Why the ‘black church’ ignored Voddie Baucham



Theologian and Pastor Voddie Baucham was a beacon of hope and a bright mentor for the black community — but he tragically passed away after a medical emergency at only 56 years old.

And despite his profound message, many black churches tend to avoid him.

“Voddie in his presentation wasn’t the stereotypical black minister. Wasn’t a lot of emotion,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says, before pointing out that after Baucham’s passing, he couldn’t find any mainstream media articles on his legacy.

“Maybe that’s changed,” Whitlock admits, but adds, “And it’s almost like they wanted … to keep Voddie a secret from the traditional black Protestant leftist. They didn’t want us to know about Voddie. And it’s tragic.”


“I think you’re absolutely spot-on,” BlazeTV contributor Chad O. Jackson agrees. “I mean, Voddie’s been on CNN all of one time and they told him, ‘We’ll have you back.’ And they never had him back because of how he was able to embarrass them just by leading into the word of God, quite frankly.”

“But you’re absolutely right. I mean, when you look at black pastors, typically what comes to mind are your Jamal Bryants, your T.D. Jakeses ... even Eric Masons. I know Eric Mason had beef with Dr. Voddie Baucham, even going so far as to, in one of his sermons, use kind of slave vernacular to explain what Voddie Baucham was doing,” Jackson explains.

Jackson tells Whitlock that Mason was “basically accusing Voddie Baucham of making up words like ethnic narcissism to explain or to protect white supremacy.”

“Just this utter nonsense,” he says, calling Baucham “one of the few pastors” he’s aware of who “are unafraid to call out hollow and deceptive philosophies, how these ideologies are infiltrating and subverting God’s people, and how we need to be made aware of them.”

“The Bible says to test every spirit to see if it’s of God. And that’s what Voddie was doing from behind the pulpit,” he adds.

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Black pastors are at a crossroads as faith bends to politics



Donald Trump’s return to the White House must have been a bitter pill for black pastors who vocally supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. They likely would have preferred to spend Black History Month celebrating Harris rather than bracing for another four years of the "Orange Menace."

But many black clergy now face an even more sobering reality.

Black pastors and churches now stand at a crossroads. 'Authentic' blackness has been tied to a political ideology that opposes biblical truth.

The black church is on life support, and its decline stems from the same sins that plagued Israel in the Old Testament and every wayward church throughout history.

Millions of black Christians in the United States still attend majority-black churches that preach the gospel and believe the Bible. But the term “black church” serves more as a sociopolitical descriptor than a spiritual qualifier.

Many churches that have lost their spiritual power view poverty, racism, and inequality as the greatest sources of oppression. To them, the sins that “marginalized” people need salvation from are those committed by those in power.

The preachers leading these churches are learning a painful lesson — there is a heavy price for chasing false gods. No greater form of idolatry exists in America today than Christians who force the unchangeable truth of God's word to conform to the shifting positions of their preferred political party.

Politicians set tax rates, allocate funding for schools and roads, negotiate trade agreements, and craft immigration policy. Some may even promote healthy eating or discourage drug use. But politics should never take precedence over faith.

No one has the authority to declare that a man can become a woman or that two men can form a marriage. Political leaders who reject Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 should be challenged by pastors who boldly declare biblical truth and warn of the consequences of abusing political power. Any Christian, pastor, church, or denomination that justifies rebellion against the Bible by appealing to political consensus engages in spiritual adultery.

Kamala Harris visited New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, led by Rev. Jamal Bryant, just days before the election. Bryant, a charismatic speaker, leads one of the most influential black churches in America. In 2022, he condemned the overturning of Roe v. Wade shortly before performing a baby dedication and declaring, “Children are our future.” Nearly 70% of all babies aborted in Georgia are black, yet preachers like Bryant refuse to acknowledge the Democratic Party’s abortion extremism as a form of systemic racism.

Sen. Raphael Warnock represents Georgia in Washington and leads Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The debates over King’s theology are well-documented. But while King used the Bible to challenge racial divisions, Warnock invokes his faith to reject the biblical view of sex and gender.

These men are not isolated cases of theological drift. The most politically engaged black pastors in America have become surrogates for the Democratic Party. They claim to be bold prophets denouncing injustice, but in reality, they serve as cupbearers — protecting, not challenging, those in power.

Warnock may seem like a direct spiritual heir to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but the truth is that today’s most influential black preachers follow a different tradition — one rooted in the teachings of Dr. James Cone, the father of black liberation theology. Cone’s open embrace of Marxism led to the ultimate devil’s bargain. His theology sacrifices biblical fidelity for the illusion of social justice:

First, in a revolutionary situation there can never be just theology. It is always theology identified with a particular community. It is either identified with those who inflict oppression or with those who are its victims. A theology of the latter is authentic Christian theology, and a theology of the former is a theology of the Antichrist.

The men and women who consider themselves heirs to Cone’s theology have continued down the same path. The clearest sign of the black church’s declining cultural influence was the rise of Black Lives Matter. A movement that openly touted its “queerness” and pledged to “disrupt” the nuclear family would never have gained national prominence in previous generations. But rather than rebuke BLM’s leaders, many black preachers followed their lead.

Black pastors and churches now stand at a crossroads. “Authentic” blackness has been tied to a political ideology that opposes biblical truth. Black pastors who frame “gender-affirming care” for their “trans brothers and sisters” as the next civil rights cause have allowed the twin idols of race and politics to pull their hearts — and pulpits — away from God.

Thankfully, the Lord is merciful and willing to forgive all who repent and follow Jesus. Christians should always remember that what happens in God’s households is of far greater eternal value than who occupies the White House.

Snoop Dogg’s critics show the 70/90 Project to rebuild black families can work



The progressives criticizing Snoop Dogg and Nelly for performing at President Trump’s inauguration events know something most conservatives are too afraid to admit: shame and stigma work.

The left’s penchant for publicly ridiculing the wayward and disobedient is one of the main reasons Democrats receive 90% of the black vote every election cycle. What some people see as a sign black voters are taken for granted, I see as a ray of hope that conformity for the right purpose is possible.

Every person who is concerned about America's future should be talking about the state of the family.

If Democrats can get nine out of 10 black voters to support their candidate for the White House, I think even more should get behind efforts to rebuild the family.

That’s why I would like to propose the 70/90 Project — an initiative to completely reverse the current trajectory of the black family. The mission is simple: Move 70% of black children from being born to unmarried parents and 45% being raised by a single mother to 90% of black children being born to married parents and living in intact homes.

I acknowledge the goal is ambitious. American families are doing worse than in previous generations. The age of first marriage has gone up, and the marriage rate has gone down. Total fertility has decreased, but more children are being born to unmarried parents than ever before. Every person who is concerned about America's future should be talking about the state of the family.

Addressing these challenges won’t be easy, but as President Trump said in his inaugural address: “In America, the impossible is what we do best.”

One way to “do the impossible” is for black leaders to harness the community’s social, financial, and political capital to rebuild the family. That is a much better reason to work in unison than acting as mules for a party that will say and do anything for a vote.

The 70/90 Project’s success would depend largely on the individual choices of millions of men and women who decide when and under what circumstances to bring a child into the world. But that doesn’t mean institutions don’t have a role to play.

Historically black colleges and universities should be thinking about ways to help families in their surrounding communities build stronger relationships while encouraging a “ring by spring” culture on their own campuses. Black preachers would need to reaffirm the reality that God created two sexes, marriage is the cornerstone of the family, and the family is the bedrock of society.

Civil rights organizations and social commentators would need to be honest enough to acknowledge that “marriage inequality” is doing more to hold the community back than racial discrimination. Just 33% of black adults are married, compared to 48% of Latinos, 57% of whites, and 63% of Asians. Only a fool would argue that children could have such different family inputs but still achieve the same social outcomes.

The 70/90 Project will also require stakeholders to establish new family norms and use every tool available — from persuasion and affirmation to coercion and shame — to enforce them.

Doing so will undoubtedly lead to accusations that promoting marriage and intact families stigmatizes single mothers and their children. But the truth is that children need both parents. Fathers are not the family’s appendix — nice to have but not essential. Every child has a right to the protection, affection, and correction of the two people who made them. The ideal environment for this right to be exercised by a child is in a loving, two-parent household with a married mother and father.

Progressives often champion “diversity,” but their personal attacks on Snoop and Nelly reveal their true focus: enforcing conformity. They readily platform pimps, drug dealers, strippers, and professional twerkers — as long as they help drive the black vote on Election Day.

They only weaponize shame against people who transgress their political program. But if the gatekeepers of black culture are going to get 90% compliance in a particular area, ensuring every child is raised in a home with a married mother and father would do far more for racial uplift than getting another Democrat into office.