Pastors Issue Open Letter Urging Attention to Black Family 'Crisis'
By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service Washington, July 20 - A group of 25 pastors has issued an open letter to black church leaders, calling on them to no longer be silent about the state of African-American families."There is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the black community, one that goes to the very heart of its survival," reads the Wednesday (July 20) letter spearheaded by the Rev. Eugene Rivers, president of the Seymour Institute for Advanced Christian Studies in Boston.
"The black family is failing." Updating 1965 research on black families by the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the letter cites numerous reasons for declining black families. "At the heart of the breakdown of the family has been the failure of black marriages," it states.
Other causes include a lack of sexual fidelity among African-Americans and a disproportionately high rate of incarceration for black males.
Although the leaders supporting the letter credit the black church for its role in the civil rights movement, they said the church needs to take a stand in helping transform the current challenges in the black community.
"The church has been largely silent on the decline of the black family, in part because a number of church leaders have themselves not led an exemplary life in this regard," the letter said. "Even in the recent past, leading black clergymen have been caught in nationally publicized sexual scandals."
The four-page letter, announced at a National Press Club news conference, calls on church leaders to reform their own conduct while teaching others to "live up to the biblical standards of sexual purity" by offering premarital counseling for engaged couples and other resources to help preserve marriages.
"Every black Christian man and woman must take seriously the charge to live in a sexually responsible manner, honoring the sacred nature of sexual intimacy," the letter states. "By their fidelity to each other, parents must provide an environment of trust and emotional security in which to raise their children and teach them by example and precept to respect and honor their bodies."
The Boston-based institute has published a 55-page volume, expanding on the premise of the open letter, called "God's Gift: A Christian Vision of Marriage and the Black Family."
Copyright 2005 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service Washington, July 20 - A group of 25 pastors has issued an open letter to black church leaders, calling on them to no longer be silent about the state of African-American families."There is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in the black community, one that goes to the very heart of its survival," reads the Wednesday (July 20) letter spearheaded by the Rev. Eugene Rivers, president of the Seymour Institute for Advanced Christian Studies in Boston.
"The black family is failing." Updating 1965 research on black families by the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the letter cites numerous reasons for declining black families. "At the heart of the breakdown of the family has been the failure of black marriages," it states.
Other causes include a lack of sexual fidelity among African-Americans and a disproportionately high rate of incarceration for black males.
Although the leaders supporting the letter credit the black church for its role in the civil rights movement, they said the church needs to take a stand in helping transform the current challenges in the black community.
"The church has been largely silent on the decline of the black family, in part because a number of church leaders have themselves not led an exemplary life in this regard," the letter said. "Even in the recent past, leading black clergymen have been caught in nationally publicized sexual scandals."
The four-page letter, announced at a National Press Club news conference, calls on church leaders to reform their own conduct while teaching others to "live up to the biblical standards of sexual purity" by offering premarital counseling for engaged couples and other resources to help preserve marriages.
"Every black Christian man and woman must take seriously the charge to live in a sexually responsible manner, honoring the sacred nature of sexual intimacy," the letter states. "By their fidelity to each other, parents must provide an environment of trust and emotional security in which to raise their children and teach them by example and precept to respect and honor their bodies."
The Boston-based institute has published a 55-page volume, expanding on the premise of the open letter, called "God's Gift: A Christian Vision of Marriage and the Black Family."
Copyright 2005 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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