The State of the Black Church.

by Staff April 18, 2013 12 Comments Christian Talk News Opinion Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) “For a country that’s so religious it lacks so much compassion”-Bill Maher.

It was a regular Sunday morning when I found myself watching TV One’s Washington Watch with Roland Martin and he was interviewing Bishop T.D. Jakes about a program called “TORI” where he was helping ex-cons get their lives back on track which immediately caught my attention due to some friends and family that have went through the prison system.

I know that especially for a Black man in America it’s already hard to stay on the right path but a Black man with a felony charge on his rap sheet makes it hard for him to stay on the straight and narrow.

If we as a people want to stop gun violence that’s ripped apart our communities then we not only as a community but members of local churches especially need to step and be the leaders that we need them to be. The same way that Pastors, reverends or priest get up on the pulpit and preach against all of the so called “evils” that the bible speaks against they need to stand up and embrace our brothers and sisters that have fallen victim to the prison industrial complex.

I mean it hurts me to know that these pastors have a problem with someone who has tattoos, gay marriage and other non-important issues. Some of you might say that we need to work more on prison prevention and I agree with that but we can’t just forget about those men and woman that have made mistakes and that are looking for forgiveness and a fresh start.

Again we can’t depend on our President to clean up our individual back yards of our communities and not step to the plate our damn selves. I mean Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t sit around crying and whining about the president not doing anything for him or his movement so why should the Black community? The Black church is as relevant as the NAACP as they have decided to rest on their past accomplishments instead of deciding to push the envelope and dare to dream about the future potential of the future of our people.

We cannot simply say that we need to do better if we’re not willing to put the effort towards making things better. If churches put as much energy into judging everyone that don’t fit the description of a so called “child of God” into helping ex-cons make their way back into society then things would be drastically. I personally commend Bishop T.D. Jakes for his kind and heroic acts as he talks the talk and walks the walk unlike a lot these hustler preachers that can talk a good game but can’t back it up to save their lives.

In the end if we want to starve the prison industrial complex and break the cycle of violence and stop our brothers and sisters from making the same mistakes over and over again then we have to reach out to them and help them…

Staff Writer; Shawn Hudson

Feel free to connect with this brother via Facebook; Sha.Dimes.

Also one may purchase his book which is self entitled; By Any Means.

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Terrence the Pterodactyl says:
August 15, 2013 at 5:27 pm
The love of money, especially in mega churches, made the Black Church a joke today. Black folks are falling into an abyss of crime and economic irrelevancy. Black young men in the aggregate are lost as our wealthy black people don’t build foundations for them. Another 100 years in the wilderness complaining that the white man is racist and we too sorry to help ourselves.
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ROBERT says:
April 19, 2013 at 10:03 pm
WITH all do respect to my CHRISTIAN brothers I believe they are having a misunderstanding of us who are critical of the black church’s failure’s as a institution.THE main failure of the black church in my opinion is not that it does’nt give enough sandwiches to the homeless or have a drug rehab or prison rehab programs. THE main failure of the black church is the failure to develope us as a people;to make us a people.MANY people have tapped into the power of their religion to transform themselves from poverty and discrimination into power and prosperity.YOU would only have to look at the JEWS ;CATHOLICS;MORMONS and many more examples of the power of a religous institutions.WE as black AMERICANS were unable to recieve this type of service from our religous institution.IT is not the job of the black preacher to be the economic developer or the social agent of the community ;but it is his job to create and develope those people.I would like to advise my CHRISTIAN brothers to reread the work of DR KING ;he was the best example for us on how to tap into the power of belief.DR KING understood if we could harness this power we could change our condition overnight.
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Deeann D. Mathews says:
April 19, 2013 at 2:50 pm
I am just coming last night from a revival a Black local church in San Francisco hosted for the recovery ministry it regularly hosts, with invitations going out to the entire recovery community… where people from 20-30 local churches volunteered their time and went without to make this happen for people in the community who are not always comfortable with “regular church” but who wanted to connect with God through Jesus Christ and worship together, find out about resources and services, and have a safe, loving place to bring their friends.
I have made that distinction — local church — for a reason. God has one Church, and I don’t mean the Catholic Church. I mean the body of people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior from sin, no matter what denomination and local assembly they are in — I mean the total Body of Christ everywhere on earth. The Black portion of God’s Church in this country may be in a church building or outside during the week, but since they belong to Christ, they will be doing what He commands as a standard of life (however imperfectly, but there will be a pattern). Yes, many of the local institutions have failed, but institutions were never empowered by God. Where God’s people are, they will serve Him, perhaps not on the public stage on which everybody knows what is happening, but definitely, and they are doing that service in concert with local churches sometimes, and through other organizations at other times. Follow the folks that go on Sunday out of their church clothes into their Monday-Saturday work clothes; you will quickly find that the Church has an impact wherever its members are, no matter what a particular local church may be doing.
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Marcus Vessey says:
April 19, 2013 at 2:23 pm
I kind of get tired of defending the Black church, but I will write an article on the why folks A) Don’t even understand church organizational demographics, B) The irrationality of asking the Black church to be everything to everyone and C) That there is a distinction that so many of us Blacks seem to not be able to make between a social institution and a religious institution.
A simple thought, would you go to to fix your car a Doctor or a Mechanic? Duhhh you would go to the person suitable to achieving the task. So why are we asking pastors to be economic developers, work force developers, social activist, political thought leaders, and everything else. There was a time where the church did harmonize many of these activities, but asking the church to hold the same role today that it did pre-integration quite simply is stupid.
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anthony bennett says:
April 19, 2013 at 9:05 am
while i rarely respond to these kinds of blogs because some of its respondants appear to have some axe to grind or some dissappointment to exploit, this essay called for my response…while i do understand the sense that the black church as a whole is not efffectively making an impact with regard to the pressing issues within the black community, and have raised some of these concerns myself , i believe the majority of the comments thus far have primarily focused on what they believe the black church is not and has not become without acknowledging the tens of thousands of churches large and small who are making an impact in their communities everyday…. from tutorial programs and economic classes to health seminars to angel tree prison relationships beyond christmas to actual prison ministries that might not have the scope and noteriety as bishop jakes program but are making a difference in the lives of that particular community. as a pastor of an unban context i would welcome the assistance of those on this blog to come to my city of bridgeport and spend some time helping me and my collegues to do what we do more effectively….. my contention is that most of the 3500000+ congregations in the us have pastors who are seeking to do the best with what they have. to label the majority of us pastors for the actions of a few who exploit the honor of our calling would be like me thinking that none of you have ever attempted to really work to improve the church you critique…..unless you need to use us for something…..then who’s really using who?
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DaTruth says:
April 18, 2013 at 8:56 pm
Even though I’m very critical of the black church I still do believe in God. My anger is directed at those crooks and pimps who call themselves preachers, and unfortunately I think that’s about 80% of all black preachers. And that leaves only a fraction of them who try to do good
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Satchel says:
April 18, 2013 at 8:20 pm
In my opinion there are just too many churches per capita in the US. The Black church is not a monolithic institution, there is no central control, people change churches like last years car. Congregations range from single digit family groups to the mega church with thousands of members. It has been my first hand experience that very few have the welfare of their members as a goal. The church boils down to good preaching, traditional rituals, the perpetual building fund and passing the collection plate. This does not describe all churches, but far too many.
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shawn hudson says:
April 18, 2013 at 6:59 pm
I didn’t write this article to diss the black church, I wrote it to say that the black church needs to step up and give back to the communities that they want to give them an offering in the collection plates every sunday.
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ROBERT says:
April 18, 2013 at 6:58 pm
STATISTCALLY black AMERICANS have the highest percentage of members who attend religous institutions regularly. WE also have the highest percentage of people who believe in GOD or a GOD.THE black community has many shortages but religous institution and religous people are not one of them.IN spite of all this religousness we possess we find ourselves in the worst condition of any people in the nation.I have yet to find a religous person who can explain this discrepancy.WE should reexamine our religous beliefs and the mission of the institutions we belong to.DOES this church exist to serve the community or is it here to enrich some damn preacher;thats the question we should judge them by.IF anyone would like more insight into the working of today’s black church I highly recommend the website PIMPPREACHER .COM.
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Thomas says:
April 18, 2013 at 3:03 pm
black pastors* and King County*
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Thomas says:
April 18, 2013 at 2:59 pm
DaTruth, Where do you live? I can’t speak for the whole country, but that is far from the case here in WA. Admittedly this is the most “unchurched” state in the nation, and black people are only about 12% of the urban (Seattle/I-5 corridor) population – that said, the pastors around here are many times living paycheck to paycheck, paying their own money into keeping up the church. My own father is a pastor and has held a day job for the entirety of his 20+ year tenure. I know most of the back pastors in the Seattle area, and none of them are living lavishly. Most are working day jobs as well. King Country Metro (Transit) employs more than a few. Let’s keep the discussion honest and accurate (fact based), and not slanderous.
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DaTruth says:
April 18, 2013 at 2:11 pm
The Black church is and has been a spectacular failure for our communities for the last forty years or so. In my opinion probably eighty percent of black churches are run by crooked preachers who do nothing but rob and loot money for their church and its members. With all the problems in the black community the church, I mean the majority of black churches have done absolute nothing but create new ways to rip people off. Most of these Negro preachers have stole so much they have second homes, take exotic vacations, new luxury cars each year and then brag among themselves about what have. They have taken the art of thievery to new level. And equally sad is that stupid people still blindly follow these pimps.
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