Megachurch preacher Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland, says the westernization of the church worship experience has resulted in the black church becoming a place that’s comfortable for women and “sanctified sissies.”
Pointing to a culture that’s increasingly paying attention to the needs of women, while marginalizing the importance of men in the family, Bryant explained in a recent message posted on YouTube that the same mindset has seeped into the church fostering a culture that makes it difficult for men to find their place in the church.
“When the new deal was offered up the only way a black family could receive food stamps or welfare — men had to be pushed out of the house,” began Bryant in explaining the genesis of the modern-day assault on the black family.
“It was not that they [fathers] did not have an affinity or affection for their wives or their children, but the government set up such a structure in order for the children to receive aid no father could be present,” he said.
This situation resulted in not only a problem for the black family but a problem for the church as well.
“In the absence of a black male presence, then the family is no longer defended. Why is this a problem? When a black woman comes to church she has, in fact, a 50 to 60 percent chance of the whole family coming with her. But when a black man comes to church it is an 85 percent chance that everybody is going to come,” said Bryant.
“So now we come to churches that are just feminized with a church full of women, but you got a mosque full of men. It says it’s not that men are not spiritual, they want a place of discipline and order and focus. Men do not want to come to church just for an emotional outpour,” Bryant noted.
“But because we have westernized our worship experience, everybody wants to shout and sashay because we made the church comfortable for men not to be men, but to be sanctified sissies,” he said.
Source: The Christian Post | LEONARDO BLAIR
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