Local Anesthesia

I am from Queens, NY where a church run by Rev. Floyd Flake (also a former assemblyman) helped to reshape and revitalize a neighborhood. This African Methodist Zion church now has 2 cathedrals, two successful schools, blocks of housing, a senior citzen center and apt as well as all kinds of social programs. It can be done.
  In Syr which is suffering as is Buffalo and Rochester , churches cover every corner in the most violent south end of town. But here the churches vie for their coverted place in heaven with each claiming to have a place of priority in line. Each one jockeying for positions of prominence. The unifying force of the Black church is denied, here and the rich outside the city neighborhoods have consolidated to get and use for the greater good the Block Grants.

I just left Davis, CA where the black church is nonexistent. Any org that is of color is not found and there is a minister, Tim Malone, who is the voice in the wind. Though there is not a need for social programing there is a great need for emotional support. No resources are forthcoming to let this grow. So while the neighborhoods are not suffering under the decay as other cities the killing of people of color is done vey silently.

Posted by Agnes Johnson on Aug 4, 2003 at 11:30 AM

The research center I work for has been trying to organize black churches in our city for the past year or more. Even though we are part of a HBCU and have several black clergy members employed as liaisons between the churches and the center, we have had limited success. We have encountered many of the same problems that are described in the article.

Posted by Wes Gaston on Aug 6, 2003 at 9:28 AM

The role of black churches have diminished to the point where it is a platform for social control within the inner city community.(See Christianity Today 10/99)
The ministry is catapulted through the TV media each sunday morning and the message is a ‘Gospel of Containment’. Very little material hope is given to the adherents of these urban ministries except for the fact that Jesus is coming to rescue them someday soon.And as long as the people stay in church America is safe.

Posted by joe baz on Aug 15, 2003 at 12:26 AM

There is an old saying here in Chicago, “Chicago is a city of neighborhoods… and you better stay the hell in yours!”

Posted by Tom on Aug 17, 2003 at 12:09 PM