The Scourge Of Racism
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Covert sexual promiscuity among black Americans and the paradoxical moral conservatism that developed along with it from slavery through the Civil Rights era is well known. However, what is now, quite overt sexual promiscuity has evolved with the “sexual revolution” of the wider culture since and is plainly seen consequentially, for example, in the high number of single parent households many have mostly attributed to the unsaved and nominal Christians. But as I was shocked to learn and wrote about in this edited two-part 2012 repost, a growing number of sexually active young blacks are boldly declaring their faith in Christ while also openly practicing what they fully know is sin!
Deeply troubled about this very apparent misunderstanding of who He really is, I also wrote to this group as the unchanging God full of grace and mercy led to give warning and helpful instruction. I make this repost hoping again to be heard at a time when the wider culture is attempting through media to make all manner of sexual immorality normal. So much is this the case, that in the January 30, 2018 episode of a new black American themed CW show called “Black Lightning,” the main character’s lesbian daughter is consoled in a hospital setting by her mother over the break up with her lover while the Gospel Music classic, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” plays in the background.
Surely, all of us over fifty remember either our mothers and/or grandmothers weeping to this song a generation ago not only as they thought hopefully for Mary overcome with grief for her dead brother, Lazarus, but cathartically, the plight of their own children facing the sometime deadly challenges of growing up black in an oppressive and segregated America. For the show’s producers, the network and black cast to allow this mockery of Christianity and the Christian black experience in the cause to further sexual immorality is wicked beyond words and marks the arrival of the next clear consequence of trying to have God and sin too! The guilty must snap out of satanic delusion and repent before it is too late; realizing the immutable, holy God never embraces, but judges sin.
Originally Posted September 16, 2012
One more article published in the May 2012 Ebony Magazine that caught my attention focused on Christian black American singles and their attitudes toward having sex outside of marriage. Entitled, Single, Saved--and Having Sex, the article written by Chevonne Harris appeared in the Love And Relationships Connect section of the magazine.1 A set up tag line reads: “A Majority Of Young Christians Are Foregoing Abstinence, Even As They Keep The Faith.” While a few men are cited in the article, it is written with a decidedly female audience in mind right down to the graphic art seemingly showing two females embracing on a bed while in shadow a solitary woman is draped over a pew in apparent sadness.
This article showcases again the liberalizing trend of especially many young black Americans away from the historic faith of the Bible and our faithful Christian slave forefathers. To struggle with sex as a Christian is not new. I confess my own struggle (key word here is “struggle”) with living celibate as a young Christian in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2 So, let no one read me as unsympathetic. However, it is one thing to struggle and another to just flat out go for it without concern about biblical prohibitions or consequences. This is a new attitude among historically morally conservative blacks claiming to be Christians the article is reporting on as a current trend.
Citing Relevant Magazine as its source, the article states, “As many as 80% of young, unmarried Christians have had sex.” In Ebony’s own polling at one Ohio church, 54% of 192 single Christians were practicing abstinence while 46% were not doing so even as they retained their belief that sex before marriage is a sin. The attitude of the Christians represented in the new trend of unapologetic sexual promiscuity is expressed well in the article by 34 year old Yolanda Jordan when she is quoted as saying: ‘“Just because I have a Bible on my nightstand and condoms in the drawer doesn’t mean I love God any less or that He doesn’t love me.’”3
Professed Christian John Fitzgerald has “ended relationships because of the woman’s decision to remain abstinent.” He adds, ‘“Yes, it’s wrong, [but] I’m still doing it.’” Author, Sophia Nelson, admits the Bible’s clarity about abstinence until marriage, then offers, ‘“that is not the reality of what’s going on.”’ Moreover, she says, “‘It is unrealistic in the 21st century to expect celibacy until marriage.’” She cites how sexualized society is, the trend to marry later and the “double standard” of tolerating Christian male sex outside of marriage that is unfair to women to support her claim.
Ebony’s article did reference a Creflo Dollar publication explaining the world’s turn away from honoring God’s Word on abstinence until marriage as due to “selfishness.” I would generally agree with this assessment and remind struggling Christian singles as a result, it is not about you. God knows all about your physiology--He gave it to you! He has also given you ready access to His power to be the master over your own body (Galatians 5:22-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). God has given Christians no commandment that He has not also given us the power through the Holy Spirit to obey (Ephesians 3:14-20; Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:9-12).
However, you must have a made up mind as an aspiring strong man or great woman of God to please Him in obedience, not yourself in sexual gratification. As it concerns the times, you have been called out of the world to Christ and no longer are to follow its thinking and practices (Romans 12:1-2). Regardless of the culture or century, the will of God in Christ remains the same. Every type of sex outside of marriage between a man and woman is sin for all time and all who willfully practice disobedience to this, will eventually be visited by God with judgment (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 5:1-5, 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; Hebrews 13:4, 8). Why would you foolishly put God to the test (Acts 5:1-11)?
1 Find the article at Ebony.com.
2 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
3 A footnote informs readers names in the article had been changed.
I open Black History Month 2018 as the Lord leads yet again to speak the truth from His Word to professed Christian black Americans to inform our ongoing uplift in this and the three reposts that follow. Having been publically upbraided many times for speaking the truth in love, I do not relish naming names to address grave spiritual error that exists as impediments to our progress. However, in these instances, it was unavoidable. My Christmas Eve 2017 post entitled, “Hedging One’s Religious Bets,” under the category, Instruction serves as the general backdrop for this edited 2012 repost warning specifically about abandoning the faith that has brought us this far.
Originally Posted September 9, 2012
While awaiting my turn at the barbershop recently, I picked up Ebony Magazine--that ubiquitous print icon of the black community from my childhood--and once again encountered an approach to Christianity that has clearly become a liberalizing trend away from the faith of the Bible and our faithful Christian slave forefathers. Oh, the magazine still features prominent black religious figures and churches. However, as in most Western societies over the past generation, there has been an unmistakable shift away from honoring the unique message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the absolute truths and morality of biblical Christianity.
Today, what is frequently offered is a more generic, politically correct and culturally tolerant form of the faith as one of many possible means a person choosing religion as a path can make it work for them. As historically, pastors and churches are leading the way. A case in point is the May 2012 issue of Ebony I was browsing through that featured an article by Rev. A.R. Bernard, the founder and senior pastor of Christian Cultural Center out of Brooklyn, N.Y., entitled, 9 Habits That Lift The Soul.1 According to its set up information, the article is intended to help those wanting to “breathe new life into your spiritual journey” to do so.
This was a great set up and I actually began to read the article with hopes this “Christian” preacher would share some great biblical insights for those seeking what can only come from a personal relationship with the One, true God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God alone (John 14:6). But alas, in the opening sentence my discernment warning lights starting flashing off the charts. In introducing the nine principles to “keep stress and chaos at bay” he has taught members of his congregation, Rev. Bernard writes, “Although these principles are God-centered and Biblical, they apply in general, no matter what your belief system is,” (emphasis mine).
His nine principles are prayer, spiritual study, worship, solitude, giving and service, fasting, reflection, discernment and sharing your story. I will not go through them all, but the first three certainly do speak in a general way to persons of any religious persuasion, but makes some incorrect assumptions in a biblical worldview. He says, for example, “daily prayer is a way to practice an awareness of God.” On the surface, of course, this is true of praying to God. The problem here is with thousands of religions in the world, it appears this “Christian” preacher is falsely assuming as many non-Christians do that all of them really have the same deity or the deities are all equal.
He goes on to counsel not just talking, but listening to “God.” For Christians who take the God of the Bible at His Word that He is the only true God, this is excellent counsel (Isaiah 43:10-13, 44:6-8). But who will everyone else be talking and listening to? Of spiritual study Rev. Bernard says, “Every religion is based on its writings. Whichever faith you subscribe to, become intimately acquainted with the writings that inspire it.” Has God truly made thousands of religious texts among different peoples that all harmoniously present His essential truths and bring them closer to Him? No (Deuteronomy 4:5-14, 32-35; Psalm 147:19-20; Romans 3:1-2, 9:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:14-17)!
Concerning worship, Rev. Bernard writes, “This means practicing the sovereignty of God over your life. It’s a reminder that you’re part of something much greater than yourself.” Even atheists can get in on this since they “believe in the universal moral principles that govern humankind.” “Worship,” he goes on to say, “is about acknowledging the power of that which rules your life.” But while this all sounds noble, Jesus Christ says worship of God the Father is done in “spirit and truth” exclusively through Him (John 4:23-24, 14:6, 17:17, NKJV). What then are those outside of Christ worshipping?
No doubt for the sake of the liberal minded inventions of political correctness and tolerance in this 21st century, Ebony Magazine as so many other Western media and institutions of men feel obligated to speak broadly to the widest possible swath of humanity without offending anyone--anyone except Bible believing Christians anyway. However, for the record and those professed Christians that for whatever motive would attempt to create a generic Christianity for mass consumption, the Scripture is plain that Christianity is not a religious invention of man that is generic enough for non-believers to live out bypassing Christ, His cross and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. To teach so is heresy and a doctrine of demons (Galatians 1:1-10; 1 Timothy 4:1-2)!
We preachers especially walk in Christ’s footsteps heralding the message He brought from Heaven to proclaim to humanity (Matthew 4:23). We do not have the right or authentic release ever from Christ to preach our own or any other message. If you are doing so: fear (2 Corinthians 5:9-11)! Our faithful Christian slave forefathers as aspiring strong men and great women of God did not practice some generic version of Christianity.2 They “got over” trusting solely in the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ.3 They prayed to Him; they stood on His Word; they turned from idols, witchcraft and ancestor worship among other religious practices to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob alone.
“We have come this far by faith” in the Lord God of the Bible and no-one else!4 Are we now so free and in with the world so good we can turn our backs on Him? Repent anyone who thinks so (James 4:1-10)! Or, do you also despise the example and lessons God has given through the written experience of Israel in the Bible (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews 3:7-19)? And with regard to enjoying real peace in a chaotic, trouble and stress filled world, let every seeker find it where it can only be found in Jesus Christ who is the “Prince of Peace,” (Isaiah 9:6; John 14:27, 16:33; Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
2 Learn more about strong men and great women of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available through all major internet booksellers, by order
from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
3 Read a previous Black History Month post, How We Get Over published on February 16, 2014 to understand what is meant by “got over.”
4 Step through the short presentation giving a biblical worldview of the black experience on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site Home Page at
www.fromslaverytovictory.org.
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