c. 2007 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Black churches should work together on specific problems facing African-American communities in order to address the “unfinished business” of helping people in need, argues the author of a new book on the subject.
Robert M. Franklin, author of “Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities,” said churches are among the institutions that must combat gaps in education, income and health between blacks and whites.
“This is a call to action … for churches and other houses of worship,” said Franklin, a respected black church scholar at Emory University in Atlanta, whose book was published by Fortress Press.
“You could use your moral authority more effectively by taking on the tough and persistent problems that plague our children and young people.”
Franklin, speaking at a forum at the National Press Club on Tuesday (Feb. 20), called on key black “anchor institutions” _ churches, families and colleges _ to be more strategic in fighting poverty, single parenthood, and poor performance in school.
In his book, Franklin recommends that houses of worship from different streams of Christianity take on a shared assignment to ameliorate one area of African-American life. He suggests, for example, that Baptist denominations specifically address prisoner re-entry while Methodists revitalize educational efforts and Pentecostals work on youth programs.
“Churches can and should work with other houses of worship, with local police departments and secular youth organizations to protect and redirect at-risk youth,” he said.
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, said her organization began holding “Freedom Schools” 12 years ago. More than one-third of the schools, which offer academic enrichment programs to children, are held in churches.
“We really have got to get the church competing,” she said at the forum. “Gangs and drug dealers are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, which is why vacation Bible schools need to become Freedom Schools.”
While Edelman thinks churches should compete with outside forces that negatively affect young people, the Rev. Cheryl Sanders, senior pastor at Third Street Church of God in Washington, cautioned against competition among churches.
“We got to change the culture of competition to a culture of cooperation,” she said in an interview after the forum.
The Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, president of the National Baptist Convention of America, said the idea of having groups of denominations focus on a particular issue is “a workable way” to address community problems.
“I really believe that a better way may be to gather all of us together and identify what those issues are and then perhaps allow us to choose the issue that we think we are best suited to address,” said Thurston, who was not at the forum.
He suggested possible areas of focus could be health, education, political empowerment and economic development.
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