One of the defects of the Negro Church is the defect in the culture of
its ministry. In spite of all that has been said and done to create
prejudice against the higher education of the Negro, statistics have
failed everywhere to show that our schools have turned out a large
percentage of College or University graduates. There are a few College
or University graduates in the ranks of our ministry. A larger
percentage has failed even to get through a High School course. The
defect in scholarship and culture constitutes a grave problem in our
church life. The leader of a people must be a man of broad culture, wide
sympathies, and in touch with all the varied interests of the people. It
is not enough to be able to read the Bible or pass an examination in
denominational theology. The modern teacher and preacher of today must
be acquainted with the humanities. If not a scientist he must know the
trend of scientific thought and its relation to the Bible. The best
poetry of nations should be at his command on account of the refining
influence which it has always exercised on mankind in all ages. The
masterpieces of the world's best prose writers, the history of art, the
study of the philosophy of history, and the too neglected study of the
history of ethnic religions must be in his possession, not simply in the
library of his home but in the library of his mind. Most if not all of
these studies may be prosecuted outside the college, but the college
curriculum has the advantage of system which the average preacher does
not have. College and University courses are excellent, not so much for
what one can remember out of the many things studied in them, but for
the system and mental discipline as well as the social culture through
which one passes. The interests of the church demand that the pulpit
shall lead the pew. Considering the influence which the Negro ministry
has over its laity, the demand becomes more and more imperative. It is
not a learned ministry but a cultured ministry, a ministry with higher
tastes and aspirations, a ministry which in spite of the materialism of
the times will make the time to study and see the beautiful, the good,
and the true, in God's handiwork. It is this lack of culture which makes
many a preacher narrow-minded. To them the beauties of nature are dead.
To their barren minds nature is a barren wilderness.
(2) From being uncultured the Negro ministry finds it an easy descent to
being immoral. It must be borne in mind that all the defects enumerated
of the ministry or laity are defects not of the whole ministry or laity,
but are defects found among them to a large extent. The salvation of the
church and the race is due to the faithful few, pure and noble men and
women among us. They are the salt of the race and are growing in numbers
as years increase. The future is full of hope. It is painful nevertheless
to know that there is still a large number of immoral preachers, though
not as large as there used to be. Churches and church authorities, and
the educated sentiment of the race are on the alert and are quickly
displacing these men whenever they are found. In the conflict of the
church with the Titan of immorality, the church needs as helpers, men
with a hundred hands like Briareus to hold down this elusive monster.
The term immorality may include all kinds of conduct which the custom of
our times supported by enlightened sentiment disapproves. But the object
of the writer is not to charge the Negro ministry with all kinds of
misdemeanors. There is only one kind of conduct which is so far-reaching
in its results because it is fundamentally subversive of and destructive
to the best interests of society, that the writer wishes to bring up as
a defect of our ministry. It is sexual unchastity. There are causes for
this depravity among a certain class of Negro ministers. It is not a
constitutional disease in the Negro as many of the detractors of the
race have affirmed. Acquaintance with the ancestral life of the African
shows without the shadow of a doubt that the morality of the heathen as
relates to sexes is part of the religion of most African tribes before
they are brought into contact with a foreign civilization. Plantation
life in American society where illicit sexual intercourse was the rule
and not the exception, fostered and encouraged by white masters of the
past, and still practised though less extensively by white men, is a
product of Anglo-Saxon civilization. The environments of country life
encourage illicit living, and to men already reared among them are a
snare. Some of these environments are found in the log-cabin in which
families are crowded together like cattle, and sexual privacy and
decorum are impossible. The plantation log-cabin finds its counterpart
in the slums of cities with their crowded alleys. The landlord in both
cases is at the bottom of these evils. It is but fair to state that
these environments when found in the cities or among the peasantry of
Europe, as in France and Russia, reveal social evils even worse than
those found among Negroes in the United States. But the point we wish to
emphasize is this, that environments help to make the man, and the man
helps to make his environments. There is a class of men among Negro
preachers whose environments have not been other than those in the
plantations, these are the men who are unfit to be the leaders of the
people. When on account of their natural ability and gift of speech they
are set aside as preachers, it only gives them a larger opportunity to
demoralize themselves and those with whom they come into contact. It
will always take men of the strongest moral fibre in any race to elevate
those who live either in the slums of cities or in the cabin life of
plantations, otherwise the gain to Christian missions will be in
quantity rather than quality. Hence the need of specific training of the
best kind in schools where students of the race will find healthy
environments to inspire them to higher and nobler living. Hence the need
of higher education for the race because it subjects the recipient to an
atmosphere of healthy environments long enough to saturate his life. For
his own interest the Negro preacher should do his utmost to improve the
social condition of his people in city or farm, since that condition
reflects for good or evil upon his own character.
3. One of the best results of the Protestant reformation is the
diffusion of God's word among the people. Through the reformation the
Bible ceased to be tongue-tied. Its history, poetry of war and love, its
tragedy, its simple gospel stories of the Christ comprise a literature
that is unsurpassed, and a revelation of God that is unique. But the
Bible can only be intelligently understood by the people when the mind
of the people is prepared to receive it. One of the worst results
growing indirectly out of the Protestant reformation, is the creation of
an ignorant priesthood and the reducing of the Bible to a fetich. It
follows as a matter of course that where the ministry is uncultured, the
interpretation of the word of God suffers. The spirit of God can not do
what man is intended to do. He can only illumine where the mind is
prepared to pass through the process. Revelation requires a medium,
otherwise it is powerless. To understand the mind of God in the Bible
presupposes a mind to comprehend His mind. With the Negro's deficient
ministry, religion becomes irreligion. He believes too much in the
non-essentials of religion, his heaven and hell are too much in the
distant future, he prays that after death he may go to heaven but sees
no heaven on earth. The new heaven and the new earth which John saw and
the new Jerusalem coming down from God to man are antipodal to his
conceptions. His God is seen going up to some cloudless region instead
of coming down to tabernacle with men. His sermons feed the feelings but
neglect the intellect and will, they tickle the ear and subordinate
truth to eloquence. The greater emphasis he puts on churchianity is a
loss to Christianity. The contribution which modern thought is making to
Biblical interpretation is sealed to him. He pursues his beaten path
along the old ruts of ecclesiasticism. He believes in a revelation which
is non-progressive and whose distinctive feature is sameness for all
times. He is painfully liberal in the construction of the Bible. He
thinks he is a curse himself according to the prophet Noah, for he has
not yet discovered the distinctive and conditional element in prophecy.
His theology is in the main denominational and is like the laws of the
Medes and Persians which admit of no change. His mind does not
discriminate between the _ipse dixit_ of the Almighty and external
authority in matters relating to dogma. In the pulpit he lacks decorum,
deep spirituality, and contemplation. His oratory is thunderous, too
physical, and lacks grace and beauty.
Much praise is due to those denominations whose forethought has led them
to spend considerable time and pains to prepare men for the gospel
ministry. In quality of preaching and teaching, and in results already
achieved, the race owes much to this as yet small band of workers. Like
the leaven hidden in the meal its influence is being felt in the church,
in the farm, and in the firesides of the people, and is destined to
overthrow ignorance, immorality, and superstition. With the continued
aid of well-equipped mission schools which must be the base of supply
for our churches, and the training of a new type of men such as the
modern church demands, the moral change so much hoped for will be
hastened.
4. The world-spirit is in the churches and has taken hold of our
ministry. A large part of church duties which should be performed by
laymen is shirked and placed upon the minister's shoulders. The result
is that the minister is often overburdened with secular matters, is
forced to leave the word and serve tables and loses much spirituality.
When a minister's success depends largely and primarily upon amount of
dollars raised by him his spiritual decline is rapid. Worldliness
follows when desire for position or recognition in the church overcomes
the desire to save men, and when the ordinary tricks of politics are
resorted to in order to gain church distinctions. It is a reversal of
Christ's order, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you." These other things are
eagerly desired in place of the "first" things. The more elaborate the
organization of a church is, the larger is the number of preferments to
offices, and greater the opportunity given to office seekers to make
these the first things. The best men in any church are not always those
who hold its highest offices. Too much organization in the church leads
to too much officialism and worldliness, for "where the carcass is,
there will the vultures be gathered together."