People must accept God’s help to improve their lives and self-esteem so they can achieve their purpose in life, the Rev. Al Sharpton told more than 2,500 worshippers who gathered last night at Union Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.
“Even if you are not responsible for being down, you are responsible for getting up,” Sharpton said. “Everyone is born to serve some purpose.”
Sharpton, 55, a civil-rights activist, delivered a 50-minute sermon as part of the church’s revival services for September. He is president of the National Action Network and ran as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.
Sharpton said that many blacks, who helped elect Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president, don’t have any plans for their lives. Their lack of direction “is crippling our children,” he said.
Too many parents allow their children to be influenced by a culture of rap music, gangs, drugs and decadence, Sharpton said. Too many rap artists use racial slurs about blacks in their music and refer to black women as prostitutes.
Things were different when Sharpton was a boy, he said.
“We were taught pride,” Sharpton said. “We were down, but we were not cursing out our grandmothers. You don’t celebrate being down.”
He urged the audience to fulfill their God-given purpose in their lives and resist finding excuses — such as bad habits, bad relationships and low self-esteem — to not do anything.
“A delayed decision is no decision at all,” Sharpton said. “You will never be what you were born to be until you say, ‘I want God’s help right now.’”
Trina Bethea of Kernersville said afterward that Sharpton inspired her.
“He really had a lot of energy,” she said. “He gave us words to live by.”
jhinton@wsjournal.com
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