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[inaudible] Black Church Studies Department at Colgate Rochester. He is the Director of Black Church Studies and Assistant Professor of Ethics and Society at Emory University School of Theology here in Atlanta.

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Let us now hear him as he delivers the afternoon lecture, Reclaiming the Souls of Black Men Folk. (audience applauding) - Thank you, Dr. Brown, a good friend from San Francisco

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and one who loves Morehouse with great fervor. I'd like to thank all of you for taking time out of your hectic schedules to be present this afternoon. For African American males in contemporary America,

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these are the best and the worst of times. Television's most popular family sitcom features a black male. During the most recent presidential election,

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Diverse commentators brought themselves to admit that the most intellectually stimulating and emotionally arousing campaign was orchestrated by a black male.

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The political outcome of that political phenomena placed a black male as chairperson of the National Democratic Party. A black male serves as pastor

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of the historic Riverside Church of New York City. And black male rap musicians and professional athletes define popular cultural trends which are followed by the youth of the world. At the same time, for many Americans, for many American black males,

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for many Americans, black males constitute the nation's most enigmatic and threatening segment of the population. Recently, considerable media attention has been focused upon a melancholy litany of black male dubious distinctions. These daily reports feed us images of black men who are violent, unemployed, misogynist,

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or women haters, irresponsible, and drug dependent. Perhaps most ominous among them was Time Magazine's feature story titled "Today's Native Sons, Inner-City Black Males are America's newest lost generation, December 1986. The authors of that piece reminded us that while black men account for only 6% of America's population, they

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make up half of its male prisoners. While the national unemployment rate is 6.9%, for black men it is 15%, and for black teens it remains more than 40%. The leading cause of death among black males between the ages of 15 and 24 is homicide. The average life expectancy of 65 years for black men is less than what it was for white men more than 40 years ago.

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Black men are increasingly absent from the home with almost 60% of all births to black women occurring out of wedlock. Finally, the number of black men enrolled in college is declining rapidly. Numerous scholars and public leaders have sought to portray the predicament of today's native sons as a threat not merely to the future of the black family and community,

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but to the entire society, thereby making it a cause for concerted public and private action. to the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, our own Dr. Joseph Gales, Jr., vice president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, said these words, I quote, "It is

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important for our society to view black male health, both physical and mental, as a major public policy problem and address its solution as a social malignancy affecting the very fabric of American society," end quote. Notwithstanding this catalog of despair, the public sector has not deemed this state of

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affair severe or significant enough to merit intervention. Federal and state government agencies have done little more than expand job opportunities in the military services and construct new prisons to house these problematic citizens. Regrettably, many religious institutions have exhibited similar ambivalent regard for black

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males who fit the underclass profile. In general, churches are more successful in providing ministry to middle-class educated black men. Far from developing innovative and effective outreach ministries to poor men, most black churches seem to share the wider society's posture of fear, mistrust,

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impatience, and contempt for them. It would be exceedingly tragic for the black community and the nation if hundreds of thousands of young black male lives were to become wasted treasures due to the combined effects of structural oppression, personal irresponsibility, and community neglect.

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The underlying premise of my lecture is that because religious institutions are the principal zones, zones in which moral values are taught and nurtured, they have a non-negotiable obligation to persist in reaching this endangered population who continue to be God's children, no matter how debased.

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Churches, temples, and mosques have done well in the past and must renew their missions with intelligence and gusto. The history of African American home missions work includes stories of breathtaking redemption

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as manifest in the lives of persons such as Malcolm X, as well as the common story of millions of nameless men who were empowered to resist and overcome the traumas of oppression.

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In my judgment, the crisis of the black male in America is fundamentally a spiritual one. To be sure, the crisis entails other significant dimensions, political, economic, cultural, but throughout modern history,

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black men have suffered the indignity of deprivation in each of those other zones without losing hope, without losing defiance, spirit, collective purpose, and confidence in God.

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Crisis means decision. What is at stake here is nothing less than the souls of black men folk. Will they reclaim the inner resources necessary to resist

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the onslaughts of injustice, domination, depression, and weariness? Or will they succumb to the near overwhelming forces of destruction?

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Whatever the case, men must take responsibility for themselves and decide to do the right thing. As we approach a new century, this spiritual challenge will be so monumental that those who survive

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will require a dynamic amalgam of spiritual, moral, cognitive, and behavioral resources, which can be found most readily in the great faith traditions, especially Christianity and traditional African religions.

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In this lecture, I'd like to briefly identify and discuss some of the major issues facing African-American religious institutions as they seek to minister to men and to suggest some ways in which the private sector may contribute

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to the moral regeneration of African American men. While I'm somewhat uncomfortable with isolating the status of black men from their interdependent linkages to women and children, other scholars will address that dimension of our problem.

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Also, when I refer to African American religious institutions, I have the black churches specifically in mind, since the Christian tradition has been central to African American life. However, I will attempt to be inclusive

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of other faith traditions throughout the presentation. In a fine collection of essays edited by Lawrence Gary of Howard University titled Black Men, the late Dr. James S. Tinney presented a brief but insightful synopsis of what he referred to as the religious experience of black men, the title of the article.

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Tenney did not address the experience of non-Christian men. He argued that the black church is a male institution because some men, particularly the clergy, have benefited positively from it, especially in terms of leadership development, psychological liberation, intellectual growth, financial reward, and encouragement of male

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authority in the home. But for most laypersons, the story is very different. Indeed, he noted that, quote, "many black males seem uninterested in or hostile to the black church," end quote.

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A slight overstatement would claim that the church is really female space owned and operated by men. Over 10 years ago, while preparing my senior thesis for the master's degree at Harvard Divinity School, I tried to account for the paradox cited by Tenney.

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Through a series of group interviews, I recorded black male explanations for their exodus from the church. The explanations included the following institutional factors. One, the social teachings of Christianity encouraged passivity and meekness, which are

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dysfunctional in street corner culture. Two, the image of the moral person embraced in most churches is comprised of a disproportionate number of so-called feminine character traits, such as quiescence, humility, non-assertiveness, and self-sacrifice, which repel men in pursuit of machismo.

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Three, since the Civil Rights Movement, most churches have withdrawn from vigorous social activism and have turned attention to institutional expansion and physical improvement. Four, even when involved in politics, churches are insufficiently radical and

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prophetic in their political orientations, choosing to support rather than to fight the powers that be. Five, worship in the churches tend to be

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excessively long and often thematically unintelligible. Six, the dominant religious symbols of the church are problematic in either

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expressing devotion to Eurocentric aesthetic values, the Nordic Christ, or in failing to adequately portray black life in a racist America.

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Seven, churches are preoccupied with fundraising and tend to be insensitive to poor people. Eight, churches seem to tolerate obvious hypocrisy among valued members,

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while inducing excessive guilt among ordinary folk, especially in relation to personal behavior, which pertains to sexuality and recreational drug or alcohol use. A list of reasons for

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the alleged black male exodus from the church. Now in retrospect, I think that these findings were unique to the late 1960s and mid 1970s, the time when I was doing this research.

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At least I hope that I'm not being naive and suggesting that for For the most part, this list of complaints is period specific, or at least is now in the process of becoming obsolete. By the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s, significant developments occurring

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generally within society, and specifically within the African American community, resulted in increased black male religious participation. Together, these related social forces created what I'd like to characterize as a push-pull dynamic from which the churches and other religious institutions actually benefited.

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First, the repressive economic and racial climate and policies fostered by President Reagan pushed many black men back into religious institutions, searching for community support and answers to life's tough questions. Second, reforms within the black church

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initiated by a new generation of sophisticated black clergy who were products of the black liberation theology movement pulled many disaffected men back into the churches. We should not equate mere church attendance

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with the inner transformation which must occur for personal wholeness. But reaffiliation with a community of faith is an important first step in claiming one's identity

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as a member of a community of hope, struggle, and moral accountability. Now, if this phenomena continues, the push-pull dynamic, it could offer some hope for the religious regeneration

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of black men and the heightened vigor of black church ministries to them. Permit me to elaborate briefly on the two horns of this dynamic.

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Historians and social scientists have demonstrated that during periods in which the social status of black people was threatened, black nationalist ideas ascend

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to the community's ideological forefront. During the Reagan era, President Carter's measures supporting black causes were systematically dismantled and a climate of selfishness and insensitivity

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to people of color was fostered. As black frustration and hopelessness increased, religious leadership in the community began to mobilize masses in constructive ways.

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Two of the most significant mass leaders were the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who served as a catalyst for the movement which led to Mayor Harold Washington's victory,

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among other mayors, and Minister Louis Farrakhan, whose unique oratorical abilities offended the establishment while endearing him to the urban underclass.

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During the 1983 Harold Washington crusade, one could attend the Saturday morning meetings of Operation Push, as I often did, and find thousands of people, including a remarkable number of black men, gathered for what was more than a political rally. It was a religious phenomenon, a spiritual revival of collective hope, purpose, and self-determination.

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Men who would not attend church the next morning were present on Saturday faithfully each week. With respect to Farrakhan, I witnessed large numbers of young men who had been involved previously in self-destructive behavior join the Nation of Islam and experience moral regeneration. While social scientific studies of the so-called Black Muslim Movement observed that such conversions

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tend to be intense but short-lived, one cannot deny that something extraordinary can happen to young men whom society has written off if the correct spiritual magnet is present to attract them. Even more fascinating was Farrakhan's decision to register and vote for Mayor Washington,

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a departure from former black Muslim practice. Not only had he converted these young men, he politicized them, thereby countering the charge that black religious cults are apolitical and otherworldly. In order to understand the spiritual impact of Reagan's reign, we must pause to recognize

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the enormous amount of pain in poor black communities. In large measure, this pain is the consequence of racism, sexism, poverty, and abandonment by the government and much of the black middle class. Psychoanalysts remind us of the ego defense mechanism wherein pain is masked and protected

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by anger. For most men whom I know, anger is easier, that is more socially acceptable to express than pain. for most men, easier to express than pain.

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But even here, there is a racial double standard. Whereas racism permits white men to be angry in public with impunity, it ensures that black male rage is carefully monitored, suppressed, and punished. Hence, one of the great challenges to the health of black men lay in discovering appropriate

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ways to express pain and anger. institutions which facilitate this sort of therapy tend to be attractive to men. This was part of the genius of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, which produced a Malcolm X who understood and diagnosed black self-hatred, hurt, and rage with brilliant clarity and

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force. Racially insensitive government policies drove many men and women to search for more constructive and organized ways of making rage articulate. I am persuaded that this environment contributed to the resurgence of the nation of Islam and

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to the religio-political crusade which elected mayors Harold Washington and Wilson Good and which projected Reverend Jesse Jackson into the international messianic spotlight. The second part of the dynamic was the emergence of a cadre of sophisticated pastors who were products of black liberation theology.

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One thinks of persons such as Reverend Wyatt T. Walker in Harlem, William Augustus Jones in Brooklyn, John and Cecilia Bryant now in West Africa, Jeremiah Wright Jr. in Chicago, H. Beecher Hicks in Washington, D.C., McKinley Young here in Atlanta, Michael Harris here in Atlanta, Charles Adams in Detroit, Prathia Wynn in Philadelphia, Charles Blake in Los

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Angeles, Sam McKinney in Seattle, Amos Brown in San Francisco, and J. Alfred Smith in Oakland. These women and men have much in common with the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the most part, they all were educated in historically black colleges, active during the Civil Rights movement and seek to delicately blend radical politics with middle class lifestyles.

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With black theologian James Cone providing the textual vision for the movement, these leaders began to combine Christianity with black nationalism, thereby infusing traditional black church life with new vitalities. The result is that their churches have attracted significant numbers of men who experience

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personal wholeness. These leaders and their congregations provide us with contemporary models of facilitating the constructive expression of pain and anger, of organizing and transforming powerless persons into political agents, and of instilling confidence in a God who cares. I now turn to consider some of

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the major issues facing African-American religious institutions as they minister to men. Obviously a huge list could be generated around this subject, but since we're focusing upon the short period of time separating us now from the next century, that is the coming decade, I'd like to narrow my scope to consider an agenda for the next ten years. There are

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four major concerns which I'll articulate in the form of goals. One, overcoming the the disabling effects of hyper-individualism, two, developing self-esteem and personal responsibility, three, reconciling and reintegrating family relationships,

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and four, acquiring marketable skills. You may be struck by the absence of any specific mention of substance abuse, drugs, crime, violence, and so forth.

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Returning to my premise that black male crisis is fundamentally spiritual, I maintain that substance abuse and other social pathologies are symptoms, not causes, of the crisis. If we treat and heal the human spirit, it will not permit imposed or self-inflicted

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forms of dehumanization. First, overcoming individualism. The stresses of post-industrial urban life together with enlightenment liberal ideologies of individual autonomy and self-sufficiency have created a culture of busy, fragmented, self-centered individualists. In this culture men are encouraged and rewarded

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for independence and mobility. Obviously this does not make for good relationships or mental health. Far from being a healthy personal goal, I think that this represents a form of neurosis and self-deception. The crisis is compounded for men who do not have access to conventional means for achieving

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and expressing their independence, jobs, status, and so on. When persons do not have an honest, reliable support system to affirm and challenge their behavior, they may resort to destructive avenues of expression, as is evident in the narcotic subculture.

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There is a role for religious institutions to play here, which may be supported and reinforced by the public sector and other non-religious private institutions. The goal is to help the rabid individualists to have some meaningful and wholesome group experience.

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In my limited experience, the small group format is more effective than the large mass meeting. Business institutions can provide the space and some of the leadership for black male spiritual encounter groups.

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Just as some affluent business leaders have established trust funds to reward inner city youth for completing high school without addictions or pregnancies, public and private sector agencies could help fund and reward men for being responsible in attending group meetings, doing some sort of community service.

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If religious institutions are to compete with the street subculture for the allegiance of men, they must offer an alternate reward system which combines status with some financial resources.

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Second, developing self-esteem, personal responsibility. It is exceedingly important for black men to reaffirm their identity as members of a community rather than as atomistic, disconnected free agents.

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One of the positive effects of a renewed communal identity is a deeper sense of personal responsibility and self-esteem. As the community affirms these men as valuable community

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members, they can actualize their potential as co-parents, protectors, and leaders. Men who love themselves properly will not seek to dehumanize women or to show indifference

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toward children. Often, people who feel powerless, unattractive, and desperate do bizarre things to get attention. Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard Medical School

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has observed that for powerless young black inner city males, it is an exhilarating power experience to kill another human being with a pistol or a knife. Because the depths of psychological pain,

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personal powerlessness, and self-hatred are unprecedented, prayerful patience and creativity must be brought to bear upon it. One of the measures of the depth of this new pain

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is found in the realm of the arts. To my knowledge, no major black novel or film has portrayed the growing phenomena of black male suicide and fratricide.

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Even blues artists, our folk wisdom tradition, have not yet articulated the depths of this pain. Yet, black male suicide and homicide rates are alarmingly high.

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Fortunately, however, young rap artists have begun to address the despair in hopeful songs such as the hit single "Self-Destruction" by the Stop the Violence movement,

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a collection of rap stars. It is too easy to be glib about the church's role in this transformation process. It is one thing for churches to preach self-esteem,

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but another for the church to go into threatening places to spend time with those troubled souls. It will not be easy for churches to overcome their fear of men who have victimized many

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of the churches in the past. But church members must remember that every crisis is a moment of opportunity, a time when something new can emerge.

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Each time the churches initiate social movements, such as anti-drug rallies and political campaigns, they provide men with alternatives to apathy, powerlessness, and self-hatred.

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Such self-esteem campaigns must enlist the services of our most visible, charismatic, and influential leaders and artists. These efforts should be funded by corporate sources and government grants

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since all persons benefit from men who are productive and peaceful citizens. Third, reconciling family relationships. As men are reintegrated into the religious community and develop new self-respect, esteem, and responsibility,

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They can do much to overcome and reconcile strained family relationships. Black men and women must become friends and partners in the struggle for a meaningful and healthy collective existence. We need to be educated in the art of wholesome interpersonal relations and family formation.

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Someone must teach us how to communicate better, how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence or abusive language, and how to resist temptations which compromise quality relationships. This must include basic public health information so that men and women can take steps necessary

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to eradicate AIDS in our infant population and to promote better nutrition and personal grooming. Religious institutions are in a unique position to promote such moral education. They can provide a forum for lectures, films, and role plays,

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which teach some of the virtues that The Cosby Show and A Different World seek to emphasize. Again, private sector agencies and corporations should be mobilized to support financially those programs

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geared to family reconciliation and public health. Four, developing marketable skills. 100 years ago, Booker T. Washington, the president of Tuskegee Institute,

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preached a gospel of the head, hand, and heart, urging African Americans to develop those technological, industrial, agricultural, spiritual, and intellectual habits and skills

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which would make them noble, productive citizens. We need to hear this gospel again. Indeed, one of the things I try to do in my upcoming book is to try to rehabilitate our understanding of the wisdom

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of Booker T. Washington with regard to producing productive citizens. Black economists of every political persuasion have challenged blacks to transform their status

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as consumers to producers of desirable goods. Religious institutions can take up the challenge and create schools where technical skills can be taught. For many reasons, some men may be intimidated by formal,

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school-based educational programs. Churches can provide the safe space where they can learn marketable skills and be affirmed for their willingness to try again.

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Corporations can expand their commitment to hiring and training men who may not be as productive initially as other workers. Government should reward and encourage companies

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to do this through tax breaks and similar measures. Most of the suggestions offered here are not novel or unreasonable. They will require courageous and visionary leadership. I think that such leaders are already in place.

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They will also require the unselfish commitment of private and public sector institutions, thereby reversing the trends of this past decade. It remains to be seen whether or not such commitment can be evoked. The souls of black men folk cry out for our attention.

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May we heed the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, who delivered these stirring words to the commencement audience at Howard University on June 6, 1930.

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To increase abiding satisfaction for the mass of our people, and for all people, someone must sacrifice something of his own happiness. This is a duty only to those who recognize it as a duty.

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The larger the number ready to sacrifice, the smaller the total sacrifice necessary. It is silly to tell intelligent human beings, be good and you will be happy.

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The truth is today, be good, be decent, be honorable and self-sacrificing, and you will not always be happy. You will often be desperately unhappy. You may even be crucified, dead, and buried.

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And the third day, you will be just as dead as the first. Wonderful Du Boisian honesty. But with the death of your happiness may easily come increased happiness and satisfaction

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and fulfillment for other people, strangers, unborn babes, uncreated worlds. If this is not sufficient incentive, never try it. Remain hogs.

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I close now with this memorable poem from one of the 20th century's greatest poets, Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son." You Morehouse men can relate to this.

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Well, son, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up. and places with no carpet on the floor bare.

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But all the time I's been a climbing on and reaching landings and turning corners and sometimes going in the dark where there ain't been no light.

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So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you sit down on the steps 'cause you find this kind of hard. Don't you fall now for I's still going, honey.

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I still climbing and life for me ain't been no crystal stair. Thank you for listening. (audience applauding) - Now, after that sterling lecture,

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I'm sure that you have questions. And again, I invite you to come to my left raise your specific question. I'm sure Dr. Franklin would be delighted to respond. Who has the first question?

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Dr. Franklin, have you personally led any of the small encounter groups that you talked about? And if so, how did you identify, how did you motivate the men to come? Are you suggesting that perhaps they may come to these encounter groups when they will not

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come to worship? I guess the whole question, the practical question of just getting them into something and how to do that, if you have anything to offer, I mean, if you've had an experience. Thank you for the question, Dr. Rita Dixon, an old classmate of mine from Harvard Divinity

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School. planted question. I thought you knew that I have in fact had a considerable amount of experience on the south side of Chicago in organizing and running these groups. We did this at one of the local churches in Chicago and right at the threshold of the Robert Taylor

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Projects on 45th and State Street. We initiated the invitation by taking a group of young people from the church. And in my wisdom, I selected some young women who were well-groomed and would attract some attention from the young male population in the projects. They were accompanied with a group of those of us who were in a position to protect them

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if things got unhealthy. In any case, a group of about eight or nine of us went over and and simply began to distribute flyers. And I was struck by the response. I thought that the brothers would simply ignore this,

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but when they, you know, some of the brothers said, well, these sisters gonna be at the group? And I said, well, they will initially be there to welcome us, but then that time for us

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to kind of wrap will be present. And we got some actual positive response from that method. The other was talking to parents in supermarkets, urging them if they had a young teenage son that they wanted to get involved in a constructive

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group after school to bring that young person. And so we got some response through contacting these parents. I have thought about using things like videos and sort of finding hooks like that. I never tried that, but I think that that could meet with some success.

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What we advertised primarily was time for these young men to come together and our agenda was very loose-leafed. I mean, we would begin by introducing ourselves and then we'd open with the question, "So how has the week been for you?"

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And this very open, relaxed agenda, the young men began to share their stories, encounters with the police, bad times in the local high school, occasionally a positive testimony. I made a good grade in this math class and nobody cared.

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Nobody affirmed me. And so I always leapt upon that as an opportunity to affirm any evidence of intellectual achievement and effort. And that group continued as a regular feature

00:37:14.420 - 00:37:31.600

of the Sunday school hour of this particular church. So on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. when other folks were gathering in their local classes, my group would gather in a separate room. And I mean you should have seen the way some of the middle class church folk responded

00:37:31.600 - 00:37:52.800

to these brothers coming in off the street on Sunday morning, coming to this class. Most of them did not stay for the worship service, felt uncomfortable, didn't feel they were ready to reaffiliate. But one of the conclusions I drew from watching this pattern of kind of joining the small

00:37:52.800 - 00:38:15.880

group where their own kind of personal needs could be responded to and heard was that black men, while many have dropped out of churches, continue to be affiliated, continue to be committed to group process and group identity. And of course, part of our challenge with some of the younger boys in the group was

00:38:15.880 - 00:38:36.140

struggling with the seductiveness of the street gang culture. And as some of you know, in many cities, street gangs are not just voluntary associations. They are drafting, conscripting associations. And a couple of the young guys in my group had actually been drafted into what was then

00:38:36.140 - 00:39:04.000

known as the Black Pistone Nation. And so we, you know, we struggled with that, but they wanted to belong to a group, and I thought that was positive. Dr. Franklin, I'm Willie Burks from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and I'm the missionary to

00:39:04.000 - 00:39:30.280

the United American Freedom of Baptist Conference, which encompasses 36 churches, and I'm also the educational director of the same. And I was listening to you speak there about the issues and those things that tend to drive the black man away from the church institution.

00:39:30.280 - 00:39:54.960

We recognize as pastors that's a real problem. I'd like to say that on a report that I made to our staff, our conference staff, it had to do with the kind of environment that we had and the climate. And I think for many years that we have attempted to change by using cosmetic efforts and as

00:39:54.960 - 00:40:07.740

such changing different apparatuses. So now we are refocused to where we are having a culture. We did a cultural sampling to see what kind of environment that we were putting all our efforts into.

00:40:07.740 - 00:40:20.720

So now we are reshaping the culture. We had to get back to what it was that caused us to be what we are. Okay. So my question is this.

00:40:20.720 - 00:40:42.240

Do you have personally any resource that you can offer that a pastor can contact you or your office in some way that you can provide some type of resource to help move into this direction. I was asking Dr. Brown if we had something that was going to -- if this is an effort

00:40:42.240 - 00:40:53.680

and we've gone through this celebration, which is as a celebration, now what do we do as a maintenance to continue this? And I would just like to know, do you have some resource that you can offer and how can we contact you for that?

00:40:53.680 - 00:41:13.640

>> Thanks for the question. I am aware of a couple of efforts underway now to, particularly in the area of African American religious education, to speak more specifically to the challenges of inner city youthful population.

00:41:13.640 - 00:41:35.380

There's a Dr. Kunjufu in Chicago, a member of Jeremiah Wright's church, who is working on some literature and research in this area. And I'd urge you to contact Dr. Jeremiah Wright at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago to find out what Kwanza Kunjufu, I think is his first name, is working on.

00:41:35.380 - 00:42:03.320

Also, Dr. Grant Shockley at Emory University has a book coming out now on Christian education for young black people, something, I forget the title, but he's been doing some research and is ready to publish, that is now in print. So those would be two off the top of my head, but I'd be happy to be in touch with you

00:42:03.320 - 00:42:16.160

about other experiments that are going on around the country. I'm aware of a number of men's groups in many churches scattered throughout the nation that are meeting with varied success in this effort. Yeah. Thank you.

00:42:16.160 - 00:42:42.520

I was just going to mention the gentleman I think said he was from North Carolina, that we are at the UNCG in Greensboro, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We are putting a conference together where Dr. Franklin will be coming in March, and James Washington from Union will be coming,

00:42:42.520 - 00:42:58.160

and a fellow from Chicago Theological Seminary, Tyson, Michael Tyson will be coming, to discuss ways that the Black church can confront the struggle at several different levels,

00:42:58.160 - 00:43:08.180

from running from intellectual marginalization, spiritual marginalization, as well as social and cultural marginalization. And they'll be attacking the problem

00:43:08.180 - 00:43:21.140

from that angle. And I think that you'll find that their papers and the setup of a conference right in North Carolina will be directly relevant to some of the considerations

00:43:21.140 - 00:43:33.340

that you have. In fact, we are bringing Dr. Franklin and Dr. Washington and others there as the beginning of a step there in Greensboro to be more constructive in terms

00:43:33.340 - 00:43:45.380

of our approaches to these kinds of issues. So he will actually be president in Greensboro the week of March 25th and 24th, 25th. And they'll be preaching from the 8 o'clock service

00:43:45.380 - 00:43:51.120

if you want to come down here. All right, but this is just to let you know that things are happening right in North Carolina.

00:43:51.120 - 00:44:09.160

And we're tapping some of these resources there. The 23rd and the 24th, if I'm not mistaken, it's that Friday and that Saturday. and it'll culminate that Sunday morning at our church,

00:44:09.160 - 00:44:17.080

basically with Dr. Franklin speaking at eight o'clock and Dr. Washington speaking at 11. But it's going to be a real good conference, and if you'd like more information on that,

00:44:17.080 - 00:44:34.520

I'll see you after the session and I'll give it to you. - Yes, understanding that white images of Jesus are psychologically oppressive and therefore repulsive to many young black men,

00:44:34.520 - 00:44:52.340

How do you think we ought to go about addressing that issue in our local churches? Because it is, in fact, an issue that we tend to be skirting around and not really dealing with. >> Well, the how-to question is really a contextual question.

00:44:52.340 - 00:45:11.360

I think that question gets addressed in a variety of ways depending on the culture of that church community. There are many local church communities in which the leader, pastor, can simply say, "We've undergone a revolution in our community, in our consciousness,

00:45:11.360 - 00:45:35.280

and we've got to do something about these dominant symbols and the religious art that shape the consciousness of our young people." And to just simply initiate that change. In other places, I think that that movement [audio cuts out]