Passing by Samaria by Sharon Ewell Foster

Author:Sharon Ewell Foster [Foster, Sharon Ewell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-76939-8
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2010-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Deac pleaded with the young man in front of him. “Boy, please don’t do this. I’m pleading with you, son. I can feel something coming. Something in the air. Death riding in for somebody.”

“You know, Deac, you used to be all right. For some reason, I used to look up to you. I thought you was a straight old man. Now, you just … you just like some old woman, trying to scare me into the arms of Jesus. Man, you crazy!”

“I’m not crazy, son. I’m just trying to help you. Help you before it’s too late.”

“Look, man. God ain’t interested in us, no how. Why am I gone be interested in Him? I ain’t seen Him do nothing for no black man. We always getting the low end. We always in the back. We always the slaves. Why I want to serve a god like that? Why I want to become a old woman singing hymns to a white Jesus lettin’ other white men enslave me?”

“Look, Caleb—”

“Man, why you do that? Why you call me by that name? My name is Pearl. Caleb, that ain’t my name, that old slave-sounding name.” Deac looked at the younger man admiring himself in the mirror, smoothing his hair, getting ready. If only he spent that much time workin’ on his soul.

“Caleb ain’t no slave name, son. Caleb is the name of a man that broke free from bondage. A man that was strong, didn’t have no fear, took what was his. Wouldn’t let no man stop him.”

“That do sound like me, old man.”

“Yeah, but Caleb was following God’s leading. Who you following?”

“Look, old man. I ain’t got no time for no sermon.” Pearl checked the shirt hanging before him to make certain it was perfectly pressed, no ironed-in creases, no cat eyes.

“Ain’t no sermon, son. You just been deceived, lied to, and I love you too much to let you walk out of here with a lie.” For some reason, tonight seemed more urgent, like he needed to get through to the young man tonight.

“What lie? What lie? Man, you crazier than I thought. What lie? Old man, please!”

“See, you believe that, that the black man always been a slave. That God hate the black man. You know why, ’cause you believe what any old jackleg tell you. You a sap, ain’t got good sense. You listening to men that don’t know no more about the situation than you do.” Pearl stopped, appeared to be listening.

“Bible is full of people. All color people in all kinds of positions. Some white men royal, some white men slaves. Some black men royal, some black men slaves. We hung up on color, not God. Some of the people God used most was slaves. Bein’ in what look like a lowly position to men around you don’t mean God don’t love you. Man may mean it for bad, but God will use that same situation for good.

“I ain’t no fool, boy. I hear some crazy white preachers, ain’t a lot just a few, trying to use the Bible to justify slavery that went on here.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.