Reformed Blacks of America

[C. Matthew McMahon]

Anyone ever hear anything about them?


________________________

Mission: African-Americans emphasizing the communal and progressive understanding in Reformed Theology while supporting the growth of the community of Reformed Blacks

http://www.reformedblacksofamerica.org

________________________

I am especially interested in what they mean by "communal and progressive understanding in Reformed Theology".

 

[Romans922]

Apparently my church is associated with it. Probably because my church exists in a black community. It is a PCA church and it is about 48% white, 48% black, and 4% other.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Here's a goup in N.E. Ohio that seems to have its priorities straight:
http://www.black-renaissance.com
I don't know if they'd call themselves "reformed", but they have an excellent emphasis on Scripture, they downplay "experience", They understand salvation, they call for reformation beginning with the pulpit, they call for rebuilding the family. They rolled out the welcome mat for R.C. Sproul and Derek Thomas back in September.

I like the fact that they are not interested in "rights" but sin. Problems aren't in other people, they are in self which makes them solvable.

[Edited on 10-4-2005 by Contra_Mundum]

 

[BlackCalvinist]

You have a problem with 'rights', Bruce ?

Anyway, brother. Xavier Pickett (webmaster for the site) is pretty cool. And Reformation 21's blog just gave them a good recommendation as well.

I just blogged on it recently (today) as a matter of fact.

[Edited on 10-4-2005 by OS_X]

 

[fredtgreco]

This must be new. When we lived in Hudson, I did not hear about this. A further irony: Hudson is like 99% white.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Point one: Matt,
I'm not trying to hijack the thread or confuse it. I just wanted to point out another black ministry locally that has reformed leanings. I pray to God they may be springing up everywhere. The link I posted is not related to the one in Matt's post.

Fred,
I think b-r is more new than old. I also think they are oriented northward toward urban Cleveland, whatever their address.

Kerry,
I'm not sure if your question is a jest or a rip. That expression I used, although not a quote, comes off the b-r website from within their own doctrine and mission pages. I think it is an admirable sentiment in any individual, whatever their background or ancestry. Try surfing their site and tell me what you think of it.

As for govt "rights" personally, I have an extreme utilitarian view of them. I use mine like Paul used his "Roman" rights. I am Christ's freedman. I owe America exactly zip, and pay it as little mind as I must. The State never granted me or anyone else any rights in truth. Back when, the govt used to acknowledge God gave men rights that the govt had no right to interfere with. And belatedly a generation came to realize that they had failed to recognize that truth with respect to all kinds of men. Now, the govt expects everyone to admit that it grants and restricts all "right" according to its supremacy. I reject it on that basis as having denied God and no different than Ceasar. And I expect similar persecutions from it.

 

[BlackCalvinist]

Bruce,

20% jest, 80% rip. I would caution you when talking about rights and the African American experience and 'what's important' to tread lightly on the issue of 'rights'. No one would deny that sin is the important issue in the overall scheme of things, but 400 years of consistent, systematized racism and discrimination have developed a sore spot when it comes to the issues of 'rights' and 'equal treatment' by the U.S. government.

No, Jim Crow isn't still in effect. But there is still racial profiling (I've been stopped for DWB before, so I speak from experience) amongst law enforcement. There is still housing discrimination. There are still folks like Harry Seaborn floating around. There are websites like stormfront.org. So it's not as 'past' an issue as you or other non-African-Americans would like to believe. And just like we Calvinistic folks automatically 'flinch' when we hear 'God loves everybody! He sent His Son to die for everyone!' without qualification, likewise a red flag pops up (more than one red flag with others) when we hear things like 'rights' being relegated to seemingly 'unimportant' issues (which is how your comparison of 'rights vs sin' has a tendency to come across).

Our (black folks) experience in this country is unique in many aspects and our perceptions (as an ethnic subgroup of America) of the country, people around us, and such, are shaped by our cultural experiences. There's certain things 'shared' in our community - and that mutual 'red flag' goes up in most black folks' heads.

Yes, there is no 'black or white' in Christ. But the early church was careful to appoint Grecian Jews to help with ministering to other Grecian Jews (cultural sensitivity) in Acts 6, since it appeared that only the Hebraic Jews were 'running the show' and skipping them in the daily distribution of food to their widows.

I hope this comes across as charitable. I honestly don't have my flamethrower on today But it is an issue between Christians who are black and Christians who are white - we (for the most part) don't know how to talk to each other and how to be sensitive to each other.

As Randy Alcorn has rightly written:

Liberals want to change the status quo. That's good when the status quo is wrong. Liberals desired to change from the status quo of racism in the 60's and they were right. Even though I oppose most of what it does today, I thank God for what liberal groups like the ACLU accomplished in the racial arena.

But liberals didn't know where to draw the line. They seemed to want to change everything, as if the notions that society once held (including that abortion and adultery and the homosexual relations are wrong) are restrictive and unhealthy, demanding liberation.

But it is wrong to seek liberation from all norms. It used to be that marriage was much more sacred, divorce was much more rare and abuse was much less common. Children learned how to read, achievement scores were much higher. Life was more sacred, religious values more respected and upheld.

Liberals have done much to "liberate" society from what is right, removing the guard rails that kept Americans on the road. In so doing they have enslaved while claiming to liberate.

Too often politically liberal Christians end up being liberals first and Christians second. They redefine compassion according to current political correctness. They act as if you either have to hate and vilify homosexuals or you have to say their behaviors are right. As if these are the only two alternatives.

They need to read Ephesians 4:15 about "speaking the truth in love." We are not to choose between being loving and being truthful. We are to be both. Jesus loved the woman who committed adultery. He loved her the way she was, but loved her too much to let her stay that way. His love didn't compel him to say "adultery is okay, you don't have to change," but "Go and sin no more."

Conservative Christians, on the other hand, like to conserve and hold on to the existing or past norms. In a society they believe to have been recently ruined by liberalism, they want to go back to the way things used to be, i.e. the old status quo. They want to go back to when America was a Christian nation, when there was prayer in public schools, when abortion and homosexual behavior were illegal and known to be immoral.

Conservatives seem to want every-thing the way it used to be, like it was when kids weren't bringing guns to school and killing each other in gangs and dying of AIDS and when television wasn't filled with garbage (which many of them watch, despite their complaints).

Well, that all sounds good. But you have to qualify what you're talking about. "The way things used to be" includes women being unable to vote. "The way things used to be" includes slavery. In the post-slavery era it included notoriously racist Jim Crow laws and segregation. And frankly, to their shame, many, even most conservatives wanted to conserve these unjust practices.

Many conservatives today want to go back to the days when prayer was allowed in the schools. But they forget the same schools that allowed in prayer did not allow in black children. To be nostalgic without qualification about times that were racist and demeaning to many Americans is unjust and insensitive. Politically conservative Christians can thus end up being conservatives first and Christians second.

As undiscerning liberalism tries to liberate us from not only the bad but the good, undiscerning Conservatism tries to conserve the bad along with the good. Liberals live under the false notion that change is always good, conservatives under the equally false notion that change is always bad. ("Who do those northern agitators think they are comin' down here and stirrin' up our niggers?")

So when conservatives talk about going back to our godly roots, theologically conservative but socially liberal Christians (both black and white) are understandably skeptical.

"You mean go back to those godly roots where black people were enslaved and beaten and raped and had their families torn apart by plantation owners who were deacons in their conservative churches? Or back to those days of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver, where you wouldn't let black people in your restaurants and theaters and schools, and you wouldn't let us drink out of your water fountains?"

I know conservative evangelicals who are selective in standing for what's right. They may want the schools to be more hospitable to truth and Christianity. But they may not bother intervening on behalf of the unborn. Or they may be active in pro-life work but ignore or minimize the issues of poverty and racism. In the 50's and 60's, while defending the Scriptures, a very good thing, they defended institutional racism, a very bad thing. As some liberals have no discernment as to the fact that some people are poor due to laziness and need to be required to work, likewise some conservatives seem to have no heart for the truly poor, those who are not at fault for their poverty and who given opportunity and training would work hard to escape it.

http://www.covlife.org/familynews/index.php?pagetoload=index_culture.php

Soli Deo Gloria, brother.

[Edited on 10-5-2005 by OS_X]

 

[youthevang]

What does everyone think concerning their sola scriptura statement with the mention of creeds?

Thesis One: Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Kerry,
I get it. Greater sensitivity. Really though, people my age, under the age of 40--we've been coached since grade school on the subject.

People get tired of walking on eggshells. We need a special newsletter to get the latest PC talk, and taboo topics, to avoid aggravating the latest outrage. This is why we end up with so little connection between our communities. Most whites (in a different context than this Christian board) would just have taken your comment, filed it away, and made a mental note to just try a little harder to avoid talking to or about black people at all, because they're just going to offend them, or get in trouble at work, etc. So, we get to the place where we walk past each other on the street, and you are invisible to me, a nothing, a nobody, a void. It's just easier than constant knife-edge tension, walking on those eggshells.

Which is problematic itself. Why? Because that reinforces the black stereotype of white folks--uppity, too good to even notice us, privileged. Real wealth or status has nothing to do with it. It can be even worse when whitey is poorer. "Look at the white trash, still thinks he's better than me, still gets respect I don't, still won't acknowledge me." Language is a tool used as a weapon. I'm forced to carry it, but if I pull it out innocently it can still be used against me. Safer to say nothing at all.

The fact is still: I was referring to the language of the site itself. Now, if there is some "rule" that says you can only use that language if you happen to be the same color, I can't even refer to the issue in the context of the reference, because I'm white, and some people, are going to be offended that I have the temerity to comment on a "black" opinion, approvingly?--tell me, how does that not just drive us apart? We might as well just stay isolated!

I'm an outsider to the black community, and I know it. I would never presume to comprehend what its like to be DWB, even if I was getting a DWG in Tiajuana. There's too much difference for superficial similarities to have much weight. But regarding your instinctive reaction to my post (without even checking into the site?)--I think that needs some introspection.

I hope we can get talking without the tension,
and yes, you are my brother,

[Edited on 10-5-2005 by Contra_Mundum]

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Joshua,
That looks like it comes out of the Cambridge (MA) Declaration. It is a good statement (or thesis). It simply says what the WCF says in chapter 1, para. 10, and chapter 31, para. 3.

 

[youthevang]

Thanks, I will take a look at the WCF.

 

[Peter]

You'd think more blacks would be reformed and covenantal having the reputation of being strongly family and community oriented.

 

[BobVigneault]

It's easy to find parallels between conservative christianity and black culture but you must remember, whereas we discuss the best of puritan theology here on the board, puritan history contains more than a few shameful practices.

http://www.stanleywhitman.org/slaverynewengland.html

There is a movement among blacks toward reformed christianity. James Johnson, Kerry and Joshua Parker are dear examples of that movement. But those who brought reformation thinking to New England also built many of it foundations on the black slave.

Racism is still a problem in many of our churches today, not flat out hatred on the basis of skin shade but attitudes that still need some maturing. In my humble opinion

 

[youthevang]

A book that has been a blessing to me is On Being Black and Reformed: A New Perspective on the African-American Christian Experience, by Anthony J. Carter. You can purchase it at CBD.