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Willie J. Alexander is available for speaking engagements and book signings. To request Mr. Alexander’s appearance for a speaking engagement, e-mail willie@enteringthepromisedland.com or call 866-364-9487.

Upcoming
 

What: Speaking Engagement at the Greater Houston Prayer Breakfast

Where: Hilton Americas Hotel
              1600 Lamar
              Houston, Texas

When: Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Time: 7:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.


Thank you, Mayor White. Yes, my name is Willie Alexander and I approve of those comments.

Mayor White, distinguished citizens, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and thank you for being here. I am truly honored by your presence and am equally honored that I was invited to speak before this body which constitutes much of the business and political leadership in the City of Houston.

As Mayor White indicated, I am a businessman who began my career playing professional football for the Houston Oilers. When I arrived in the NFL from tiny Alcorn State University, I thought I was prepared. I may have been physically prepared. What I was not prepared for was the tremendous and unrelenting pressure that comes with playing the game for pay. The pressure was unlike anything that I have ever experienced in life. That is with the exception of what’s currently going on in my life. I will tell you more about that later.

Once the pro football season started in September there was no letting up until the season ended in late December. Both the game and my opponent in particular, were constantly on my mind. I vividly remember sitting down at my locker after a game with the Pittsburgh Steelers and taking a deep sigh of relief that the game was over and so was my day covering Lynn Swann. In the next instance my mind was already starting to think about next week’s opponent. The names of the opponents are ones with whom you all are familiar—Otis Taylor, Fred Biletnikoff, Charlie Taylor, Don Maynard and the list goes on. I think I can modestly say that I personally helped them all get into The National Football League’s Hall of Fame.

Even during what was called the period of relaxation, thoughts of the opposition danced in my head. There was no relief until the season ended. Fortunately, I never had to cover one of the greatest receivers of all time, Hall of Famer Paul Warfield. I remember a game during my second year in the league against the undefeated Miami Dolphins. We had just finished the customary team prayer before going out on the field. I noticed my fellow cornerback, Zeke Moore, was still on his knees. He finally finished what appeared to be an unusually long prayer. After he finished praying, I asked why the long prayer. His reply, “I was asking the Lord to not allow Paul Warfield to make me look bad.” Unbeknown to Zeke, I stood on the field in 1971 in my very first NFL game on opening day, Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium in front of 75,000 screaming, delirious fans and a national television audience and prayed a similar prayer.

Ironically, I met Paul Warfield several years ago. When we met, he asked about my teammate. He said he could still feel the breeze from Zeke’s arm as he was trying to deliver a “clothesline” to his head. And he said, “I am still trying to forget the time he connected.” He went on to compliment Zeke as being a fierce competitor and one of his toughest opponents. While he didn’t say it, I got the impression that Paul Warfield may have said an extra long prayer before playing against Zeke.

I could share other stories about my time in the NFL but that is not what we are here for today. But I have to share one story about my former coach, Bum Phillips. Most of you are familiar with the softer side of Bum. You’ve all heard his philosophy when he said, “There are two kinds of coaches, one that’s been fired and one that’s going to get fired.” This story is about the Bum Phillips that you don’t know that I think was integral in making him a winning coach. You see in the NFL, the first thing a coach has to do is earn the respect of his players. Respect is never given. Respect has to be earned.

We all know the players are physically tough. In fact, I believe the difference between NFL players and combat troops is that NFL players don’t get shot at, stabbed or blown up. But many of my teammates have walked away from the game physically maimed for life. Sadly, along the way a few died.

NFL players were tested, regardless of size, on and off the field. Players would test players and those who couldn’t pass the physical test were eventually weeded out. Locker room fights were common. You may say it was a jungle in there. That’s just the way it was. Players also tested coaches. Certain players of a particular stature knew the team owner fired coaches, not players.

This story is regarding the testing of Bum Phillips. At the time he was the team’s defensive coordinator. One day while in a defensive team meeting, linemen Elvin Bethea, Curley Culp, Bubba Smith and Bubba’s younger brother, Tody, were teasing Bum about his haircut. We’ve all seen Bum’s haircut. I think you call his haircut style a buzz. Well on this day it appeared that Bum had gotten a bad hair cut. I know some of you that remember Bum well are thinking “How could you tell?” But this day it was particularly bad. It seemed that his barber had taken a razor and shaved his head around the side and left a few hairs on top that appeared to have an electric current running through each hair. The few hairs he had left on top were literally standing up straight as an arrow. We all have heard or know that Bum does not wear a cap or hat while inside. There was no hiding this haircut.

The players were relentless in their teasing of Bum’s haircut. The joking went on and on. One player literally fell out of his chair he was laughing so hard. As the laughter continued, you could see Bum getting mad as his face turned a glowing red hot. Finally, Bum had enough and said, “What’s black and blue and red all over?” There was a deafening quiet in the room. Bum continued, “The next one of you who mentions my hair cut.” Needless to say, the teasing stopped. Bum passed the test. He was never teased again about the haircut or anything else.

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Now, as to why we’re here today. I stand before you as a Sinner. I could have written a book about all the sins in my life—and it would’ve had many more pages than the one I wrote. There’s no doubt it would be a best seller. I also stand before you as a Black man without a Black agenda. I am a practicing Christian who has a profound respect for the clergy, for biblical scholars and for good-hearted people of all colors.

I am like the elderly woman who was known for her faith and outspoken about it. She would stand on her front porch and shout “Praise the Lord!” Her atheist next door neighbor would shout back, “There ain’t no Lord!”

Hard times set in on the lady and she started praying fervently for God’s help. One morning she could be heard saying “Praise the Lord…God, I need food. Please send me some groceries.”

Well, the next morning, lo and behold, she found on her front porch a bag of groceries. “Praise the Lord!” she shouted. The atheist neighbor called back, “I told you there is no Lord. I bought those groceries. God didn’t.”

The lady started clapping her hands, jumping around, and shouted: “Praise the Lord. He not only sent me groceries, but He made the Devil pay for them!”

Seriously, the church has always been the framework in my life. I recall as a kid growing up in Montgomery, Alabama that Sunday was a holy day. To my brothers and me, it was also the day that the Devil tempted us into the corner grocery store on our walk to Sunday School. Our mother always gave us a nickel for the collection. We routinely spent two to three cents of that very nickel on candy. We never spent the whole nickel because we wanted to assure our mother that we had put our money in the collection plate.

As I look back on those Sunday mornings, my mother must’ve had the patience of Job. When Sunday school let out, we joined our parents for the morning worship service. I remember how my mother would look straight at the pastor while she pulled my ear to tell me to stop fidgeting. I was hyperactive on the other six days of the week, but on Sunday—with the sugar high—I was particularly active. I could not sit still through a church service that started at 11 in the morning and went to around 1:30 in the afternoon. And that was only the beginning. On some Sundays, we went back to church at 6 p.m. for Baptist Training Union.

At an early age and throughout my childhood, I was taught to fear God and that He was ever-present. But it was not until I became a teenager that I found the Lord. One Sunday, while attending church, something moved me to leave my friends in the balcony, go down front and give my life to the Lord, my Savior, Jesus Christ. End of story or so I thought…..more on that later. I thank God that the moment I gave my life to the Lord was easy, especially when I know that so many have done so only after years of suffering.

I recall that as a teenager on my first night away from home at Alcorn State, I was homesick and frightened. But it was knowing that God was with me that comforted me through those first hours out on my own in the big, wide world.

A few years later, after I had started my professional football career, teammate, Richard Caster, shared what his dad had said about attending church: “If you were raised in the church, and if you stray from the church, something will happen in your life that will yank you back to the church.”

After marrying in 1971, I later converted to the Catholic faith because my wife was Catholic.

Now I know most of you don’t know too many African-American Catholics. But there are more of us than you think. I mean, look at the Pope. His real name is Joe Alois. He not only could be black, but he could be from Alabama.

Yes, things do happen that take us back to the church and back to God. Sometimes we wander back, sometimes we cut a straight path back, and other times we run as fast as our legs will carry us.

I never strayed from my faith, but I did turn to my basic training in an hour of great fear and distress, and it literally opened up a new world for me.

Briefly, one December day several years ago I was at a meeting with Houston’s business leaders, listening to an operational economic development plan for the next year. I noticed that there was no mention of the outreach to minority businesses, which had been part of the plan in prior years. Ironically, that very morning I’d read some pretty dismal statistics on black business ownership and income in Houston. What I read reminded me of my mother and her cousin Essie B. Brown, and other black adults in our church. They often said they looked forward to going home—to an afterlife.

It never appeared to me that my elders were afraid of death. As a young man I vividly remember talking to Essie B. as she sat on her bed with a smile and said, “Willie James, I’m going home.” I also remember my mother’s instruction, “Willie James, if the day comes, don’t let them keep me alive.” I look back now and realize that for many African-Americans, death was easier than trying to make ends meet here.

At the end of the presentation in this particular meeting I asked for permission to speak. Even today I find it hard to believe that I stood before this august body and basically poured out from my heart the frustration that I –a black businessman--felt. While my words were heartfelt, they were stinging. What I said that day has been on my mind every day since. I now feel that was my call, even as disconcerting as it was. Once again, I will tell you more about that later.

Later, when I was alone and able to process what I’d done, I was terrified. That very fear is what set me on the path that became a journey that continues today. And now in every waking moment of every day I walk with God.

I turned to the Holy Bible for help and you know that’s not a bad place to start. God promises us in scripture that if we ask Him for wisdom He will give it to us. I was looking for wisdom. As I read I became a student. In March, 2006 as I lay in a bathtub full of warm water recovering from back surgery, I felt God’s presence telling me that what I learned—or at least what was revealed to me—I should share in my first-ever book, which is titled “Entering the Promised Land.”

There are so many things about the book that I could talk on this morning. The best I can do in this limited time is to give you an insight into my motivation…. and hope that you will be interested enough to read the book yourself. I again want to emphasize that while my book speaks to Black issues, it is offered as enlightenment that hopefully will inspire all people, regardless of their backgrounds.

We all know that our identity is tied in so many ways to our family history. For black Americans that history dates back only to the mid—1800’s. Most of us have no idea about our predecessors. All we know is that our ancestors came from Africa to America on slave boats, that families were separated, that wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, brother, sisters and other kith and kin were sold. Beyond that, there hasn’t been much else to report…..not until “Lucy” who arrived just in time for the release of my book.

You may ask why this is important. In the Bible we are told that we are made in the image and likeness of God and that we all are His children. I asked a friend just lately if it would bother her to discover that God is black. Her reply was: “Willie, I’m color blind. It doesn’t matter if He has polka dots. I agree with Coach Bum Phillips, God apparently likes variety and he has a great sense of humor.”
If you look throughout modern history, however, one would conclude that there has been a hierarchy of opportunity based on the color of one’s skin, and it has played a role in economic empowerment.

That said, it was the quest to find out who I am…who we are…that led me in a direction I would have never envisioned, and opened to me a new away to read and understand Biblical Scripture. I call it the “defined word approach.”

As you know, one word can have several meanings. “Sanction,” for example can mean “to make holy,” or it can mean “the detriment, loss of reward, or coercive intervention annexed to violation of a law as a means of enforcing the law.”

Long story short, what I discovered in my study of the King James Version of the Bible, the Life Application Study Bible, and the Oxford English Dictionary, which translates Middle English words, was fairly stunning. By applying the various ancient meaning of words to scripture, one could ascribe a sometimes vastly different interpretation than the traditionally accepted interpretation. Of course, I realize this is subjective study, but I believe it merits attention as it is possible that it may altogether change the role of black people in biblical history. In fact, from my study, I am convinced that Adam and Eve were black. Further, that Jesus may have been black. In fact, through my “defined world approach “ to studying the Bible, my book shows how the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden differs from the one most familiar to us. The same is true of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Judah, the children of Israel and other biblical characters. So if you read “Entering the Promised Land,” it is my sincere wish that you will recognize the "aha!” factor and then take up your own exploration.

Perhaps there is someone here this very morning who is experiencing the inner voice that I believe is a calling. In the book of Isaiah we are told to “Be still and know that I am God.” So be still, as I was forced to do while recovering from back surgery, and you will hear what you need to know.

You say, okay, Willie, so why should I do this? Recall that I said that black Americans know very little about their ancestry. And, while we’re a very spiritual people, we have never been taught to be anything but a “marked” people, “marked” when Cain killed his brother Abel. And if I may add, white people have been taught the same.
Now, with what I’ve learned through applying the “defined word approach” in my book, I feel there is a way for each and every one of us to see one another through a different lens.

Again, I am certain there are many who may say, “Willie, I get your point, but I still don’t get the relevance,” It’s simply this, my friends:

To my black brothers and sisters who somehow see themselves as lesser beings, I feel that knowing the role our people played in biblical history can lift the mental and emotional yoke many still carry. I believe it can give us an identity and a rich heritage we never imagined. And I also believe that in looking back, we can look ahead and that when we do, we will ”Enter the Promised Land,” with the certain knowledge that God sees and loves all of his children—irrespective of color—as equals in the family of Man.

Remember earlier when I said after being baptized that was the end of the story. I now know that was the beginning of a journey to walk with Jesus. To that end, I today am announcing the formation of Entering the Promised Land Ministries as an outreach that helps everyone—regardless of color—to gain, perhaps, a deeper understanding about ourselves. Settle down Carolyn, I’m not quitting my day job. I reach out to you to join me in this effort. I honestly feel that this is my calling for the later years of my life. Just as the Lord has spoken to me before, I have been led to this mission.

One of my primary messages will be about “faithfulness.” I am convinced through my study that the many problems that plague us today began in the Garden of Eden. Adultery. It means infidelity. Eve was unfaithful not only to Adam, but to the word of God. Being faithful to the word of God could have saved her a lot of problems and it can do the same for us. Eve bore sons, one of whom committed murder. Does any of this sound familiar? And by any definition, Adam and Eve were barbarians. Even though they were barbarians, by most standards they were probably pretty good people. Think for a moment…..what separates us from them? Adulterous relationships? Cheating? Infidelity? Rape? Incest? Aborting unwanted children? Murder? Has our human nature not changed since the days of Cavemen? That my friend is why I believe the Bible is a living document, the Word of God. I believe it allows us to look back to ancient days to see from whence we came.

For it is written in the book of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

As we read in the February 26, 2008 issue of the Houston Chronicle, many of us are looking for answers. We are in search of a “knowing faith.” To believe is one matter, but to “know” why we believe what we believe is—in my view—the basis for a true and a lasting faith.

Since this journey began, I have received what I believe are many clear signals from the Lord. Many I talk about in Entering the Promised Land. Most recently, Carolyn and I had planned to spend the February 23rd weekend in Dallas at an insurance industry seminar. Due to promoting my book, we decided not to travel to Dallas on Friday, but leave immediately after a local television station interview on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. As I was leaving for the interview, Carolyn said she didn’t want to travel to Dallas. I, too, decided not to go.

Later that day I decided to attend a Black History Month program at Sunnyside’s Johnson Library. When I walked in I ran into a friend, Reverend Elbert Curvey, who said repeatedly with a big smile on his face, “I read your book, I read your book, I read your book.” His excitement was obvious and the book had touched him in a special way. A few days later, I called Reverend Curvey and asked if I could talk to his congregation. His reply was, “Willie, we need to think bigger than my small congregation.” He promised to get back with me after scheduling a meeting with several pastors who have larger congregations. I am happy to report that we have started that process.

In yet another happenstance meeting on the very same day, I was standing in the library’s parking lot talking to a gentleman about my book. He said, “I have been waiting for you.” Our conversation led to a planning session regarding how best to deliver the Entering the Promised Land message.

That was it, I knew that the Lord was speaking to me loud and clear. These two encounters, plus previous encounters and the many letters I received, the telephone voice messages and personal conversations provided the confidence needed to move forward. The only thing left was for Jesus Himself to show up and say Willie, why are you still waiting?

Remember earlier, I mentioned that we are told that we are made in the image and likeness of God, and that we all are His children. To be more specific, Genesis 1:27 reads; So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

My spiritual journey had me asking, what is this image of God? Is it that of a black person, white, Hispanic, Asian, or all of these? This is one of many questions that nagged me for many days and nights as I was writing Entering the Promised Land. Whatever being created in God’s image means, we know that God does not discriminate. It has to be a perfect image or perfect explanation or answer. The image must represent everyone equally.

This question of God’s image would not have been an issue for the first people on earth who believed in and worshiped Him. In the beginning everybody looked alike. It was when people began to migrate and skin color changed that this would become an issue.

One morning I was walking and had just finished my morning prayer. At the time I was working on the chapter in the book entitled “In Whose Image?” I looked at the ground and noticed my shadow and I began to think about God being a spirit. Even though I cannot grasp the shadow in my hand, it is there. He is there with me wherever I go.

My thoughts went up a level, and I began to think about God creating us in his image and likeness. Well, if God is a Spirit, and we’re created in His image and likeness, then it follows that we are spiritual creations as his children. That is our true identity and as such it makes us one together with our Creator.

Ok, why did I write this book? One reason I wrote it is so black people would realize they have significance. But that problem is not unique to blacks. Many people are looking for significance in work, or in sex, or in power, or in money. When they don’t find it, they become disillusioned. Many become depressed and turn to drugs or alcohol. It’s not until you realize you are made in the image of God that you realize that you don’t have to become significant, you are already significant. One thing is certain, God thinks we are significant, so significant that He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. And His plan for all of us is that we will come to have a relationship with Him through Christ and know the significance that only He can bring.

In the many months I’ve studied and reflected on what I have read, I am more than ever convinced of the Scripture that reminds us to “draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you”… And that, my friends, indeed, is the Promised Land. A land where all God’s children, regardless of race, regardless of creed, regardless of color can participate in the promise that America offers us all.


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