The
NAACP’s Divorce From The Black Church - And Response (3)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
As
I was growing up in the then-segregated city of Chattanooga in the 1950s, the
NAACP was an important part of my world. I heard about it in school – many
teachers and principals were members and openly advocated for students to become
involved. But it was in church that the influence of the NAACP was most
pervasive. Often, pastors and other church leaders were officers in the local
branch, and the NAACP was considered, in effect, an arm of the ministry of the
church.
Now,
however, with the organization’s decision supporting same-sex marriage, it
appears that the black church is no longer welcome in the NAACP. In response,
the NAACP will find that it is no longer welcome in much of the church. And
that is a shame.
Formed
in 1909 to counter the accelerating disenfranchisement of African Americans by
southern state legislatures, as well as legally sanctioned racial
discrimination throughout the nation, the NAACP led the fight for equal rights.
In an era when blacks could be lynched with impunity throughout the South, the
NAACP fiercely advocated for the rights of African American citizens to be
protected from unwarranted attack.
In
1954, under the leadership of its chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, later the
first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, the NAACP effectively
reshaped modern America by bringing and winning the case of Brown v. Board of
Education, which resulted in the outlawing of public school segregation
throughout the nation. Because of many such successes, the NAACP has had an
enormous impact for good in our society.
Throughout
its history, the NAACP’s greatest base of support has been the black church. It
is safe to say that without that support, the organization could have
accomplished little. Now, however, the NAACP has apparently decided that it can
dispense with the support of black Christians, and in fact, can safely thumb
its nose at them. That, at least, is my reading of the decision this past May
to endorse same-sex marriage. Claiming that “marriage equality” is a civil
right, the NAACP board voted 62-2 to back that policy. In doing so, the NAACP
decisively cut itself off from its roots in the black church.
Based
on the comments of NAACP leaders regarding their decision, I doubt they really
understand how unbridgeable is the gap they have created. For example, National
Public Radio reported how the head of the Indiana NAACP, Barbara Bolling,
responded when asked about the reaction of members in her state. She said with
a laugh, “Right after it was announced, kind of a little firestorm started.”
And when one of her branch presidents resigned in protest, Bolling thought it
was just “an emotional thing.” National Chairwoman Roslyn Brock says of those
who oppose the group’s move, “we hope they will evolve and stand firmly with
us.”
What
these NAACP leaders fail to grasp is that, for most members of the black
church, it’s not an emotional thing, nor an issue of personal preference. It’s
an issue of biblical authority. The black church’s opposition to same-sex
marriage is firmly rooted in passages such as Romans 1:26-27, which says, “For
this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged
the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men
committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their
error which was due.”
For
Bible-believing Christians, such statements of scripture are decisive for our
attitude toward homosexual relationships. We will never “evolve” to a stance of
approval. For that reason, the black church as a whole will never follow where
the NAACP is attempting to lead us.
Not
now, not ever.
In
effect, the NAACP has demanded of the black church: You must choose between us
and God. I believe most of us will say with the apostle Peter, “We ought to
obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Ron
Franklin
(A 1966 graduate of Howard School and captain of the Hustlin’ Tigers football team his senior year, he went on to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. After working for IBM in Kentucky and Colorado, he is now the pastor of a church in Harrisburg, Pa.)
(A 1966 graduate of Howard School and captain of the Hustlin’ Tigers football team his senior year, he went on to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. After working for IBM in Kentucky and Colorado, he is now the pastor of a church in Harrisburg, Pa.)
*
* *
I
was quite young during the Civil Rights Movement. The first time I saw a man by
the name of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was watching footage alongside my
father on a small black and white TV. Although young, what stuck most in my
memory was that many southern black clergy, even locally, took a stand against
Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. That is until they saw he and the
movement had the support of many whites and many white clergy. In fact,
although the story is told differently now, I recall the reason he was not chosen
to preach at a local black church was he was considered too controversial, and
black local leaders didn't want to upset the "sensibilities" of local
white segregationists, fearing losing their support, financial and otherwise.
Dr.
King was kicked out of many southern black churches, where he was often accused
of being a rabble-rouser and troublemaker. The number done on Dr. King was only
equal to the number committed against the likes of Rosa Parks and fellow
blacks, whites and others fighting for equal rights for all Americans of their
times.
The
Bible is often taken out of context and, depending on whose hands are
controlling, dictates to different people what the powers and powerful want
them to hear and believe during various times, historical periods, and
depending on the climate of the times. Lest we forget, the Bible was also used
to justify slavery; commit genocide against the Native American-Indian people,
to justify segregation and Jim Crow. In times of war, the Bible is used to
justify war. In times of peace, to justify compassion, humanity, love and
respect for our fellow man. "Thou shalt not kill," unless there's a
war to be fought.
I
think Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, John Brown (white abolitionist, who
fought and died in his quest to abolish slavery, and should be considered the
original Civil Rights fighter) and all those other nameless, sometimes
faceless, black, white and other individuals, who fought and died believing
they were paving a way for a better America would be on the side of the NAACP
on the issue of gay marriage or unions.
Brenda
Washington
*
* *
Hallelujah.
In this day of everybody trying to take God and prayer out of everything I am
so proud to see the black church stand up to the pressures of the NAACP. I am
behind you 100 percent.
Once
upon a time the NAACP was necessary to fight for the rights of black people.
But they are (in my opinion) just about as useless in today’s society as unions
are. Black people have all the same rights as any other American in today’s
society just as the American worker has many many laws on the books protecting
their rights as workers not to be enslaved by greedy business owners.
Today,
the NAACP and the unions exist only to line the pockets of those in charge of
those organizations. The NAACP obviously doesn’t represent the millions of
black church members any more. The unions are only interested in taking the
workers dues so they can buy politicians to do their bidding, leaving the
worker footing the bill and receiving very little in return.
Our
prayers are with you as you fight this battle to free yourselves from the
oppression of the NAACP and their twisted liberal ideology. Only you can stand
up to them and stand up for what is right.
Curtis
Smith
*
* *
Considering
the man that helped Dr. King write the “I Have A Dream” speech was an openly
gay man and was one of Dr. King’s closest advisers speaks volumes about his
thoughts on civil rights. Coretta Scott King’s comments on comparing the civil
rights struggles of the LGTB community and the African-American community are
well documented. Remember another one of Dr. King’s quotes : “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Aulcie
Smith
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