To Elijah: You Didn't Dodge a Bullet, You Dodged a Missile

The Flash (DC Comics).

I was on YouTube, and there's a channel that has nearly 1,000 videos, and I'll say at least 95 percent of those videos are dedicated to exposing one man. I understand; people like this guy have been ripping off our people for years, but a lot of so-called black folks tend to give him a pass because he has rocked them to sleep with his strong speech and "swag." I could go on about how goofy that is, but that's for another blog.

I understand this woman's determination to make people like him no more, so to speak, but on the surface, posting that many videos concerning one man can make one look like a psychotic stalker. I say that to say a lot of posts on this blog lately have been on my experiences at that shit hole called The Way of Yah Synagogue-- if the name hasn't changed again.

My purpose(s) for doing this is to get things off my chest that went down during my time there, stuff that I've held in for years, because I was caught up in that "greater good," "bigger picture" bullshit and to tell my side of the story. I don't plan on doing many more blogs on that shit hole called a synagogue, and I'm definitely not going to post that many blogs, but I said going into this that this was going to be a slow cook, so I will bide my time and take my time with this.

I contacted another former member a few months ago (the person will remain nameless) and they told me that they miss some people, but they don't miss the way (i.e. the religious lifestyle that was taught). I can't say that I miss anyone, if I do, I can count on one hand how many, and when I think back on it, I don't miss those goofy ass rules either. You can't do this, you can't go to this place because it was named after and "referenced" to some god (e.g. Apollo Theater) you can't cut your hair or beard a certain way, etc. Although there are certain things I still hold to such as not celebrating holidays-- to me, it's pointless-- but overall, I'm glad to be free of that bullshit.

Another thing, I have said in previous posts or videos that I don't hate their "pastor" Tony Smith, but I have to come clean about it. I was lying to myself. I can't stand that motherfucker. I put my trust in him, and I came to him showing nothing but respect. That trust was betrayed and the respect wasn't reciprocated. The respect I had for him is down the drain.

Now, on with the subject. Around 2014, there was a young man named Elijah-- I never knew his last name-- who was very interested in joining the then-Way of God Church. Long story short, this is a young man who, if I'm not mistaken, had an opportunity to go to college on a swimming scholarship, but was willing to walk away from all of that despite protests from his family to join the congregation.

About two years later, according to their "pastor" Tony Smith, "The Most High" revealed unto to him (allegedly) that this young man was not getting in (i.e. joining the now-synagogue). I'm sure this young man was devastated by this "revelation," but Elijah, in case you ever read this, let me tell you something: you didn't miss anything. You didn't miss shit.

They will treat like one of their own at first (seemingly) better than your immediate family, but give it a few months or years, you would've seen the masks fall off and discovered that the man who is supposed to be your "spiritual leader" and "watchman for your soul" is nothing more than an arrogant, self-righteous, sadistic prick, and most of his members are a bunch of cut-throat, treacherous motherfuckers.

In the end, what you would've ran into would've been a complete waste of time, years and money. Trust me, I know. I hope you didn't throw an opportunity at a great career away trying to follow that piece of shit and that fairy tale ass religion he put together. The more I think about it, the more I'm glad I'm no longer there. From my experience, you didn't dodge a bullet, you dodged a missile.

Preaching to the Choir: Part Four: The Yes-Men

Sgt. Proctor (left) from the movie Police Academy. Big-time Yes-Men doing his boss' bidding.

Following up on the last post when I talked about the preacher's parrots, yes, a "parrot" in this case can be a man as well, but it's usually a woman. With that being said, here's the male version of the groveling and blind devotion. Not justifying it, but in some cases, it's done out of survival. They've been spellbound by the fear of committing this "cardinal sin" if they cross the man of whatever entity they serve put in leadership, so they put up with being belittled and verbal abuse disguised as "correction" or "jokes."

It reminds of my people back when slavery and racism was more overt. Despite the fucked up, demeaning way, to say the least, they were being treated by whitey, most of them put on a smile and accepted it out of survival, out of the fear of losing what little positions they had or even losing their lives. I don't co-sign them accepting being blatantly disrespected and mistreated-- again, to say the least-- but for the most part, that's the way it was at that particular time. Most of them endured it out of survival.

In some cases, I think that was the situation in the synagogue-- more like a shitagogue-- where I came from. Again, not justifying it, but I think some people endured or are still enduring it out of survival, out of the fear of not wanting to "cross the boss," and wind up "going to hell." However, a lot of them are natural butt kissers.

I remember there was another former member who referred to this megalomaniac's ministers as "yes men." Well, I can definitely say that for two of them. It was three ministers when I was there, I don't know if any have been added or decreased since then. The older guy was cool, but I know that bonbon head prick of a leader runs a hive-minded organization, so I know how that goes.

One a side note, the geechee, one of his ministers, was the one who low-key kickstarted the lie that I don't speak to people. This was followed by the blatant lie told by their "pastor." Then tiger paws-- I guess he still have that bullshit in his head-- the associate or assistant pastor, last I checked, did a sermon the following night, commenting on the slick: "If you don't speak to people, then you don't need to be here," perpetuating the lie told by his massa. He put it out there in general, but I knew he was talking about me.

The crazy part is, I spoke to those yes men, but because of the lie their massa told, his punk ass turned around and said what he said. That bugged-eyed bastard would berate and lambaste them, and they would just crawl back behind his ass like good ol' yes men. It was really bad with the male members of the congregation. One guy said he would take a bullet for that piece of shit. Wow. Really? Lol.

Another side note: Speaking of which, if his "prophesy" or whatever term he uses for it is true about someone in the congregation setting him up to be taken out-- which I think is bullshit; nobody's thinking about that bitch, he's just trying to make himself seem more important than he is-- whatever he gets he deserves.

Anyway, now that I'm thinking about it, some of the guys are just as bad as the women, doing any and everything to vie for their pastor's attention. I've seen dudes back-door, undercut and throw other dudes under the bus to try and score brownie points with their pastor. I've experienced and witnessed this.

I guess their "leader" was correct after all. He is "building men"...Yes-Men. People really need to be careful following Henry Smith and the many self-righteous cunts like him. All of the butt kissing and blind devotion shows that you will follow these jokers anywhere, as long as they put enough conviction behind what they're saying. Be careful because you could be following them off a cliff. I say that figuratively, but hey, you never know. There was the Guyana incident.

As a matter of fact, last I checked, Henry was talking about how eventually they will have to go back to what most know as Jerusalem. I don't know if he's still on that bullshit but I would definitely be leery. The more I think about it, the more I'm glad to be out of there and away from those arrogant, cut-throat folks. It wasn't all of them, but there were way too many of them.

In conclusion, aside from getting some things off my chest, one of the purposes of this series is because I know I'm not the only one who has experienced and/or witnessed these things in these religious organizations. Better yet, let's call most of them what they are, especially The Way of Yah: a shit hole.

I know there are people out who can relate to my experiences and have dealt with or are still dealing with the nonsense that goes on in these organizations. My next post isn't a part of the series, but to me, it will serve as a powerful, insightful conclusion.

Preaching to the Choir: Part Three: The Preacher's Parrots

Photo Credit: Roi Dimor on Unsplash.

I had no intention of writing a part three to this series, but here we go. I briefly touched on this subject in a post in July called, Would You Date or Marry a Church Woman? By "church" I mean a religious woman. On a side note, I should've used an image of former wrestling star Koko B. Ware and his parrot, Frank. That would've been a more accurate description.

This is not to say women from other ethnicities don't do this, but this is prevalent in "black" society. Any brother, whether he is or has been in a religious organization or not, has experienced this when dealing with religious women. When it comes to these preachers, these sisters tend to have a blind, undying devotion to them. Truth is, they tend to enable each other. He co-signs her foolishness and vice versa.

Anything that self-righteous prick says, she repeats it, almost on cue. Fellas, think about the last time you had a discussion, argument or debate with a woman you are/were dating or married to. At some point in the conversation, her response is typically going to start with something like this: "Preacher said this," "Pastor said that." It won't always start with that phrase literally, but if you're attending or attended the same congregation as she is, and you've paid attention to the pastor's rhetoric, you will realize all she did was merely repeat what he said. I had an experience like that, which I will touch on a little bit.

They're like verbal plagiarists. Regardless of what that man says, he could dead wrong, but he says with enough conviction, she will go along with-- and repeat it, sounding like naive, misguided children. It's as if she's his personal parrot or something. By the way, you don't have to date or be married to them to witness this, which brings me to the situation I referred to in the above paragraph.

The last religious organization I came from, I had a conversation with one of the women there. I asked her what she looks for in a man. Aside from the cliches they tend to quote to look like a "good person," she went on to tell me what she (claims) to look for in a man. I'm not sure if she thought I wasn't paying attention to anything that doofus said, but her response to me was the very thing I heard him to tell the women in there what they should for or expect from a man. I mean darn near word for word.

This happened about two years ago with this Grimace looking broad in the same congregation. Different conversation, same result. Being like-minded with someone is one thing, but merely repeating someone's talking points is something totally different, and religious women (BW mainly) do this so much I wonder, "Bitch, do you have a mind of your own?" "Do you ever think for yourself?"

Going back to mesmerizing of the masses by preachers I mentioned in Part Two, there's a saying that goes: "If someone can get in your mind, they can get in your ass." I'll make a slight adjustment and say if one's not careful, they can get in your ass, although I get the meaning behind the statement. Ironically, I heard that doofus preacher mentioned once when courting women, you have to get in their mind first.

I reverted to that statement to say this: not many are a bigger epitome of that saying than these preachers. They've been in the minds and eventually the asses of women for a long time-- and counting. If you decide to date or marry one of them, perhaps you should invest in a cage and some crackers.

Preaching to the Choir: Part One: The Cause of their Arrogance

Photo Credit: SirTravelALot/ Shutterstock Photos.

I caught wind of Angel Snupnup's YouTube channel in mid-2019. I have been watching his videos more frequently lately, and one of the things that caught my attention about his channel-- then and now-- is his unique takes on life, society and particularly religion. By "unique" I mean while he has a serious, realist approach, he has a way of delivering his points that I find hilarious, especially when it comes to religion.

I started having questions and making different observations concerning religion/religious organizations prior to listening to his channel, plus I'm in the process of unlearning a lot of things I thought to be true, so I already had similar thoughts in terms of some of the things he's putting out there.

Now, I will admit that I'm the "spiritual but not religious" type, and he speaks against that, too, which is fine. I respect his position. While my theory is that there is a Universal Creator, I don't think there's any way this stuff (e.g. nature) just appeared from nowhere, however, I don't believe that people will die and come back as cows and so on. For me, it's based more on the individual development and enlightenment than anything. Besides, I don't try to enforce my convictions on anyone, anyway. I just do my thing and keep going.

By individual development and enlightenment, I'll use meditation as an example. I meditate for the purposes of calmness, focus and relaxation, not to give praise and worship.

Today, I saw a video that inspired this blog post. The video's entitled: Why did God Give Us Life? In his analysis, he talked about the arrogance of this "God" to make people worship and serve him, or else you will be punished and he will send you to hell when it's all said and done. There's other topics he discussed, such as the silliness of people praising and worshipping something that's invisible, and they're prayers are never answered, but I'm focusing on the "arrogant" part for a particular reason.

In previous videos, he has described this entity as a bully, mostly due to the reasons as described above, and also due to his thoughts of why this "God" doesn't come at the devil the way he does others. As I was listening to the video, it made me think perhaps that's why a lot of these preachers are so god damn arrogant and conceited. Perhaps, they get it from their "god" or whatever entity they worship.

I've seen preachers-- that bitch ass at the The Way of Yah, in particular-- who would use the book (or Bible) to manipulate and bully people, and justify their actions. He can talk crazy to you, but if you say something to him-- now you've done it! You've crossed the man of the "Most High." Now, there's a serve punishment you have to face. All of that bullshit is scare tactics, and to keep you at bay when they come at you sideways.

They can treat you and talk to you anyway they please, but want to command and demand all of this god damn respect. They spend half the sermon bragging, ego tripping and putting people on blast they disagree with. They're megalomaniacs and prima donnas; they're so focused on dress, appearance and how they and others look, it's comparable to women.

Hypothetically, let's say what Angel Snupnup is saying is 100 percent true. In that case, I've found the cause of these preachers' arrogance. Like the saying that a child gets their behavior from their parent(s), apparently, they get it from whatever entity they worship.

This is part one of this two-part series. Next, I'm going to talk about despite preachers' crusade against sorcery, they seem to be strange bedfellows.