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(Editor’s Note: This is part four of an article calling African American men to seek power not in religion, but relationship with the living God and Creator who reveals Himself to man.)
Black Churches And The Power Quest
It is true that the single most powerful black controlled enterprise in America is religion. It is also true that for a significant number of black males since slavery, Christianity, as the major cultural religion of the race presented through its churches, has failed to offer a soul deep healing from or healthy, long term coping strategies for the negative mental and emotional legacies of slavery and continuing racism. I believe there are three important reasons for this failure.
First, many black Christians during the slave era felt as many do now, that coming to Christ and the future hope in Him will automatically help and is enough for one to deal successfully with all of life’s issues including those related to racism. Many who think this way (others out of pride), do not take seriously the mental and emotional suffering of even those men in the church around them. While Christianity does offer perfect answers for all of life’s issues, the Lord Jesus made it clear there are some issues that are more difficult than others and require a more intense approach (Matthew 17:14-21).
The proof Jesus is right as it relates to black males, is in the nearly 400 year association we have had with Christianity. In spite of it, black males have steadily increasing disproportionately higher numbers in nearly every negative societal category than males of other races. Now, either the God of the Bible is failing us or black Christians who supposedly represent Him are failing to exert a more intense effort to bring His Word and power to bear on the issues black males in America face. Since God cannot fail, it has to be us!
A second reason black practiced Christianity has failed to provide an intentional ministry of soul deep healing and healthy coping strategies to black males has everything to do with the quest for power by a powerless people. Christian slaves and free blacks who found themselves unwelcome in white churches, sought to have their “own” to be free from white control and insult. Surely, it was in the churches that blacks as a group first held the reigns of self-determining power!
To their credit, many of the early black churches were vigorous in their evangelism and ministry as a number are today. However, as these churches filled with powerless souls, they focused on them as objects of their ownership and not the Lord’s. Problems of purpose and priority naturally arose as a result.
With the power of ownership and self-determination came three main priorities many black churches retain to this day: (1) To hold firm the reigns of religious power, (2) To be an advocate for and bridge between the black community and white authority and (3) To be a house of refuge from white oppression. On the surface, these priorities seem commendable. But only one of them has some biblical basis. They are also the source of a Christianity that is nothing more than a spiritually impotent cultural religion, tolerant of sin, bound by manmade tradition and driven by the flesh (see Chart, “Which Christianity Do You Have?”).
Being powerless, ‘buked and scorned’ is no justification for hijacking the Church of the living God for human purposes and priorities! Too many of our pastors are intoxicated with and crave ever increasing amounts of religious power in seats of authority, position and title. Within the churches they pastor, members have the same cravings. Thus, church fights and power struggles are common. Not that power struggles only go on in black churches and denominational entities. However, it is just all the more pathetic when we’ve been through and our people need so much that only the Gospel of and relationship with Jesus Christ can provide (Matthew 23:1-12; John 10:7-18).
Churches have some biblical ground to stand on in being advocates for and a bridge between the black community and white authority. As history proves, however, the role which normally our pastors vie with each other to fill, is rife with temptation to corruption, smoky, self-serving backroom deals and the kinds of accommodations that have drawn the ire of militants for years and helped to give rise to groups such as the Nation Of Islam. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stands out as the kind of peacemaker sinful men may despise, but who God honors (Matthew 5:9-12)! Still, not peacemaking between human groups, but God and man is the priority of the Lord’s churches.
Finally, history has also proven that black ownership of the institution and physical property of a church is no protection against the violence and terror of committed racists. The black church as a house of refuge from racism is a delusion. The Bible teaches (and so our people should only be taught) that God alone is a refuge for the oppressed; those who will relate to Him by faith! (Psalms 9 and 10).
To Be Continued Next Issue
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