James David Manning is chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church on 123rd Street in New York City. He has been at ATLAH since 1981. ATLAH stands for All the Land Anointed Holy, which is Pastor Manning's name for Harlem. Thanks to X. Dell and further investigation I found that this man is an ex-con who burglarized homes on Long Island. He spent about three and a half years in prison in New York and Florida for burglary, robbery, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges before his release in 1978. While in prison, he became a devout Christian.This guy professes to be a man of God, however after listening to several of his sermon, many of which you can find on You Tube, I found this guy to be a pompous, arrogant, offensive, hateful, insulting and intimidating. One who not only attacks Barack Obama’s inborn dignity (things he cannot change about himself), but also attacks his mother, his father, White people, Black people, anyone who might vote for Obama, etc. I sat here watching videos of his sermon with my jaw dropped, not believing what I was hearing and believe me I am not easily shocked. In one of the video clips I watched, this man (I use the term loosely) actually had the nerve to say the reason you should not trust Obama is because he had never been to jail. “You can’t trust a black man who hasn’t been to jail” is his retort.
Most notably, he called Obama a "good house negro" in one sermon, while in another, he referred to Obama as "trash" due to his mixed race heritage and accused him of being a “pimp" citing the popular viral video “I Got A Crush On Obama” as evidence. It should be noted, however, that the video was produced by “Barely Political” a private company that has no affiliation with the Obama campaign. “Barely Political” themselves clarified this fact in a subsequent video, stating, "[We] would like to make it clear: the Obama campaign had nothing to do with Obama Girl.
I will give this fool (Manning) credit for doing one positive thing and that is lighting a fire under my ass. I was getting real complacent about this election and now I am ready to put on an "Obama Mama" T-shirt and get out there and support Obama's campaign in a meaningful way. I currently talk to young people who take my courses about registering to vote and exercising that right, which is not only a privilege, but a responsibility.
Back to the matter at hand, here is a clip of one of Manning's Obama trashing sermons. What is really telling is the looks on some of his parishioners’ faces. They look like they would rather be anywhere but where they are at that moment.
4 comments:
(1) You know, this sermon actually works as standup comedy. If you notice the kid standing behind Manning, it looks as though he's trying to keep a straight face.
(2) Malcolm's question of whether or not Manning actually believes what he's saying is of extreme interest to me. If he doesn't, then one has to ask why he's saying it.
One thing I have noticed, however, is that both in New York, and my old "Stomping grounds" of Cincinnati, there are movements that took the language and symbolism of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and other key figures of the 1960s' civil rights movement, and have used them to attempt to create a black neo-conservative movement.
Manning's agenda is transparent, whether or not he's delusional. The Cincinati movement of which I speak, which began as "militant" (as dubbed by the local papers--"strident" would be a better word) called the Iron Fist. The leader of the group, Kabaka Oba was gunned down outside of City Hall by a guy who had a connection with these far-right-wingnuts, who openly worship Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and any other bubble-headed bleach-blonde on Fox. They quickly took over leadership of what was left of the group, and are positioning themselves as the main black political voice of Cincinnati.
The conspiracy theorist in me--the one who knows about the origins of Social Learning Theory and Cointelpro--begins to wonder if in Manning and Nate Livingston we're seeing some heavily financed test cases.
OMG...I could only watch the first two minutes, because it was making me laugh too hard. If I heard him say "Obama is a Mack Daddy" one more time I might have an accident. It almost feels like a parody on SNL. I can just see the TV Funhouse cartoon now....
this guys sounds like a real gem! LOL
Should we actually care what any pastor, anywhere, says? Grown men who believe in magic? That must make them suspect, surely.
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