Quotable Archive

The preacher must be concerned about the whole [person]. Not merely [their] soul but [their] body. It's all right to talk about heaven. I talk about it because I believe firmly in immortality. But you've got to talk about the earth. It's all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, but I want a suit and some shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about the streets flowing with milk and honey in heaven, but I want some food to eat down here. It's even all right to talk about the new Jerusalem. But one day we must begin to talk about the new Chicago, the new Atlanta, the new New York, the new America. And any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of [people] and is not concerned about the slums that cripple the souls--the economic conditions that stagnate the soul and the city governments that may damn the soul--is a dry, dead do-nothing religion in need of new blood.

--------Source: Raphael G. Warnock, "The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety, and Public Witness."  New York: New York University Press, 2014. (p.43)

 

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