An unbreakable spiritual brotherhood and bond

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Aug 1, 2017 - 10:47:34 AM

Min. Farrakhan joined other clergy in recognizing the 44 year ministry of Rev. Willie Wilson (seated) and his wife Rev. Mary Wilson (far left).

WASHINGTON—For 62 years now, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has run the dangerous course, angering the wicked rulers of this country and the world by faithfully representing the message of salvation and deliverance meant for the downtrodden and dispossessed Black men and women in the United States.

Audience applauds during uplifting spiritual program at Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. celebrating the ministry and work of Rev. Willie Wilson and his wife Rev. Mary Wilson on July 30.

He has championed and been the top representative and vicegerent of his leader, teacher and guide, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. When many critics, detractors and even former students turned away from the wisdom, guidance and teaching of the Nation of Islam patriarch, Min. Farrakhan endured and rebuilt his father’s house. Min. Farrakhan, like his father, has faced and endured hardship and betrayal and had former allies turn their backs on him.

But for 40 years now, the Minister has had an unshakeable ally—the Rev. Willie Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church, one of the pillars of liberation theology in the Nation’s capital. Since 1977, when Rev. Wilson first opened his pulpit to Minister Farrakhan—losing half of his congregation who walked out in protest—the two men have marched in lockstep, preaching, executing the Million Man March and four anniversary commemorations.

Today, even after 40 years of comradeship, the Rev. Wilson said July 30 as he introduced his guest preacher during the Rev. Wilson’s 44th pastoral anniversary, people still ask him on the Internet, “Why would a Christian pastor invite a Muslim to speak in his church? Some, say I’m not even a Christian.”

“I’m not a Christian,” the pastor said. “Christianity is a manmade construct which is used to oppress and to rob the poor.” There is no separate Christian god and a Muslim god. “We are here today because we understand that there is only one God. And it is that one God that has sustained our relationship for these 40 years,” he said.

His preaching, and the message to be delivered by Minister Farrakhan, the Rev. Wilson said, is a “message of liberation, a message of redemption.”

“It is with great pride that I present to you, my brother, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. You will hear from a great man of God, a fearless man of God, a strong man of God, a powerful man of God, who has stood when people don’t like it, who has stood when they do like it, and who has dared to speak truth to power,” he said.

Rev. Wilson and Min. Farrakhan embrace.

Minister Farrakhan acknowledged the Rev. Wilson, his wife the Rev. Mary Wilson, who is executive pastor of the church, as well as a special dais guest, the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, pastor emeritus of New Bethel Baptist Church, and then pointed out some basic truths underlying what’s known as the “Abrahamic religions —Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—all of which claim the Prophet Abraham as their “Father of the Faithful,” and “a friend of God.”

Moses gave the world 10 commandments, said Min. Farrakhan, but Jesus only gave two: Love God with all your heart and soul; and love your brother/neighbor like you love yourself. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught his followers that he was teaching the religion of Abraham—before it was called Judaism; before Jesus arrived on the scene; and before Prophet Muhammad, Peace be Upon those worthy servants of God (Allah)—the religion of the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth.

We are living in the time of the end of the White man’s time to rule, and Black people are beginning to hear the “real Jesus,” the Muslim leader said, the Jesus who can save them from the White man, and from what White folks turned Black people into.

“If you don’t separate from them,” you will find out “they are on their way to hell, and you are on your way with them,” Min. Farrakhan said.

People who have joined Union Temple with the Minister’s “brother, companion, and friend,” have found “a different kind of preacher, with a liberating spirit,” he said.

The Minister reflected that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad only went to the fourth grade in school; Brother Malcolm X went to the eighth grade; Muhammad Ali finished high school; and he went to his third year of college. Yet when Min. Farrakhan went to Mecca, Arabia, to confer with other Islamic scholars, he told them he had come to them already “with Islam.” He did not go to them to “study Islam.” Mr. Muhammad’s teaching is based on “revelation, not scholarship,” the Minister explained.

Audience members applaud during program.

Min. Farrakhan delivered a poignant and powerful message to audience at Union Temple Baptist Church.

Minister Farrakhan’s appearances at Union Temple have often preceded monumental journeys he has taken. Before each of his globe-circling World Friendship Tours, the Muslim leader said he always spoke at the church before his departure.

“What journey am I about to make now?” the Minister asked, rhetorically, dropping in promises that he was personally not about to retire, while making references to the succession struggles that confronted movements and organizations throughout history, when charismatic leaders have left the scene.

“I don’t represent no fake Jesus, because if what is in me was not greater than what is in the world, the world would have crushed me a long time ago. But the more you look at me, and the more you listen to me, you will know that there’s a power with me and that same power is with my brother, otherwise they would have crushed him.

“So the real power that kept him going for 44 years is the same power that gives fuel to the Sun. Who gives fuel to the Sun? It is the love of God Himself and His Spirit that energizes the Sun. The Bible says: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, sayeth the Lord.’

“This crap that they call knowledge cannot transform human life. It’s revelation from God, and the proper exegesis of scripture that will transform our lives. So that when you really meet Jesus The Christ and he lays his hand on you, you become a new creature,” the Minister continued.

Rev. Wilson delivers remarks before a packed house on July 30.

“A new creature is not a new nigger that talks like the same old nigger, but he does his new nigger talk in the name of the white Jesus. He compromises the word of God. If you compromise the gospel, the true gospel of Christ to win favor of the world, you are no longer of Jesus. In fact you probably never were. Because if the Spirit of God is in you for that word and for that Jesus, you have to stand on that word.

“I thank God for my brother and his 44 years. I thank God for our friendship of 40 years. I thank God for guiding me for 40 years, absent my teacher. So, my next journey will have to answer the question, I know that my redeemer liveth. I know. I’m not guessing that my Jesus is alive. I know that my redeemer liveth, and because he lives, I know that I too will pass through the portal of death, but death will not afflict me.

“So I say to the devil: ‘I know I gotta pay a price for what I have been teaching all these years. You can have the money. You can have the clothes. You can have the suit. You can have the house, but me … you can’t have.’ I have run the race. I have finished my course. And now is laid up for me a crown, and I go to my father to get my crown. And my crown ain’t no physical crown, it’s the wisdom of the next 10,000 years. Take it or let it alone.”

The Union Temple church service itself, “prayed me into this talk,” Minister Farrakhan said in his conclusion. “You prayed me into this talk. Ya’ll sang your brother into this talk. I think I’ve earned my ticket to see the father of my life. And I’m not talking about dying.”

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