The Only Stupid Question Is The One Not Asked
In the last article “The Curious Case
of African-Americans”, I made mention of what caused me to focus on the
African-American (Black Community) again that namely being the popular TV show
Scandal. When I left the Black
Community-that is I was not mentally engaged in the issues, there was no such
thing as social media. Upon my return,
social media was factoring in a major way in American life. Scandal propelled me to investigate what was
occurring on the web regarding Black Americans, and to say the least it was
disheartening to discover a certain amount of discord and negativity especially
in relation to black male and female relationships.
I already knew of the reported high
percentage of out of wedlock births in the Black Community of 70 %, the high percentage of abortions relative to
our stagnant population of 12% and read once again in Ebony magazine about the
lack of Black male fathers in the home being
even more prevalent in the future than in slavery to the tune of maybe
90%. This was absolutely astounding to
me. How is it in freedom, that Black
people collectively, and I don’t mean everyone, could be disintegrating at the
level it is more than any other period in American history including slavery? When you add in Black on Black crime that
leads to the death of many Black men as well as innocent women and children and
now the advocacy and uptick in homosexuality the picture becomes even more bleak for Black America.
I felt like Moses must have felt when
he came from receiving the commandments from God and found that Israel had
quickly lapsed into idolatry by making a golden calf to be their god. It is understandable why he threw the tablets
and broke them. I myself wanted to throw
some tablets at least figuratively and disappear again because Black Americans
have always depressed me to some extent and it would be no less true today. But the dysfunction of the Black community
must be addressed because it is the pink elephant in the room in regards to the
church and slavery.
I believe the reason many Black Americans are
haunted by the ghosts of slavery and following suit Jim Crow and other
discrimination real or imagined and suffer from low self-esteem is because we
do not have a divine reason for our predicament past or present. We are at war with the majority in society
and with ourselves. The sword cuts us
down from within and from without, yet there hangs before us the question we
seem dare not to ask as we occupy the seats of various churches week end and
week out. What is wrong with us?
I had a pastor who would say from
time to time, that Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America and
yet there we were as many Black folks were inexplicably in the institution that
had the most segregated hour in America.
If this institution, the church, was as discriminatory as secular
society why did and do Black Americans participate in it? Furthermore, if we serve the sovereign God of
the universe it seems like Black folk would ask the sovereign God why we were
enslaved in the country with the most segregated hour on Sunday? I believe the
lack of addressing this issue is the reason why the Black church has been more
of a religious institution for the Black Community as opposed to a powerful
one.
It has been on the Black churches’
watch that the Black Community has steadily declined; nevertheless, the Black
Church has served as an ark for Black people until the issue of slavery could be addressed in the context of
where we are in the age. Although the
Black Community has tried to solve its issues with reliance on government and
politicians ever looking for that ephemeral leader who will usher them to the
mountaintop, our problems are spiritual and thus cannot be found in the carnal
minds of men, but in the mind of God. There
is a running theme throughout the bible of God’s concern for justice. I referenced this theme in the articles
Prophetic Judgment and Prophetic Restoration.
Thus, the question must be asked, If
God is a God of justice would he consign a whole people group to bondage
physically and mentally without cause?
It is easy for men to look on the surface and blame other men, fate and
so forth for their condition when a deeper excavation is required. It is a paradox how the church going segment
of the Black Community can sit in church Sunday in and out but blame our
problems on Republicans, Democrats, white racism, favored immigrants, and what not
when we proclaim that we serve a mighty and good God. Which is He? A mighty and good God or one who
has a controversy with us as our community continues to fall apart.
The shared history of slavery and
past and present hardship without knowing the reason for it will not be enough
to hold Black Americans together in the future.
But if we are destined to fall apart and disappear at the behest of our
enemies naturally and spiritually at least we should know why and it is my
intent with future articles to address that question which I could never do
justice to on a blog.