This is my Father’s world— O Let me ne’er forget That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world! The battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and heaven be one. Maltrie D. Babcock Every Memorial Day, we remember men and women who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is an important observance in the United States of America, because it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. It was an attempt to heal the divisions in a nation that had been engaged in one of the deadliest and costliest civil wars in history.
This holiday was designed to remind every soldier that the battle is never over with simple victories. There is no real victory in killing another human being, in winning territory, in crushing opposing forces. That is only the beginning of the process.
Following each military victory there is the task of realizing the gains of battle. If it is indeed a righteous cause, then the victorious, believing that what they achieved will bring a better society, a better world, will endeavor to reconcile with their enemies, to assist the vanquished in rebuilding in a new way, so that the contradictions created by former conditions will not occur again. Hence Reconstruction (however short-lived) was an attempt to build a new south based on absolute principles of equality, freedom and justice for all.
In theory this is wonderful, but this world is not yet capable of actualizing such utopian dreams. Reconstruction failed in the south, because the greed of Northern Industrialists, addicted to cotton, rubber, sugar and tobacco required that servile cheap labor be employed to insure their profits.
This meant that a new form of feudal system (sharecropping for Black American Africans and poor unemployed Western European Americans--Tenant Farming for “reconstructed" Western European middle and lower middle class farmers) had to be reinstituted. It could not happen as long as Federal troops were in the South establishing a rehabilitated society, so the troops were withdrawn, and some argue a way of life worse than slavery was instituted in the former Confederacy. Even before this, President Andrew Johnson was impeached on dubious grounds, because he believed that a more conciliatory attitude toward former “Confederates” would enable a smoother transition to a new society, without resentment and hostility.
Paul reminds the disciples of Jesus’ way in Ephesus, For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (we are not contending with physical opponents) but against rulers, against the powers, against the Master spirits of the world, the rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the supernatural sphere. Ephesian 6:12
Babcock reminds us that “Yes.” Ultimately this is God’s world. Jesus’ death on the cross broke the barrier between God and the former souls of light that he created to rule the earth. His resurrection demonstrated that God is the real power, that the forces described in Ephesians 6 have been neutralized. The ultimate victory however is in the hands of those redeemed souls of light. So The battle is not done. Jesus who died will be satisfied, And earth and heaven be one.”
The prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is not a passive idea. It is a reminder to God, that as He has been victorious in defeating the powers of darkness, that we, too, living out our lives through faith in Jesus Christ, might accomplish what is necessary in the war to return this planet and this universe to its rightful owners, God’s people—us—the souls of light.
Paul reminded the Ephesian community, that prior to knowing Christ, when you were slain by your trespasses and sins— following the course and the fashion of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, you were obedient to demon spirits that still constantly work in the sons of disobedience.
In Second Corinthians 4:4 we read, For the prince of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds, preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of Christ, who is the image and likeness of God.
We who adhere to, trust in and rely of God through our faith in the work and witness of Jesus Christ, are soldiers of “the new image,” the “new human being,” the eternal Son of Light who has brought Light back into the world. We who believe are once again returned to the Adamic state as the "imago dei" the image of God, the daughters and sons of "Light."
The battle is not over until God decides that we have sufficiently demonstrated and displayed that light in the world. Yes. Through the soldiers of light—through those of us who are so filled with God’s Spirit that the love of our benighted world and unbelieving brothers and sisters in it will compel us to reach out to them with faith, hope and love, continue as soldier's in the army of God, standing against an enemy whose weapons have already been rendered harmless and ineffective before us, "Jesus who died will be satisfied. Earth and heaven will be ONE.'
"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in the transcendent realm." In memory of the saints who have passed on, who rest from their labors, and who wait to greet us in final victory.
Strong Mother God, working night and day, Planning all the wonders of creation, Setting each equation, genius at play; Hail and Hosanna! Strong mother God! Warm father God, hugging every child, Feeling all the strains of human living, Caring and forgiving till we’re reconciled; Hail and hosanna! Warm father God!
Great living God, never fully known, Joyful darkness far beyond our seeing; Closer yet than breathing, everlasting home; Hail and Hosanna! Great living God! Brian Wren, 1989
One of the most controversial contemporary figures on the American scene, is actor, director, producer, writer and Hollywood Mogul Tyler Perry’s “Madea.” Known in full as Mabel “Madea” Simmons. In one respect, Madea is vindictive in nature, quick to not only stand up for herself, but also get even in a bad way. Madea is willing to threaten the use of deadly weapons; destroy property; use violence; take on the law; and use any and all means necessary to show up an offending party. Perry’s Madea has repeatedly landed herself in court, anger management classes, house arrest, and even prison.
Amazingly, in spite of all the cultural criticism of this character as a “racial stereotype, denigrating our culture, and worse a clear sign that Blacks need to produce more positive stories about black mothers and fathers,” the masses of Black American Africans as well as a sizeable percentage of the rest of the American population, flock to the theaters for “Madea” movies. When Perry has tried to make so-called positive, uplifting films, where he was not only the hero, but a positive role model and uplifting image—films like Alex Cross and Good Deeds, these have been box-office failures.
So how do we reprise Madea? We are using reprise in the sense that it means a return to an original theme. To reprise Madea, we need to ask “What is it about Mabel “Madea” Simmons that draws us, that makes us laugh and cry at the same time?”
We are drawn to Madea because, in the words of her creator Tyler Perry, she represents “Big Momma” and to others “mother dear” or Ma-dea, a positive cultural icon in many Black American families that Perry wants to celebrate in his works. She is and has been a real positive symbol of the tri-generational grandmothers and grandfathers who have had to stand in for defeated, down and out, drug addicted, incarcerated, selfish, self-destructive and narcissistic children, carried away with the so-called “freedom” and willingness to live by the “hustle” or ust be as thoroughly “American” as the rest of the country. That Madea is depicted as loud, prone to violence, and ruthlessly blunt, is, in our minds, overshadowed by her motherly nurturing and occasional use of sass and threats of corporal punishment, to get the intended recipient of the same to behave, to change, to see a different way of being. She is a God figure, presence and archtype of God in the Black American African family.
The average black audience knows these negative depictions are really absurd, untrue and finds more laughter than humiliation in the fact that whatever the exaggerated stereotype, big momma and occasionally big poppa, can always be counted on when all else has failed. The Perry movies are not really focused on Madea, as much as they are the real life dramas and crisis situations, broken relationships and traumas of our families that this God-figure/Big Momma has the efficacy to change and transform for good.
The black audience knows all this already, although much of the white audience unfortunately does not, and accepts this comic relief as truth, having already accepted as fact the pathological stereotypes of black women and black people in general. I would argue that these pathological stereoitypes are neither created nor reinforced by Perry and other Black American African producers, but as he pointed out in an interview, “The majority culture will continue to believe these negative images, no matter what he portrays. As Frantz Fanon wrote three generations ago, these pathological views of Blacks and Black life are forged in the dark distorted collective unconscious of white racists, nurtured in the ideology of white supremacy (Black Skin, White Masks). Until whites and “wanna-be imitation whites” stop running from Blacks, making blacks invisible and start attempting to learn from and interact with Blacks, these will persist.
The theme of Madea as a Black cultural icon of motherhood, exploited for commercial success is well illustrated in Acts 16. Paul and Silas, on their way to the place of prayer in Philippi, encounter a young slave girl who had a gift of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.
Contrary to some biblical commentators, there is no evidence she was demon-possessed. The spirit she had was a gift. African people are used to having such gifts and using them for good in the community. The scriptures teach that human beings were given gifts that were taken from fallen angels after Satan was cast down to the ground with the other angelic beings that rebelled against God.
Until we know Christ as savior and Lord, these gifts can be exploited, just as the image of big momma and big poppa can be exploited for negative attacks on the nature and quality of Black American African life.
Because she had this prophetic gift, albeit one not under the control of the Holy Spirit, she cried out repeatedly, “These men are slaves of the most high God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” In her unregenerate state, she was focusing the attention on Paul and Silas as messengers, rather than on the message they were presenting. Further, Paul found all her constant crying out to just be plain annoying. “He ordered the spirit out of her in the name of Jesus Christ.” She didn’t experience convulsions or die; she just was no longer a profit to her owners.
No matter how we may protest that the majority culture will embrace racial stereotypes as truth, these negative images will continue as long as they are profitable. The issue for her owners was that they could no longer make a profit, so Paul and Silas were arrested and brought before the officials of the marketplace. In other words, they were dragged before the corporate moguls to answer for this disruption of Philippian commerce.
When the sitcom Good Times was created by black writers Michael Evans (whom we know as the first “Lionel” on the sitcom The Jeffersons, and Eric Monte, the latter of whom we are familiar with as the writer of his own semi-autobiographical story, Coolie High, they created a family living in the Cabrini-Green housing projects of Chicago. Producer Norman Lear could not adjust his and America’s pathological racial stereotypes of “black fatherless families” and “sassy ignorant combative wives-mothers”—such as the vile, outspoken mother portrayed regrettably by the late fine actress, Lynne Thigpen, in movie Lean on Me. This unnecessarily negative and fictional “parent” was portrayed as an angry Black American African parent who antagonized Principle Joe Clark and called in the white authorities on him. Hollywood goes to great lengths to pit Black American African men and women against each other, even adding fictional characters to real life stories to do so.
After a year of fighting against negative depictions of black fatherhood, Evans and Monte were fired as writers of Good Times, John Amos was fired as the father, and Esther Rolle was later fired as the mother as she continued to fight against Norman Lear’s racist pathological depictions and stereotypes in each episode.
The Devil loves pathological stereotypes of black and brown and red mothers. Our communities are already economically and socially at risk, and the promotion of our selves and our people as pathological assures that the people locked in them will never rise and be free from his Satanic grasp. The Devil wants us to accept negative images of ourselves, of our abilities and of others like us, negative stereotypes about what is possible and not possible for us as human beings, even negative beliefs about what is possible for us as children of God, heirs of God who have been set free, made righteous, made wonderful, by the blood of Christ.
The reprised Madea is none other than the image of God, of “our Mother God” in our midst. She is the words of English songwriter Brian Wren. a “strong mother, working night a day, the genius of our creation”--a nurturing mother, who wants to gather us as her children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. This is the Gospel of the Lord. “Strong mother God—Warm father God, hugging every child, Feeling all the strains of human living, Caring and forgiving till we’re reconciled.” This is the reprised “Madea” we seek, even in the Tyler Perry movies. Though we are somewhat frustrated by the negative stereotypes included as comic relief for commercial success—we keep on going to see who Madea is going to free next, what family she’s going to set on the right course, What crooked politician or greedy developer she is going to outwit, what mother she is going to restore to her children, what children she is going to restore to their mother, what father she is going to beat and browbeat and love into fatherhood in the end.
Yes, the reprised Madea, our Big Momma/Big Daddy is the “great living God, never fully known, Joyful darkness far beyond our seeing; Closer yet than breathing, everlasting home.” Through faith, we reprise Madea, we find our home in her motherhood, in his fatherhood, in our great living God.
Thank you Tyler Perry. God is using you, notwithstanding the demands of the marketplace, and the misguided plantation oriented criticisms of middle and upper class critics and “academics.”
