WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE? (2)

Her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons? Demons? Was addiction to cocaine a demon? Or was it the worldly success or both? If so, apparently not even the prayers of Christians in the music industry succeeded in casting out that demon or demons? For as Grady chronicled, “Christians in the music industry reached out to Whitney and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions. But the drugs had a powerful pull. In 2006, a photo was released of her bathroom sink in Atlanta filled with crack pipes, drug paraphernalia, cigarettes and beer cans. Even after she divorced Bobby Brown in 2007, the downward spiral continued”.

Whitney Houston was sent off with dignity, as planned, last Saturday. Her body was interred on Sunday leaving the world the poorer for it. She certainly would be sorely missed. But, as I pointed out the last time, “the questions remain, un-interred with her body.”  Such questions as: why she had to die at a mere 48…why her life took a sudden dive for the worse right at the peak of her career…why she became associated with crack, cocaine and prescription drugs, such that all speculations about her death hover around drugs and it would take the outcome of toxicology tests still being awaited, to dispel it?”

In trying to find some form of answer or the other to these and many other questions, I spoke about two of the avalanche of writings about her life and times, her place in the entertainment industry and her life as a Christian that caught my attention.

The first, from which I quoted quite bit, was an online piece titled “Whitney Houston’s Death and the Secret-Society Called the Music Industry,” which I erroneously attributed to A. J. Ramsey. It has since dawned on me that the piece was written by Ra Imhotep, while Ramsey’s every1letstalk.com website was simply one of the many that carried the article? Apologies to all.

The essence of the article, which has since gone viral in cyberspace, was that Whitney was a victim of witchcraft. He recalled how she started out in the choir, had the song “Guide Me O Jehova” as her first solo performance, became “one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had” and thus “paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

Relying heavily on the words of one John Todd, whom he described as “a so called ex-member of the Illuminati, who was a music executive in the 70’s”, Imhotep went on to posit that Whitney must have been initiated into witchcraft at the onset of or at some point in her rise to fame and fortune. He quoted Todd as stating that “every musician and entertainer in the music industry and Hollywood, has to be a initiated wizard or witch before they are offered a recording contract” and that after a “record is cut and the master is finished, it is then given to a coven of witches and wizards who conjure up a demon. Once the demon is conjured the witches and wizards ask the entity to attach itself to every copy or duplicate that is sold to the public, which guarantees the success of the record and also takes control of the listener.”  

Imhotep declared: “the music industry is a cult and once one gets a record deal they are now an initiate and are a part of the cult for life. Whitney Houston was no exception to this rule and she took the oath back in the 70’s. Once the oath is pledged you become the property of the record labels and the machines and you can NEVER retire. The only way out of the game is death…”  

He went on to make a number of claims and drew links between events and personalities in the entertainment industry that neither space nor the nature of this forum, would permit me to go into here.

The second of the articles addressed a different angle to the issue: Whitney’s spiritual life as a Christian. Written by one of my favourite columnists, J. Lee Grady, in his Fire In My Bones column in Charisma online of Wednesday of February 15, 2012, he addressed what he called “the silent shame of addiction”.

In his inimitable style, Grady, a former editor of Charisma magazine, raised a number of fundamental issues that I know the body of Christ must address urgently. One or two of those points have agitated my mind since then.

First, he asserted that “anyone who has listened to Whitney Houston’s rendition of ‘I Love the Lord’—or who saw her perform with CeCe Winans and Shirley Caesar at the 1996 Grammy Awards—knows she had an incomparable voice best suited for gospel music.”  Note this please: an incomparable voice best suited for gospel music.

Grady continued: “But Whitney chose a broader path: When the doors opened for her to make a pop album in the 1980s, it became the all-time best-selling debut album by a female artist. She became America’s diva.” Was that the fundamental problem then? A “broader path”; a voice best suited for the gospel, but applied more to pop music?

Let’s continue with Grady’s perspective: “But all her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons. Her stormy marriage was marred by domestic violence. She admitted in the 1990s that she took cocaine every day. She tried rehab three times over the course of eight years. Her voice was so damaged by her drug habit that people walked out of her comeback concert in London in 2010. She became a pathetic shell of her former self…”

Her worldly success didn’t help her overcome her personal demons? Demons? Was addiction to cocaine a demon? Or was it the worldly success or both? If so, apparently not even the prayers of Christians in the music industry succeeded in casting out that demon or demons? For as Grady chronicled, “Christians in the music industry reached out to Whitney and prayed with her during her up-and-down battle with addictions. But the drugs had a powerful pull. In 2006, a photo was released of her bathroom sink in Atlanta filled with crack pipes, drug paraphernalia, cigarettes and beer cans. Even after she divorced Bobby Brown in 2007, the downward spiral continued”.

As this perceptive writer was wont to do, Grady dropped an important hint when he noted that Whitney passed on “just two days after she sang an impromptu version of “Jesus Loves Me” at a Hollywood nightclub”, and added: “I’d like to believe it was a feeble cry to the God of her childhood…” (CONTINUES)

WHY DID WHITNEY HOUSTON DIE? (1)

"First he gave his evaluation of the young Whitney at the onset of her career: “She started out in the Choir and her first solo performance was ‘Guide Me O Thou Jehova’ Whitney was one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had. She paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

Barring any last minute change of plans, by the time you read this, Whitney Houston would have been laid to rest, at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

The home going services would have held at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, a venue, which one reporter has described as “a much smaller, more intimate setting than the concert halls and arenas Houston packed during her heyday” Yet it would have been a befitting last curtain call for the legendary singer who was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton suite, a week earlier, some hours before she was billed to attend a pre-Grammys bash at the same hotel.

Yes, it would have been a relatively small event for the 48-year-old mother of one daughter, Bobbi Christina Brown, 18, but there would be no room for small fries. Each of the 1,500 seats would have had a celebrity in it!

Among those you would have sighted at the event, as you watched on a variety of television stations or via live streams on the worldwide web, would be megastars like Chaka Khan, a close friend of Whitney and Bebe & CeCe Winans of the famous Winans music family, who have been very close family friends of the Houstons.

Conspicuous, almost certainly would be the Rev Jesse Jackson, another close family friend and Bishop T.D. Jakes, who was listed with Whitney as producers of “Sparkles”, her last film scheduled for release this summer.

If you paid attention, you would also have seen songwriter Diane Warren, pop singer Darlene Love, producer Antonio Reid, who produced many of Houston's songs   Ray J, a hip-hop artist whom Houston dated on and off after her divorce from husband Bobby Brown. Singer and songwriter, Valerie Simpson of the famous Ashford & Simpson duo would also have joined in paying her last respect to the departed singer of whom she told the media; “She was like family…somebody who I watched from the time she was young."

Taking her place in the thick of it all would have been Houston's cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, and then of course there would have been Whitney’s godmother, no less a person than Aretha Franklin, who would have etched her sorrow on the souls of all with a song.

And the eulogy would have been powerfully delivered by another very close friend of the Houston Family, Gospel singer and pastor Marvin L. Winans. He, it was who, officiated at Whitney’s marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown in 1992, a marriage many now see as contributory to the decline and fall of her singing career.

Yes, yesterday the celebrities joined the family to celebrate one of their own, without a parade as Pastor Winans expressed it to CNN’s Andy Cooper. True, for the family, “it was this is my daughter, this is my sister, this is my mother, this is my friend and we want to do this with dignity."  But even as Whitney lay dead, irreversibly, the questions remain, un-interred with her body. Why did she have to die at a mere 48? Why did her life take a sudden dive for the worse right at the peak of her career? Why did she become associated with crack, cocaine and prescription drugs, such that such that all speculations about her death hover around it and only the outcome of toxicology tests still weeks away can dispel it?

Two of the avalanche of writings about Whitney’s life and times, her place in the entertainment industry and her life as a Christian caught my attention and led me to this exercise.

First was a February 15 online piece titled “Whitney Houston’s Death and the Secret-Society Called the Music Industry,” by one A J Ramsey. The essence of the article was that Whitney was a victim of witchcraft. Let’s read a few excerpts. First he gave his evaluation of the young Whitney at the onset of her career: “She started out in the Choir and her first solo performance was ‘Guide Me O Thou Jehova’ Whitney was one of the few entertainers who got a record deal, because of her true talent and not because of connections and affiliations that she had. She paved the way, with her voice and image, for many diva’s that would come after her…”

To explain how the young squeaky clean Jehova’s guidance seeking Whitney began her transition to the woman she was when she died, Ramsey quoted John Todd, whom he described as “a so called ex-member of the Illuminati, who was a music executive in the 70’s”. He quoted Todd as stating publicly that “every musician and entertainer in the music industry and Hollywood, has to be a initiated wizard or witch before they are offered a recording contract”. This, Ramsey explained “is what some writers have called the selling of the soul or light to Lucifer”.  Continuing, Ramsey wrote; “In his speeches John Todd further demonstrates that after the record is cut and the master is finished, it is then given to a coven of witches and wizards who conjure up a demon. Once the demon is conjured the witches and wizards ask the entity to attach itself to every copy or duplicate that is sold to the public, which guarantees the success of the record and also takes control of the listener.”  

Ramsey then declared: “The point I am making above is that the music industry is a cult and once one gets a record deal they are now an initiate and are a part of the cult for life. Whitney Houston was no exception to this rule and she took the oath back in the 70’s. Once the oath is pledged you become the property of the record labels and the machines and you can NEVER retire. The only way out of the game is death…” (CONTINUES)

LOVING THOUGHTS ON GOD, THE ALMIGHTY…

The young man took the key, walked to the vehicle and began to pray ...Then he started the engine and parked the jeep to the place PERFECTLY well as the captain wanted. The young man came out of the Jeep and saw them all crying. They all said together: "We want to serve your God!" The young soldier was astonished, and asked what was going on? The CAPTAIN now crying uncontrollably opened the hood of the jeep revealing that the car had no engine!

What a wonderful week this last one turned out to be! In the midst of thoughts about Nigeria, Boko Haram, the threat of resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta and how a Sovereign National Conference might help or hurt the solution-finding process, three of my sisters, one, very distant, chose to redirect my focus. They refocused me from those challenges to the One who is able to solve them. They refocused me to God, by reminding me of some of His many great attributes; and in the process reinforced my peace.

Here are the thoughts they shared, one in a daily devotional, the others, on Facebook. With them, I usher you into this wonderful week when love is celebrated worldwide.  

…HE'S GOOD

Joel and Lauren decided to move from Washington State back home to Michigan. Wanting to make one last special memory, they bought coffee from their favourite cafe and then stopped at their favourite bookstore. There they picked up two bumper stickers with a favourite motto of the town they were saying goodbye to: “It’s an Edmonds kind of day.”

After 2 weeks and a 3,000-mile drive, they entered Michigan. Hungry and wanting to celebrate their arrival, they stopped and asked about where to find a restaurant. Although they had to backtrack a few miles, they found a quaint little cafe. Emma, their waitress, excited to learn they were from her home state of Washington, asked, “What city?” “Edmonds,” they replied. “That’s where I’m from!” she said. Wanting to share the joy, Joel got their extra bumper sticker from the car and handed it to her. Amazingly, the sticker was from her mother’s store! It had gone from her mom’s hands to theirs, across 3,000 miles, to her hands.

Mere coincidence? Or were these experiences good gifts orchestrated by a good God who loves to encourage His children? Proverbs tells us, “A man’s steps are directed by the Lord” (20:24 NIV). In response, let’s “bless His name. For the Lord is good” (Psalm 100:4-5) - (Anne Cetas in Our Daily Bread).

 …DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE…

A young man working in the army was constantly humiliated because he believed in God. One day the captain wanted to humiliate him before the troops. He called the young man and said: "Young man, come here! Take the key and go and park the

Jeep in front."

The young man replied: "I can not drive, sir!" The captain said: "Ask for assistance from your God, then! Show us that he exists!"

The young man took the key, walked to the vehicle and began to pray ...Then he started the engine and parked the jeep to the place PERFECTLY well as the captain wanted.

The young man came out of the Jeep and saw them all crying. They all said together:

"We want to serve your God!"

The young soldier was astonished, and asked what was going on? The CAPTAIN now crying uncontrollably opened the hood of the jeep revealing that the car had no engine!

Then the boy said: "See? This is the God I serve, THE GOD OF ALL POSSIBILITY, the God who gives life to what does not exist."

You may think there are things still impossible in your life, but WITH GOD EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Believe for the IMPOSSIBLE TODAY AND ALWAYS and IT WILL HAPPEN FOR YOU. I AM! ((Posted by Rev Mrs Nkoyo Eromosele)

…HE’S LOOKING OUT FOR YOU

Me: God, can I ask You a question?

God: Sure

Me: Promise You won't get mad

God: I promise

Me: Why did You let so much stuff happen to me today?

God: What do u mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late

God: Yes

Me: My car took forever to start

God: Okay

Me: at lunch they made my sandwich wrong & I had to wait

God: Huummm

Me: On the way home, my phone went DEAD, just as I picked up a call

God: All right

Me: And on top of it all off, when I got home ~I just want to soak my feet in my new foot massager and relax. BUT it wouldn't work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did You do that?

God: Let me see, the death angel was at your bed this morning & I had to send one of My Angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that

Me (humbled): OH

GOD: I didn't let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)

God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick & I didn't want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn't afford to miss work.

Me (embarrassed):Okay

God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn't even let you talk to them so you would be covered.

Me: (softly): I see God

God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to electrocute you, So I stopped it from coming on.

Me: I'm Sorry God

God: Don't be sorry, just learn to Trust Me.... in All things , the Good & the bad.

Me: I will trust You.

God: And don't doubt that My plan for your day is Always Better than your plan.

Me: I won't God. And let me just tell you God, Thank You for Everything today.

God: You're welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I Love looking after My Children... (Posted by Rev Mrs Kenny Osoba).

Thanks a million, my sisters for giving me a week filled with meditations on the love nature of God. Thank you, Father for helping me to share. Happy Valentines, all. 

DRESSING BOKO HARAM IN BORROWED GARB

CBN Governor Sanusi

Fantastic thesis; balanced, on the face of it. But how does poverty explain the well publicised desire of the Boko Haramists to impose radical Islam upon the North, if not the whole of Nigeria. How does it explain the attack on churches? Why have non-Moslems failed to manifest this so-called radicalisation; or have they been insulated from poverty and marginalisation?

It has gained considerable momentum, to the point that it is beginning to shape government policy. I am talking about the idea that the Boko Haram madness somehow has its roots in poverty.

The latest person to propagate the idea was the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, no less. Armed with statistics, he told London’s Financial Times that the current revenue allocation formula, based marginally as it is on the derivation principle, is impoverishing the north of Nigeria. This therefore provides explanation (or did he mean to say, justification?), for the mindless killing that has become a daily fare in our nation.

When his friends at ThisDay newspaper blew the story open last week in a report written by Yemi Adebowale, he was quick to debunk it as out of context. And urged those interested to read the source story, “Nigerian Central Banker Calls for End to Imbalances” by FT’s William Wallis. Here is that report in full:

“Attempts to redress historic grievances in Nigeria’s oil-rich south may inadvertently have helped create the conditions for the Islamic insurgency spreading from the impoverished north-east of the country, says Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria’s central bank governor.

“In the past year, the Boko Haram sect has been responsible for proliferating attacks on churches, police stations and other state targets. Last week, it claimed responsibility for multiple bomb blasts which claimed nearly 200 lives in the northern city of Kano. The size and sophistication of the attacks underlined fears that the conflict is spiralling out of control.

 “’There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence,’ Mr Sanusi told the Financial Times in an interview, arguing that it was now necessary to focus funds on regenerating other regions if Nigeria wants to secure long-term stability.

“Oil-producing areas in the predominantly Christian south benefit from 13 per cent of the revenues generated from oil in their area, on top of the federal allocations they and other states receive. As world oil prices have risen over the past decade, this has led to a widening gulf in income between oil-producing states and those without oil. The commercial capital Lagos, which raises 75 per cent of its own revenue from taxes, is the exception.

“This formula was introduced after the military relinquished power in 1999 among a series of measures aimed at redressing historic grievances among those living closest to the oil and quelling a conflict that was jeopardising output. But by seeking to address one problem, Nigeria may have created another, weakening other states in the federation and fostering resentment in the poorest region which has spawned the Boko Haram sect.

“’When you look at the figures and look at the size of the population in the north you can see there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportions,’ Mr Sanusi said. ‘Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money.’

“According to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053bn between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the north-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156 per person.

“By contrast Rivers state was allocated N3,965 per capita, and on average the oil producing South- South region received on average N3,332 per capita.  This imbalance is compounded when the cost of an amnesty programme for militants in the delta is included together with an additional 1 per cent for a special development body for the Niger delta. To boot, the theft of oil by profiteers in the region diverts tens of millions more weekly from federal coffers. 

“The imbalance is so stark, he added, because the state still depends on oil for more than 80 per cent of its revenues. Nigeria has made little headway raising taxes for example from agriculture, which accounts for 42 per cent of GDP.

“Inhabitants of the delta tend to have little sympathy with complaints about the revenue formula, given that Nigeria was ruled and at times plundered for much of the four decades after independence by northern leaders. Indeed, state governors from the region are now lobbying for an even greater share of oil revenues – in some cases they believe it should be as high as 50 per cent.

“Northern Nigeria’s economy has traditionally depended on the government more than the south. Many of the industries set up as part of earlier efforts to promote national balance have gone bust or been sold off during a decade of liberal market reforms, power shortages and infrastructure collapse. The north’s inhabitants, although more numerous, are also among the poorest in Africa, and therefore represent a less attractive market for the banks, telecoms and retail companies booming in pockets of comparative affluence in Nigeria’s south. ‘We now need some sort of Marshall plan for these areas so we can begin to regenerate industrialisation,’ Mr Sanusi argued.”

Sanusi, in his rebuttal summarised his thesis this way: “that poverty and marginalisation create conditions of the possibility of radicalisation” He then proceeded to equate the erstwhile militancy in the Niger Delta with the current Boko Haram insurgency. His words: “I have long held the view that ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria has its roots in poverty and deprivation and perceived marginalisation. I always said this about the militancy in the delta while fully condemning it, the truth remains that militants tapped into a groundswell of frustration. In addressing that problem we have gone to an extreme now where the levels of poverty in the north are recreating the same conditions and results we saw in the delta.”

Fantastic thesis; balanced, on the face of it. But how does poverty explain the well publicised desire of the Boko Haramists to impose radical Islam upon the North, if not the whole of Nigeria. How does it explain the attack on churches? Why have non-Moslems failed to manifest this so-called radicalisation; or have they been insulated from poverty and marginalisation? No, Sanusi, sophistry has its limits.