During slavery and the civil rights movement, the African American church was the pepper that changed the favor of American social soup. Today, the taste of the American social soup is much better because of the African American church, but has the African American community substituted the pepper of the church for materialism, classism, and nihilism.Like the children of Israel, a portion of the African American community has entered the land of Canaan. The milk of success has churned into complacency. Even from the pulpit, the call to continue to fight injustice, racism, and inequality is replaced with the proclamation of health, wealth, and prosperity. The church roll is numbered with middle to upper middle class members who look down on those who have not "arrived." Many of our youth live a life of nihilism, seeing no hope for a future and only living for the present.
If Dr. King, Medgar Evers, Malcom X, and Soujouner Truth were alive today, their tears would fall because it seems we have lost our way. We are praising and worshipping with our lips but fail to move with our hands outside the four walls of the church. The American social soup is losing it seasoning with the loss of young boys like Trayvon and old men like James Anderson. We continue to have more African Americans entering the correctional institution rather than dawning the halls of higher institutions. The rate of aids among our young African American women rises while we build bigger churches.
The soup is tasteless because the pepper is missing, but their is still hope. Their is hope if the African American church will regain its spice.
Let us start now.
Using an analogy from the greatest change agent in history, lets us become the pepper that helped America remove the chains of slavery, let us become the pepper that made the front door accessible, let us become the pepper that brought us from the poor house to the White House.
Let the Church say Amen.
Author note: God sees no color. This blog is only an attempt to address the historical nature of the African American Church within the African American Community. We are all God's children and His Church should seek to be the "Salt and the Light" of the World.
The African American church will always have its place in history. What does it take to continue to move forward? Should we remain stuck in past never integrating our future? As African Americans we must be agents for change. We need change in our homes, schools, communities, church and world. One entity "The African American Church" cannot do it alone and in isolation. We need to pepper our world wherever we are for change that must and will occur when demanded.
ReplyDeletePaula Jones