"Preachers would Leave Us At the Back of the Bus"

by:  Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds

(NNPA Columnist)

Preachers would leave us at the back of the bus

by Rev. Barbara Reynolds

NNPA Columnist

February 24, 2005

There was a time when Black preachers could be counted on to confront the ruling pharaohs of their day when the powerless were receiving a raw deal. But if Black folks had to depend upon today’s clergy for leadership, they would still be confined to the back of the bus.

At a time when black America is in murky, troubled waters, too many of the Black clergy, especially those heading mega-churches, are either apolitical or apologists for the status quo.

The Rev. Clarence James, a social critic and author of the “Lost Generation? Or Left Generation,” says the trouble with today’s clergy is there are too many priests and not enough prophets.

“The priests are the servants of the privileged, criticizing little crimes at the bottom while ignoring those at the top. The prophets remind the rulers they are not exempt from the laws of God, but the priests are blinded by wealth and power.”

Recently a small group of conservative preachers (the priests) have been hotfooting it over to the White House. But these are not the kind to trouble the water. With no agenda that encapsulates the needs of Black America, they are in danger of being perceived as sell-outs.

One group is the newly established High-Impact Leadership Coalition, formed by Maryland pastor Bishop Harry Jackson. It has unveiled the Black Contract with America on Moral Values to gain more clout within the Republican Party.

Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., senior pastor of the 25,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ and the Rev. Fred Price, pastor of the Crenshaw Christian Center are among the West Coast leaders of the movement, according to the Christian Examiner. Even the Right wing, anti-Black Heritage Foundation is organizing a group of Blacks to focus African-Americans on moral issues.

Jackson says the new movement supporting President Bush would return the Black church to its once-prominent place. That, of course, sounds reasonable only to Blacks suffering from amnesia. The Black church did not become Black America’s most significant institution through appeasement or accommodation. Black preachers brilliantly led opposition to slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and fueled the political movements resulting in electing more than 10,000 Black officials.

With so many issues plaguing African-Americans, the top issue for Jackson’s Black contract is fighting same-sex marriages. This provision was a successful strategy concocted by Karl Rove, Bush’s top gun, to throw enough red meat at evangelical Christians to have them running to vote for Bush. While the guys at the top split the wealth of billions in tax cuts, plus the booty flowing from Iraqi oil contracts, the little folks can occupy themselves with their butterfly nets chasing gays.

No matter what you think about same-sex marriages (I am against them), banning them as a top priority for Black folks is ridiculous. Are married homosexuals responsible for draining billions from health, education and housing for the poor to spend on blowing up Iraq? Are gays responsible for the failure to prevent the murder of thousands of Black Christians dying in Sudan?

No, the genocide could be stopped if Bush used his clout in the UN Security Council to send troops to Sudan that could drive the murderers out.

Gay marriages are something that the president can afford to spend rhetoric on because it doesn’t cost him a dime, but for Black America it is a diversion we cannot afford.

When the Black conservatives talk to Bush I bet they do not mention access to higher education for Blacks because that would embarrass Bush, who has aggressively opposed affirmative action, including two cases involving the University of Michigan.

I bet they do not talk about the budget; a moral document reflecting the values paid for in taxes and in the blood of our daughters and sons in the U.S. military. The current budget projecting a $427 billion deficit, with its severe cuts in social programs and tax cuts for the rich, is so immoral you’d think the preachers would be rising up in outrage, but little church mice make more noise than most religious leaders.

Where are the pointed questions coming from those bragging about dining with the president? Why when North Korea defiantly announces it has weapons of mass destruction Bush looks the other way, but attacked an oil-rich country with no weapons of mass destruction that had not attacked America?

Since they have so much clout inside the White House, why are the Black preachers not telling the president that since Black America depends more on Social Security in their senior years for survival than Whites, the system can not be left to the mercy of his rich friends on Wall Street.

Are these well-healed preachers telling the president that while Washingtonians, many of whom are African-Americans, are dying and being wounded in Iraq, they have no vote in the U.S. House of Representatives nor the Senate.

So while so much is threatening our survival, many of our nation’s clergy are busy cracking down on gay marriages. Do you want to laugh or cry?

Rev. Barbara Reynolds 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