I’ve got to say, when I first began to read Miles Mark Fischer, I was a little confused as to why he called these other churches “cults”. To me, they seemed like normal churches, which made me question what his definition of a cult was. I was like, “Did the word cult not have a negative connotation then ? Or is this a reflection of the more mainstream religions aversion to Pentecostalism?” It wasn’t until I got to the Father Divine reading that I realized that his following at least, reminded me of the current definition of a cult. Although there were some parallels between what I would call a church today and the ‘cults’ of that era, which is a little disconcerting to say the least, there were way more differences that the first reading simply didn’t showcase. But the Father Divine reading creeped me out just a little.

Second, I would like to say that I’m kind of a little shook by the word niggeritions. It sounds like something my little brother would say, but was actually said by a grown man to describe the actions of other black people. I’d also like to give a fun fact. I noticed the name Nimrod in the Rabbi Mathews reading, and remembered that supposedly, it’s come to be equated with the word idiot today because Bugs Bunny, trying to be sarcastic, refereed to Elmer Fudd as “Nimrod,” who was described as a mighty hunter in the bible. Obviously people, not knowing the biblical character, missed the sarcasm and thought it was just another word for idiot. I’m not sure how true the story is, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Third, I’d like to say that I have actually never read about black jewish people until today. I heard about black muslims, but never black jews. I’m not sure I completely followed the argument as to why black people are true Israelites, but it’s an interesting line of thought that I might read over again.