Monday, July 2, 2012

Cissy Houston takes BET Awards to Church with tribute to Whitney


Someone needed to spank them for all that foul language.  Didn’t they have sense enough to know America was watching?  Don’t they know children look up to them?
It took the diva of Gospel Music to send them to the woodshed for an old fashioned whipping.  It was the type I used to get when my mama got tired of my trifling ways.  “Go in the back and pick out a switch,” she would say. “It better not be a little one.”
It's part of black folk ritual that is shared by all with a black mama who told you to come home before the street lights come on.  Come home late and prepare get a few licks for failing to abide by mama’s rules.  Some of the performers at Sunday’s BET Awards needed to be schooled on old time ways.  The language was so bad that entire performances were censored. 
Enough was enough.  The queen stood up and reminded them of big mama’s ways. “We need all of ya’ll,” Yolanda Adams started.  You could feel the spanking coming. “I’m saying the world needs everyone in this room.  Please make sure that you use your gift responsibly, ‘cause we’re watching.  Our babies are watching, and they want to be like us.”
Amen sister!  Call them to task for forgetting they’re on national television and viewers from around the globe are taking notice of how they act in public.  Tell them to act like they have some home training.  Tell them not to make the family look bad and to remember babies are watching them.  Tell them not to forget that the Lord has blessed them to be on stage.  You better tell them sister!
Sister Yolanda went there after Rick Ross performed with his Maybach Music Group and Nicki Minaj’s performance and acceptance speech for her third consecutive best female hip-hop artist award.  Being thug was on display.  What was up with that?  Did someone send out a memo to put in motion a competition for best display of obscenity during a national broadcast?
The actions of a few distracted from the highlight of the night – Cissy Houston singing her heart out in memory of her daughter.  If you didn’t cry after that, God help you.  It was a call to worship.  It was a moment of praise and worship.  Yes, Mama Cissy took us to church.  Mariah Carey, Monica, Chaka Khan, Brandy and Gary Houston, Whitney’s brother, joined the worship experience.  Members of the cast of Waiting to Exhale – Angela Bassett, Lela Rochon and Loretta Devine – added a tribute to the fallen angel. 
It was one of those special moments that black folks do best.  It’s one of the great contributions that we, as a people, bring to this great union we call America.  We know how to bring faith to the forefront.  We blend our faith in all we do.  The song may not come from a Gospel label, but faith will ooze out if you give it a chance.  Sunday’s stage was set up to worship God for Whitney’s life.  Others have done the same.  This was not the Academy Awards or one of the other award shows.  It was the black community’s time to bring God on stage and lift Whitney up in a way that reflects more than her music.  Can the church please say Amen?
It was appropriate for Queen Yolanda to speak.  Shut up all that noise.  Honor this moment children.  Don’t you know the babies are watching?  Don’t you understand to whom much is given, much is required.  More than that, listen to me now, don’t you know God is watching?
It’s a lesson that some can’t hear due to their obsession with being seen and heard.  There are those moments when you have to bow to a higher will.  The will is a purpose beyond your claim to fame and fortune.  Bow to the voice that touched us, moved us with both lyric and passion.  Remember the tears that enthused so many to sing.  Remember the force of that song The Greatest Love of All. How many were moved by that?
God was in that voice.
Stop all that cursing and remember what God has done for you!
One more thing children – don’t limit it to one night.  Act like you know who holds you up.  That’s what mama taught you. 
I wish they would listen.

No comments:

Post a Comment