Psychology & Problematic Preaching:  The Black Church and What to Preach After the Pandemic

The Problem:

Brothers and sisters, these past 3-4 years have plunged us into unknown psychological struggles!

Increased suicides can be documented in all areas of our community—especially our youth.

In 2020, suicide was the leading cause of death for Black girls aged 12 to 14. (According to what source) In a May 2022 Forbes Magazine article, “Why are more Black Americans  Committing Suicide?” author Maia Niguel Hoskin references unrecognized depression as a contributing cause of these suicides.  Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality have found that despite a 2020 rate decrease overall,  there is an increase in Black suicide.

Additionally, Mark Ramirez cites sobering information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate increase in suicide among those ages 10 – 24 represented the largest percentage jump among any demographic.  5 factors are listed as contributing factors to depression and, consequently, suicide completion. Among them is “the historical and ongoing stigma concerning mental health in Black communities and inadvertent messages from church sermons regarding faith and prayer.” (“Black suicide rates, once among the nation’s lowest, have risen dramatically among youths.” (USA Today July 2023),

Problematic Preaching:

A recent discussion on Black suicide and the church with Mr. Jewel Woods, Black Christian founder of Male Behavioral Health, sparked my decision to write this article.

“Certainly, we need to preach faith and hope,” I told him.  But, I cautioned of a theological danger related to how faith and hope are preached that could inadvertently prove damaging and deadly. This new era requires that preachers delve deeper into the biblical text to find that “good word” that ministers to the lives of the Black people to whom they preach. Like the man blind from birth who was forced to live within a community whose approach to personal human difference/disability/struggle was to seek out someone to blame—those with mental health struggles too often find themselves within the same milieu in the church.  In ours and other communities, the persistent display of depressed behavior is seen as weakness.  Any inordinate fixation on sex, drugs, or alcohol is seen as solely the result of weakness in morals or character. This kind of problematic preaching assumes a human failure of character and or spiritual legitimacy or maturity as the starting point of any attempt to be of assistance.   We search in the lives of bulimics or the suicidal or manic workaholics to find the presence of selfishness, sloth, greed, or other personal flaws. Where do we get these troublesome ideas? Certainly, our hearts are pure, and our honest intention is to help our suffering members.

The scriptures are replete with verses that tout God’s desire for our best, God’s ability to heal, and the power of prayer to effect change in the lives of believers.  Prayer works. Ergo—if the scriptures can be trusted—praying in faith with hope should be all that is needed!   But Jesus said he could not do any miracles in some places because of the people’s lack of faith.  So then, unanswered prayers for healing must be the fault of the one making the request.

Right?

Wrong–having worked for some 40 years with persons who struggle against upsetting, destructive urges, thinking, and behavior, I have found this psycho-theological logic unequivocally inaccurate and harmful.

What to Preach:

Hope for one struggling against physiological realities cannot rest upon an outcome that always results in receiving exactly what was imagined and requested.  The preacher must give due diligence to the exegesis of texts on hope and healing.  Preach that God is able—but take it a step further and preach that “in this world, you will have trouble;” that there is an experience of “weeping that endures for a night”–for many nights, even every night, but that there is an inevitable promised time when the morning will come.

Preach that “the creation groans waiting for the redemption,” and we in human bodies are part of that creation groaning in our humanity.  We have physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual imperfections and challenges—some of which last a lifetime.

Preach that we can discover paths that help us to endure and find joy in the midst.  Preach the holy gifts of created medications, therapy, churches, and other groups that offer aid, love, and support.  Preach that many possible answers to prayer may not be what we imperfects believe to be what is best for us.

Preach a deeper understanding of Jesus’ focus on the kingdom of God as the ultimate spiritually-created intervention that heals our broken lives. Preach the legitimacy of the presence of a healing that goes beyond the physical—and believe it yourself!   Preach love juxtaposed with tolerance for those unable to control disruptive, self-centered, or otherwise annoying behavior.

We are Black people whose history of racial injustice and torment has been ratcheted up during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  We must give voice to God’s concern for and anger about our pain by preaching a God of vengeance who hates injustice. We must preach the legitimacy of a “Holy Black Rage” while struggling with texts to teach Christian parents and Black America the complex lesson of “turn the other cheek.”

Don’t just preach that the wages of sin is death—tell them that the gift of God is eternal life!