Americans, who make up such a moralistic society, believe in God less and less. It is not only the surveys that reflect this fall in the cult of dogma or the lower attendance at temples. There are also facts that illustrate this loss of respect for Christian values, and the parishes and the messengers of the almighty, who is everywhere but often plays the absent or lazy, become victims of the greed of others. Inside the very house of the Lord and in full celebration of the service.
God, what a world!, that the elders would exclaim, in their wisdom, when commenting on the cool (when there was cool and not this hell) the events of day to day.
"How many of you have lost faith seeing someone die?" asked this past Sunday in his sermon Lamor Whitehead, the bishop of the Leaders Tomorrow International Ministries church, in the neighborhood of Canarsie, in the southeast area of Brooklyn. Instantly there were murmurs and shouts from the parishioners, but his noise had nothing to do with the question from the pulpit.
Just at that moment, three guys dressed in black, hooded and armed, burst in and made the Minister of the Most High fall to the ground. The version of "this is a robbery, baby", which the Burning sang, becomes "this is a divine robbery". Between the jewels of the bishop, 44 years old, and his wife, 38, they took loot valued at more than a million dollars.
The blow was recorded, since it was offered in streaming. Despite that evidence, and knowing that they fled in a Mercedes, the police were still looking for the trio of unbelievers, at least until Wednesday night.
"This is an example of how evil works," Whitehead said in a post on his Instagram account. "Evil doesn't care, he sends them," she affirmed before the assault suffered on the altar consecrated to providence.
"When I saw them (the robbers) enter the sanctuary with their guns, I told everyone to get out, get out of here," he continued in his account of the incident. In a country like the United States, where shootings and killings are rampant anywhere, be they schools, churches, supermarkets, cinemas or nightclubs, it is understandable that the minister pointed out that he did not know if they had agreed to commit a massacre or to rob . In the end, he was grateful to the creator father that the matter did not go further, no one was injured, although he regretted that "they took all my jewelry and my wife's, including wedding bands."
Once on the ground, with the barrel of the gun to his head, the thieves took his belongings: the watch, the gold chains, the bishop's cross. All. He explained that the assailants tore off his collar so they could remove his necklaces.
Whitehead is an ally of Mayor Eric Adams, both of whom are African American. The priest has appeared on more than one occasion describing himself as "adopted" by the mayor in the role of his mentor. In 2021, with the municipal race launched, he attempted to succeed Adams as Brooklyn Borough President.
It's not the only time he's caught media attention. Last May he tried to negotiate for Andrew Abdullah to turn himself in after he allegedly shot and killed Daniel Enriquez, a Goldman Sachs employee who was in a subway car on his way to a Manhattan appointment.
The police arrested Abdullah in a different intervention. This led to criticism of Whitehead for an excess of prominence in the face of the gallery.
The robbery has also caused blinking and he has been forced to respond to accusations of being a person who flaunted so much gold in sight and for his Rolls Royce. "This is not about being ostentatious, this is about buying what I want to buy," he replied. "It's my prerogative that if I work hard, I can buy whatever I want," he reiterated.
His meditation on the loss of values was not lacking. Addressing the robbers, he recriminated them: “You have done this to the church. I'm sure it's the church where your grandmothers pray to God and Jesus. You have no reason to violate the temple.”
