"Blessed Are Ye When Men Shall Revile Ye..." (Then Again, You Might Not Be)

Photo By John Hoff 

It's always a little bit exciting in an archaic way when a new edition of North Minneapolis "dead tree media" hits the streets, particularly Al McFarlane's "Insight News." I read Insight News twice as hard as I read most things, because I not only read what is written but I spend a considerable amount of time "reading between the lines."

The other day, I was driving around with a friend and we were all, like, LET'S GET SOMETHING TO DRINK. We were right near Mickey's Liquor. So, naturally, we drove by Mickey's Liquor and kept going. Duh. We weren't going to shop at Merwin's, either. Two words: BUTT FENCE.

We headed to Broadway Liquor Outlet (BLO) which I judge to be the "least bad" of all the places to buy liquor in North Minneapolis, and often enough a high-quality establishment with a good attitude about improving the neighborhood. Inside BLO, near a policeman keeping watch on the patrons, was a metal rack with copies of Insight News...

I grabbed a copy, saying, "Oh, look, it's the new edition." My friend said something like, "Oh, see if there's anything about Reverend Jerry McAffee in it!"

Why did my friend say this? Well, you'll just have to read between the lines here, too. Suffice to say sometimes I get my hands on information I can't confirm to a degree acceptable enough for the standard of this blog. I might spend a long time chasing this info, I may be tempted severely by its savory delicious exclusiveness...but, ultimately, I just can't nail the information down as anything other than a rumor.

Some rumors are harmless enough to print, but others...I won't touch them. I won't print such things until I have one person WITH A NAME who can confirm, creditably, in a FIRSTHAND way even if, ultimately, I won't reveal the source.

So my friend was all, like, "SEE IF THERE'S ANYTHING ABOUT REVEREND JERRY MCAFEE..."

I flipped the paper over to the part "beneath the crease" and saw an article called "First person comments from Conversations with Al McFarlane--Leaders explain the nature of leadership." And, gee, there was a picture of Reverend Jerry McAfee. In the busy aisles of BLO, while trying to pick out a good quality yet affordable bottle of champagne, I began reading what McAfee was saying about leadership, trying to read intensely between the lines.

McAfee quoted the Gospel of Matthew, the part about "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

Oh, I thought, HOW INTERESTING! What would cause somebody like Reverend McAfee to bring up this passage about being reviled, about false things being said? McAfee went on to say, "What He (Jesus Christ) understood is anytime you are in the business of serving people, sometimes the very people that you serve will revile you..."

Wow, I thought, the plot between the lines thickens. It's not just one's enemies who may revile you, it's people you are trying to "serve" who may turn on you. Tell me more, I thought, give me more clues as to what's REALLY going on, here, because it's not obvious at the surface, but it's not JUST A SERMON, no, something is HAPPENING here but it's not being said directly. What further clues can I gather?

McAfee went on to talk about how "In the Old Testament, Nehemiah was harassed by weak men in the community who were always trying to stop Nehemiah from helping his own people. Now, what's interesting about the story is that one was kind of related to the Nehemiah's people. (sic) It means the adversary often has somebody on the inside. So they kept sending letters for Nehemiah to come down and deal with them and their criticisms. Nehemiah said, "I'm doing a great work, and I can't come down. Why should the work cease and I come down to you?"

McAfee then adds, "Don't come down. Stay where you are. We don't need to be spending time talking about somebody that makes no difference. Stay where you are. Do what you need to do. Folks in the community who have good sense know who's doing what."

So concludes the words of Rev. Jerry McAfee. Right away, thinking back to Sunday school--and, well, suffice to say I spent a lot of time in Sunday school--I remembered something like, "Nehemiah? Why does that name conjure up something about BUILDINGS AND LAND?" Why would McAfee invoke this particular Old Testament prophet when making his point? I consulted with the Scriptures (via Wikipedia, of course) and refreshed my recollections about Nehemiah.

Ah, yes, he was involved in the restoration of Jerusalem, which had fallen into a terrible state. So if McAfee sees himself as being like Nehemiah, (and the text seems to indicate he does) then Jerusalem would be...North Minneapolis? Yes, that would make sense.

So what is all this stuff about "stay where you are" and "don't talk" in the context of Nehemiah's restoration of Jerusalem, which appears to be just a metaphor for North Minneapolis?

Hmm. Very curious indeed! And even MORE curious in light of the fact Jerry McAfee appeared as a witness for Larry Maxwell, who went down hard on 18 felonies related to mortgage fraud. What is it the Book of Proverbs says about the consequences of bad companions?

Yes, sometimes men will revile you and say all manner of things about somebody because that person is trying to do GOOD. But, interestingly, often men will do the same thing because somebody is DOING BAD THINGS. And, as the Bible makes quite clear, even the Devil knows His scripture, and can quote it.

So here's a bit of scripture, and feel free to take it any way you like:

"By their works, ye shall know them."