“Commentary Are Black Pastors Wimping Out?”

by: Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds

(NNPA Columnist)

Commentary Are Black Pastors Wimping Out?

by Rev. Barbara Reynolds

NNPA Columnist

Before Rev. Jesse Jackson preached at a certain African American church, the pastor made a disclaimer, separating himself from the views of this Democratic cheerleader. “The pastor was shaking like a leaf,” Jackson said at the Howard university School of Divinity shortly after President Bush’s re-election.

His pathetic image presents a convenient metaphor of what is happening in black Christendom. Is the threat of losing government funds, or political capital which might include a trip to the White House, turning the tradition of prophetic, cutting edge black church leaders into irrelevant little wimps?

Why are most of our fancy mega-mouthed churches with magnificent edifices, huge congregations and entourages offering little leadership during one of the most crucial political dramas of this century? Thousands of our young men and women could die in oil wars in foreign lands. Billions of dollars are being drained from our treasury for good schools, safe streets, better hospitals in Iraq rather than at home. And when Bush finishes packing the Supreme Court and federal judgeships with right-wingers, blacks and women could be hindered for generations.

With so much at stake, we need prophetic voices like Esther and Amos, the risk takers and the in-your-face troublemakers. What we have are too many disciples like those who slept as Christ agonized in the garden of Gethsemane.

From both sides of the political spectrum there is an absence of challenge, critique and criticism from so-called black spiritual leaders “Too many preachers are beholden to Republicans or Democrats and can’t take independent moral positions,” says Rev. Clarence James, a former dean at the Morehouse School of Religion. “Historically the black church placed morality above legality and righteousness above politics, but today we have flocks of black spiritual leaders helping black America go nowhere.”

Rev. James, author of “ Lost Generation? Or Left Generation! Confronting the Youth Crisis in Black America ,” says, “black ministers must take the lead on moral issues. In the past whites followed radical black spiritual leadership because blacks were on the cutting edge of major social issues, from slavery, segregation to anti-war movements.”

If democracy is to flourish in America, black Christians can’t allow the spiritual mantle to be hogged by the wacky Rev. Falwells of the world who are promoting a white-led evangelical movement.

Increasing numbers of black Christians voted Republican fearing a moral meltdown from gay marriages, which affects less than 1 percent of the population. I can’t argue with their faith walk but I can ask: Isn’t the abominable killing of innocents in Iraq a moral issue? The same Bible that says adultery and homosexuality are sins says “Thou shall not kill.”

Conversely, progressive black church leaders cannot ignore the sentiments of their parishioners over the perceived cultural rot surrounding homosexuality, pornography and lewdness that the Democrats seem to embrace. Studies found that blacks are more hard-line on the gay rights issues than whites. “Forty-six percent of African Americans oppose any legal recognition of homosexual relationships compared with 37 percent of whites.”

I was born in Columbus, Ohio, the state that probably gave the recent election to Bush. I have friends who were life-long Democrats until recently. For example, Ella Coleman, publisher of Purpose Magazine, is a smart, progressive woman, but her understanding of immorality and conscience is changing her politics.

“Homosexuality and same-sex marriages are abominations. You can’t straddle the fence on that. That’s the kind of thing that the Bible says will bring down the wrath of God on us. Morality is number one for me, not unemployment, not wars because there have always been wars. I am not a right-winger. If Kerry would have addressed morality, I would have voted for him.”

With so little leadership, right-wing conservatives were able to establish a narrow definition of morality. “It is a critical error to allow the religious right to define morality in terms of personal salvation alone, says Rev. Michael Battle, the newly installed president of Atlanta’s Interdenominational Theological Center. “The state of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the war in Iraq are all moral issues. Yet, there was no massive outcry from the religious left and when black leaders spoke out on this the media generally ignored us.”

Battle is working on a plan to help the black church redeem its position in the vanguard of social and political change through building a public policy and media infrastructure at ITC, which is composed of seven seminaries representing 20 million Christians. That is exactly what is needed. Polls found that 71 percent of voters had heard from the religious right while only 38 percent heard from the religious left. With preachers within SCLC more involved in fighting each other than the system and some conservative preachers just happy to be in the Big House, the black church must regain its voice, even it if may seem for a season to only be crying out in a political wilderness.

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Rev. Barbara Rey-nolds is the religion columnist for NNPA is an author of four books, including “ Out Of Hell & Living Well: Healing from the Inside Out” and a graduate of the Howard University School of Divinity and the United Theological Seminary, where she earned a doctorate degree in ministry. She can be reached at www.reynoldsworldnews.com.