PROGRAM SUCCESS – SPRING 2013 PAGE 31
Let ’ s improve our families – The Black Family . A real battle is waging here . It seems no one cares about your marriage or even that you get married . Our children are raised without encouragement to marry and no incentive to stay married . We must make the family top priority and give it the best of our attention and resources . The best thing a Black man can do for his children is to love their mother . The Black man and woman must start loving one another again . We are all we got . For life to be better , it will only be by us coming together in support and commitment one to the other . Two can make it better than one .
Let ’ turn off the television and stop allowing it to raise our children . Shame on any mother that allows her child to wear their hair in dreads , dress hip-hop , put gold in their mouth , tattoo their skin , or do any other thing that is counterproductive to that child ’ s education or becoming gainfully employed . We must prepare our children for a world that is cold and uncaring . A world of survival for only the fittest and the strongest . Our children don ’ t need any more handicaps . Their inferior high school education must be offset by strong family support and guidance .
And lastly , let ’ s improve The Black Church . Excuse me for having strong feeling in this area . The Black Church , started in slavery , preached a gospel that was strong enough to liberate us as a people . The Black Church unified us to fight economic omission and political injustice in the civil rights movement . The Black Church started and supported Black business . The Black Church founded and built Black colleges and universities . This skeleton of a church I see today in the Black community is a far cry from what it should represent .
Today in the Black church we see very little unity , and even less family . We see more money taken in the church today than at any time in church history , yet little to no services being provided by the church . No programs to keep our children off of drugs and out of jail . No human sexuality programs to keep teenage girls from becoming pregnant . No family crisis programs . No relief for the poor . All the church has today is church expense . There is always a struggle just to pay the monthly bills .
The Black church today is powerless in the political arena and silent in the court ’ s halls of justice . And the scandals you hear on the streets about the Church . One pastor sexually involved with multiple women in the church . One pastor impregnation a minor child and the Deacons covering it up . A pastor disassociating and kicking members off the church rolls because they won ’ t go along with his program . Deacons and Trustees stealing money from the church treasury . The list goes on . When we look at the Black church today , all the problems , division , fussing and fighting , you can ’ t help but ask yourself the question , “ Is the Lord amongst us or not ?”
We have become a people of tolerance . In our churches today , we have permitted acts that in the past would have been considered criminal . We use to hold our leaders to the highest code of ethics and standards . Now in the name of “ we all are human ” we turn and look the other way . In turn we are minimizing the standard of God , but only to ourselves … not to God . God will not bless us as a people until we get right and do right .
Our prayer to God should be :
God send us Preachers that are not afraid to go against the system . Lord send us Christian Leaders that pray and read the Bible . We need Churches that are filled not necessarily with people , but filled with the Holy Spirit .
Lord give us eyes to see our problems , feet to go to the problems , and hands to fix our problems . Our theme song for the future should be “ Got to be There .” Be there when in the morning , when young teenage children wake up with no hope . We must be there to inspire them against dope .
The Church “ Got to be There … for we wrestle not against flesh and blood , but against principalities , against powers , against the rulers of the darkness of this world , against spiritual wickedness in high places .
We as members of the Black community have “ Got to be There ” with our time , talent , treasure … our understanding , our forgiveness , and our love . Whenever there is a problem , wherever there is trouble , in the time of pain , in the mist of sorrow when the world shall ask “ Is the Lord amongst us or not ?” They will see the Lord , hear the Lord , and touch the Lord by the fruit we bear in the lives we live .
Lord give us Hope for a world grown so cold , Hungry for power and greedy for gold . Lord give us Faith to believe within and without , Blameless fear in a world full of doubt . Lord give us Love that is bigger than race and creed , To cover the world and fulfil each need . Lord we need Hope , Faith & Love from above , For only these three can change Man ’ s hatred into Love .
Publisher ' s Editorial Is the Lord Amongst Us or Not ? Darryl A . Barrs Jacksonville , Florida Spring 2013