As I watched the goings events at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, MD, I kept thinking about 14th Street in downtown Washington DC. Years ago, during the heyday of Mayor Marion Barry, 14th Street was Hooker Highway. Women of various ages, various heights and weights, various races and in various stages of dress all stood or pranced along the street doing the same thing: trying to convince passers-by to give them money in exchange for sex.

As I sit here and look at those words, it certainly sounds ugly. But they are not as ugly as the sight I saw last night (May 2nd) as two men, Grainger Browning and Willie F. Wilson prostituted themselves, the sanctuary at Ebenezer and the Blacks who attended the “Millions More Movement” to welcome The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who for the sake of brevity will be called Calypso Louie for the rest of this post.

As I walked up the path to the Ebenezer building, I passed several clumps of bow-tied members of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Once at the entrance, I was directed to the left. Entering, I was further directed to a line of men, one of whom was designated to give me a pat down. They checked my camera, my PDA, and even flipped through a book I brought along in case things got slow. Things didn’t get slow.

Around 7:25 the holy cheerleader, also known as the Worship Leader, came out and worked the crowd up. It didn’t take a lot. Before too long, the place was jumpin’. People were waving their hands, dancing in the aisles, and telling their neighbors how much they loved Jesus. They were giving each other hugs, pointing at each other or to themselves and testifying to the fact that they are blessed. I hadn’t heard most of it since I left First Baptist Church of Glenarden some four years ago. This went on for about twenty to twenty five minutes.

Once the crowd was sufficiently worked up, the main group entered. Everybody stood shouting “Thank you Jesus” as Browning, Wilson, and Louie entered the room and sat on the platform. It was like something out of the Twilight Zone. A bunch of supposed Christians were welcoming a man who readily denies Jesus Christ as God and worships a god who has little or nothing in common with the God of the Bible. But once the pastors began speaking I understood how this could be.

Grainger Browning stood and greeted the crowd. He pointed out that people of different faiths should be unified in their faiths. He then went on to say that this could now happen under Calypso Louie. Browning went on to state that he had followed Farrakhan but it was Wilson from Union Temple Baptist Church who convinced him to invite Louie to the church. He went on to say that it was an honor, a privilege and a blessing to host Calypso Louie and NOI. This despite 2 John 9,10.

He went on to say that it was time to embrace Calypso Louie because we have more in common than things we differ about. I guess the only problem with that philosophy is the fact that we differ on little things like the deity of Jesus Christ, the final authority of the Bible, and the very nature of God. Other than that, I suppose we do pretty much line up.

Browning then pointed out that Farrakhan had called the first (The Million Family March), second (The Million Man March), the third, and the fourth largest marches in the history of the nation. Then he concluded that this is a reason for us to honor him as a man of God. Never mind the fact that he denies Jesus Christ as God. And never mind that…well, you get the idea.

The crowd was going wild. While he was speaking, people would shout such things as “Preach it Brother!” or “Tell it” and other words of what I imagine were encouragement.

Willie Wilson followed. He started off telling us of a paradigm shift. He insisted that all the religions are coming together and that we should pray to our God, to Allah, to the spirits of the ancestors. Then he pointed out that we are gods. He too called Calypso Louie a man of God and insisted that he (Willie Wilson) was Calypso’s Joshua. Maybe I’m missing something here, but Joshua as the man who carried on Moses’ work once Moses was gone.

Then it got really interesting. Willie insisted that religion, all religion, is simply a vehicle to get us to where we are going; to that higher level of consciousness and awareness.

A fellow from the “African Hebrew Israelites” wished us well and prayed something in what I suppose was Hebrew. Everybody was a gush when he finished. I still think he was just stringing some babbling together. But I could be wrong.

Another fellow came to the lectern and told us that he is forever thankful to (not for, but TO) Elijah Mohammad. He, in praying also pointed out that Elijah Mohamed IS a servant of Allah and that Calypso Louie IS a servant of Allah and Elijah Mohammed. There were choruses of “Amen” from the pews. In the prayer, the speaker insisted that we are all one family.

Willie Wilson spoke again. This time he insisted that we need to put aside our differences and put aside our philosophies and theologies. He went on to point out that it is our insistence on following our religions that make it so hard to get anything done.

The love feast continued for another twenty-five to thirty minutes with contributions from The Right Reverend Vashti McKenzie (she sent her message by way of Union Temple’s co-pastor), Wayne Curry, Ms. Barry, the wife of Tom Skinner, and a host of others.

Finally, it was time for Calypso Louie himself. At his introduction, the crowd stood up, cheered, and gave him a really warm welcome.

He then proceeded to praise Allah, Mohammed, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed and Jesus. I only stayed fro another twenty minutes or so. After some fifteen minutes of listening to him rail on Whites and the pain they have caused us I left. I still didn’t get home until 10:45. He pointed out that he couldn’t do the non-violence thing. If someone laid a hand on him, he would have to hand them their hand. He then proceeded to spout what sounded an awful lot like racist rhetoric. If I’m feeling overly abundant financially in the coming weeks, I will order the DVD and copy a couple or three of his more volatile comments for you to listen to.

All in all, it was a depressing experience. But it does let me see what lies ahead in the coming months. Expect a great deal of vitriol and hemming and hawing from the Black church pimps and the silly conservative whites who still don’t have a clue as to how to deal with pimps like Calypso Louie and his prostitutes, the compromised church leadership.

To give a bit of praise where it is due, I do want to note that the last time Calypso Louie was here, John Jenkins of FBCG made it clear that he didn’t believe Christians should take part in the MMM since the leadership of Louie fuzzed the whole thing up in terms of allegiance and steadfastness to Jesus Christ. I hope he can hold the line this time as well.

Posted by Melvin Jones on Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 at 8:21 am.