sunday morning respect.

did you know that BET (black entertainment television) airs joel osteen every sunday morning? if you don't know who joel osteen is, wikipedia it or something. whatever. i'm not too concerned about joel osteen at this moment. he's a turd. i'm not concerned with his teachings or his doctrine right now. i'm concerned with his white face on my black entertainment television.

while watching the wire (only one disc to go before having to wait an eternity for the fifth season) an episode focused on a hit (assassination) that was ordered by one drug gang against a rebel drug power (omar - sort of robin hood who robs from the rich drug dealers, but doesn't really give to the poor). anyway, this westside drug crew puts a bounty of omar's head, but omar is impossible to ever track down. when they find omar, he is picking his sweet old mama up for church getting into a cab with her. gun shots are fired, omar has to push his mom in the cab and her big fancy hat (called a crown, which i find delightful) is knocked off.

that's the scene. you don't care. whatever. what i love about this, is these guys are breaking a HUGE rule of the game. you don't come after somebody on sunday. seriously. this is some hard-core drugs and guns and violence going on here... but sunday is the day of peace. the Lord's day. the sabbath. you can't make this stuff up.

and i thought this was mildly interesting until i was watching BET yesterday morning before church and saw big white-tooth joel osteen preaching to his congregation of 28,000 (no joke). BET airs sermons every sunday morning (could you ever see mtv doing this? no way in hell). and not just any church service. but Black Entertainment Television is broadcasting the great white hype himself. you don't get much whiter than joel osteen. this is incredible to me.

and as i watched joel osteen preaching on BET, i thought about the rules of the game on the wire that probibit rival drug gangs from going after each other on this one day a week. and i started to think about church. and about Jesus, who is said to be the head of the Church. and i think that even though these efforts are misguided, i appreciate the respect.

it's in everybody. you know you're not supposed to cuss in a church. you act differently around ministers and reverends, you say, "i don't go to church, but that's cool that you do." what is it about this respect for church in this country? in parts of this world you get cut in half for going to church. but here, you get a tip of the hat and a "how do you do?"

everybody's got respect for jesus and his followers (except the "intellectual" elite - another topic for another day), and i just don't know what to do with that.