Black pastors are at a crossroads as faith bends to politics

Donald Trump’s return to the White House must have been a bitter pill for black pastors who vocally supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. They likely would have preferred to spend Black History Month celebrating Harris rather than bracing for another four years of the "Orange Menace."

But many black clergy now face an even more sobering reality.

Black pastors and churches now stand at a crossroads. 'Authentic' blackness has been tied to a political ideology that opposes biblical truth.

The black church is on life support, and its decline stems from the same sins that plagued Israel in the Old Testament and every wayward church throughout history.

Millions of black Christians in the United States still attend majority-black churches that preach the gospel and believe the Bible. But the term “black church” serves more as a sociopolitical descriptor than a spiritual qualifier.

Many churches that have lost their spiritual power view poverty, racism, and inequality as the greatest sources of oppression. To them, the sins that “marginalized” people need salvation from are those committed by those in power.

The preachers leading these churches are learning a painful lesson — there is a heavy price for chasing false gods. No greater form of idolatry exists in America today than Christians who force the unchangeable truth of God's word to conform to the shifting positions of their preferred political party.

Politicians set tax rates, allocate funding for schools and roads, negotiate trade agreements, and craft immigration policy. Some may even promote healthy eating or discourage drug use. But politics should never take precedence over faith.

No one has the authority to declare that a man can become a woman or that two men can form a marriage. Political leaders who reject Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 should be challenged by pastors who boldly declare biblical truth and warn of the consequences of abusing political power. Any Christian, pastor, church, or denomination that justifies rebellion against the Bible by appealing to political consensus engages in spiritual adultery.

Kamala Harris visited New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, led by Rev. Jamal Bryant, just days before the election. Bryant, a charismatic speaker, leads one of the most influential black churches in America. In 2022, he condemned the overturning of Roe v. Wade shortly before performing a baby dedication and declaring, “Children are our future.” Nearly 70% of all babies aborted in Georgia are black, yet preachers like Bryant refuse to acknowledge the Democratic Party’s abortion extremism as a form of systemic racism.

Sen. Raphael Warnock represents Georgia in Washington and leads Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The debates over King’s theology are well-documented. But while King used the Bible to challenge racial divisions, Warnock invokes his faith to reject the biblical view of sex and gender.

These men are not isolated cases of theological drift. The most politically engaged black pastors in America have become surrogates for the Democratic Party. They claim to be bold prophets denouncing injustice, but in reality, they serve as cupbearers — protecting, not challenging, those in power.

Warnock may seem like a direct spiritual heir to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but the truth is that today’s most influential black preachers follow a different tradition — one rooted in the teachings of Dr. James Cone, the father of black liberation theology. Cone’s open embrace of Marxism led to the ultimate devil’s bargain. His theology sacrifices biblical fidelity for the illusion of social justice:

First, in a revolutionary situation there can never be just theology. It is always theology identified with a particular community. It is either identified with those who inflict oppression or with those who are its victims. A theology of the latter is authentic Christian theology, and a theology of the former is a theology of the Antichrist.

The men and women who consider themselves heirs to Cone’s theology have continued down the same path. The clearest sign of the black church’s declining cultural influence was the rise of Black Lives Matter. A movement that openly touted its “queerness” and pledged to “disrupt” the nuclear family would never have gained national prominence in previous generations. But rather than rebuke BLM’s leaders, many black preachers followed their lead.

Black pastors and churches now stand at a crossroads. “Authentic” blackness has been tied to a political ideology that opposes biblical truth. Black pastors who frame “gender-affirming care” for their “trans brothers and sisters” as the next civil rights cause have allowed the twin idols of race and politics to pull their hearts — and pulpits — away from God.

Thankfully, the Lord is merciful and willing to forgive all who repent and follow Jesus. Christians should always remember that what happens in God’s households is of far greater eternal value than who occupies the White House.