Faith in Action

I just received word that Dr. Jeremiah Wright will be delivering the 11AM morning message this Sunday, April 13, 2008 at the Historic Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church (Norfolk, VA) where the pastor is Rev. William Dixon.

I’m sure that Wright’s phone is blowing up these days so I wondered how Bank Street confirmed him for this Sunday. According to this article, Bank Street has the hookup. Someone from the church is related to Dr. Wright and the church will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Booster’s Ministry.

Kudos to my seminary brother, William Dixon for bringing Dr. Wright to the Norfolk area.

Unfortunately, however not everyone considers Dr. Wright’s presence in Norfolk a blessing. Of course you expect certain folks to frown upon his coming, but another African American pastor?!? Oh come on.

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I remember vividly sitting in Dr. Patricia Gould-Champ’s class at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University.  Dr. Gould-Champ is an exemplary professor with a very “familiar” style of teaching and interacting with students.  Familiar in the sense that she made you feel as if you’d known each other for a long time.  I loved her class, but I remember one night being disappointed when Dr. Gould-Champ said that we would be talking about the sad reality of manipulation, abuse, and molestation that occurs in far too many pulpits in America.  She spoke in very grave terms about the practice of some ministers to prey on the congregation or mishandle their influence by using it for selfish, sinful, and even criminal pleasures.  At that time, I felt like I didn’t need to hear about such things because I concluded that I would never do anything near the nightmarish stories of abuse that I’d heard other ministers involved in.

Five years later, I’m so glad that Dr. Gould-Champ forced the class to engage this sometimes uncomfortable issue.  The reality is that the issue of unethical and even criminal behavior in the Black church is still an extremely taboo topic.  While many improprieties have occurred in Black congregations across the nation; it would seem at times that more energy is devoted to covering up what happened as opposed to dealing with what happened and moving forward in a healthy way.  Also unfortunate is the practice of protecting the perpetrator even at the expense of the wellbeing of the victim.  Let me also say that as it pertains to Pastors I believe that even if consensual sexual relations occur - especially in a situation of infidelity - the Pastor is still the perpetrator.  The Pastor in the Black Church enjoys enormous amounts of influence over the congregation.  It behooves them (whether male or female) to be humbly aware of that reality and rely on God entirely so that they will be found faithful in executing the office of UnderShepherd. 

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Joe Madison is testifying for the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.  He drops stats, facts, and figures left and right.  While half of my brain is listening to him - the other half is trying to organize my thoughts and sound half way intelligent while testifying. 

Madison is done and Walter Fauntroy goes next.  Like a good preacher he makes a little joke before starting to warm up the crowd.  They chuckle and he proceeds. 

While he’s talking I get my stuff together.  I think I can pull this off impromptu style now.  It hits me in that moment that growing up in the Black Church prepared me for this.  All those times that I had to stand and welcome visitors, respond to the welcome, sing a lead on a song, or pray over the offering prepared me for speaking confidently in front of people.  Thank you Church! (I gotta give a nod to the Future Business Leaders of America Club in high school too.  Did I mention that I placed 2nd in the county in the Impromptu Speaking competition?)

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