A black Princeton University professor who published an essay declaring that the “The Black Church is Dead” has found himself embroiled in a firestorm.

In a Huffington Post article in February, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a professor of religion at Princeton, said this, among other things, about the black church:

“The idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared... The idea of a black church standing at the center of all that takes place in a community has long since passed away.”

A panel of leading scholars of African-American religion published a quick critical response to Glaude’s pontifications. Some even questioned his pedigree to discuss such an issue. (Glaude was born Roman Catholic and, according to published reports, currently has no church membership.)

A story in the New York Times quoted the Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith Sr., pastor emeritus of Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., as saying:

“I am sick and tired of black academics who are paid by rich, powerful ivy league schools, who have access to the microphone and the ear of the press pontificating about the health of black churches… None of these second- or third-generation black academics talk to us in the trenches. They are too elitist to talk to us.”
 

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