Forum Activity for @caleb2

Dear Jesus Freed My Soul:

I have read your reply to my original letter of April first.

I have read extensively about Rastafari and Bob Marley.

I do not doubt that Bob Marley was baptized as a Christian about six months before his death.

However, I am well aware that there are many devotees of Bob Marley who believe he died a Rastafari and not a Christian http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/rastafari-secret-history-marijuana-religion

This is very difficult to reconcile.

That is, it is very difficult for me to reconcile Bob Marley's reported Christian conversion and the fact that his official website does not mention anything about his Christian conversion. Please see http://www.bobmarley.com/life_and_legacy_bob_and_rastafari.php

If Bob Marley himself desired that his baptism into Christianity should be understood by the world and all his fans as a true conversion and a rejection of Rastafari beliefs, he would have said so. He lived for six months after his baptism and I find no record of any statement he made during that time in which he unequivocally repudiated Rastafari beliefs and declared that Jesus was The Only Way to The Father God, and The Only Path To Salvation.

I can only exercise Christian Spiritual Discernment over the whole thrust of Bob Marley's Public Persona and his publicly expressed beliefs.

I must state that I have to accept that Bob Marley's Official Website must be controlled by his surviving family and its content must be carefully edited and approved by them.

There is nothing in his Official Website which I could find having anything to do with Christianity.

His family knew him better than anyone else. I have to believe that what they have elected to project to the world about him is true, and represents his true beliefs.

Finally, I cannot accept that Rastafari are Christian. They believe in Haile Selassie as god or jesus.

I also must conclude that dreadlocks are a symbol of Rastafari.

Exercising Spiritual Discernment over all those things, I have to conclude that dreadlocks are not Christian.

I believe it is important to exercise Spiritual Discernment over everything.

Sincerely yours,

Caleb Boone.

Jesus Freed My Soul!! said:

Um, no. I represent Christ. If people want to think of me as something else without first asking me, that is THEIR problem. You cannot look at someone and automatically know who they are! I don't care where dreadlocks came from! My hair dreads all by itself. Imagine that. THAT is where I got the idea from. I reject ALL other religions therefore, I cannot possibly be wearing something on my head that represents them. That's akin to telling someone who wears black clothes all the time, they must be in mourning...

caleb said:

Dear Brandon Law:

I know it has been almost three years since you typed your original question, but I want to respond now.

I have strong feelings about this topic. Please understand that I believe this is a very important Spiritual topic.

Please further understand that all I type below is typed out of genuine Christian love and solicitude for you and your friends.

Of course, you may disagree with me. If so, please reply accordingly. I submit this letter in the spirit of strong Christian advice and counsel, but also in the spirit of good-natured academic discussion.

Finally, Brandon, please know that I have performed all the research below, just for you, by myself. I have done all of it for you specifically, from scratch.

I apologize for the different type-sizes or fonts. That occurred accidentally. Even though some of the type is larger or smaller, if it is not in quotation marks, it was typed by me.

With that introduction, let me begin.

Dreadlocks are un-Christian, without question. Anyone wearing dreadlocks in the United States in contemporary society, could not possibly have come to understand what they were and to be attracted to them, and to wear them, without having been influenced by un-Christian, or non-Christian traditions, customs and styles.

Dreadlocks have come to be popular in the United States for only one reason: for the reason that they became popular in Jamaica among the Jamacian Rastafari in the 1950s and 1960s.

This basic point is easily proven by reference to any American dreadlocks-related website. I refer you to the following passage from the dreadlocks-related "Dready Girl" website, particularly the subpage thereof which has to do with the "History of Dreadlocks," which I easily found:

" The precise date of origin of the hairstyle is unknown. However dates range from 5000 BCE to 1500 BCE. The roots of dreadlocks can be trailed to the Rastafarians of Jamaica, and further, to Indian sages and yogis, but they have never been more popular or widespread than they are today. It is said that dreadlocks originated with eastern holy men, possessing nothing, renouncing the world and possessions (not even a comb) and even personal grooming, hence the inevitable dreadlocks."

To read the whole "Dready Girl" website, please visit:

http://www.dreadygirl.com

I must repeat the passage from this "Dready Girl" webpage for emphasis to drive home the obvious, well-accepted notion that, for persons living in the United States, dreadlocks absolutely have their origins in the Rastafari of Jamaica: "The roots of dreadlocks can be trailed [traced] to the Rastafarians of Jamaica . . . ."

The Rastafari, in turn, were inspired to wear dreadlocks by seeing news photos of the Mau Mau people, taken during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in 1952-1960.

The Kenyan Mau Mau people are a subgroup of the Kenyan Kikuyu People.

The Kikuyu are the predominant people of Kenya. They were originally formed of the Bantu which migrated to Kenya either from the North/Northeast or the South.

I have found this written about the origin of dreadlocks, in the Wikipedia Article on Dreadlocks:

" The Mau Mau, a largely ethnic Kikuyu rebel group in Kenya fighting to overthrow the state government of the British Colony and Protectorate of Kenya from 19521960, hid for many years in the forests, during which time their hair grew into long locks. The images of their rebellion, then broadcast around the world, are said to have inspired Jamaican Rastafari to wear locks. ^{[8] "}

^{The religion of the Kikuyu People, and hence the Mau Mau, is not Christianity. I have found the following in the Wikipedia Article about the Kikuyu People:}

"Spirituality and religion

"Ngai - The creator

"The Gky were - and still are - monotheists believing in a unique and omnipotent God whom they refer to as Ngai. Both the Gky, Embu and Kamba use this name. God was also known as Murungu by the Meru and Embu tribes, or Mulungu (a variant of a word meaning God which is found as far south as the Zambezi of Zambia). The title Mwathani or Mwathi (the greatest ruler) which comes from the word gwatha meaning to rule or reign with authority was-and- is also used.

"Mount Kenya and religion

"Ngai or mwene-nyaga is the creator and giver of all things, "the Divider of the Universe and Lord of Nature". He (God) created the human community. It is also believed that He created the first Gky communities, and provided them with all the resources necessary for life: land, rain, plants and animals. He cannot be seen but is manifest in the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors, thunder and lightning, rain, in rainbows and in the great fig trees (Mugumo). These trees served as places of worship and sacrifice and marked the spot at Mkre wa Gathanga where Gky and Mmbi the ancestors of the Gky in the oral legend first settled.

"Yet was not a distant God (as known in the West). He has human characteristics, and although some say that He lives in the sky or in the clouds, Gky lore also says that he comes to earth from time to time to inspect it, bestow blessings and mete out punishment (similar to God's visit of Abraham before destroying Sodom). When he comes He rests on Mount Kenya and krma ka njah (Kilimambogo). Thunder is interpreted to be the movement of God and lightning is the weapon used by Ngai to clear the way when moving from one sacred place to another. Some people believe that Ngais abode is on Mount Kenya, or else beyond its peaks. Ngai, one legend says, made the mountain his resting place while on an inspection tour of earth. In the account God then took the first man, Gikuyu, to the top to point out the beauty of the land he was giving him."

^{The religion of the Rastafari is not Christianity. I found the following in the Wikiepdia Article on Rasta, or the Rastafari:}

^" The Rastafari movement , or Rasta , is an Abrahamic spiritual movement ^[1] that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica . Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I , Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 19301974), some as Jesus incarnate , the Second Advent , or the reincarnation of Jesus, others as God the Father ."

There is no doubt that dreadlocks are, for Americans, who wear them in America, associated only with non-Christians. Dreadlocks are a religious symbol of religions other than Christianity. That point is inescapable.

The Rastafari worship Haile Selassie I because they believe he is jesus or god. The Kikuyu Mau Mau worship Ngai who they believe often visits Mount Kenya and is embodied in the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors.

If you wear dreadlocks, you are wearing the symbol of religions which worship Haile Selassie and/or meteors.

I am only pointing out the truth. The truth is that, for Twentieth Century and Twenty-first Century Americans, living in the United States, it is inescapable that the dreadlocks which they wear here in the United States of America, came into American culture via the Jamaican Rastafarians in the 1950s and 1960s via the Mau Mau of the Kikuyu People of Kenya. All of those origins are absolutely non-Christian.

Sincerely yours,

Caleb Boone.

Dear Brandon Law:

I know it has been almost three years since you typed your original question, but I want to respond now.

I have strong feelings about this topic. Please understand that I believe this is a very important Spiritual topic.

Please further understand that all I type below is typed out of genuine Christian love and solicitude for you and your friends.

Of course, you may disagree with me. If so, please reply accordingly. I submit this letter in the spirit of strong Christian advice and counsel, but also in the spirit of good-natured academic discussion.

Finally, Brandon, please know that I have performed all the research below, just for you, by myself. I have done all of it for you specifically, from scratch.

I apologize for the different type-sizes or fonts. That occurred accidentally. Even though some of the type is larger or smaller, if it is not in quotation marks, it was typed by me.

With that introduction, let me begin.