Bill Cosby Went In on Christians

Bill Cosby went in and let have on Christians. I agree and disagree with what he said.

This is from RollingOut.com.

“You cannot go to the black Muslim neighborhoods and sell drugs. They shut down drug dealers,” Cosby said, comparing Christian and black Muslin neighborhoods. He was inferring to black Muslims being subjected to nationwide vilification despite cleaning up their communities. “They don’t carry guns. That’s a myth. They just walk up with their sunglasses and bean pies and say, ‘Brother you can’t do that here,’ and the drug dealers, even with their guns and rap music, the Muslims run him out of town [and] to the emergency ward.”

“There are too many preachers [but] not enough service,“ Cosby began after the roar of shock and applause died down. “Tell me where Jesus would allow drug dealing on the corner? Tell me where Jesus would allow people to shoot guns for no reason, missing and then hitting a child who is paralyzed for life? And we don’t do anything but have a funeral. But let a cop shoot [a black man], and you set his car on fire and burn up the police stations. Contradictions.

“The black Muslims take time to explain who they are, so that by the time the children are 12 years old, male or female, they are proud of who and what they happen to be,” he said.

Dr. Cosby, sir, let me start with where I agree with you. Indeed, churches are often concerned with growing numbers and getting money more than community outreach and reaching people with the transformative power of the Gospel. Far too often there is a church on one corner with a liquor store and drug dealer on another corner. It’s like a battle to see who wins. Church populations dwindle as people move out of the neighborhood or die off, but the liquor store and drug dealers stay. The only thing that seems to drive them out is gentrification. I wonder if the drug dealers start dealing Oxycontin and weed instead of crack to the new residents.

There is indeed something awry when a church is in an area alongside drug dealers and the drug dealers don’t go away. It’s something churches should take better note of. Neighborhood Watch groups get rid of drug dealers in their neighborhoods, so why can’t the church? “What fellowship hath light with darkness?” (II Corinthians 6:14b)

Here’s why (and where I disagree with Bill Cosby): Jesus died for all, even the drug dealers and users. It’s one thing to drive folks away from your area so that you’re “cleaned up” but they move on to another area. Dr. Cosby mentions Muslims (I’m assuming the Nation of Islam, which most global Muslims consider a cult that isn’t real Islam) driving out drug dealers by simply telling the dealers they can’t be in those neighborhoods. If it’s that simple, great! Churches should do that. However, they should extend the invitation to attend church (maybe) and should work more in the community and through other organizations to get an understanding of why people choose to try addictive drugs and work with them to win their hearts for a real change. Once the demand is gone, the dealers dealers have no choice but to change their lives or look elsewhere for work.

All churches aren’t wrongly engaging their communities, but a lot of them are. Their attendees focus on fundraising and looking good for Sunday while singing loudly in the choir. Just like my gripe with politically involved Christians who cling more to a conservative ideal than the Bible, the church, overall, needs and overhaul to get back to what matters – the heart.

Did Bill Cosby go too far? Is he right? Does he raise a good point, or is he just now a doddering old man we need to ignore? I don’t discount elderly wisdom at all, but listen to it and heed it most of the time now that I’m older.

Tags: Bill Cosby, Christianity, Church, Churches, Crime, Drugs, Muslim, Nation of Islam, National Action Network, Obama, Rolling Out

Category: Christianity