We are
all familiar with the track record of African-Americans in voting for the
Democratic Party. In many elections the ratio is comfortably above ninety
percent. If the Episcopal Church was once described as "The Republican
Party at prayer", certainly the African-American church for the last fifty
years could be described as "The Democratic Party at prayer."
In practical terms, what this
means is that the black community has marched in lock-step with the agenda of
that party: abortion, same-sex marriage, normalizing transgenderism,
secularized education, and the like.
The results of this dogmatic one-sided commitment to the progressive
vision: one-third of African-American children will be aborted; seventy percent
of African-American children are born out of wedlock; only 15-20 percent will
reach their teenage years in two-parent families.
Something is terribly out of sync. Either the churches are
devout but have no influence, or else they have compromised their message so as
to render it compatible with a rigid political agenda.
In that regard, black Americans have been much like the German
Christians of the 1930s, who got the autobahn, a robust economic recovery,
jobs for all, and reinforcement of racial identity. Meanwhile, the infirm,
mentally challenged, and Jews were being marked out, their business closed and
seized, and they were eventually taken away to be gassed.
But with a few honorable exceptions, the German church did
not stir. There were too many earthly benefits which could be put at risk, too
many positions to be lost, too much security to be threatened. And besides,
what happened outside their own tightly-knit local community wasn't their
business. They could look the other way. It didn't affect them.
What black pastor today could oppose the agenda of the Democratic
Party and not
put at risk his position and status in his own community?
I mourn the loss of over
15 million black boys and girls that have been sacrificed on the altar of
abortion and the cultural acceptance that it has earned within the black
community and also, the black church.
But here is the voice
of a real African, speaking for the African (not the
"African-American") church: Dr. Jerry P. Kulah (Dean of Gbarnga
School of Theology, United Methodist University in Liberia) to a Methodist
Conference in St. Louis last week, which met to consider the adoption of
liberal leftist views on sexual identity:
... please hear me when I say as
graciously as I can: we Africans are not children in need of western
enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to
hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to “grow up.”
We stand with
farmers in Zambia, tech workers in Nairobi, Sunday School teachers in Nigeria,
biblical scholars in Liberia, pastors in the Congo, United Methodist Women in
Cote d’Ivoire, and thousands of other United Methodists all across Africa who
have heard no compelling reasons for changing our sexual ethics, our teachings
on marriage, and our ordination standards!
Africans all.
I hope and pray, for
your sake, that you will walk down that road with us. We would warmly welcome
you as our traveling companions, but if you choose another road, we Africans
cannot go with you.
That is, we cannot go along with the liberal positions so
blithely accepted by, among others, the African-American churches in the
USA.
And in truth, we think many people in the U.S. and in parts
of Europe could learn a great deal from us.
The African churches may
one day rise to rebuke those in Europe and the USA for their lack of fidelity
to the gospel; what role does the African-American church envision for itself?
Please understand me when I say the vast majority of
African United Methodists will never, ever trade Jesus and the truth of the
Bible for money.
Recall when Africa said No to
the Obama administration: Ghana refuses to grant gays' rights despite
aid threat.
We will walk alone if necessary.
Have the African-American
churches ever bolted from the Democratic platform on a single issue? Have
they ever confessed a red line they cannot cross? Or are they so conformed to
the image
of left-wing politics that they are unwilling to even consider change?
How is it that what conveys strength in abundance [church
attendance] does not benefit marriage in the black family and does not yield
the fruits of chastity and stable marriage in the black community?
I long for the American black church, so wrongly mislabeled as the
"African-American" church, to follow in the tradition of genuine
African Christianity and put the gospel ahead of material considerations. But
if the past is any indicator, its pastors will not join that walk. Like the
German Christians they will count the cost and decide to turn back.
Renouncing the agenda of the
Democratic Party would mean a rupture with current "African-American"
culture and its history for the past half-century. It will force a radical turn
into another direction. It might mean becoming a loner. And unfortunately, when
choosing between their continued security and position, most pastors will, like
the German Christians, have to ponder what this would cost them personally. And
it seems most would prefer to retain the gloss of this world and its black
silken robes rather than the raiment of the Kingdom.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/03/not_african_at_all.html