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Dr. Michael Bell: Speaking Truth to Power
By Dr. Pamela Hill
African-American News&Issues
Dallas / FortWorth, Texas
It would not at all be strange for the
members of Fort Worth's, Greater St. Stephen First Church to turn on the
evening news and see their pastor leading a protest against the Forth Worth
Independent School System, or to see him picketing the local police
department, dressed in all black, resembling the Black Panthers. Dr. Michael
Bell is a preacher activist, who believes in the prophetic teachings of
speaking truth to power and known not only to be an outstanding minister,
and a top scholar, but also as a fearless warrior in the fight for
liberation Bell was born in Marshall, Texas, but grew up in Fort Worth. He
graduated with a degree in social studies from Wiley College, where he was a
member of an organization called The Black Hand Nation People's Party for
Self Defense, which mirrored the Black Panther Party. Bell maintained his
activism while pursuing his Masters in Divinity at Howard University, in
Washington, D.C. where he served in pastoral roles at two churches at the
same time. Upon graduating from Howard, he returned to Texas and had an
opportunity to pastor a church in Longview. He stayed there for six years
and also taught at Longview High School were he was chair of the social
studies department. Bell founded and organized a continuing education
program for preachers. He also picked up a second Masters of Arts in
interdisciplinary studies at the University of Texas, Longview. From there,
he took advantage of an opportunity to go to Atlanta, Georgia to obtain his
Doctorate of Divinity at the Interdenominational Theology Center. Bell says
the work he does as a minister and activist is normal to him, but not
something found massively in Texas, "I always knew that in Texas, what was
missing here that is not missing in the East ,is that they have tutored
clergy; folks who been to schools and know how to navigate through the
terrain and deal with the injustices and so forth. You have all of those
champions up there because that is normal. What I do down here is normal in
the Northeast.’’
What Bell does is uses his voice to fight injustices in his community and
teach the truth to his congregation. Coming out of divinity schools such as
ITC and Howard, provide Bell with a unique and true cultural focus on
religion. Every Sunday, there is a section that highlights Black history,
which Bell says he learned was common in Atlanta, but not in this area. Bell
says he doesn’t think there is a level of concern and suggest that there is
a fear on the part of preachers in this area to speak on the controversial
subjects, to speak truth to power and there is a strong resistance, because
they are afraid that their congregants may reject such, “In this area most
clergy are not tutored, they were simply called to ministry. I think the
more you are exposed too, especially if you attend a school like Howard, you
leave with a consciousness that you are equipped for you can help your
folk.’’ Bell says that everything he learned while attending Howard was “The
New Testament and the Black Experience’’, or what ever the subject, the
black experience strongly connected. Here other pastors don’t focus on the
Black experience in their ministry.
Upon returning from Atlanta, it was Bell’s intention to simply pass through
Fort Worth, however he was invited to serve as interim pastor at The Greater
St. Stephen First Church, on the first Sunday in July, of 1985 and has been
there ever since. The church expanded when they were able to purchase houses
that surrounded the church. Bell says his emphasize in ministry has always
been community oriented. He spoke of the murder of an African American man
by skinheads prompted the African American ministers to come together to
address the issue. Ultimately Bell became the president of the Tarrant
County African American Clergy, and led the community-faith base response to
the murder, which culminated, into a massive march in downtown Fort Worth,
of perhaps 1500 people. Bell, in retrospect, says “that the march was
actually wrong, because it was a silent march and took place on a Sunday,
"it should not have been a silent march, I was naive then. Looking back now,
it was ridiculous. It should not have been on a Sunday, because unless you
inconvenience the oppressor, then you have not done anything, the oppressor
must be inconvenience I didn't know any better then.”
This was a lesson well learned. Bell is now the chair of the Tarrant County
Local Organizing Committee, which was formed shortly after the Million Man
March. The L.O.C., as described by Bell, are a group of courageous brothers
and sisters who have been on the front line consistently from the beginning,
and who advocate on behalf of African American issues and concerns in the
community. L.O. C. has dealt head on, through protest and other tactics,
with various school districts and even the police department, which resulted
in a Memorandum of Agreement whereby certain things must be done in and for
the community to benefit the people
Under the leadership of Rev. Bell, the little church on Berry Street is
growing, with a membership role of over 700. There is a summer programs for
children, workshops and community events, which bring in high profile
speakers. In September, there is an annual workshop called The Iron Man
Weekend. In December there is a Kwanzaa service. Greater St. Stephen also
has an annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day worship, and the speaker for this
years’ celebration was the publisher of African American News & Issues, Roy
Douglas Malonson.. Some of the speakers at various events hosted in the
church have included Ashra Kwesi, John Wiley Price, Lee Alcorn, James Belt,
Dr. Cornell Thomas and Dr. S.C. Nash. Bell also speaks at other churches as
well as for many community /grass roots organizations and schools.
The idea of developing opportunities for other ministers in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area to be exposed to the Black experience, was once considered, but
Bell indicated that he did not believe there is that level of concern, “ The
individualism, that kind of attitude that is predominant and pervasive in
culture has seeped into the church, therefore it is a type of rugged
individual, get rich quick, prosperity gospel, which is the opposite of the
gospel itself. This type of culture has creep into the church to the extreme
that we don’t have prophets. The model of the Black Church experience has
been the prophet, who speaks truth to power, but we don’t have that
prophetic scrutiny in many of the preachers in this area. They are more
puppets of the privilege than they are prophets, because they want to be
paid. They do not really care what is best for the Black community.”
Bell says it is on ongoing process to get Black folk to embrace an African
centered ministry and teachings. He indicates that Black folk generally
messed up by accepting distorted images we see on television and in the
movies, by years of all the stuff being pushed as Black culture that has
nothing to do with us. According to Bell, generally, Black folk don’t
embrace our history readily because it’s too painful, but maintains that we
must deal with the pain as it is a part of who we are as a people. He points
to television shows that puts Black folk in degrading situations, such as
the Tarzan movie which did severe damage to Black folk, in seeing and
believing that hundreds of Africans, who had spears, machetes and darts,
feared Tarzan who showed up with a butcher knife. Tarzan became the God
image. He also reminds us that films like Amos and Andy as well as Sanford
and Son were as equally damages, as in the latter, the father always
referred to his son as “Dummy”.
Bell believes that as Black folk, we don’t want to hear too much about us
and insists it’s an ongoing process to bring our people back to respect of
humanity. He suggests that when you start being proud of who you are, the
congregants who were not taught that begin to feel threatened, “most are not
even aware that Christianity is not a Western religion, but rather a African
religion. You have to give them a little bit at a time, and we do this
through our Kwanzaa, and our King Celebration. We must remember that the
process to get us to hate ourselves was done over the years. It will take
time to move us back to where we, as Black people, respect our humanity, and
therefore embrace our history.”
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