I would argue that some of the greatest Civil Rights work has been led by American Black preachers, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the forefront. I would debate that our preachers were the first “grass roots” organizers with Nat Turner at the helm. I would say that anyone who minimizes the impact of Black preachers, who were the forefathers of Black American liberation, doesn’t know what struggle is.
Somewhere along the way, we as preachers have lost our street creed. We have taken the hits for the pseudo preachers who flash greed and their own prosperity. They are no better than the slave masters; they put Black folks in economic bondage and financial slavery with the appealing lure of tithes and offerings that’ll get you into heaven. This makes them oppressors. They’ll say, “We got rent to pay and babies to feed.” Churches are filled with women, yet, “we take from our women, we rape our women, do we hate our women,” the Prophet Tupac once said.
Preachers have received flack for mega churches and are ignoring the NAACP, Black Lives Matter and the Me Too Movement, using the excuse that they are a Christ-centered church; knowing through seminary Christ was the most radical Black man of His time and still holds the number one best seller.
The days are gone when preachers like King and Malcolm, Biggie and Tupac had to lose their lives just so you would think. The respect for the preacher is gone, even if the majority like myself do it for free. The reverence for the preacher has disseminated in televangelists and prayer cloths for a $50 love
