Baldwin & Habakkuk

This morning I woke up a little before 4 am and sat with my thoughts before scavenging for one of writing journals. Recently, I’ve been desiring to get to know God more through fasting and right when it ended, God nudged me out of my sleep and led me to Habukkuk. 

2-3 summers ago I remember getting in a heated argument with my mother about my frustration with the insurrection at the capital. The boldness of MAGA supporters storming the capital and facing little violence or reproof from the country's “leader”, was the cherry on top. What could be more “American” than to celebrate July 4th on the precipice of that leader's potential candidacy for a second term?

As I propped open my scaly bible, my trusty dusty that was gifted to me from my mother in 2012, I took my time through Habukkuk chapter 1. First things first, I won’t pretend that reading the King James version is an easy feat, I found myself reading over the same line for 5 minutes or so, trying to figure out how to say this in ebonics. Eventually, Habakkuk started reading me. 

Habakkuk 1:3-4

Why doest thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me: and there are those that raise strife and contention. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. 

I’ve watched this country use biblical injunction as reasoning to pay billions of dollars for weaponry while local school students suffer from high rates of poverty. I’ve witnessed the president of the United States refer to Black and Hispanic citizens as “they” while professing ideologies in alignment with Andrew Jackson’s authorization of racial violence during the 1800’s. Most strikingly, I’ve cried over classrooms of Black children on the South Side of Chicago unable to read past a 3rd level all while grieving the immature deaths of friends, family, and loved ones, with little to no investigations leading to justice. Daily, the wickedness of the world around pierces through my cultivated bubble. Yet reflects the the cries of a prophet who had the audacity to come before God boldly with his inquisition, doubt, and seeking answers. 

Similar to Habukkuks cry, I often wonder where God is in the presence of inequity and racial disparities? How do you tell communities filled with regression and poverty, that the American dream is theirs to attain amidst the reality of the counter-narratives? 

I’d like to start by saying that the necessity to ask these questions is more imminent than the answers. Asking the right questions has brought me far and carried me farther. One such question, which may seem irrelevant for my non-readers but stick with, is what would Jame Baldwin have to say about this? 

James Baldwin, a man I would consider an elite cultural critic, prophet, and intellectual, once stated, “I love America more than any country in this world and, exactly for that reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” 

This essay does not relay strict criticism but it does open the conversation for the continuum of Baldwin’s boldness to question the “alleged” American dream in juxtaposition to the prophet Habukkuk’s prayers to God about his power in the midst of iniquity, unrighteousness, and injustice. 

Habukkuk sought to understand why God wasn’t hearing him or intervening amidst his grieving and observance of violence (Habukkuk 1:3) 

The hebraic root “ykh” comes from the ancient near East also known as modern day Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Hittite, Uragritic, Canaanite, and Aaramaic regions. It means “The legal proceedings that take place at the gate of the city.” To build upon this, these legal proceedings were comprised of elders who aimed to determine the judgement of disputes and claims. The linguistic context is so vital because these legal proceedings were not for PUNITIVE punishments, like the disproportionate justice and carceral systems we see today, but to set matters straight. Also known as reproof. In this context, respect for elders, acceptance of correction, and intentions towards solutions are of higher value. 

“In this context, reproof is a requisite of love.” - Dawn Johnson

If true patriotism is a proclamation of love

Without the presence of correction, conviction, and address of it’s hyprocrisy 

Is just a white supremacists fantasy 

Where supreme court judges can decide to provide immunity 

To a man who spews commodes of compulsory lies, 

the idea of a July 4th for independance and justice for all

only exposes the inevitable cracked paint plastered on top of a nations unfirm foundation

Ironically built by the hands of those deemed as fugitives(Carter G. Woodson) 

Necessitates a fierce urgency of now. 

PhD Skip Moen states, “Disciples with reproof never attack to humiliate. It investigates and proclaims in order to redeem.”

In a generation where the absence of healthy love and practices can be so pervasive, I offer reproof as a non-negotiable action step for the sake of this country and spiritual refinement.