TD Jakes: White Evangelicals Have Lost Sight of ‘What would Jesus Do?’
Famed Modalist T. D. Jakes has taken a potshot at white evangelical Christians, saying they’ve lost their way on account of putting too much emphasis on decrying abortion and same-sex marriage, and not enough on poverty and criminal justice problems.
T. D. Jakes, though continuing to be platformed by those at the Christian Post and Charisma News, has gone on record as saying he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, but rather is just a “manifestation” of God. In fact, even now his church website reads, “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
In an interview with the Atlantic’s Emma Green, Jakes recounts how COVID-19 has caused much suffering in his church, including “marriages imploding, self-medication, and serious bouts of depression” along with death and permanent disability.
As a result, one of the hardest things for black people has been not being able to attend funerals, given that the funeral, or homegoings, are more important and meaningful to black people than to white folk.
Speaking of the black experience vs the white one and the disproportionate way COVID-19 has affected the black community, he notes:
Jakes: It is amazing to me that we can live in the same city and have two completely different experiences. You can kind of be willfully blind to the pain of the people who are in your own city and have ladies’ meetings and come together to solve poverty around the world and not think a thing about poverty right in your own city.
Green: You know, when I hear you say that, I can’t help but hear an implication about the way certain other Christians—maybe white Christians in particular—live, with a kind of international orientation toward helping kids in Africa but not caring that much about helping people who are their neighbors in their own city. Am I hearing you right?
Jakes: [Laughs.] I think that’s true in some cases, but I don’t think that they are a monolith. I’ve met pastors who cared, and who have joined hands and tried to help and serve, and who were first responders in times of crisis. But by and large, it makes people uncomfortable to look at complicated problems. And the problems in underserved communities are complicated by poor education, poor access to medical care, crime, and the distance in culture. As a whole, I think white evangelicals lost sight of “What would Jesus do?” because they only define Jesus in very narrow terms.
Green: Well, you’re going to have to say a little bit more about that.
Jakes: [Laughs.] I think that social issues define the spaces where faith and politics and society intertwine—Roe v. Wade and same-gender-loving people. [White evangelicals] don’t always put the same level of weight on the poor, the disenfranchised, or criminal-justice problems. They don’t see that as important.
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Poverty and criminal justice problems, you say? Like, issues whose root cause is the rampant godlessness regarding family, marriage and sexuality? What a clueless person.
White supremacy must be destroyed in the evangelical church. Every white pastor is a reminder of white supremacy. There must be justice. 🇺🇸🇮🇱🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Your every post confirms the unequivocal truth that woke liberalism is morally, intellectually, and biblically retarded. Congratulations on at least being consistent (insert a bunch of tiny flag emojis here for effect).
Go away, troll.
Is TD considering selling off his private jet and moving out of his mansion to a more modest dwelling to help the poor, be they black or white? I think that may be more like what Jesus would do. I believe he is one of the richest “pastors” out there of any colour and probably far richer than the white evangelicals he is critiquing. Hypocrisy knows no skin colour limitations.
The biggest racists are always the one making everything about race…
Well the so-called poor of America all have 12 years of free education, free college, free healthcare, free legal assistance, preferential treatment for hiring, are allowed to vote and freely participate in their government system; they all have cars, homes, electricity, running hot water in their homes, microwaves, unlimited access to food both raw and prepared, and their biggest health issues are morbid obesity and killing each other. All paid for courtesy of white evangelicals. Maybe not everyone perceives the primary problem of “underserved communities” is being poor Mr Jakes. Maybe it’s the chronic enticing to covetousness and greed on the part of the race hustlers. Something they will give an account for, particularly since the poor in America all have access to Bibles and are at least semi literate, and have shepherds to tell them about sin and it’s consequences. Most of my giving to the poor goes to causes overseas because there are still places in the world where there are actually poor people. You know, people who don’t have things.
Right on the money!
I’ll respectfully differ on one point while agreeing with the rest.
“[S]hepherds to tell them about sin and its consequences” are increasingly rare. Most will not preach or teach against sin of any kind.
And that might explain a lot about why so many folks in this land, including but certainly not limited to the relatively disadvantaged, live not like animals, but rather much, much worse.
No one is teaching them any better.
“Whiteness is…a malignant, parasitic-like condition… [it] renders its hosts’ appetites voracious, insatiable, and perverse. These deformed appetites particularly target nonwhite people.” – Tim Killer, The Gospel Coalition
Yes, Tim Keller is terrible, but that quote is from a professor named Donald Moss.
Given his comments, I’m sure we can now look forward to Jakes being the prime example of what he demands from others — and since he made this a race issue — starting with his own race. I’ll be watching to see when he discards his vast wealth and distributes it the poor.
How would he know what Jesus would do, when he does not know Him, nor what He did, nor for that matter Who He Is?
Holy crap! White evangelicals are the biggest donors to black churches and they run the biggest philanthropical events in black communities to fight poverty, are you kidding me? How can white evangelicals fight criminal injustice when the black community sits behind and fold their arms when black churches are not willing to fight the gang and drug war within black communities? Jakes wants white people to fight black ‘culture’ and think that black folk will just welcome them? Where is Jakes when black folk are looting and burning black businesses? But he has no issue when black folk are tithing to him. If black looters were burning down black churches, he wouldn’t be blaming white people for it, would he?
BLACK PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS THE VICTIMS.