The Failure of the Black Church - Part I

By Heru Ammen

In the commentary entitled "A Solution for Socio-Economic Impotence," we outlined the problems that our people are facing within our urban communities and the cultural and social dynamics that continue to exacerbate these issues. In short, a combination of capital disinvestment and black flight are two of the primary factors that have caused the degradation and destruction of urban communities. Another important factor that has precipitated the destruction of urban communities is the fact that many of the individuals, groups, and organizations that exist within our communities do not contribute anything to and for the communities that they supposedly serve. Front and center in their neglect and disdain for urban communities is the black church.

The black church is the worst culprit of what I term purveyors of conscious neglect. This institution, which should be standing in the gap for its poor and disenfranchised constituents represents the worst exploiter of the poor and disenfranchised that has ever existed in the African American community. Its raw embrace of individualism and materialism is couched in a feel good message of salvation and prosperity. Unfortunately the message of salvation and prosperity that the black church promotes seems to only apply to a few of its select clergy and members. That's apparent in the fact that most of its members have yet to achieve anything close to the prosperity that is supposedly free and only requires the initiates unquestioned belief and faith in the Christian God and consistent tithing to their particular house of worship.

The grandiose cathedrals and makeshift storefronts that are in or near our urban communities are diametrically contrasted against a backdrop of decay, violence and ignorance. Some of the largest and most influential black churches exist in communities that are the most violent and dysfunctional communities in America. Cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York boost some of the largest black churches in the country; with active memberships ranging from 5000 members upward to around 30,000 members. Yet these same cities are always at or near the top in African American related homicides, rapes, poverty, illiteracy, single parent households, drug abuse, child abuse and other socio-economic ills.

Their are approximately 70,000 black churches in the United States. Partial statistics show us that the median-average income of black churches is $200,000 annually. With a combined annual income approaching fourteen-billion (or more), the black church has the financial capability to effect change within our urban communities on a scale that is as wide as it is deep. Yet the evidence is clear that the black church has utterly failed the people it is spiritually and morally commissioned to serve and uplift.

Additionally the black church exacerbates and in some cases exploits the schisms that exist within our communities. By promoting a message of intolerance of differing intra-faith doctrines, preaching and teaching denominational and spiritual exclusivity, promoting passivity in regards to social issues, and engaging in spiritual bigotry against those whom embrace other belief systems, the black church is continuing the systemic destruction that was perpetrated against our people originally by Europeans during the African Holocaust and later by American Caucasians during the slave and Jim Crow eras.

In part 2 of this series, I will offer evidence which will show that the black church was designed on the slave plantations of North and South America, Europe, and the Carribbean exclusively for the purpose of destroying African culture and all of its liberating benefits. Stay tuned...

Now a Brother Can't Even Go To Church...

By Heru Ammen

Barack Obama's association with Trinity United Church of Christ is an asset. Although a few white neo-conservatives are trying to make something out of nothing regarding this, most Americans "overstand" that Black love and unity does not equate to white hate. Nor is it the proverbial slippery slope to that end.

It's interesting to note that other cultures that exist in this country (Asians, Latinos, Jews...etc.) teach and preach the same type of cultural unity and love message in their communities, churches, temples and synagogues and their isn't any negative connotation associated with their message and that is as it should be. To this reader, its more of the same "fear of a black planet" syndrome that some whites have when it comes to anything positive coming out of our communities that seeks to empower the people that exist them.

Their has always been and probably will always be whites and like minded Afro-Saxons who will complain about the problems in African American communities (as they continue to place the blame upon African Americans for the conditions that currently exist in urban communities). What's ironic is they also complain when organizations or individuals actually stand in the gap for and create empowerment opportunities within our communities.

The State of Africa America Remix: Eliminating the Status Quo

By Heru Ammen

Currently there is much hype and media attention focused upon African Americans and the issues that we face. In doing our part to bring attention to the aforementioned issues, the authors of the Urban Village Blog & Commentary will re-post the series we authored in 2006 entitled "The State of Africa America." In this current media frenzy regarding "Black issues" we want to participate not only in the discussion of these issues, we believe it is important to discuss tangible solutions. All too often all that we hear are the same voices discussing the same issues and offering nothing but the same tired rhetoric. It is our hope that by re-posting this series, we can move the discussion forward and focus on what we can do to actually change the dynamics affecting the culture and socio-economics of African American communities.

"Inspire not men with fear, else The Creator will fight against you in the same manner. If any one asserts that he lives by such means, the Creator will take away the bread from his mouth; if any one asserts that he enriches himself thereby, The Creator says: I may take those riches to myself. If any one asserts that he beats others, the Creator will end by reducing him to impotence. Let no one inspire men with fear; this is the will of God. Let one provide sustenance for them in the lap of peace; it will then be that they will freely give what has been torn from them by terror."

-Ptah-Hotep-

Racism, bigotry, and discrimination will probably be a part of the American culture forever. Unfortunately the African American community has been and continues to be stymied by the above whereas other communities in this country thrive despite it. The above has affected us to the point that we're now experiencing an African American cultural and socio-economic implosion.

Effectively dealing with the effects of racism, bigotry, and discrimination requires the development and implementation of a socio-economic system within an infrastructure that will act as a buffer against future discriminatory incursions. Without the above, any solution proffered to counteract the cultural insurgency prevalent within our communities will fail.

The success of other ethnic groups in this country has been remarkable considering that they too are subjected to the same impediments to life, liberty, and freedom that we face. The Asian, Latino, and Afro-Caribbean communities thrive in this country. All of these cultures are victims of the same type of European aggression, assimilation and/or colonialism that devastated the African continent. Yet they succeed despite the everyday reality of racism and discrimination. A question one must ask is why do African American communities fail when other communities succeed? Let's discuss a few of the issue that I believe to impede our progress as a people.

A. Embracing Victim-hood and/or Victim Worship

I define victim worship as the inability to move beyond the pain, suffering and trauma that was perpetuated against an individual or group. As such, victim-hood becomes a de-facto religious experience complete with its own dogma and tradition of suffering, self-hatred and self-imposed limitations. We should never forget our past. However our past did not begin in America. It began at the dawn of great African civilizations in Kemet (misnomered Egypt) Nubia, Sumer, Ethiopia, and Indus Kush and continues even to this day throughout the African Diaspora.

In fact, the perpetuation of victim-hood is a direct proponent of self-hatred, which leads to violence, abusive behavior, and general mayhem. Once we begin the process of knowing who we are in terms of our history prior to the Euro-Arab hegemony, and how that hegemony affected us, we will then be able heal those wounds and move forward as a culture. Real solutions require strategies designed and implemented outside of the box that are contra-posed to the status quo of indifference and self-hatred that we now embrace.

B. What is The Status Quo?

Part of the African experience in America was our forced introduction to what I term Euro-Christianity. From an European perspective, Euro-Christianity was used specifically as a tool of European aggression, colonialism and assimilation. Initially Africans were compelled to become Christians. Many of our Ancestors complied and accepted the Euro-Christian religion as a means of survival. Those who did not were beaten, tortured or murdered as an example of "Gods will."

As the generations passed and our ancestors forgot the old ways, Euro-Christianity became the only religion that the African in America knew. Unfortunately what was offered to the slave as Christianity was designed and taught to the slave to keep him/her in bondage. We know this to be true because a people that will beat you, rape you, kill you, assimilate and enslave you are not a people that will teach you how to become free. Especially when the condition of slavery served as the primary engine that propelled economic growth in the southern states.

Those conditions still exist today. Even when the slave was freed, he/she continued to embraced and perpetuate the Euro-Christian religion and dogma that was taught to them as a slave. The main thesis of many African American churches today is still focused upon instilling fear through the worship of Satan as the enemy of God and the reward set aside in the eternal fires of hell for those that do not comply with the will of the Euro-Christian God. I believe it is time for African Americans to define Christianity (and Islam as well) from an African-Historical perspective and define it through our our thoughts, our culture and our vision of what God would have us to do for humanity. Continuing to teach the theology of a religion that is based upon fear, punishment and religious servitude will only perpetuate the slave mentality that exist within many of our people today.