Recently, news outlets have reported that Black churches have been “telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day.” Many Black ministers are upset that President Obama supports same-sex marriage and that Mitt Romney is (horrors!) a Mormon, and therefore, not a “real” Christian. They have therefore concluded that genuine Christians will have no good alternative on Election Day.
Obviously, these Black ministers are guilty of religious bigotry. Some of them point to the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a., the Mormons) once excluded Black men from the priesthood. (Note that the patriarchal Black ministers do not object to the exclusion of women from the priesthood!)
The fact of the matter is that the Mormons, like most religionists, have changed. Indeed, many Mormons even support LGBT rights. Many of them are anti-racist and reach out to non-Whites in Africa and other parts of the world.
This reactionary “thinking” of many Black preachers is nothing new. After all, most Black preachers opposed Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in the beginning. What is worse, many brainwashed Christian preachers during the days of chattel slavery bought into the biblical passages condoning slavery.
It is true that some enslaved preachers fought valiantly against slavery. The best examples are Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey. However, the situation was far more complicated than many suppose. For example, a Christian slave named George and another Christian slave reported Vesey to the slave master, thus foiling the rebellion.
Of course, it is easy to call George and his ilk traitors, Uncle Toms, sellouts, etc. However, they could also be called good Christians. After all, the Bible routinely condones slavery. Perhaps good ol’ George was moved by the words of I Timothy 6:1-4:
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrines be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethern; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings.
Or perhaps good ol’ George was influenced by Luke 12: 47-48:
And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Perhaps good ol’ George knew his lord’s will (to prevent a rebellion) and did his Christian duty by notifying his master. After all, he certainly would not have wanted to have been beaten with many stripes. (By the way, it is funny how Christians often quote the parts of this passage about “whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” However, they conveniently forget to add the parts condoning slavery. Then they have the nerve to accuse skeptics of quoting the Bible out of context!)
We have been through this reactionary nonsense already. When John F. Kennedy was running for President, he had to assure Protestants that he would not allow his Catholic religion to unduly influence his presidency. When are religious bigots going to learn that we are not trying to elect a pope or any other religious leader? We are trying to elect a president of all the people.
The Rev. Floyd James of the Greater Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago recently spoke at a gathering at the historically Black National Baptist Convention. He made a good point when he observed that, in 2008, White conservatives forced Obama to repudiate his former pastor, the inflammatory Jeremiah Wright. Why, then, should Romney not have to repudiate the racist passages of the Book of Mormon? This certainly seems fair and reasonable. However, the fact is that Obama haters are certainly not consistently fair and reasonable. After all, many of them still question the President’s U.S. citizenship, largely because, as a child, he lived outside of the conterminous U.S. However, as columnist Leonard Pitts has noted, Romney was born in Mexico and former presidential candidate John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Yet no one has ever questioned the citizenship of these White politicians.
Reactionary Black religionists have often gone off the deep end. For example. many of them supported George W. Bush primarily because he promoted faith-based initiatives from which Black preachers could benefit financially. All too often Black ministers have not had the best interests of the Black community at heart.
Have not Black religionists and humanists worked too hard to have misguided Black preachers telling their followers not to vote? Is this really what Martin Luther King died for? What we have here is yet another classic example of Black preachers leading Black people astray. It is time that more Black people realized that a pathological dependence upon Black preachers just might be the death of us all.