Last week, the Reverend Donnie Swaggart, pastor of Family Worship Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, preached a sermon in which he called the Black Church to task for many of its ministers endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris to be elected President of the United States. He declared any endorsement of Vice-President Harris was also an endorsement and support of murder, violence, LGBTQ persons, and all unrighteousness. Rev. Swaggart’s sermon has sparked an outcry from many Black Church leaders, ministers, and congregants.

The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church joins with the whole family of the Black Church not only to reject and denounce the Biblically and theologically unsound sermon but also to condemn the racist, partisan, and unchristian foundation upon which the sermon was based. Yet, as inappropriate and distorted as the sermon was, it provides an opportunity for the Black Church to provide some much-needed Christian Education to the far-right and alleged evangelical church, which again demonstrates the hypocrisy of many and proves itself neither evangelical nor Christian.

First, Bishop Drew Sheard, Chief Apostle of the Church of God In Christ, like so many other ministers, White and Black, made their personal endorsements, which they have the right to do. We do not endorse in the church’s name, as many Evangelical ministers do.

Second, the reality or necessity of the Black Church. As a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first Black Protestant denomination formed on American soil, we were founded because of the racism of “white Christians” who compelled our ancestors to sit in the balcony and wait until the “whites” finished praying before they could pray. Our ancestors knew this was ungodly and left and began “the Black Church,” not only for Blacks but because people of African descent founded it.

Third, we genuinely seek to be Christian and promote God’s kingdom on earth. Unlike so many evangelicals, we understand that God is not American, not a patriot, and that despite all you claim, this nation was not founded on Christian principles. Thank God some of us are Christians. To be Christians is our choice not because we live in America, but because of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You cannot make God an American. It’s our prayer that you can be genuine Christians. We see that you and so many others seek to make your idols to worship.

You have made Jesus white when the Jesus of the Bible is not white. He is a Palestinian Jew, a man of color. A Savior of color may frighten you.

Fourth, because of our relationship with Jesus, is why many of us support who you call, “that woman”. “That woman’s name is Vice President Kamala Harris. And she is not perfect; like us, she is a sinner. But unlike the man you support, she is saved, belongs to, and attends the church. She prays and repents. Unlike the man you support, she didn’t turn Black; she was born Black. Your man “turned orange.” Kamala Harris doesn’t denigrate and belittle people. Your man refers to all immigrants as felons and rapists. We are trying to figure out why he is upset. He himself is a felon and a convicted rapist. You talk about living righteously. Your man lies every time his lips move, pays prostitutes, doesn’t worship God, doesn’t read “2 Corinthians” (as he calls it), curses like a sailor, and sought to overthrow the government.

Black faith leaders know better than to support a man like this. What’s your excuse? Is it because you and many evangelicals want to “Make America Great Again”? In other words, turn back time to a period when no civil rights, voting rights, equal opportunity, or women’s rights existed. When white men ran everything?

The Black Church has saved this country from itself several times before, and I pray we can do it again. May it be said of us as was said of the New Testament Church, “they turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6)

Bishop Wilfred J. Messiah, Senior Bishop
Bishop Silvester Scott Beaman, President of the Council of Bishops
Bishop James L. Davis, President of the General Board
Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, Chair of the Commission on Social Action