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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In Changing Neighborhoods, Black Churches Face an Identity Crisis
By Alessandra Ram
inShare.13Oct 12 2012, 8:00 AM ET21
Fifty years after "white flight," a new population shift is emptying the pews of African American congregations.
The 2012 H Street Festival shows off the new identity of a D.C. neighborhood. Meanwhile, the area's once-thriving black churches are struggling to survive. (tbridge/Flickr)
The unmistakable boom of an indie bass can be heard coming from the Rock n Roll Hotel. The scent of seasoned mussels and fresh-baked sour cherry pie emanates from either side of the street. Cursing the long-awaited street car, residents artfully dodge taxicabs and speeding bikers to get around the plaid-clad, bespectacled foodies waiting patiently outside of Taylor Gourmet and H & Pizza, eager to devour their fried risotto balls or custom-made soy cheese slices.
Walking along H St. NE in Washington, D.C. is a therapeutic exercise in cognitive function and repair. Every few weeks, previously boarded-up storefronts transform into freshly painted establishments aimed at a new generation. What was a relic of the infamous "Dodge City" is the fast becoming the District's foremost hipster haven. But as the neighborhood changes, once-cherished institutions are left hanging in the balance -- the most prominent being the black church.
Today, the black church is in crisis, with scholars claiming that it has lost its prophetic and progressive influence. But the black church has also been confronted with a more visceral change: the shifting demographics around the urban black "space," caused in part by people like me.
In cities across America, a new population is moving to neighborhoods formerly occupied by working-class African Americans. Property developers, eager to take advantage of the modest rent, are tearing down buildings to make way for trendy eateries and luxury condominiums to fit the needs of millennials: young, educated individuals, most of whom reside briefly in a given urban area before choosing to settle elsewhere.
This recent physical and cultural transformation has been endlessly debated. According to Neil Smith, a professor of anthropology and geography at the City University of New York Graduate Center, gentrification has changed enormously since the '70s and '80s. "It's no longer just about housing," he told the New York Times. "It's really a systematic class-remaking of city neighborhoods. It's driven by many of the same forces, especially the profitable use of land. But it's about creating entire environments: employment, recreation, environmental conditions."
In Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Greenpoint, for instance, the proportion of residents holding graduate degrees quadrupled to 12 percent from 1990. At the same time, the retail focus has shifted from offering products to creating experiences. "In this struggle," he says, "the interests of private capital rarely lose."
In the nation's capital, black churches have refused to budge amid this accelerated gentrification process, even as they see their communities (and influence) slowly wane. For the first time, African Americans are no longer D.C.'s major racial or ethnic group. Select D.C. neighborhoods are experiencing a verifiable identity crisis, with the black church at the helm. Changing demographics are a daunting challenge for an institution that used to occupy an integral role in the community -- serving as the center of stability and camaraderie, offering potlucks and after-school care along with religious services. To understand this struggle is to understand the changing role of the black church in the American narrative, and what vulnerable communities stand to lose if it disappears.
***
When video footage came to light of Reverend Jeremiah Wright calling on African Americans to say "God damn America" instead of "God bless America," many worried that it signaled the end for Senator Barack Obama, then the leading candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, and an active parishioner of Wright's church for 20 years. What followed was a media firestorm, one that thrust the black church under an intense spotlight it had not faced since the Civil Rights era. Under enormous pressure, Barack Obama came to explain his relationship with Wright and his congregation:
Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming, and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
When Obama said "black churches," he was referring to a highly decentralized collection of seven major black Protestant denominations: the National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Convention, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Church of God in Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
Each of these denominations grew out of the antebellum South, dating back to a time when Methodists and Baptists made concerted efforts to convert slaves to Christianity. Anglican ministers had made similar attempts, but to little avail. Select white owners allowed the enslaved to worship in white churches, where they were segregated in the back or on the balconies and made to listen to messages of strict obedience. The Methodists and Baptists changed all that, recasting their evangelism for a black audience. Some Methodists even licensed black men to preach, and many of the new black ministers framed Bible stories in ways that made them newly relevant to black audiences -- particularly the Exodus theme of liberation from bondage. Some black preachers even succeeded in establishing churches in the South, though they encountered harassment. When the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century caused many Americans, black and white, to get swept up in religious revival, the independence of black churches was curbed by law, and by the white Southern response to slave uprisings and the abolitionist movement.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, the black church found its political voice in abolition. Former slave Frederick Douglass challenged Christians to confront the debasing institution that was slavery, while ministers and members of the black community organized the Underground Railroad in the North. Following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation (which legitimized the Exodus story for many African Americans) and continuing on through Reconstruction, the black church became more organized, rallying around the black preacher as a central figure. In "Of the Faith of the Followers," an essay that appeared in his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois described the preacher as "the most unique personality developed by the Negro on American soil.'
A century later, still plagued by institutionalized racism and violence, African Americans coalesced into action after the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. Then, in 1955, activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. By the time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the official face of the struggle, civil rights had gained a clear moral and religious dimension. King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" (which appeared in The Atlantic under the title "The Negro Is Your Brother") was a response to a group of angry white ministers, a reflection on Christianity and the path to social justice. Again, the crusade was sustained by the Exodus story.
Today, with an electorate still bitterly divided over the issue of race, the black church is arguably losing its power. While "white flight" and the Civil Rights movement galvanized the black community, "black flight" (middle-class African Americans relocating to the suburbs) and the rapid gentrification of neighborhoods across America have put the black church on the path to obsoletion.
In Washington, D.C., these demographic shifts have been particularly fraught. Many neighborhoods are recovering even today from the 1968 riots, a four-day response to Dr. King's assassination. The H-St. corridor saw numerous buildings destroyed during the violence. But even as storefronts remained boarded up, churches continued to thrive. Church members in the area look back wistfully at the many events once sponsored by or held at the church, including potlucks, tutoring sessions to help teens stay in school, Alcohol Anonymous meetings, single-parent funds, and counseling services. Pews were packed every Sunday morning; everybody knew each other by name. Only in the last few years have these churches felt their bases slipping away.
***
The house where I currently live is owned and managed by a church that relocated to suburban Maryland. Old paintings still hang in the living room from the days when it was used as living quarters for church leaders. Today, the house is occupied by three young people who were attracted by the relatively low rent and youthful culture that have become hallmarks of the neighborhood.
I recently attended a Sunday service at Northeast Holy Trinity Church, a local Baptist church nestled between Union Station and H St., to get a sense of the culture that once permeated my neighborhood. After services, a young boy came up to a woman and asked if she would mind teaching him how to play the drums. The woman, Shenoa Carter, 2nd Assistant Church Clerk, kindly told him she would. Carter is the mother of two sons in the Sunday school and the daughter of an executive officer, and she explained that the church is extremely supportive of families' needs. For example, the church recently hosted a Sunday school retreat at a resort in West Virginia, drawing on the support of a larger federation of Sunday schools to provide scholarships for many families.
Each parishioner with whom I spoke was eager to know what I was writing about, and, more importantly, why I had chosen their church in particular. One of the chairwomen publicly welcomed me during the "announcements" from the pulpit. The resounding message I heard from people was, "What you see is what you get." Despite the enthusiasm, I couldn't help but notice that the church was largely empty that morning: Few besides the ministers, members of the executive board, and their families were in attendance. When I asked if the church used to see higher attendance, few would give me a concrete answer, instead asking politely when I would return.
The Washington Post's Hamil R. Harris reports that since numerous middle-class parishioners have relocated to Prince George's County in Maryland, congregations have either packed up with them, or stayed behind to rebuild what has been lost: relationships. According to Harris, churches along the "nightlife-intensive" H St. and U St. corridors have made efforts to offset lower attendance by attracting passersby. A bi-monthly jazz night is intended to attract recent arrivals, most of whom are young and white. Douglas Memorial United Methodist Church has begun renovations that will enable the church to "grow the congregation"; it has space in its pews for 500 but roughly 100 members.
But not all churches in the area have focused on fostering relationships with their new neighbors. And not many residents seem drawn to the services. More often, the newcomers can be heard complaining that morning services interrupt street parking, or that some churches have made it more difficult for restaurants to obtain liquor licenses.
By and large, black churches in the area are realizing that alliances must be formed if they want to retain their presence in the community. Recently, a petition surfaced via Occupy Our Homes to prevent Bank of America from evicting a beloved reverend from his home in Northeast D.C.:
For more than two decades Reverend Robert Michael Vanzant has been a pillar of strength in his community in Northeast DC. He opened his heart and his home--his friends and neighbors have made his home a place of shelter for the less fortunate and a place of compassion for those in need of healing. Now Bank of America wants to take it all away.
The petition already has 1,420 of its required 2000 signatures. But it's unclear whether such shows of support will be able to save an institution that is fast losing the community around it.
On a recent Saturday, my neighborhood got a big PR boost from the annual H St. Festival. The street was packed with regulars and visitors alike, noshing on kabobs on empty church steps. It was hard to tell whether a service would take place there the next morning. But it was easy to imagine that former residents would find the area unrecognizable. In the parlance of gentrification, it is now H St. corridor, or the Atlas District, east of NoMa. For now, my housemates and I call it home. In a few years' time, we will almost certainly be gone. |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:14 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The combined Detroit paper today laid out extensive plans for a new Detroit. These plans provide extensive areas of green space for farming and other uses.
If you looked at the foreclosure lists for Flint, the majority of abandoned homes appear to me to coincide with the areas of the greatest violence and the gunfire. However, the college cultural area may have to revise their housing stats too. There appears to be a significant "black flight" as residents flee because they fear for their safety.
Snyder and the state have done little to stem the flow of blood in Flint. More residents are expressing the fear they may just have to walk away in order to remain safe.
The Land Bank already owns significant properties that run through the middle of the near north and the north end. With this next batch of foreclosures, they will own an even more significant chunk of this area. This will be Flint's future green spaces. Pastor Flynn once threw a barb out about them making the north end into farm land. Prophetic or did he have inside informnation. |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:42 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The black churches must examine the impact of this black migration on their congregation and their existance. Will pews start to become empty? Will offerings decline? Will some churches fail?
I remember when churches in Flint did significant outreach into the poor neighborhoods. However, some churches now only want to look prosperous. Is it necessary for the pastor to drive a luxury vehicle and wear expensive suits . What about the mission of saving souls? Are our urban churches letting the residents down? When members march to give huge sums of money on Pastor Appreciation Day, have they forgotten the true mission of the church?
From what I hear in th community many are disappointed in some of today's churches. They point out that "man cannot serve two masters" and tell me their church has become too commercial.
Hopefully some will tell me on this blog what they think of the role of their church should be and whether they are satisfied with their mission. |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:51 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Modern Day Slavery in the black church: How many souls will go ...
Oct 7, 2012 ... Today's average attendee of the black church is in spiritual bondage, allegedly, they are in a type of slavery that lured their mindset into ...
Published by the Sanctified Church reveolution, this article asks "how many people will go to hell for worshipping their celebrity Pastors instead of God."hey refer to these pastors as "slave masters in the pulpit" that urge larger offerings to the church each week and yet fail to do out reach.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:16 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 6:56 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint parishioners, city leaders shaken by church homicide; they say ideas needed to stem violence
By Roberto Acosta | racosta1@mlive.com
on January 13, 2013 at 6:30 PM, updated January 13, 2013 at 6:32 PM
View full sizeA man wearing an RIP sweatshirt walks by Full Gospel Christian Church on King Avenue Saturday, January 12. A 28-year-old man was shot and killed inside the church during the funeral of Gerrell Tyler, 26, who was shot to death in Flint on Dec. 30. Police said the suspect fled the scene and is still at large.Lauren Justice | MLive.com
FLINT, MI – Sharon Mixon said Saturday’s shooting that left one person dead during a funeral service inside a church on Flint’s north side is unheard of even in a city that has seen nearly 200 homicides in a little more than three years.
“It’s hard everywhere, but going into a church was crossing the line,” said Mixon, 50, of the shooting at Full Gospel Christian Church, which led to the death of 28-year-old Steven Lawson. The shooter was still at large.
Residents, church and community leaders were left trying to figure out what could be done to stem the violence that has now reached inside the city’s places of worship, typically sanctuaries for those seeking shelter and relief.
“People have lost respect for the Lord’s house,” said Randolph, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, after someone shot and killed 28-year-old Steven Lawson inside Full Gospel Christian Church. “We’ve had killings now in the schools, the government and now the church. It’s out of control.”
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling expressed his sadness upon hearing the news, stating, “This latest homicide comes as a horrible shock to the community. The utter disregard for the value of life and our society is stunning.”
Flint resident Sharonda Goza called the incident “very, very sad” as she loaded up her children following a mid-morning church service at Foss Avenue Baptist Church.
“That mother had to bury her son and somebody else has to bury their child now,” said Goza, 36. “We have no morals, no self-pity where someone would go to a church and shoot somebody.”
Searching for solutions
City Adminstrator Mike Brown said Flint officials “will continue to work” on tackling crime and other issues surrounding violence.
“We have a criminal justice adviser council we created. Part of that is not just law enforcement, but it’s human services and ways we can approach the problem differently,” he said. “It’s not all just about incarcerating people. We have young people that are both victims and perpetrators of violence.”
Steps include working on areas such as conflict resolution and inviting Community Mental Health to discuss the mental issues some are facing, but Brown noted, “They have been reduced staffwide so much because of loss of revenue,” much as the city has been in recent years.
“A lot of people have the want to make an impact and changes, but they are restricted by the same revenue challenges that we have,” he said, while pointing to the need for human services organization, such as the Reach Runaway Program, to come forth and work with children and adults.
Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell said his department may start looking for more volunteers to participate in its Security in Ministry program that brings unarmed Christian men and women to several churches in the city of Flint and other surrounding areas to keep an extra watch during services.
“They do not carry guns, or weapons, or Tasers or handcuffs, but they are security and they have been trained as security,” he said,. The volunteers help keep down the number of burglaries and larcenies of vehicles outside and inside the church.
“They are not police officers, they have no arrest powers,” Pickell said. “They do a tremendous job. In light of what has happened over the weekend, I’ll be meeting with (Col. Ralph) Tedford this week and we’ll be kind of taking a look at our role.”
Pickell said that would likely not include armed security personnel, because of the potential liability involved. He said that decision would be up to local pastors on a case-by-case basis.
Randolph said security is used at Antioch and doors are locked and monitored during services, but he was leery of armed security because it could lead to others inside a church being caught in the crossfire.
Mixon said any ideas coming forth to reverse crime need to become more than just words from people in the community.
“We can’t just say God, we need your help,” said the 50-year-old Mixon. “We need to say this needs to stop and we need action.”
She noted the change needs to begin in the home, with parents taking more responsibility and holder a tighter watch on their children.
“Parents are more lax than they were before,” Mixon said. “They are not focusing on their kids’ education. They don’t know who their kids’ friends are.”
Children need to be told “there's a better way” of living life, said Mixon, because otherwise, “You’re either going to end up dead or in prison.”
Police seek public's help
Flint Police Chief Alvern Lock said he’s addressed time and again what needs to take place to change the culture of violence.
“It’s like I’ve been saying all along and I continue to repeat myself. Someone knows what’s going and what was going to happen,” he said. They need to call us and let us know.
“This was not a random act. No one walked into the church and decided to pick somebody out,” Lock said. “There’s somebody there that knew who it was. It wasn’t two strangers.”
When asked why people won’t step forward, Lock replied, “If I had that answer, then I could solve the problem, but I don’t have that answer.”
Pickell said “On any given day in the county jail, we have between 56 and 64 percent of our jail population on psychotropic medication,” but he said every person doesn’t suffer from some type of mental issue.
He said there are other issues at play, including drugs, dysfunctional families and lack of education that “have plagued our community,” not just the city of Flint, which will require a significant amount of time and money to address.
“People thought opening the city lockup would eliminate violent crime. It’s not reducing violent crime,” said Pickell, while pointing to the homicides that have already taken place in 2013. “I think we have to have a much more comprehensive plan than more police and more jails.
“We’re getting that and the problem is still escalating,” he said. “People that are in postions of command out there need to get together and talk about it.”
Mixon called on everyone -- those with and without children – to talk with a young person in the Flint community about their paths in life.
“Tell that young man or young woman, you don’t have to live like this,” she said.
Roberto can be reached by phone at 810-429-3865, by email at racosta1@mlive.com, on Facebook at Roberto Acosta Flint Journal or on Twitter @racostaFJ. |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:13 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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As long as I keep hearing about drug dealing pastors and pastors that care more about their "love offerrings" than in saving souls, this violence will continue. "Perception is reality" and the perception is some institutions, including specific churches, are paying gang members to instill fear in some neighborhoods.
The city and the Land bank want to develop specific areas and isn't it ironic the violence helped empty those areas out. The citizens don't believe in the coincidence. Resident after resident that for the last two years has expressed the desire to hold out against the gunshots and other violence have finally given in and abandoned their properties.
That raises the issue of whether the state is really trying to quell the violence. Barnett Jones ran as a Republican before the state selected him to be our "public safety coordinator", a job he really never worked at. Allegedly the so called "safety plan" was created when he was a volunteer. Jones himself stated he was sort of a "consultant" although he had an employment contract that spelled out vacation time and sick time. Consultants don't accrue such benefit packages. In the city of Flint, police employees are paid unused sick and vacation time, up to a specific level, when they leave. Since the city states Jones never filled out time sheets, how does anyone know if he used sick or vacation pay.
The church needs to raise it's level of social action to confront Snyder's inability to protect the citizens of Flint and to confront the hidden motives behind Kurtz and Brown's actions in office. There is no transparency. Kurtz posts actions that denote backup documentation and never reveals the backup documentation. Conflicts of interest abound and we may have a Kurtz or Bown Enterprise, much like the Kilpatrick Enterprise in Detroit and the Ficano Enterprise in Wayne. |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 7:37 pm |
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00SL2
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
untanglingwebs schreef:
Modern Day Slavery in the black church: How many souls will go ...
sanctifiedchurchrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/modern-day-slavery-in-black...
Oct 7, 2012 ... Today's average attendee of the black church is in spiritual bondage, allegedly, they are in a type of slavery that lured their mindset into ...
beware and make sure your virus protection is up to date as I blocked a malicious url on this site.
Malicious URL on the URL you provided or on FlintTalk site? Why would you post a site with a malicious URL? |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 9:20 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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my virus protection blpcked a malicious url about the time I accessed this site. But I had also viewed a video on Merrill Hood just before this. These videos are notorious for bad things. Proper software should block. I have entered this site twice since with no problems. The comment on the malicious url was added because I was not sure where it came from.
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:06 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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PDF]
The Black Church and the Violence of Urban Educati...
www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/pdf/YMC/Black-Church-The-Violence-of-Educat...
The Black Church and the Violence of Urban Education. By Larry T. Crudup. Welcome to the life of many students in urban education systems. These systems ...
The Black Church and the Violence of Urban Education
By Larry T. Crudup
Welcome to the life of many students in urban education systems. These systems target for prison planning and growth, drug trafficking, gang violence, domestic abuse, racial profiling, rape, and advancement of the military as the only means of getting out, and they do violence to the image of the Imago Dei that has been implanted within each of us. These systems not only feed the violence that occur within their spheres, but they are also centers of violence for many members of the Beloved Community. The Beloved Community continues to send its children into systems that are slow, painful killers. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan says that violence is “any oppression, anything that violates and separates us from the truth and sacred within ourselves, our relationship with Spirit, and community.”1 This indeed describes the atmospheres of far too many of our urban educational systems.
Urban education allows for a level of violence that denies the dignity of the individual. It operates schools that could be named Hoodlum Elementary, Left Behind Middle School, and Drop Out High School. There are no resources, there is no safety, and everyone is falling behind, both teachers and students. What violence! This violence effects and affects the confidence of its participants. This violence all but forces students to lose hope in themselves. And the loss of confidence and hope helps build the twenty-first century school of hard-knocks where Waka Flocka Flame and Lil’ Wayne are the instructors and Jay-Z is the principal. The textbook is unedifying music and dumbed-down TV shows, and the lab is the street corner.
Urban education is no longer just education in a run-down school building but is discipleship into the street life with little to no correction from the black church and many black homes. Urban education pulls up-and-coming leaders into a public stoning of the cloud of witnesses that helped pave the way for blacks to gain basic rights and educational training. Urban education knows why the caged bird sings but clamps shut its main means to sing and erases its last vestiges of freedom by bricking up the windows and forcing it to stare in the mirror. The caged bird only sees prison, only sees clipped wings that cannot fly, only sees its beak that has been clamped, and now the caged bird wants nothing but a death-offering reality.
When we look at the lack of necessary resources and good teaching methods within the educational systems in our urban centers, we soon realize the violence that is being done to children who dream of better life. We see the lack of respect and care for students and teachers stuck in a system that overlooks them. We see the urban education system, both state-supported and street-supported, as a place that perpetuates violence by not recognizing the Imago Dei in each person, thus making urban education centers places where churches must be involved and seek justice for those who are the victims of this system. And justice will require speaking truth to power as well as restoring the knowledge that the image of God is within each person to the educational system. Molly Marshall writes: “Bearing the Image of God, then, must mean that one is committed to ethical activity on behalf of the oppressed. As one’s life gives evidence of genuine concern for just relations with others, she or he is reflecting the justice of God.”2
The Black Church must be an active voice in recognizing what the policymakers don’t
always recognize: that every human being was created in the Image of God. It is a basic
principle of the concept of biblical righteousness that people, whether rich or poor, educated or
uneducated, first or last in society, must be valued enough in society to have their basic needs
met and a chance at an abundant life. In Colossians 3:12, we see the righteousness of God
as that which removes class, ethnicity, economic status, etc., and replaces these categories with those that matter most: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. In other words, a clear understanding of the Image of God (how God operates, what God sees as important) informs us that a level socio-economic playing field for all is required for all to achieve their best life. This can only be done by treating people compassionately, with kindness, gentleness, and
patience. This is surely needed in our urban education centers.
The Apostle James speaks of the tongue as a device that blesses God and curses humankind, which is made in the image of God. He later says that this should not be. James recognized that if we were to be fully human, we would have to treat all others justly. No one should live a cursed life, especially not aided by the Church.
However, as we look at the landscape of the systems that are operative in America, we see too many church folk blessing God and cursing those made in the Image of God. This is done through our allowance of the Prison Industrial Complex that is bursting at the seams with people of color. It’s done through wars for oil and other resources. It’s done through mean-spirited immigration measures and through allowing the public educational system in our urban centers to rot. This further curses communities that already struggle with multigenerational poverty and multigenerational welfare. Now they have urban public education as another multigenerational guaranteed-dream-killing apparatus with which to contend.
But if the Black Church could just remember that it used to be the multigenerational encourager, the multigenerational advocate, the multigenerational peacemaker, and the multigenerational truth speaker, there would be newfound vigor to save our urban schools! Then people would not only rally around churches that care for them, but they would also care for the churches that rally around them. So whether you are a large church or a small church, your role is to reconcile the community to the Imago Dei that is present there.
The question is how? While I could discuss the implications of charter schools in urban
America, the need for school systems to have apprenticeship models for training new
leaders, or tutoring programs operated by churches, I will focus instead on suggesting that as
Black Christians it is keenly important that we reconcile our communities back to Christ by
recognizing the Image of God that is within our children. One of the ways we can do this is by
beginning to place greater emphasis on Black history and culture in our churches because
people who do not know their history are directionless. Then, from arts to the sciences, we need
to teach that there is more to our history than sports players who made it out of the ghetto. We
need to teach that we have helped change the landscape of America even if it means attending
school board meetings when new textbooks are to be selected.
Also, a big part of the problem with the urban education system is that we act as if the
struggles that our youth and teachers are facing are uniquely theirs and our only concern (if we
show this much) is making sure our biological children and grandchildren at least survive the
system. But our history is replete with those who understood that they were part of a village and
responsible for every child with whom they came in contact.
Churches should hold teacher appreciation days for all the teachers in their community. Students are not the only ones burdened with the struggles of the urban educational system. Today’s teachers are called upon to do much more than teach intellectual content. They have to teach life skills, maintain discipline, counsel abused and bullied children, and encourage children who feel hopeless. But if good teachers feel uncared for, how do we expect them to care for the children of the community?
We also need to create support groups to help teachers and parents. If you are an inner-city church you know that many of the students in the neighborhood do not have the support they need at home to do well in school. This may be due to ill-equipped parents, unknowledgeable parents, or even parents who had bad experiences in the public school system when they were students. You can be a voice for them and their children. Consider setting up a ministry that will be active in the PTA of your neighborhood school and will assist parents in learning how to support their children toward educational success. You may even have members who can participate on the local school board and speak on behalf of your community.
While I know the need for a political activism relative to urban public education, I am equally aware of the overwhelming need for Black churches to do whatever they can do to aid schools in our communities. While we need to participate in the political sphere, we also need to be active in the religious sphere. Since I know there are many churches that will never be particularly politically active, there is no excuse for any church failing to participate in the education of our children as religious advocates, especially since there are so many things that every church can do. Each act, big or small, counts.
Also, although political activism is needed, the problems of urban education are too serious and numerous for us to sit and wait for the right legislative policies to occur before we help our children. We must begin to ask and answer, How can we bring the students and teachers who are struggling with the systemic violence of urban education justice at the grassroots level/local church level? How can we once again instill in our students and teachers stuck in the urban education system that they are valued and important?
The Triune God thought it good to get his hands dirty while shaping and forming us. We must get our hands dirty to help save our urban schools. A church that speaks about redemption and reconciliation but never seeks to bring about redemption and reconciliation by addressing the major problems of its day is not a church at all, but rather another source that is adding to the violence.
Notes
1. Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl. Misbegotten Anguish: A Theology and Ethics of Violence. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001. p. 21.
2. Marshall, Molly. What It Means to Be Human: Made in the Image of God. Macon: Smith & Helwys Publishing Incorporated, 1995. p. 51. |
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Mon Jan 14, 2013 4:56 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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PDF]
Losing Faith? Police, Black Churches, and the ...
moritzlaw.osu.edu/osjcl/Articles/Volume6_1/Braga-PDF.pdf- Similarto Losing Faith? Police, Black Churches, and the ...
Police, Black Churches, and the. Resurgence of Youth Violence in Boston. Anthony A. Braga, David Hureau, and Christopher Winship. *. I. INTRODUCTION
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The 1992 invasion of the Boston Morningstar Baptist Church lead to a coalition of churches under a 10 point plan. ministers worked he street and Cease Fire was created and lasted until 2000. Now the aclaimed success of the Cease Fire program has been brought under scrutiny.
Violence during this time was tracked under what is now called faulty methodology which indicated gang violence was diminishing. The police had focused on overall homicide rates and missed the gang related homicides. During 2000 to 2006 the gang violence increased 160% . Changes in the police command structure and the ministers leaving the streets may have contributed to this increase. The amounts of money and grants the programs generated brought about dissention among the groups and led to a splintering affect that divided the initial group into three groups. |
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Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:21 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Originally published November 28, 2012
AFRO
A Resurrection of the Black Church in Local Politics
by Rev. Kevin A. Slayton, Sr., M.Div
The 2012 presidential election has raised a challenge for several different interest groups regarding the role of faith communities dominated by people of color. But none has been more publicly courted by policy and political initiatives than the Black Church.
Evident is a continued recognition by those in the political community of that historical platform of the African American pulpit. Still there are others that are not all that impressed. Critical to the Nov. 6 Election Day results were the efforts and voice of the Black Church and the Black preacher.
All across America Black churches continue to stand as beacons in the community that help is available. Churches represent an opportunity of renewal for those facing destruction and signal the possibility for hope for communities that suffer from targeted disenfranchisement. I believe it was the latter on Election Day that has so embraced the religious loyalties of Black people. The Black Church undeniably got the vote out.
Here in Maryland the ballot dealt with issues of justice and empowerment. Not to mention that much of the electorate was divided along racial lines. Few interests failed to solicit the support of faith leaders from the Black community. Specifically, Black clergy were courted for their support of ballot issues pertaining to same-sex marriage, expanding gambling and educational opportunities for immigrants.
Many of these interests determined early in their campaigns that the support of the faith community was critical. But over the course of several months only one television ad highlighted the support of an Asian, Hispanic, Islamic, Jewish or Caucasian faith leader. Black preachers from various Protestant denominations, many of whom were overwhelmingly democratic in party affiliation were out front and center.
Interestingly enough at various points after the civil rights movement, there have been those that would ask if the Black Church had any relevance in our society. More specifically they wondered aloud if the power of the Black Church died along with the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m reminded that it was during the 1970s, sociologist E. Franklin Frazier asked had the church “died an agonized death in the harsh turmoil” of the 1960s. More recently, Professor Eddie Glaude, Jr. suggested that the Black Church, as we know it, was dead. His comments sparked much debate among theologians and seminarians everywhere.
Such views are likely to be the result of perceived increases in economic and political power of African Americans at-large. Still, from the 1970s through the present, a disproportionate majority number of Black folk continued to grapple with issues related to racial discrimination and concentrated communities of poverty. For many of them the church was the only place to find a word of encouragement and a sense of hope. Most critical to that limited stabilization was the Black preacher. Preachers throughout the country were committed to speaking truth to power and spreading the hope of a just God.
The success of these prophetic voices allowed many in these communities to continue to sing songs with titles such as {Never Would Have Made It} and {Free In Jesus}. Despite the fact that over 48 percent of African-American male students never make it to their high school graduations and many of its poor are incarcerated inside the four walls of their homes, not free enough to walk a city block for fear of harm.
There is no doubt that the Black Church remains a very dynamic and formidable force for change in American society. Much of that influence and power is the recognition of its function to remain under its own control, making it the ultimate social institution in African American history. There is no greater or more powerful institution that exists today for any group of people than that of the Black Church.
If the Black church wants to reap the prize of its political resurrection, two major areas of significance that were raised during the 2012 election must be revisited and addressed immediately. First is the work of establishing a prominent voice in party politics. If you are going to be a true voting block within the Democratic Party the church must demand the absolute resolve of retaining the language of “God” in its platform. The Evangelical church has assured this language in the Republican platform. You may recall the silence of the church when on a Tuesday evening, moments after convention chairman Antonio Villaragosa gaveled in day two of the Democratic Convention, the hall burst into chaos as Democrats voted to amend their party’s platform to include the word “God.” (Apparently someone had mistakenly taken it out)
The Black Church has a responsibility to remind the minority participants in the Democratic Party, all united by stories of their run-ins with oppression and discrimination, that they should never so easily turn their backs on God. Without God there would be no Democratic Party. Without God there would have been no women sitting in the seats of elevated power within the party. Without God there would be no African, Hispanic or Asian speakers at the convention. Without God there certainly would not have been a Black Man awaiting the re-nomination of his party to the highest elected office in the land. The Black Church cannot afford to get to the Promised Land and forget the promise. If the party doesn’t want God, how could it ever respect the man/woman of God.
In doing so, the leaders of the faith will help to identify the comfort of complacency that wreaks havoc on the masses of people of color. This comfort of complacency causes too many of us to struggle against a contagious and aggressive plague of social inferiority, where by the material and aesthetic promises of this world overwhelm our day-to-day reality. This desire to meet the mediocre standards of this fading world seems to be overriding the spiritual and historical calling to uphold high standards and lofty achievement.
Secondly, the Black Church must bring the devastating chaos of Black violence to the forefront of the public square. No longer should they allow the debate of presidential politics to ignore the enormous loss of life in poor urban communities all across this country. Anytime the number of deaths in one city outnumber the amount of deaths by those engaged in actual war, silence cannot be a viable option. The prophetic voice assigned to clergy must take the lead in bending the moral arc toward justice for all of us.
On the hills of such great electoral impact the church must begin the hard work of establishing agendas that speak to the majority of faith principles and denominational similarities within the Black Church. These agendas can and should be inclusive of those predominantly led African American civic organizations. Additionally, the church must develop the political savvy necessary to harness the power of political influence beneath the umbrella of compromise and justice. The Black Church must demand that the political machinery engage beyond the casual visits to worship services by office seekers. To ensure that the Black Church is never accused of being dead to the issues that impact people of color the church must intentionally and methodically perform the following: 1) Engage in community organizing 2) Manage personal influence 3) Establish and solidify coalitions and 4) Employ and deploy lobby groups that work on behalf of the Black Church in policy making halls all across America.
Success in these areas will secure the breathe and longevity of the Black Church for generations to come. If we fail to heed this prophetic call to transform the world, may we be found guilty of treason against James Weldon’s Negro Anthem, whereby too many of us have become drunk with the wine of the world and forgotten Thee. And for those who forget their past there is a strong possibility of repetition.
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Kevin A. Slayton, Sr. is the Associate Minister of Social Justice at the Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore and the Faith-based Liaison to the Mayor of Baltimore. He is also pursuing a doctoral degree in Public Administration at the University of Baltimore
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Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:27 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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As the "black flight" continues into the suburbs and even other states, is the black voting bloc and influence in Flint being diminished?
How much of the continuous exodus of Flint's population are black? How many more citizens will leave because of the violence? |
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Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:32 am |
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