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People Understanding & Undoing Racism…to Stop Black Global Cultural Genocide

~ PUUR's mission is to share the General History of Africa written by UNESCO to help Blacks reclaim their cultural identity; rectify the ignorance propagated by white writers, the slave trade, and colonization; counter the affects of forced assimilation / acculturation; and promote an African perspective with which to analyse current events. This ‘new’ history of Africa is mentally, emotionally, and psychologically transformative as, for example, it was for Detroit Red who emerged Malcolm X after learning his African history. Once intellectually ingested, like miracle substance, Blacks and non-white people of color are equipped to counter, neutralize, and abrogate the system or racism/white supremacy…once and for all.

People Understanding & Undoing Racism…to Stop Black Global Cultural Genocide

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Uncle Tom…Before Using The Term…Let’s Research The History Of The Term

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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Today nobody wants to be called an Uncle Tom, but 150 years ago, it was a compliment. In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Uncle Tom is a martyr, not a sell-out. His devotion to his fellow slaves is so unshakable that he sacrifices a chance for freedom and, ultimately, his life to help them.

When ‘Uncle Tom’ Became an Insult

New research shows the label took a derogatory turn much earlier than previously believed.

BY: ADENA SPINGARN
Posted: May 17 2010 6:19 AM

uncletomscabin

TRANSCENDENTAL GRAPHICS/GETTY IMAGES

Today nobody wants to be called an Uncle Tom, but 150 years ago, it was a compliment. In Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Uncle Tom is a martyr, not a sell-out. His devotion to his fellow slaves is so unshakable that he sacrifices a chance for freedom and, ultimately, his life to help them.

How did a term of high praise become the ultimate black-on-black insult? Until recently, scholars believed that “Uncle Tom” was first used as an epithet in 1919 by Rev. George Alexander McGuire, a supporter of the radical black nationalist Marcus Garvey.

Addressing the first convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, McGuire declared, “the Uncle Tom nigger has got to go, and his place must be taken by the new leader of the Negro race … not a black man with a white heart, but a black man with a black heart.” In the event’s opening parade, marchers held protest signs that hopefully proclaimed, “Uncle Tom’s dead and buried.”

The irony of Uncle Tom’s change in meaning was how far whites lagged behind. At the same time that Uncle Tom was becoming an undesirable model for many in the black community, the Daughters of the Confederacy lobbied Southern legislatures to outlaw performances of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, because, they insisted, the play slandered the South in its harsh depiction of slavery. The truth about slavery remained a fraught political battleground, in which the Uncle Tom that was too submissive for many blacks seemed, at the same time, deeply dangerous to Southern whites.

Southern whites didn’t want Uncle Tom in their towns, but neither, as it turned out, did Northern blacks. During the Great Migration, as Southern migrants began to come to the North in increasingly large numbers, sectional tensions erupted within the race. In 1910, when a black Georgia woman tried to put together a petition for segregated schools in Chicago, the Chicago Defender castigated her as another “southern white folks’ lover” who was bringing Southern customs where they weren’t welcome: “When we are in touch with Mrs. Johnson, we will show her the back door to Chicago and have her beat it back to her dear old southern home, where all the Uncle Toms and Topsys should be.”

The problem with Uncle Tom was not that he existed, but that he was coming North and taking some of the best jobs away from more progressive men. Railroad porter positions, in particular, seemed to be increasingly filled by Uncle Tom types who brought a submissive Southern sensibility with them. “Too much South,” concluded the Defender in 1911, adapting the language of white supremacists: “Brand them and send them back to the uncut timber and sage bushes and let them juggle cocoanuts with their brothers.”

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In this battle between the Old South and the New North, the modern black man was “the NEW Negro, and NOT of the ‘Uncle Tom’ class, the passing of whom so many white citizens regret,” as Spanish War veteran R.P. Rootsasserted in a 1915 letter to Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison.

Perhaps spurred by the death of the accommodationist leader Booker T. Washington in 1915, derogatory uses of Uncle Tom flourished in the subsequent years, especially in the pages of the Defender. Uncle Tom was part of an old racial program, one that had argued for abolition but had not pushed on to demand equal treatment under the law. In 1916, the paper used the term to describe a Dallas educator who supported segregation: “Like Uncle Tom of ‘Cabin’ Fame This Man is Ready to Submit to Anything a White Man Tells Him–Men of This Stripe Not Even Fitted to Train Skunks Much Less Children.”

Segregation, not slavery, was the new evil now that the slavery days had passed. The time was near, one anonymous letter to the Defender contended, “when the Black man must wipe off his humble submissive ‘Uncle Tom’ smile: then, henceforth stand up and demand justice.” The Uncle Tom of the slavery past had been too subservient to whites, but the rising generation of New Negroes would more aggressively assert its rights.

When Garvey’s black nationalists announced Uncle Tom’s death in their parade posters, they certainly spoke too soon. More than 150 years after his birth in Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom is still alive and well in America, popping up everywhere, from politics to sports to rap music. President Obama and RNC Chairman Michael Steele have both been called Uncle Toms, so have Tiger Woods, T-Pain, and Colin Powell–not to mention the usual suspects like Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice. Ultimately, the Uncle Tom figure indicates an intense racial mistrust and a belief that the interests of blacks and of whites in America are deeply different. As long as racial inequalities in this country persist, Uncle Tom is likely to stick around for a long time yet.

Adena Spingarn is a graduate student in English literature at Harvard University.

http://bit.ly/1A35n44

Then Sing My Soul…In Recognition of Domestic Violence Month

30 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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Tags

#afrocentricity, #anger, #blackjobs, #domesticviolence, #dominationandcontrol, #ladiesoflife, #patriarchalculture, #patriarchy, #tempiesatcher, #thensingmysoul, #walkingwhildblack

The House Was Full At The ARC…Following Tempie Satcher, The Founder of Ladies of Life, I Ended Up At A Play In Recognition of Domestic Violence Month, ‘Then Sing My Soul’ 

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A brief October meeting before the play...

A brief October meeting before the play…

Tempie Satcher, founder of Ladies of Life, our suicide prevention group

Tempie Satcher, founder of Ladies of Life, our suicide prevention group

It was a serious, engaging, moving, emotionally charged, intense play. From my (conscious) Afrocentric perspective, the play’s messages were clear:

  • (European) patriarchal society teaches Black men to dominate and control women, i.e., be King of your castle , control your woman…make her do what you say 
  • Black men are angry, angry, angry and don’t know it’s because they’er oppressed…24/7 by American society…walking while Black, driving while Black, looking police in the eye while Black, running while Black, …just being Black (see CBC.com reports: http://bit.ly/1PSzNPh Black seeks asylum in Canada)
  • Black men take their anger out on the person closes to them, their woman

The solutions, per my African consciousness:

  • healing support groups are invaluable for men, who abuse and women, who’er abused
  • learn that this is a European, patriarchal society and that the primary tenet of this culture is  ‘domination and control’, meaning, men dominate women and children and rich (white) men (Donald Trump) dominate poor (white) men…that’s everybody
  • learn that the primary tenet of African / Black culture is Ubuntu, humanness, ‘ l am because you are’… ‘I recognize your humanness and am obligated to respond humanly’

For an Afrocentric person such as myself, it’s significant that the play was written, produced, directed and performed by Blacks….to me, that mean jobs by and for Blacks.

I want to thank Tempie for inviting me; I didn’t know where she was taking me but asking no questions, just followed, did as I was told and ended up in a great space…enjoyed myself tremendously.

Credit Scoring Process ‘Outdated’…New Model Needed That Would Rate Blacks Higher

29 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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Let’s Narrow The Racial Wealth Gap By Using An Alternative Scoring Model

…that uses a larger swaths of data to determine credit sores, like payments such as rent, utilities, cell phones, cable, etc.  Why, because including these payments can more accurately report the credit behavior of a larger numbers of consumers.  We need to ‘speak out’ against outdated credit scoring models and insist upon the ore inclusive credit scoring models.  

Persons like Michael Grant can advise or tell us which new credit scoring models would serve us best.

Michael GrantWealth offers security and privilege that can last for generations. For minority households striving to achieve the American Dream, homeownership is often the surest path. Yet, in today’s environment and more than 50 years since the passing of the Civil Rights Act, the United States continues to experience a widening racial gap in home ownership.

Current policies are making homeownership for millions of creditworthy people of color unnecessarily difficult. More than ever, the U.S. needs a more modern approach to determining creditworthiness. It’s a relatively simple solution to a destructive divide among our nation’s households.

Homeownership and small business development were becoming the new norm in communities of color. That halted in 2008 when the Great Recession, created by an avoidable subprime crisis, hit the urban communities. Since the Great Recession, the racial wealth gap only widened during the economic recovery: non-minority households were better positioned to recover their losses through stocks and other assets, leaving people of color, who often hold much of their wealth in home equity, to face a slow and painful recovery.

We’ve seen this notably in communities like Prince George’s County in Maryland, once seen as a symbol of the African-American middle class. Today, it is experiencing some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Cities with high African-American and Hispanic populations, like Hartford, CT and Newark, NJ, reported in 2014 the highest number of homeowners stuck in loans far more than their homes are worth. Lending to African Americans and Latinos in 2012 was down by more than 50 and 45 percent, respectively, relative to where it stood prior to the subprime crisis.

While housing inequity has been problematic for decades, many policy makers are largely unaware of the direct link that credit scores have on housing opportunities. The nation’s government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, rely on outdated credit scoring models from FICO in making mortgage lending decisions. These FICO models, which are now generations old, monopolize the market and lenders are left without a choice of scoring models when originating loans to be sold to the GSEs. With credit scores being a determining factor in obtaining a mortgage, this action by the GSEs needlessly locks out of the housing market millions of creditworthy consumers, especially low income families and people of color.

We need a challenge to the outdated credit scoring models locked-in by the GSEs. My suggestion is a clarion call for alternative credit scoring models that will bring between some 30-35 million Americans into the discussions of who should and should not be worthy to receive mortgage loans in this country. By using larger swaths of data to build models and by taking into consideration alternative payments such rent, utilities, cell phones and cable, newer, more inclusive credit scoring models, like the Vantage Score model, can more accurately report credit behavior for larger numbers of consumers.

Revising the GSE guidelines can give lenders the flexibility to choose between validated models that best fit their businesses and customers. If these newer models were adopted, it could open the door for people of color seeking responsible and sustainable mortgage credit without loosening standards.According to some estimates, more inclusive credit scoring models could also expand annual purchase mortgage lending to people of color by 32 percent over 2013 levels. The additional revenue from new home purchases could spur the housing ecosystem, the broader economy and foster healthy competition and innovation among credit scoring models.

The imperative to improve access to mortgage credit safely and soundly in order to fix the widening wealth and homeownership gap cannot be overstated. Just as Congress, overtime, saw the competitive value inherent in having two competing mortgage GSEs, so too, it seems clear that competition in permissible credit scores that can be used to underwrite mortgages to be sold to the GSEs cannot harm and can only benefit lenders, borrowers, investors and the American economy as a whole.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt has urged the GSEs to consider this effort this year but that’s only the beginning. It’s an issue that should be squarely placed in front of President Obama, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, key legislators and industry influencers in Washington D.C. if it is to be taken seriously. To be sure, waiting until the next Administration is not an option. The time to act is now.

 by Michael Grant
http://bit.ly/1LB8FgL

Ralph Ellison’s Character Acted Against Invisibility By Not Moving Aside For Whites

29 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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UDC Student ‘Brutalized’ Because White Woman Scared Of Him…Because He’s Black

28 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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Tags

#barbarasizemore, #diopstwocradletheory, #dredwinnichols, #policebrutality, #ubuntu

UDC Student Brutalized by DC Police…Why?  Because A White Woman Felt…Felt Afraid  As Barbara Sizemore Said, “Black Folk Still Don’t Get It”… White Culture Doesn’t Value Humanness…Humanness Is An African Cultural Value…It’s Called Ubuntu

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WASHINGTON – A University of the District of Columbia student waiting outside of an ATM said he was swarmed by D.C. police for no reason.

Police handcuffed Jason Goolsby and restrained him on the ground after white woman called 911 saying she was afraid of two Black men in the bank (Jason was about to withdraw money).

Video of the incident was captured and it has been viewed and shared many times on social media with the hashtag #JusticeforJason.

http://bit.ly/1PQqj7h

Our Voices Do Count…So Let’s Keep Speaking Up & Out…It’s Healthy To Do So

28 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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We Speak Out Against Racial Insensitivity Of Education Magazine’s Cover … And…Editor Apologizes

Good job, Congratulations, Black citizens of Phili…our voices do matter, so, let’s keep speaking up & out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A psychologist once told me, the way to not be brainwashed or indoctrinated by the system’s messages is to speak out against them when you see them. When alone, do it; when with others do it; especially, when with children, do it.  Just noting the racist act aloud causes the brain to record as racist.  This mental process helps protects from registering the racist act truth…blocking it from being recorded as truth; thus protection from indoctrination.

Doing so with children teaches them ‘what’s racist’ and helps protects them from the indoctrination.

 
http://wapo.st/1jvAPmV

Beyond Black Lives Matter…Our Ignorance Is Their Power

28 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Education, war

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Tags

#apsabsu, #beyondblacklivesmatter, #blacklivesmatter, #bowiestateuniversity, #ourignoranceistheirpower, #racewar, #war

Race War In American: Beyond Black Lives Matter … Presented By Bowie States University’s African Psychology Student Association

Bowie Panel

My 1st presentation in years but it went well, I think.  Just not enough time…just a teaser of a discussion…but a beginning.

Two hours is never enough time for a topic like, ‘beyond Black lives matter’ and questions like ‘what is a race war?’, ‘how is a race war different from any other type of war?’, ‘has a war been declared against Black people and how so?’, ‘whose waging the war?’, ‘how can Black people combat the race war?’ … my answers later…for your perusal and comments.

We’er Still Invisble…Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ Was Written In The 1940’s

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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#blacklivesmatter, #educationalraciam, #invisibleman, #octoberphiladelphiamagazine, #ralphellison

Editor Apologizes For Philadelphia Magazine’s October Education Issue For Being Racially Insensitive

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Philadelphia has a majority-minority school district: 52 percent of its students are black, 19 percent are Hispanic and 14 percent are white.

That’s why so many people found it jarring when Philadelphia magazine’s October education issue featured a photograph of a group of white children.
The text on the cover didn’t help: “How to get your kid a great education … without moving to the ‘burbs,” it reads.

Coupled with the photo, plenty of people saw the cover package as a not-so-hard-to-break code that speaks to the segregation of both housing and schools: good schools are white schools, and white schools are in white neighborhoods.

By Emma Brown September 29 at 1:21 PM

http://wapo.st/1jvAPmV

Returning To Cultural Practice: Traditional Face Tattooing…Almost Lost Per European Colonization of Inuit Lands

26 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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Tags

#500yearoldmummiesofinuitwomen, #Alaska, #alaskanculture, #alaskantradition, #anchoragealaska, #colonialization, #hennatatooing, #missionaries

Attempted Cultural Genocide Of Face Tattooing

A Centuries Old Tradition Banned By European Missionaries Now Returning  Per 1970 Discovery of 500-Year-Old Mummies of Inuit Women With Well Preserved Facial Designs 

Maya Sialuk Jacobsen of Greenland puts a henna tattoo on a friend's chin during a henna activity at the Anchorage Museum. The event brought more than a dozen Alaska Native youths together for a quick history of traditional tattooing, before letting them experiment on themselves with henna designs.

Maya Sialuk Jacobsen of Greenland puts a henna tattoo on a friend’s chin during a henna activity at the Anchorage Museum. The event brought more than a dozen Alaska Native youths together for a quick history of traditional tattooing, before letting them experiment on themselves with henna designs.

Holly Mititquq Nordlum shows off her partially completed tattoo during a live demonstration at Anchorage's Above The Rest studio. Nordlum's Inupiaq name, Mititquq, means a place where birds land, and she commemorates big life achievements with bird feet tattoos, like the two on her opposite wrist.Holly Mititquq Nordlum shows off her partially completed tattoo during a live demonstration at Anchorage’s Above The Rest studio. Nordlum’s Inupiaq name, Mititquq, means a place where birds land, and she commemorates big life achievements with bird feet tattoos, like the two on her opposite wrist.

In a small tattoo parlor in Anchorage, Alaska, Greenlandic artist Maya Sialuk Jacobsen uses a thin needle to pull an inky thread through the skin of her friend’s wrist.

“It’s loose,” says her friend, Iñupiaq artist Holly Mititquq Nordlum. “I put on a few pounds so she’d have something to work with.”

And Jacobsen appreciates it. “Her skin is like so much better than my husband’s skin, or anyone else I try,” Jacobsen says. “She has really lovely skin to tattoo.”

Jacobsen is one of the few Inuit women who knows how to tattoo through traditional methods, like sewing directly into the skin or using a needle to poke in dabs of dye. And now, she is also part of a new generation of Alaska Native women who are returning to a very old cultural practice: They’re getting face tattoos.

She has spent years cobbling together a body of knowledge about what the practice meant before European colonization of Inuit lands. The tradition dates back centuries, but the few historical records of it came from adventurers and 20th century missionaries — who actually banned the practice.

“I assure you,” says Jacobsen, “they did not really know what tattooing was, a lot of them.”

But then came the mummies: a group of 500-year-old Inuit women discovered in the 1970s, preserved tattoos and all, inside a Greenlandic gravesite. Jacobsen found a book about them, studied the designs and realized the marks on their foreheads, cheeks and chins came from the same tight stitches she’d learned as a girl. It was her first primary source.

“I have literature, and then I have what I call ‘from the horse’s mouth’ — and that is the mummies, and that is all the interviews with women about Inuit culture and about sewing, stitching.”

Jacobsen and Nordlum met over Facebook, when Nordlum was looking for someone to give her a traditional tattoo. She’d been having trouble finding someone in Alaska.

Holly Mititquq Nordlum shows off her partially completed tattoo during a live demonstration at Anchorage’s Above The Rest studio. Nordlum’s Inupiaq name, Mititquq, means a place where birds land, and she commemorates big life achievements with bird feet tattoos, like the two on her opposite wrist.

Eventually, a friendship blossomed between them, and they arranged an event series in Anchorage, called Tupik Mi — including lectures and a skin-stitching demonstration. The series culminated with Jacobsen poking her first ever chin tattoo, on Nordlum.

“Yes it did hurt, but I had chosen to do this,” Nordlum says. “I kept telling myself it’s supposed to hurt, it’s supposed to hurt because I’m transforming.”

Norldum now sports six lines fanning out from her bottom lip, the thin inner two descending with martial straightness — a sign she didn’t flinch from the pokes.

Nordlum’s great-grandmother had similar tattoos that marked important events in her life: graduating school, finding a partner, having children. In her great-grandmother’s day, many of these meaningful achievements happened for women when they were in their late teens and early 20s. These days, though, they tend to happen later in life, the province of a woman’s late 20s and early 30s.

That can make for a tricky issue sometimes for Nordlum, as when a woman requested a face tattoo for her 18-year-old daughter.

“Although I support the idea, the girl is only 18,” Nordlum says. “Like, what does she know what she’s going to do?”

Permanence is why tattoos carry so much weight: For Nordlum and the growing number of Alaska Native women getting traditional tattoos, it’s about showing the world a permanent, proud Native identity.

As an artist, Nordlum does a lot of freelance and commission work within the Alaska Native community. She’s not worried about her job prospects taking a hit from her tattoo.

“People get used to it quickly. It’s the initial reaction,” she says. “And if I’m prepared mentally to walk into a place that might not be as friendly — and I might get some dirty looks — eventually, 10 minutes, they’re not looking at me anymore.”

The only criticism she’s taken to heart so far came from an older Iñupiaq man, who was part of a generation taught to see tattoos and other parts of traditional culture as shameful. The criticism hurt. But Nordlum says it was an visceral reminder of why this kind of cultural preservation is important.

“The idea, though, is for Iñupiaq, Inuit, Yup’ik women to feel proud of who they are, to feel strong, to create a sisterhood.”

And, Nordlum says, it’s important for each woman to feel part of something bigger than herself — and supported — each time she sees another mark of pride on a smiling face.

Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media

http://n.pr/1LcmH9g

Local Pastor Rises Poverty Awareness Through His Actions…Going Barefoot For A Week

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Jackie Morgan in Uncategorized

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#beltsvilleseventhdayadventistchurch, #homelessness, #Pastortimmadding, #poverty, #ubuntu, #Zuluafricanphilosophy

Local Pastor Raises Poverty Awareness Through His Actions…Going Barefoot For A Week…His Mission…To Bring Awareness To Issues Affecting The Nation By Starting With His Congregation…He Demonstrates The African Philosophy of Umbutu…Without Even Knowing or Mentioning The Word

madding

BELTSVILLE – Inspired by Pope Francis’ recent visit to the Washington D.C. area, a local pastor decided to take a similar humble approach to life by personally exploring the needs of the community.

On Sept. 19, Pastor Tim Madding exchanged his church clothes for something a little more humble. His mission: to begin his journey as a homeless person for one week.

Madding slept in shelters and ate at soup kitchens around the area with only $20 in his pocket. The following Saturday he relayed his experiences to his congregation of 600 members at the Beltsville Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“As a pastor, my job is to encourage my congregation through all of the teachings of Jesus. In the bible he teaches about loving and serving others, being compassionate and ministering to the needs of others,” Madding said. “Sometimes Christians get a bad reputation of being more selfish, concerned about themselves or not thinking about others. So I said I was going to take several weeks to focus on compassion and loving other people.”

About a year ago, Madding decided to embark on a sermon series that drew special attention to world issues by choosing to go seven days without something specific. Madding said the world has an increased amount of refugees, homeless families on the streets, families who are struggling, and orphans who don’t have a home.

“First I chose to go seven days without a home. After service two weeks ago, I didn’t go home,” Madding said. “I went to D.C and spent seven days in the street. I slept in the bushes off the street hiding so that I wouldn’t be found. I slept in my car for two nights and spent three nights sleeping in shelters.”

All of the food Madding ate was through soup kitchens and various ministries’ programs in D.C. He showered in the same facilities and spent time with homeless people throughout the day. He documented his entire experience and shared it with the congregation.

Madding said he immersed himself into homelessness during his seven days without a home by taking the time to get to know homeless individuals and their struggles.

“One thing I learned is what most homeless people have in common, and that is a lack of friends, family or a support system to fall back on,” Madding said. “For whatever reason, they don’t have that and they have to resort to other places like living on the street.”

Madding also spoke with homeless people who have families where the father or mother will work during the day and stay at a shelter during the night.

“The second thing I learned is we do not see the homeless,” Madding said. “Just sitting on the street watching, a businessperson walking down the street would see a homeless person and immediately shut them out. They turn their head and keep walking and ignore them. They treat them like an outcast and don’t see them in a greater depth of that word.”

Last week Madding came up with another idea.

“This last week, to bring awareness to people without clothing, because the bible says ‘when I was naked you clothed me,’ I decided to spend seven days without shoes,” Madding said. “Of course I wasn’t going to go naked. But for the past week I’ve been walking without any shoes on.

“I go shopping like I normally would, go to restaurants like I normally would, and walk where I normally walk.”

He said this specific action was to raise awareness of the 300 million children worldwide who don’t have adequate footwear and as a result are more susceptible to disease, infections and  injuries. Last year the Adventist Community Services of Greater Washington gave out 400 pairs of shoes.

“People have been bringing bags of shoes and it’s been exciting,” Madding said.

After service on Oct. 3, Madding began a seven day fast to highlight the issue hunger in the nation.

“There are so many people in the D.C. area, especially in Beltsville, who are poor and don’t have adequate nutrition and food. Because of that I will go seven days on a limited intake of 1200 calories or less,” he said.

Madding will eat foods such as plantains, rice and other things eaten in countries like Congo, “a country that has the worst and least amount of access of food,” Madding said. 

“Throughout the series I am encouraging my church to step up and do something, including making a care package for the homeless and helping provide assistance.”

Madding’s wife, Andrea, has supported of his decision, but has struggled with it at the same time.

“I was very concerned because he just told me that he was going to do this and I didn’t really have a choice,” Andrea said. “Yes it is for a good cause and I am supportive of these efforts, but it was frightening for him to be homeless. The fact that he had his phone and I could get in touch with him was good, but it would have be really wonderful too if it wasn’t my husband going out there.”

Many of the women members told Andrea they would never let their husbands do what her husband is doing, but the idea began to catch fire in the congregation, as well as across the nation.

“Starting Tuesday I’m going without food as well, only eating 1200 calories or less,” Andrea said. “A lot of my friends in Kentucky and Tennessee are going to do it as well, so the idea is opening a lot of people’s eyes.” 

Last week, the church took up a special offering for the homeless, tsunami victims in Chile, Syrian refuges, and the 100 Prince George’s County residents displaced by a recent fire in District Heights. All proceeds from the gathering went to Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA), a charitable organization that helps disaster victims in the U.S. and around the world.

“I am so impressed with what this pastor did. I truly hope that his concern for the homeless and those without shoes will inspire pastors of all denominations to become involved in helping the needy  throughout Maryland who may have been impacted by the terrible flooding this past weekend,” said Rockefeller Twyman, a member of Madding’s congregation. “The pastor’s compassion reminds me of Pope Francis.”

Julio Munoz, associate communication director at the Seventh-day Adventist Church North American Division, is a member of the Beltsville church and said he is thoroughly impressed the Madding’s innovative ways to connect with the community.

“It is very easy to become focused on the black and white or what’s right and what’s wrong in society. But what Pastor Tim is focusing on is those who are in need in the community. The poor, the homeless and the widows,” Munoz said. “It’s different when we go into the community and live amongst them. He is living their life to see how we can better serve them and connect with them.”

Pastor Madding hopes that his actions will inspire others in the D.C. area to donate funds to urgent causes impacting the entire world.

http://bit.ly/1htMDEF

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