Well guys, as you well know, we, Black folk, take our religion seriously.
That is why when we hear about church leaders acting far-less-than-holy, it causes such a stir… Case in point: A Houston pastor and his wife were recently arrested and charged with conning their former congregation at Bethel Institutional Missionary Baptist Church out of $430,000 in church funds, using them for gambling trips to Louisiana…
Now that’s a problem!
But, the good news is a pastor and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Naropa University in Boulder, Co has come up with a way of separating good pastors from questionable ones.
The Reverend Dr. Donald H. Matthews, author of the upcoming book, Sexual Abuse in the Black Church, recently developed a litmus test called, “How to tell if your Minister is a Pastor or a Pimp.” That’s right, and if you answer yes to at least 5 of these questions, then according to Dr. Matthews, your pastor just might be a pimp… Here we go:
1-Does your minister care more about visiting the sisters than visiting the sick?
2- Does your minister care more about his clothing than about clothing the poor?
3-Does your minister care more about hooking up at the convention than helping the elderly keep their gas and electric hooked up?
4-Does your minister care more about his first lady’s appearance than he does about appearing at the prison to visit the inmates?
5-Does your minister spend more on cars and bling than feeding the hungry?
6-Does your minister have more groupies than Denzel Washington?
7-Does your minister care more about Preaching than he does about Pastoring?
8-Does your minister have a bigger house than the homeless shelter?
9-Does your minister give out more hugs to the women in the church than the church gives scholarships to young people?
10-Does your minister condemn gay folks so you won’t notice his and his fellow ministers’ male and female lovers?
However we feel about this test, it certainly makes us think about who we are actually supporting when it comes to our religious leaders, and encourages us to see our faith as a sacred relationship with God, and not with some flawed human being playing God while pimpin’ us to fulfill their earthly desires and I don’t want to hear about any church leaders getting mad at me for bringing this subject up because, if you are truly a person of God and not a pimp, then you have nothing to worry about.
You can view the actual Pastor or Pimp test by going toFacebook.com/pastororpimp
I’ll leave you with this scripture verse from Matthew 7:15:“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
By; Stephanie Robinson
