06/25/2024
Candy Fitzgerald
Jerlyn Werner Courtney
Michael Courtney
Bucky Courtney
Rachel Katherine Courtney
Maggie Courtney
The 10 Commandments come from Exodus 20, as handed down to Moses by the “God of Abraham” who is called Yahweh in Hebrew and Allah in Arabic; thus decidedly not representative of one religion, rather representative of every Jewish Sect, Every Christian Sect, and every Muslim Sect, as well as others.
Samaritanism, Druzism, the Baháʼí Faith,and Rastafari, are all undoubtedly Abrahamic, and The syncretism of Vodun and Christianity was created by connecting the traditional West African Vodun and Christianity in Benin.Adherents are mainly found in Benin, Togo and Nigeria.
Haitian and Louisiana Voodoo are both very heavily influenced by Catholicism. Marie Laveau was baptized in 1801 at St. Louis Cathedral. On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques Paris (also known as Santiago Paris in Spanish records), Their marriage certificate is preserved in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The wedding mass was performed by Father Antonio de Sedella, the Capuchin priest known as Père Antoine. Their children were baptized in the Cathedral and Marie Lavueau is interred at the St. Louis Cemetery #1.
My brother Michael and I were born on one of the most celebrated holy days of Louisiana Voodoo, St. John’s (the Baptist) Eve in Southern Baptist Hospital on the Eastern Bank of Bayou St John in New Orleans, Louisiana. Practitioners of Louisiana Voodoo Have for 2 centuries performed a “head washing” ceremony on the banks of Bayou St. John. That ceremony is reminiscent of a Baptism, or being “born again”. Here’s the thing: on that day 57 years ago, I had been born with the umbilical cord around my neck and was believed to be dead. As those followers of Marie Laveau were in the nearby bayou washing heads and praying for their fellow man, somehow I started breathing and despite the attending physician saying that if I managed to live that I would be mentally re****ed, yet here we are!!! Do I judge who prayed nearby? Does my mother? Do my children?
The American people have much more to unite us than divide us. Certain special interest groups benefit from division, so they sow division. Don’t take the bait. Let’s love our neighbors.
