Black Churches Today

Current Event One: Ethnicy and Religion
Heather Swift

Many black churches today seem to focus on issues such as denying a woman the right to choose an abortion, or a gay couple has also taken action, but now the black churches are speaking narrowly on the subject.Many African-Americans do ont support these beliefs, but when the National Conference and revival for social justice in the black church held a conference, they realized there are more important issues.In the years 2000 and 2004 both Florida and Ohio respectivly, it was rumored that the Republican party tried to prevent the voting of African-Americans. Rev. Al Sharpton stated "That's why I'll be traveling to Florida and Ohio soon to push for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and against new anti-voting legislation.." This made people realize that their efforts needed to be changed and focused on more crucial problems such as racism,poverty,and inequalties of voting. At this three day event, Ministers from all over the country realized that they should never forget the man that was resposible for leading them into freedom. Dr. Martin Luther King jr. was a strong believer in Christianity, and put his heart and soul into promoting. Many have choosen to ignore the vision that Dr. King tried to promote.Many African-Americans realized that without the teachings of Dr. King they may have never been allowed to have their own church. They believe that everyone has the right to freedom of speech but one person should not speak for everyone. The National Conference and revival for social justice in the African-American chruch was reunited in Augusta, Georgia at the end of July,they focused on the on-going fight against racism, inequality, social justice, and universal voting rights.