The Needs Of The Black Community
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The Needs Of The Black Church
In an article entitled 'The Black Church Is Dead', Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, proclaimed that the black church, although yet well attended, has lost it's ability to speak to and shape the social and moral conscious of the community in which it has primarily and traditionally existed. Dr. Glaude Jr. suggested, in part, that this mortification is due to the increasing sophistication and mobility of individuals within the church's traditional target audience and the lack of what he calls the church's prophetic vision for the community.
The church must admit that it is competing for the time and the attention of its target audience like never before. There are various sources of information and those sources have their own vision and agenda for the community and sometimes special interests which cannot be overlooked. I would like to point out however, that if the influence of the black church is dead, that death has occurred because of what the church has both allowed, promoted and refused to commit itself to.
Interestingly, before the most recent economic recession took hold, many churches were expanding and experiencing almost unprecedented growth in both attendance and profitability. At the same time the community was suffering from a seeming total breakdown of the economic welfare of both individuals and families within the proximal locations in which many churches existed. The black community faced and yet faces record unemployment, increased violence and violent activities within many neighborhoods. There was and yet is a failed educational process leading to the under-education of our children, a broken penile system leading to higher than normal incarceration rates in many traditionally black communities where these churches operate.
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