Belief.net’s List of Influential Black Spiritual Leaders

–Let me begin by saying that belief.net is my favorite place on the web by far.  No other site provides as many credible diverse opinions on issues related to faith as belief.net.  Having said that, I think this list of influential black religious leaders is as accurate as it is provocative, and this raises serious questions about the nature of its selection process.  Nonetheless, I find this list to be compelling and much more interesting than Ebony’s list released earlier this year of leading African American Religious figures.  So, in the spirit of fairness since I evaluated Ebony’s List, I thought it only appropriate to do the same to this one, but since this list is longer and I’m already behind on various other writing and speaking projects I have decided to only thumbs up, thumbs down, or say still in deliberations for each person on the list.  Feel free to agree or disagree with me in the comment section.

 

In Spirit and Truth, Billy M. Honor

The Reverend Calvin Butts, III (Thumbs Up!)

 

This pastor of the legendary Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and president of SUNY College at Old Westbury has been a prominent voice in headlining social issues for over 15 years. At times considered a firebrand for his outspoken criticism of New York civil institutions, Butts has managed to balance his dual roles as a pastor and a social activist. Perennially included in lists of likely mayoral candidates, he has focused his energies on a laundry list of social concerns: racism, education, images of women and minorities in the media, and, most of all, care for the poor. Butts helped establish the Abyssinian Development Corporation, which has overseen new and improved affordable housing.

The Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell (Thumbs Up!)

The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell is pastor of one of the nation’s largest Methodist congregations, the 15,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston. Caldwell’s position as President George W. Bush’s friend and spiritual advisor has been marked with some controversy—his somewhat less than religiously inclusive benediction during the 2001 inauguration drew sharp criticism. Still, as a leader with direct access to the president in matters religious, Caldwell is seen as a powerful national religious figure.

The Reverend Johnnie Coleman (Emphatic Thumbs Down!)

As founder and pastor of Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, the Rev. Johnnie Colemon is a leader in the growing prosperity-gospel movement. Dubbed by followers “the first lady of New Thought” (the belief that your mind creates your reality), her message incorporates teachings designed to help people change their lives through thought, behavior, and their relationship to God.

Dr. Creflo Dollar (Although it pains me deeply, Very Ambigious Thumbs Up!)

Best-known for preaching the “prosperity gospel,” whereby material success accompanies spiritual well-being, Dr. Creflo A. Dollar leads a media empire that includes a 25,000-member megachurch, television broadcasts, and a magazine. In addition, Dollar’s World Changers Church International, which is based in metropolitan Atlanta, boasts over 60 programs that offer social services, including training people for the workforce and helping them get out of debt, in diverse communities worldwide. In 1986, he began his church with a membership of only eight. Dollar’s lavish lifestyle, which includes a multi-million dollar apartment in Manhattan, has evoked strong criticism. For his followers, however, it serves as inspiration that his theology of prosperity is effective.

Minister Louis Farrakhan (Thumbs Up!)
Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan’s career as a galvanizing orator and controversial religious and political figure brought him to national attention. He earned notoriety for anti-Semitic comments, but in recent years moved from the NOI’s early black separatist message to the unifying themes of the Million Man March. He has also embraced a more mainstream version of Islam–a shift that has brought him support from American Muslim leader W.D. Muhammad. In 2000 the two announced a reconciliation to strengthen the black community.

 

 

 

The Reverend Floyd Flake (Emphatic Thumbs Up!)

The Rev. Floyd Flake’s message of self-help and community responsibility is perhaps best exemplified by the success of Allen A.M.E. Church, a more than 25,000-member congregation in Jamaica, Queens. Flake, a former U.S. congressman, has been instrumental in netting government grants to revitalize his church’s neighborhood and build affordable housing. As president of Wilberforce College, historically the first black Christian college in the nation, he has also used his political savvy to help pull the school out of debt.

The Reverend James Fordes, Jr. (Was there ever any question, THUMBS UP!)

The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr. is Senior Minister of the famed Riverside Church in New York City, a prominent liberal, interdenominational congregation. Forbes spoke out in favor of the election of John Kerry during the last presidential campaign and addressed the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. Forbes’ message of social justice, exemplified in such efforts as a 1998 rally on Capitol Hill to call for an end to poverty and racism, has helped secure his position as one of the nation’s foremost liberal religious thinkers.

ArchBishop Wilton Gregory (Thumbs Up)

The first African American to head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Gregory took the lead in reforming church policies in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandals. Though he is no longer president of the organization, Gregory made headlines as a religious leader willing to take the hard line in considering sex abuse a crime and calling for the ouster of predatory priests. Gregory, who is now Atlanta’s archbishop, has worked to help restore public confidence in the church.

The Reverend Jesse Lewis Jackson (Thumbs Up, despite his recent Obama nut cutting fantasying)

An ordained Baptist minister, political activist, and acolyte of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Rev. Jesse Jackson established himself nationally and internationally as a champion for human rights. Over the course of his career he has advocated for civil rights, organized boycotts, mounted failed presidential bids, served as President Bill Clinton’s spiritual adviser, and negotiated the release of hostages, all the while serving as head of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Bishop Thomas Dexter Jakes (Thumbs Up, you really can’t make a list these days without him)

 Bishop T.D. Jakes’s electrifying blend of gospel and tell-it-like-it-is sermonizing resonates with a national and international following. In just over five years, Jakes transformed his ministry from a storefront operation to the Potter’s House, a more than 30,000-member Dallas-based congregation that is one of the largest  churches in the nation. He is a best-selling author, a conference and crusade speaker, a Grammy and Dove-nominated music artist, an entrepreneur, and a filmmaker. With a new biography in print and a recent PBS appearance, he is reaching broader audiences with his message of God-inspired self-empowerment.

The Reverend Bernice King (Sorry Dr. King, but Thumbs Down, I’m not sure what significant contribution shes made)

King, the youngest daughter of the slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was thrust into the national spotlight in February 2006 when she poignantly eulogized her mother, Coretta Scott King. King has built a career around many of the values that her parents lived for, and as an ordained elder at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, she has also followed her father into the ministry. A lawyer with a degree from Emory University, King worked at one time as a law clerk in a juvenile detention center. Her family’s trademark organizing and activism skills are apparent in her own work–as when she fought to close a pornography shop that was opening near a high school–and in the many nonviolent conflict resolution workshops she has led and lectures she has delivered. Her 1996 book “Hard Questions, Heart Answers,” landed her on talk shows from Oprah to BET.

Bishop Vashti McKenzie (Unquestionable Thumbs Up! Hey, I was raised in the A.M.E. church)

 

 

The Rev. Vashti M. McKenzie shattered “the stained glass ceiling” when she became the first female African Methodist Episcopal bishop in 2000. She comes from a family of firsts—her family founded a Baltimore-based black newspaper and her grandmother was a founding member of Delta Sigma Theta, a predominantly African-American sorority started at Howard University. But McKenzie has created her own modern-day legacy through her work as a nationally renowned clergywoman, a social advocate who has done extensive work in southern Africa, a former journalist, and an author.

The Reverend Otis Moss, III (The Jury is Still Deliberating on this one)

The Yale-educated minister’s style of preaching and his dedication to changing the lives of youth is causing quite a buzz among the ministerial set. Newsweek magazine dubbed the minister “one of God’s foot soldiers.” Moss serves as pastor of the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. In 2005, the magazine The African American Pulpit named him one of the “Twenty to Watch” ministers under forty. Moss recently announced that he will leave Tabernacle in May 2006 to become an associate pastor at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, under the leadership of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Imam Warith Deen Muhammad (Thumbs Up, I think)

 

The son of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad’s religious journey to a more orthodox form of Islam helped shape the nation’s modern religious landscape and altered how millions of African Americans practice Islam. Though he announced his retirement as head of the Chicago-based American Society of Muslims in 2003, he remains the group’s spiritual leader.

Bishop Charles Blake (This one is easy, Thumbs Up!)

Bishop Blake serves as presiding bishop of the six-million member Church of God in Christ denomination, one of the nation’s largest denominations. He is also pastor of the 26,000-member West Angeles C.O.G.I.C. located in Los Angeles where he “ministers to the whole person and brings together people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds.” Blake also passionately embraces overseas ministry through the Pan African Children’s Fund, which he founded and presides over and which currently supports more than 350 orphanages through sub-Saharan Africa.

The Reverend Eugene Rivers (A Laughing Thumbs Up!)

The Rev. Eugene Rivers restored a former crack house in Boston to its Victorian-era glory and opened its doors wide to the city’s troubled youth. His blend of boot-strapping preaching meets street-savvy-sermonizing has helped him connect not only with young people, but also with the White House. He is co-chairman of the National Ten Point Leadership, which helps churches fight gang violence, and is a strong supporter of faith-based initiatives.

Rev. Run (Okay, I love Rev. Run and all but I have to say Thumbs Down!)

The Rev. Joseph “Run” Simmons is the Run half of Run-DMC rap fame, as well as the younger brother of hip-hip mogul Russell Simmons. This rapper-turned-Pentecostal preacher has penned a memoir and is often mentioned by the hip-hop glitterati as a go-to person for spiritual guidance.

The Reverend Al Sharpton (Thumbs Up! He like the Ghostbuster’s, “if there’s something strange going on in the hood, who you gonna call, REV AL)

Whether he’s raising awareness of racial and social injustice or running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Rev. Al Sharpton is one of the nation’s most complex and controversial African-American leaders. Known in his youth as a preaching prodigy with a flair for showmanship, Sharpton is now taken seriously as an influential community and political leader. His high-profile efforts include protesting U.S. naval bombing exercises on Vieques, P.R., calling for nonviolent protest in the wake of the Amadou Diallo shooting, and joining forces with PETA to boycott Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The Reverend William L. Shaw (Thumbs Up, because there are alot of Black National Baptist out there)

As president of the problem-plagued National Baptist Convention, the Rev. William Shaw has his work cut out for him. However, he is determined to change the organization’s image in the wake of the late 1990s embezzlement scandal of its former president. If his own 43-year history as pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia is any indication, the forecast looks promising. He even turned down the $100,000-a-year presidential salary, insisting that the money be used to endow a scholarship fund instead.

The Reverend William G. Sinkford (The Jury is still in deliberation, but I happen to have a great deal of respect for Rev. SInkford)

The Rev. William G. Sinkford is the first African American to head the Unitarian Universalist Association, a largely white, liberal denomination. This Boston-based minister has been a particularly vocal proponent of legalizing gay marriage, a position in keeping with his organization’s historical support of same-sex couples and their families.

The Reverend Gardner C. Taylor (THUMBS UP!, he’s a legend)

Rev. Gardner C. Taylor is Senior Pastor Emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn and a nationally renowned preacher. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton in 2000. Taylor, a contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is considered a consummate preacher by his peers and has long been admired for his civil rights advocacy and message of God-centered social responsibility.

The Reverend Conrad Tillard (Still in deliberations)

Until a few years ago, the Rev. Conrad Tillard was known as Minister Conrad Muhammad, the outspoken national youth minister for the Nation of Islam. Known as “the Hip-Hop Minister,” he worked for social justice for disempowered urban youth. Now, following his reversion to the Christianity of his birth, Tillard is finding new ways to minister to what he calls “the hip-hop generation” from his new religious perspective. He currently serves as project director for New Yorkers for the Gulf Coast, which is chaired by Abyssinian Baptist Church’s pastor, Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III.

Iyanla Vanzant (Thumbs Up, shes a bestselling author with a faithful reading audience)

Iyanla Vanzant’s mix of woman-centered empowerment and spiritual focus has struck a deep chord with an ever increasing legion of followers. A survivor of childhood and spousal abuse, this former welfare mother is now a best-selling author, a nationally recognized inspirational speaker, a televison personality, and an ordained minister. Vanzant is founder of Inner Visions Spiritual Life Maintenance Network in Silver Spring, MD, and was a life coach on NBC’s “Starting Over”–a reality show that helped women change their lives.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright (In the Spirit of God Damn America,   I say Thumbs Up! I know I just lost all my witnesses)

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is pastor of the more than 10,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, whose motto is “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” Wright is particularly outspoken on such subjects as AIDS in the African-American community.