A black conservative columnist said recently on a radio show that God used slavery to give African-Americans a better life today. The comment went unchallenged by a conservative commentator whose television program airs on a network owned by the Southern Baptist Convention.
On the Oct. 18 broadcast of the radio program “Janet Parshall’s America,” guest Mychal Massie blamed “destruction” of black families on the African-American church. He also criticized the civil rights movement and a rap culture that he said has degraded both the black family and church.
“Janet, I will go on record, and I will not win any popularity awards, but it is the fault of the black church and the black community, because the preachers have succumbed to hatred; they have succumbed to a disobedience to God,” he said in comments reported by “Media Matters for America.”
“There is a parallel that I think needs to be pointed out,” he continued. “Had Joseph not been kidnapped and sold into slavery, he would not have been in a position to help his family in their time of need.”
“The black people today who curse America are cursing God, because if God had not permitted the Ashanti and Dahomey tribes of ancient Africa to trap other Africans and sell them to the Muslims, who sold them to the Europeans, we would not have what we have today.”
Parshall, who hosts a television show also called “Janet Parshall’s America” on the North American Mission Board’s FamilyNet, responded approvingly: “Mychal, thank you very much. There is a reason why you host a program called ‘Straight Talk,’ because you just gave it to us. God bless you, brother, appreciate you very much.”
At other times during Massie’s comments Parshall, the featured speaker at the 2002 Ministers’ Wives Conference, held in conjunction with the SBC annual meeting,” responded with “Wow.”
Massie began his comments by arguing that the reason “the black family is in the state of destruction that it is today” is because the civil rights movement made it so.
“Black people can do anything they want to do,” he said, suggesting that African-Americans families were better off “at the close of Jim Crow” than they are today.
Massie, who is African-American, is a columnist for the conservative WorldNetDaily, host of “Straight Talk” on the conservative Web site RIGHTALK, and a national advisory council member for Project 21, a “National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives.”
Project 21 was created by the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research, which has been linked to alleged money laundering by former board member Jack Abramoff and Congressman Tom DeLay.
Brian Kaylor is communications specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Missouri.
