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I Grew Up With A Deep Anger

Black Minister Works to Teach Responsibility

By Robert Kumpel

"Black people are being used by their so-called leaders, plain and simple. Jesse Jackson, Alan Sharpton, Maxine Waters and the NAACP do not want to help black people -- they only want to keep us down so that they can hold on to their power."

This summarizes the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson's view of black America's situation at the beginning of the new millenium. He is founder of the Los Angeles-based Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, and author of From Rage to Responsibility.

"The biggest problem I see is that the black community is in bondage," said Peterson. These church leaders tell them to do what is in direct conflict with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are encouraged to hate white people and blame them for all of their problems. They are not held accountable for having children out of wedlock and not fathering them."

Peterson, 51, speaks from personal experience. "I had a son out of wedlock and I was born out of wedlock," he said. "My father had no interest in sticking around after I was conceived, and I grew up with a deep anger because I had no father. It wasn't until I was 38 years old that I realized that I was in conflict with the gospel of Jesus, and I had to forgive my parents.

"When I had my conversion and woke up to what was really going on, I called together a meeting and about 90 people showed up. I explained how they were being used by the popular black leaders, and how we really needed to live the gospel and take responsibility. I cannot believe how much we have grown in such a short time!"

One of Peterson's key ministries is to help young people break the cycle that has kept the black community in the economic basement. "We're not just a church. We have a place for young men to stay -- but they have to get a job if they're going to stay with us. We teach them how to budget and invest their money so they can be successful and buy a house and keep a family. We have men's support groups. We try to help young girls thinking about abortion to do the right thing. We find families for their babies and take care of them while they're pregnant.

"I was at an abortion clinic in South Central and a young girl, just 12 going on 13, got out to go in and she was about six months along. I told her that we would take care of her and find a family to adopt her baby and she said, 'It's too late. I already had a saline injection three days ago.' And that baby kicked inside of her fighting for his life. She was told that it wasn't really a baby. After her abortion, she was devastated -- destroyed, really."

Abortion and homosexuality are two issues that Peterson sees destroying, not just the black community, but other minorities as well. "Millions and millions of innocent black children are killed every year," he said. "This is one of the ways that our population is selectively reduced. Abortion is one of the real instances of racism that plagues us, but the black politicians are all 'pro-choice.'

"Homosexuality is also a plague upon us. [Homosexuality] is diametrically opposed to the family and the family is what black people need. Our politicians don't care about that. Governor Davis has just signed more bills that are anti-parent and pro-homosexual. [Congresswoman] Maxine Waters doesn't care, because she receives power and support from these groups. She lives in a separate world from the very people she claims to represent."

Peterson sees a number of local churches doing good works that are helpful to black people and consistent with the gospel, but they seem to be too few.

"The biggest problem with black churches is that they don't preach the true gospel. Jesus said you cannot hate your neighbor and enter the kingdom of God. You cannot be a fornicator and be saved at the same time. You cannot call yourself a man of God and not be a father to your children."

The Catholic Church gets a mixed response from Peterson. "I think they do a lot of good, but lately, I see them getting too liberal. Not enough Catholics oppose abortion the way they should. They also seem to be too tolerant of homosexuality."

"Cardinal Mahony seems to have gone over to the wrong side," continued Peterson. "In fact, I would like to use this opportunity to personally call upon Cardinal Mahony to resign. If he really cared about the Catholics in Los Angeles, he would resign and allow Rome to send in a righteous man of God, who is not afraid to speak the truth, to take his place! He does evil when he encourages illegal immigration. When I saw him leading the invocation at the Democratic Convention, the convention that supports abortion and homosexuality, I was so sad. He was supporting evil just by being there."

The prescriptions for the problems facing black people are clear to Peterson: "We have to take responsiblity and stop blaming the white community. We have to rebuild the family. The family is what this nation was built upon. We were founded on the family, the Constitution, and law and order. When we deviate from righteousness, we will reap what we have sown. America is still a great nation, but we are slipping fast. It's not too late to change that."

Marian Fussey is the administrative assistant to Father Charles Andrews, Los Angeles archdiocesan Director of the African American vicariate for evangelization and culture. According to Fussey, the vicariate is linked nationally to the National Black Catholic Congress. Fussey states the problems facing the black community less dramatically than Reverend Peterson. "The biggest problem facing the black community is the un-churched -- or they've fallen away from the Church because they feel they're not getting fulfilled spiritually. Another thing is getting converts. With RCIA, we go out and see if we can find people who are interested in the Church and would like to learn more about it."

What about the disintegration of black families? " I don't think there's anything we can do with the family structure and I'm gonna tell you why. Today you have more 'augmented families' and 'syncretic families.' An 'augmented family' is where you have two or three children living in the house with a parent and a grandfather or grandfather -- we used to call it an 'extended' family. A 'syncretic family' is a family that lives together not related. A long time ago they used to call them boarding houses, but now it's where people know each other and would like to live with each other."

What about illegitimacy? "Illegitimacy is a problem that is not just restricted to the African American community. That happens everywhere." When reminded that the statistics are higher in the black community, Fussey said, "the thing about it is, the statistics come from the women. No statistics come from the men. The reason I tell you that is because the women are the ones who really go to try to get assistance, so they become statistics. They can be counted. A man who is a single father probably has a job and he's probably out there hiring someone to do the things around the house that he would want done -- someone to take the children to school and bring them back -- but he's not a statistic. But there are just as many men who are single parents as there are women."

Though Fussey said that she has never heard of the Reverend Peterson, she seemed to agree in principle with Peterson's views on family disintegration. "I'm going to have to break it off between Catholicism and Protestantism," said Fussey. "Catholic girls are very seldom unwed [mothers] and that's because of their upbringing. Most of them go to Catholic schools. Once upon a time it was Catholic schools with nuns, but now the nuns have jobs in corporate institutions, so mostly lay people have those [teaching] jobs. But the idealism is still there. This is my hypothesis: we have lost three generations in the African American community. The reason why we have lost them is because the morals and values have not been taught to children. They were not taught to the children's mothers, nor were they taught to the children's mothers' mothers. It's just like the welfare wheel. Once you get stuck in that wheel it turns and you can hardly get out of it. It's like a spider's web. But Catholic girls look forward to, number one, making their first communion; number two, being confirmed; and, number three, getting married in the Catholic Church. And that makes a difference."

With regard to Peterson's views about leaders like Jesse Jackson and Maxine Waters, Fussey is cautious. "I don't think we should put them all in a box. You can look at some of them and say, 'yes, he's looking for power. Yes, he wants to be recognized. Yes, he wants to be elected,' Then there are some that are doing the best they can to make the community better -- like Maxine Waters, on Central Avenue, has a beautiful community building for the young, for the elderly -- and she's doing nothing but helping the community. You take a guy like Magic Johnson, for instance, who has taken his money and spread it all over the low-income communities. So those people who are low-income can have a home without paying a fortune for it.

Since she shares many of the ideals of popular black leaders, could the vicariate or Fussey, as Catholics, support a pro-choice politician like Maxine Waters? "That's a very divisive thing," said Fussey. "The magisterium says, 'no pro choice' -- O.K.? I don't think the Church can support anybody that is pro-choice. Now me, when I vote, nobody knows who I'm voting for, you understand what I'm saying? And I can vote for anybody I want. They aren't going to ask me if I'm Catholic -- they're just going to ask me if I'm registered."

When told about Fussey's observations, especially her defense of Maxine Waters, Reverend Peterson was disappointed. "Maxine Waters has definitely thrown up a few buildings with all that money that has come through the black community," said Peterson. "But the hearts, souls and character of the people are still bankrupt. She still uses us -- it's like throwing a dog a bone just to appease him, but you want to control him. Just because she has thrown up some buildings doesn't mean anything because the people are still enslaved by their anger, hatred and the destruction of the family."

"They won't outwardly support her, but in fact, they probably will. The reason they are doing that, especially black Americans, is their anger. They can't see that supporting the wrong people, whether black or white, they don't see them as the enemy. Because they have anger, they identify with the enemy, the one who will cause them to become angry. You would be surprised by the number of black people who call themselves men and women of God, who go to church every day and read the scriptures and talk about God and shout about Him, yet are liberal Democrats. They vote for the people who are bringing on the problems that they are hootin' and hollerin' and shoutin' about. They know about God, but they don't know Him and, as a result, their hearts are not being changed."

Peterson was equally disturbed by Fussey's dismissal of illegitimacy statistics. "There is a tendency in the black community to not see reality and run away from the truth," noted Peterson. "Until we are honest about it, it's not gonna change. It's typical in the black community -- especially with the so-called 'leaders' -- not to tell the truth. When you say the the family is being destroyed in the black community, they will also say, 'well, it's not limited to the black community.' Again, that's not reality -- yes, it's not exclusive to our race, but it's nearly destroyed the black community because it's been going on for so long and no one has taken a stand to do something about it. You don't have to go to school to see that the black family has been destroyed or that there's immorality in the black community or to see the anger in the black community. The destruction of the man and the father is apparent. You have to not want to admit it."

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