Backsliding

"White folks got all the money and Negroes got all the religion." This bitter Negro saying may once have had an uncomfortable amount of truth in it, but today, according to the Negro picture magazine Ebony, it ain't necessarily so.

Since the war, says Ebony, "Negroes have been getting more and more money and less and less religion." Few of the 50,000 Negro churches in the U.S. draw regularly more than 40% of their membership on Sundays, compared to 65% a generation ago. The reason: "change in the character of the Negro and lack of change in the character of the church."

The Negro used to look to his church as a combination school, employment agency, health clinic and social center. And though the church often fell short of his needs, it did provide him with emotional inspiration and release that made life more bearable in his cramped, impoverished world. The modern urban Negro, says Ebony, "with his new-found education, better-paying job and higher living standards," looks for leadership to his union or social club.

Negro churches, meanwhile, have tended to divide more & more between those which put wealth and size ahead of "salvation and spiritual fulfillment" and a proliferation of store-front churches, too many of them fly-by-night operations by poorly trained, demagogic pastors.

The responsibility for reversing the trend, says Ebony, lies mainly with the ministry. "Required is more than a simple religious training and unbounded faith in the Lord. Today's minister must be informed on problems vital to labor; he must be close to the racial grievances of his flock and be a fearless fighter for Negro rights; he must be acquainted with social services and give his congregation the benefits of that knowledge. Today's man of God must be a combination of labor organizer, race leader and social worker in addition to an inspired preacher of the Gospel . . ."

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