Several years ago a famous columnist of our race startled America when he released for publication in a journal of international repute an article entitled, "Black America Begins to Doubt". The author showed by facts and figures that church attendence was on the decrease, that intelligence had won over superstitution and, in short, that the new Negro was no longer willing to abide by the philosophy of his forebears, which was, "Take the world but give me Jesus."
Our church circles were shocked and immediately took exception to most of the charges made, while members of other races could hardly believe that a people who had done so much to keep Christianity in tact, was really its lack on this one obvious characteristic. Hundreds of pages flowed into press rooms all over the world, some lamenting this seemingly deplorable outlook of the Negro on a very essential issue and others attempted to justify the conditions by citing the disregard of "The brotherhood of man theory" which gives racial prejudice the prominence that should be allotted to The Golden Rule. Still another group offered entirely different version from the above-mentioned and blamed the skeptical attitude on a restless, jazz-crazed, insane society, fresh from the smell of blood on the battlefield of Europe, that had forgotten God temporarily.
Is Negro faith really on the decline? Has church attendence decreased? Is science replacing religion in the Negro's life? Does Cab Calloway or Duke Ellington occupy a greater space in the heart of the Negro than Gabriel and his illustrious trumpet? Has the Negro's hardships really shaken his faith in God and His salvation?
The answer to the first question seems to offer an answer to those that follow.
There is a pet illusion, overworked by the people; it is those who are not in the church are somewhere else serving the devil, or to put it another way, every Sunday activity is an evil one except that of attending church. Church attendence is most assuredly decreasing, if we are to believe reputedly, reliable statements. Churches began failing twenty years before our last panic and have continued to do so at a ratio of about twenty-five for every one bank in our country. This is easily understood by the fact that there are many more churches than banks, but this truth proves at least that economic conditions did not interfere unnaturally.
Negro church attendence has decreased becasue the Negro's faith has declined not in God, but in a weak, insincere clergy, incapable of defending the vitally essential program, and lacking in the first requisite which the wise St. Paul so boldly declared that he possessed when he said "I know whom I have believed".