

There was a church in which someone was up speaking. And the woman said they out there hunting us down like animals, as if to say that that that's what what police are doing to blacks and is coming from the the level of the president. This was when Donald Trump was the president. So, folks, again, it's just all rhetoric.

It's not true. But it's so important that, again, we understand that when you don't commit crimes, you have a very low chance of ever interacting with the police. And like you said, when you do interact with them, just follow their orders and comply. Even if you think what they're doing is not right.

They have a gun on their hip, something that can take you out. Listen to what they say. And if you have a complaint, then there are measures in which you can you can go in and go through the proper channels to address it. And it makes me think of a few years ago, I remember when our son, when he was very young, probably about two or three years old and an officer stopped stopped us one day and the officer came up to the car and he immediately said, you haven't done anything wrong. And he began to question me about my our neighbor. He said our neighbor had been given his name and been given as being having something to do with a hit and run accident.

And so he just wanted to ask me some questions about the neighbor. And like you said, that that is because police officers have a job to do. Right. And we have to understand that.

But some people are pushing this narrative that, well, if a police officer ever stops a black person for any reason, it is because of the color of their skin profiling and things. Right. Not because he's sitting simply trying to try to do his job and resolve an investigation. So we have about a minute left. So give us your final thoughts today. And we're going to come back next week, folks, and talk some more about this topic. So we're just getting started.

Good. But but give us your thoughts in the final minute concerning this issue of navigating race in America. I would just say, people, the information is out there as far as statistics on what's real and what's not real. I think that a lot of people fall in line with this false narrative out of lack of knowledge. Go out and find the information, find out what truth is. God expects for us to seek truth. And then also the Holy Spirit is for those who are in Christ. If you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, pray and ask God to convict your heart on on things that are true and what are not true. Ask for discernment. God tells us to ask and he will give us wisdom and he will give it generously. So I just ask those ask everyone to just seek truth and trust God, because a lot of things going on today are not godly.

And we need the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in all of the decisions that we are making and what we're allowing to be planted in our minds. All right. Well, folks, we are all out of time, so we're going to press the pause button for this week. We're going to come back next week to the part two of navigating the race issue in America. So please come back and join us. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to the God first program. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.