By now, many of you are probably wondering why I decided to create a blog titled The Culture Code. The title has a lot to do with the name of my company, Culturally Coded Content. Through this company, I have been able to independently publish three books, Adinkrahene: Fear of a Black Planet, Real Men Raise CHAMPIONS: Unleashing Your Inner COACH and Young Achiever Playbook: Planning to Achieve.

While my company was created primarily to produce written projects that educate, entertain and enlighten, I know who I am, a Black man with strong thoughts and feelings – opinions – about the issues of the day. Consequently, I knew I couldn’t remain silent as I watched dark, evil forces suppress full expressions of the spiritual fruit, i.e., love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I found myself becoming upset at the news media for ignoring the message of peaceful protestors boldly proclaiming, “Black Lives Matter,” preferring to sensationalize the antics of looters and rioters instead. Like many of you, I know members of the news media are being used by these dark, evil forces to spread messages of hate, injustice and chaos. But what they don’t seem to fully comprehend is the lengths these dark, evil forces will go to discredit the Black Lives Matter Movement specifically, the Civil Rights Movement generally. The dark, evil forces seem to have initiated a well-funded and coordinated campaign to cast their agents as the good guys, peaceful protestors as evil.

But we all know how this story ends. When all is said and done, good will always prevail over evil. Good prevails because harboring hatred for one’s neighbor gets old after a while. We humans were created by God the Father, in his image, to be in relationship with each other. He has also gifted us with the ability to be compassionate for earthly brothers and sisters who are being mistreated for just living in the skin they’re in. But the tone that is being set by these dark, evil forces is changing the temperature in the room, causing us to be less compassionate. Instead of creating a more perfect union, some of us want to dredge up the same selfish sentiments from sixty years ago to make America great again.

But why? Why are so many U.S.. citizens allowing the dark, evil forces to lead them down a rabbit hole? I believe it has a lot to do with changing demographics wrought by the browning of America.

Conservative Republicans are seemingly losing their minds because of it, believing they will never win another presidential election due to their apparent disdain for votes from Black Americans and other persons of color. And after voters elected Barack Obama, a Black American man, as the Leader of the Free World for two presidential terms, they thought their fates were sealed. They were, but the darkest, most evil agents in their ranks weren’t about to go down without a fight. They seemingly are in the midst of a last-ditch effort to rig the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government for themselves. By inserting their people in high-ranking government positions, some of them being lifetime appointments, they could at least ensure their futures are a little more hopeful.

Unbeknownst to them, their calculated crimes against humanity are going to be costly.

Right now, we have a generation of children and adolescents who are being victimized by these dark, evil forces. As these young people watch the six o’clock news with, or without, their parents, they listen to the dark, evil forces’ champion talk about “dominating the streets” in an effort to deny U.S. citizens their First Amendment Right to free speech. They listen as the dark, evil forces’ champion says, “It is what it is,” when answering questions about how he feels about the more than 150,000 COVID-19 deaths that have occurred on his watch, not Barack Obama’s, George W. Bush’s, Bill Clinton’s, George H.W. Bush’s, Ronald Reagan’s or Jimmy Carter’s. And they watch as the dark, evil forces’ champion walks around in public spaces without a face covering or regard for his proximity to others. In their minds, if he can behave this way as a 74-year-old Caucasian male, they should be able to do the same.

I still want to entertain, educate and enlighten, so I guess my The Culture Code blog can be seen as a much-needed addition to my portfolio. Just know, my intent is to promote love not hate, justice not injustice, peace not war. We have to be more sensitive to the wrongs that are occurring in our culture, acknowledge how the dark, evil forces want us to fuss and fight rather than kiss and hug. I don’t know about you, but COVID-19 has shown me just how much I took these kisses and hugs for granted. When I am once again able to kiss and hug my loved ones, there’s no doubt I will be more appreciative.

Know this, though. At the end of the day, we are family, a human one, united for all eternity by the Blood of Christ if we have love for God and neighbor in our hearts.

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To learn more about J. A. Faulkerson’s books, visit http://www.jafaulkerson.wordpres.com/store.