By Victor Ochieng
The Black Church has been of great importance to the Black community, working relentlessly to inculcate a God-fearing culture. At the same time, the church has also served several other roles throughout the Black history, including rallying for social justice.
However, the involvement of the Black Church in some of these causes have been criticized by those who believe the church should focus on preaching God’s Word and nothing else. In fact, some even believe that churches shouldn’t even bother to give direction to their members on matters relating to social justice and politics.
Today’s church doesn’t believe in that though. We’ve seen so many churches championing political ideas, with some even declaring support to specific political figures.
How should the church strike the balance? A spiritually guided balance is necessary for the church to remain focused on spreading the good news of the Messiah. In fact, the biggest fear some of the people opposing the involvement of the church in other causes apart from evangelizing the Blood of Jesus is compromising the gospel.
We can’t claim that’s not true. Lack of control is what has given birth to such gospels as the “social gospel,” “liberation theology,” “prosperity gospel” and the “black gospel.” The worst part is that some of these gospels end up taking the center stage of sermons, with some even resulting in social movements.
It’s that very concern that’s being raised towards Woke Theology.
In a recent article, Darrell Harrison expressed concerns that Woke Theology is dangerous and is doing damage to the Black Church. His biggest worry is that the movement is now subordinating, if not undermining, the true mission of Christians in dealing with the societal ills, which is nothing else but preaching the Blood of Jesus.
This isn’t to downplay the remarkable roles ecclesiastical figures like Morris Brown, Betsey Stockton, Richard Allen and more have played. It’s also not to say that such movements are bad to the Black community or the society in general. The problem only comes in when such movements become the key message during our church services.
When talking about Woke Theology, we’re focusing on the Black evangelicalism because that’s where the biggest damage is. This is particularly so because it’s within the Black community that we see so much acclamation for social justice and equality.
Like #ProphetDrOwuor says, let the church return to preaching the gospel of the Blood of Jesus.
Source
