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State of the Black Family
2006
Faith, Family and Politics
Part 1 of a 4 part Series
Read Part 1| Part 2| Part 3 | Part 4
An interview with Bishop Keith A. Butler, pastor of the 21,000 member Word of Faith International Christian Center in Southfield,
Michigan and candidate for U.S. Senate
by Anita S. Lane
Bishop Butler, How fundamental is the issue of faith to the health of a family?
It is absolutely fundamental. Faith determines how a husband interacts with his wife and vice versa. The scripture teaches you how to rear your children and what values your children should have. It even speaks of the role a grandparent plays. So it is extremely important to the proper formation of the family.
Many believe that faith has been a sustaining factor for the African American family traditionally. For a long time, the church was the “hub” of our communities. Faith also played a critical role in the civil rights movement. Do you think that as a people, African Americans have become less reliant upon God?
I think what’s happened is that much of the African American church has become more social oriented and some of the African American culture has moved away from strict teaching of the scripture and have moved away from a Biblical leaning. However the younger ministers, in general are returning back to interpreting and teaching the scripture as opposed to social quests, and to some extent the result of that has been we’ve seen the growth of some extremely large black churches across the country—because of that hunger being filled again.
The Barna Group recently released a report that talks about the slow demise of the African-American church. They identify the decline by such indicators as church attendance, Bible knowledge, faith prioritization, and reliance upon the faith community for support and relationships. They also indicate that there is a correlation between the economic rise of the African-American population and the deterioration of its faith in Christ. Do you see a correlation between that and our embracing the larger society’s way of living?
I have not seen the report of which you speak, but I would say that I don’t believe that there is a large decline in church attendance, but there has been a change in church attendance. Meaning the mainline churches—AME, Baptist and the like, were where African Americans went to church. Today they are more likely to go to a church that is an independent, non denominational church and if you go to most cities today, you’ll find that these churches are huge. They have thousands of members and you’ll see a decline in the traditional churches. So there has been a shift and that shift has taken place because the nondenominational churches have returned back to strict scriptural teaching as opposed to the church being a social place, which it had evolved to during the seventies and somewhat during the eighties.
The Barna study also reveals that America is Biblically illiterate and that the younger a person is the less they know about the Christian faith. As a whole, there appears to be less emphasis on Bible teaching and helping our children understand the Word of God. What impact do you think this has on our future?
Well, in the mainline churches—again, which is why they are the ones having the exodus—there is not a lot of Bible teaching. There is a lot of formalism and religiousity, but not a lot of emphasis on scriptural teaching. You also have happening at the same time, in the black community, an explosion of independent churches and the churches are based on lots of Bible teaching and institutions we’ve not had as black people—like children’s churches and youth churches. We didn’t have those. We did have Sunday school but we didn’t have ministries that were in the business of children having their own churches. We didn’t have that. So those young people who are attending Bible-teaching style churches, I think you’ll find that they are very literate. But I think in the mainline African American churches, not only will you find Bible illiteracy among the young, but you’ll find it among the old as well because for the last thirty years it’s been more of a social gospel as opposed to teaching the strictness of the scripture and its revelation.
Statistics show that African Americans are the most unpartnered group in America. 54% of us between the ages of 24-34 have never been married. For Americans as a whole, that number is 35%. Is there a correlation between that number and our faith?
No doubt about it. As we’ve moved away from the strict teaching of the scripture… The scripture was the only thing that kept people from cohabitating together, having sex out of wedlock, abortion on demand and the like. I think that you’ll find that in the Bible-teaching churches that the vast majority of people are married and you don’t have the out-of-wedlock birth rate. But there is a direct correlation of between teaching the strictness of the scripture and the morals of a people.
 Taking that one step further, there is a direct correlation between the teaching of the scripture and the success of a family.
There is no question that if you do not have line-by-line Bible teaching that the social norm will overwhelm the methodology that people choose to rear their family – or whether they have a family at all. And when you don’t have that teaching among groups of people—black or white—you have a liberal view, which is — anything goes.
So the Word of God is the solution…
No question. It is the solution and the lack of it is the cause of one’s problems.
Speaking of liberal and conservative, many people feel that neither the Republican nor the Democratic party sufficiently represent the wishes and the views of African Americans. What’s your perspective on that and what is the solution?
I don’t disagree with that. When I say liberal, I’m not talking in a political sense. When I say liberal, I’m talking in a scriptural sense. The biblical worldview is one that does not embrace what we call today, social liberalism. Social liberalism embraces gay marriage and abortion. It embraces a view that it is fine to have any kind of union you can comprise as a family. It does not put constraints upon what you do with your sexual or other aspects of your lifestyle. A Biblical worldview is one that neither the Republican nor the Democratic party puts forward.
I do not believe political parties in and of themselves are in any way the solution to solving the family’s problems, but politics are important in that whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, the policies that the government takes will be determined by the type of people that are in the parties and are the elected officials. So if you want to have a Biblical worldview, you are going to have to have Biblically oriented people involved in that process in order to turn the ship around.
A lot of people think that faith and politics are two totally unrelated entities; but our faith informs our politics does it not?
Indeed, there is no such thing as a person not having a view. Everyone has some view. Even the view that there is no God is a view. Everyone has faith in something. It’s either faith in God, or faith in themselves being the highest order. But the presupposition that faith and politics should be separate is fiction. The question is whose faith is it that is dominant. People who typically say that are people who are against the Christian view of the world. You can look at Western Europe as a good example of that. Western Europe has become an anti-Christian bastion. As a result it has become a secular society. It doesn’t even keep up with its normal birthrate. Its normal birthrate is about 1.3 persons per family. To sustain itself a society has to be about 2.1, so as a result they have massive economic problems.
Moral decisions have economic consequences to them. Take abortion for example—because their abortion rate is so high, they don’t have markets to sell their goods to. It’s affected their economy and causes high taxes and dislocation. Abortion in America—over 45 million children since Roe v. Wade. Canada, our nation’s largest trading partner has 35 million people. The state of Michigan has 10 million people. So you’re talking about a market that’s the size of Canada plus Michigan combined that we don’t have to sell cars to, build houses for or grow food—all those things cause economic loss and that’s simply because of a non Biblical worldview. To remove God and a Biblical worldview out of the political process invites chaos.
How do we turn things around?
Two things. One, the churches have to go back to teaching the scripture, strictly. This is where it begins, in the churches. From that you get people into society who have the right viewpoint. Churches should be encouraging people once they teach them, to get involved in the political process, because once those people do, they help shape the law and the thinking of the nation to bring it back to where it needs to be. But it starts first of all with the man or woman of God in the pulpit; then goes from there to people in society going out into all the world and affecting the world. That’s what has to happen. Unfortunately, even those with a Biblical worldview in the churches have bought the lie that somehow they are not to affect the rest of the world—which is sure hard for me to see if you read the writings of Jesus, Paul and Peter, how you could remotely come up with that view. Unfortunately, you may have large churches with lots of people who know the right things, but if they are not willing to spread what they know into society, their value is greatly diminished to the Kingdom of God and to their society.
There is a great concern about the globalization of America just as it is happening in Western Europe. But I don’t know if most of us are aware that it is happening here.
It is happening here, but at least there is a fight. You do have believers who are involved and taking a stand.
The Black family has suffered more than any other group in America, from the moving away of Biblical viewpoints — at the governmental level, the societal level and at the church level—because we more than anyone else needed the continuity, structure and stability that the Word of God gives us because of us already being behind the curve due to slavery and the like. For us to lose that is catastrophic and that’s why we are suffering greatly. When 70 percent of all our children are born out of wedlock today—our problem is less “government” and more with moving away from God’s view of things.
Are there any key policies that directly impact our families that we as moms and dads should be mindful of?
Tax policy is one of them. Tax policy should reward folks for having children and not punish them for it. Tax policy should reward marriage and not punish you for being married, as it currently does. Policies should continue to be put forward that reaffirm marriage between a man and a woman and not between two men or two women. It should make sure that adoption is available for people who want children and that it should only between people of the opposite sex and who are married. You want policies to continue that reward folks for taking care of the elderly. Our tax policy should reflect that and currently it doesn’t the way that it should. In other words, the government’s policies should help keep the traditional family in tact and instead of attacking the family.
Bishop Butler, thank you so much for your time.
Learn more about Keith Butler's campaign via his website.
Visit Word of Faith International Christian Center online
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Home Improvement
by Bishop Keith and Minister Deborah Butler
Have the fires of marital bliss turned to smoldering embers in your marriage?
Enhance your family relationships and improve the quality of your home life with the teaching in this book!
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Copyright ©2006 by Keeping Family First.
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