The following video may include language that is not suitable for children there could be s-bombs s-bombs and other forms of word vomit i would not watch this in a church i would not watch this while at work i would not watch this with my fam
I’m trying to warn you i really am this is a christian channel but i cover secular content on that note hide your kids and hydra wise to bglo or not to bglo that is the question no seriously that’s the question dear miss titus 2. that’s me dear miss
Titus 2. there wasn’t a place for me to directly ask you this so i’m on the most recent video could you do a should christians join sororities fraternities video next question please uh when did i become this controversy i miss titus 2 okay miss titus if you sense a slight hesitation for me
It’s because i’m well aware of all the smoke i can catch depending on the direction this video takes who i look like bone crusher i got my limits all right but lucky for y’all see i ain’t scared of catching no smoke i walk on the wild side
I laugh in the face of danger [Laughter] semi scared smidge smidge scared of catching some smoke all jokes aside i had a few people reach out and ask me to do a video on this so here we are the debate continues as to whether or not christians should pledge fraternities and sororities
Now in this video we’re going to specifically focus on bglos or black greek letter organizations mainly because this is an urban apologetics channel and i like to talk about things that directly affect the black church and trust me when i say black greek life quite often intersects
Black church life as you can probably already tell this is kind of a sensitive topic so i did want to make the disclaimer that it’s not my intention to demonize anyone who’s currently a member of a black greek letter organization i got family members close friends and
Fellow co-laborers in the faith who are greek so this video is not an indictment on individuals who are in these organizations or even the organizations themselves this is me answering a question feel free to agree or disagree all i ask is that you leave me a comment in the comment section when
This is over so now that all the pleasantries are out of the way let’s jump into it should christians pledge yes or no i’m gonna keep it a book with y’all i don’t like divine membership for the christian for several reasons in my opinion i think it’s best for christians to
Avoid pledging divine organizations because i believe they cultivate a culture of hazing sexual immorality and a culture that promotes elitism idolatry syncretism and the practices of freemasonry all while claiming to be based on christian principles okay i know that was a mouthful and a lot to unpack
Unfortunately i won’t be able to hit all those points in this video but if you haven’t already make sure you subscribe to my channel and hit the notification bell so that you can get the notification next time i post a video about this well i’m sure you’re probably wondering
How it is that i arrived at my position on this and well i read my bible i read the rituals i talked to people who are currently members i talked to people who’ve renounced i watched renounced videos i watched anti-renounced videos i read books i read articles so
Trust me when i say i didn’t take this lightly at all and that’s partially because i knew i would be walking into this with my own personal bias usually these videos are more effective when the person actually pledged an organization right well i tried to pledge in college but they didn’t pick me
Me they didn’t pick me that’s okay because i didn’t want to be in a sorority anyway No i’m not right yeah that’s a story for another day um but i’m only telling you guys this for the sake of transparency so yeah i never pledged and i’ve been in church circles that weren’t exactly pro-greek so i admit that could possibly infringe upon my ability to look at this objectively
But in all fairness we all got biased right you can accuse me all day long being bitter because i didn’t make it and guess what that might be true me they didn’t pick me but i can flip that thing around see and say maybe you’re trying to justify it
Because you’re already in it or because you want to be in it here’s the thing truth isn’t determined by bias or subjective feelings it’s determined by evidence message does the evidence support that greek life complements or clashes with biblical christianity the depictions of black greek life in hollywood films many times
Paints a horrific picture of fraternities and sororities while overlooking their positive contributions to the black community movies like school days and more recently the netflix film burning sands will have you thinking that anybody in a fraternity is some deranged callous person with a chip on their shoulder
Don’t get it twisted now bglos have a long history of hazing and people have literally died trying to pledge we’ll get to that later however i just wanted to point out that isolated tragedies aren’t necessarily a representation of the organizations at large i said it earlier i know
A lot of great people who pledge black greek letter organizations and if i’m being 100 honest greek life actually enhanced my college experience and i wouldn’t even greet i mean mphc was always putting on a whole bunch of really really cool events yet talent shows step shows yard shows
Cultural events pageants fashion shows probates community service opportunities i mean the list could go on and for a lot of young black college students they see these things and they want to participate in it they want this on their resume they want to be able to step they want to be able
To stroll they want to be able to go to parties and party walk they want to be accepted and they want to be a part of something that for a lot of people signifies black excellence and you know what i can respect that because i wanted it too in the grand scheme of
Things it looks like most people who decided to pledge had an overall positive experience so if bglos have such a good reputation and they promote high academic standards community service and leadership skills then why are so many christians on the fence about pledging and why have others decided to remove
Themselves from the organizations and publicly renounce i think that christians who side with me on this issue let’s say our concern isn’t with the good that the organizations have done because in reality i mean they’ve done a lot of good a lot a lot of good however in recognizing they’re good we
Can’t turn a blind eye to the bad because in all fairness a lot of bad things have been done in the name of pledging but before i get into all that i did want to back up just a little bit and define some terms i know for some people black greek life is
A bit of a mystery especially if you didn’t attend to college or maybe if you attended a pwi where d9 organizations may not have been present there are nine black greek letter organizations hence the name divine nine divine nine isn’t the official name but all of the organizations
Are a part of an umbrella organization known as the national panhellenic council or nphc nphc is comprised of five fraternities alpha phi alpha omega sci-fi kappa alpha psi phi beta sigma and iota phi theta the four nphc sororities are alpha kappa alpha delta sigma theta zeta phi beta and sigma gamma rho this
Might sound like a lot of information but trust me you pick it up real quick when you’re living on campus i knew absolutely nothing about d9 organizations before college but it didn’t take long to catch on especially when i decided that i wanted to at least try to join one
The allure of pledging is so strong for so many students and i mean some people have literally been groomed for this their entire lives but to circle back to the original point of this video whether or not a christian decides to pledge should be very well thought out
There’s way more to pledging than just community service step shows and wearing letters around on campus i mean you may have to say things or do things that the bible specifically instructs christians not to do greeks will tell you repeatedly to do your research before joining an organization and i for one
Think that is excellent advice but don’t let your research start and end by reading the history of the organization on their national website read through their rituals talk to people on your campus look at the culture of the organizations or greek life as a hold on your campus
Talk to people at your church people who are in them and people who are not in them find out why people pledge find out why people decided that they didn’t want to pledge i mean do your research and most importantly read your bible find out whether or not the things that are promoted
And are required for you to do in this organization line up with what the word of god says and keep in mind that these organizations prioritize secrecy so there are some things you just are not going to know until after you join which is a major red flag for me because
This is a lifetime commitment and according to some of these ritual books it’s an eternal commitment what can i say this is a serious matter yes a very serious matter yes yes see what i did there earlier in the video i mentioned that in my opinion greek life cultivates a culture of
Sexual immorality you’ll see a lot of this on display at their social events like the parties the step shows and the probates now i gotta admit i didn’t do a whole lot of partying in undergrad what can i say i got two left feet actual footage of me dancing at a party But i did love going to the step shows and the probates if you don’t know what a step show is go watch the movie stomp the yard it’ll explain everything according to step africa stepping is a style of dance where your body literally becomes an instrument
So you use it to step clap and perform spoken word now i still appreciate step shows to this day because i feel like they showcased a lot of black talent in a space where it could be celebrated the singing the dancing and the creativity that you get to see
At step shows and probates is something that i just absolutely have to applaud performance is an art that has been perfected by bglos in my opinion i say what i said but even in the beauty of it all there are parts of some of these performance pieces that aren’t so pretty probates and
Special presentations whatever you want to call it probably some of the most anticipated events of the school year for black students a probate is a ceremony where the fraternities and the sororities showcase their newest members to the entire campus and it’s usually a public event so people invite family friends extended family and
Everybody in between there’s a lot of anticipation built up at these probates because most of this is done in secret so nobody really is supposed to know who’s online until it’s revealed at the probate if you’re wondering why people call it a probate it’s because the initiates are
Considered to be on probation until they have officially become members of the organization probate so what happens is the new people usually come out in masks sometimes sororities will have girls and wigs or sunglasses something to hide their identity at most probates you’re going to see some type of skits performed
I’m not going to believe this but uh i didn’t get the breakfast there will most definitely be singing you’re gonna hear the organization’s history being recited really really fast founded january 16th 1920 on the campus howard university washington dc by the triumphant arizona clever simmons the triumphant pearl and anil the
Trailer for murder tyler fabel the triumphant biola tyler gomez trying for fanny petty watts from the principal the scholarship service since we love an idyllic rhino womanhood and you’re probably gonna see them perform their organization signature routines hey i just wanted you to tell me but it’s also possible that you may see
Some performances that are extremely seductive and sexual i’ma keep it a bug with y’all some of these probates are flat out Raunchy [Applause] not so much from the sororities although some of the dancing at these parties and step shows can be a bit suggestive It’s usually the guys who are blatantly in your face nasty [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] interestingly enough there’s a reason why fraternities have routines that are raunchy and sororities usually do not for anybody who’s interested in learning more about the history and culture of bglos i recommend you reading the book african american fraternities and sororities in the chapter entitled variegated roots by author carol d
Branch she talks about the origins of the crew joking and attributes it to the mainstream preconception of the oversexed black male brent states that the overt sexuality found in the braggadocio of jokes and toast is continued in the party chants and stepped for black fraternities this exaggeration of the sexual
Abilities of the performers raises the street stature of the individual and thus the organization these behaviors stay firmly in the aesthetic of these oral phenomena by exploiting the idea of the over-endowed extremely sexual black male this is illustrated by the existence of chants such as the following
This leg well it’s my hurt leg this leg well it’s all right this leg points to the window this leg points to the wall this leg well it’s my third leg and it races down the hall this step was performed by members of alpha phi alpha at a 1996 yard show at ucla
At the end of the performance the audience laughed and looked at the antics of the entertainers understanding that the step routine was the satire of the long-lived stereotype of black men branch goes on to say that sororities rarely perform routines drawing on a hypersexual stereotype kirsten smith artistic director of step
Africa states that when she attended college in the 1980s sexually explicit themes were only carried out by the men and were only done at the block show where very few elders attended this was a picnic thrown by the students florida students sexually explicit themes were never meant to be performed
At the step show during homecoming where families attended i have never heard of sexually explicit themes done by women at the graduate level to brazenly spew sexually explicit themes in the name of any public service sorority or fraternity is the ultimate form of disrespect to our elders and to our respective organizations
Rather than draw on overt sexual imagery sororities such as sigma gamma roll and aka brag about their members ability to take any woman’s man and to be the object of all men’s desires this is my mickey and this is [Applause] because he’d rather be with beauty now let’s look at all this from a biblical perspective ephesians 5 1 says therefore be imitators of god as dearly love children and walk in love as the messiah also loved us and gave himself for us a sacrificial and fragrant offering to
God but sexual immorality in any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you as is proper for saints course and foolish talking or cruel joking are not suitable but rather giving thanks for no one recognize this every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person who is an idolater
Does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of the messiah and of god based on that alone i think it’s safe to say that christians should not be performing in public strip shows or reciting sexual innuendos in song of solomon 8 4 it says young women of jerusalem i charge you
Do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time so ladies don’t be impressed by a cute dog humping the floor and if a sigma asks you if you had your wood today you tell him get the steppin a matter of fact if a new call you talking about
Some the new is damn near flawless leaving girls drawless the new is all this you hit him with the that’s it that’s all and to the guys who want to pledge a fraternity consider whether or not you will be willing to compromise by doing any kind of sexual performance and in
Front of your mama at that and also consider whether or not you want to surround yourself with other men who are not only playing the role of a pervert for a step show but also practicing being a pervert behind closed doors and that goes for any of your friends for eternity or not
Remember what the apostle paul said in first corinthians 15 33 bad company corrupts good character as christians we already know that premarital sex is wrong so it’s best to not even flirt with the appearance of it and circling back to the ladies ask yourself is it a godly aspiration to
Want to be the object of all men’s desires oh hell no listen to solomon don’t awaken love before it’s time somebody’s fraternity man will break your heart girl and keep this in mind too we have the responsibility as believers to treat each other as brothers and sisters in christ love
Won’t try to seduce somebody that you’re not married to and it would not boast in the idea that you could take somebody else’s man well that’s all i got for you guys in this video but if you enjoyed it be sure to give me a thumbs up
And share it on your social media platforms and please subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already last but not least be on the lookout for my next video on hazing trust me when i say you won’t want to miss it shalom grace and peace you
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