The Church and the drug crisis: ministers mobilize against 'The death of a race.'

Ebony, August, 1989

The Church and The Drug Crisis

Ministers Mobilize Against

'The Death Of A Race'

"THE DEATH of a race" was the theme of the first National Conference on The Black Family/Community and Crack Cocaine. That alarm rang out recently from Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, summoning more than 1,200 church and civic leaders, scholars, health professionals and others. "Our lives are at stake," declared the Rev. Cecil Williams, the church's minister and a conference organizer. "Our children's lives are at stake."

Faced with the devastation of illicit drugs, the Black church is moving from talk to action. The conferees set up a national network in Black churches and communities to coordinate drug prevention, intervention, and recovery strategies. They proposed saving a generation of besieged young Blacks with after-school tutorials, sports actities, expanded job training and scholarships, Big Brother programs, Friday night video/dance parties, peer counseling and programs to improve parenting. By midsummer, the Glide conference had spawned church-based, anti-drug conferences in more than a dozen cities.

Its proposals build upon anti-drug efforts already operating in many Black churches. Glide, for example, publishes a streetwise, 12-page booklet, "Facts on Crack," while the First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles attracts more than 2,000 at-risk youths annually for 20-hour indoctrinations in moral and personal values. Afterward, they sign commitments to remain drug- and gang-fre for 90 days. The church's ministers, the Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray, calls the program "immensensely successful."

To help local neighborhoods regain their turf from drug pushers in Oakland, Calif., the Rev. J. Alfred Smith of Allen Temple Baptist Church has been leading a "March of Righteousness" to city hall for three years, helping other Oakland churches stage block parties near known drug hot spots, and organizing neighborhood anti-drug watches. Similarly, Project A.D.A.M., the Anti-Drug Abuse Movement of the South Carolina Coalition of (100) Black Churches, recently held walkathons in five cities to spotlight drug abuse. Its "Just Say No" church clubs provide recreational and educational activities to help children between the ages of 7 and 17 build positive self-images and drug-free lives.

Recently, Father George Clements, pastor of Chicago's renowned Holy Angels (Roman Catholic) Church, launched a nationwide campaign to get neighborhood store owners to stop selling glass pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Already successful in more than 200 cases, he now seeks a federal law to ban the manufacture and sale of drug equipment.

In Detroit, Hartford Memorial Baptist Church offers youths training in automotive mechanics, according to Rev. Dr. Charles G. Adams, citing his church's role in program set up by the citywide Council of Baptist pastors. Similarly, Cleveland's Baptist Ministers Conference holds anti-drug educational seminars in its churchs, and the group is planning to build a crisis center for drug addicts.

At San Diego's St. Stephens Church of God in Christ, recovering addicts have formed a "blockbuster" group that prays together Friday evenings at 8, reports Bishop George McKinney. At 10, they roam the strees until early Saturday mornings tryings to convince drug dealers and prostitutes that there is a better way.

About 600 former addicts have joined Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore because of its anti-drug program, says the Rev. Frank Reid III. "We ask all recovering addicts to stand up so that joiners understand that they aren't alone," he explains. "They're not to feel that they're being put on the spot.c

Meanwhile, the nation's drug epidemic threatens Black America's traditional values--love, compassion respect for elders and members of the opposite sex, the notion of the extended family, strivings for excellence, etc. It is a war, ministers say, the Black community must win to prevent the death of a race. "We were born in adversity and raised on hard times," recalls the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "Are we going to let ourselves crack up on crack?"