Opinion

Black Minister Calls White House Prayer Meeting “Hypocrisy” and “Heresy”

On the July 15th edition of MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” Rev. William Barber II, “a member of the national board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, NC, spoke out against those that prayed for President Donald Trump after a photo was made public that showed pastors praying for the president at the White House.”

In a previous article, I commented on the impromptu prayer meeting and the media’s outrage. I showed how prayer for and with public officials is both biblical and historical. The Apostle Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy that “prayers … should be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority…” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). On the duty to pray for kings and societal welfare, see Jeremiah 29:7Ezra 6:10; 7:23; Romans 13:1Titus 3:1. The kings that were ruling at that time, for the most part, were tyrants. Israel was under Roman occupation and using Jews to collect taxes for the Empire (Matt. 10:3; Luke 5:27; 18:11; 19:2).

Even so, Paul says “pray” and Peter says “submit” (1 Pet. 2:13-17). We know from other passages of Scriptures that praying and submitting did not mean that all forms of political subjugation were acknowledged and obeyed, otherwise, why would Peter have said, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29; also 4:1-22). The Bible is filled with examples of holding civil rulers accountable and at times disobeying their commands (e.g., Ex. 1:17-21; Dan. 3 and 6).

Praying for political leaders does not mean agreeing with every view they hold or policy they promote. Many times, prayers are offered to appeal to God to change the heart of a king (Prov. 21:1).

In addition, as I point out in my previous article, it doesn’t take much effort to demonstrate how prayer was influential in the founding of our nation. Like today, prayer was controversial. Not everyone agreed that it belonged in politics, mostly because of denominational differences. What sect’s prayer would be the sanctioned prayer? Even so, prayer events took place, and calls for national days of prayer and thanksgiving were common.

Rev. Barber did not object to prayer, but he did object that these ministers prayed for President Trump. Here’s what he said:

[I]t is a form of theological malpractice that borders on heresy. When you can p-r-a-y for a president and others while they are p-r-e-y, preying on the most vulnerable, you’re violating the sacred principles of religion. You know, there is a text in Amos Chapter 2 that says religious and moral hypocrisy looks like when a nation of political leaders will buy and sell upstanding people when they will do anything to make money, when they will sell the poor for a pair of shoes, when they will grind the penniless into the dirt and shove the luckless into the ditch and extort from the poor. That is an actual text.

Rev. Barber refers to Amos 2. This is a good place to start. Judah was singled out “because they rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes” (v. 4). Yes, there is a great deal of religious hypocrisy going on today among politicians and religious leaders who collude with the State to steal (wealth confiscation and redistribution), enslave (ssupporting programs that make people dependent on the State), and murder (abortion).

Government policies, often supported by leftist black pastors, have done enormous harm to the poor, especially in the black community.

Over the past 50 years the U.S. government has spent $5 trillion on anti-poverty programs. But the demand that … “more” must be done by government through a stronger safety net, wealth redistribution and mandated equality measures overshadows the years of evidence that more often than not, government programs fail.

*****

Most welfare benefits are restricted to families with children. Thus, having a baby offers a gateway to a generous package of government benefits. But if the mother marries a man who earns a significant income, the benefits are lost. Indeed, if the mother marries a man who is not working, but the government requires him to take available work before benefits are paid, then the benefits will be lost in any event, whether he refuses to work, or if he works and earns an income that eliminates them. Government is effectively paying women to have children out of wedlock. (NCPA)

A nation can’t violate the Eighth Commandment (“You shall not steal”: Ex. 20:15) and expect “justice to flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream” (Amos 5:24) and have a beneficial outcome no matter how well intentioned the program might have been when it was proposed. Criticizing someone who rejects these unconstitutional and unrighteous government programs based on theft and redistribution as a heretic is the height of hypocrisy and real heresy.

Check out this Special Report that identifies nearly two dozen big-government policies that particularly hurt the poor. Rev. Barker should take some time to read The State Against Blacks, Race and Economics, and Up from the Projects by Walter Williams.

Two crucial points that Williams often makes are, “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do, and that is to destroy the black family” and “I’m glad that I received virtually all of my education before it became fashionable for white people to like black people.”

Republicans and Democrats are guilty of grave injustices to the poor in the name of the Paternalistic State.

Rev. Barber did not condemn Pres. Obama and the Democrat Party for its nearly sacramental support of abortion that disproportionally affects blacks.

More African-Americans are killed in the womb each year than have ever been murdered by police, or by gang violence…. [T]he greatest danger to blacks is found precisely where we ought to be safest: in our mothers’ wombs. In 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 138,539 black babies were aborted. (The Resurgent)

This used to be called “black genocide” by people like Rev. Jesse Jackson. I wonder how many blacks know that there was a time when Jackson opposed abortion

In the March 1973 issue of Jet magazine, Jackson stated, “Abortion is genocide.  Anything growing is living … If you got the thrill to set the baby in motion, and you don’t have the will to protect it, you’re dishonest … Who knows the cure for cancer won’t come out of some mind of some Black child?”

In 1974, Jackson composed a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and later explained that “killing babies” not only undermines the value and dignity of every human life, but abortion reflects “the moral decay and ambiguity in society … Whenever human life ceases to represent the highest value in the human sphere, the society is in trouble.”

Jackson further opined that abortion “takes away from the young man the responsibility, and from the young woman the responsibility, of the act they have engaged in. When people begin to use the excuses like, ‘this girl is not ready yet,’ it means that the law of convenience becomes the highest law, and that is a very dangerous precedent morally, even before it becomes political!”

In 1977, Jackson endorsed the Hyde Amendment, writing, “I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants.”

Furthermore, Jackson felt that abortion is the overriding issue for modern society. He wrote in The Right to Life News, “The question of ‘life’ is The Question of the 20th century. … How we will respect and understand the nature of life itself is the over-riding moral issue, not of the Black race, but of the human race.” (Life News)

There’s a great deal of hypocrisy and heresy to go around. Rev. William Barber has a share in it that also includes support for same-sex relationships.

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