Rhetoric Race and Religion
In 2007, former Morehouse College President Robert Michael Franklin wrote that“one of the challenges ahead of the African-American community is the preparation of public theologians for church and society.” Today, some 7 years later, this still rings true. Those of us within the so-called African-American church can boast of billions in collected contributions, millions of adherents, thousands of church buildings, hundreds of mega congregations and countless spirit filled services. Yet, our collective public theological and intellectual witness remains faint and feeble, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than among those who constitute the church’s leadership, namely its pastors.
Presently, the most pervasive images of African-American pastors in media and public discourse are of the high-profile superstar pastoral types and the infamous wolves in Shepard’s clothing that have been publicly exposed to be hustlers and sexual predators. Obviously these images, though sexy for general conversation, do not come close to telling the whole story of pastoring in African-American communities. In reality, African-American pastoral images are quite diverse and richly textured. However, despite this reality the stories of certain pastoral models go largely untold and underappreciated. As a result many pastors have a narrow view of effective Christian leadership that too often does not include models of prophetic public ministry.
Today, given the myriad of social issues that plague African-American communities we are desperately in need of more pastors who are committed to the public theological and intellectual tradition. These are pastors who understand their calling to nurture and equip the church to be rooted in a commitment to examine and critique social practices and cultural understandings in the light of the gospel and insights into justice and the good society. Practically these pastors express their public theological commitment by producing sermons, books, articles, essays, lectures, and speeches etc. that are informed by quality social analysis, prophetic moral vision, and guided by insightful interpretations of the Scriptures and Christian tradition.
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