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The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice
Gilda Daniels | Posted March 28, 2008 9:55 AM
Once upon a time, a minister could both criticize and love America. Now, such statements are characterized as anti-American, or worse, as hate speech.
Gilda Daniels is an Assistant Professor at the University of Baltimore Law School and a former deputy chief in the U.S. Department of Justice, civil rights division.
Loyalty and race. These are the perplexing and polarizing issues that presidential candidate and frontrunner, Barack Obama, very humbly and powerfully chose to speak to the nation about after snippets of past sermons by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, caused a firestorm of controversy. As a law professor and granddaughter and daughter of Baptist pastors, I listened in earnest.
The fact that a presidential candidate needed to explain words that were not his own, but those of his former pastor's is a testament to how far we have not come. The fact that people were surprised that words such as Pastor Wright's would be uttered in a sermon shows a lack of familiarity with the legacy of the Black Church. Pastor Wright's legacy can not be embodied in the thirty second sound bites proliferating the media, but rather from the tradition from which his legacy and his words were birthed, the Black Church.
Historically, the "Black Church" has been a voice for social justice and outspoken concerning injustices, whether the injustice occurred in the pews or politics. A sermon from a black minister that was critical of the United States was once commonplace and necessary to achieve change. Black ministers have been front-line witnesses to the anger, pain and degradation confronted on the African American community from slavery to more contemporary concerns, and traditionally they have spoken out. Once upon a time, a minister could both criticize and love America. Now, such statements are characterized as anti-American, or worse, as hate speech.
On March 31, 1968, four days before he was assassinated, Dr. King gave a speech entitled "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution" where he criticized America's involvement in Vietnam, saying:
I am convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world...It has played havoc with our domestic destinies... This day we are spending five hundred thousand dollars to kill every Vietcong soldier. Every time we kill one we spend about five hundred thousand dollars while we spend only fifty-three dollars a year for every person characterized as poverty... The judgment of God is upon us today. And we could go right down the line and see that something must be done--and something must be done quickly.
Forty years later these words remain relevant and prophetic and could have been spoken in any church with a social justice mandate on any given Sunday. Pastor Wright's legacy, not the sound bites, is consistent with pastors who believe the church has a mandate to achieve social justice. The desire to assist the least, the less and the lost, however, has been lost in the new mandate for personal achievement-my purpose, my goals, my god, my prosperity.
Has the black church lost its relevance? Has the church remained demographically the same, but the message of social justice become merely an announcement in the Sunday program-along with choir rehearsal, bake sales and voter registration drives- instead of a centerpiece of its call to live and look like Christ, to speak truth to power, to set the captives free?
Has it fallen into the evangelical abyss where only gay rights and abortion are the "political" issues that are espoused from the pulpit, not social justice issues, such as, poverty and homelessness or issues that disproportionately affect African Americans and other minorities, such as the resegregation of schools and affirmative action?
Can the church -- regardless of the demographics, black, white, brown, red or yellow -- seek a higher standard and play a relevant role in the political process? A role that embraces our differences. Can we reject the culture of polarization and do as Barack Obama suggests -- disagree and still love. Can we disagree and walk in peace? I hope to have a president who knows when to strike and when to pray. I hope that s/he will also not be afraid to listen to the prophetic voices.
As the daughter and granddaughter of Baptist pastors, I believe that the church still has a lot to say and to do to ensure that we live in a "more perfect union."
Let the Nation say, "Amen."
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Purl Gurl commented on The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice:
Gilda, you are clearly a well educated woman. Being such, I am sure you are aware organized religion... -
Lynnae Thandiwe commented on The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice:
Gilda, you are right on target. Additionally, it is a sad day when the press can manipulate facts a... -
brucito commented on The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice:
To say that it appears that the black church has lost its relevance is the understatement of the yea... -
Charles commented on The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice:
I have to say that was a well spoken article, And sends off a profound warning about the state of th... -
awo commented on The Power of the Pulpit: Black Pastors and Social Justice:
I hope the church has not lost its relevance. There is still much to be done. ...
March 28, 2008 10:48 AM
I can, you can, we all can and should speak out loudly against injustice. There have been countless voices raised from any number of sources against social injustice. However Rev Wright, in his published remarks, has joined the likes of Don Imus, Jimmy the Greek, Howard Cosell and countless others. Said simply, bigotry and racism knows no creed, no religious perspective, no anything, no boundries. Bigotry and racism is unacceptable in any form whatsoever. Do I find myself on the other side ... yes, the unpopular point of view is where I am often most comfortable. We collectively must flee from false prophets as we are all aware of where they will take us.
March 28, 2008 1:14 PM
Do we have equailty for all (men and women alike/)
If seems to me that we in America have some fundemental issues that stem from our collective for-fathers and mohters beliefs on equality.
It seems that at our foundation of Laws, we the people are not in agreemnt on what injustice actaully means, and thefore it becomes hard to lable it since one's persons justice maybe another person's injustice espeically when we ad Faith into the mix.
March 28, 2008 6:11 PM
When I read the exerpt from Dr. King's speech and consider its tone and content there is a world of difference from that of Pastor Wright who invokes God's damnation upon my country.
March 29, 2008 8:57 AM
Excellent commentary: What is taking place in America, in light of 'the Wright Reverend's' mediaized comments, reminds me of our not too distant past.
Each of us should recall a time when black churches, once they were free to assemble apart from white assemblages, customarily had white administrators placed over them.
These administrators, usually a minister himself, would either preach to the black congregation themselves, or sit in the pulpits and monitor and report back what the black minister taught and said to the black parishioners.
The primary purposes for these overseers being present in the first place were to monitor the black minister, and to ensure the white community that black congregants were not planning a Nat Turner like insurrection. The 'Wright Reverend', has struck fear back into the hearts of the white community. And just like 100 years ago, he has been deposed!
We might be on our way 'back to the future', given the growth of powerful black churches, that have outstripped their counterparts (Televising the Coretta Scott King Funeral in that magnificent black edifice for example may have been a mistake).
Can any of you say, white administrator espionage in the form of parabolic listening devices, spies or satellite surveillance for monitoring of black churches from hereon? Pastor Willie Wilson in Anacostia, could talk about that!
www.sealofabraham.blogspot.com
March 29, 2008 9:19 PM
I hope the church has not lost its relevance. There is still much to be done.
April 1, 2008 11:27 AM
I have to say that was a well spoken article, And sends off a profound warning about the state of the "black Church", and the black community as a whole. We have some real decissions to make on what direction we are going to go in. If we will continue to trade in our Promised Land, for the newest Name Brand? Meaning where are our priorities. How is it that a show like Flava of Love is the number one show in 2008? Come on! I can only feed you bullcrap if I can depend on you to eat it. We are by far the biggest consuming community in the WORLD. Ok but what are we CONSUMING? Is it anything contributing to an investment in our future? Without vision the people perish from the land....
April 2, 2008 8:18 AM
To say that it appears that the black church has lost its relevance is the understatement of the year. I am a black man and do not attend church because of my personal beliefs in religion as a whole. I have had arguments with people on the net and in person about the response of the the black church in regards to the strait out thievery that went on in the sub-prime loan mess.
Too many single black women with children and too many lower wage earning black families were nothing else but suckered by white and BLACK (yes you read the correctly) predators. ("Sign here and don't worry, the house will only rise in value").
Because of the roll that credit reports play in todays employment and housing decisions it is criminal of the church not to grab several of these black politicians by the collar and demand they get up on capital and start demanding that justice be done and soon. Damn race. This business about they should have known better does not matter. TOO MANY FLAGS HAD TO HAVE SPRANG UP saying these people are not going to be able to afford these adjustable rates. IT IS ALSO OBVIOUS THAT THE TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN MENTALITY WAS WVERYWHERE IN THE REALTOR AND LOAN OFFICES. THIS WAS JUST STRAIT UP CRIMINAL. AND THE BLACK REALTY'S KNEW IT.
Where is the BLACK churches moral obligation to speak out about injustice now? I ask you where is ol' Bishop Eddie Long at now when a loud mouth is exactually what is needed?
April 7, 2008 4:19 PM
Gilda, you are right on target. Additionally, it is a sad day when the press can manipulate facts and information and use that to create controversy. America has used the government to mistreat people (I would say citizens but they denied many of us the rights of citizens for so very long) time and time again. This was the substance of sermon. Who can argue against that reality? Have they not heard of slavery? Have they not heard of the Trail of Tears? Have they not heard of the internment camps? Did they not read the Dred Scott decision? Did they ever read the Constitution? Why would Barak Obama be called on to respond to a statement taken out of context? Because of rascism. Because of shameless manipulation. You have dig out an old sermon, but you don't bother to play the sermon? You don't bother to evaluate the points of the sermon. Shame on the press!
April 13, 2008 1:36 PM
Gilda, you are clearly a well educated woman. Being such, I am sure you are aware organized religion is simply a political arm of government, from municipal to national, regardless of which nation.
I am also a well educated woman, an English professor and an American Indian. My traditional spiritual belief system is radically different than your Anglican inspired notion of your god. I will provide counterbalance to a fundamentally flawed notion of an Anglican based god, a rather generic god.
No need for me to discuss all this corruption and crime amongst organized religion, nor need to discuss right wing extremism, left wing extremism nor even Islamic extremism, all found amongst organized religion.
“God is on our side” is such a stereotypical notion within organized religion. “We fight the Good Fight in the name of God.” My peoples were slaughtered by the tens of millions by God fearing people. We were not enslaved. We were not made laborers. No, we could not be subjugated, we could not be defeated. God, being wise and logical, directed his followers to inflict four-hundred years of genocide against my peoples, the worst genocide of written history.
A rather extreme example is mine, nonetheless a horrific truth. Missionaries came to our peoples to force us to believe in this Anglican god, to force us to be Christians, to force us to abandon our beliefs, abandon our lands, abandon our way of life. If not, we were slaughtered.
These events, centuries of genocide, destroying our way of life, can only be described as Evil.
Is not this what organized religion is truly all about? Organized religion is an arm of government which leads people to specific beliefs, leads to people to a specific type of thinking. Organized religion is a concerted effort at controlling both the thinking of people and controlling the peer mores of people. Organized religion is a branch of government which has people lending support to a government, a good government or a bad government. Organized religion is to effect mind control over specific slices of a population.
Christianity is alleged to be about our seeking The Good. Organized religion is to be about our living a good life, our being good to others, our being helpful and, most important, our following the laws of a nation and our lending unquestioned support to a nation.
What do you read on our American money? “In God We Trust.” Is not this to insult your Christian god by suggesting our monetary system is blessed by God?
Bottom line flaw is organized religion presents an assumed image of being pure, chaste, innocent and chasing after only The Good. We know this is not true.
When we invoke the name of God, all of us assume surrounding words to be pure truth and assume surrounding words to be only The Good. This is the fatal flaw with organized religion; we truly belief a genuflect, a kiss of a ring, sitting upon a pew, singing the praises of God, all these activities and more, make us good people, make us good Christians. This we also know is not true.
You close your article with commentary, “I believe that the church still has a lot to say and to do to ensure that we live in a ‘more perfect union.’ Let the Nation say, ‘Amen.’”
Are you not conceding organized religion is a political arm of government? Strikes me a founding principle of our America is separation of church and state. Amen.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation