Inasmuch as this is the Easter season (If you aren’t among the growing number of “more conscious Afrocentic Americans who reject the holiday because of its pagan roots), it will be a perfect time to explain where African- American News & Issues is coming from when we say what translates (in the minds of our detractors) to negative things about wrongdoing Black preachers, or even the industry of religion in general. Moreso, maybe we should also clarify where the publisher of our publication is coming from when he publicly indict absentee, exploitative African American ministers of the Gospel, without fear or favor. Surely, citizens with curious minds, who want to know, have enough common sense to realize why they should routinely check out as many news sources as possible. If only for the sake of being able to communicate intelligently with people that they must interact with on a daily basis. Therefore, it wouldn’t be presumptuous to conclude that if you’re reading this editorial, you’ve already heard “new age” Black Christians questioning the logic of integrating a somewhat evil pagan celebration and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ (FYI: “Because of the pagan origins of the holiday, some Christians consider its celebration to be a blasphemous abomination. It's interesting to me that even though humanity seems completely different than a few thousand years ago, some remnants of our ancient ancestor's practices are still hidden in our society's traditions. “For the first few centuries of Christianity, its followers celebrated Christ's resurrection not on Easter, but on the traditional Jewish Passover. When the Romans started forcing everyone to convert to Christianity, the people resisted, because they did not want to give up their traditional celebrations. In a cunning move, the Catholic Church began celebrating the resurrection on Easter. Other changes included switching the holy day from the Sabbath Saturday to Sunday, and celebrating Christ's birth on December 25th, a day Pagans celebrated the birth of the Sun God. This strategy was a compromise that gave the Christian religion a kind of backwards compatibility, making it easier for the people to convert.”- Tiral: Religious Archives.) In spite of that historical data, the question remains: Why do “WE” still celebrate Easter?
Although our readers know that when “WE” appear in our copy, we’re talking about “US” specifically. We also realize that “WE” aren’t a monolithic people who all think alike. Even so, it’s still interesting to note that after years of joking that Bunny Rabbits don’t lay multi-colored eggs, many African Americans have not only gotten serious about the Easter holiday, but have also began to propagate a Black Jesus. Surely, he was born into an Arab-African, Middle Eastern culture. Certainly, historians can’t change the salient fact that Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ was referred to, had African lineage, since he came from the largest Arab city in Israel that was populated during biblical days by people of African descent. Then again, we’ve look at the war in Iraq on TV for over two years, so there’s no way we can deny that Saddam Hussein is Black by definition. Even so, that’s another topic for future discussion. Meanwhile, let’s cut to the chase and get back to contemporary times and discuss why African American pastors, who mostly are very intelligent and/or well educated people today, simply can’t “Just Do It.” If you’re asking do what, perhaps we should be more specific. First, let’s consider why so many African American churches still worship under the glare of a blond, blue eye Jesus. Especially, when our more enlighten, young pastors truly believe that Jesus had to have a couple of drops of African blood in him, simply because he came from the lineage of King David, whose son, King Solomon, was identified as a Black man by theologians (“I am very dark, but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem... Do not gaze at me because I am black, because the sun has looked on me.” -Song of Solomon 1:5-6). Race card aside, far too many Black preachers rationalize their White Jesus portraits, by saying that the color of his skin wasn’t important, but hell will freeze over before “WE” see a Black Jesus in a “WHITE” church. Consequently, Black preachers who’re wont to make stupid excuses for displaying a White Jesus and/or reluctant to take them down, should Just Do It! But, an even more pressing question that Black pastors should be asked is: Why in the name of God do most of you insist on depositing your congregation’s tithes and offerings in White banks every Monday morning? Especially, banks that won’t even give them a loan unless their applications are co-signed by several deacons with deep pockets. Don’t try to rationalize why you deal with banks that don’t respect you (instead of finding one that does to do business with) preachers…Just Do It. Un-less you’re totally brain dead, we sure that you know where we’re coming from, because you’ve heard those questions asked before. In addition, we’re sure you’ve noticed that White priest live in the Black community they serve, but more and more Black spiritual leaders move out of their neighborhoods and become absentee pastors of large churches in the ‘hood. You probably have also noticed that Black pastors use their congregation’s tithes and offering to pay for advertising in daily newspapers, although they continuously preach the wisdom of supporting your own businesses. Need we cite a litany of questions that we’re sure silver tongued Black preachers will rationalize and rebut.? But, instead of leaning on our own understanding, we’ll leave it for Black preachers to search their hearts and decide what Jesus would have them to do. And then Just Do It.