Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III says the killing of Charlie Kirk revealed old divides — and a new call to resist authoritarianism.
By Rev. Dr. Heber Brown
The killing of Charlie Kirk exposed schisms that have always existed between and within Black churches. Immediately after the killing of the controversial figure, many African American Christians took to social media platforms to express either their dismay, their indifference, or their support for what happened. Many Christians were surprised to read comments that revealed the views of those who they thought held beliefs similar to their own. Passionate debates erupted amongst people of faith for all online to see.
However, these kinds of debates have always been present in the history of the Black Church. In fact, in their classic work, “The Black Church in the African American Experience,” C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present a way of understanding Black churches as existing along a spectrum of opposite characteristics that are held in tension.
For example, some churches focus more on getting people ready to go to heaven. Other churches focus more on helping their members engage in the social and political matters of the earth. Some churches embrace more of a communal characteristic in their ministry. Others promote individualistic practices of the faith. The examples from their model go on and on. Bottom line: Black churches are different and always have been.
Kirk’s killing just helped to make these differences clearer. However, that’s not all that it did.
A Question of Faith — and Power
The event of his killing also exposed tensions dealing with the question of how Black Christians should relate to our oppressors. What should our relationship with White supremacy look like through the lens of our faith?
It’s a timely question, not just because of Kirk’s well-known racist and sexist views (that many Black Christians turned a blind eye to), but also because of the spread of authoritarianism in this country and presidential policies that promote white supremacy.
This is not the time for church as usual.
Black churches that choose silence or positions that accommodate authoritarianism run the risk of opening the door wider to even greater harm to the Black community and the nation. Ministries that are operating in a “business as usual” kind of way leave their members vulnerable to very organized opposition that meets them the moment they exit the safety of our sanctuaries. Ministers who preach sermons that say nothing related to the suffering of our people, the plight of the poor, and the barrage of atrocities being done around the world in our name (and with the support of our tax dollars), are sending the message that what we’re witnessing is normal or worse – something that God sanctions.
Returning to Liberatory Roots
We need to embrace the kinds of theologies and practices of ministry that meet this particular moment. I believe that begins with an unapologetic Christian view of Black freedom and power. The very existence of Black churches comes out of a context where Black people in mass recognized the need to establish and lead our own spiritual institutions that advocate for our collective wellbeing, organize our resources, help protect us from racist violence, and serve as a springboard to the establishment of other Black institutions in our community.
Christians who established the first Black churches and denominations generations ago did not see a contradiction between serving Jesus Christ and organizing for communal freedom and power beyond the four walls of the church. Their liberatory activities revealed that they held ideas about God that concluded that God not only wanted them safe and free, but also that there was a divine expectation to fight against those forces that were trying to keep them bound — physically and spiritually.
There are many Black Christians from that time period and after whose lives can serve as a blueprint for how Black churches can respond today. While their faith is often minimized, careful study reveals that it was their relationship with and understanding of God that served as motivation for their public witness for Black freedom.
Black Christians, such as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, the Honorable Marcus Garvey, Ella Baker, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., and many others, should be closely studied in every Black church today. Beyond individuals, however, there are also organizations that can be helpful to Black churches that need guidance on how to organize their ministry for Black protection and power.
Church leaders should study organizations such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Third World Women’s Alliance, the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, the Deacons for Defense & Justice and more; utilizing the structure, objectives, and activities of these groups as inspiration for how their congregations can be organized today.
A Force for Collective Black Survival
The churches who are trying to respond in this moment deserve our gratitude and our support. They understand, as do I, that we need a practice of the Christian faith that is sensitive to the plight of Black and marginalized people. They understand the imperative of holding the newspaper and the Bible simultaneously; both are illustrative in terms of how we navigate this moment.
The church must speak. There is no amount of personal piety preaching that will adequately address the spiritual wickedness that is waging assault on us today.
For our part, the Black Church Food Security Network intends to influence Black churches to see themselves as forces for good. Beginning with food sovereignty, we’re encouraging Black congregations to recognize and operationalize themselves as institutional agents for communal self-help and power in Black America.
Our message to Black churches in the United States today is simple:
Everything that you intended to do by way of your ministry for the rest of this year and in 2026 should be reconsidered. This is not the time for church as usual. Our church calendars, ministry budgets, music ministries, Christian Education departments, Sunday School programs, sermon series, denominational conferences, and so much more should reflect a serious commitment to fighting authoritarianism and investing/building the communal infrastructure that Black America needs to care for itself to an even greater degree.
We need to think about our churches as “little nations” within a nation and create ministries that are structured to respond to the housing, food, clothing, health, employment, economic, and related daily needs of our people. No one church can do this individually, however, if we network ourselves together through collaborative ministry operations, all things are possible.
Now more than ever, Black America needs Black churches to do away with church as usual, recognize this time as the national emergency that it is, and launch ministry initiatives rooted in a liberatory interpretation of our faith while focusing on freedom, justice, and communal self-help.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
