He talks about how a lot of the grandmothers in his area were into witchcraft on the sly and would actually encourage the males to go out and kill each other. Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these gangs looked at what they are doing as a form of 'sacrifice'.
Thanks for the vid. What an awesome vid that was. I'm happy for the reverend. Now this is gonna be a long read, but bare with me
@Booksnrain @kevm3 .
Every vid I in my post is time-stamped.
What the Pastor talked about was interesting.
Especially considering alot of Black folks in LA have roots in Louisiana, East Texas, and Mississippi. There's alot of voodoo hailing from the Haitian ancestry in those areas. I'm Haitian myself, and when he brought up how his GF's grandma had a bunch of pics of people in coffins(who she said were family members) it made me think about alot of Haitians I know, and how Haitians love to keep photos of family members in the casket, and vids of the funeral. That was an interesting connection. My mom told me a story of her Aunt(my great Aunt) who used to do Voodoo, and she would keep a coffin in her house.
He also mentioned that alot of those grandmas in his Hood in South Central that practiced witchcraft and told them to kill the rivals, those Grandmas were also still in the church.
That's a common thing in Haiti to still go to Mass/Church and still practice voudo especially with Catholicism and synchronization between Catholicism and Voudou:(
Christianity and Vodou - Wikipedia)
It's common(or used to be common) for there to be Haitians who are catholic(and some even protestant) who still dabble in Vodou or still have fears of the power of vodou and let it control their lives. It's like that pastor was speaking on things that I've always heard or read about growing up. It's weird seeing the diaspora of our people being connected via these rituals.
As far as the gang aspect goes, what he described is even more common amongst Haitian gangs down in South Florida. Alot of the members of Zoe Pound would go to the local Botanica in the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami(religious/witchcraft store) and go get "blessings" from the Gran Mambo(witchdoctor) before they would go on a mission, or to help protect them from the enemies in shootouts, or to keep them from getting arrested, or to help them come up on a lick:
This goes beyond Miami, and is common in New Orleans. Especially when you see those crucifix facial tats and all those tattoos have some supernatural meaning:
They're very supernatural in NO:
But to take it even further, the cross between religion and gang-bangin, street activity, drug dealing has been around since the inception of these gangs. As mentioned in here, all those Chicago gangs that use Christian(Latin Kings), Muslim(P.Stone, El Rukn), and Jewish(GD's) symbolism are clear signs of this. And then you have the Chitown gangs that dedicate themselves to Satan, like the Maniac Latin Disciples, IDL's, etc. Interestingly enough, alot of the Chicagoan's also have roots in Mississippi, Louisiana, etc, also.
Not only that but all those gangs have their little "Gang Prayers" and chants, Literature(Lit), Knowledge etc, that seem like borderline incantations. I don't know if any of the streets dudes chant all of them, because alot of those "gang prayers" seem like they came about in the internet age, but alot of those chants, oaths, handshakes, mean something.
PLEDGE
(6 PLEDGE) The night I was born Folks was the night I died. As my brethren cast my body into the lake of Fire and Knowledge I was baptized. One with my nation by my Kings blessed. With a Pitchfork in my hand and a Six on my chest. Others will speak my name and know the name of Death. I live by the Nations laws, die by the Disciples Creed. Loyal to my Nation, loyal to my breed. The day my Flag falls then so does my body fall. But my Nation will always stand in the shine of the Six. All is One, One is All!
^^There's a million of those. But we can take it even further, and go towards organized crime, and more specifically the Italian Mafia, and their code of "Omerta" in which they gotta slice open their hand and burn a picture of a Catholic Saint in their hand and state "May I burn in hell, like this photo if I should rat on my friends" or something like that. Not only that, but you had to kill someone to "Get In". That all goes back, once again, to the ritualism within Catholicism, as many Italians are Catholic.
In Catholicism, it seems like anyone can become a Saint, and there are Saints for any sort of illicit activity. There's a Patron Saint of smuggling in Mexico:
Jesús Malverde, possibly born as Jesús Juarez Mazo (1870–1909) (pronounced [xeˈsus malˈβeɾ.ðe]), sometimes known as the "generous bandit", "angel of the poor", or the "narco-saint", is a folklore hero in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Also there's also the Saint of death. Santa Muerta, that many of the cartel members have imprints of, on their weapons.
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (Spanish for Our Lady of the Holy Death) or, colloquially, Santa Muerte (Holy Death), is a female deity (or folk saint depending on school of thought) in Mexican folk religion, particularly Folk Catholicism, venerated primarily in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.[1] Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church, her cult has become prominent in the 2000s and 2010s, as a continuation of the Aztec goddess of death Mictecacihuatl or Mictlancihuatl (Nahuatl for "Lady of the Dead") clad according to Spanish iconography.[2]
Association with criminality[edit]
A man blowing smoke onto a miniature image of Santa Muerte.
In the Mexican and U.S. press, the Santa Muerte cult is often associated with violence, criminality, and the illegal drug trade.[43] She is a popular deity in prisons, both among inmates and staff, and shrines dedicated to her can be found in many cells.[44][17][45] The majority of believers are poor people who are not necessarily criminals, but the public belief in her by several drug traffickers and small numbers of other petty criminals has indirectly associated her with crime, especially low-level organized crime.[19]
In Mexico, authorities have linked the worship of Santa Muerte to prostitution, drug trafficking, kidnapping, smuggling, and homicides.[3][6][16]Criminals, among her most fervent believers, are likely to pray to her for successful completion of a job as well as escaping from the police or jail. In the north of Mexico, she is venerated along with Jesús Malverde, the so-called "Saint of Drug Traffickers". Malverde's following is strong, especially in his home state of Sinaloa, but the symbol of Santa Muerte is much more aggressive.[46]
Religion/The Occult and Satanism and the streets intersect in a MAJOR way.