I, like Ms. Crystal St. Marie Louis of the blog Race, Rhetoric, and Religion wonder “…why the people who are arguably the Black community’s most influential religious leaders have had little if anything to say about issues that impact our lives so profoundly.”
In full disclosure, I respectfully disagree with Ms. St. Marie Louis about her reference to Karl Marx and her suggestion that we, as a society, our “collective consciousness” may have “succumbed” to prosperity preachers to the point that we are asleep. My view is we are a free country and part of that freedom is to express religion as we choose to …or not, even if we choose to be ‘asleep’.
The larger issue at hand is, where are all of the mega preachers? What do they really stand for? Do they stand for anything? Why don’t we see any of them in the mainstream media, on that platform that they get their millions of dollars from? That platform they stand on when they want you to donate to their ministries, buy their books or go to the next level at their conferences? There are millions of souls hurting, being abused, who are not a part of a church. There are millions of souls hurting, being abused, who ARE a part of a church –a mega church, if you will. Some of them may be watching their television ministries trying to find solace or comfort. Since the incidents that led to the injustices that Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and thousands of others in the shadows have suffered, who is ministering to the people who are in the streets who are protesting the injustices that have occurred? Why aren’t these prosperity preachers in the streets? I’m just saying.
For instance, we have heard people celebrate or demonize Rev. William Barber of the NC NAACP and Rev. Al Sharrpton of MSNBC for being in the thick of the protests. Whatever their true motives are, we are 2 for approximately 30 (or more) as far as high profile black religious leaders/prosperity preachers on the front lines ministering to all of these souls in pain. To say nothing of the other prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer. At least Revs. Barber and Sharpton are on the grassroots level and mainstream media level. We do need to acknowledge the fact that there are community religious leaders and ministries in the trenches with their congregations in non-violent civil disobedience, still, there are millions of souls hurting, being abused, who are not a part of a church. They need comfort and someone to listen to them. The global platform they stand on and their celebrity status could do a lot to turn the tide of the rioting and looting in the streets.
It’s sad to say, but the prosperity preachers, regardless of race, are consistent. They use their platforms every day, every week to preach feel good, politically safe topics, but none of them have taken a meaningful public stand on the injustices against Black lives, lives of people of color. None of them have used their platform or celebrity status to publicly call out the injustices against Black lives, lives of people of color. None of them has taken a meaningful, consistent public stand on the injustices against Black lives, lives of people of color. Not even a t-shirt or a sign of solidarity. At least athletes are doing that. King (LeBron) James upstaged the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (William and Kate) in the news today wearing a t-shirt.
The social media pages of faith leaders of T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Juanita Bynum, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and CBN are deathly silent. They have no direct references to the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice. It’s almost as if they don’t want to be associated with the critical ministry of social justice messages.
As the saying goes: stand for something, or you will fall for anything.
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h/t:?Race, Rhetoric, and Religion
