We are presently living in a time where the church, and in particular the Black church, should be having its most productive and prophetic impact on our society. The religion of Jesus going back to the law giver Moses, shined its brightest light in a time of political and governmental crisis.
From Moses telling Pharoah to “let my people go…” to the three Hebrews boys telling King Nebuchadnezzar “We will not serve your gods nor worship your statue of gold….” The religion of Jesus has made its most powerful impact when empires used domination against voiceless, colonized and oppressed people.
This is true up to and including the very birth of the Black church. The Black church began as a resistance to the white church and the anti-Black governmental hatred that sowed the seeds of vicious and anti-human rhetoric into the very fabric of this republic. Please read the examination of the structures of this society in the book by the great A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. titled “In The Matter of Color.” In it he documents how law followed customs in the early colonies in this country. If the custom was to exclude Black people and hinder Black people from achieving parity in this nation, then laws were created to support these racist customs. Thus, the Black church was born as a resistance to white supremacy.
That is why it is so sad that so many people who claim Jesus as Savior and so many pastors stand each week in their pulpits and never have a confronting word against the diabolical directives that are being lobbed like grenades at Black and brown people today.
Rev. Stephen Thurston, Jr., has said “One of the greatest cons of Fundamentalist Christianity is how it convinces Black folk that the Gospel is not concerned with social justice.”
A nationally popular pastor and preacher was once asked by a high school student after this pastor preached a three-day revival at his church, “Why is it that your preaching lacks any social justice resistance against the administration of George W. Bush who led this country into war based on lies? The popular preacher/pastor responded by saying “Because that’s not my gift.” The young man walked away saddened by the preacher’s response and shared what the pastor had said to his friends and family with his own response saying, “a gift is when a person can sing like Aretha Franklin, a gift is when someone can play a musical instrument like Prince but social justice in the ministry of Jesus Christ is a given.”
Many churches and pastors are missing a moment in history to demonstrate biblically and theologically how the religion of Jesus addresses the needs of the “persons whose backs are against the wall,” to quote Howard Thurman from his classic “Jesus and the Disinherited.” It will be a tarnish on the very faith in years to come when some child, or some grandchild twenty years, thirty years or fifty years from now reads about this present attack of hate and evil on Black and brown people and discovers that there was not a word from pulpits across this nation concerning the demonic agenda of this present administration to end Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Health Coverage, and the right of people to learn accurate history concerning their people.
It will not matter how many souls got saved to go to heaven in years to come but what will matter greatly is what did people and preachers in pulpits say and do for the least of these. This ought to be a banner time of bold counternarratives to the butchering of the constitution and the skirting of the laws that protect the right to vote, protect civil rights and protect diversity, equity and inclusion. Sadly, far too many are contented with being so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. I leave you with words from Jesus that ought to be guidepost and steel in the backs of members of churches and those who pastor churches when he declared from the book of Isaiah “The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That same spirit is a given for churches members and pastors today.
Be Authentic, Be Aware and Stay Woke! Uhuru Sassa!
Rev. John E. Jackson
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.”
