This Editorial is designed to be challenging, and
profound as we take an in depth look at where the
church is going in the 21st century.
30 years ago the African-American church experience, we had the Late Bishop G.E. Patterson, and
Dr. Bobby Jones on BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the Black Church Culture we felt we
had arrived. COGIC Holy Convocation was still in
Memphis, TN the national headquarters, where the
Midnight Musical was the biggest discovery for
Gospel Music Artist like Kirk Franklin, Daryl Coley, Lashun Pace, James Moore, Timothy Wright,
and many more.
In 2015, the church has become infiltrated, with
commercialism and gimmicks instead of spirituality,
and we seem to not care as we once did about living
Holy over a few years ago a young Pastor named
Zachary Tims, died in his hotel room from a supposed drug overdose. Yet we did not have a discussion or dialogue on how to prevent these type of situations from happening in the future instead we
swept the issue under the rug and kept moving as if
nothing even happened, when Bishop Eddie, Long
paid more than 30 million dollar, to settle with accusers that accuse him for performing immoral acts
on them when they were young teenagers, we turned
our head the other way.
In the Church we have become okay with people
committing sin, over and over we desensitize to
wrong, even when the president of the United States
agrees with sin, the African – American church
world doesn’t hardly say anything only COGIC
made proclamation that they believe marriage is between man and woman, other African American
church cultures such as AME, BAPTIST, FULL
GOSPEL BASPTIS FELLOWSHIP
none these organizations took a major
stand when the Supreme Court of United States legalize same sex marriage.
The Black Church culture once known
for it’s strict discipline and structure,
has been traded in for size and complacently when it comes to dress code,
people now come to Church in jeans,
sneakers, because the lack of respect for
the House of God.
The church itself is being attacked from
all perspectives when it comes immoral
living such as homosexuality, children
born outside of marriage, yet in the 21st
Century we are afraid to stand up and
be persecuted like the County Clerk in
Kentucky who when to jail for standing
up her spiritual and biblical beliefs.
Church has become an enterprise, rather
than a soul saving station. We are out to
collect people not preach the truth to
change lives through the anointing of
the Holy Ghost. We spend more time
raising money than empowering people
yes, we understand that it takes money
to make visions a reality but, be truthful
that these honorariums, that supposedly
gospel preachers, ask for are outrageous
ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 just to
come speak at your church, this political self serving, that is why we are sitting down with political candidates such
Donald Trump when the truth is we do
not have to have a relationship with a
potential Presidential candidate in order
to connect with the challenges that face
our communities as a African American
culture we must begin to remove the red
tape and that is don’t come to church
bring poor and disrespectful attitudes
and the blame people at Church.