Ain’t That A VHIT
By Von C. Howard
Lately, I have heard someone publicly denouncing or renouncing their membership from a Divine Nine fraternity or sorority, suggesting that these organizations conflict with their faith.
When I hear that, I don’t feel anger. I feel reflection.
I also feel a responsibility to explain to those who may not know and to remind those who may have forgotten what the Divine Nine truly represents.
The Divine Nine are nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities founded in the early 1900s during a time when Black students were excluded from white organizations on college campuses. Many of their founders were shaped by church, scripture, and Christian values. These organizations were not formed to replace faith. They were formed to cultivate scholarship, character, service, and community uplift.
Personally, no one recruited me into Omega Psi Phi. I chose it. I pursued it. I believed before I joined, and I believe now. My relationship with God was not and has not been diminished by fraternity.If anything, it has been strengthened through accountability, discipline, and service.
The truest evidence of the Divine Nine has never been ritual. It has been work.
Across this country and in our own communities, members mentor youth, feed families, fund scholarships, host health initiatives, support schools, and stand present where support is needed most. Nearly all of this is voluntary: time given, resources shared, lives invested.
Locally, I see Divine Nine members serving in the halls of Congress, behind pulpits, in classrooms, leading boardrooms, building businesses, and leading and supporting families. Their impact spans every sector of society.
I often recall my late pastor, Rev. Dr. Mack King Carter, who taught that the gospel must move from the pulpit to the pews, and from the pews to the pavement to the people. Faith was never meant to remain inside church walls; it was meant to show up in action.
That is exactly what I have witnessed through fraternity and sorority life.
Through Omega Psi Phi and the Zeta Chi Chapter here in Greater Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, our first cardinal principle, Christian Manhood, is not ceremonial language; it is lived expectation. Through our Zeta Chi Lamplighters mentorship program, we take young men into churches across denominations, so they understand that leadership, spirituality, and service belong together. Beyond Lamplighters, I have seen our chapter feed families, provide scholarships, mentor youth, and partner to uplift communities, all voluntarily.
Renunciation does not only happen in public declarations. Sometimes it begins quietly, when we stop showing up, stop serving, and stop supporting the very communities we once pledged to uplift.
The Divine Nine organizations were never created to replace God. They were created by people of faith seeking to live that faith out together.
And from what I have lived and seen, that faith continues to move. from pulpit, to pew, to pavement, to people, through service, mentorship, and love made visible.