Before I recognized who
I was, what I was, or where I was, I was in the Black Church; so it is
as much a part of me as are my arms and legs--I was raised in it, and
I am at my most sane and tranquil moment when in church hearing a beautiful
hymn sung or a brilliant message preached.
I
have remained in the church from my birth, throughout my early youth,
throughout my educational years, into my adult life. It is what my parents
placed in me and what I found in the church itself that has kept me there.
When the Black militants were casting off the obligations and teachings
of the Black Church, I was trying to reconcile those teachings and obligations
with my growing Black militancy. Somehow, I remained primarily guided
by those teachings. But I have not discarded my intellectual enlightenment
because of my beliefs; indeed, that enlightenment is not inconsistent
with the teachings of Christ, as some would have it.
Historically,
the Black Church has been a stabilizing and a revolutionary force in the
Black community. It has been the Black Church that has taken the mantle
of Black empowerment and carried it forward in the name of God; it has
been the Black Church that has urged Black Americans to a greater self
respect than the institutions of this society would afford us; it has
been the Black Church that has trained our greatest leaders in leadership,
letters, and oratory. Historically the Black Church has been the most
crucial institution within the Black community. I have [and still do]
loved the Black Church; I am still at my most sane and tranquil moment
within its walls.
When
I have argued fervently for the need to build Black philanthropic Foundations
in our communities, I have, however, argued equally as fervently that
those philanthropic foundations should NOT be built in the Black Church.
Part of my reason for not wanting the Black Church to host philanthropic
foundations is this: these foundations need to reach people whose life
styles the church, based on its moral and theological codes cannot approve
of reaching.
Another part of my reasoning is this: there is a serious money problem within the Black Church that has brought shame and disrepute to this lofty institution, and that problem makes developing philanthropic foundations in that institution irreconcilable. It is this problem that is the subject of this article.
It is a problem that has been allowed to continue and have a facade of Godliness that has been politely overlooked for years, as we have allowed unsavory men to masquerade as men of God within the structures and covering of the Church of God. We have seen it, joked about it, but never really challenged it. But just as the Catholic Church is now unmasking many of the sexually abusing priests and nuns who have used the church and the things of God as instruments of their untoward actions, the Black church is long overdue in unmasking the charlatans among us!
Be
assured that the comments I offer below are not meant to broad-brush or
disparage the Black Church as an institution; nor are they meant to tear
down that institution. But a vibrant and healthy institution and community
must be able to see itself, heal itself, and move on in growth. And when
an institution will not allow itself to be examined, it will degenerate
into abnormalities that will be accepted as normal behavior. But because
the offense is so widespread, so egregious, and breeds a Culture
of Ignorance that is crippling Black people, it needs to be spoken
against and brought out into the light that there can be free, honest
discussions of this matter. To those churches which my comments have
no applicability, we applaud; to those churches that find themselves
wanting, the members may want to rethink their affiliations if they
cannot change the strong man..
This problem is found primarily in fundamental Black Churches--those that claim the strictest teachings of the Word of God. This problem is so flawed, it may even be criminal in its exploitive nature of the people by unscrupulous men.
Among
the Black Churches, there is a large segment that is totally unregulated--almost
a wild frontier, where a few are getting rich off the poor and unlearned.
These churches have ministers who are self-called [a minister only needs
to declare that God has called him, and such assertion is never challenged];
they are self-educated or not educated at all; they have hired out church
buildings, attracted a following in the name of the Lord; their ministers
have given themselves titles and licenses; they become pastors, Bishops,
and even Apostles; many have purchased $25 degrees, giving themselves
meaningless Th.D., D.D., even Ph.D. degrees as a part of their con game.
The question logically asked is this: Why would one do this; what’s the value in it if they are not really ministers of God? And how does this harm the Black community? Most insiders and outsiders do not see the vast financial remunerations involved in this endeavor; many think that the self-proclaimed leaders are only after some sense of importance--they just want to lead something or somebody; and preaching is like singing--they like to do it. I wish that were what this is about. There is much more to this problem than that; sadly, it has not been seen as a problem by enough people.
Many
of the con men who pose as true ministers of God have found, as con men
do, an angle they can use to exploit a weakness in the law and a weakness
in the poor, unsuspecting churchgoers.
The
present state of the law does not regulate ministers. Anyone—even an atheist—can
become a Christian minister; anyone can get a degree from a non-accredited
institution and place it behind his/her name—as many are doing; anyone
can incorporate a church in any state and call it anything he or she will
call it; anyone can hire out a building and declare it a church, (with
some minor regard for zoning codes) woo as many members as he/she can
and have a church congregation, making him/her a pastor. And because most
people are not versed in the Bible, although most Black people hold the
Bible as the Word of God, all one needs to be is relatively well versed
in Bible verses and practice a Rev. C.L. Franklin oratory from some of
his old tapes, and he/she can command unsuspecting followers to the offering
tables.
But
the question is still unanswered: Why? The answer is MONEY, lots of
MONEY from parishioners/congregants. It has nothing to do with the
well-being of the congregants. It has all to do with money!
In the Black community
and the Black Church, there is a culture and a custom of giving to the
church. During the Civil Rights Movement, the churches were doing something
with that money—supporting activists laid off their jobs, paying for food
and shelter for those in the movement, supporting the activities for freedom,
etc. Now the money collected in many churches is for another purpose.
Many
churches are established for money; that is their sole purpose. In those
churches, there is a system of tithing, an old Jewish Mosaic Code that
churches have brought over into the New Testament churches and declared
that all the tithing goes to the pastor. This tithe-paying is declared
as God-demanded for every member—those working, those on welfare,
those on unemployment, those on retirement, etc.—must pay a tithe [tenth]
of all their income to the church, which goes directly to the pastor.
And most pastors who enforce this system through spiritually coercive
means [“Would a man rob God, yet ye have robbed me in tithes and offering…”
Malachi 3] declare themselves to be the Old Testament Levites of the New
Testament church or some other scriptural slight of hand with the
Word of God; their reasoning is theologically and practically troubling.
And there is also a demand on each congregant to contribute to an offering
that is taken of the church for the maintenance of the church and
its business. This is separate and apart from the tithe.
The
money part of the church service has become the most important for these
pastors of wealth, and they personally preside over it as if they were
the poor, milking a tethered cow--and they tether the people to their
personalities through a cult of personality culture they teach
and breed. This becomes extremely disturbing as we look at the actual
money that is received. The tithe, not the offering, is usually where
the big money is in the church. But most churchgoers never see
the calculations of the tithe money because a cardinal tenet of this con
is this: never allow the congregants to know exactly how much is
received by them and given monthly to the pastor.
The con artists know that this con can readily be seen if the congregants are allowed to look at the math of this system. The math alerts anyone to the fact that something is amiss. Biblically and intellectually enlightened and honest ministers never take the entire tithe, if such a one has this biblically outdated Mosaic system in force in a church.
Some months ago, Gibbs
was preparing an article on mega churches [church with over 3,000 members].
We interviewed a pastor of a mega church; we asked him about the administrative
system of his church. He informed us that he and his ministers were on
salaries; his members pay tithes but he gets a salary, much like a corporation
is run. His church has a congregation of 6,000 members. Most of the con
artist ministers usually pocket all the money; other ministers, if they
have other ministers, get nothing or an occasional free-will offering.
Let’s
look at some of the math of giving in a system where there is tithe-paying
and the pastor takes all the tithes. If a church has 50 members and
each member makes $3,000 a month, according to the tithing system in most
churches, each one would be obligated to pay $300 to that church as a
monthly tithe. That amount multiplied by 50 times is $15,000 a
month that the pastor would get each month. While his members make
$3,000 monthly, he is receiving five times as much as they
for the work he does. Increase the congregation's number by two, to 100;
the pastor pockets $30,000 a month. Increase the original 50 by
three to 150 members paying tithes on $3,000 month salaries; the pastor
pockets $45,000 each month. Now multiply that sum by 12 months,
and the pastor takes away with $540,000, a half million dollars a year.
This amount is a minimal sum; many members average salaries from $3,000-6,000 monthly in urban areas. Beyond this monthly amount from the tithe, there are special monthly set-asides and yearly appreciations/anniversaries when they are given from $10-50,000 in one lump sum, depending on the size of the congregation; plus, some are given cars, homes, etc. Churches can average in size from 50-500 members in smaller churches. If a church is a mega-church, it would not only be unconscionable for a pastor to pocket all the tithes, it would be criminal—fraud by deception.
These
large sums that unscrupulous ministers pull out of congregations are rarely
known by those congregations. And if some watchful eyed member raises
the large sum as an issue to the church, the congregation is given
gibberish like: “Whatever the pastor does with the Lord’s money is
the Lord’s business, not the members.” And such a person would be
removed and/or rebuked in some harsh way. But sadly, many members would
keep on giving and making the rich pastors richer because they have been
taught a culture and a cult of men, when there should be a culture around
Christ. This is the same ethos, ignorance, and culture that allowed a
Jim Jones to sexually rape the congregants' wives and sons, financially
rape them of all their money and possessions, and then have them take
their own lives for him and not for Christ. Very dangerous stuff!
If
you thought it could not get any worst, note a greater offense still:
the con men pastors may be able to declare their total or a large
part of the tithe received as tax-free; the sum usually goes directly
to him and no one, or very few, knows how much it is--most want the checks
made out directly to the pastor by name. This is money beyond the church
books, hence, not declared to the state or federal governments as taxable
money. To some pastors they declare it to be gifts that they do not declare
to IRS. So not only is the pastor making five, six, etc., times more money
than his members, he doesn’t have to pay taxes on any amount he doesn’t
want to declare. Who is to know? And do you think these honest
men will declare all, to the dime?
These handsome sums, going directly to a minister have twisted the loyalties and focus of many pastors who were once actually in the ministry to help the people in some spiritual or other ways. Many of them became more concerned for the money than the well-being of the members. In too many churches pastors are the richest persons in the congregation, and those who have made him rich remain the poorest.
The
newly rich behave as Dr. E. Franklin Fraizer and other observers of the
newly rich have said: they engage in conspicuous consumption--big,
expensive cars, expensive homes away from the poor of their congregations,
fancy clothes, the best schools for their children, lavish vacations,
the best restaurants, and much vaunting—the fatted calf goes to them.
They live sumptuous life styles that are comparable to drug lords.
To maintain this outrage in many Black churches, these con artists keep the people ignorant and literally promulgate a culture of ignorance. For as long as the people are blind, they will never challenge such conduct. A sighted person coming into a system such as described above will immediately be repulsed by it and challenge it. And since such a challenge would be disruptive to the continuity of that scheme, they do not court sighted individuals--intellectuals or spiritually astute persons--into their flock.
So oppressive is this system of ignorance in some churches that many members allow pastors to see their check stubs to make sure they are paying the correct amount of their hard earned money as tithes to him. Some pastors have actually had members' welfare checks signed over to the church; others have had the elderly sign over their homes and property to the church, leaving their children and relatives no inheritance. This type of money culture and cult has taken over a number of Black churches. It is a type of ignorance and fraud that is perpetrated in the name of God by ministers who use contorted Bible analyses and slight of hand interpretations to seduce the unlearned to part with their money.
Because
the money stakes are so high, there are court suits, physical fights,
threats of violence, and police are called into some of these churches
to resolve matters that should be spiritually resolved. The great Apostle
Paul told the church at Corinth [and by extension, the church today] that
if a matter of dispute comes up, not to go to court to resolve it.
Instead, Paul said that they should seek a brother who is least esteemed
in the church, and let him judge the matter. But since the Bible is
only used to separate the money from the members, these con artists dare
not use it to resolve their money disputes.
Again, the Apostle Paul said that the love of money is the root of all evil. And this evil has taken hold on too many Black churches as they practice coercive giving upon the poor members to make the pastors rich. From my reading of the New Testament church's guiding principle, the Bible, New Testament Church members had all things common; those who were cited as rich did not get or sustain their riches from the people of God; and they were not the apostles and ministers of the church. This money contortion is an Orwellian situation: All the animals in Animal Farm are equal, but some are more equal than others.
The religious con artists have skillfully defined appreciation, love, honor and similar biblical words as money going to them. While they preach of God's blessing, they seem to be the only ones God blesses with money; and God does His blessing of them by taking money from the poor. That is strange indeed; but that is the con men take on the matter.
This cult of money and men is corrupt, it is not of God, and it is a not so secret sin. But more than that, it is not what God is saying, it is what these con men are saying and doing. It is criminal and fraud by deception.
Whereas the church is supposed to save people from their sins, many poor of the church need to be saved from these sinners. As long as the Black church world and the Black community allow this religious evil to exist, it will spread throughout our community and degenerate into greater ignorance and ungodly deceptions, as these con artists, who are nothing more than ministers of finance, wax bold in their fraud and their deceptions-"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." MLK,Jr.[]
Frank A. Jones
3/11/02
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