As my mother, Mama Daisy, and I gasped in awe at the looming scandal surrounding Grammy Award- winning Pastor Charles Jenkins, I thought to myself where can you find a good PR agent when you need one. Jenkins' has a photo of himself nude plastered all over the internet. The picture was allegedly released by a former lover and employee of Jenkins. As I read about the drama, it donned on me; the church world has not PR agents. There are no fixers, just the shamed and underrepresented. Before she even knew what I was thinking, Mama Daisy, looked at me and said, “You could be the Olivia Pope for the saints!” After I guffawed at the thought, I figured Mama’s got a point. I don’t know if I’m the fabulously dressed femme for the job. I also don’t think we need a Scandalous harlot doing the job, but the Church World needs a fixer. The Christian World needs an advocate; one who can sweep up the messes and phone in the calls. We have seen the melee, time after time. The dark lives of adulterous apostles, pedophilias priests and pilfering pastors come to light and the churches they leave in the dust are tarnished. Great works of God, like Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, get a cloud hung over their steeple due to the human nature of the men and women that lead them. No other public service position holds its elect to the standards we, as Christians, hold our leaders. We make our pastors the untouchable, nearly unhuman, reflections of Christ. When we are all capable of falling short of his glory. No other public service position leaves its elect out in the cold after they flop. Now before you go closing the tab, hear me out. By no means do I believe that we should ignore the actions of people reflecting Christ. The church world has every right to respond in fury when their pastor’s genitals hit the World Wide Web. I am not advocating for amnesty or a veil because, whether the public knows of the faults of a pastor or not, God will not be mocked. Whatever revenge the public can dish out with its hummings about the size of a man’s penis will be miniscule in comparison to the conviction God will administer. A fixer for the Christian world would be a service to the kingdom of God, not to man. Avid tithe payers do not deserve to see the bulge beneath the faces on their bulletins, just as avid tax payers don’t deserve it. When Governors, Congresspersons and Mayors pose, their cheeks are taken down before sunset. Jenkins’ sack has sat on the net for THREE DAYS. His social presence has been dead for the same amount of time. No statement has been released. And if there was a fixer on the job, subpoenas would have been issued the day these photos topped Google’s search engine. Forget about the shame that future pastors whose fate resemble Jenkins will endure. Let’s talk about the men and women who have lost hope in the ministry. With a fixer, they could have held their heads high as they entered church on Sunday to get word that Jenkins was taking a seat. Instead, they are forced to defend their pastor on Twitter. The “fixer for the saints” as my mama called it, would keep the faithful believers of Jesus Christ from being targeted, abused, and taken for ride for doing what they should be doing in the first place. Just as Olivia Pope protects the public and searches for the light in constant darkness, there should be someone protecting God’s people and searching for the light of Christ in the darkness of humanity.
0 Comments
|
Details
ATS MagAgainst the Stream Magazine is an urban platform. We edify our readers by finding noble, pure, and true talent and giving it a stage to flourish. While we love bragging about the folks around us, we also tackle urban issues by giving real world solutions. Archives
September 2015
|