Stripper Pole to the Gates of Heaven

My husband brought this to my attention
and I was speechless!!!

It is rare when Radical RevLa is left speechless! I mean in my 61 years of life I've always seemed to have something to say. So when my husband showed me this video on You Tube about this female preacher I was at a lost for words. First of all it was difficult for me to pay attention to what she was saying because she had her nipples showing. You can't see it in this picture (thank you Lord!) but as she was giving the word about the wickedness of the tongue all I could think about is why is she showing her breast. It was not the cleavage that bothered me but the fact that each nipple was showing.

In this picture her hands are hiding the nipples but when you see it without her hands covering then all you see is both nipples looking at you from both sides. The real catcher is that her word was good. When you didn't look at her and listened to what she was saying you learned a real word of God. This shocked me because she didn't have to show her nipples for attention. God's word is enough by itself.

As a female preacher and a black lady of God its bad enough that the clergy does not want to give us respect. As a black woman so many people are putting us down. Its up to us to maintain the image of the great queens that our ancestors came from. The black woman has it bad enough then to have this woman who states she came from the stripper pole and now has her ministry to sit and give an entire sermon with her breast showing.

This type of action soils the Word of God. What she was saying was what was needed to be said but her presentation took away from anything that was good. I'm not one who gets on a person for dressing the way that they choose to. I have a unique sense of style and have had different female preachers voice their opinion on it. Those ladies felt that I should be preaching in a robe or white stiff collar and black funeral suit. I chose to wear my vintage style dress and hat and look like the lady that I am. However no matter what I wore the outfit was decent and in order.

Nothing was hanging out. I could represent Christ as one called to do the work of Kingdom building without feeling ashamed. What I see from this lady is that she has a real word that can help people. She has a platform that will show other ladies that God can still use them even if they were once in the sex trade. This is a good word but when she sat there taping with her nipples showing it made her word a joke. What really gets to me is the fact that whoever the camera person was could they have told her that her nipples were exposed?

I don't get it. People are talking and gossiping about her in a negative way. The story that my husband was watching was a man who has nothing nice to say about the black woman. He used this story as an example to further his cause of making the black woman feel less than a human in the eyes of the black man. I had to write this because these are some sensitive times and we don't need our own sisters making it worse with tomfoolery.

To end this I just have to say dear sister of the stripper pole church. Stop the foolishness and preach the word. You do have a calling on your head do what the Lord wants you to do in a way that will honor him and yourself. I don't want to see your breast. You left that life where you showed them to everyone. Now show us something else. I did love the sermon once I could stop seeing the image of you and just listened to your voice. Remember you are the daughter of a king and the child of the King of Glory carry yourself in that manner.

As a black woman I like who I am. As a child of God I love who I am. Rise up to the level that you were meant to be and leave the foolishness to the fools. And one more thing dear preacher with the nipples: You won the shut the mouth of Radical RevLa award for a life time! And as always you gotta love me...no really you do!!! 

Are you living your life or just marking time?

Living life to the fullest is a choice

I just don't know what to do these days. All that's in front of me is brand new and I'm not sure just what I'm suppose to do. Let me explain. Before I retired from my day job I had everything planned out. Each morning I was going to get up just as if I had to go to work. I would do my morning worship and then exercise. I would plan out my meals and place myself on a low calorie diet. I would have several hours of housework and then move to my office and work on my latest novel.

Once that was done I would go out and do a class or swim and then meet a friend for lunch. I would go and visit my granddaughter and my daughter for a short visit. Then return home cook dinner and then take a nap until my husband came home. I would work one day a week at my part-time job and spend quality time with my spouse. Before I retired for the night I would update my blogs, work on promoting and marketing the current book, do some work on the marriage and relationship ministry then take a nice hot bath.

I would go to sleep beside my husband after evening prayers and then wake up and do it all over again. Now I don't know what fairytale I was living in but none of this has happened yet. I'm working two days a week. All I want to do is sleep and stay in my room. Exercise and eating right has become a joke. My husband's job has changed his hours so many times that we don't know if he's working days or nights. My daughter is having another baby and leaning on me to help her with everything. The marriage ministry is growing. My first book is out and marketing and promoting is difficult and my morning worship had been off and on depending on when my husband is up or not.

Nothing has gone according to plans and I'm not living my life I'm just marking time. I must find a way to get a handle on this before I throw in the towel. When I couldn't do it because of work I was so organize. Now that I have plenty of time I just can't seem to manage anything. So I had to stop and look at what's going on with my life. I have got to find a way to live my life in peace and harmony for me. I can't let my husband , daughter, sons, or anyone else disrupt my peace. I didn't retire to lay around like a rock and do nothing. Or the things that I have done to just be in vain.

I must get a handle on the matters that are important to my life and not allow those around me to suck up my new life. So now I must look at myself for all that I'm worth and declare that I'm going to live for me and let no one take away my peace. This is the last week that I let someone else's choices reflect on me. I have been retired for a year as of this month and I have not done anything to break out of this mode.

This month Radical RevLa is going to make a change. As Michael Jackson once sang I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm not just asking him to change his ways but I'm saying "RevLa change now or shut your mouth".
Now you know I can't shut my mouth so I guess I have to make that change.

Gotta love me...and I gotta to love me first.

 Buy my new book:
Backdoor Tales: Tears of the Serpent and September Love
By:
SaBrowny Rae
 aka
 Radical RevLa

www.sabrownyraebooks.com

Radical RevLa: The Year of the Black Woman

God give me the strength to do the things that I must and to ignore those
who are trying to knock me down

You would think with this month being black history month that I wouldn't get flack when I announced on our Christian Social Network  "Feeling God" (ok we pause for a commercial break...visit http://www.feelinggod.ning.com/) that this year I had decided to honor the black woman. I heard all kinds of compliants. From "its ok to do it for a month but really a whole year" to "does the black woman really deserve to be honored in that way? What about all women? Let's not make this a racial thing!".

I was shocked to get this reaction and somewhat hurt. In all of my 59 years on this earth I really don't remember black women being honored in this way ever. Not to say it has not been done I'm just unaware. Not only that anyone that knows me both physically or virtually knows that I never look at race. Why is it when a black person expresses anything positive about their race or culture its considered a race issue. This does not happen with any other race but the black race. Then to top it off to place focus on the black woman. This is just wrong.

I was even told that the black woman is too mean to be honored. Reallyyyyyyyyyyy!!! Did the person speaking forget that they were addressing a black lady? I almost fit the sterotype when my first thought was to just slap him upside his head, but thought better of it. So what I decided to do was to honor her anyway and ....nanie...nanie...boo...boo(oh so childish RevLa).
My thinking is this: if no one else will honor me as the black woman that I am then I will and all of my sisters. As for the other races of females I honor you for being a woman as I am and sure that you as a whole have been honored more than we have so be supportive of us this year and go along. Maybe next year we will do you.

To all of the negative people this is your time to just KEEP YOUR OPINIONS ABOUT WHO I DECIDE TO HONOR TO YOURSELF! You may talk to the hand or any other body part that will listen to you because my ears will not. I love who I am. I love being the strong black woman of God that I have been created to be and sorry its time for me to say it and encourage others that may look like me to do the same. "Well RevLa you don't have to brag!" And why not? Many other races, cultures, males do the samething why can I? And frankly I don't care if you think I'm bragging or not...that is an issue that I consider is your personal problem and you should deal with that. Don't bring it to me.

"See I told you the black woman is mean and angry" Wrong, wrong, and not fair!!! Let us have the same oportunities as our counterparts both male and female. Then we have our 15min. of fame and glory then we can be placed back in the lineup. So with all of this posting said I will be writing and blogging this entire year off and on about our wonderful soul sisters. I will feature them on our social network more but here I will be doing a sound blast about whomever I feel or to just vent. When I do don't take it in the negative. Allow us to love ourselves for once. Sisters of other races we are still sisters and you know the black woman always loves. So we will never slight you but this time show your support of us.

Men of all races and those of our own please give us a chance. We have earned it and are loyal and have your back even when you are wrong. We ask that for one year that you say nice things about us. Tell a black woman just how great she is. Remember all of the races came out of the black woman.....(its been proven..something to think about).

As always I leave you with a thought to get you to my next month's post....(after this one you may not want to come back...ha,ha,ha)
If I was to make a statement that would say who the black woman was in just one sentence I would have to say the following:
She is the mother of all of mankind, she loves hard and long, she carries her heavy load with her head held high, she has a deep spirituality and believes the Word of God as law, she takes care of her man, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, siblings, church members, co-workers, and the needy, she quietly absorbs insults to her appearance, character, intellect, ablilites, and anything that other woman are praised for, she is made fun of, called out of her name and laughed at yet you never see her sweat, she prays hard and long for everyone, and many times she does not take the time to love or take care of herself, she crys long and hard alone out of sight so no one will call her weak, she is a loyal friend and strong adversary, and for the most part she is a true child of God.
This is my opinion in one sentence as to whom the black woman is.

Really it is one sentence....I didn't say it was not going to be a run-on sentence...ha,ha,ha
Gotta love me...I am the typical Afro-American Black Christian Preacher Woman
(I know bad RevLa...bad...bad...bad)
Until next time kiss the next black woman you see and tell her she is loved.

Radical RevLa: I'm Free Just Being Me

Free at Last to just be me. Such great Joy


Why did it take me so long to be free and comfortable just being me?  After all who really could be Radical RevLa but me. I realize now its always been a big job being me.
Not that I'm all that as the young kids would say but looking back over my 59 years of living it has dawned on me that I'm a bit much.

Had I been my own mother I would have ran away from me as quickly as I could. Let's face it God knew all that would be needed to deal with a radical such as I am so He gave me not just one mother but two. One that gave birth to me and one who raised me from the age of 3 months until adulthood. In fact it was the passing away of my mother (the one who loved and raised me and didn't have to) that has sparked this wonderful sense of freedom.

Her passing has had me refelecting on myself as a person. Most of the time I'm so critical about myself. Always looking in the mirror and finding all of the flaws. Too fat, too old, too gray, too, too, too! But this time I've stood in the mirror and said "you know kid you are not that bad" It seemed like once my ears hear those words a feeling of peace over took me. I no longer really cared what anyone said or thought about me. I was free!

Free to live my life as God has called me to do. Free to look the way I want to. Free to loose weight or gain weight or to stay the same it didn't matter because ....guess what? I'm free!!! Oh the joy I feel. The peace I'm enjoying and the love I have gain leaves me speechless...(yeah right!!)

So for those who can not understand why I smile when I know people around me are talking bad about me. For those who can't seem to understand why I dress as if I walked out of a vintage fair on a Sunday morning. For those who just can't seem to understand how I can do a thousand things at one time but look as if I'm doing nothing. Then I will give you my answer
I AM FREE!!!
As Martin Luther King said
"FREE AT LAST ....FREE AT LAST...THANK GOD ALMIGHTY I'M FREE AT LAST!!!

THE JOY OF BEING FREE IN MY OWN SKIN
PRICELESS!!!

Radical Vashti: A Queen Who Chose To Be Deposed Rather Than Disrespected

Queen Vashti refused to come, then the king became furious and burned with anger.

Who is Queen Vashti and why should she be included in our series of radical women? How important could she really be since she was talked about for less than one and a half pages in the book of Esther. For those of us that know the bible we remember the two books in the Old Testament that has a woman as the main character. It is Ruth and Esther. In the book of Esther the focus is on her and the bold move that she took to save God's people the Jews. However before we get to Queen Esther there is another queen that made a bold move that in my opinion showed the ancient world that women were more than just an object to be treated any old kind of way.

Queen Vashti was married to Xerxes the king over Persia from 486 to 465 B.C. The Persians defeated the Babylonians who had captured the Jews and placed them in exile. Now with their defeat and capture the Jewish exiles were transferred to Persia. The capital city of Susa was the setting for the story of Esther under the  reign of King Xerxes I. So our story opens with the King of Persia Xerxes showing off his vast wealth for 180 days. After showing off his wealth he decided to have a party for all of his boys. (Now you must remember this is Radical RevLa's version).

King Xerxes had the best settings for his boys. The best hangings of linen fastened with white and purple materials with silver cords. In other words he brought out all of the good stuff to impress his guys with his wealth. He commanded his wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. They were allowed to drink all that they wanted. The King had their wine served in goblets of gold each different from the others and wine was plentiful the party was in high gear and on the seventh day old King Xerxes was about to take it up a notch.

Visual time: Picture a bunch of ancient rowdy men drinking to their hearts content. All yelling and cursing at the same time. Can you see them now "hey the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire....there's a party over here and there's a party over there...just throw your hands up in the air and wave them like you just don't care...its party time!!!!.....ha,ha,ha nothing like an ancient drunken boy party...OK visual over back to the point.

While all of this partying was going on Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal place. Visual time: The Queen and her ladies sitting around drinking tea...pinkies up in the air. Tea cookies and sandwiches. Dressed to kill latest ancient designer shoes.....ha,ha,ha...I know bad RevLa...but really the ladies were being just that and the men were off the royal chain. By day 7 it all came to a head.

According to the Word it states : "On the seventh day, when King Xerxes was in high spirits from wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs who served him to bring before him Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles, for she was lovely to look at."
Translation: These men were beyond drunk...the king was now ready to humiliate the queen. He wanted her to come down naked except for her crown and to display her beauty in front of a room full of drunks. He wanted to let these men without any sense of self-control to see her in the nude. His wife and the queen of his land to be put on display like a common whore.

When the eunuchs came with the kings request the Words tells us this: "but when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger."
Sidebar Ladies: Queen Vashti is my kind of woman. She had heard this party going on for days. All this drinking and yelling. Now after seven days of this foolishness the king had the audacity to have some man without genitals to come and command her to come to the hall with who knows how many drunks. Not only was she to come but she the queen was to come nude wearing only a crown. Really...did he really think that anyone would come like that during that time....a roomful of drunks....absolutely no way!!!

So basically Queen Vashti just didn't come. King Xerxes was so amazed that she didn't follow his orders that he didn't know what to do. I mean here we have the conqueror of nations. The bad boy of the ancient world and this Woman had the very nerve not to follow his orders. He was so messed up that he had to call in his experts consults to decide what he could legally do. These men had to put their heads together to figure out what to do with this lady who just was not going  to let a bunch of drunks humiliate her. So these so called great men and leaders of their day came together to decide how to handle Queen Vashti.

You must understand King Xerxes struck fear in the hearts of everyone. What he said was law. You could be killed even if you were his wife and approached him without permission. Now he had been disobeyed by a woman. Who did she think she was??? Not only that Ms. Vashti had set a standard. One that if the other women seen what she did and how she disobeyed they too would follow. According to the word it states: For the queen's conduct will become know to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she would not come. This very day the Persian and Median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to all the king's nobles in the same way. There will be no end of disrespect and discord."

The men were afraid that the other women would follow her lead. These ancient men knew that if the women did this they would never be able to control them again. So they came together and decided to stop the women in their tracts before things got out of hand. They told the king that he had to come up with a royal decree and have it written into law that Queen Vashti was never again allowed to be in the presence of the king. Also the king was to give her royal position to someone else who was better than she. Translation: Not a woman who was better but one who would do what she was told even if it meant to come into a room full of drunk men naked!!!

They thought this would make the other women respect the men. RevLa's opinion: I think that secretly the Persian and Median women praised their queen for her stand and dignity. They might not have been able to outright show it but Queen Vashti gave away everything to be her own person. She was not the focus of the book of Esther. She was the lesser queen but to me I feel she too was great. Queen Vashti only held a few pages in the very beginning of the book of Esther. The story was about the Jews and how they were saved via this brave Jewish queen. That's God's greatest story but I see God showing us as ladies another one. 

Vashti shows us that we should never allow our dignity to be taken lightly. We should love ourselves enough that we can give up everything that this material world has to offer without looking back to maintain respect for who we are and who God made us to be. We were created from great stock and God created us as a gift. We are really something and we can not let any man reduce us down to nothing. An ancient pagan woman showed us that in no way should we allow anyone man or woman to disrespect us. Ladies we should never forget Radical Vashti. She gave up what most people would look at as everything but walked away with her self respect. She walked away with her head held high and a place in history as one of the world's greatest woman that ever lived. While I love what Esther did and trust me you will meet Radical Esther we can and should never over look Radical Vashti.

So who is Radical Vashti and why should she be included in our radical women series?
She is just one of the bravest women of her time and ours. To me she is the beginning of the women's movement. She stood for everything that's great in being a woman. She is a great example of love and respect for yourself as a woman. We as ladies of today should take notes from this great lady and never allow any man to compromise us in anyway form or fashion. The other great thing that she showed us is the power we really have. The bravest most vicious men of the ancient world was afraid that a little woman who refused to be placed on display would change the thinking of all the other women and that they would never have control if that happen. Hint, hint ladies can you see our real power and strength??? It dwells within our being. We can make or break the world if we would just trust in our Lord and ourselves but then that's another blog.

Radical Vashti we want you to know that we have not forgotten you. You are not just a one page wonder. You are a true woman of God who when faced with a decision that could cost you your life and your crown you chose to stand up for the dignity and respect of womankind. We thank you for that!!!

Radical Vashti a Queen who chose to be deposed rather than Disrespected!!!