Rebuilding The Family
by Minister Louis Farrakhan

In The Name of  Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

On March 12th, Pope John Paul II apologized for the sins of the Catholic Church against the Native peoples and other religious beliefs. He apologized for the use of violence that some Christians have committed in the service of "truth." The United States was settled by persons who claimed the love of Jesus Christ, yet, our fathers were sold, bought, transported, sold again, and bought again mostly by so-called Christians and Jews.

The great sin that has been committed against Black people, in particular, is the destruction of the Black male and the corruption of the Black female; the denial of our natural right to marriage and the raising of a family. This purposeful destruction of us can never be corrected by an apology, but, the apology, the acknowledgment and confession of sin, is the prerequisite step toward doing that which will repair the damage that has been done. The destruction of the Black family is a sin of huge proportion, therefore, the effort to rebuild this family must be aided by those who destroyed the family, and, the responsibility of helping must be accepted by the generations that have benefited from the institutional slavery and the destruction of our families.

We can never rebuild the family without starting where Allah (God) started in the beginning. He started by the creation or the making of man and woman.

Therefore, the Million Man March and the Million Woman March was our first step in the process of rebuilding the Black man and woman. However, unless we destroy the effect of White Supremacy, on our men and women, we will not be able to make man and woman again in the image or likeness of Allah (God). White Supremacy, and its resulting racism, has poisoned the systems of religion, education, justice, governance, and economics. Until there comes from Allah (God) that which is able to penetrate the heart and mind of the Black man and woman and destroy that mind produced by White Supremacy, we will never be able to build a family that properly reflects the values that Allah (God) desires manifested among us. There is no school of higher learning that can help us in this regard.

It will take the intervention of Allah (God) to enable us to escape the sphere of influence of the philosophy of White Supremacy and the racist institutions that have sprung from it.

In the Bible, the Apostle Paul admonishes the early Christians in these words: "Be not conformed to this world, but, be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds."

All of us who are educated by our former slave masters and their children are trained in the educational system to conform to this world. We are trained theologically to conform to this world, and, those who find it difficult to conform are classified as social misfits who end up on drugs, in prison, or suffering untimely death, but, those who conform are the ones that society accepts and puts upon them a stamp of approval. How can there ever be a renewing of our minds except that something comes to our ears that does not come from the architects of this world. It is this that is feared most by the present rulers.

It is written in the scriptures, "Behold I make all things new. There will be a new heaven, a new earth and the former things shall pass away."

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that this means a new spiritual and political reality that will replace the old spiritual and political reality. This does not necessarily mean that there will come to us a new book, but, it does mean a fresh new approach, understanding and interpretation of the Word of Allah (God) that will break us out of conformity to a world that is in opposition to Allah (God) by bringing to us that which will renew our minds and give us a new way of thinking that will result in a new way of behaving. It is this new understanding that must be applied to make a new man, a new woman, a new family.

Again, the scripture teaches, "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. I am from above while you are from beneath."

This teaches us that our thoughts and our ways are far beneath what Allah (God) desires for us. Therefore, what we have produced as the man, the woman, and the family by our thoughts, and, our ways are far beneath the man, the woman and the family that Allah (God) desires for us.

So, in order for us to make a new family, we have to return to Him who created the man, the woman and the family and we must be willing to accept His Thoughts and His Ways.

[Next Week - What are His Thoughts and His Ways.]