Selma

[Zaac]

Really good, timely movie for the things going on in the country right now. Surprising how history seems to be repeating itself and people are saying a lot of the same things, and using a lot of the same excuses now as they tried to use back then.

I thought it was extremely interesting that nothing really "took off" with this movement until white Americans were shown firsthand the depths of the atrocities being brought against Blacks ( in the way of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettis Bridge) of that era simply because they wanted the right to vote.

 

[Scarlett O.]

I don't think you can compare back then to now.

In my opinion it was far worse than those today will ever know. And... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his marches and protests and speeches was a all about uniting, not dividing.

Healing and not pouring salt on the wound.

 

[Zaac]

I don't think you can compare back then to now.

In my opinion it was far worse than those today will ever know. And... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his marches and protests and speeches was a all about uniting, not dividing.

Healing and not pouring salt on the wound.

I think you misunderstand what Dr. King was about. He was only trying to bring people together to the extent that those in the majority with the power and authority who were contributing to the racism and racial prejudice were willing to acknowledge that their actions were wrong, and were what was really keeping people apart.

You got the same thing going on right now. If you go back and look at history, white people during that era said the same things about him being divisive that they are saying about the movement today.

 

[Scarlett O.]

Dr. King fought against a concrete and legally codified oppression. He fought along side people of many colors and background to bring change. His vision wasn't accepted by all and some fought back, but his vision was wide in scope and transcended the reactionary and narrow vision of some today.

Leaders of "the movement" today such as Al Sharpton are nothing more than instigators of riots and unapologetic liars (remember the girl who falsely claimed that white men had raped her and Al's jumping on that bandwagon?) who want nothing more than to be on television and keep the fires burning.

 

[righteousdude2]

I don't think you can compare back then to now.

In my opinion it was far worse than those today will ever know. And... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his marches and protests and speeches was a all about uniting, not dividing.

Healing and not pouring salt on the wound.

I am so glad you stood up to his general comparision to then and now!

There is no comparisons, and the most improtant thing to note is, MLK never went through the streets calling for the death of cops and National Guard?

Have things improved? YES! Is there room for improvement? Most defintely! But, the difference between the days of Selma and the killings in Ferguson and NY are like night and day!

We are all humans, made of the hand of the Creator, and as long as we continue to live upon this planet where the devil rules and reigns and is free to roam about, there will always be room for change and improvement. And I say this because sin and evil are the order of the day, and that leaves all of us with the hunger to change how we percieve one another and live peacefully with one another.

I do know heaven will be nothing like this place, and I look forward to that day! :thumbs:

 

[Zaac]

Dr. King fought against a concrete and legally codified oppression.

That's the same thing the current protestors are fighting against. A codified system that allows prosecutors to purposely bypass due process in dealing with cops who kill simply because the prosecutors work with them day in and day out.

He fought along side people of many colors and background to bring change.

That's the same thing that the current protestors are doing. That's why the protestors are Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and just the full spectrum of the people of which society is made.

Like the Edmund Pettis bloodiness, the world has seen the injustices broadcast around the world. And like what happened on that bridge in Selma, the world again is saying enough is enough even in the face of those who want to act as though nothing is wrong.

His vision wasn't accepted by all and some fought back, but his vision was wide in scope and transcended the reactionary and narrow vision of some today.

There's nothing reactionary about the vision today other than a wide range of people finally responding to the killing of all of these unarmed black men.

The video of Eric Garner being choked and saying he couldn't breathe has reached the farthest corners of the globe just as did that broadcast of the Selma police beating and shooting those people on the Edmund Pettis Bridge.

The people today are marching for the very same respect as human beings that Dr. King marched.

Leaders of "the movement" today such as Al Sharpton are nothing more than instigators of riots and unapologetic liars (remember the girl who falsely claimed that white men had raped her and Al's jumping on that bandwagon?) who want nothing more than to be on television and keep the fires burning.

And one could say the same things about Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly for being instigators and unapologetic liars.

What Al Sharpton has done in his past is irrelevant to what the protestors are protesting now. Vilifying Al Sharpton is just a way to not acknowledge that there is a real problem with police killing unarmed black people in this country.

People did the very same thing to King and Malcolm X and Medgar Evans and many of the other people during the Civil Rights Era who dared to go against the grain.

They tried to break up the man's family as a way to get him to back down from fighting against the wrongs he was seeing perpetrated by the majority against the minority.

But the Edmund Pettis Bridge beatings sent it global just as the video of Eric Garner getting choked did.

 

[Zaac]

I am so glad you stood up to his general comparision to then and now!

And as much as white people in these United States think there is no comparison, go sit in a church with a majority black congregation. Go spend some time in a black owned barbershop. Go spend some time in these black communities and ask them if they see any comparisons between then and now.

For you see white people who are blinded by privilege thinking there is no comparison is absolutely 100% irrelevant when the folks who were on that bridge in Selma start attesting to the similarities.

It is 100% irrelevant when the people who witnessed on tv the police brutality of Selma start to speak out about the same sort of police brutality now once again engrained in the world's consciousness through the choking of Eric Garner.

“Selma was the turning point. And I think what happened in Ferguson will be the turning point. I think people are waiting, they’re watching, and we’re gonna see within the next few days what’s going to happen — and that would be massive, nonviolent protests all over America. When we were beaten on that bridge in Selma, people couldn’t take it, for they saw it, they heard about it, they read about it, and it lit a sense of righteous indignation. When we see a miscarriage of justice in Ferguson, they’re going to have the same reaction they had towards Selma.”

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/us/selma-then-and-now/

There is no comparisons, and the most improtant thing to note is, MLK never went through the streets calling for the death of cops and National Guard?

Again, you saying there is no comparison doesn't mean a hill of beans when the folks who were there see the comparisons. It doesn't mean a hill of beans when the folks who saw Bloody Sunday on tv share that Ferguson and Eric Garner evoke memories of Selma and Bloody Sunday.

You haven't seen Al Sharpton or any of the people that white people seem to think are the black leaders calling for any cop killings either. But like during MLK Jrs time, there were "leaders" calling for a more radical and violent approach, i.e. Malcolm X.

Have things improved? YES! Is there room for improvement? Most defintely! But, the difference between the days of Selma and the killings in Ferguson and NY are like night and day!

Laughable and again irrelevant to many in the black community who immediately make the connection.

We are all humans, made of the hand of the Creator, and as long as we continue to live upon this planet where the devil rules and reigns and is free to roam about, there will always be room for change and improvement. And I say this because sin and evil are the order of the day, and that leaves all of us with the hunger to change how we percieve one another and live peacefully with one another.

And on behalf of all those people who know crap when I smell, I say it stinks. Like then, a lot of white people aren't trying to change and improve because , like you,a lot of white folks then and now refuse to even admit that there is a problem.

I do know heaven will be nothing like this place, and I look forward to that day! :thumbs:

Looking forward to heaven doesn't excuse our unGodly actions today.

Here are the hardest scenes in Selma to watch: The one in which young activist Jimmie Lee Jackson (Keith Stanfield) is shot at close range by an Alabama State Trooper (the shooter, James Bonard Fowler, would later claim self-defense even though Jackson was unarmed, and a grand jury did not indict him). The one in which Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey, also one of the film’s producers) gets thrown to the ground by Selma Sheriff Jim Clark’s (Stan Houston) men at a protest in front of the county courthouse. The one in which hundreds of marchers are gassed and beaten by troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, while stunned viewers watch on the news. The one in which Unitarian minister James Reeb (Jeremy Strong) is attacked by malicious locals targeting the outsiders who’ve come to support King.

He dies.

These sequences are painful not just because of what they depict, but because of how they can echo contemporary events — particularly in the case of Jackson, in which the horror of the moment briefly slows time, the quiet giving way to his mother’s screams of shock and grief. There are other scenes that evoke the present day in more maddening ways, like in the exchanges President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) has with King, in which he treats the protests as a matter of political inconvenience rather than moral imperative, and in which he suggests that the responsibility for the people who get hurt in the protests is on King, rather than on the ones perpetrating the violence and the politician who refuses to send troops in to stop it. Then there’s a smirking Tim Roth as Alabama governor George Wallace, drawling out messages of racism to a supportive crowd as if he’s only being reasonable.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonwillm...have-made-selma-painfully-relevant#.oh3W3NkGO

 

[righteousdude2]

"...... go sit in a church with a majority black congregation."

I have not only sat in a black church; I preached regularly in several different black congregations, and I actually loved it, for their spontaneity and enthusiasm for God! There is nothing like an inspired black congregation willing to make a new five minute song out of a phrase in my sermon. I learned to go in with a ten minute message, because it always turned into improvised preaching and singing. LOVED it, loved it, loved IT!

"Go spend some time in a black owned barbershop."

Funny you mentioned this. When I worked in Riverside (for 16 years) I always used the black barbershop on the corner! The owner was a vet, who cut hair in the army!

"Go spend some time in these black communities and ask them if they see any comparisons between then and now."

I have and they have given me their opinions. Some, like you speak what you speak (not as venomous), and others believe as I say that things are tons better now than yesterday! Those happy with the changes far outnumber you, brother!

"For you see white people who are blinded by privilege thinking there is no comparison is absolutely 100% irrelevant when the folks who were on that bridge in Selma start attesting to the similarities."

As are some black folks, like you, blinded by racism of a different kind!

"It is 100% irrelevant when the people who witnessed on tv the police brutality of Selma start to speak out about the same sort of police brutality now once again engrained in the world's consciousness through the choking of Eric Garner."

It is time you get beyond your Rev. Al, speaking points, Zaac. Your anger and pungent tone are growing old, fast!

"Again, you saying there is no comparison doesn't mean a hill of beans when the folks who were there see the comparisons."

And you think your continued racist vitriol does not add up to a larger hill of beans? You are kidding yourself, as usual!

"You haven't seen Al Sharpton or any of the people that white people seem to think are the black leaders calling for any cop killings either."

The dead cop chants came out of Sharpton's speech that weekend afternoon in Brooklyn!

".... Malcolm X..... "

You are correct ... but I think the majority of black folks are glad the country didn't follow Maclom's hateful rants.

"Laughable and again irrelevant to many in the black community who immediately make the connection."

What's laughable is your attempts to take over this board with militant rants, and anger. Christianity, true Christianity would not accept such militant leadership, or ugly racist rhetoric!

And on behalf of all those people who know crap when I smell, I say it stinks.

Moderators: are you now allowing this form of language to be used? It is cussing at it's best, and would not be allowed in a church pulpit!

"....like you,a lot of white folks then and now refuse to even admit that there is a problem."

I admit there is a problem ... and the problem is with black militants like yourself!

"Looking forward to heaven doesn't excuse our unGodly actions today."

If you are not looking forward to an eternal change ... what are you doing on a Christian board and forum???

That is a sad statement coming from a believer .... but the truth is, people who claim to not be looking forward to eternity, are probably those not on the narrow path but rather the wide road, or freeway to hell!

There are choices ... and even those who are terminally ill, don't go around saying they can't wait to get that new body and be free of the cancerous one they are loaned while they walk this earth. There are people of all colors, and I know them, that are looking forward to the day when there will be no racism, or being looked at because of their social or ethnicity or background.

A very good brother, who now lives and preaches in Africa told me that "being born white or black or brown or yellow is part of this temporary life." He went on to say, "the best part to life is yet to come!" You see, like me, we believe in heaven there will be no color codes or barriers.

Get with the program. This life is short. And if you were somehow shorted in this life, the one coming will be more than worth the wait.

 

[carpro]

I don't think you can compare back then to now.

No relationship or similarities at all to what is happening now.

Zaac is just up to his usual race baiting. That's the sole purpose of the topic.

Stop feeding his racist vitriol.

 

[Zaac]

"...... go sit in a church with a majority black congregation."

I have not only sat in a black church; I preached regularly in several different black congregations, and I actually loved it, for their spontaneity and enthusiasm for God! There is nothing like an inspired black congregation willing to make a new five minute song out of a phrase in my sermon. I learned to go in with a ten minute message, because it always turned into improvised preaching and singing. LOVED it, loved it, loved IT!

"Go spend some time in a black owned barbershop."

Funny you mentioned this. When I worked in Riverside (for 16 years) I always used the black barbershop on the corner! The owner was a vet, who cut hair in the army!

"Go spend some time in these black communities and ask them if they see any comparisons between then and now."

I have and they have given me their opinions. Some, like you speak what you speak (not as venomous), and others believe as I say that things are tons better now than yesterday! Those happy with the changes far outnumber you, brother!

I didn't ask you about better. We're talking about making the comparison. And like I said, John Lewis and others who were actually on the Edmund Pettis Bridge are making the comparison.

I'd trust their appraisal of the current situation and its similarities to Selma to be much more weighty than I would the opinions of folks who weren't there.

The same folks who thought the Civil Rights protests were a nuisance in 1965 are saying the same things about the protests of 2014.

So again, white privilege may keep some of you blinded, but the world has seen it and knows of the similarities.

Moderators: are you now allowing this form of language to be used? It is cussing at it's best, and would not be allowed in a church pulpit!

Yet you repeat it and post it in big red letters? You're hilarious.

I admit there is a problem ... and the problem is with black militants like yourself!

Now we're really sounding like the 60s. I need to get me an afro wig and a black glove.

If you are not looking forward to an eternal change ... what are you doing on a Christian board and forum???

If you're not acting like a Christian, what are you doing on one? If the racial prejudice and racism permeated by some of you on this board on a regular basis passes for Christian behavior, then God help us.

That is a sad statement coming from a believer .... but the truth is, people who claim to not be looking forward to eternity, are probably those not on the narrow path but rather the wide road, or freeway to hell!

Dude, you can make up fake stuff all you want to make it look like I've said something I have not. It won't dissuade me from speaking truth.

 

[Zaac]

No relationship or similarities at all to what is happening now.

Plenty of similarities to what is happening right now.

Zaac is just up to his usual race baiting. That's the sole purpose of the topic.

Stop feeding his racist vitriol.

Gosh, back in the 60s , Dr. King and every person who called racism and racial prejudice out for what it was, was called hateful and a whole lot of other names.

I won't lose any sleep over it. :laugh:

 

[blackbird]

In Evangelist Billy Graham's autobiography---he gives reference to one of his earliest crusade efforts that took place in Los Angelos

According to Graham---he and his crusade leaders were walking through the crusade arena prior to the beginning of the first service to be held there----when in the back corner of the arena there was a section that had been roped off

Dr. Graham asked one of the crusade leaders the meaning of the rope area to which the leader responded

This is the area where the black people who come are to stand behind

Dr. Graham thinks for a second or two and then comments

Take the ropes down or the crusade is off!!!!

The ropes came down

The year??

1949!! The activities that would transpire on the Selma bridge was not even a blip on the radar screen in that year----the majority of the leaders of that event were still in diapers or haven't even been born as of then(save a few like Dr. King who would have been 20 yrs old at the time that Graham was in Los Angelos!! Just wanted to give readers an idea that not all whites fell in to the arena of hate nor were anti-black-----in fact---according to Dr. Graham---Graham himself came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ under the preaching of the late, great Mordicai Hamm-----a black preacher of that day!!!

 

[JohnDeereFan]

Really good, timely movie for the things going on in the country right now. Surprising how history seems to be repeating itself and people are saying a lot of the same things, and using a lot of the same excuses now as they tried to use back then.

I thought it was extremely interesting that nothing really "took off" with this movement until white Americans were shown firsthand the depths of the atrocities being brought against Blacks ( in the way of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettis Bridge) of that era simply because they wanted the right to vote.

Haven't seen it. Don't plan to.

I find it ironic that the same black people who praise the movie now are the same black people who have largely abandoned King's principles.

 

[blackbird]

In Evangelist Billy Graham's autobiography---he gives reference to one of his earliest crusade efforts that took place in Los Angelos

According to Graham---he and his crusade leaders were walking through the crusade arena prior to the beginning of the first service to be held there----when in the back corner of the arena there was a section that had been roped off

Dr. Graham asked one of the crusade leaders the meaning of the rope area to which the leader responded

This is the area where the black people who come are to stand behind

Dr. Graham thinks for a second or two and then comments

Take the ropes down or the crusade is off!!!!

The ropes came down

The year??

1949!! The activities that would transpire on the Selma bridge was not even a blip on the radar screen in that year----the majority of the leaders of that event were still in diapers or haven't even been born as of then(save a few like Dr. King who would have been 20 yrs old at the time that Graham was in Los Angelos!! Just wanted to give readers an idea that not all whites fell in to the arena of hate nor were anti-black-----in fact---according to Dr. Graham---Graham himself came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ under the preaching of the late, great Mordicai Hamm-----a black preacher of that day!!!

The late, great Dr. Adrian Rogers was asked how he would respond if there happened to be any black person who attempted to join the church he pastored and in their attempt to join----were shown the door and thrown out

Here's Dr. Rogers response

If anyone attempts to throw any person of different color skin than his from the doors of Bellvue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee----he(Dr. Rogers) would be the second person out of the door!!! His wife, Joyce---would be the 3rd!!!

 

[Zaac]

The late, great Dr. Adrian Rogers was asked how he would respond if there happened to be any black person who attempted to join the church he pastored and in their attempt to join----were shown the door and thrown out

Here's Dr. Rogers response

If anyone attempts to throw any person of different color skin than his from the doors of Bellvue Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee----he(Dr. Rogers) would be the second person out of the door!!! His wife, Joyce---would be the 3rd!!!

Loved that man. I got to spend quite a bit of time with him back when I was a young pup. He was also one of my pastor's mentors.

 

[Zaac]

Haven't seen it. Don't plan to.

I find it ironic that the same black people who praise the movie now are the same black people who have largely abandoned King's principles.

I'll have to check with them and see. :thumbs:

But King was just another man that God used. He used Moses. He used Billy Graham and lots of other simple men. Their "principles" weren't monolithic.

HIS are.

I find it ironic that the same white people who won't see the movie are the same white people who say there is no comparison between today and Selma.

 

[Rolfe]

Really good, timely movie for the things going on in the country right now. Surprising how history seems to be repeating itself and people are saying a lot of the same things, and using a lot of the same excuses now as they tried to use back then.

I thought it was extremely interesting that nothing really "took off" with this movement until white Americans were shown firsthand the depths of the atrocities being brought against Blacks ( in the way of Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettis Bridge) of that era simply because they wanted the right to vote.

Is the man in the center (presumably King) the same who was in the series "Spooks"?

 

[Rolfe]

"MI:5" in the U.S.

 

[Zaac]

Is the man in the center (presumably King) the same who was in the series "Spooks"?

His name is David Oyelowo, Rolf. He is a British actor. According to his IMDB resume, he played Danny Hunter in MI:5.

 

[JonC]

Dr. King fought against a concrete and legally codified oppression. He fought along side people of many colors and background to bring change. His vision wasn't accepted by all and some fought back, but his vision was wide in scope and transcended the reactionary and narrow vision of some today.

Leaders of "the movement" today such as Al Sharpton are nothing more than instigators of riots and unapologetic liars (remember the girl who falsely claimed that white men had raped her and Al's jumping on that bandwagon?) who want nothing more than to be on television and keep the fires burning.

:thumbsup::thumbsup: It is amazing that so many are blind to this observation. I suppose when racism is involved or perceived reason often gives way to emotion. I am looking forward to the movie.