Dear @DavidAFrench the answer to your question is quite simple. (1) The black church’s Christian identity is grounded in the Old Testament God who liberates the creation, evangelicals begin with Paul and *then* Jesus who’s trying to save people from creation. (2) Eschatology...
(2) Eschatology: evangelicals are still basically fundamentalist and premillennial. The black church’s eschatology is more amillennial (like the Lutherans). (3) Evangelicals are lamenting the loss of a cultural power/influence, esp. in the South, that the black church never had.
Evangelicals in America have never viewed themselves in exile. The Black church always identifies more with exilic Israel than individual Paul-ergo, the black church orients itself around a theology of suffering/hope. Evangelicals, a theology individual salvation/social power.
Finally, so, when you lose social power, you think the world is coming to an end and you start twisting the Bible to make 2 Chron 7:14 about America when it’s not. Spend a year in a black church and you’ll see the difference. Listen to @edeweysmith@pastoremase and @johnfaisonsr
Much, much more I could say.....I wish more evangelicals knew the theology of the black beyond King, Douglass, and Washington.
*black church
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I’m old. At my church growing up, youth ministry was sex-segregated and led by the fathers (mostly in suits). Only the youth choir and Sunday School were co-ed. I didn’t see the wisdom in that—until I wrote my book on fatherhood. Here’s why, backed by research:
Black boys in America don’t just need mentors.
They thrive socially, economically, spiritually, etc. with deeply invested older Black men—especially fathers—who build trust with their family, speak into their identity, and walk with them as extended family.
A recent study found that Black youth don’t just benefit from one-on-one mentorship.
They thrive when mentors:
• bond with the boy’s family
• operate like extended family
• stay for the long haul
• and model what manhood looks like
We raised GenZ/GenAlpha boys to be sweet, self-effacing "nice guys" that all the moms like. Now they’re terrified of rejection, addicted to video games, paralyzed by fear--a reaction again the narcissism of millennials. Let me explain how we created a generation of doormats.
To fix “toxic masculinity,” we overcorrected.
We taught boys:
– never to take up space
– never to be assertive
– never to want anything strongly
– always to be soft, sensitive, agreeable
Now we have 20-year-olds who won't ask girls out or grow up. Don't blame video games.
What we called “humility” was actually training in self-erasure. What we called “niceness” was often neurotic people-pleasing. We taught boys that being liked by everyone is the highest good. Especially by women and teachers.
Wess Roley, 20, killed 2 firefighters in Idaho brush fire sparked with flint. Not MAGA-related. Fits psych data on boys from divorced homes raised by moms: higher risk of destructive behavior. Here's why this matters:
Hurt boys grow to be men who tend to hurt others. Wess Roley grew up amid significant family turmoil. In September 2015, his mother filed for divorce, alleging that her husband, Wesley Roley Sr. had threatened her, pushed her to the ground, punched holes in walls, etc. Broken.
Court documents detailed years of alleged abuse, prompting a judge to issue a protective order initially barring Wesley Sr. from contacting both his wife and son.
This is a 1930 lynching. For whites, lynching was a social event. Like a college football game. My father tells how white girls, knowing their power, would taunt black boys in Atmore, AL when he was a kid: they would invite them to kiss them so they could get them lynched.
They’d threaten to lie about being assaulted by black boys, knowing it could get them lynched. My dad said black boys would run from white girls to avoid false accusations. The white girls/women—active in Southern churches—knew exactly what they were doing because they were evil.
What’s even more sad for me is that an entire generation of Reformed Evangelicals and Southern conservatives today a) don’t know this history & how central Christianity was to lynchings, and 2) have been trained to respond these stories with this, “That did not happen.”
Young Life was founded in 1941—well-intended but a bit misguided. Teens weren’t disengaged from church; they lacked their father's spiritual formation at home. Fathers are the greatest predictor of faith persistence into adulthood. Rayburn should’ve launched "Father Life"!
Again, have decades of data, dating back to the 1840s, that fathers are greatest predictor of faith persistence from childhood to adulthood, and instead of hiring pastors for men and fathers, churches hire youth pastors.🤦🏾♂️This still happens today!! Decades of data about fathers!
Adolescence emerged from dad-deprivation, yet the ministries pursued the kids (YMCA, camps, youth groups) instead of fathers. I still don’t get it. A 6:30 AM Wed. Bible study & F3 aren't enough to serve men and fathers. Fathers need comprehensive, structural support. #Confused
Oops. The 1950s suburban nuclear family was a massive cultural mistake: men were away from their children most of the week, the homes were terribly lonely for women, teenagers were around peers all the time and became delinquent, adultery exploded, men were lost & anxious,
mothers were viewed as the only important adult in the home and bore too much of the responsibility for managing all aspects of family life, fathers were just a source of income, suburban social life was boring, unhappy & frustrated mothers became distant from their children,
homes became increasingly child-centered and obsessed with performance, adult masculinity was reduced being a "company man" and spending time engaging in hobbies; teens had the financial means to be "me-centered" and became more nihilistic, rebellious, cynical, & materialistic;