A Challenge to the Black Church

article here: Blacks, Mirroring Larger U.S. Trend, 'Come Out' As Nonbelievers

Frederick A Hanna


I don't honestly see this as a threat to the Black Church, but a challenge. I hate when people criticize black churches without having spent significant time inside of them. AND when I say "inside" I don't mean some jaded experience you had that disenchanted and marred you as a youth, nor do I mean a cursory outsider's perspective based on your intellectual opinion.

Nonetheless, statements like,

"...religious principles get in the way of effectively addressing the social ills facing the black community, including a higher proportion of HIV and AIDS cases compared with other races and ethnicities."

AND

"... black churches are sometimes be part of the problem, not the solution... We need clinics, jobs, and schools in black neighborhoods... We need proactive solutions, and praying and churches is not the answer." (which I would change to "is not the full extent of the answer")

are at least partially true for far too many churches. Movements like this should force churches to critically analyze their role in society in a post modern age. Preaching and praying isn't enough. I have said it before, it's not enough to "have" church we have got to "be" the church. Far too many Christians don't truly understand what that means because they have become ensnared by religion. Still, as a good friend of mine once told me, "you can't blame the people for that, it's what they've been taught."

Remember who killed Jesus? Religious folk! The religious elite... the establishment...

Having said all of that, if I'm going to roll the dice, I'm rolling with Jesus!