Then the Lord said, “Because this nation approaches [Me only] with their words And honors Me [only] with their lip service,
Isaiah 29:13 Amplified Bible (If you read the context in verses 1-16 you will see that God is sending a warning to Jerusalem.)
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me is a tradition that is learned by rote [without any regard for its meaning],
When I started blogging in 2009 it was to call out racism at the school I was working in. I was later sabotaged at that school in HISD. Funny thing about being on the right side, the district sent me a certified letter years later saying I could come back. Guess they thought I forgot how I was treated for calling out racism against students in my Kindergarten class.
Then I was in the wave of bloggers asked by Kimberly Foster of For Harriet to write a blog post to raise our voices about Trayvon Martin’s murder. Which I joined when I ran ‘Women Are Gamechangers’.
I worked at a church in college in the Children’s Ministry and led the Young Adult Ministry. I’ve been the hostess for some of Gospel’s biggest names when they sang at the church because no one was as organized and meticulous as I. (Okay, some where but I was so good at managing multiple projects they usually asked me to do certain things.) Plus I grew up in the church where my mom was the Youth Director.
So understand, I’m not new to this. I’m true to this. When I started blogging I called that blog ‘Praying for Purpose’. Let’s say this is a full circle moment. I’m back to blogging primarily about God and fighting injustice. It only took 11 years but I’m here now. With what I’ve learned, I can say I am ready to call out the racism that has plagued the Black church for centuries.
And for people to understand that Africans (Black people) have been Christians far longer than Europeans.
These modern-day Evangelicals are just a perverted version of Christianity upholding white supremacy shielded behind the mask of religion.
But if you look at the continents that Black and white Americans descended from, Black Americans are more In tune with the God we believe in and so are the people on the continent. Yet if you look at Europe overwhelmingly, they aren’t as religious as Americans claim they came from. In fact, if you look at European history most of the countries from the west and north were considered pagans by the countries from the south who adopted Christianity (Catholicism) after it was already established in places such as Cush which is modern-day Ethiopia. Christianity came to Egypt first in the First century. I believe around 60 A.D. Now that we had this brief history lesson (which you can look up to verify what I’m saying), let’s move to today.
Over time I’ll break down how Evangelicalism has destroyed the Black church thus eroding a sense of being in our community. But for today, let’s start with the one thing that needs to be evident.
That evangelicalism and their beliefs need to be uprooted and removed from Black churches.
Why? Evangelicalism has been around since the 1700s. So it’s still new. But Christianity in Africa has been around much longer. The sexism and patriarchy in ministry stems from Evangelicals. Our ancestors allowed women to be part of the conversation. To lead. Some tribes were led by women and the men followed. So to come from a people who treated the sexes as a tandem working together to women being pushed to the back is not how we’re meant to live. Most often women are only called when it’s time to set up to eat after service or do the grunt work that keeps the church operating. Until that changes then women don’t have a place in the Black church. We’re worthy and deserve representation of the contributions we’re expected to make to not be in silence. Or the shadows.
As long as we’re dancing, hooping and clapping then we’re not seen as a threat to white America. Yet, the moment we walk out the doors of the church they will not hesitate to pass judgement or call the cops on us solely based on the color of our skin. Not even realizing we were just worshiping God like they claim to do on Sundays.
Evangelicals have used church as a weapon against us since coming to this country. Not caring how we fought to keep our traditions alive so we could have a closeness to home. The songs sung by the enslaved that are still sung today weren’t just for soothing our soul. They were for delivering messages. Not being able to learn how to read but being required to listen to their interpretation of the Bible seems off, right?
Like God wanted us to study the Bible for ourselves so we know His Word, yet our ancestors were forbidden from learning to read. Why is that? Now that gets me to today.
There’s still churches that only the Pastor seems to be the one who reads the Word and everyone has memorized the same verses that have been repeated throughout the years. Yet, no one seems to understand the meaning or the context of the scripture to apply to what’s going on today. Oh wait, “let’s just give it to God” seems to come up a lot. That’s exactly what our enslaved ancestors were taught. Not to learn the true meaning or context of God’s Word but to “leave it up to God” when horrible atrocities happened to them.
The fact that we have not been taught how to learn how to read and comprehend the context of the Bible is why many Black Americans who grew up in church use the church as a shield when they don’t have a strategy to combat the racism we face. And the sad part is, many of them will jump to save Evangelicals from their own consequences because we were taught to “love our neighbor”.
The use of the scriptures to paralyze the thinking of an entire group of people is NOT what God intended. Not at all.
The World Council of Churches has indicated that, used pejoratively, proselytism refers to attempts at conversion by ‘unjust means that violate the conscience of the human person’, such as by coercion or bribery.
Growth in Agreement II: Reports and Agreed Statements of Ecumenical Conversations on a World Level, 1982-1998.
So if we purge Evangelicalism from Black churches what do we replace it with?
The original way in which God intended us to live, interpret and share His Word. As a daily practice and not a coat of armor to put on in order to appear superior to others. Let go of the text that was written with an agenda and go back to the text that was written for our spiritual salvation sans the performative rituals that make us look and sound good but does nothing to help those who we’re meant to help.
As Christians we’re supposed to disciple others. And if you weren’t taught how to read the text for yourself and only regurgitate what the Pastor tells you then are you really doing the 1 thing God created us to do? Because church has become a platform where many people are elevated then recruit more people to propel their name to the masses instead of Jesus. And doing “missionary” work where you steal, rape and pillage the less fortunate is not of God.
Black churches have gotten away from living the Word to trying to outdue the next by being the word that others want to hear. That performative behavior has caused a plague in the Black church and it stems from Evangelicalism where the leader’s word is the authority and people do not question it because you don’t question a “prophet” of God.
So where do we go from here? Where do we go from letting the rituals, deep-seeded roots of oppression that has shaped the Black church into a performative, hyped up pedestal to now? That’s what we’ll explore because a lot of church hurt stems from the practices that have been ingrained from Evangelicalism which has placed people into a caste system that pushes them away from God and sees man’s actions as that of God. Which is false.
So we need to understand that loving God doesn’t mean hailing those in leadership positions no matter what especially when they are wrong, harmful and dangerous which is what the Evangelicals are doing with Tr*mp right now.
Let’s let this sink in and we’ll come back to unpack as we need to understand that being a Christian isn’t about belonging to a popular society or that if you aren’t doing the performative rituals and fake outrage when humanitarian issues are brought up that you’ll go to hell. You won’t. Not accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior and confessing it with your mouth with a pure heart will send you to hell. How you treat people will be judged by God on your judgement day. And our thoughts on it have no bearing on your eternal resting place.
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