Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. Speaks

The Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. is an enigma. He is he author of many books and articles; a noted theologian who can read the scriptures in both the Hebrew and ancient Greek texts. He is also a passionate herald of the Gospel who took the ministry of his church out into the mean streets of one of America’s most dangerous cities; facing down urban terrorists and belligerent city officials along the way. Under his leadership, the Allen Temple Baptist Church grew from a small community church to a beacon of light that illuminated a city and today is a spiritual home for thousands. His trademark has always been his heart for the those whom he calls “the least, the lost and the left out.” Smith himself was once elected to the presidency of the Progressive National Baptist Convention which claimed Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of its founders.

One night in the early days of his pastorate, members of the Black Panther Party visited Reverend Smith and some of the leaders of his church. The Panthers had made headlines all over the world for their militant stance against police brutality. Chairman Bobby Seale and Co-founder, Huey P. Newton led armed patrols through the Oakland streets that followed the police to thwart incidents of brutality. Reverend Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., opened a dialogue between the revolutionaries and the church. Years later, he would be called upon to baptize Huey P. Newton on a Sunday morning at Allen Temple Baptist Church. When Newton was murdered, Dr. Smith eulogized him.

At this moment, as America shakes with trouble and threats on the political horizon and people of color are being forced to leave Oakland in droves due to economic pressure, I phoned the prophet of International Boulevard seeking his insights on this new world. He is a treasured mentor whom I often seek out for spiritual guidance.

Said, Reverend Smith: “If I was a young pastor today, I would always be jail. Anytime, that I became aware of police brutality against unarmed citizens I would be waging protest against the authorities. Allen Temple would have to constantly be bailing me out. I simply could not sit back and watch the people of my community brutalized and taken advantage of.

“Black Lives Matter is a movement led by intelligent young black adults who have called the country into account only to find in the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, ‘It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.'

“This continuing duality in America vexes my soul. It ought not be an item worthy of discussion. If all life matters, why do we have to discuss whether black lives matter? The fact of the matter is that the phrase ‘liberty and justice for all’ still does not pertain to black people in this nation. I’m sad that at my age, this is still even on the table.

“I first came to Allen Temple Baptist Church as an interim pastor in 1969. It was far from a megachurch. I became a community pastor, shepherding less than 100 people. Some of the established black pastors thought that I was a Black Panther and that I was not saved. Back then, I wore a dashiki and I sported an afro hairstyle. My fellow ministers did not understand that I was trying to reach the young African-Americans who were disaffected from the Church and thought it was part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

“Many of the local pastors also believed that clergy had no business holding elected officials accountable. They felt that sort of thing out of bounds. If you did this, you were considered to be a radical and not a good citizen.

“When I arrived here, Oakland was not a progressive black city. When I first came to Oakland, they had a mayor by the name of John Reading. He had a business in East Oakland. Yet, he was not sensitive to the community. One night, I went down to City Hall on behalf of the community. When my turn on the speaker’s list arrived, Mayor Reading turned his chair around and faced the wall. Later, that night he gave the key to the city to some Russian visitors. Now you have to understand that this was at the height of the Cold War when Russia was considered an enemy of this nation. If he thought that would deter me from struggling on behalf of our community, he was greatly mistaken. We are human beings. We are citizens. We demand our rights and people elected to represent us are going to hear our voices.”

As my conversation with Dr. Smith continued, I wanted the pastor emeritus take on the issues which confront Oakland in 2016. A precursory Internet search will tell you that the city of Oakland has become ground zero in the gentrification wars. Rents have skyrocketed, making the city one of the most expensive places to live in the entire nation. Rich investors are snapping up foreclosed properties. People of color are being forced out in droves, some the victims of illegal evictions. Their faces are popping up in tent cities beneath the freeway underpasses. Dr. Smith said: “I don’t know what can be done at this juncture to stop gentrification. We always wait until the horse is out of the corral and then try to round him up. It’s too late. I’m pessimistic because gentrification is fueled by capitalism, the god of America.”

When asked why the black churches in Oakland have not mounted a powerful public campaign against the displacement of African-American people, Dr. Smith responded: “The Back Church is a sleeping giant. Even when Dr. King was leading, the black denominations were disconnected in the struggle. Even the black baptists were not unified by the Civil Rights Movement. The struggle has always been the heartbeat of only a minority of black Christians. The prophetic Black Church makes up only a remnant. The majority of black churches are into the prosperity gospel or religion as entertainment.

“Prophetic preaching talks about the righteousness of God and not the righteousness of man. We are not righteous. We are flawed creatures. We are always seeking our advantage and self interest. Even our prayers and songs seek our advantage. We always sing about what the Lord has done for me. That is not theocentric.

“In prophetic religion, God is the subject. We are the object. In non-prophetic theology, we become the subject. What is God going to do for me? That is in the objective case. Everything starts with “I” or “Me.” It’s never “us.” We forget “Thy” Will be done. That’s why I don’t like modern Gospel music. We are dust; a speck in time. We are temporal and yet we worship the relative instead of the absolute. There is a fissure in our values.

“We need to talk about social justice. When you say social, you’re talking about people, not individualism. To perform social justice is to balance the scales so that things would be leveled between the people with power and privilege who sit on one end of the see-saw and the weightless, disadvantaged and disenfranchised who sit down at the other end. It is the religion that brings dignity and fairness to both ends. It is: “Love thy neighbor as thyself religion.

"Today, religion has been privatized. It is about me and my God. We twist the Bible into a prospectus detailing what God can do for us as individuals, especially pertaining to wealth management.

"There are too many professing Christians who have never read about the ethics of Jesus. Today in public life, we have evangelical Christian leaders who bypass the Sermon on the Mount. We have an evangelical Christianity that has gone about to establish its own righteousness and not the righteousness of God. We have forgotten that love seeks no ill toward its neighbor.

“We want to say that we are Christians and yet we want to deport millions and build walls. I thought that Jesus Christ tore down the partition. Is that Christianity or is it not? Is there another Gospel other than the Gospel that Jesus taught? Those things do no ethically and morally fall into sync.

“I don’t see it getting better. The church people are the conservators. They are reactionary. And as a result of that, more and more educated young people are becoming humanists. They either don’t believe in God or they blame God for what’s wrong because the Church has taken the Lord's name in vain. We have stained that which is holy. In the words of Nietzche, “We have killed God.” We have committed this murder through our institutional misrepresentation of God. I’m not talking about the God who gives us our next breath, I’m talking out the greatly flawed image of the deity whom we claim is our God.

“As a result, no one respects us anymore. I will not live to see it change. I won’t be around. All that I can be is a witness. I am a witness in a Babylon. I am a witness in Babylonian captivity. Like Joseph, I’m going to die in Egypt. My bones will buried in Egypt but my elder brother will come back to get the bones. The dead in Christ will rise.”

BE SURE TO SHARE THIS WITH A FRIEND. STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

#JAlfredSmith #BlackLivesMatter #AllenTempleBaptistChurch