Jesus Take The Wheel?

George Hudson, one of my FB friends, wrote this yesterday, "More and more I see these days people are using religion to substitute for personal responsibility."  I agree with him generally except this is not a new phenomenon.  I wrote about this whole idea of "waiting" a couple of years ago in my book, "Why African Americans Can't Get Ahead:  And How We Can Solve It With Group Economics."  It's a reflection of the doctrine advanced in most Black churches today.

Here's an excerpt:

With a few rare exceptions, Black ministers teach their parishioners that our future lies in the hands of entities outside ourselves.  The Black church, in general, teaches its members to wait, rather than take action:  Wait on God, wait on Jesus’ second coming, wait on the Rapture, wait on the afterlife or wait on some benevolent White person to deliver us from our current situation.  It does not teach Black people to take control of our communities and our destinies as a routine matter.

 

It does teach us to respond with marches or protests when we are threatened by White racism or discrimination from members of other groups.  But it does not teach that our future, if we are to have a successful one, will be based solely on our own efforts, with God’s help.

The philosophy of “waiting” was necessary during slavery and Jim Crow, when being assertive would have literally gotten African Americans killed.  It was also necessary during the Civil Rights Movement, when passive resistance was the best way to prick the conscience of the American people.  But, in the new millennium, a passive strategy will not suffice.

“We have been historically and helplessly waiting for the Lord, waiting for the ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ waiting for the welfare check, waiting to hit the lottery, waiting for the government and waiting for others to do for us what we should be doing for ourselves,” says Jeremiah Camara in his book, Holy Lockdown:  Does the Church Limit Black Progress?[i]

      

“We even wait for Democrats to take control of the White House, not realizing we are often more impacted by what is in our local communities and our homes rather than what is happening in city hall or Washington, D.C.,” he said.

“When we idly wait and witness people of other nationalities opening businesses in our neighborhoods,” added Camara, “it is not necessarily because of whom these people voted to serve in Washington or even in their own city or county.  These groups, at some point, made conscious decisions to pool their resources and do business in Black communities.”[ii]

To drive home Camara’s assertion, in most cases, the people of other nationalities who open businesses in Black communities cannot even vote because they are not U.S. citizens.  In other words, the principle of group economics works, even if members of the group practicing it do not have the government and elected officials working on their behalf.

The doctrine of teaching the people to wait has a long history in the traditional denominational ministries in Black churches, including Baptist, A.M.E., C.M.E., Church of God in Christ, Pentecostal, U.M.E. and other Protestant denominations.  But even the more progressive, non-denominational ministries have advanced the doctrine of “waiting” by only a miniscule amount.

Most of the non-denominational, or Word of Faith, ministries advocate the power of faith confessions or affirmations as a way of changing one’s reality.  Based upon the Biblical principle that “death and life is in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21), a new, fresh confession is needed, one which is empowering and does not rely on other groups to meet our needs. 

Following is an example of a confession or affirmation that moves in that direction:

“I believe that God has created me in His image and that I have the power and ability to control my present and my future.  God’s word says that ‘faith without works is dead,’ and I have faith that my efforts will succeed and that I can overcome any obstacle I may encounter.  I will no longer look to others to provide my community’s needs and wants.  I will take control of my neighborhoods, my schools and my businesses to provide jobs and a secure future for my children and my neighbors.”

A fresh, innovative doctrine is needed because, before a change can occur, the people’s minds must first be reprogrammed to no longer expect deliverance to come from outside our community.  Throughout our nearly 400-year history in America we have been taught to see our future as an extension of the future of White Americans – first as our slave masters, then as our bosses and our elected officials.  To survive and prosper, we must begin to see our future in our own hands, using our God-given ability to chart a destiny that is not contingent upon what any other group does.

[i] Holy Lockdown, p. 125.

[ii] Ibid, pp. 125-126.

Copies of "Why African Americans Can't Get Ahead and How We Can Solve It With Group Economics" are available from the following sources:

Autographed copies available at Cushcity.com:
http://www.cushcity.com/books/098002501x.htm

Amazon.com Kindle edition

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