Crying for Justice: The #BLACKLIVESMATTER Religious Rhetoric of Bishop T.D. Jakes

ABSTRACT

This study examines the underlying theological motivations and rhetorical strategies that inform the #BLACKLIVESMATTER (BLM) rhetorical theology of Bishop T.D. Jakes. Using Jakes’ Huffington Post letter, “A Father’s Cry for Justice,” written in response to the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown, Jr. as a case study, I argue that by “pulpitizing” mediated spaces, Jakes is modeling a new form of Black church leadership that is supportive of but not central to the BLM movement. This essay demonstrates how Jakes’ rhetorical theology offers religious rhetorical assets that can be used as interventional strategies and models for other religious leaders who seek to move audiences across competing Black sacred/secular dichotomies in support of black lives.

Keywords:

• Bishop T.D. Jakes
• Black Church
• Black Lives Matter
• race
• rhetorical theology

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Ithaca College Humanities & Sciences 2016 Summer Scholar, Ms. Amanda Morales, class of 2017, for her invaluable research assistance during this research project.

Notes

^1. “Diversity,” “Restorative Justice,” “Unapologetically Black,” “Globalism,” “Black Women,” “Transgender Affirming,” “Collective Value,” “Loving Engagement,” “Queer Affirming,” and “Intergenerational” make up BLM guiding principles.

^2. For example, Francis’ (2015) Ferguson & Faith chronicles the public engagement of twenty-four religious leaders from Ferguson, MO following Michael Brown’s shooting death by police officer Darren Wilson and their role in the rise of #FERGUSON that helped to organize the subsequent uprising.

^3. The terms “prosperity gospel” or “prosperity theology” are contested, contextual terms. However, Harrison (2005) identifies the core principles of the prosperity gospel espoused by the Word of Faith Movement (WOFM): knowing who you are in Christ; the practice of positive confession (and positive mental attitude); and a worldview that emphasizes prosperity, divine physical health, and material wealth as the divine right of every Christian. Most scholars identify Kenneth Hagin as the founder of the Word of Faith movement that includes other proponents such as Oral Roberts and Frederick K.C. Price. For more on the various definitions of prosperity theology, prosperity gospel, and theologies of prosperity, see McGee (2017) and Cannon and Pinn (2014).

^4. I recognize that the so-called prosperity gospel emerges in a U.S. capitalist context and this relationship between the two may lead some to link Jakes’ emphasis on capitalism (Jakes has been CEO of TDJ Enterprises far longer than he has been a megachurch pastor) with the prosperity gospel, particularly given his affluent lifestyle, fund raising practices, and religious ritual practices, like seed-faith giving practiced at his Dallas church. One should be careful not to necessarily conflate the commercialization of the gospel with the prosperity gospel, although the two may take place alongside each other. Opulent lifestyles or evidence of these ritual practices, often associated with the prosperity gospel and WOFM churches can be found in many churches. McGee (2012) maintains that evidence of these practices, does not necessary indicate the presence of theologies of prosperity/prosperity gospel. Walton (2009) acknowledges that those practices and lifestyles are typical of “a whole range of successful Black ministers from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. to C.L. Franklin, none of whom could or should be called a prosperity preacher in any formal sense” (p.109). For more, see Lee and Sinitier (2009), McGee (2012), and Walton (2009).

^5. Emerson and Smith (2001) define accountable freewill individualism as the belief that individuals exist independently from institutions and structures, have free will, and are individually accountable for their own actions, relationalism (strong emphasis on interpersonal relationships) is the belief that one’s right relationship with Christ and healthy relationships with other humans help Christians to make the right choices, thus defective relationships and negative influences are seen as the source of social problems. Here the treatment of oppressed individuals within a racist system is challenged but the system is not. Antistructuralism is the belief that sin is limited to personal actions, that is, individual sin, versus institutional, social, and structural sins that come to bear on the life chances of oppressed groups. For example, a commonly heard statement from evangelicals is that “racism is a sin problem not a skin problem” which illustrates antistructuralism beliefs that racism is a personal, individual sin.