hey what's up everybody this is dante
fortson here with brother dana stevens
if you're in the chat and you're live
and you can hear me uh press one in the
chat
this is our first time doing this on
stream yard so i just want to make sure
everything is uh
sounding like it's supposed to sound so
if you're in the chat room press one if
you can hear us
i'll give them a few seconds to see if
they can yeah get in there
all right there we go i see some ones
now all right so there must be a slight
lag behind us okay cool
all right dante we see that on the news
media you know sometimes when they're
sitting in the station and they ask a
question and then they bring it to the
person out in the field
and they kind of sit there for a few
minutes and then they
right right yes all right brother dana
so for those who don't know who you are
can you
give a quick introduction and let them
know about yourself
well i'm um what i call myself brother
dana
uh stevens i reside here in chicago
illinois i've been here
for almost well a little over 26 years
now
um i originally grew up and was born in
southern minnesota out in a rural
area and i got my bachelor's degree from
moody bible institute
um youth ministry and then i went on
just recently
this past december of 2019 got my
master's in clinical mental health
counseling
so uh i've been working with our
inner city uh black youth for
20 over 26 years now
and that's awesome and congrats on the
masters i know it's a lot of hard work
my mom got hers
well i never thought i would make it
through i didn't think i was smart
enough and that's why i waited until
you know i'll be 48 now so i was 47 when
i got it
but you know what sometimes with
maturity you have the ability to sit
down and actually uh
do the work right through so
it was a four-year program um but i i
did graduate and i
graduated with almost a 4.0 so
i was kind of excited about that yeah
that's an awesome job i know that takes
a lot of time
to complete that uh master's course
now let me ask you this let's just start
from the beginning growing up did you
grow up
religious at all or part of any
religious affiliation
or were you guys just kind of hey find
your own way
no i grew up i grew up very religious um
my father grew up lutheran and you know
i went
when i was in seventh and eighth grade
for two years i went to
uh confirmation and i agree you know was
confirmed
just prior to my sophomore or my
freshman year in high school
uh so we we grew up very religious we
went to church
almost every sunday unless we were out
camping
or you know away as a family uh we
prayed
you know almost at every meal but it was
just
the prayer come lord jesus be my guest
let this food to us be blessed amen
um i say religious because when
any type of hardship or any type
of challenge would come our way um
the last thing you would hear from my
father is let's pray
you would hear some cuss words or you
know some things like that first
um my mother now grew up very very
strong
baptist where she was in church you know
wednesday night she was there friday
night she was there saturday night
sunday morning sunday nights
um and so because she got so burnt out
she really walked away
from more of a of a relationship
which would i would consider a little
better than or a little outside of
religious
but i grew up religious i grew up
religious that when i
told myself when i graduate from high
school i would never walk into a stupid
church again
because of the hypocrisy that i saw
in the people that were religious that i
grew up around
all right and um before we continue
because i do want to follow up on some
of those
uh bed skincare asks what does confirm
mean or what is confirmed
as a lutheran which is kind of close to
being a catholic
we had to go to two years of a bible
study on wednesday nights with the
pastor and we
learned and went through a catechism a
catechism
was basically a book of
what you as a lutheran would believe
so we learned the apostles creed which
was a creed that we would say
every sunday morning we learned the
lord's prayer which we would say
every sunday morning um so basically
confirmation was two years of learning
the theology
of of what it meant to be a christian
but through um lutheran and you know
that if you are a baptist or if you're a
lutheran or if you're a missouri synod
lutheran versus
a evangelical lutheran
there's there can be a difference in
some of their theology
um let's say like baptism you know a
baptist church believes in full
immersion
but a lutheran where i grew up you were
baptized as an
infant on your head and then
confirmation was your way
of being an adult that would say i agree
with what i was confirmed or that i was
baptized in into the faith of
christianity
and now i can take communion i was not
allowed to take communion until after
confirmation
because i had to learn why we take that
communion and as an adult
agree with what it meant to be
baptized as an infant so that's kind of
a long question
but or a long answer to your question
but that's that's how religious it was
when i grew up
okay yeah and and so now growing up in
that type of environment
did you guys engage in intense bible
study or was it more of we just go to
church
um however many times throughout the
week
did bible study matter or was it just
something that
was optional i'm not going to speak for
my mother
because that was probably more intense
i'm gonna speak for myself just growing
up as a lutheran
pretty much our pastor was given a
schedule
of messages that he would deliver to
us that was kind of sent down from i
don't know the headquarters
and so with that would also be like
a wednesday night bible study um it was
not mandatory i mean
if the pastor would come to my father
and say you were not on church on sunday
or you were not at bible study my father
would have
in his own way you know told him where
to go
you know we show up when we would show
up
um so i i only went to sunday morning
service i went to a small
country church that was about 13 miles
out
in the boonies from where i lived and so
you know work was more important you
know
as long as we went to church on sunday
that was that was fine in the family
that i
i grew up in so no but those
older adults that went to the bible
study
again it probably was a little bit of a
break off
of what the message was from the sunday
before
so it really wasn't where the pastor
would sit down and
and kind of understand the needs of his
of his congregation
it was more okay this is what we're
going to be talking about for the next
three months
because i was kind of sent down from
above
all right so now what
took place in your life that made you
say you know what i want to study the
bible
for myself and see what this really
means outside of
uh the religion i was brought up in or
the belief system i was brought up in
as i told you before one of the main
turn offs was i saw the hypocrisy
in all these people that i grew up with
that caused them christians i grew up in
a very small rural town in southern
minnesota of about 4 500 people
and everybody pretty much was associated
with a church we did have
one assemblies of god church that had
probably 10 members
but we were taught to kind of fear them
they were strange they were
way out there they were crazy
the baptist church wasn't even in my
hometown it was 30 miles away where my
mother grew up
um almost all the churches in the town
that i lived were
lutheran or catholic and there was
probably five of them total
so on most sunday afternoons when
individuals were let out of church they
would come to hardee's and i was working
at hardee's and i mean they were the
rudest
meanest people and that's what caused me
to say i would never walk into a church
because it to me it was a waste of time
there was there was nothing good that i
saw
in these individuals however my
summer before my senior year in high
school which would have been the summer
of 1990 a couple friends
invited me to go and attend a
here in illinois is called
oh i don't know what it's called here
but it's called sunshine in minnesota
and what it was it was a
friday night and an all-day saturday to
saturday night
christian gathering um
once a year where people from all over i
think there was about 25 000
people came to this sunshine festival
that i was invited to go
i went simply because i knew that
i could get away from my mom and dad i
was going to be a senior in high school
i figured there would be drinking and
partnering partying going on
so i went well when i got up there i
think that was the first time that i
saw in my life people outside of my
grandpa and grandma
that had a devotion to god where you saw
some sincerity
in their love for god and so that friday
night or that saturday night i remember
specifically
michael w smith was singing a song he
just wrote called pray for me and i'll
pray for you
and one day love will bring us back
around well as i stood there and i
looked around this was the closing song
i saw a love or i did see and feel
something that i never experienced
and within
moments something came over me
that the only way that i can express it
to you that are listening
you know sometimes when you're sitting
down and you get up very quickly
and when you get up too fast you kind of
get that little head rush
where you get a moment of you know
trying to bring your bearings back
that came over me but however
when i kind of become became out of that
i was not where i was standing
i was 000 people almost
way i made my journey into into the
front of the stage and i was on my knees
with my hands up that
is where i had an experience with the
living at that time what i call
jesus christ i gave my life to him
and he radically radically transformed
me to the point where just a few months
prior to that i was
home ready to commit suicide i had my
father's gun in my hand
ready to kill myself for various reasons
and i never got back to that and then
that experience took place which in
christian dumb week we would say that i
had a
personal encounter and i gave my life to
christ and i became a christian
um that was transforming
so much that when i got home i i
destroyed
all of my secular music
and from that point on i dove into the
bible
and i ate the word of god as much as i
could
and god was so faithful that he actually
allowed me to date this beautiful young
lady
that her father was a pastor
at this lutheran church but they were a
family that
their relationship with god through
christ
was very real and so once a week
i would join them with their family
bible studies
and the lord used that until i graduated
and went off to college
as a avenue of mentoring me
and either furthering my knowledge
and my relationship with god but it was
one of those
conversions that you know
it happened as i described and my life
has never gone back to where it was and
i i don't give myself credit for that i
give self to
you know credit to god for for all that
but that's
that's what happened and then that's
where i
began my hungering and first after the
true and living god
and that would have been like i said the
summer of 1990.
right so the summer of 1990 you have
this huge conversion experience
and you start i guess you say you're
you're the beginning of your new life in
christ
yes at what point um
do you arrive at the conversation
or the idea in passing that
israel might not be who you were told
they are and how did that first affect
you when you first heard it
so my awakening to who the true
children of god are did not take place
until but maybe five years ago so
2015 2016.
how did that happen well i made my
transition to
chicago to go to moody bible institute
out to a two-year school after high
school which was a lutheran school
but i was still on fire for god and i
met people that were also on fire for
god
i then went to europe um as a camp
counselor on a u.s military base
in onsbach germany and
i then came home for a semester and then
i went to moody bible institute
starting in january of 1994 and at that
point i was pursuing a degree
in youth ministry i wanted to be a youth
pastor specifically i wanted to be a
camp director
up in the wilderness where kids would
come
during the summer for a week to you know
really learn and be
energized and built up in their
relationship and knowledge of god
summer camp bible camp is what we called
it and so
in january of 94 i started at moody
bible institute with that
purpose and goal um in in my heart
in march of 1994 a couple months later i
was invited to go to a church
here in chicago i had never you know
been to this church
didn't know where we were going but i
followed these two moody students that
had been at moody
already for two and four years
as we were riding the train the l the
subway
um every stop it took before we got off
more and more white individuals to the
point where we were the only three
whites
on the train and then we got off and in
the three four blocks that we walked to
the church
i recognized according to my upbringing
and
the news media that i was walking in a
ghetto an all-black community which is
not a good place to be
especially if you were white
so we made it safely to the church you
know because i was i was afraid
um this church was predominantly black
but it was also a very
community oriented church so there were
quite a few
other uh white moody students and and
individuals that were at this this
church service and stuff
and the pastor talked about stereotypes
and racism and how it destroys well
individuals well i grew up like i said
in a small town of 4 500 people
and the majority of our two percent
minority at the time was mexican
um other than that there was no other
minorities
when i went to the lutheran school there
was very few minorities and when i say
minorities i'm talking about
specifically
um my black brothers and sisters and
then when i went to
moody just to be honest there wasn't
very many
black brothers and sisters there either
so
as we were walking back um we were
walking single file and these two
friends were leading the way
i was trailing and it had snowed so we
were walking a footpath
i saw coming in the distance about i
think it was like five young black men
and they were picking up some ice chunks
and so right away i got scared
you know what am i going to do i need to
go to the other side of the street are
they going to rob me you know because of
all the stereotypes
that i grew up and grew under for the
first 22 years of my life
but then at the same time i was battling
in my mind
the truth that was given to me by this
pastor
so i had this conversation dante in my
mind
like okay if these were five young white
guys dana would you be feeling
and and thinking the same thing you are
now
no so what basis do you
have to believe that these guys are
either drug dealers
gang members gonna rob you hurt you or
harm you
i have nothing so why are you thinking
that
don't let the word that this pastor gave
you
go into a heart of yours that is like
the pavement
and it will never take root so as we
approach
those individuals these guys my friends
were like hey what's up hello and by the
way
both of them declared at moody to
give and to serve their life in the
inner city
as urban ministers so
as they greeted these gentlemen when
they got to me
i followed suit however these guys did
not say
hi back to me like they did my friends
they actually beat me up
and those ice chunks they were picking
up were not for some snowball fight
amongst themselves
but were used as a weapon to smash me in
the in my front of my face the back of
my head
anyway i was on the ground and i
received a kick from the last young man
and with that kick this young man said
welcome to racism
and they all ran off it was at that time
that these two friends of mine
did not know i was getting beat up they
were they were a black almost
in front of me turned around because
they heard those words
and they saw me in the ground
greater than the impact and this is how
i say it today greater than the impact
of that
physical um punches and and hits
was the impact of their words when they
said welcome to racism
and growing up where i did i i only
understood racism
as when i call you the n word or
i make fun of you directly to your face
because of
your what we used to laugh at nappy hair
and the jokes that um would be
shared amongst us as family and
classmates
that's what i thought racism was but the
depth of pain that i felt from that
young man when he said welcome to racism
has never left me to this day
and so in those next months and
in those next
years i asked god
to help me understand what this young
man
was feeling and was saying
when he said welcome to racism what
what what what did he mean when he said
the welcome to racism
and so over these years i have seen
systematic racism i never left the inner
city
i have been living in an i live almost
in the same community where i was beat
up
i have lived for 26 years in all black
community
so that i can learn to understand to see
and to experience as much as i can what
it
meant for this young man and what racism
is in this country from systematic
racism
all the way up and and god taught me
those things
so as he taught me these things
i began to then question god
to why is he allowing these things to
happen
you know i i looked at my white
family that would barely go to church
once a week
and when they did it was almost like
they were doing god
a service that's the attitude that's why
when almost an hour was up they were
checking their watches
because how dare you as a pastor keep me
five to ten minutes longer
i got dinner in the oven or i got things
to do
that's the attitude of the christianity
that i grew up in
and so i would look at my family members
that were being blessed
even though they were not seeking and
hungering and thirsting after god
and then i would look at you my black
brothers and sisters living in an inner
city
where i would see your hunger and your
thirst and your devotion
for god and and i didn't understand and
so i had to start questioning
okay god what what you say you're not a
respecter of persons
and then christianity teaches because
you know sometimes you know those that
want to
share it believe that you are cursed
because of ham
but then christianity also taught me
that if you're in
christ his blood breaks generational
or family curses but yet i
saw these curses that that are
affecting you my black brothers and
sisters who are living in christ
and and it didn't make sense and then i
see the shootings and i see
the killings and as i
i you know journeyed over these years i
got more and more
frustrated because i didn't have an
answer and
finally i got to the point to to just
say you know what god
a young man got killed like five years
ago
in this july this past july and i
finally got to the point where i said
you know what god
you can shove it i actually told him
some cuss words where he could take
himself and go
because how do i serve a god that says
he's
just and he's not a respecter of persons
and those who diligently seek after
him you know this and this and this but
yet i
see opposite of his word
in the lives of you my black brothers
and sisters
i don't want to serve a god like that
because to me he's a liar
and so at that point sitting in bed
when i with that i i it was not an
audible voice
but it was a voice that spoke to my
heart and
said my son they're
they're they're in the situation but
it's he he said this
they're my chosen they're my precious
chosen children and then
he directed me to deuteronomy chapter 28
and i read through it the first part
then i got to the second part
but it i i don't know if i was in such
shock but when i got to that last verse
that says i will bring the you back
into egypt again but this time by way
of ship
it like sealed the deal to give me an
understanding that what you have
and are going through is because you're
not
cursed by the most high yah but you're
his
chosen and you are now writing
out the last of your 400 years
of of oppression um that you've been
put under and we
as white evangelicals white america
being your oppressor your enemy as
described
in deuteronomy chapter 28. that's how i
got to know
who you are i will say
dante a few weeks prior to that
god did put on my heart because of the
shootings
the similarities between our black
brothers and sisters here
specifically our black brothers being
shot and killed
as the hebrews were in egypt
and down to the point that eventually
you know the pharaoh did everything he
could do to keep um the hebrews down
um that he had to resort to killing you
and that's where he threw you know the
firstborn the boys into the
uh the river i did a video comparing
how america is just like the egyptians
um in the way that we treat blacks in
the way the egyptians treated the
hebrews
not knowing yet that you were truly the
hebrews
and so did you you asked if i got scared
and so at that moment
you know uh when i released it it went
viral and then i did i got impacted by
you know all of these individuals
calling themselves hebrews and hebrew
israelites
and i did get scared and i actually got
more scared
because my black pastor at a kojic
church
when i went to him as his armor bear
told me to run from you
to run from anything that they would
want to teach me and so i
did until a few weeks later
when the most high yah spoke to me
individually
and said that you are his precious
chosen children that's where
i've gotten to where i am today
all right now that's that's an
interesting story um
it's a lot of points to unpack so let me
go back just a little bit so you come
into this knowledge of the truth
um you had a you heard a voice from the
most high
who was the first person you went to and
told this to
and exactly how did they react or was
that the pastor you were telling us
about
gosh i don't recall the the
what i do recall is that
week i got an email
from an individual that the most high
yacht
tucked his heart he reached out to me
and up to
today i have a binder where i have
200 front and back pages of emails
that this individual this
this hebrew brother the most high yah
sent to me that has been mentoring me
guiding me and guarding me not just when
i ask him questions but most of the time
he will come to me with an email or send
an email about things that i'm pondering
so he is probably one of the first
individuals i've never met him to this
day
but he's one of the first individuals um
that that has really reached out to me
um not not in person but through social
media
um then there was a pastor here in
chicago that
uh saw some my video and then began to
see some of my other videos at the very
beginning
that reached out to me uh pastor john
tatum
and so i've gotten to know him and then
i know dante
soon after that there was things from
you that were
sent my way um and
and then yes i you know i can't even
remember who might be the first one
just the first one is is the gentleman
uh
that has been emailing me for now like i
said almost four years
but it was it was kind of a slow but
sure process of individuals coming
on my way um and i think sometimes the
most high yeah might have done that
because
one of the greatest excuses or comebacks
that my white evangelical family members
want to say to me is that i've drank the
kool-aid that i've been brainwashed
but yet when i share my testimony on how
i came into this truth and then even
how i was kind of mentored in this truth
it was
nobody specifically that i've been
sitting
under that has brainwashed me but it's
been a an
accumulation of incredible people
such as yourself dante that have matured
me
encouraged me and motivated me in this
walk
that's awesome and i i do appreciate you
saying that um i had no idea until just
now when you said it
um so let me ask you this why do you
think
uh so many white christian believers
are opposed to well actually you know
what let me back
up let's go back to deuteronomy 28. you
said that um deuteronomy
you went to deuteronomy 28 and you saw
the curses why do you believe that
there are so many in the christian
church white or black
that refuse to believe that deuteronomy
28 could possibly
apply to the descendants of slaves in
america and scattered all
over the world in
in one word that that that i'm going to
throw out there it might be on a
different level it would be arrogance
it would be pride because we have to
swallow
a pill that we have been
taught um lies
or we have not at least been taught the
truth
and and that's not comfortable
and a lot of people like to remain
comfortable in their ignorance
and and so i think on both sides
that's why now i think the difference if
i if i
if and i don't want to speak for you as
my black brothers and sisters
but sometimes from my point of view what
i
also see as my black christians not
wanting to embrace this
is because we in america have also
made hebrew look bad
um you know from from let's say the
hebrew camps or the hebrew israelites
that are out on the street corners
we magnify them in the christian church
um and then you know even to the point
where we've made
you know i know it's a small thing but
it's still there
dreadlocks like some real horrible thing
that if you have dreadlocks you're a
lazy drug addict that's you know
coming from bob marley that sit out on
the you know on the beaches and do
nothing
so when you add all of that together it
really
gives a nasty picture of
what we may know the bible talks about
as what yahshua hamashiach or jesus
christ look like with
with the the wool of hair the locks and
all of that
so i think that keeps some of my black
brothers and sisters
in christianity away from wanting to
embrace this truth
but as my white evangelical family
members
since we as white people believe that we
are
the originators or we're the founders of
truth
how dare we back up
and say we're not the founders of truth
that the very our very black brothers
and sisters
are founders of truth you know and that
comes with the mindset that christianity
should be praised by you as blacks
because slavery was used by god
to bring you in submission
or oppression physically but you should
be gratefully
grateful that our
oppressing you in slavery actually
gave you the freedom spiritually
to embrace christianity in the gospel
so with that mindset dante how
dare we ever think that we are not
correct
we are always correct we are the
founders of truth
and so to come back on that and not only
say we're wrong
but then to say the people that had the
truth
are the very people that we have viewed
as scum
or not even fully human which would be
you as a black individual
so there's so much pride excuse me
and arrogance there that
you know for the simple fact why can't
why didn't moody at least teach me that
jesus wasn't
you know crucified on a cross with his
arm stretched out
or that why doesn't christianity clear
up
the misconception that jesus was born in
a a manger
because if you go and i've been to
israel
when you go to israel you find out very
soon
and quickly excuse me i got a little in
my throat
that jesus was born in more of like a
cave
so if they're not going to clear up that
truth
they're definitely not going to expose
and clear up
this truth
all right and so now with
with your newfound belief that that
black people are israel and you're
um you talk to some people and you're
starting to see
the differences and how people react to
this truth
do you find that it is harder to talk to
black people about this or or let's say
black
believers or black christians what
called black christians do you
um is it harder to talk to black
christians or is it harder to talk to
white christians
about this uh because in my experience
depending on who you're talking to the
reaction can be very nearly the same
even even to the point of almost
outright racism
some of the same words i said so what
has been your experience for sharing
this truth with people
i will say personally it's much more
difficult to share this with my white
family
and it's less difficult to share this
with my black christian family because
i'm a white man
and unfortunately you as my black
brothers and sisters have been
trained or or taught or
lied to to not
believe each other but to believe the
white man
over your own black brother or sister
so it may not be embraced per se by
my black christians when i approach them
but i
i don't get that that hit
of you know get out of my face i don't
want to hear it
like i do to my for my fellow white
believers and i and i think that simply
because
unfortunately you as my black family
you've been conditioned to almost
believe a white man over your
own black brother and sister so that
when i come to my black christians with
this information
they may not embrace it they may say oh
no no no no dana i just believe you know
that that and this is true that oh you
know what
we're all in christ now we're all in
christ
i'll get that but when i go to my white
christians i get you know a shotgun in
my face you know not literally but
with their words or i get a slam door i
get blocked or i get turned in
and then i get blocked off of facebook
so
that the hostility is
very different um when i
you know go to to both sides
with this message all right so that's
interesting so you you've been beat up
you've had a shotgun put in your face
why why why go through all this why
tell anybody why go public why get on
youtube why do
any of this and not just save yourself
the hassle and just
keep it to yourself and be quiet because
my love for you
and my love for the truth and my desire
to be obedient to the most high yah
is far more important than my own
comfortability
i have some hebrew brothers and sisters
that don't believe
myself as a stranger or a white man
um will ever be able to be allowed into
the kingdom
and so they say you know you're doing
all of this and you're not coming with
us no way
but see i would still rather be a man
that lives his
life full of justice and love
for a people that i have grown to love
that has embraced me even though that
means
i die and go to hell um i'm okay with
that
because what you have added to my life
and the beauty that i have obtained
living my life amongst you my black
brothers and sisters
uh kings and queens royalty the tribe of
judah
the lineage of yahshua hamashiach is so
great
that i i have no desire to go back home
i could go home at any time and that's
what i tell my white family there's
nobody holding me here
i i like like you said dante i suffer
greatly for being here
but that suffering that may be
great is still not greater than the
beauty
and and the blessings that i have having
you in my life
which then when you look at scripture
it backs it up because if your
disobedience was good for me
imagine what it's going to be for me
when you
are in your rightful place
and so i don't serve you so that i can
be
in that rightful place so that i can get
some type of reward
i serve the most high and i serve you by
doing what i do
because right now it is a blessing and
it's an
honor for me to be a mouthpiece to speak
truth and an advocate and if at all
a shield or a protector of the people
that i
love even greater than my own white
family
my mother comes back
all the time and says to my regular
blood white family members
we think we're a family she says
i've been taught what family is every
time i go to chicago and i
spend time with my son and the
individuals around him
she says i am joyce is that she she just
feels guilty
to how unloving and unfamily oriented we
are as white individuals
and and she says now i understand why my
son
even with all the hardships he faced
throughout these years
chose to remain where he's living
so that is why i stay where i stay
i i will not go back and live
comfortably in ignorance i cannot
go back i have to stay and live
uncomfortable but i'm living
in truth and truth will set you free in
areas
that that living in comfort
won't ever set you free because look at
my white evangelicals right now
they're living in fear and hate
i'm so glad i don't have to live in fear
and hate
i rejoice because i know the people that
the most high
is about to transition to the head you
all are incredible
people and i would serve you any day
i don't care if i have to be a servant
or a slave
unto you because the way you've treated
me
i would rather serve you than to go back
and dwell with my white family members
now it's interesting that you say that
do you let's let's
uh pause there for a moment okay do you
believe that
white christians the servitude that some
of
uh the israelites believe uh because
it's interesting hearing you saying it
out loud i wasn't even gonna bring it up
or anything like that but it is a belief
within the israelite community that
that's what will happen
do you believe that some of them know
and they just
they can't accept it or they just
outright you know just don't believe we
are the people of the book they don't
believe you're the people of the book
number one and in number two we are so
haughty
even as as it said you know paul says in
romans you know to the wild branch you
know and
and i'm learning more about gentile
strangers so i'm airing more where i'm
believing that i
am a stranger um
my my white evangelical family members
they they can't even conceive
what it conceived the notion that they
would
serve anybody in in the afterlife or
in the life to come or even here on
earth so when they look at those hebrew
israelites out on the street corner
those seeing most of the white
evangelicals that i talk about i don't
even think they're even aware of that
maybe those that live
close to a city are more aware but
they will laugh at that idea what my
people
fear is living a earthly life
in bondage they're not fearing their
spiritual life because
how would a god that supports white
supremacy because that's really what
christianity teaches
it teaches that god set white man in a
position
to bring the gospel of jesus christ
across the world
well god would not set that into a group
of people unless he trusted them and
believed in them
and that is why you as black brothers
and sisters don't have that
because you were not the ones chosen by
god to be this great race
we were entrusted that's why you and
africa
lived in hudson were crazy that's why
the native american indians needed us to
also come here and kill them and
rape them and murder them but for their
good
set up colonization so that they could
be civil and
moral and decent human beings
so christianity teaches that type of
of a hierarchy and and so
my white evangelical family members
won't even go
there because right now what they're
simply fearing
is that blacks and minorities are going
to
overpower them here in this great land
of america so how dare
we live the way we it forced you to live
and that is also why they're so full of
fear and i explain it this way
you know if if i had a a married couple
that were good friends
and all of a sudden i started to kind of
have an affair
or a liking to my good friend's
wife and eventually she decides to leave
him and come
and marry me for the rest of my life
i will always be on guard that anytime i
see my
wife talking to another man in the back
of my mind and in my heart i'm going to
think oh oh
i might get the uh he might take her
from me because the same way i
obtained her is probably gonna be the
same way that i will lose her
so i will always fear losing her the way
that i got
her through cheating through ungodliness
and then the enemy will cannot be
her because i can't be mad at her
because
i was a part of the sin in the way that
i got her
so my enemy will always be that other
man
so you as blacks are our enemy instead
of us
looking at ourselves to confess our sins
of how we obtain this land
which was through murder and rape
slavery and oppression
so we believe my father said this to me
dana you better hope there will never be
a black president
because if there is they're going to do
to us what we've done to them
but yet white people want to say we
haven't done nothing to you
and that which we've done has been way
in the past
and and it's not that way anymore
so when you know that you took this land
in an ungodly way that's why
my white evangelicals live by the
constitution
more than they live by the words even of
jesus christ
it is my right to bear arms which takes
precedence over
jesus saying if you live by the sword
you die by the sword
now it's interesting hearing you say
that because i'm pretty sure
a lot of the people listening don't get
to hear a white guy talk like this to a
black audience
too often so let me ask you this um
there's a term called moderate are you
familiar with the term moderates
please describe it how you are i i don't
know if my
definition is yours no we don't call
ourselves moderate says there's a group
of christians who have begun
calling uh black people who believe in
israel moderates if they still attend a
christian church
and i was just wondering if you've ever
been referred to as a moderate because
we've been pointing out that they
only specifically reserve this term uh
for black people it's almost become like
almost like a um a version of the n-word
for
black christians who believe in black
israel and i just want to know if you
were familiar with it or have ever been
referred to as that
no i have not nope
all right so that answers that question
so for everybody out there listening
when you hear the term moderates
um it is only used for those people who
are
believers in christ and are black and we
believe that
israel is black now with that said do
you believe it's even important at all
to even know who israel is because a lot
of people in church says it doesn't even
matter anymore
god doesn't deal with israel so how do
you respond to that
see that's all part of their their
hypocrisy and lies
99.9 percent of all those same
evangelicals that say that to you
now hated president obama because they
felt like
he didn't honor israel and the people of
the land and almost
all of my evangelicals will come back
and say the nation that blesses israel
will be blessed the nation that curses
will curse
the only reason why they say that is
because they're backed up in a corner
now
where they're gonna have to start to
admit that the real chosen people
are not the people that we have viewed
them as
and so now the best way out of that is
well color don't matter no way well then
if it doesn't matter then take down the
white jesus and put
up the black jesus well but jesus wasn't
black he was more kind of like maybe a
palestinian type of color
and see this is white christianity again
now you're gonna judge you and i that
say jesus is black
and let's let's say let's give them that
they're correct
um even though i've never seen a
palestinian pakistanian individual with
with hair like wool i haven't doesn't
mean they're not out there but i haven't
so let's give them the benefit of their
doubt
so here they are judging you and i for
calling jesus black which let's say is
this far from the truth
an inch or two but yet they serve
and have pictures of a jesus that is
five miles away from the truth
but now they're gonna pick out our
couple inches
that we might be off and overlook their
five miles
of their belief that is totally off
almost opposite
jesus had long you know their jesus had
long hair blue eyes
and a white skin long hair according to
what paul said was it was a
a disgrace to a man and to god but not i
guess if jesus
wears it so
you know they're going to throw out all
these things that color don't matter
god don't see color you know
no god sees color but what he removes
from color is what you
fail to remove which is the stereotypes
that you put with
people of color so it's all going to be
whitewashed
and what does whitewash do again it
brings it all down to being
white so if god don't see color
you know then i'm greater than god
because i see the beauty in a red rose
versus a yellow rose versus an
orange rose but now when it comes to the
beauty of skin
oh god don't see that always
ways of getting out of the truth
i agree with you there it's always a
goal post uh being moved
now with that said about color and you
mentioned um
i'll bless those that bless you you
mentioned that they they do stand on
that a lot
now one thing i don't understand and
maybe you have some insight into this
why is it that they're so willing to
accept that ethiopians
are israelites but they are unwilling to
accept that anybody else black from
africa who has taken in the slave trade
could possibly be israelites
see my the the individuals i've been
around probably haven't even gotten to
that point but
just from my own you know thinking
and answering that the same way that my
white
evangelical churches love to support
missionaries that go to africa to work
with
africans versus at one point
i was considered a missionary with a
major
christian organization called the
navigators
the navigators is a para church
organization that
that equips people to be missionaries
throughout the world specifically the
military
and then the um uh what they call like
the um
business realm but they were moving into
the inner city
and so several years ago that i was
asked to kind of join them because i was
already in the inner city here in
chicago
and when i went to raise the money
i couldn't raise hardly any money
and this is the difference white people
will
run to help anybody when white people
can look
and say look at what i've done as they
pat themselves on the shoulder
we went to africa to help these poor
black people
they're dying of starvation they're
having so many kids they can't feed them
but where honor is called the great
white savior
syndrome but with our blacks
in this country your poverty
is because you are lazy is because
you don't want to pull yourself up by
your bootstraps like us white folk had
to do
you want to resort to a life of crime
and making excuses for your crime by
calling it
racism that to me is the difference
so how could these individuals and maybe
ethiopia
um is not suffering as much
uh famine as when we think about africa
so
you know they might embrace some of that
but any
way shape or form they're they're so far
off that it's not going to
impact my white family members
right here in in the united states
and then they just have a hatred for you
they have a hatred for for for for
american blacks
and i just don't think they can get past
that or they won't because they're
they're not
they're not willing to examine their own
heart and they're not willing to take ex
responsibility for where their heart is
i agree with you there now we are coming
upon
uh the end of the hour and i do want to
give you a chance to um
tell people how they can get in touch
with you how they can hear more from you
your website and uh
whatever other information you want to
um share okay well i'll
dante they can just go i have a youtube
channel under dana stevens
um or feel free to go to my web page
which is
one love society o n
e l o v e society
dot love l-o-v-e
um but yeah if you go to my youtube
channel you can find
you know dana stevens and then like i
said uh facebook it's dana stevens
but my webpage is one love society
onelovesociety.love all all letters
no letters uh no numbers
all right i appreciate you coming on we
we definitely should do this again
there's a bunch more questions people
had in the chat and i do have a bunch
more questions for you
um because i think it's interesting
highlighting the differences and
similarities
between what we as black israelites
experience
and what you as white believers in a
black israel experience
and i think a lot of that would do a lot
of good to come out and and let people
hear it
so if you do have time i would love to
have you back on dante
and when you asked me back on and those
that
are watching and listening i want to say
this to you when it comes to me
i don't want you to hold back i am not
offended
you know a lot of my my hebrew uh
family that i'm close to get upset
because
at times they'll read these certain
comments
towards me but see i want you to know
that love covers over a multitude of sin
especially when you understand that
where some of
the the the hurt is coming out of you my
black brothers and sisters
and if i can be a white
individual that is willing to understand
that hurt if i could take getting beat
up by those guys and it did not harden
my heart or make me
mad or make me angry things that you
might need to say or
want to say or you know sometimes you
need to share something where
even although it's not me if i can say
man i apologize that some
of one of my white family members said
that to you
if that can bring you healing or
of a a safe place
where you can really share your
frustration
towards me and what you've had to endure
as one of my black brothers and sisters
in this country
i want you to please have that freedom
when we come together because if you
don't have that freedom to release that
then you're gonna have to carry that and
and i
i just want you dante to understand and
your listeners
that i am always open to any and every
question you may have
and i will not be hurt for your honesty
because if i was walking in your shoes
i don't know where my attitude would be
actually i probably do
i would hate every single white person
around me
because i have problems with loving them
because i watch what they do to you but
yet
remember i'm watching which means i'm
not saying i don't try to interfere
but i can't be in the car with you when
you're pulled over
i i can't i'm not with you when you're
walking to the store
so i can't imagine what it's
like to live your life constantly
being oppressed or hated or disliked or
judged and so with that
please when we come together i want us
to really be able
to be honest and open with one another
so some healing can happen so some
freedom so some answers so that we can
move forward
because after all y'all stuck with me
you know you're stuck with me
and and i'm stuck with you and i'm
grateful so i want to be a brother i
want to be a white brother
that can be an individual that you can
utilize
to ask questions and get some answers if
i have them
all right i appreciate you brother dana
and all you guys heard him
make sure you send in the questions um
you can leave questions and comments
right here on the youtube channel
and the next time we get brother dana
here we'll go ahead and ask him those
questions
uh is there any last thing you want to
leave anybody with
uh before we get out of here just
remember your kings and queens
all right i appreciate you for taking
the time i appreciate everybody else for
tuning in
um until next time i'm out
thank you
