Modern black church shuns King's message


In a stinging passage from a "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. condemned white churches for rejecting his pleas for support.

"In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies," King wrote from jail during the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrations.

The contemporary white church has largely accepted King as a religious hero. Yet some observers say there is one religious community that continues to shun King -- the largest black churches.

Forty years after his death, King remains a prophet without honor in the institution that nurtured him, some black preachers and scholars say.

They also say King's "prophetic" model of ministry -- one that confronted political and economic institutions of power -- has been sidelined by the prosperity gospel.

Prosperity ministers preach that God rewards the faithful with wealth and spiritual power. Prosperity pastors such as Bishop T.D. Jakes have become the most popular preachers in the black church. They've also become brands. They've built megachurches and business empires with the prosperity message.

Black prophetic pastors rarely fill the pews like other pastors, though, because their message is so inflammatory, says Henry Wheeler, a church historian. Prophetic pastors like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, often enrage people because they proclaim God's judgment on nations, he says.

"It's dangerous to be prophetic," said Wheeler, who is also president of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"I don't know many prophetic preachers who are driving big cars and living very comfortably. You don't generally build huge churches by making folks uncomfortable on Sunday morning," he said.

The prosperity gospel started as a fringe doctrine in the black church. It was pioneered by "Rev. Ike," a prosperity televangelist with a pompadour who boasted during his heyday in the 1970s that "my garages runneth over."

Jonathan Walton, author of "Watch This! Televangelism and African American Religious Culture," says that although people may have chuckled at Ike's flamboyance, his theology exerts more influence in the modern black church than King's.

"King got the glory and the history books, but ... [Ike has] got the numbers," said Walton, who is also an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Black prosperity preachers say their message is not based on greed, though, but self-help.

Bishop Paul Morton, senior pastor of Greater St. Stephens Full Gospel Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, says that teaching black people better money management is the "next dimension" of King's ministry.

"The Bible said that the poor we will always have with us," he said. "It's up to us to bring ourselves out of the curse of poverty."

Morton was the only black prosperity preacher contacted who agreed to talk about King's ministry. Many of the black church's most popular prosperity preachers -- the Rev. Creflo Dollar of Atlanta, Georgia; the Rev. Fred Price of Los Angeles, California; and Bishop Keith Butler of Detroit, Michigan -- all declined.

Jakes, the most popular prosperity preacher (he made the cover of Time magazine in 2001), declined to talk as well. He did, however, address his views on social justice in August on "Religion & Ethics," a PBS news program.

"I'm not against marching," Jakes said. "But in the '60s, the challenge of the black church was to march. And there are times now perhaps that we may need to march. But there's more facing us than social justice. There's personal responsibility, motivating and equipping people to live the best lives that they can."

The debate between self-help and political activism is nothing new in the black community. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois clashed over the issue at the beginning of the 20th century. Most black prophetic teachers teach self-help along with activism.

King was caught in the middle of this debate early in his ministry.

King became prominent after leading the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956, but he was already gaining a name for himself in the National Baptist Convention, the largest black church organization in the nation.

King wanted to use the convention as an institutional base for the movement. But his tactics -- civil disobedience, publicly confronting segregationists -- were repudiated by convention leaders and the Rev. J.H. Jackson, the convention president, says Wheeler, the church historian.

"He thought that if blacks were good citizens, worked hard and did what was expected, our rights will come; we would prove out merit," Wheeler said.

In 1961, King tried to orchestrate the election of a leader to replace Jackson. He and a group of black ministers attempted to vote Jackson out of office at the convention's annual meeting. It was a disaster.

According to Taylor Branch's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years," ministers exchanged blows. One lost three teeth. Another was killed when his skull was fractured. Riot police were called out to separate the warring pastors.

Jackson kicked King out of the convention and held onto power. The pastors who aligned themselves with King formed their own group, the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The schism remains today.

Wheeler says the black church's rejection of King wasn't confined to its leadership. Most people in the pews didn't want to get involved. The movement was driven primarily by younger people.

Fear was the primary reason, he says.

"We forget that people were getting killed, churches being burned," he said. "It was the common understanding that things were not going to change, that people were getting killed for nothing."

A new generation of prophetic ministers in the black church is now trying to do what King once attempted: gain a voice in the establishment.

Four years ago, a group of them formed the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference. Proctor was a scholar and college president who was active in the civil rights movement. The annual conference attempts to preserve the prophetic voice of black churches by bringing like-minded pastors together for support and advice.

A few prophetic pastors have even talked about taking another approach to raising their profile in the black church: television, says Lawrence Mamiya, a professor of religion at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

"Some of them have talked about the need to get on television and try to counter the televangelists, but I don't know of any social justice preacher who has a broad television audience," he said.

At least one young prophetic minister has found a prominent place in the public eye.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached, says that prosperity preaching is not just a distortion of Jesus' message but a betrayal of the black church's heritage. The black church was formed by slaves who saw Jesus' message as a tool for social justice.

"The prophetic voice of the black church is the very reason for its being," Warnock said. "The only reason that there's such a thing as the black church is because of the question of freedom, justice and equal access."

Walton, the University of California scholar, says contemporary black churchgoers have now embraced another mission: equal access to wealth. "It's the theological doctrine of American culture," he said.

King's voice may ring out in the history books, but it no longer rings out in the black pews. Walton says the battle between the prophetic and prosperity ministers in the black church is over for now.

The Rev. Ikes have won.

"Many Americans give lip service to entering the social justice arena and speaking out against the economic and politically powerful," Walton said, "but very few of us are willing to pay the price."

"We like to identify with Dr. King in theory, though we emulate Rev. Ike in practice."


Modern black church shuns King's message - CNN.com

You are very correct Judge J, the church has taken a very sharp turn over the last couple of decades.

I remember a prominent prosperity pastor here in Shreveport mentioning one Sunday in the pulpit that people who drive smoking cars are not obeying God or something like that.

I have heard many idiotic statements made or allegedly made by pastors and preachers about prospering.

The truth is that God did say in 3John2 that He would that we would prosper and be in health, even as our soul prospereth...

Wealthy and healthy God says....

but he even as thou soul prospers....soul prospering

Judge the gospel is bloody and not an attractive message to attract and keep people putting money in the basket.

given a choice they will seek the feel good church every time...

Commentary: Church walks the walk of King's message


CNN) -- "Bishop Jakes has always been a strong supporter of my father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the King family. Bishop Jakes, along with many other ministries of his ilk, all continue to convey the dream and the message of my father in the services they provide to oppressed people around the world. Some may say that the ministers of today have different techniques, but the core of the message and the goal remain the same." -- Martin Luther King III

I was stunned and very disappointed to see an article on CNN.com with the blaring headline, "Modern black church shuns King's message."

Even more disturbing to me than the headline was the article's depiction and generalization that I, through my church The Potter's House of Dallas, had shunned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message.

The article's author asserts that "I declined to talk to him" about the subject, which is only partially true. I am sorry if my unavailability has caused him angst. I declined to speak with him because I already had conducted a very lengthy interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien on the very same topic for a piece that will air on CNN later this year.

Oddly, my picture was used to drive the article in spite of the fact that I was not interviewed for the story. I feel that this style of journalism is far beneath the standards that I have always known and respected from CNN, and while I traditionally do not respond or reply to such statements as were written, this time was different. Read the piece Jakes is criticizing

While I view this type of article as divisive in nature and tone, it does have one redeeming quality; it opens up a dialogue and allows for a spirited discussion on a very sensitive topic and issue. I applaud CNN on that front and thank the news organization for the opportunity to share my concerns and viewpoint.

There are very few people whom I admire more than King, and I have the utmost respect for his life, his work and his message. I have a longstanding relationship with the King family, as the above quote by Martin Luther King III states. My relationship with the King family extends back at least two generations.

Additionally, not only have I long been inspired by King's teachings, I remain inspired by his messages, and have used them as a foundation for so many of the programs our church has instituted, including but not limited to: our prison outreach program, our Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative as well as our continued and highly noted work with HIV/AIDS.

Our commitment to education, with the opening of a $14 million college prep school, Clay Academy, has prompted praise.

"Bishop T.D. Jakes is changing children and families by helping young people of all backgrounds and cultures achieve their purpose and potential. Clay Academy is an exceptional institution. The school helps students develop their faith, focus, and a foundation for the future. Emphasis is placed not only on encouraging students to strive for academic excellence, but also on providing opportunities for them to learn about love, life, and leadership," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Michigan, who also is chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Kilpatrick, who toured the school during a recent visit, was impressed with the facility and went on to say: "Clay Academy is an extension of Bishop Jakes' central message of hope and healing. He and the staff are developing generations of leaders who will understand that when we embrace our common humanity and work together, we can change the world."

Other examples of our work include economic development programs as well as our tireless efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in placing more than 2,000 survivors in homes.

Internationally, not only does our church build water wells in Africa, but it also has provided computer technology in Kenya and has partnered with Church World Service, Habitat for Humanity, World Vision and the Red Cross.

Additionally, I have a team of our staff researching a pending project in Haiti to address the tragic lack of food that has resulted in some pregnant mothers eating mud pies.

Most recently, I was in New York where I was honored to receive the Essence President's Award, which recognizes the writer whose work most reflects the vision of Essence magazine. While there, I also received the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award from the Congress of Racial Equality for our work in promoting the dream of King's message.

Many people can talk the talk of King and his messages, but there are many who choose to focus on walking the walk. We walk the walk.

After 32 years of faithful service as a minister, we are most noted for the "Woman Thou Art Loosed" series, which focuses on empowerment to abused women -- not only preaching a message similar to that of the "Rev. Ike," as noted in the CNN.com article.

However, I do believe we have a responsibility to empower people economically, and at The Potter's House, we train our members on the basics of economic balance, such as reducing debts, achieving and maintaining good credit, and watching out for predatory lenders and other financial pitfalls. There is a great deal of difference between helping and teaching people to do well and exploiting the poor.

It has always been my goal and purpose to be a bridge builder and to not build walls. It is in that spirit that I would plead with the church to seek common ground rather than to focus on irrelevant and often erroneous information that seeks to divide.

I believe that King would want us to work toward helping our children who are not graduating from high school, much less college, in rampant numbers. We should use our diverse strengths and approach to ministry to combat HIV/AIDS, which is destroying many precious lives, and our own black women are disproportionately dying.

Roughly 50 percent of African-Americans do not even own their homes, and I think we have so much we could do together rather than keep score on who is winning a battle that shouldn't even exist between us.

In light of Alan Greenspan confirming what many of us have already suspected -- that we are in the midst of a recession, I would ask all churches as well as the media to help guide and encourage us through the storm of fuel bills, lost homes, lost jobs and the untold effects of this recession.

I see this article as providing a battle cry to churches of all ethnicities and denominations to not allow the perceptions of the few to distract us and prejudice us from the needs of the many.

On behalf of the 30,000 members of our church and the 4,000 volunteers who work in our various programs, not to mention the staff and our countless supporters around the world who love our church and its work, please do not malign our identity or castigate our mission.

In the final analysis of why people attend church or why they select this church over another one, or follow this minister over that minister, the answer is simple; people go to a church where they feel comfortable, where they feel their needs are being met and where they feel that they are getting assistance with the many issues that confront them in these troubled times

Commentary: Church walks the walk of King's message - CNN.com