Teflon O.J.Simpson: Consequences in a Secularizing Racist America and World
Proverbs 24:30-34
I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
The Wednesday April 10th death of disgraced famed celebrity O.J. Simpson at age 76 from the ravages of cancer teaches us a tragic lesson in consequences. As creatures of free will and choice we often boast we can think and do what we want and let the consequences take care of themselves. We have the money, the otherwise wealth and power and the ethnicity, gender, age, and religion let alone guns and bombs, to convince our arrogant egos not to worry about consequences . Our cleverness, our charismatic good looks and poise , the swiftness of our tongues allow us to be like the legendary magician Houdini and get out of anything so consequences are non-issues to us. So we go through our lives just doing our own thing without counting the cost.
There are some who are so carefree about consequences who manage to live out their more or less long lives without seeing any consequences of bad or morbid thoughts, decisions , and behaviors done in the dark or day.In a bizarre way we can say they are lucky. But most of us, no matter how much we try to do right moral thoughts and deeds most of the time, in some time and or another fall prey to our bad or morbid thoughts, decisions, and behaviors and suffer the consequences of getting caught. We may not have murdered someone at least not physically though with our thoughts and mouths. We get caught. We may not have robbed someone in flesh and blood but perhaps robbed their reputation and dignity. We get caught .We may not have gone to physical prison once caught and convicted but we live behind bars in our minds for the deed we did without thinking and suffer the consequence of getting caught and mentally incarcerated for life.
As a consequence not being able to walk down a street or walk into a gym or workplace, worship place or home or neighborhood without people who used to praise you now just stare or look down actually or what becomes the paranoid imagination of your tormenting ego once so proud now disgraced fallen from grace as the result of getting caught.
We may not be the smartest cookie in the jar or in the room or maybe we are but before we think or do something which will injure someone, bring them harm or shame we should learn to find someone bigger than us to consult, to be honest with about our temptations, envies, and evil intentions. Someone who will listen intently to us without casting judgment but will gently lead us back to or encourage us to develop a convicting moral compass to consider the possible consequences of what we are thinking about doing.
I know nothing about the private life of O.J. Simpson and scarcely anything about his public life and that is based upon selective media clippings. What I do know is there is no mention I can find of a moral guide in his life, someone here on earth let alone God in heaven he turned to on a daily basis particularly in times of temptation to do something to others which would have dismal consequences to those others and to himself.
All we see and hear about now is O.J. is the rags to riches of a universally likable prince athlete running through airports to raise corporate dollars and being a minor Hollywood star caught up in a 1990s sensational homicide trial which took on the form of a global circus performance . And with an aftermath demonstrating a continued ego driven narcissistic failure in understanding making bad decisions have negative consequences especially when you get away once and there are those watching your every move waiting to pounce to make sure you don’t get away with something again. Especially when you are Black teflon or not.
Simpson’s story symbolized the story of the secularization of American society in the post -1960s with increasing acceleration in the 1980s and 1990s ,exemplified in the Jim and Tammy Baker Praise the Lord scandal, the scandalous Clarence Thomas climb to the Supreme Court destroying Anita Hill while praising the Catholic nuns who raised him,the fall of fake confessing mockery repenting President Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky . And the global O.J. media-driven circus in the mid-1990s and beyond.
Since the 1990s, it has become progressively OK to this present first quarter 21st century moment to be a success without any moral bearing or life dedication to a higher power. It is OK to live a life in the neon lights of a distinguished career making lots of money and public media fame without even minute lip service of believing in God or some other higher power. Praying to and about ourselves with no consideration that the world is fundamentally a spiritual place and God made it and still directs it. We Christians have come to the point of saying we are Christian but worship everything and everyone but Christ and it is cool, it is OK to be so pagan. It is being enlightened. It is being progressive to be a Christless Christian.
It is especially telling that O .J.Simpson with a non-racial identity who became a teflon Black man only when convenient to get off the hook in his circus trial was a precursor to the now popular trend of Blacks in America and all over the world joining Eurocentric secularism . Namely ,in becoming disconnected from anything having to do with God unlike their ancestors with impeccable moral lives who understood consequences since they unapologetically prayed to and lived for God while picking cotton and cleaning the kids and toilets of white folks so their descendants could do and become much more.
And in the process of being a secularized Black person in a still deeply racist or colonized society be it in America or elsewhere losing sight of their most traditional moral guide -God-as they climb social ladders stumbling down , slipping and falling off cliffs since they have not the presence of God in their lives let alone Biblical literacy to talk to consider and understand the consequences of what they are thinking about doing such as what Proverbs 24: 30-34 our God loving great grandparents and grandparents probably memorized and lived about understanding the importance of moral guidance from God about consequences:
I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds,and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.