THE PULPIT: Black church shifts focus amid change

Black churches in America are changing, a trend exemplified by Barack Obama's campaign emphasis on broad issues, not race.

Some African-American scholars have noted a different mindset between black preachers who grew up in the pre-civil rights era and those growing up afterward, labeling the former as the Moses generation and the latter as the Joshua generation - a reference to successive generations seeking the Promised Land in the Old Testament.

Those from the Moses generation preach fiery sermons on racism, and include the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Obama's former spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
Pastors from the Joshua generation preach a more ecumenical message.

"We are already in the Joshua generation, and younger preachers coming up, they will tend to be broader in their topics, not focused on race itself," Lawrence H. Mamiya, co-author of "The Black Church in the African-American Experience," told me.

"One noticeable difference between Jackson's run in 1984 and Obama's campaign is that the civil rights rhetoric of the past was missing," said Al Pittman, 52, senior pastor of Calvary Worship Center in Colorado Springs. "Many African-Americans of the younger generation wanted to hear less of ‘I have a dream' and more of ‘I have achieved the dream.'"

Mamiya said he believes the main reason for the generational divide is the rise of the black middle class, which today makes up about one-third of black America. Middle-class black America, a byproduct of civil rights successes, has resulted in the growth of worship centers led by black pastors preaching to an ethnically mixed congregation.

"It is clear that this past election serves as a testimony to the fact that America's attitude toward race has somewhat changed," said Pittman.

The Rev. Benjamin Anderson leads a racially mixed congregation of about 100 at Solid Rock Family Life Center in Colorado Springs. Anderson seldom speaks about race from the pulpit.

"Everybody has issues - blacks, whites, Hispanics," Anderson, 58, said. "The people I serve in my ministry are from all walks of life. I can't come across as a civil rights pastor. Things have changed."

And yet, as Joshua needed Moses to blaze a trail, the new generation of black leaders acknowledges its debt to its predecessors. In fact, Anderson said, Jackson's criticism last summer of Obama "talking down to black people" on Fox News, shows that the Moses generation still has merit.

"Somebody still needs to beat that drum for the black poor people," Anderson said.

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