Article # 1
Part one
The Legacy of the Black Church
The great Civil Rights Movement; occurred during the period from 1955-1968, by which the legacy of the Black Church was established or manifested. The Black Church budded and blossomed to fruition as a powerful force for social change. Major social justice issues in the United States such as; racism, epual job opportunity, educational equality, fair housing, and also homelessness, gang violence, misogyny, teen pregnancy, AIDS, drug use and abuse, and failing public schools, were and still are the focus of concern.
Although the Civil Rights Movement championed by the Black Church was in many ways successful, some critics argue that the Black Church has failed to maintain its identity and posture as the powerful force for social change it once was. However, true to whatever degree the critics of the Black Church may be, in my opinion, the Civil Rights Movement is over and done. The Black Church was successful in doing what only the Black Church could do. There will never be another Civil Rights Movement, nor is there any need for it.
Consequently, there is no need for the Black Church to be a schoolmaster (teacher or guide), or Savior (messiah) for social justice. That particular dispensation of Grace is over, whereby the divine intervention of God, in the affairs and management of the history of mankind, sent Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be a sacrificial lamb. We are now under the dispensation of knowledge and enlightenment. The Black Church was successful in exposing and enlightening our social consciousness to the issues and evils of our community, society and country.
Therefore, the Black Church in my view cannot be held responsible, or at fault for the continued existence of social justice issues in the United States. The war launched against the evil of social injustice, by the Black Church can only be won by individual battles of victory. Every war is won one battle at a time. Many battles have been won and lost but the war rages on. There must be an introspection of what one has done to aid and contribute to the struggle; not only on a personal level, but also as a member, and active participant in a local body of Christ. Does every local church have a bonafied out-reach program; are the laity equipped with persons qualified to address the issues? I doubt if every local Black Church is proficient to the cause.
However, the Christ nature of the Black Church mercifully confronts these social issues in the community, society, and nationally on a daily basis. There is not a church local or national, that will not house and shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, but this does not eradicate homelessness. Gang violence is a vice of Satan that is a genocidal threat to our existence and survival as an ethnic group. Subsequently, this is an individual, internal family problem. If the humanitarian teachings of love and Christianity do not motivate parents to rear their children in the fear and admonition of God, consequently gang violence will not end. In the same way, if parents do not teach, their children honor, dignity, and self-love and pride of self; they will continue to misuse and abuse themselves, through drug use and illicit sex and prostitution. This behavior ultimately leads to communicable sexually transmitted disease and the dreaded HIV-virus that results in full-blown AIDS. Moreover, the failing public schools are victimized by a non-conducive learning atmosphere and environment. The classroom is plagued with unruly students, which have no respect for teachers, adults, and authority. Parents have relinquished the responsibility of discipline and teaching of moral values to the classroom teacher. Therefore, the teacher is preoccupied with conduct and control rather than the prospectus of teaching and learning.
Finally, teen pregnancy is the end result of the neglect of mothers teaching their daughters chastity and abstinence of sexual involvement. On the other hand, this neglect is perpetuated by the misogynous attitude of the black male factor, be it boyfriend, father, husband, and most devastating, the Pastor. Disrespect and dishonor of our sisters, mothers, girlfriends, and wives is the most injurious, debilitating, deadly evils that lie at the very core of all these social justice issues. The exploitation of womanhood and the displacement of motherhood are responsible for the breakdown and destruction of the family.
In conclusion, dysfunctional families breed a dysfunctional church, which in turn breeds the decay and destruction of community, society, government, and the nation. If the Pastor is chauvinistic and misogynous, the brotherhood will be also. I am convinced that there is a far greater evil and danger, than the Black Church not being a drum major for social justice. The Black Church is in danger of ceasing to be a church. The church has to be more than a meeting place, to find good women to date. It should not be an upscale nightclub, where one can be entertained by putting on the hits, and getting your dance on. The church should be more than a Sunday morning theater, for performing arts and talents. It should be more than the Secret Society of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, clicks, clubs, cults and the fraternity of the players association. It is everyone individual responsibility to ensure that the church, first and foremost be a Church; God’s house, a place of meeting (to meet God); a house of prayer; the tabernacle of the congregation; the sanctuary of God’s presence.