8 MINUTES AND 46 SECONDS

Three legged white man kneeling, running and jumping counter-clockwise and suddenly halted at the misty-eyed brown immigrant.

STOP!

But my soundless screaming that broke the glass wall as the gigantic triskelion statue in Ronaldsway airport coming to life w

as shushed by “Nurse Ratched” look-a-like leaning over the check-in counter. Her scalpel-cut-like-stare against my passport when she leant an inch closer as if to sound-check a statutory microphone working; stole completely the impending alien ransom imagination and revved my bladder up somewhere to be emptied. Somehow though… triggered by Sympathetic Nervous system, a forceful stretch in my mouth forming into a so-called smile made such relief as she then mouthed in a The Matrix inspired slow-mo-paced:

“WHAT. IS. YOUR. PURPOSE. IN. COMING. TO. ISLE OF MAN.?.”

I could hear the the drum rolling in my ears before these two white helmetted guys escort me to a much wider enclosed cubicle,  until my gaze was snatched up by the crimson red cross emblem emblazoned in one of the officer’s First Aid gadgets, then as if with jac

kpot button I mouthed the word,

“NURSE”.

She froze in a snap then sighed at the sight of my working visa unfolding between my passport pages.I smiled at the thought when the person’s sigh behind hovered heavily on my nape and then an imaginary jumping placards that said,

APPLAUSE!

Wait, hold that tapestried praise for the the much worse hypocrisy than NHS’ “Clap for all Frontliners” about to unveil.

This was nearly twenty years then that I’ve realized that my make-believe emancipation of born-given poverty was in fact the culmination of being a joke of discrimination.

Lately, I have the significant 8 minutes and 46 seconds in my life watching the Geoge Floyd’s death. Trying to articulate the images I have seen, it was the longest time to be nose-bled by litany of racial languages: ie: apartheid, bias, bigotry, chauvinism, color bar, ethnicism, ethnopluralism, labeling, prejudice, favoritism, inequity, black/white supremacy, xenophobia, KKK and the list goes on but let me sighed out for last time for my favourite one, Ethnic Gnosticism.

FLASHBACK:

George Floyd, an unarmed African American, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day, May 25, 2020, after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes (8 minutes and 46 seconds to be exact). Mr. Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down at the time. He repeatedly told the four police officers, “I can’t breathe.” Two autopsies determined his death to be a homicide. The four police officers were fired the day after the tragedy. Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck, has been charged with second degree murder. The other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder.

FAST-TRACK:

As equally suffocating to see (especially at work) and metastasized inherently in this generation: These two identical Filipinos despising against each other merely because of how they think and sound like, but both agreed on praising their colonizers’ culture than their own (ours!). In the global scene eclipsing the pandemic is the issue of racism, but one could scream: “I CAN’T BREATH!” for this particular two brown-skinned fellows with toxic white minds resurfacing in every angles of the world scenario. Too long and way too expensive to take live footage but inherently felt and sensed as virulent as COVID19 once contracted.

Just gone passed 5 minutes then I fast-forwarded to the end of the aforementioned’s live footage not because it’s far too disturbing to watch but my neck veins engorged from pumping so hard raising the alarm to be resuscitated. And literally I ceased from breathing by the thought of, Ethnic Gnosticism, kept resurfacing among all the post mortem analysis, and with just a fraction to rule out  the pathological colonial mentality especially amongst my fair melanin count countrymen. Voddie Baucham coined the phrase from his latest sermon the term Gnosticism, is a word that comes from the Greek word “gnosis” meaning having secret knowledge. Highlighting the pungent mentality especially among  Filipinos, and zooming back its lens to the epicentre of the racial tensions and protests the latter connects the idea of ethnic superiority to Gnosticism to define the idea that black people , (and other ethnicities including white people too) have the ability possess secret knowledge of motive, intent, and goals in specific situations such as the recent cases involving police officers and black men.

Let me take out this mask this time.

What about the data? What about those statistics? What about ethnic Gnosticism? What about political agendas?, the impact of the colonial mentality? What about the gospel?

The notorious Black Lives Matter that rather utilise Marxist ideology and principality with a postmodern deconstructive goal to fuel the flames of ethnic Gnosticism in our culture. Reviewing their intentions and motives it rather exists to disrupt society. Its celebrated billowing protest recently captured footage in Twitter and other social media outlets unmasking what really it was and painting the world-wide black murals campaign with hatred and rebellion. The presumption of ethnic Gnosticism is fuelling the fires of many issues in our fallen nation today. People claim to know that white police officers are racist if a black person dies in during any traffic stop, confront ration, or incident. I believe that with such presumption bypasses the due process of the law and leads to further injustice. Those myriad streaming scenes of riots, looting and burning of businesses that flows out of ethnic Gnosticism claiming that the officers involved in these recent cases are indeed acting out of racist motivations. The BLM organisation is a perverse and divisive group that seeks to destroy black families, divide ethnicities, fuel ethnic prejudice and superiority, fuel a spirit of anarchy, and use the black population to the democratic politicians for the answers to the problems of HUMAN DEPRAVITY. All of this under the umbrella of change.

AETIOLOGY:

Where does ethnic prejudice originate? we inherit from our forefather, Adam. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they plunged the entire human race into sin. According to Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”. Even King David said in Psalm 51:5, He was a sinner even from his mother’s womb. We could sew the ethnic prejudice interwoven throughout the fabric of human history. The Jews struggled with this problem and had to be rebuked as the New Testament Church was growing and the gospel was bringing together both Jew and Gentile into one covenant family. Jews scowled their brows  at Gentiles- often referring to them as “dogs”. But good thing of being the only Filipino in my Jewish orthodox borough was that every Saturday I was so popular as a kowtowing mongrel doing their household chores’ favour (for free!).

The Holocaust? Enough!

But where did such ethnic pride and prejudice come from? Reflecting back on that fellow brothers of mine as both moronic in behaving and ignorantly submitting as white minds and brown skin dolls of Uncle Sam, They’re all product of human depravity. Let me inject an infinitesimal but potent dose of historical perspective within the Christian and Non Christian circle.The racist logic of colonial rule remained unassailable among Filipinos being colonized relevantly more than its neighboring South East countries and as the “51st state of US” .

It was encapsulated in the notion of “benevolent assimilation” (refers to a policy of the United States towards the Philippines as described in a proclamation by U.S. President William McKinley issued on december 21, 1898): white Protestant males and females tutoring mestizo and brown Catholics and Non-Christian natives in the rudiments of Anglo-Saxon civilization. Filipinos came to incorporate these civilizational notions and saw themselves as more advanced than the non-Christian population of Moros and lumads. Filipino nationalism forged in the crucible of colonialism had an inescapably racist dimension. Well, though our cultures were mainly socio-eco-politically moulded, we inherit our sin nature from Adam and the variations of sin flow out of the seed of depravity. Regardless of our melanin count and glutathione consumption, we are all capable of possessing ethnic prejudice in our hearts. Engaging in prejudice attitudes and actions against another ethnic group is sinful. It disrupts society and breeds ethnic superiority which is detestable and destructive.

BIBLICAL OVER SOCIAL JUSTICE.

Staring now at the vapours trailing down in my window is ghastly apparition of myself but tears of indignation to my fellow Filipinos and brothers of diversities panting out their socially painted justice, hear me out. Our truest unity will never be horizontal, only vertical. President Bush: “At our best, we honor the image of God we see in one another. We recognize that we are brothers and sisters, sharing the same brief moment on Earth and owing each other the loyalty of our shared humanity.” In other words, the closer we draw to our Father, the closer we draw to each other. That’s why the gospel of God’s reconciling love is the only transforming answer to the challenges we face. Legislation and the civil rights movement were essential to improving the lives of those who faced legalized discrimination. But laws cannot change people. Only the Spirit can do that. As a result, Christians are on the front lines of this spiritual battle for the soul and future of our nation. The apathy and indifference especially among Filipinos are culturally comprehensible and forgivable. But on a world-wide scale, didn’t our faith and trust shaken off by this virulent pestilence? How do we get beyond this ethnic division in our culture? I think most believers agree that biblical unity is something to pray for and work toward. It’s only through the message of the Cross of Jesus. Black lives matter to Jesus, and therefore, black lives matter to Jesus, and therefore, black lives matter to the Church of Jesus. We value all human life as image bearers of God (imago Dei). The very best way to see through a proper lens is to look at the world through a gospel lens rather than Marxist lens. Only in Jesus we’ll have true unity. That’s a picture we see in the Church of Jesus- a foretaste of heaven. No shortcuts or bypasses on overcoming ethnic prejudice in the hearts of people. That’s why Paul said to the church of Galatia, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Political rallies and open riots will not win the war- only in Jesus will this world finally and forever be cleansed of ethnic superiority.

Dreams sang by the Utopians (could hear Bob Marley instead singing IMAGINE on the background at other parietal of my mind) will only be blown as cotton tufts in the air and fell onto ground rifted. We long for the day when racism is gone.When we gather as one people in unity and harmony without the slightest stain of sin. Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

May we have now at least the genuine communing and lamenting to our Sovereign God. Pray. Even just for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.