This is another one of those ‘calm blue ocean’ needed pieces!

This very morning my husband mentioned to me an article about another cult church thriving in our little old slice of Virginia and worldwide. I wasn’t much intrigued at first, right up until he mentioned the name of the founder – William Branham.

Branham, if you don’t know him, preached in his own offshoot of Pentecostalism that turned into Branham Tabernacles before being rebranded as The Message. During his time on earth Branham preached hard against interracial marriages. He kept referring to something called ‘hybreeding’ before he passed in 1965. Guessing that his made-up word refers to ‘hybrid breeding’. Sounds like something for cattle or plants. During the time Branham was active he faced accusations of racism, being a little friendly with the KKK, and that he supported segregation.

In those times the USA was engaged in a desperate struggle over civil rights and racism. Branham was hardly the only one sharing this skewed and twisted theology over the issues of race. Look at just about every past and some current single Southern governor, law enforcement and our still rather racist justice system. It was a violent time in the USA.

How do I know this? Because I was raised up into it. I remember these times all too well. My father was extremely racist in the 1960s. As I played with my dolls the background noise was my father ranting about those uppity neeeeegrohs. I never understood why he felt that way beyond being raised in South Louisiana. We had servants, a maid, a gardener, and others working for my father. They loved me as a small child, and as a result I didn’t understand my father’s attitude. These were people who loved me, who were no different than us save for their skin color.

I had a hard time believing in the inferiority of black people even more so when the elementary school I attended integrated in 1967. I don’t know why they did then, but I suspect they were forced to by some government mandate from Washington D.C.

Just talking to my husband about all of this because he is nine years older than I, and his school in East Lansing, Michigan integrated right around the same time. He still remembers a time when people of different races were legally forbidden to live in East Lansing. Ironic that in a few short years he found himself as the minority living in Nigeria.

The lone girl who broke the color barrier in my school. Her name was Caroline. She was the first African-American student in my school and she happened to be placed in my class. Her hair was always perfect, and Caroline was always pressed and well dressed. She was also my friend, a friend I knew better than to invite to my home sadly enough.

I think about that now, and wonder how much of it was her mother sending her into hostile territory, knowing her daughter would be judged by the children of racists. I cannot barely stand to think of the mingled hope and fear she felt every single day sending her daughter out into a sea of white children. It gets me, just like seeing an earlier photo of Ruby Bridges, a tiny school girl surrounded by federal marshals as she attended an elementary school in nearby New Orleans, Louisiana. All so incredibly wrong.

Why all this talk of racism in days gone by? Because the followers of William Branham still follow his ugly words about race mixing. His followers at The Message base the majority of their theology around the taped sermons of Branham. It’s a fear-filled, strict legalism, rule-following cult church based around more than 1,200 of his taped sermons. Add in the toxic beliefs surrounding healing embraced by places like Bethel Redding and you go even farther into high demand religious organizations realm.

Don’t even get me started on Bethel and their exploitation of desperate people with serious illnesses. I’ve written about them many times, including their practice of “soul sucking” purposely laying down on top of the graves of pastors they idolize, like William Branham to ‘soak up his anointing.’ That would be a toxic anointing even if this was possible!

The article at Tucson.com interviewed a nice young man who happens to be black talking about his church denying his desire to date a white girl. Is this happened in some dull backwater of colonialism? Nope, of course not, it happened in Jeffersonville, Indiana a few years ago. Martin Maene is that young man, and it was his moment where the first thread got pulled out of his tapestry of beliefs. He realized his religion was built on a false foundation.

There are other stories in the article by others who have found themselves on the tines of this thing, running afoul of the powers that be at the church and leaving. This is how deconstruction journeys start.

How is it we’ve had a black president, integrated schools, jobs and housing yet this is a prevailing attitude anywhere?