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What happens when the faith you 
were taught begins to contradict

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the truth you see with your own 
eyes? 

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My name is Bryant Lee, and this 
is what's your Goliath. 

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My dungeon shook. 
Not because somebody broke down 

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the door. 
Not because somebody came to 

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rescue me. 
No, it shook because I began to 

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question what I had been told 
was true. 

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What happens when you discover 
that the thing you trusted isn't

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what you thought it was? 
What happens when the person who

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taught you how to see the world 
was also teaching you how to see

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yourself? 
And what happens when you 

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realize that some of the things 
you were told about who you are 

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were never really about you at 
all. 

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They were somebody else's story,
the story you were taught to 

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believe without ever questioning
it. 

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I grew up in Harlem. 
I grew up in the church, And for

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me, the church wasn't just a 
building. 

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It was community. 
It was identity. 

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It was family. 
It gave me language for good and

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evil. 
It gave me a way to understand 

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suffering. 
And for a time, I believed in 

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it. 
I became a young preacher. 

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I stood in front of people. 
I spoke with conviction. 

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I knew the language, I knew the 
Bible, I knew how to make people

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feel something. 
But eventually I started looking

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behind the curtain and what I 
saw disturbed me. 

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My conflict was not simply that 
I stopped believing in God. 

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My crisis was that I felt the 
role of preacher required me to 

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participate in a system of 
belief that I was beginning to 

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see as dishonest and inadequate.
I felt like a hypocrite because 

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I was preaching, certainly while
privately wrestling with doubt 

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and what I saw as contradictions
in the church. 

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At one point, my frustration 
became so intense that I 

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imagined telling the people to 
throw away their Bibles. 

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Not because I believe the Bible 
itself was worthless, but 

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because I wanted them to stop 
using religion as a substitute 

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to confront the pain and 
realities of their lives and the

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world around them. 
And because the church that was 

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supposed to help these people 
escape their circumstances 

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'cause sometimes become another 
place where people learn to 

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accept them. 
I began to see the difference 

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between faith and the 
institutions built around faith.

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I began questioning what I had 
been taught. 

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And questioning didn't make me 
weaker. 

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It made me more honest. 
Because there comes a point in 

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every person's life when you 
have to ask, Do I believe this 

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because it is true, or because 
somebody I trusted told me it 

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was true? 
And that question became even 

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more powerful as I wrote to my 
nephew. 

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As a young black boy growing up 
in America, I warned my nephew 

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about the stories America might 
tell him about himself. 

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Because before he ever has the 
opportunity to define himself, 

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the world may already have a 
definition waiting for him. 

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They may call it the ghetto, the
stereotypes, the statistics, the

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expectations, the names, the 
word *** A word design not 

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simply to insult but to reduce, 
to take a human being with 

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dreams, intelligence, 
creativity, ambition, fear, 

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weakness and potential, and 
compress all of that humanity 

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into a label. 
And here's where the message 

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becomes uncomfortable. 
The danger isn't only that 

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somebody calls you that word. 
The greater danger is believing 

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the person who calls you that 
word. 

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If somebody tells you you're 
stupid long enough, you may stop

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trying to prove that you're 
intelligent. 

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If somebody tells you you're 
destined to fail, you may stop 

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taking risk. 
If somebody tells you your 

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neighborhood is all you are 
worth, you may never leave it. 

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If somebody tells you mediocrity
is the best you can expect, you 

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may eventually mistake 
mediocrity for your identity. 

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And that's the trap. 
The ghetto isn't only a physical

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place. 
Sometimes the ghetto becomes an 

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expectation, A predetermined 
identity, predetermined outcome,

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a ceiling somebody else built 
over your head. 

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I understand that America had 
created expectations about Black

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people long before those Black 
people ever had opportunity to 

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define themselves, expected to 
know their place, expected to 

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accept certain jobs, certain 
neighborhoods, certain schools, 

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certain opportunities, Certain 
limitations. 

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And sometimes even the 
expectation of excellence was 

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missing. 
Mediocrity could become normal, 

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not because black people were 
incapable of greatness, but 

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because society had repeatedly 
communicated that very point. 

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Don't expect too much. 
And that's why my message to my 

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nephew matters. 
I wasn't telling him to spend 

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his life trying not to become 
what white America wanted him to

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become. 
I was telling him something much

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deeper. 
Don't allow somebody else's 

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description of you to become the
definition of you, the voice 

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that repeats somebody else's 
definition until you mistake it 

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for your own. 
My journey was about examining 

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the stories I had inherited, my 
father's beliefs, the church, 

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America's racial mythology, the 
expectations placed upon black 

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people, and eventually my own 
understanding of what it meant 

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to be black in America. 
I didn't simply accept the 

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story. 
I wrestled with it. 

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I questioned it. 
I challenged it. 

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And I demanded something more 
important than acceptance. 

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I demanded the truth. 
So let me ask you something. 

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What have you been calling truth
simply because somebody you 

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trusted told you it was true? 
Who told you what you could 

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become? 
Who told you what you couldn't 

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become? 
Who gave you the definition? 

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Who built the ceiling? 
And more importantly, why are 

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you still living underneath it? 
You don't have to believe the 

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names placed on you. 
You don't have to accept every 

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prediction somebody makes about 
you, and you don't have to 

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inherit somebody else's 
limitations just because they 

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were handed down to you as 
truth. 

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Question everything, examine 
everything, keep what is true, 

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and have the courage to let go 
of what is it. 

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First came water the fire. 
Next time, my name is James 

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Baldwin. 
What's your delayeth? 

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Change your thinking. 
Change yourself. 

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Change your world. 
Defy logic. 

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Have a story about overcoming A 
Goliath? 

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We want to hear from you. 
Share your story at 

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defylogic1.com because your 
struggle might be someone else's

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strength. 
What's your Goliath? 

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Change your thinking, Change 
yourself, Change your world.