Denouncing The Divine Nine! Demonic!

0:00 [music] >> I want to begin in an uncomfortable place because I think this is where the conversation actually starts. Before we talk about devils, demons, Greek letters, Prince Hall Masonry, the Divine Nine, Gnosticism, heresy, paganism, or the Illuminati, we first need to talk about adult agency. A lot of people who denounce black Greek letter organizations speak about their initiation as if they were children at the time, toddlers or pre-pubescent teens.

0:46 They talk as if they were hypnotized, spiritually seduced, dragged into an occult chamber, and stripped of every ability to think, question, or resist, or walk away. But in most cases, >> [music] >> that's just not an honest description of what happened. Yes, undergraduate pledges are young. They can be impressionable. They can be hungry for belonging, recognition, legacy, and status. They can want the jacket, the call, the stroll, the network, the mystique, and the social capital that comes with the letters. But they're still adults. And if we're going to talk seriously about pledging, ritual hazing, secrecy,

1:33 and religious denunciation, we cannot begin by pretending that adults have no agency simply because they later regret what they chose. Now let me be clear because this point can be easily twisted. I don't defend extreme hazing. Meaning, I don't defend anything that's deadly, reckless sadistic sexually humiliating permanently psychologically, or physically damaging, or designed merely to let older members play tyrant over younger members. No organization gets to hide cruelty behind tradition. No pledge or prospective member should

2:21 be broken down just so someone else can feel powerful. But I also reject the childish idea that every demanding initiation is automatically abuse. That's historically and culturally unserious. Across the world, cultures have used rites of passage that involve pain, sacrifice ordeal discipline endurance fear fasting isolation exhaustion silence testing and symbolic death and rebirth. These rituals were not always designed to make the initiate comfortable. Sometimes, the point was transformation through ordeal. Sometimes [music] the initiate had to be separated from ordinary life, tested, humbled, and then

3:10 brought back into the community with a new identity. So, the real question is not whether an initiation involves struggle. The question is whether the struggle has meaning, limits, accountability, and a transformative purpose. Because there's a difference between ordeal and abuse, sacrifice and sadism, discipline and domination. Meaning, there's a difference [music] between a rite of passage and a grown person using tradition as a permission to be cruel. That's my position, and I'm standing on it 10 toes down. Initiates need something to go through because if there's no ordeal at all, no test, no sacrifice, no discipline, no

3:57 nothing, then the passage can become little more than paperwork and loose [music] social association. But once struggle becomes deadly, excessive, arbitrary, or detached [music] from any kind of moral formation, then the tradition has been corrupted, and that distinction matters. But what I'm challenging is something different. I'm challenging the move from I was hurt to the organization is demonic. I'm challenging the move from this process went too far to everyone who remains is spiritually corrupt. I'm basically challenging the move from personal disappointment to metaphysical accusation.

4:44 Now, that move matters because [music] once the devil enters into the explanation, a whole different structure of conversation begins. We're no longer talking about peer pressure, ambition, hazing culture, institutional failure, or bad judgment, adult regret, or unresolved injury. We're talking about demons and idolatry. We're talking about people selling their souls. And once you frame the issue that way, you don't have to have any kind of elevated understanding. You don't have to understand the history of these organizations. You don't have to understand ritual. You don't have to understand why black people built these institutions in the first place. You just point, condemn, and move on.

5:29 But that's just too easy. What I find disturbing is the pure and innocent act after the fact. Some people wanted the letters. They wanted the status. They wanted the prestige. They wanted the network, and they wanted the recognition. I mean, basically, they wanted to be seen as part of something that other people could not easily enter. Then, after the process wounded them, disappointed them, embarrassed them, or failed to deliver what they imagined, they turned around and declared the whole thing demonic. And that's where the sour grapes begin. Not because every criticism is false, some criticisms are valid, >> [music] >> but because the denunciation often arrives after the desire has already been satisfied.

6:15 They wanted in. They got in. They benefited from the aura of being in. Then, after the fact, they tell the story as if they were innocent lambs led into a cult slaughter. I don't buy it. This is not just about Greek letter organizations. It's part of a larger pattern in black public life, >> [music] >> especially where religion, fame, resentment, and conspiracy thinking meet. Because we have a long habit of explaining excellence through suspicion. Take the old Robert Johnson myth. Now, according to the legend, Johnson was an ordinary blues guitarist until [music] he met the devil at the crossroads. The devil tuned his guitar, and suddenly [music] Johnson became

7:02 extraordinary. Now, this is a powerful story. It has drama and folklore, >> [music] >> and it has that old black southern gothic flavor cooked into it. But, as an explanation of skill, it's nonsense. Nobody becomes great by supernatural shortcuts. Greatness comes through practice, attention repetition discipline obsession imitation innovation pain >> [music] >> and timing. But, the myth lets people avoid all of that. Instead of saying, "That man worked his ass off," they say, "Something dark must have happened." And that's the point. The myth turns discipline into magic and it turns [music] talent into

7:48 corruption and it makes excellence look suspicious. We see the same pattern in modern entertainment culture. I remember back when Katt Williams went on Club Shay Shay. I [music] think it was in 2024 and he talked about an alleged Illuminati-style meeting involving himself and Ludacris. >> Are you related to Ludacris? >> No, so there was a crossroads where we were both invited to an Illuminati thing [music] and it had to be one or the other of us and decisions had to be made. So it was both of us, we were equal. One of us had to cut off all their hair and couldn't do the sideburn thing no more with the points. And the next person they said was going

8:34 to get [music] $200 million because they were going to pay him $10 million a movie to do [music] 20 movies. And that's how the conversation happened. One of those persons turned out to be Ludacris and the [music] other person turned out to be Katt Williams. I didn't get it. I'm not >> [music] >> mad about it. >> How much money they give you? 200 sir. Fast and Furious is on what number right now? >> Now, I was less interested in the gossip than in the structure of the argument he was making. Katt Williams presents himself as clean but Ludacris is implied to be compromised. Success becomes morally suspicious in

9:20 this framing and fame becomes evidence of some hidden bargain. I think what Katt Williams was doing, quite frankly, was representing the crossroads myth in a modern suit. Now, let me be clear. I'm not naive about the entertainment industry. Gatekeepers are real. Exploitation is real. Nepotism, real. Favoritism, real. Some people get opportunities because of access that other people never receive. But, opening a door is not the same thing as mastery. A connection might put you in the room, but it can't make you charismatic, palatable to a specific public.

10:05 It can't make you disciplined. It can't make you memorable or durable. At some point, you have to be able to do something, and you have to have a quality or characteristic that people desire. And that's the part of conspiracy thinking that usually gets ignored. And this brings us back to the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masonry. So, there's a class of religious critics who look at black fraternal and sororal organizations and immediately cry idolatry. They see Greek letters and think false [music] gods. They see ritual and think demons. They see secrecy and think Illuminati. They see oaths and think occult contracts.

10:51 But, before we accept that interpretation, we should ask some basic questions. What's the evidence? What's the history? What does the ritual actually mean within the life of the organization? What kind of people have these institutions produced? And most importantly, where are the works of the people doing all of this condemning? Because condemnation is easy, but building is hard. So, [music] this is not merely a defense of Greek letter organizations. It's a critique of lazy condemnation. It's a critique of religious arrogance. It is a critique of people who mistake suspicion for knowledge and it's a critique of people who convert regret

11:38 into revelation. So, if you want to criticize hazing, criticize hazing. If you want to be critical of elitism, be critical of elitism. If you want to criticize hypocrisy, criticize hypocrisy. But, don't smuggle all of that into devil talk and pretend that you've made an argument. That's not analysis. That's accusation >> [music] >> dressed up as theology. And I ain't buying it. Across certain African-American Christian circles, there's been a growing suspicion of organizations like the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Freemasonry.

12:24 The accusation is usually framed in spiritual terms. These organizations are said to involve false gods, pagan rituals, [music] demonic oaths, secret allegiances, or covenants that compromise Christian faith. >> [music] >> For the critics, membership is not simply participation in a social, educational professional civic or service organization. It becomes a spiritual contract. It becomes a hidden act of worship. It becomes a betrayal of God. Once the issue is framed that way, the critic gets to stand up a position of moral superiority. He no longer has to ask what these organizations have done, and he doesn't

13:09 have to study their history. He does not have to distinguish between abuse and ritual, or between symbolism and worship. He just declares the whole thing corrupt. To me, that is a dangerous habit of mind. Now, to be fair, some critics are sincere. They really do believe their faith requires them to reject these organizations. I'm not dismissing sincerity. But, sincerity is not the same as truth. A person can be sincere and still be wrong. And a person can be deeply convicted and still be historically ignorant. And a person can be religiously passionate and still have

13:56 weak evidence. Now, what concerns me is not merely that these critics disagree with fraternities, sororities, or Masonic traditions. I mean, they're free to disagree. What concerns me is the confidence with which they condemn the souls of other people. And to me, that's not a small thing. Because if you're going to accuse your own people, black people, of idolatry, demon worship, or spiritual corruption, you need more than fragments of ritual language, online rumor, and a fear of symbols. You need evidence. Now, there's also a psychological dimension here that can't be ignored. Many of the loudest denouncers were once

14:43 members themselves. They pledged. They crossed. They wore the letters. They participated in the rituals, and they enjoyed the status. Then later, after some combination of pain, disappointment, spiritual conversion, or social conflict, they renounced the whole thing. Now, that doesn't automatically make them dishonest, because people change, and people reconsider, and people leave organizations all the time. But when former members turn their change of mind into a universal judgment against everyone else, we got to pump the brakes, and we we to slow down, because there's a difference between testimony and projection. There's a difference between saying I

15:28 can no longer participate in this and saying everyone still involved is spiritually deceived. And there's a difference between leaving an organization and needing that organization to become evil so your departure feels righteous. And that last point is important. Sometimes people need the thing they left to be evil because they can't live with the more ordinary explanation. Maybe they wanted status and did not get it the way they expected. Maybe they were mistreated and never found a healthy way to name that injury. Maybe they were embarrassed by what they tolerated. Maybe they feel guilt for participating in something they now interpret differently.

16:14 Or maybe they found a religious community that rewards dramatic renunciation stories. Whatever the case, calling the entire institution demonic can become a way of simplifying a complicated personal history. But personal pain is not an automatic public truth. >> [music] >> Again, none of this excuses misconduct. I said it before, I'll say it again. If hazing is deadly, excessive, sadistic, or detached from meaningful moral formation, it should be confronted. If abuse occurs, it will be exposed. If members use secrecy to hide cruelty, then perhaps that secrecy should be broken.

17:00 If organizations fail to protect young adults from deadly harm, then they actually deserve criticism. But we also need to stop pretending that discomfort itself is abuse. Human beings have always marked serious transitions through ordeal. So the problem again is not ordeal. The problem is ordeal without wisdom, restraint, accountability, and purpose. That's why criticism requires precision. And in my mind, demonology is not precision. It's a fog machine. It fills the room with smoke, so nobody has to distinguish between actual abuse, symbolic ritual, institutional history, >> [music] >> personal regret, theological

17:46 disagreement, and social resentment. Everything becomes the devil. That may preach well, but it doesn't think well. When we talk about ritual, we need to be serious. Ritual is not automatically worship. And symbolism is not automatically idolatry. Secrecy is [music] not automatically evil. All serious institutions use ritual. The church does, the courtroom does, the university does, the military uses ritual as well. You have weddings,

18:31 funerals, graduations, [music] baptisms, communion, pledges of allegiance, judicial robes, academic regalia. All of these are structured symbolic [music] practices. Human beings don't live by information alone. We live by meaning, and ritual is one way communities transmit meaning across generations. So, the question is not whether an organization [music] has ritual. The question is what the ritual forms people to become. Does it cultivate service, discipline memory responsibility [music] brotherhood, sisterhood, and courage? Or does it cultivate arrogance, cruelty, vanity, and domination. That's the real question. Not is there a symbol?

19:18 The real [music] question is, what kind of life does the symbol help produce? And this is where we need to be honest about the actual [music] symbols involved. Yes, black Greek letter organizations [music] use classical, mythic, and ancient imagery. Delta Sigma Theta has traditions connected to Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, and pyramidal symbolism. Alpha Phi Alpha has long used the Sphinx as part of its symbolic world. Omega Psi Phi draws on the story of Damon and Pythias as an emblem or allegory of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice. So, let us not play games. The symbols are there. The question is what follows from that.

20:03 Does the presence of Minerva mean Delta women worship Minerva? Does the presence of the Sphinx mean Alpha men worship the Sphinx? Does Omega's reference to Damon and Pythias mean Omega men are secretly practicing Greek paganism? That's a childish way to reason. By that standard, [music] the whole university system would be demonic. A student can sit in a philosophy class at any major university in America or in Europe or abroad and study [music] Plato Aristotle Socrates Plotinus Homer Sophocles Euripides Cicero Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Most of these [music] figures were

20:49 either pagans or belonged to worlds saturated with pagan religion, myth, and metaphysics. So, >> [music] >> does that make the university a purveyor of demonic secrets? Does reading Plato mean you have entered an occult covenant? Does studying Aristotle mean uh the professor is leading students away from God? Of Of course not. In that context, we understand that studying a pagan thinker does not mean worshipping a pagan god. We understand that reference is not devotion. [music] We know that inheritance is not idolatry. We understand that symbols can be educational, philosophical civic aesthetic

21:37 historical, or aspirational without being objects of worship. So, why does that basic intelligence disappear when black organizations use ancient symbols? And if we really want to play the symbol game, then we need to look around the entire nation. American public life is filled with classical and Egyptian imagery. I mean, the Washington Monument is an obelisk. Government buildings all over Washington, D.C. use Greek and Roman architectural forms. [music] Courthouses often display Lady Justice, scales swords blindfolds [music] columns, pediments, and neoclassical symbols of law and authority.

22:23 Masonic emblems and Masonic history are also woven into the founding memory of the nation. George Washington, the first president of the [music] United States, was a Mason. And Masonic ceremony was involved in laying of the United States Capitol cornerstone. >> [music] >> So, are we prepared to say that American courts are courts of Satan because they use classical imagery? Are we prepared to say the Capitol is an occult temple because its architecture borrows from Greece and Rome? Are we really prepared to say that the Washington Monument is demonic because it's shaped like [music] an Egyptian obelisk. Are we prepared to say that every

23:09 courthouse with Lady Justice outside is spiritually corrupt because that figure descends from Greco-Roman [music] personifications of justice? If not, then stop pretending that the presence of ancient symbolism automatically proves demonic allegiance. The argument is not serious unless it's applied consistently. And once it's applied consistently, it becomes absurd. You know, one of the great ironies in this debate is that many of the people who condemn black Greek letter organizations as pagan do not seem to understand how

23:55 historically complex Christianity itself is. Christianity did not emerge in a clean, isolated, culture-free zone. It developed in a world already shaped by Jewish apocalyptic expectation, [music] Greco-Roman philosophy, imperial politics, mystery religions, [music] sacred meals, initiation rites, and stories of divine suffering and hopes for life beyond death. Now, that doesn't mean that Christianity is fake. And it doesn't mean that Christianity is simply a copy of older religions. That would be too crude. But it does mean that Christianity, like every other historical religion, developed in conversation with the world

24:40 around it. It borrowed language. It answered rivals. It [music] translated itself into new cultures. It absorbed concepts. It reinterpreted symbols. It fought surrounding traditions. But it was also shaped by them. That's not an insult. That is history. Take the Dionysian traditions. Dionysus was associated with wine, ecstasy fertility death renewal and the crossing of boundaries. Some versions of the myth involved divine sonship suffering dismemberment, dying, and resurrection. Now, I'm not saying Dionysus and Jesus are the same figure. They're not. I'm not saying Christianity

25:28 is just Dionysus with a Jewish accent. That's sloppy. But, the ancient Mediterranean world already has symbolic patterns involving divine life, sacred meals, suffering, renewal, and transformation. [music] So, when Christianity developed rituals around bread, wine, sacrifice, [music] and salvation, it wasn't speaking into an empty world. It was speaking into a world already full of religious symbols. The Eleusinian Mysteries offer another example. These rights centered on Demeter and Persephone, descent and return, death and renewal, initiation and hope. The details [music] differ from Christianity, but the broader human

26:14 concerns are familiar. Mortality, suffering, transformation, and the longing for participation in the sacred. That matters because modern critics sometimes act as if initiation itself is suspicious. But, initiation is one of the oldest forms of human social and religious [music] life. Communities initiate people into adulthood, sacred knowledge, military service, priesthood guilds professions citizenship, marriage, and mourning. The problem is not initiation as such. The problem is whether initiation becomes degradation. That is a different issue.

27:01 Mithraism gives us yet another example of how the Roman world was filled with ritual, secrecy, loyalty, and sacred [music] brotherhood. The Mithraic mysteries were especially popular among soldiers. Mithras was associated with sacrifice, cosmic order, discipline, and communal practice. Scholars debate the exact relationship between Mithraism and early Christianity, and we should not overstate the parallels, but we can still make a [music] broader point. Christianity emerged in a world where initiation, sacred meals, cosmic struggle, sacrifice, and brotherhood were already part of the religious imagination.

27:47 So, when someone says, "This organization has symbols, rituals, and ancient language, therefore it must be pagan." The response is simple. Have you studied your own religion? And here we have to talk about Gnosticism. Gnosticism is one of the clearest examples of how early Christianity was not one simple, settled, uncontested thing from the beginning. What we now call Gnosticism was not one single church, one denomination, or one unified doctrine. It was a broad family of religious >> [music] >> and philosophical movements. Many of these movements emphasized hidden knowledge, spiritual awakening, the soul's entrapment in a fallen material order, and liberation from

28:32 ignorance. Some Gnostic groups used Christian language. Some interpreted Jesus as a revealer of secret knowledge, and read the story of creation differently. Some treated the maker of the material world not as the highest God, but as a lower or ignorant power. Now, I'm not here to say the Gnostics were right. That's not my argument. My argument is that their existence reveals something important about Christian history. Early Christianity contained debates. It contained rival interpretations. >> [music] >> It contained competing scriptures. And it contained different understandings of Jesus, creation, [music] salvation, spirit, matter, and divine

29:20 knowledge. The faith did not appear in history as a perfectly settled institutional [music] object. It had to be argued into form. And this is where the word heresy becomes important. Many Christians use that word as if it settles everything. They say, "That was heresy." And act as if the conversation [music] is over. But from the standpoint of history, heresy is not a label we can see falling from heaven. What we can see are human beings arguing. We see bishops writing polemics, theologians defending one interpretation against another. We see communities deciding which writings are authoritative, and we see rival teachers

30:05 being attacked. We see councils, creeds, and institutions drawing boundaries. That does not prove the heretics were right, but it does show that the boundary between orthodoxy and heresy was historically mediated. It was not simply obvious. It was fought over, named, and enforced. And that matters because when early Christian writers [music] denounced Gnostic groups, they were not simply describing a neutral fact. They were participating in a struggle over authority. Who gets to define the faith? And who gets to say what counts as true Christianity? And who gets to decide which writings belong inside the canon, and which writings are dangerous?

30:52 Who gets to say which teachers are legitimate, and which teachers are deceivers? And who [music] gets to speak for God? These aren't small questions, and they're not merely spiritual questions. They're also institutional questions. They're political questions. They're questions of power. To be precise, not every condemnation of Gnosticism began with imperial state power. Some of the earliest anti-Gnostic [music] arguments were made by church fathers before Christianity became the religion of empire. But even then, those arguments were being made by earthly men. Bishops theologians writers teachers and church authorities with

31:38 institutional interest and theological commitments. Then later, after Christianity became entangled with imperial power, heresy became even more serious. Disagreement could be treated not merely as error, but as danger. Danger to the church, the community, danger to the public order, and danger to the unity of empire. So, when modern Christians casually call people heretics, idolaters, pagans, demon worshippers, and false believers, they need to understand the weight of the categories they're using. Those categories are not innocent. They have a history, and that history is tied to power.

32:24 The discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts in Egypt made this even more interesting. For a long time, much of what people knew about Gnostic traditions came through the writings of their enemies, uh people who attacked them, uh refuted them, and wanted them excluded from the boundaries of legitimate Christianity. But when ancient texts associated with Gnostic traditions were recovered, modern scholars could hear more of those traditions in their own voices. That doesn't mean that those traditions were automatically true. But it does mean something very important. You can't understand a tradition only through the words of people trying to destroy it.

33:10 Imagine if future generations only knew Omega Psi Phi through anti-Omega preachers. Imagine if they only knew Delta Sigma Theta through people who had already decided Minerva was demonic. Imagine if they only knew Prince Hall Masonry through former members who now believe the lodge is satanic. Imagine if the only archive that survived was the archive of accusation. Would that be knowledge? Would that be history? Would that be fair? Of course not. So why do we think accusation is enough when we talk about so-called heretical traditions? Why do we think condemnation equals understanding?

33:55 This is why the Gnostic question matters in this discussion because the same pattern repeats itself. Define the other as spiritually dangerous, reduce their symbols to idolatry, reduce their rituals to darkness, reduce their secrecy to evil, reduce their alternative interpretation to demonic deception, then stand over them all as if your condemnation is the voice of God. That's a dangerous posture because once a person believes he is speaking with divine authority or certainty, he no longer has to listen. He no longer has to understand or no longer has to compare evidence. He can simply condemn, and condemnation

34:43 is intoxicating. Christianity is historically layered. It is Jewish in origin. It becomes Hellenistic in expression. It develops inside the Roman world. It takes root in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and later in the Americas. Across time, it becomes philosophical, liturgical imperial mystical political popular enslaved colonizing liberating and revolutionary in different contexts. It is not a pure object dropped out of heaven untouched by culture. Now, that doesn't mean believers cannot regard it as divinely inspired. But even if one believes Christianity is

35:30 true, you still got to admit that Christianity moved through history. It was mediated by language, culture, councils translations rituals institutions empires missionaries monks bishops theologians peasants enslaved people, colonizers, and rebels. So, if ritual, symbols initiation secrecy and cultural blending automatically make an institution corrupt, then these zealots have a problem much larger than the Divine Nine. They have a problem with the history of Christianity itself.

36:16 Okay. Now, it's time for us to widen the frame. This is not only about Christianity and black Greek letter organizations. It's about how some people imagine that their own faith gives them authority over the religious life of [music] the entire human species. People across the world have inherited many ways of approaching the sacred. There's Christianity, of course, Islam Hinduism Buddhism Judaism Sikhism Jainism Taoism African traditional religions, indigenous spiritual systems, folk religions, even new religious movements, >> [music] >> and countless local traditions that don't fit neatly into Western categories.

37:03 What I'm trying to say here is that human beings [music] have prayed in countless languages. They've sung to the divine in countless musical forms. They've buried their dead according to different sacred customs. They've honored their ancestors. They [music] fasted danced chanted meditated sacrificed washed mourned and celebrated. They've built [music] churches, temples, mosques shrines altars monasteries and sacred groves. [music] They've told stories about creation, suffering justice death rebirth judgment, liberation, and ultimate [music] reality. So, what are we saying? Are all these people demonic?

37:48 Are billions of human beings spiritually corrupt [music] simply because they were born into different civilizations, inherited different traditions, prayed in different languages, read different sacred texts, or used different symbols to approach the divine? [music] Is the Hindu grandmother demonic? Is the Buddhist monk, the Yoruba priest, the Muslim child demonic? Is the Jewish scholar, the native elder, is every ancestor who lived outside Christian orthodoxy now fuel for eternal fire. At some point the question becomes unavoidable. What gives a Christian the right to stand over the religious life of the

38:33 entire human species and speak as if he has been appointed the clerk of God's final courtroom? Now, let me be clear. A Christian has the right to believe Christianity is true. And every religious tradition makes truth [music] claims. Christians can believe Christ is the Lord. Muslims can believe the Quran is revelation. Hindus can believe in their own metaphysical traditions and Buddhists can follow the Dharma. Jews can be faithful to the Torah. African traditionalists can honor the ancestors and the spirits. Belief is not the problem, though. The problem is arrogance. The problem is when faith becomes a license to condemn everyone else.

39:19 The problem is when a person moves from I believe my tradition is true to everyone outside that tradition is under demonic deception and deserves eternal torment. That's an extraordinary claim and it's often one that's made on the basis of faith alone. Not demonstration, not universal proof, not knowledge available to all rational people. Faith. And that's why the arrogance is so staggering. If you're going to say that billions of human beings are destined for hell, you should at least have the [ __ ] decency to tremble when you say it. You shouldn't say it casually. You shouldn't say it with pleasure. You shouldn't say it as if you enjoy being on the winning

40:05 side of damnation. You should not speak as though the accident of your birth, your church, your pastor, your translation of scripture, or your inherited doctrine gives you authority [music] to pronounce eternal judgment over the rest of humanity. That's not spiritual maturity. That is theological cruelty. And let us be honest about how cruel the doctrine can become [music] in practice. Let's say for example, a person lives 70 years, maybe 80, maybe less. They're born in India, Nigeria, Japan, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, China, or among indigenous people in the Americas before Christianity ever arrived. They inherited the language, rituals,

40:50 stories, and sacred obligations of their community. They love their children. They bury their parents. They work, suffer, pray, [music] and try to be decent according to the light available to them. Then, some zealot says that because they didn't confess the right doctrine in the right religious system with the right theological formula, they deserve eternal conscious torment. Forever. Not correction, [music] not purification, not misunderstanding, not tragic limitation, eternal punishment. That's a hard thing to say about another human being. And the fact that some people say it with ease tells us [music] something about their character.

41:36 Now, even within Christianity, [music] there are disagreements about judgment, hell, salvation, and the fate of those outside explicit Christian confession. There are exclusivists, inclusivists, universalists annihilationists >> [music] >> and many positions in between. So, even here, the issue is not as simple as the zealot wants it to be. I'm not saying Christians cannot believe in judgment. [music] I'm not saying Christians can believe in salvation. And I'm not saying Christians cannot believe their faith is true. But, there's a difference between believing your faith is true and acting as if you personally possess the [music] court records of eternity. There's a difference between faith and

42:23 arrogance, conviction [music] and cruelty, and there is a difference between evangelism and domination. A difference between worshipping God and pretending to be God's prosecuting attorney. This is why the zealotry is dangerous. Once a person believes everyone outside his theological boundary is demonic, it becomes easy to dismiss whole cultures, to mock ancestors, demonize rituals, and erase histories without ever feeling intellectually responsible for the damage being [music] done. He can call his ignorance discernment. He can call his fear holiness. [ __ ] he can call his condemnation love. But, that ain't love, bro.

43:08 It's domination [music] wearing religious language. This is also why the attack on the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masonry has to be placed inside a larger pattern. It's not just that the critic says, "I disagree with these organizations." That would be one thing. It is that the critic often says, "These organizations are demonic because they do not conform [music] to my religious boundaries." But, if that's the standard, then the whole world becomes demonic. Every culture, every ancestor, every ritual, every tradition, every symbol, ceremony, sacred memory that doesn't fit inside one narrow theological frame. That's not discernment.

43:53 That's spiritual imperialism. The Christianity many believers take for granted today was not delivered to the world as a fully organized theological system on day one. It took centuries of argument, interpretation disagreement political maneuvering, and institutional decision-making for Christian doctrine to take the shape many now regard as obvious. This is especially clear when we look at the early councils of the church. These were not casual religious meetings. They were major theological and political events. Bishops argued, emperors intervened,

44:39 language was negotiated, doctrines were defended, rival positions were condemned, creeds were written, boundaries [clears throat] were drawn. In other words, orthodoxy did not simply float down from the clouds. It was hammered out in history. Consider the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The central controversy involved the nature of Christ. Was the son fully divine and of the same essence as the Father? Or was he, as Arius argued, a created being subordinate to the Father? The Council rejected Arianism and affirmed that the son was of the same substance as the Father, ousia. That decision became foundational for later Christian orthodoxy.

45:25 But from the standpoint of history, it was still a decision. It was argued over, it was contested, it was voted on. And even after Nicaea, the controversy continued. That should matter. Then came the Council of Constantinople in 381, which further clarified the doctrine of the Trinity, especially the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Again, what many Christians now treat as obvious was once disputed. It had to be articulated, defended, and made official. Then came the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, where the church wrestled with the title Theotokos, often translated as Mother of God.

46:11 The debate was not merely about Mary, it was about how to understand the unity of Christ's person. Then came the Council of Chalcedon, in 451 AD, where the church declared that Christ is fully human and fully divine, in two natures, without confusion, change, division, or separation. That formulation became central to mainstream Christian theology, but not everyone accepted it. Some Christian communities rejected Chalcedon, and the divisions lasted for centuries. Now, why does this matter? Because many religious zealots speak as if their faith is simple, pure, obvious, and untouched by human

46:57 hands. But their own doctrines passed through councils. Their creeds were shaped by debate. Their orthodoxy was forged in conflict. Their theology was mediated by human beings working inside of history. Now, that does not automatically disprove the faith, but it should humble the faithful. It should make people less arrogant, and it should make them slower to condemn others for participating in institutions that use symbols, rituals, oaths, ceremonies, and layered meanings. Christianity itself is full of mediation. It is full of ritual, and full of history, and it is full of human

47:44 agency. Anyone who pretends otherwise is not defending Christianity. He is defending a fantasy of purity. That is what I want the zealot to understand the faith he inherited did not arrive in his hands untouched by history. The Bible he reads came through languages translations councils scribes, disputes, canon formation, interpretation, and institutional preservation. His doctrines were shaped through argument. His creeds were hammered out in controversy. His denomination has a history. His pastor has a tradition. Even the architecture of his church, the order of worship, the altar call, the

48:29 sermon style, the music, and the vocabulary of salvation carry the marks of time, culture, and human mediation. So, before he condemns someone else's symbols as demonic, he needs to look at the symbolic world inside of his own house. Before he calls someone else's ritual pagan, he needs to ask how much ritual his own faith depends on. Before he treats secrecy, hierarchy, ceremony, and sacred language as evidence of corruption, he needs to remember that Christianity has used all of those for centuries. The issue is not whether Christianity is true. The issue is whether Christians understand their own history well enough

49:16 to stop making shallow accusations against everybody else. If the zealots want to condemn the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masonry because they believe these organizations are spiritually corrupt, then they also need to examine the corruption committed in the name of Christianity. I'm not saying every Christian is guilty of everything done by Christian institutions. That would be foolish. Christianity has inspired courage, beauty, charity abolitionism education music resistance, and moral imagination. That's all true. But Christian institutions have also

50:02 been tied to violence, [music] conquest repression slavery empire and exploitation. Both sides of the record have to be faced. Consider the Crusades. For nearly two centuries, >> [music] >> European Christians waged war in the name of reclaiming the Holy Land. These were wars preached as sacred, but they were also bound up with conquest, [music] land, wealth, power, and political ambition. Cities were destroyed. People were slaughtered. Religious language gave moral cover to violence. [music] Consider also the Inquisition. For centuries, [music] Christian authorities pursued heresy through investigation, coercion, punishment, [music] and at

50:48 times torture and execution. The stated goal was doctrinal purity, but the result was often fear, repression, [music] and the elimination of dissent. When religion fuses itself with state power, disagreement can become a crime. [music] That's not holiness. That's domination wearing a cross. Consider Galileo. In 1633, Galileo was condemned for defending heliocentrism, the view that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Church authorities saw his position as a threat to their interpretation of scripture and to their authority. He was forced to recant and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. That story matters because it shows how

51:35 religious institutions [music] can mistake their interpretation for truth itself. They can become so invested in authority that they resist knowledge. Consider also the Salem witch trials. In 1692, in colonial Massachusetts, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed. Religious fear, social paranoia, and supernatural accusation combined to destroy innocent lives. That history should make us cautious anytime people claim they can identify hidden demonic corruption in their neighbors. Once fear becomes evidence, nobody is safe. Consider also the religious wars of

52:20 Europe. After the Protestant Reformation, Catholics and Protestants fought bloody conflicts across the 16th and 17th centuries. [music] The French Wars of Religion, the Thirty Years' War, and the English Civil War were not simply abstract theological disputes. They were struggles over land, legitimacy sovereignty power and social order. Christians slaughtered other Christians while claiming to defend [music] the true faith. So, when modern believers act as if theological purity automatically produces righteousness, history says otherwise. And then we have to talk about colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

53:06 European Christian nations played a central role [music] in the conquest of Africa, the Americas, and parts of Asia. Christian language was used to justify domination. Colonizers claimed to bring civilization and salvation while stealing land, destroying cultures, and enslaving human beings. Millions of Africans were kidnapped, sold, transported, and forced into brutal labor under systems defended by people who read the Bible, went to church, and called themselves Christians. Christianity became both whip and salve. It was used to discipline the enslaved and then preached to them as consolation.

53:52 That contradiction is not minor. It's one of the greatest hypocrisies of modern history. And exploitation is not only in the past. Today, some religious leaders still exploit vulnerable people through prosperity gospel theology. They promise wealth healing breakthrough and divine favor in exchange for lucra. Filthy lucra. They tell poor people to sow seeds while they themselves live in luxury. Now, this exist in many contexts, [music] including some black church spaces. So, if we're going to talk about spiritual corruption, we should not start and stop with Greek letters. We should talk about the institutions that actually held power. The institutions that burned

54:38 people at the stake, enslaved people, colonized people, and turned [music] faith into an instrument of social control. This is why the zealotry bothers me. The critics pointed symbols, rituals, and oaths in black organizations, but they often ignore the bloodstained record of Christian power. They are terrified of a lion name, but quiet about empire. They are suspicious of fraternity ritual, but far less suspicious of religious institutions that blessed slavery, colonialism, and war. That ain't moral clarity. That's selective outrage.

55:26 Now, we need to bring the conversation back to African people and the African diaspora. The story of religion in the African diaspora is not simply a story [music] of conversion. It's also a story of survival adaptation concealment memory, and spiritual creativity under oppression. During slavery and colonialism, Christianity was often forced onto African people. But African people didn't just simply become empty containers for European religion. They interpreted. They blended. They remembered. They disguised. They preserved and they transformed. That process is called syncretism.

56:11 And it's one of the greatest achievements of African diasporic culture. Look at Candomblé in Brazil. Enslaved Africans, especially from Yoruba, Fon, and Bantu influenced regions, preserved relationships with African deities and spiritual forces while outwardly navigating Catholic domination. The Orishas were associated with Catholic saints, allowing African spiritual practices to survive beneath the surface imposed by Christianity. [music] Yemanjá could be associated with the Virgin Mary. Other Orishas could be mapped onto saintly figures. That wasn't confusion. That was spiritual strategy. It was coded survival.

56:58 Look at Haitian Vodou. Vodou blends African spiritual traditions, especially [music] from Fon and Yoruba sources, with Catholic imagery and ritual forms. The Loa function as powerful spiritual intermediaries. Papa Legba, guardian of the crossroads and opener of the way, is often associated with Saint Peter because Peter holds keys. That symbolic connection is not random. African people took the symbols imposed on them and used those symbols to preserve deeper ancestral meanings. And it goes without saying that Voodoo was also tied to the struggle for liberation in Haiti. It helped people bind together, sustain courage, and organize resistance. So, when people

57:45 demonize Voodoo, they often demonize one of the spiritual engines of black freedom in the modern world. We could also take a look at Santa Maria in Cuba. Again, Yoruba Orisha traditions survived under Catholic rule. Shango could be associated with Saint Barbara. Oshun could be associated with Our Lady of Charity. The enslaved were not simply abandoning African religion. They were preserving it under hostile conditions. They were using the mask of Catholicism to keep [music] African cosmology and spirituality alive. These traditions show us something profound. African spirituality has survived

58:33 through flexibility, secrecy initiation symbol song dance, rhythm, memory, and coded practice. So, when modern zealots condemn all secrecy, ritual, and symbolic blending as evil, they're not only attacking Greek letter organizations. They're attacking the very tools African people used to survive slavery and colonial domination. That is why the conversation cannot be reduced to ritual equals demon. For African people, ritual has often been a container of memory. Secrecy has often been a condition of survival. And symbol has often been a

59:18 weapon against erasure. The United States is a special case, though, because racial oppression here was especially brutal in its attack on specific African identities. In places like Brazil, Haiti, and Cuba, African spiritual systems often survived in more visible and organized forms. In the United States, however, African spiritual survivals were often more hidden, but they were still present. They survived in spirituals, ring shouts, conjure, root work, Gullah Geechee communities, ancestor reverence, [music] healing practices, oral tradition, rhythm, and coded song.

1:00:04 Take the spirituals. On the surface, they were nothing more than Christian songs, but many also carried deeper meanings for enslaved people. They expressed sorrow, hope, longing, encoded possibilities of escape [music] or secret gathering. "Steal Away to Jesus" was not only a song about heaven. It was also a song that could signal a secret meaning. It could mean, "We need to gather, but we can't say that openly." That's not passive religion. That is double speech. Can anybody say double entendre? That's survival. >> The unique of spiritual was so important to these enslaved Africans who, as

1:00:51 scripture would foretell, um were brought into the strange land having been asked to sing [music] a new song. We understand that many of these enslaved Africans came to the Americas um with different dialects, different languages that they spoke. Music has always been a universal language. And coded therein within these songs were messages, not only messages of hope, but messages that would lead these enslaved Africans to freedom. [music] Follow the drinking gourd. They were following the constellation. Uh Deep river, my home is over Jordan. Jordan river, scripturally is of course referring to in their context the Mississippi. It was their way to freedom. >> The one drop rule also contributed to

1:01:36 the erosion of specific African ethnic identities in the United States. Under American racial logic, any African ancestry could mark a person as black. That rule was designed for control, but it also flattened specific ethnic memory over generations. Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Kongo, Mende, [music] Wolof, and many others were compressed into a single racial category called black. Now, that didn't erase African inheritance completely, but it did make the recovery of [music] specific ancestral traditions more difficult. So, African-American spirituality often became more generalized, more hidden,

1:02:24 and more mixed. But mixed doesn't mean empty, and hidden doesn't mean absent. This is where the zealous misunderstand the issue. They look at ritual and see demons. They look at secrecy and see evil. They look at symbols and see idolatry. But for African people, ritual, secrecy, and symbol have often been tools of survival memory resistance and community formation. So, before condemning the Divine Nine or Prince Hall Freemasonry, zealots need to understand the deeper black history of ritual life.

1:03:14 After all of this, we arrive at the central question, the crux of all [music] of this. Where are your works? If the charge is that the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masons are spiritually [music] corrupt, then we need to compare the fruit. What have these organizations actually built? Who have they produced? What institutions have they [music] strengthened? What movements have they supported? And what lives have they shaped? Now, Prince Hall Masonry is one of the oldest and most important black fraternal traditions in America. Prince Hall and other free black men were initiated in 1775. An African Lodge number one later

1:04:01 received a charter from the Grand Lodge of England in 1784. >> [music] >> This matters because black Freemasonry developed in a world where black people were excluded from institutions of power and [music] dignity. So, guess what they did. They built their own. They built lodges, networks, mutual aid systems, leadership structures, and spaces where black [music] men could cultivate literacy, discipline, civic responsibility, [music] and political consciousness. That is not trivial. That is institution building. Figures commonly associated with Prince Hall Masonry include men who shaped black political, legal, religious, artistic, and civic life.

1:04:48 Richard Allen helped found the African Methodist Episcopal [music] Church. A. Philip Randolph helped build the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and played a central role in the March on Washington. Thurgood Marshall helped dismantle legal segregation and became [music] the first black justice on the US Supreme Court. Medgar Evers fought segregation in Mississippi and gave his life in the struggle for civil rights. These aren't minor figures. These are builders. In the arts, Prince Hall histories often name figures like Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, and Ossie Davis. Men whose work helped shape American culture. No institution is perfect, [music] but we can't pretend these organizations

1:05:34 are merely a cult clubs with no social value. That's historically [music] unserious. Now consider the Divine Nine. These organizations emerged because black college students needed support, discipline, [music] service, leadership, and solidarity in institutions that did not welcome them. They became more than campus organizations. They [music] became lifelong networks, engines of civic engagement, and training grounds for leadership. Alpha Phi Alpha gave us figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Men who shaped civil rights, law, political [music] thought, and the black intellectual tradition. Alpha Kappa Alpha produced [music]

1:06:20 generations of black women leaders in education, science, politics, and public service, including Coretta Scott King, Mae Jemison, and Gladys West. Kappa Alpha Psi has produced major figures in law, politics, [music] athletics, and culture, including Johnny Cochran, Maynard Jackson, and Arthur Ashe. Omega Psi Phi has given the world Langston Hughes, Charles Drew, Bayard Rustin, and Michael Jordan. Poetry, medicine, civil rights strategy, athletic greatness, business influence, and culture. Delta Sigma Theta has produced giants like Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, [music] and Ruby Dee. Phi Beta Sigma has produced figures like George Washington

1:07:07 Carver, >> [music] >> A. Philip Randolph, and John Lewis. Zeta Phi Beta gave us Zora Neale Hurston, one of the great collectors and interpreters >> [music] >> of black folk culture. Sigma Gamma Rho, founded by educators, has produced leaders in education, culture, and public service, including Hattie McDaniel, >> [music] >> the first black person to win an Academy Award. Iota Phi Theta, the youngest of the Divine Nine, emerged during the Civil Rights era and brought its own emphasis on brotherhood, community service, and social [music] engagement. It's worth mentioning here that some people belong to both Divine Nine organizations and Prince Hall Masonry. Some call that being double-jointed. Others simply call it dual affiliation. Whatever phrase we use, the meaning is

1:07:52 clear. These are people participating in more than one tradition of black institution [music] building. Brotherhood service discipline mentorship leadership community responsibility. At their best, [music] these organizations are not escapes from black struggle. They're ways of organizing for it. So again, to the zealots, where are your works? >> [music] >> Not your accusations, not your clips, not your fear-based interpretations, >> [music] >> not your screenshots of rituals you don't even understand, not your claim that every symbol you dislike must be demonic. Where are your schools, scholarships, mentoring programs, civil rights [music] campaigns institutions legal

1:08:39 victories, organizing networks, artists, newspapers, hospitals, and fruit? Where they at? Condemnation is easy. Service is harder. Suspicion is easy, but institution building is much harder. Calling something demonic is easy. Creating something that lasts for generations is difficult. And that's the difference between the zealot and the builder. The zealot points, the builder works. All right. It's time to uh put a wrap on this cuz I got some [ __ ] to do. All right?

1:09:25 The myth of selling your soul is old. It was attached to Robert Johnson, like we mentioned at the beginning of this whole essay. It gets attached to entertainers, [music] athletes, and it gets attached to anyone whose success people do not want to understand through discipline, [music] talent preparation sacrifice and opportunity. And now a version of that same myth gets attached to black fraternal and sororal organizations. The accusation is simple. You pledged, so you sold your soul. You joined, so you worshiped false gods. You participated in ritual, so you entered darkness. You wear letters, so you compromised your faith.

1:10:12 But that argument is just too simple. It's historically thin, theologically arrogant, culturally shallow, and blind to the actual work these organizations have done. The Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masons are not perfect. No human institution that's ever existed has been perfect. They should be criticized where criticism is deserved. If there is abuse, expose it. If there is arrogance, challenge it. If there is elitism, correct it. If there is hypocrisy, confront it. But don't confuse human imperfection with demonic possession. Don't twist ritual with idolatry, and

1:10:58 don't confuse secrecy with evil. Don't confuse symbolism with worship, and don't twist religious disagreement with spiritual corruption. What I'm trying to say here is don't pretend Christianity itself [music] has no history of ritual, syncretism violence politics institutional power, heresy making, and human mediation. The deeper question is not whether somebody can find a symbol they dislike. People always do that. The deeper question is what kind of life >> [music] >> an institution produces. What kind of people does it form? What kind of service does it sustain?

1:11:45 And what kind of legacy does it leave? By that measure, the Divine Nine and Prince Hall Masonry have [music] a record that cannot be dismissed with fear and superstition. They have helped educate, organize, mentor, lead, and sustain black people through hostile institutions. They have produced leaders, artists, thinkers, professionals, organizers, and public servants. They've helped create networks of excellence, dignity, and survival. And to the Christian zealot who condemns everyone outside [music] his theological fence, I have another question. Do you understand the history of your

1:12:31 own [music] faith? Do you understand the Christian doctrine was formed through debate, through council conflict exclusion and institutional power? Do you understand that Gnosticism was not condemned by divine fiat in any way historians can observe, but by human authorities operating in history trying to [music] gain temporal power. Do you understand that people across the world have encountered [music] the sacred through different languages, symbols rituals scriptures and traditions? [music] Do you understand the cruelty of casually saying that billions of human beings [music] are demonic or damned

1:13:18 because they don't believe exactly as you do? Faith may give you conviction. But it doesn't give you the right to be arrogant. It doesn't give you the right to be careless. [music] And it doesn't give you the right to turn ignorance into accusation. And it does not give you the right to stand over the entire [music] human race as judge, jury, and eternal [music and singing] executioner. You don't have that right. So to the zealots, I leave the question where I began. Where are your works? Because while you've been casting judgment, others have been building. While you've been calling everything

1:14:03 demonic, others have been mentoring young people. While you've been attacking symbols, others have been creating institutions. While you've been preaching fear, others have been organizing for survival. And when history looks back, it won't merely ask who shouted the loudest. It will ask who built something that lasted. Where are your works? I'm out of here, man. Peace.