The Need for correcting wrongs
in the Black Church

--An Essay--
taken from:
www.gibbsmagazine.com

It is one thing to get angry and another to get right. The responses I have received from writing about the problems of financial improprieties in some Black churches are only anger--an anger I knew would come. But if that is the cost of bringing this problem to the attention of others and even those in the church who are unaware of it; it is a cost worth paying to remove this egregious scourge from the once beautiful Black and Godly church.

But to correct the problems is something different and it is what this writer has been, is, and will be calling for until those problems are corrected. I will use this forum of over 120,000 readers and other forums to deal with this blight and blemish on the Black Church even though there are diversionary ad hominem attacks and slander against me. The problem is greater than myself; there are small, fragile individuals who are hurt and need someone with a voice to speak for them. It is a problem that needs attacking not a person.

One sad aspect in dealing with this issue and the responses is that many of those who are shut up and financially abused in many of the abusive churches are often fearful of pastors, as if a pastor or any person can somehow dislodge them from a connection with God. This fear is often fed by an imperfect knowledge of the faith wherein they believe and assume that a pastor's knowledge or understanding is somehow more perfect than theirs. But do we not all read from the same belief script--the Holy Bible?

Early Christians exhibited a similar type of behavior; they had only a Missal [a small collection of Bible verses that the early Catholic Church allowed its members to have]. When, however, they received the whole Bible and were able to read it and think for themselves, the Reformation occurred. There can never be a reformation until people can see and know the truth and until they will think for themselves.

This problem of financial impropriety is widespread, but widespread among a small group of churches that have a system of tithes and lack accountability. Any system that lacks accountability and transparency is a system easily given to misappropriation of church funds for personal use. And a misappropriation of church funds for personal use is what has the Rev. Dr. Lyon in prison today.

Although this is an egregious problem, it is one that is a problem in a limited number of churches, in comparison to the whole of Christendom. The tithe system for church giving is not a system that is universal in Christendom; it is restricted to a small number of churches--small Black churches that are usually very fundamentalist in their teaching and extreme in their zeal--and to a small number of ministers who breed a cult of personality around themselves and not the teachings of Christ. Often fundamentalism allows an untoward minister to preach and develop an adherence to a doctrine of tithes or even to giving all of one's possessions to the church. Enlightened churches and intelligent and Godly ministers have another system; they hear the scriptures speaking plainly about New Testament giving and the fairness of distribution of wealth to all Christians.

Some solutions:
Although ministers who want to have uncontrolled and unaccountable access to church money will do everything they can to discourage the congregation or an individual member from requesting accountability, there is a way to bring accountability to these churches and these ministers, even though they resist such rightful stewardship.

One of our writer is also an IRS auditor, and a friend of Gibbs is also a major corporate IRS auditor. When discussing this matter with one of them last week, I was informed [a fact I knew but had forgotten] that all nonprofit corporations can be examined and must be open to public scrutiny since they are indirectly supported by the public. Furthermore, any 990 form--the yearly IRS tax forms that must be filed by nonprofit corporations that receive $25,000 or more--can be requested from IRS by anyone wanting them. These forms have all the financial dealings of that corporation. You can see where the money is going or if all church money is being reported. And if it is not reported, there are serious problems, much like Dr. Lyon's.

Also, there is a web site that lists many nonprofits' 990's on the web. Anyone can go to that site and search for a particular church or nonprofit agency. If a particular agency, church, corporation, etc., cannot be found, one can always go directly to IRS and request the 990 form.

Examining that tax form will help secure a clear understanding of the financial dealings and goings-on in a church. Such knowledge will help bring accountability to many. And that accountability is a necessity for confidence in the church and in its leadership.

This issue is important for Gibbs for a number of reasons: First, the church is supposed to be the moral guide for believers and many non-believers; second, the church leadership has almost taken over the political leadership of the Black community, and if they are our leaders, we need to make sure that our leaders are not beating their wives, so to speak; third, there are real people being hurt by unscrupulous men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, to use a Bible expression; fourth, those of us who have a voice should use that voice to fight for the poor and frail who cannot voice their own defense. Because of our numbers and the fact that many large media read Gibbs regularly, we can be a voice for the fragile and the small.

Finally, have I cited any one church or any one pastor or minister? Your answer can only be NO. I have personally maligned no one, although I have been personally attacked and maligned as if the problems Gibbs cites are specified to one church, one organization, or one pastor/minister. Or as if I am so single in my focus and narrow in my scope as to write about a single individual, church, or organization. Our focus is not on one person, one church, or one church organization. Were that the case, there would be no problem of any significance to us. But there is a real problem. I attend a good number of churches and church functions; I like many ministers and dislike none. But most of all, I love the church and many beautiful people therein.

But none of these realities will close my eyes to the problems of the church. Neither should they close yours. No people can advance until they are capable of seeing and confronting their demons. This is a universal concept known by all. While the Catholic Church is going through its shocking sexual abuse scandals, the Black Church must be mature enough to come to grips with this problem of financial impropriety. It is simply disgraceful to see in every town, large, expensive cars costing thousands of dollars being driven by men whom we all know are the religious leaders of our communities--how strange they are from Christ! Yet individual church members cannot afford to rent an apartment or buy themselves a home for the $60-80,000 car prices these religious leaders pay to simply ride around town.

If you have no problem with this type of extravagance and pompousness of wealth and possessions by leaders who claim that wealth from many of the poor in the name of God, be assured, this writer is from another world of morality and fairness; a world that disapproves of such behavior and cannot find moral justification for it. Were Jesus here in the flesh, I am sure he would call this behavior unconscionable and reprehensible at the expense of HIS people. []