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LETTER
TO THE BLACK CHURCH IN AMERICA
Regarding the Problems of the Black Race & Black Church. From
the mouth of the Prophet, Martin Luther King, Jr., & Pen of the Scribe,
John Thomas Crestwell, Jr.
From
John’s book, "Conversations...The
Hidden Truth That Keeps The World From Being At Peace!"
Introduction
Although I don’t like to think dualistically and also subscribe to
a belief that present Christianity has failed the world, choosing to live
in the realm of myth and illusion instead of rational reality, I have
written this document as a man concerned about a very powerful institution,
the Black Church, which has served as an historical foundation for many
African-Americans past and present. The goal of this message is to show
that Black Americans must identify with their past, in light of the present,
so that they may actualize their future in the world as truly free, equal
and respected Americans. The future is not a segregated, nationalistic
reality, but one where African-Americans are a part of the “new heavens
and new earth” where all races, languages and cultures live the abundant
life.
It is important that all people, no matter your nationality, read this
letter as it gives important historical information in understanding the
African-American mind theologically, socially and economically! Martin
Luther King, Jr. as we all know, was a great man. He was not perfect,
yet he was unafraid to challenge traditional thought that subjected Blacks
to prejudice, in many forms, and held Whites captive of illusionary “fear
of loss” which perpetuated continued violence and hatred toward Blacks.
I chose to write this letter because, as I state in the opening of the
letter, many friends have asked me, “what would M.L.K. be saying
and doing now regarding the problems of the Black race and Black Church?”
I am compelled to answer this question from a religious, social and economic
perspective, as King would, and have earnestly sought to become King,
as best as I could, in writing the letter, although many views presented
may be considered, as I write, “Crestwellian rather than Kingian
at times.” Also, make note that everything in blue
is a direct quote from King.
There is also history
here. Letter writing has been a powerful means of protest in our world
history. During the 1800-1900’s particularly, this was the most powerful
means of getting one’s point across to a large audience. Writing
was the mass media. The pen was as powerful then as radio in the 50’s
and television from the 60’s, to the present (there’s still
power in the pen today you know)!
The inspiration for my letter comes from three places, “David Walker’s
Appeal,” written in 1830, King’s “Letter to American Christians”
written and read in 1955 at his first church, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,
and later before the National Baptist Convention, USA to a standing ovation;
and additional motivation came from King’s historic “Letter
From the Birmingham Jail” written in 1963. The Apostle Paul’s
many letters written in the early first century inspired King’s writing
and structure for his letters. Walker’s “Appeal” has inspired
thousands, like Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman, to name a few. It is my
hope that my letter written over 170 years after Walker’s and over
40 years after King’s, will spark flickers of light in the hearts
and minds of many, from various races, so that we might know that we can
end any and all negative human conditions that exist, if we seek earnestly
and sincerely to learn from our past so that we might secure our present
and future!
LETTER
TO THE
BLACK CHURCH IN AMERICA
Regarding the Problems of the Black Race & Black Church
From the mouth of the prophet, Martin Luther King, Jr.
& the pen of the scribe, John Thomas Crestwell, Jr.
To all that exists; and to all that existed; and to all that will exist
that is virtuous, I leave these words…
I, John Thomas
Crestwell, Jr., servant of God, submit this letter to the Black Church
from one of God’s prophets, Martin Luther King, Jr. If the letter
sounds a bit Crestwellian rather than Kingian at times, attribute that
to my enthusiasm in putting this great man’s words to paper as expeditiously
as possible. May the people of God hear the message from God, through
King. Let it be so!
Beloved friends,
I am answering a call from our Lord, to provide to the Black Church, in
particular, a message, as you move forward into the 21st century.
It is quite difficult, I must admit, to step from the depths and everlasting
peace of eternity, toward your finite space and time in what you call
post-modernity, but God’s will must be done. The Lord has chosen
me, not because I am any better or more eloquent than God’s other
children, rather because many on earth are asking a peculiar question.
That question is what would Martin King be saying and doing now regarding
the problems of the Black race and Black Church?
Let me say first that this is a good question but incorrectly stated.
Martin Luther King is not God Almighty! I am a fellow servant just like
you. Therefore, the issue today, as in the past, is not what would Martin
Luther King be doing today, but what would our Heavenly Master be doing
now regarding the problems of the Black Race and the Black Church. This
is the major question that must be addressed, and my beloved scribe and
fellow children of God, this is where our Lord would like me to begin
my letter.
THE
PROBLEM
When I dwelt amidst
the land of mortals, I witnessed overt racism and heinous oppression of
the poor, Negroes in particular. Today, the problem of racism is much
more covert and very difficult to ascertain in many ways. Yet I find when
I look at the world, there are still far too many people of color suffering.
There are still too many slums and too many ghettos; too many dilapidated
neighborhoods, too many bloated bellies that go
to bed hungry; too many people of color disenfranchised and marginalized
by ancient and modern systems and philosophies that promote greed, which
creates and continues to perpetuate the ever-present pestilence called
poverty. Of the 6 billion inhabitants on your planet, over half live in
abject poverty1 and
these people are mostly Africans, African-Americans, Native Americans,
Hispanics, Indians and East and Southeast Asians. It seems, unfortunately,
that racism and discrimination are alive and well! But I want to focus
specifically on the problem of Blacks in America and look at what the
church must do today turn your cloudy sky of injustice into a rainbow
of righteousness.
As I look at your world, on one hand, Blacks in America have excelled
in many facets of society, and you must be commended for that. In my day
a Ph.D. among Negroes was something to behold. However, today your universities
are graduating Blacks with doctorates in record proportions. That is wonderful!
You are also producing a new middle class that has tremendous buying power.
I see your fine automobiles and houses; many of you have found material
success. You have also shown your technological
genius in your mastery of the computer and other modern gadgets.
You are building large sanctuaries to worship God, and the budgets of
many Black Churches today rival the budgets of some small towns! By all
outward appearances, today’s African-Americans are doing just fine.
On the other hand, Black mothers are raising their children alone more
than ever before. As a matter of fact, there are more single-parent African-American
households today, from broken relationships, than Black couples raising
families.2 There
are a disproportionate number of Blacks being imprisoned compared to other
ethnicities3, and
as a result, the African-American family is becoming extinct as in the
time of the slave trade. Drugs are ravaging your urban communities and
you have a vague and shallow understanding of communal responsibility.
You have hundreds of Black Churches that could take control of troubled
urban communities, if you work together; yet there is still far too much
poverty, violence and disunity within the race. Of all cultures that exist
on earth, the Black race is the most fragmented in terms of social and
civic responsibility by and among those within the race. In other words,
there is more apathy than sympathy for the masses within the Negro classes.
For me, the good, bad and ugly I have mentioned is a strange paradox,
and moves me to say that the Negro race in America
suffers from a sort of schizophrenic personality. You are Dr. Jekyll on
one side and Mr. Hyde on the other. You have so much materially
and spiritually in one segment of society and so little in the other.
What I mean is that within the Black race, there exists a microcosm of
a macrocosmic problem. You possess many “haves” in communities
but still there are far too many “have-nots.” A great mind,
W.E.B. Dubois, indicated that the apathy experienced by Blacks could be
due to the double-consciousness factor. You are African and you are American.
You wrestle with your identity because you are one being with two warring
personalities. The one is from a distant land that you barely know in
your conscious mind, the other you have been acculturated, taught through
enslavement, to know intimately. This causes you to love one and hate
the other subconsciously. Understand clearly, there is a conflict within
your personality because you live a White reality within a White-dominated
culture. You are displaced and cannot relate to America or Africa in full,
only in part. This permeates the entire race and is at the root of why
there is disloyalty and disunity among Negro people.
This is an existential problem (a problem of existence) within Black America.
It is the double-consciousness nature within Black
mental skies that causes you to go to one or two extremes—you
become narcissistically Afro-centric or apathetically Euro-centric. This
is the extreme to the left and right and in the middle of this struggle,
we find the Black Church, the very essence of what it means to be African-American,
historically, looking to it’s east and west, without a compass to
give direction to its congregants. The Black Church, for the most part,
sits idly by searching for its identity because its identity, by its very
nature, also wears two masks. How can the Black race and Black Church
make sense of this schizophrenic personality? How can the Black Church
take off the historical mask the grins and lies, and hides our cheeks
and shades our eyes (Paul Dunbar)?
Beloved, in order for us to fully answer this question and to understand
the depth and breadth of the problems facing Negroes and the Negro Church
today, we must begin with a look at the African-American past, and work
our way systematically toward the present, in hopes of finding resolution
and reconciliation to the mental disillusionment that exists among the
race. So let us press on.
BRIEF
BLACK HISTORY
One might say that
the double-consciousness dilemma or racial fragmentation process of the
Negro race began on Goree Island, where African chiefs brought and housed
captives from civil wars to be sold to Europeans. This island, in particular,
served as an entrance and exit for Europeans to come and go from the mainland
of West Africa. It sat just two miles from the coast and became the “doorway”
for the selling and buying of human souls.4
Here, slaves from various tribes, exited their homeland through what is
known as “the door of no return.” It is properly named. For
when an imprisoned African turned to see the doors close, they knew it
constituted the end of their African life past and present, and began
the long night of oppression by their new
masters.
Many of our ancestors did not make it through the dark desolate journey
to the new world. For many, the bottom of the sea represented victory,
for others insurrection was the goal. But for most, survival was most
important and those who survived the journey made it through some of the
most dreadful circumstances ever perpetrated against human beings. They
showed persistence in the face of an abyss of darkness! So Black people
today must know that their ancestry is a tenacious ancestry, a persevering
ancestry, and a strong ancestry. African-Americans must know that, yes,
you will agonize over your history, but you must also see that you can
rejoice over the strength your ancestors manifested in their persevering
power!
After long nights crossing the Atlantic toward the new land, the days
were no better for your ancestors. Now forced to cultivate the land for
their masters, your brothers and sisters of old, made “cotton king”
and the White man wealthy, yet there was no recompense for their forced
labor except scraps from the swine, the rape of mothers and daughters,
and the emasculation of fathers and sons. The psychological implications
from this kind of morbid dehumanization are incomprehensible. Yet, it
persisted for hundreds of years and many Europeans began to claim the
Negro was a “thing” barely above the creature realm and without
a past. They saw Black people as savages, creatures incapable of logic
and reasoning. This is the Negro heritage, but thank
God it didn’t stop there!
For in the midst of the evergreens or the miry clay, there could be heard
a sound that was harmonious and sweet. The moans and adoration went high
into the lofty blue. The laments and praises cried out to the earth, sea
and sky. Although forbidden by their masters to worship privately, there
was the “invisible institution” that came into existence out
of a people’s need to fellowship and praise God. It is something
innate in all human beings, the need to be one with the Universe. This
church in the woods was where your ancestors would go to “steal away
to Jesus.” They learned about the Christ from their enslavers but
they found the true God in their hearts, causing them to naturally create
this invisible ecclesia by any means necessary! These African-American
people, supposedly without a history, preached, testified, sang, shouted,
danced and made peace with their present conditions and morality, while
making plans for their future, a day they yearned for when freedom and
justice would abide on earth. “If God freed the children of Abraham,
God would one day free his children from Africa!” This was their
hope!
Throughout history many have fought and died for the cause of freedom
and truth. As William Cullen Bryant said, “Truth
crushed to earth will rise again!” Carlyle wrote once, “No lie
can live forever.” Theodore Parker said, “The moral arc of the
universe is long but it bends toward justice!” They are all
right, as history has proven them correct. Then somewhere around 1939,
the European sociologist, Melville Herskovits, created what is known as
the “Myth of the Negro Past.” Herskovits refuted the claim that
Negroes did not have a past, stating through scientific research, that
Blacks have a strong history that was not so easily eliminated by assimilation
through acculturation.5
He noted that African-Americans maintained many cultural patterns from
Africa. Likewise, other sociologists, like E. Franklin Frazier, have added
to this claim stating that Negroes have ties to their African past, but
most of what is known today, in terms of the Black heritage, comes from
your Christian experience, your ancestors’ communion with the “invisible”
and “visible” institution known today as the Black Church.
And so if that is fact, and the African-American is connected to his or
her ancient culture and religion; if the majority of your identity, your
self-esteem, morality, your God consciousness is formed by your relationship
with Mother Africa and the Black Church, then you must understand that
the church plays a more than important role in preserving the African-American
past, present and future!
THE
ROLE OF THE BLACK CHURCH
The Black Church is
to be the mouthpiece of the past, present and future. The Black Church
is the prophetic voice that speaks truth to power. What seems to be the
problem today? Why is there a movement among many Black churches where
there are no relations with their African past in praxis, style or worship?
Why is it that the church leaves it to many over zealous and often times
media hungry politicians to be the voices crying in the wilderness for
change in the present, which impacts the future? Why is it that “heaven
theology” or “by and by theology” permeates pulpits, which
creates a coma of complacency if preached exclusively, while talk of civic
and social action is given a cold shoulder?
I have heard many Negroes say, “There is no such thing as a Black
Church.” They say this with the intent of showing that God is no
respecter of persons, which is true, and humanity’s ultimate goal,
but not your present reality. Somehow there are
four different blood types found among all the races. Yes, we are
one as a people all over the world, but we are not one mentally. Specifically,
when you say there is no Black Church, you make a claim without acknowledging
your history! To say, “There is no Black Church” is to say,
“There are no Black people!” You see if Frazier is right, then
your history and heritage is tied to Africa, but more importantly tied
to the visible and invisible institution, the spirituals or folk songs,
the foot-stomping and prophetic preaching about social change, this is
where Black people find their identity with the past. This is a major
part of the story! And if you deny this you deny your very existence!
As James Weldon Johnson wrote, “We have come over a way that with
tears has been watered. We have come, treading our paths through the blood
of the slaughtered. Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand true
to our God, true to our native land!” Yes, our history is rich and
the Black Church sits at the center as the very essence of our Blackness!
It is our single garment made up of threads that weaves our history into
our destiny. The Black Church is the place for hope, the place for healing
and unity, the place to find, not just God, but yourselves as well.
Again, regarding unity of all people on earth, I agree, there needs to
be unity among the races and religions. Your Sunday
mornings are still the most segregated hour in the country. But
the problems that face the Black race, the pervasive violence and bloodshed
from “Black on Black” crimes, the drugs, the lack of economic
control, the breakdown of the family, these must be solved by many, but
particularly by concerned African-Americans. There is a place for others
to assist in the struggle, in terms of legislature, protests, money, etcetera,
but change must come from within first. I believe you are fooling yourselves
if you expect someone to come in and clean up your neighborhoods and schools.
In fact, this is an asinine and irresponsible attitude. Change manifests
when the mind changes its perspective. The Black Church must change the
way it thinks and operates. I charge you to be what you were—the
voice and administrator of spiritual and social rightness, in a world
that continues to neglect the disinherited of the land, the African-American
man and woman.
The Lord wants me to make it clear Black Church: if you don’t step
up to end suffering in Negro communities—step back. If you won’t
exist to turn the tide of racism, mis-education, and discrimination against
your children—cease to exist. Are you a church about the business
of God? Or are you just a social club— a thin
veneer of religiosity? Hear me clearly. I am not advocating Black
Nationalism, that’s not what I’m talking about. I never have
and I never will! Don’t misunderstand me. You
cannot replace one tyranny for another form of tyranny! I am advocating
personal responsibility. I am advocating compassion. I am advocating Agape
love, a self-sacrificial love, which is the supreme law of the universe
that was manifest in the life and death of Jesus.
The problem is that many of you have become so economically successful,
that success has separated you mentally and physically from your struggling
brothers and sisters. Your success has not gone to your heart, but to
your head. Many Blacks within the Negro Church have become blinded by
ambition and greed. You have become a part of what philosophers Herbert
Spencer and Charles Darwin called, “survival of the fittest,”
I might call it survival of the slickest
mentalities. Biologically, Darwin is right, in terms
of evolution of species, but when Spencer tries to say that Darwin’s
theory expands toward how some are superior to others in life, then he
is wrong! Spencer’s idea is that there is human competition
for survival, where the “strongest survive” leading to the triumph
of more advanced individuals and cultures over their “inferior competitors.”
Acquisitions of shelter and abundant food, tools, and so forth, are seen
as signs of “fitness,” and power, while lack or shortage of
resources is regarded as natural inferiority.7
In other words, if you are strong you survive and reproduce more strong
people, but if you are weak you die out or are consumed and controlled
by the prosperous. This wicked mindset, years before it was named, was
used to justify slavery, it sanctioned colonialism, and it continues to
promote the idea that one race, one culture, is superior to others. More
than that, this idea in action is also destroying your environment. Your
leaders do not understand the mutuality of human, plant and animal. You
are all tied in a single garment of destiny with the earth, and
what befalls the earth, what befalls Mother Nature, shall befall humanity!
And so, survival of the fittest mentalities are killing Black people and
the Black Church. By consciously or unconsciously following this model,
you have not realized the “sameness” all Black people share
historically, which moves one to know that their history as a Black person
is tied to all other Black people’s history and survival! The Black
Church spends too much of its time justifying its existence instead of
maximizing its greatness! This plague moves the Black Church from the
“we are together reality,” toward the “us against them
mentality,” and walls of separation are built up instead of torn
down. The church then becomes self-preservation oriented and denominational.
This effectively freezes the church to work on protecting its existence,
its operations, theological differences, denominational activities, its
rites of passage and so forth, while the poor get poorer, the educational
system gets worse, and Blacks continue to be at the margins of human society.
Today African-Americans make up 12% of the population and still have a
leading 26% poverty rate.8
That makes no sense to me. It’s a glaring statistic that reveals
a dismal fact: Blacks today care more about personal success and their
individual institutions than each other.
You are looking through a microscope, focused on preserving traditions
and ideas that keep Blacks in the margins of society. You must look through
a telescope. You must revitalize your theology, and find the universal
God of creation, who is not a God of “crooks nor creeds” but
a God of “human cares and human needs”, as Paul Dunbar would
say. God is calling Black people today to search deep within their souls
to find the conviction to end poverty and degradation within the African-American
community, once and for all.
Open your eyes and see the “ethnic cleansing” (racism) taking
place. Look at Africa where men, women and children are being annihilated
from a disease called AIDS, that is the result of man’s
inhumanity to man. Look at poverty in India; look at the arrogance
of those in power and their political decisions regarding the Middle East
and parts of Asia. Then realize that the same system that creates oppression
there is suppressing many American Blacks, who are effectively segmented,
neutralized and ghettoized to live in poor conditions, including their
homes, neighborhoods and schools. This leads to poor education, alcoholism
and drug addictions, as people seek to escape their living nightmares;
and all of this leads to more poverty and culminates in “Black on
Black” crimes and the dismantling of the Black race. It is systematic.
This is a death sentence, and is sickening to me because what drives the
train is a greedy out of control nihilistic capitalism. And now, I hear
the talk in the political arena is globalization, which is really a mask
for neo-colonialism, which will continue to infect the world with one-sided
ideology. This poisonous politics is bad for the world, but for the ancestors
of slaves, this venom will lead to the death many.
Personal responsibility says that you cannot blame anyone but yourselves.
For if the Black Churches of the world were united and focused in the
cause of righteousness, in the spirit of Christ, this would not be happening!
I’m sorely afraid that you have surrendered social responsibility
for capital gains profitability.
But I won’t despair. No.
Somehow truth, goodness and mercy shall prevail. It always has and always
will, because God has structured this universe
with natural laws and at its fore
are equality and reciprocity. You can attempt to destroy its principles
and it will rise again. You can reject its premise but it will return
unscathed. You can suppress it, but it will rebound and express its ideals.
It is my belief, that in order to take control of urban communities and
neighborhoods, to eliminate poverty of mind, body and spirit, the Black
Church must become more aware and active in its witness, assisting disinherited
Negroes to get in touch with their past in light of the present, which
will inevitably invigorate the African-American future for years to come!
WHERE
DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Solutions
Finally, my fellow
scribe and African-American brothers and sisters, you might ask where
do Black people and the Black Church go from here? This is a good question
because it moves one from the theoretical and cognitive toward the therapeutic
and practical. It moves one from the “megoistic” mentality—me,
myself and I, toward the altruistic mentality fixed on serving others;
it moves one toward sympathy instead of apathy; it moves one toward optimism
instead of pessimism.
First, the disunity in the Negro Church must be eliminated. Black churches,
whether Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or from
the neo-protestant non-denominational churches, must comprehend that the
plight of struggling Negroes is every Black church’s problem. Therefore,
what is needed is an ecumenical movement that has civic, social and spiritual
significance. Civically, preachers must show “holy boldness”
in the face of the oppressor—the systems and philosophies that perpetuate
greed, violence and chaos. This means that preachers and lay people must
speak against those ever-present nihilistic “isms” like racism,
sexism, classism and yes, an out of control capitalism. The church
must learn how to continue to be profitable without losing its “prophet-ability.”
A Theologian said once regarding the Black Church that some churches are
vogue on the outside and vague on the inside. Let that not be your church
today! Black Church leaders and laity cannot sell their souls to money
and power, building up monuments and treasures of nothingness, but must
take up the way of Jesus Christ, which calls you to reach out to the “least
of these” and to speak against those who abuse their authority. This
is where true treasure is found!
Second, socially, the Black Church must combine its forces. In my day
I was taught, “each one, teach one.” This is a good philosophy.
Churches must teach, train, and educate one another on the history and
future of African-Americans. Then you must work together and buy up the
governmental housing communities and rebuild them as communities for the
poor. Church, take control of educating your children and youth. Church,
buy up the corner stores and get rid of the liquor stores. Church, buy
the shopping centers and get rid of the businesses that don’t give
back to the community. Church, buy up various properties and build up
homes for the underprivileged. Use your power to make God’s Kingdom,
the reign of God, a reality on earth. This is your call!
But I hear some say, “How is this our call brother Martin, when Jesus
will return one day and change this world. We need to wait on the Lord
and be of good courage…” Your point is heard, but you must understand
that the very thing you wait for is at hand. The Lord has shared with
me that Kingdom of God is inside of you and outside of you; it is present
and it is future; it is literal and metaphorical. It is not just one thing,
but it is many things! The Kingdom of God represents ALL that is righteous!
If you seek first the Kingdom (the reign) of God and its righteousness
all the things you want will be given to you! You can speed
up that day toward the new heavens and new earth reality!
Thirdly, and lastly, I want you to know that spiritually
this is right. It is right to assist those in need. It is right
to teach others about their past. It is right for God’s Church to
lead the way in the world’s moral arena. Your hardest task will be
letting go of your theological differences, which keeps you separated
from each other. There are hundreds of denominations in your day and each
has a nuance that makes one’s religious affiliation supposedly better
than the next. This is problematic. The Lord has instructed me to tell
you that this is MAN-MADE! You must seek to be GOD-MADE! This is where
true religion is found. True religion is not found in sacraments. True
religion is not found in Christian dogma. True religion is not found in
affirmations of faith. True religion is not found in special gifts of
the spirit. It is not found when you add names to your membership book.
True religion is not found in any of the schizophrenic
complexities of human personality. But true religion is found when
the hearts of men and women are strangely warmed, causing them to sacrifice
their very lives for the cause of truth and justice! Never forget that.
God has written the Law of Truth upon all of your hearts. When the God
of the Universe breathed life into your bodies, God gave you free
will and the ability to know truth from falsehood. You must know, very
simply, that what builds up humanity and the earth is righteous but what
tears down humanity and the earth is what is unrighteous. Within the Black
Church your denominationalism is extra destructive because, as Black Americans
you already struggle with your double-consciousness mentality, and when
you add sectarian strife, you effectively create chaos
instead of community. You must all learn to live together as brothers
and sisters or you, as a people, will perish as fools.
And you must not be ashamed to be Black. Many of you have other histories
flowing through your veins in addition to your Black heritage, but some
of you prefer to claim your European, Native American, Hispanic or Asian
histories, ahead of your African heritage. This is a tragedy. Look in
the mirror and see your Black face; a face that represents hundreds of
years of struggle and victory; a face that looks like someone from the
past who suffered on a slave ship; who suffered on the hot plantation—you
are the benefactor from their pain. They did not die in vain, oh no!!
Your ancestor’s voices are crying out from the earth, sea and sky
for all of God’s children who have African blood in their bodies
to wake up and see the proud tradition you come from. Wake up and see
that God loves your Blackness! God loves you so much that God heard your
cry, and through the willing hands of many good people, freed your ancestors
from the vicious hand of oppression by Colonialists. God loved you so
much that God inspired many martyrs to help you get your civil rights
in later years. Now you are free but you act like you are a slave. You
are free, the chains have been broken, but you won’t move forward
and grasp the vastness of your freedom, which entails taking control of
urban communities for sake of the Gospel! You are like the elephant that
was held captive for many years. He tugged on his chain daily and could
not set himself free. But one day he tugged and broke the chain. Yet,
because his mind was bent on captivity instead of opportunity, the beast
never left the perimeter to which he was confined. This mighty animal
that weighed over a ton, and even the mighty lion stayed clear from his
path, died in his mental and physical prison. He died with his dream of
freedom still inside. He died bewildered and disillusioned. He died because
his mind was not right. Oh my beautiful Black brothers and sisters, you
are free yet your mind is not right, and so you don’t see the wholeness
of your liberty. Oh my magnificent Black Church, you are dying in many
ways today, because you are not embracing your past and speaking and doing
God’s truth, which will secure the African-American future for years
to come.
As I conclude, the problems in the Black community today are troubling.
But I see a new day when the Black family becomes a cohesive unit built
on the solid rock of our Heavenly Master. I see the day when drugs won’t
decimate your cities. I see the day when Negroes will not tolerate violence
in their neighborhoods. But it is up to God’s Black Church to correct
its present course and move toward a new day when God reigns with humankind
in your minds, souls and hearts.
And now, I must go. I must go back to my eternal peace with our Lord.
There are many mansions here, and there is a place for you when your day
cometh. But remember, if you don’t feed God’s
sheep Black Church, God will not hear your wonderful Sunday morning cantatas
and Gospel songs. If you do not feed and educate God’s lambs, God
will not hear your fervent prayers. If you don’t feed the least of
these with spiritual and social food, the natural laws of the universe
will smite a mighty blow against you; because “justice shall roll
down like waters and righteousness like and mighty stream.” God will
break the backbone of your power, if you do not take care of his
suffering children in poor communities across America. Remember that…
And so, go forward in love and in commitment to the cause of justice.
And may the way of Jesus Christ direct you in all that you do.
Your friend and servant of God,
Martin Luther King, Jr., 2003
NOTES:
1. See Website of the World Bank, www.worldbank.org/poverty.
2. See Website - www.sentencingproject.org/policy/9050.htm
3. See Website - www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/black/tabs99/tab03.txt
4. Steven Barboza, Door of No Return. 1994, Cobblehill
Books, pg. 1-2.
5. Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion. 1978, Oxford University
Press, pgs. 48-54.
6. J.T. Bonner, The Evolution of Complexity by Means of
Natural Selection.1988, Harper Press, pg. 7.
7. Wenke, Robert J. Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind's
First Three Million Years. 1990. Oxford University Press, Introduction.
8. Joseph Dalaker, Poverty in the United States. 1998,
US Census Bureau, pgs. 60-207.
Addendum for clarity:
When I look at the world, there is one institution that has lots of money,
power, history, and influence over African-Americans--The Black Church!
I describe the "Black Church" as any faith-based congregation
with the majority of African-Americans in attendance. My letter is saying,
directly to this group, "WAKE UP! YOU HAVE THE POWER WITHIN YOU TO
END ALL SOCIAL ILLS IN BLACK COMMUNITIES. STOP WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO
HELP YOU (the government particularly). THE KINGDOM IS HERE NOW AND IF
YOU JUST OPEN YOUR MIND AND HEART YOU CAN MAKE MANIFEST SOMETHING GREAT!"
This is my point. We (Black folk) are crying to the world for help politically
when the means to change is already here! There are "mega churches"
that collectively have over hundreds of thousands of members in just one
city, like Washington, DC, and I estimate they probably produce a combined
$2-billion+ annually! If they stopped worshipping people and buildings,
monuments, treasures of nothingness, their money could be used to end
poverty and mis-education. This would be a service not just to African-Americans
but also to the world!!
The world also needs other people, besides those within the Black churches,
to continue to "raise the consciousness" of others. Together,
as Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, "The two become one and when
we say mountain move, it will move." In other words, working together
we will eliminate those obstacles, those "isms" so that all
might experience and enjoy the abundance the Spirit of Life has given
us.
See John Crestwell's
review of the book "BLACK PIONEERS
IN A WHITE DENOMINATION"
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