Black Leaders Blast Megachurches, Say They Ignore Social Justice

graemephillips »

Sun Feb 03, 2008 7:08 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

The idea that only fabulously wealthy people promote prosperity theologies is absolute nonsense. One of my former churches was a bilingual church made up largely of low-income Colombian immigrants. The pastor (from Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia) has also struggled to regain his former standard of living in his new country, but he will happily promulgate prosperity theology.

Also, why is the issue of race being brought into this equation? It has nothing to do with the main subject, which concerns why some evangelical churches take the "It's ok if there are lots of homeless people on the street just as long as I don't see two men holding hands" attitude.

Furthermore, it is time society asked the question of why blacks in the USA are so much poorer than many less recently established ethnic groups. Blacks have been living in the USA in large numbers since the 1700s and are still the poorest members of American society and living very much as a separate entity. Other ethnic groups have arrived, they sometimes had difficulties in the beginning, but eventually integrated themselves into American society. Such groups include the Irish (especially following the potato famine), Indian and Chinese immigrants during the late 1990s technology boom, Vietnamese refugees during the war there, Cubans etc. Perhaps it is time blacks started looking within themselves for fault rather than trying to blame all their ills on slavery, which ended in the USA in 1865. Ok, so slavery caused economic hardship for blacks, but most reasonably flexible people would have adjusted in the 148 years since slavery in the USA ended: - after all, there are many immigrants who came to the USA with absolutely nothing but the clothes they were wearing, but who built up large fortunes within a few years.