Why Black Men Don't Go to Church (Part 2)

Wednesday, 8/20/08 was the 2nd Annual edition of the Wide aWoke Wednesday's Live Interactive Talk Show topic "Why Black Men Don't Go to Church" as hosted by Motown Maurice, & The Combination . Motown moderated as panelists and audience debated this issue from varying view points. That's what The Combination and Wide aWoke Wednesday are all about--uniting us despite our many differing perspectives on the same topics.

As a born-again, Black, Christian male under age 30, I believe there are a couple reasons specifically why more Black men are not in church or many Black men who attend church during youth stop attending once they reach the teen years. These include relationship and hypocrisy, but wait, I'll explain.

I feel blessed to have come from a religious family, with my family in Haiti being traditionally Catholic as are most folks in the Caribbean and South American cultures. Once I moved to the United States, my adoptive mother, Ruth E. Hodges, a missionary to Haiti since 1969 was a Pentecostal, so I was raised in Pentecostal and non-denominational Pentecostal churches since age 5. Because I was raised in church, church became a natural part of my life, just like eating. My Ma also sent me to private Christian schools where Christian values were further emphasized as part of the education. So in addition to getting a great education with individual attention, I learned quite a bit about the Christian faith both at school and at home where we read the Bible and prayed daily (to this day, I have read the Holy Bible 10 times cover to cover). Eventually I became born again at a meeting for Christian youth in California. Then I began to develop a relationship with Christ and church continued to be part of my lifestyle. As I grew up beyond my teen years, I began to become a more independent and became more conscious of who I was in the world, but at the same time because of my upbringing and my relationship with God, there was no way I could leave church to the side as if I had somehow outgrown it because of my education or life experiences. The key though is that I had a relationship with God, so church was the least I could do as far as feeding my soul.

When you value something, you enter into relationship with that thing or its representation. For example, I have been taught to value marriage, therefore it was not a problem for me to enter into the commitment of marriage. I believe that many men, not just Black men, who attended church in their youth, no longer attend because they were forced to attend church (by their parents), and never sought out the relationship aspect of church. For them it was a chore and an obligation, not an opportunity to become a better person. Others use the reason that there are too many hypocrites. Let me address that statement as well. There is no where in the world you will ever go where there are not hypocrites. And truth be told we are ALL hypocrites at some time. You see, the English word "hypocrite" (derived as hupokrisis in Greek) simply means someone who acts one way in one situation and a different way in another situation. It was a term used to describe actors in a theater setting who would wear tragedy masks to conceal their true identity. Therefore, if you act one way at work, another way at school, another way at sporting activities, another way at church, etc.--which we all do--then you too are technically a hypocrite. Besides which, all the hypocrites SHOULD be in church, because that is where they can get help!

For more information on Wide aWoke Wednesdays, please visit http://www.wideawoke.com/ or http://www.thecombinationtv.com/ or call 813-951-0794. Our once monthly forums are typically held the 3rd Wednesday, 7:30pm with refreshments & a Meet & Greet at 6:30pm at USF Alumni Center - Traditions Hall 4202 E. Fowler Ave. Tampa, FL 33620.