Pastor Who Eulogized Aretha Franklin Under Fire for Comments

[Ana the Ist]

https://www.worldtribune.com/aretha-franklin-eulogy-pastor-stands-by-comments-on-black-culture/

From the article...

“I’m sure much of the negativity is due to the fact that they don’t understand what I’m talking about,” he said. “Anybody who thinks black America is all right as we are now is crazy. We’re not all right. A lot of change needs to occur. This change must come from within us. Nobody can give us things to eliminate where we are. We have to change from within ourselves. It is ludicrous for the church not to be involved. The church is the only viable institution we have in the African-American community. We must step up and turn our race around.”

So, this has been going around the media for a few days...and apparently the left and blacks in general were pretty upset with this Pastor's eulogy for Aretha. Various media outlets quoted various statements...but they tended to focus on him saying that "black lives don't matter" and "single black mothers can't raise black boys to be men".

Now his quote about black lives not mattering is badly misquoted. What he said was something to the effect of "black lives don't matter until black people begin to respect black lives". This ended a statement that started off talking about how over 8 decades, the KKK had killed some 3,400 blacks. He called that a tragedy. Then he pointed out that black men kill that many blacks in 6 months and asked why no one thought that was a tragedy? This clearly didn't sit well with the crowd.

His comments about black mothers weren't misquoted from what I can tell....but his point was severely mangled by the media. I'm sure he realizes that many single black women raise children...but statistically, those children face a lot of tougher obstacles than those in 2 parent households. Those obstacles mean that those children end up in prison or poverty more often than their peers.

He said other things like "straights need to respect gays and gays need to respect straights"...which seems pretty uncontroversial to me, but again, the left took this as homophobia.

Basically, he's taken a lot of criticism from the left and the leftist media because they can't really spin his comments to fit their narrative. The left has been busy trying to paint every problem in the black community as a result of racism from whites, past and present, and this black man stood up and said the problem is mainly in black culture. He said that problems in the black community will never go away until the community decides to change. As criticizing black culture isn't allowed on the left...they were a little shook...since their regular tactic of calling someone a "racist" wouldn't really work in this situation. It might have been possible to try and paint him as a racist....if only Louis Farrakhan (an actual racist hate group leader) wasn't in attendance. I looked for some sort of serious criticism for allowing Farrakhan to attend the funeral from the leftist media and didn't find any. I can only imagine what they would say if, for example, Richard Spencer had attended McCain's funeral and shook hands with the many celebrities and guests.

Thoughts?

 

[Hank77]

Basically, he's taken a lot of criticism from the left and the leftist media because they can't really spin his comments to fit their narrative.

Considering Aretha Franklin's family was extremely upset at the eulogy he delivered I can see why the media has made comments about it.

It really wasn't the appropriate time or place for him to state his opinions about the state of the black community. If some show boater had pulled this at my mom's funeral he would have lasted about 10 mins and he'd have relinquished his soap box to someone else.

 

[Desk trauma]

Thoughts?

I find the positions that he took in his speech to be wholly irrelevant as he did something that I place on par with dropping trow and defecating while others are trying to eat, he used a funeral as his soap box. Having sat through a funeral and wedding used in that manner by the religious figure officiating, in one case against the express wishes of those involved, I cannot overstate how truly uncomfortable the situation is for those who came to witness a life even solemnized and found them selves being held as a captive audience for the speakers pet cause.

 

[thecolorsblend]

So, this has been going around the media for a few days...and apparently the left and blacks in general were pretty upset with this Pastor's eulogy for Aretha. Various media outlets quoted various statements...but they tended to focus on him saying that "black lives don't matter" and "single black mothers can't raise black boys to be men".

Disclosure: Your summary of his eulogy is all I know about his eulogy. So what I'm saying is I have no idea what the context for that stuff may have been.

Still, it's understandable why BLM, the left, Franklin's family and everybody else would be upset by those comments. Is Aretha Franklin's funeral really the time and the place to bring those issues up? I don't think it is.

 

[Not David]

https://www.worldtribune.com/aretha-franklin-eulogy-pastor-stands-by-comments-on-black-culture/

From the article...



So, this has been going around the media for a few days...and apparently the left and blacks in general were pretty upset with this Pastor's eulogy for Aretha. Various media outlets quoted various statements...but they tended to focus on him saying that "black lives don't matter" and "single black mothers can't raise black boys to be men".

Now his quote about black lives not mattering is badly misquoted. What he said was something to the effect of "black lives don't matter until black people begin to respect black lives". This ended a statement that started off talking about how over 8 decades, the KKK had killed some 3,400 blacks. He called that a tragedy. Then he pointed out that black men kill that many blacks in 6 months and asked why no one thought that was a tragedy? This clearly didn't sit well with the crowd.

His comments about black mothers weren't misquoted from what I can tell....but his point was severely mangled by the media. I'm sure he realizes that many single black women raise children...but statistically, those children face a lot of tougher obstacles than those in 2 parent households. Those obstacles mean that those children end up in prison or poverty more often than their peers.

He said other things like "straights need to respect gays and gays need to respect straights"...which seems pretty uncontroversial to me, but again, the left took this as homophobia.

Basically, he's taken a lot of criticism from the left and the leftist media because they can't really spin his comments to fit their narrative. The left has been busy trying to paint every problem in the black community as a result of racism from whites, past and present, and this black man stood up and said the problem is mainly in black culture. He said that problems in the black community will never go away until the community decides to change. As criticizing black culture isn't allowed on the left...they were a little shook...since their regular tactic of calling someone a "racist" wouldn't really work in this situation. It might have been possible to try and paint him as a racist....if only Louis Farrakhan (an actual racist hate group leader) wasn't in attendance. I looked for some sort of serious criticism for allowing Farrakhan to attend the funeral from the leftist media and didn't find any. I can only imagine what they would say if, for example, Richard Spencer had attended McCain's funeral and shook hands with the many celebrities and guests.

Thoughts?

Those comments sounded political and with an agenda. Not saying the left doesn't do that tho.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Considering Aretha Franklin's family was extremely upset at the eulogy he delivered I can see why the media has made comments about it.

It really wasn't the appropriate time or place for him to state his opinions about the state of the black community. If some show boater had pulled this at my mom's funeral he would have lasted about 10 mins and he'd have relinquished his soap box to someone else.

I find the positions that he took in his speech to be wholly irrelevant as he did something that I place on par with dropping trow and defecating while others are trying to eat, he used a funeral as his soap box. Having sat through a funeral and wedding used in that manner by the religious figure officiating, in one case against the express wishes of those involved, I cannot overstate how truly uncomfortable the situation is for those who came to witness a life even solemnized and found them selves being held as a captive audience for the speakers pet cause.

Disclosure: Your summary of his eulogy is all I know about his eulogy. So what I'm saying is I have no idea what the context for that stuff may have been.

Still, it's understandable why BLM, the left, Franklin's family and everybody else would be upset by those comments. Is Aretha Franklin's funeral really the time and the place to bring those issues up? I don't think it is.

Those comments sounded political and with an agenda. Not saying the left doesn't do that tho.

I definitely agree with everyone's sentiments here...I think it's the wrong time and place. Then again, I also think kneeling during the anthem before a football game is the wrong time and place. We live in a day and age when black people are encouraged to use their voice whenever they get a platform. There's a constant stream of arguments over time and place every time there's a school shooting.

And it's not as if other speakers didn't use the opportunity to express political views/opinions.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.th...nklin-funeral-guests-attack-donald-trump/amp/

Granted, most used their time to talk about Aretha's impact on their lives, and their spirituality....which is appropriate since she was a gospel singer. She was also a part of the civil rights movement and there was mention of that as well.

It's also worth keeping in mind that this pastor was also a part of the civil rights movement along with her father and eulogized him. He spoke for nearly 50 minutes....and I didn't watch it lol. I don't know for certain, but I doubt he spent most of that time making his views on the black community known. I think it's a safe bet that he spent a lot of it on Aretha.

I also have my doubts that anyone would be complaining if his message was different. If he spent it blaming the problems of the black community on white supremacy and Trump...it's hard to imagine that the left would say it wasn't the "time and place".

 

[SolomonVII]

I remember once when I was young, and a young teenager a few year older than I had died, drinking and driving as many partyers did every weekend back then. The pastor basically said that his life choices of drinking, hard living and womanizing meant that hell was his future.
It was not very comforting to the family for sure, and inappropriate in many ways, but the question is was the eulogy a fair commentary of the young man's life and the choices he made?

Of course everything is political nowadays, including the funerals of McCain and Franklin, mostly as a soap box against Trump, who is in everybody's heads now 24/7.

From what I read on Wikipedia about Aretha Franklin, Trump is pretty much irrelevant to her life. The real question is whether the family pastors words were fair commentary on her life and not just what was positive about it, but what was lacking too?

Her professional credentials are beyond dispute, but by the sounds of it, her personal life was a wreck. Her father apparently was a part of her life until the end, bringing her back to Detroit to be with him as he was ailing, but that is not the kind of father that she was able to provide her own children with.

Multiple children out of wedlock with multiple fathers, and failed relationships at every turn, and the havoc of her life reflected in her struggles against her own body and fighting the weight yoyo.

She was a social activist, fighting for aboriginal rights and woman's rights, and that is just great. We share her hearts desire that the world be a better place than it is.

But I think that the pastors hard words are right on and align with something that Jordan Peterson tells his university students and his audiences.
The best way to change the world is to change yourself. Holding up a sign is a useless endeavor for the most part. A sign doesn't save any native child on the reservation from the alcoholism of their parents and the terror of the nights when the welfare cheques come in to fuel the alcoholic rages.
But if you really want to change the world, start by cleaning up your room.
Aretha Franklin was in many ways a mess. It is a hard eulogy for anyone to hear that her room was in disorder.

One must assume that the pastor knew the family and that his eulogy was with Arethra Fanklin in mind. If so, tt was simply not a comfortable eulogy. It was probably inappropriate too. Of course people are going to be hurt and angry.

Maybe the pastor thought that Bill Clinton and Louis Farrakhan rubbing shoulders together at the eulogy would have the comfort angle covered up. Maybe he figured that his role as a Christian pastor might be better served by being the one to give a hard dose of truth to anyone who has the ears to hear.
Not many people actually heard him apparently. As they say, the road to hell is broad and easy. The truth has a narrow gate.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I remember once when I was young, and a young teenager a few year older than I had died, drinking and driving as many partyers did every weekend back then. The pastor basically said that his life choices of drinking, hard living and womanizing meant that hell was his future.
It was not very comforting to the family for sure, and inappropriate in many ways, but the question is was the eulogy a fair commentary of the young man's life and the choices he made?

Of course everything is political nowadays, including the funerals of McCain and Franklin, mostly as a soap box against Trump, who is in everybody's heads now 24/7.

From what I read on Wikipedia about Aretha Franklin, Trump is pretty much irrelevant to her life. The real question is whether the family pastors words were fair commentary on her life and not just what was positive about it, but what was lacking too?

Her professional credentials are beyond dispute, but by the sounds of it, her personal life was a wreck. Her father apparently was a part of her life until the end, bringing her back to Detroit to be with him as he was ailing, but that is not the kind of father that she was able to provide her own children with.

Multiple children out of wedlock with multiple fathers, and failed relationships at every turn, and the havoc of her life reflected in her struggles against her own body and fighting the weight yoyo.

She was a social activist, fighting for aboriginal rights and woman's rights, and that is just great. We share her hearts desire that the world be a better place than it is.

But I think that the pastors hard words are right on and align with something that Jordan Peterson tells his university students and his audiences.
The best way to change the world is to change yourself. Holding up a sign is a useless endeavor for the most part. A sign doesn't save any native child on the reservation from the alcoholism of their parents and the terror of the nights when the welfare cheques come in to fuel the alcoholic rages.
But if you really want to change the world, start by cleaning up your room.
Aretha Franklin was in many ways a mess. It is a hard eulogy for anyone to hear that her room was in disorder.

One must assume that the pastor knew the family and that his eulogy was with Arethra Fanklin in mind. If so, tt was simply not a comfortable eulogy. It was probably inappropriate too. Of course people are going to be hurt and angry.

Maybe the pastor thought that Bill Clinton and Louis Farrakhan rubbing shoulders together at the eulogy would have the comfort angle covered up. Maybe he figured that his role as a Christian pastor might be better served by being the one to give a hard dose of truth to anyone who has the ears to hear.
Not many people actually heard him apparently. As they say, the road to hell is broad and easy. The truth has a narrow gate.

I'm not going to say I approve of speaking bad about the dead at their funeral. I think it's important to remember that no matter who the person was...somebody loved them and is hurting. None of the articles I read gave the impression that is what the pastor did though. His comments about single motherhood were pretty general...but I can understand why some may feel he was talking about her.

I don't recall the left having any problems with people spouting political views during McCain's funeral either. In fact, it seemed more like they applauded getting their agenda pushed. It's a pretty big double standard.

Speaking of double standards...yeah, Louis Farrakhan. That guy. I didn't watch the ceremonies because the network commentator was listing "civil rights leaders" or activists that were in attendance and at the end of her list, she says his name...no joke. The guy who preaches black racial superiority...who promotes the killing of jews and whites. All I could think about was these are the same people who defended punching nazis...deny their freedom of speech...not giving them any platform to explain themselves. There they are...sitting next to a hateful racist who admitted that his words probably fueled Malcolm X's murder. Go ahead and try to find outright condemnation of this from the left. I tried. I saw Whoopi defend him it. I saw articles that question it, but really only for his anti-Semitism...nothing about his hatred of whites.

I saw one article where the writer was furious at this pastor for promoting "respectability politics" and without a hint of irony, condemn him for politicizing the funeral. It's hard to look at the left this year without putting the last 5 years or so in focus. Hopefully, a lot more on the left start to see it and eventually they change course.

 

[All Englands Skies]

I'm not going to say I approve of speaking bad about the dead at their funeral. I think it's important to remember that no matter who the person was...somebody loved them and is hurting. None of the articles I read gave the impression that is what the pastor did though. His comments about single motherhood were pretty general...but I can understand why some may feel he was talking about her.

I don't recall the left having any problems with people spouting political views during McCain's funeral either. In fact, it seemed more like they applauded getting their agenda pushed. It's a pretty big double standard.

Speaking of double standards...yeah, Louis Farrakhan. That guy. I didn't watch the ceremonies because the network commentator was listing "civil rights leaders" or activists that were in attendance and at the end of her list, she says his name...no joke. The guy who preaches black racial superiority...who promotes the killing of jews and whites. All I could think about was these are the same people who defended punching nazis...deny their freedom of speech...not giving them any platform to explain themselves. There they are...sitting next to a hateful racist who admitted that his words probably fueled Malcolm X's murder. Go ahead and try to find outright condemnation of this from the left. I tried. I saw Whoopi defend him it. I saw articles that question it, but really only for his anti-Semitism...nothing about his hatred of whites.

I saw one article where the writer was furious at this pastor for promoting "respectability politics" and without a hint of irony, condemn him for politicizing the funeral. It's hard to look at the left this year without putting the last 5 years or so in focus. Hopefully, a lot more on the left start to see it and eventually they change course.

"Left wing" hypocrisy seems to have become a runaway train and vastly out stripping "Right wing" hypocrisy, which is bad enough in its own right, the left wing has turned from being genuinely for peoples rights (sometimes misguidedly, but still striving for actual social justice) and has turned into a coalition of anti-white racialists, white-guilt-feelers, anti-Zionists, hardline feminists, hardline LGBT activists, Islamists, "Anti-Christian" Atheists and "Anti-Christian" secularists (as opposed to fair minded atheists and secularists, who are consistent), there is also "Liberal" Christians as well who join their fold, who still identify as Christian, but put all there effort into being against "right wing" Christians or even bible-centric Christians and in practise just champion the causes of the wider faux-liberals.

It would be nice to see "true" liberals raise their profile again as they seem to be becoming a smaller minority within liberalism (which to be blunt, isn't liberal anymore, but totalitarian in thought and demonises certain groups while defending arguably more hateful groups and groups who societies where its saturated with superiority and lack of equal rights)

This however doesn't mean none of the causes the faux-liberals champion aren't genuine, however you have to watch when the totalitarian vultures get their claws into causes to cause outrage and further the agenda of hate, they're actually no different to Neo-Nazis who say they are fighting for "free speech" and against rampant "Islamism", those causes are actually genuine and real problems in the world, but the reason they champion them it to further white supremacy and try to get more people to join their cause, in the hope they can rule nations and terrorise and oppress non-white people.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I'm sure he realizes that many single black women raise children...

Since Aretha was one of those women, his comments were pretty out of place.

 

[S.O.J.I.A.]

Europeans love it when 'black lackeys' are willing to be their political meet shields and speak their talking points.

single mothers have nothing to do with the state sponsored murders of African people in this country. no one has the right to murder an African person and get away with it by citing that there are a lot of single mothers in our community.

 

[Sketcher]

single mothers have nothing to do with the state sponsored murders of African people in this country. no one has the right to murder an African person and get away with it by citing that there are a lot of single mothers in our community.

That's the very argument some use to justify expanding abortion among the poor. Lots of single mothers in poor communities.

 

[S.O.J.I.A.]

That's the very argument some use to justify expanding abortion among the poor. Lots of single mothers in poor communities.

as well as shooting them dead in the streets and getting away with it(well, if you're not black anyway).

 

[TerranceL]

Just because someone hands you a soapbox it doesn't mean you gotta get up on it and use it.

 

[Aldebaran]

Disclosure: Your summary of his eulogy is all I know about his eulogy. So what I'm saying is I have no idea what the context for that stuff may have been.

Still, it's understandable why BLM, the left, Franklin's family and everybody else would be upset by those comments. Is Aretha Franklin's funeral really the time and the place to bring those issues up? I don't think it is.

Nope! In fact, I can't understand why all this stuff about black culture, black lives mattering, and everything else about being black was brought up so much at Franklin's funeral. I mean, is that was this woman was all about? I thought she was known for being a great singer rather than the color of her skin. If it was the funeral for a white singer, and the eulogies people gave kept centering on white issues, and white people and how they were such a wonderful white celebrity, the press would be using words like "racist, KKK, white supremacists", etc.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Europeans love it when 'black lackeys' are willing to be their political meet shields and speak their talking points.

I don't think it's fair to say this pastor was anyone's lackey.

single mothers have nothing to do with the state sponsored murders of African people in this country. no one has the right to murder an African person and get away with it by citing that there are a lot of single mothers in our community.

I'm sure he agrees. His point was how some choose to largely ignore the African men murdering African men and getting away with it.

 

[S.O.J.I.A.]

I'm sure he agrees. His point was how some choose to largely ignore the African men murdering African men and getting away with it.

African men don't do anything and get away with it, which is why black on black crime is a non-issue.

we do the crime, we do the time.

white people on the other hand..

 

[RDKirk]

Basically, he's taken a lot of criticism from the left and the leftist media because they can't really spin his comments to fit their narrative.

No, he's taking flack from the family for misusing Franklin's eulogy, and the media is following suit because they'd look bad if they disputed the family.

 

[Ana the Ist]

No, he's taking flack from the family for misusing Franklin's eulogy, and the media is following suit because they'd look bad if they disputed the family.

The pastor spoke on a Friday...and was being criticized basically immediately and continually for a couple of days. As far as I can tell, the family weighed in the following Monday.

If you know otherwise, feel free to share.

 

[Ana the Ist]

African men don't do anything and get away with it, which is why black on black crime is a non-issue.

we do the crime, we do the time.

Not according to the numbers...blacks get away with more crimes than any other race in this nation.

white people on the other hand..

This is racist.