A Portrait of the Black Family

SAVE AMERICA Ministries
A PORTRAIT of the BLACK FAMILY
2007 Edition
Descent into Destruction!


“The black family has crumbled more in the last 30 years than it did in the entire 14 decades
since slavery.” Dr. Julian Hare, Dir. - San Francisco Black Think Tank
EBONY, Nov. 2003, p. 193

Financial Portrait
• 70% of African-Americans do NOT live below the poverty line.
• 61% of middle-class Blacks own stock.
• 40% live in suburban neighborhoods.
• ½ trillion dollars/year generated and circulated.
• Several named as wealthiest individuals in the nation.
• Black households earning over $100,000/yr. increased tenfold since 1960's.
Leadership Portrait
• 42 black members of Congress, 1 black member of the Senate - 9 times as many as 1964.
• More than ½ of 50 states, including Washington D.C., have black mayors.
• Blacks are directors of major corporations, university presidents, astronauts, political leaders and military generals and even
US Secretary of State (Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice).
• The number of Blacks with high school and college diplomas tripled since 1960's.
NOTE: It would seem logical that the Black family would have followed the astounding financial, political and educational improvements since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Statistics, however, paint a shockingly contrary picture that should grip the heart of every American, especially our pastors. Consider these grave facts prayerfully.

Marriage Portrait
• In 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared, “I have a dream,” more than 70% of black families were headed by married couples. Today, 40 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, married couples head only 46% of black families.
• More alarming, 45% of black men have never married and 42% of black women have never married.
• Married black women declined from 62% to 31% between 1950 and 2002.
• By age 30, only 52% of black women will marry compared to 81% of white women, 77% of Hispanics and Asians.
• Only 6% of black men and 2% of black women marry Whites.
• In 1970, just 33% of black women, age 20-29 were unmarried. By 1992, that number exploded to 70%.
“Black men and women are less likely to be married and more likely to divorce when we do marry.” -The Black Commentator, Margaret Kimberley "Black Families - A Glass Half Empty and Half Full," April 23, 2004.

Parenting Portrait
• 70% of all black children are born out of wedlock.
• 65% of never-married black women have children, double that for white women.
• 22% of never-married black women with incomes over $75,000 have children, 10 times that of white women.
• 62% of black families with children are headed by a single parent.
• 85% of black children do not live in a home with their fathers.
• Only 15-20% of black children born today will grow up with 2 parents until age 16.
• Over 80% of long-term child poverty occurs in broken or never-married homes.
• 70% of African-American boys in the criminal justice system come from single-parent homes.

Abortion Portrait
• 43% of all black children are aborted, nearly 3 times higher than for Whites. This fact is critical, since pastors and politicians argue that the reason for the illegitimacy rates for Blacks being dramatically higher is because they claim, “Blacks seldom abort their children.”
• Over 15 million African-American babies have been aborted (killed by their mothers) since Roe v. Wade. This is 14 times the total of all U.S. soldiers killed in all of America’s wars over 220 years from 1775 to present.
• Blacks abort their babies 3 times that of Whites, a ratio that has grown by 50% since 1992.
“The top three moral crises facing the Black family are rooted in sexual immorality.” - Star Parker, President,
Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (CURE).

Sexual Portrait
• 70% of all black children are born out of wedlock.
• 50% of all new AIDS cases are in the Black community which comprises only 12% of the population.
• 85% of all AIDS cases in Atlanta are black women.
• A black woman is 25 times more likely to contract AIDS than a white woman and represents 72% of all women with AIDS. African-Americans are 20 times more likely than whites to have gonorrhea.
• AIDS is now the #1 killer of black women, age 25-44. “It’s devastating,” says Dr. Gayle E. Wyatt at UCLA AIDS Institute.
• 67% of black women with AIDS contracted HIV thru heterosexual sex.
• Black men on the “down low” are having sex with other men behind the backs of their wives and girlfriends while claiming not
to be homosexual or bisexual (New York Times). A study among black men in 37 colleges in North Carolina revealed that of
the 84 men with HIV, 1/3 had had sex with men and women.
• Black men in America engage in polygamous relationships, 3 ½ times that of White or Hispanic. In Cook County, Illinois, 21%
of black men had at least 2 partners. And, polygamy is more common among better educated black men who presumably have
more income (Univ. Of Chicago, “Sex and the City” study, Jan. 9, 2004).
• Marriage for blacks “has become an alternative lifestyle. It’s considered nonessential.” -Andrew Lyke, Coordinator of
Marriage Ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Chicago Sun Times
• “Black women assume marriage will be monogamous. Black men don’t attach as much significance to monogamy.” -
Dr. Beverly Guy - Sheftall, Gender Talks
• “There’s a huge level of distrust among young black men and women.” - Dr. Beverly Guy - Sheftell
• “There is ‘an acute crisis’ in Black sexual politics creating a schism in Black male and female relations.” - EBONY, Nov.
2003

Prison Portrait
• Nearly 2 million black males are either currently in a state or federal prison or have been in one.
• 17% of black men have had prison experience compared to 7.7% of Hispanic and 2.6% of White.
NOTE: While racial injustice may account for some of these differences, the overwhelming weight of evidence points to a generation of fatherlessness as the driving force taking black men to prison.
NOTE: The astonishing crisis of the black family and obvious moral decay seems baffling in light of the Black statistical religious experience.

Religious Portrait
It is undisputed that the Black community in America is the most religious group not only in this nation but arguably in the entire world. Is this ongoing religious experience impacting Black Americans to love God as reflected in obedience to His Word in light of Matt. 28: 19-20, John 14:15-24, Jam. 1:22, I Jn. 5:2-3? This question haunts the lives of all professing American Christians. Statistics increasingly prove that American Christians do not truly love God, since our lives reflect virtually no difference from those of our non-Christian counterparts.
• 57% of Black Americans profess to be “born again” Christians compared to 33% of adults nationwide.
• 83% of Blacks say their religious faith is very important in their lives compared to 66% of whites.
• 75% of Blacks say they believe God is the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator who rules the world today.
• 2/3 of Blacks strongly affirm the Bible’s accuracy compared to less than 50% for Whites, Hispanics and Asians.
• 92% of African Americans report praying in the last 7 days compared to 82% for Whites.
-But Here Is A Telling Truth-
• Only 10% of Blacks believe moral truth is absolute compared to 26% of Whites and Hispanics. (All religious statistics taken from Barna Research Report)

CONCLUSIONS
1. While feelings trump truth increasingly for all American Christians, the overwhelming weight of the African American religious experience is so deeply rooted in emotion that Biblical truth is of relatively little significance affecting actual living. While the facts of orthodoxy seem strong, the actual faith is emaciated by unfettered emotion... hence, only 10% believe in absolute moral truth. This pattern of constant sublimating of eternal truth to the temporal and cultural cry to do whatever feels good has filtered through every aspect of African-American life, decimating the Black family as it is the rest of America.
2. Black politicians and pastors, intent on currying favor with constituencies, have consistently attributed nearly every statistical difference portraying African-Americans in a negative light as due to open or systemic discrimination. But honest observers who have no power, perks or position on the line are increasingly saying, “The explanation lies elsewhere.” As a Black research associate for the Acton Institute stated in Devaluing the Black Family, “We should be asking searching questions about churches and what they are teaching....”
3. “The severity of social problems within the black communities has intensified since the Civil Rights victories of the 1960's. The greater the prosperity, the greater the moral decay. In 1960, when Black America was economically far worse off, only 23% of black kids were born out of wedlock. By 1970, 1/3 of black women age 20-29 were unmarried, and by 1992, 70% were
unmarried.” “Since 1969, the largest increase in out-of-wedlock births was not among teens but among black women age 20-24.”
4. The fact that black women and their doctors now abort ½ of all black children conceived in black wombs reflects a moral and spiritual disconnect of unspeakable proportions.
5. “The quickest way to bring anger, tears and vitriol to any conversation among black people is to discuss the state of Black male and female relationships” (Margaret Kimberly, The Black Commentator, April 23, 2004).
6. EBONY’s 58th Anniversary Edition headlined its feature article, “The Shocking State of Black Marriage.” “Quiet as it’s kept, we are confronted with one of the biggest crises in the history of the African-American people.”
7. Sexual promiscuity is the common thread traceable throughout the shredded fabric of the Black family. It is rampant from pulpit to pew to politician.
A. Promiscuity has decimated Black marriage.
B. Promiscuity has resulted in over 70% of all black children being born out of wedlock.
C. Promiscuity has left 85% of black children without 2 parents.
D. Promiscuity has resulted in a level of fatherlessness unprecedented in modern history and perhaps in world history,
producing:
1. Explosive anger
2. Rebellion against all authority
3. A rampant drug trade
4. Murder and violence baffling law enforcement nationwide
5. Prisons filled with black men whose confused lives are torn to shreds, without hope, and determined that someone will pay.
E. Promiscuity is the cause of the AIDS explosion that is now the #1 killer of black women and more prevalent in black men than all of the races. AIDS kills twice as many black men as homicide.

We must be reminded that, “The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” We must “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterors, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilors, nor
extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God” (I Cor. 6:9-10, I Cor. 5).
8. The fear of the Lord must be restored from pulpit to pew in Black America and in all America. It is the beginning of wisdom. This will require confession of sin, repentance from sinful ways, and a fresh commitment to obey God’s ways. Pastors will have a heavy account to bear and should set the example. It will be costly. It will require a willingness to risk power, perks
and position for the healing of the Black family and for the hope of eternity with the God we claim to serve. It is time for Black America to come OUT OF EGYPT if they have any hope of entering the Promised Land, either biblically or figuratively.

The Future of the Nation at Stake
It has been said that what happens in Black America in one generation happens in all America in the next generation. What then does America’s future look like? Black author Joan Williams calls it “Descent into destruction.” The “handwriting is on the wall,”except for a cry for God’s mercy and our humble repentance.

In the words of Harriett Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “A day of grace is yet held out to us. [All] have been guilty before God; and the Christian church has a heavy account to answer. Not by combining together, to protect injustice... or to make common capital of sin, [are we] to be saved, but by repentance, justice and mercy.

Time to Pray... and Obey
From the Negro National Anthem...
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou Who has brought us thus far on the way,
Thou Who has by Thy might led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the place, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our heart, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

SAVE AMERICA MINISTRIES
A Voice to the Church, A Vision for the Nation
P.O. Box 70879 • Richmond, Virginia 23255 •(800) SAVE USA • (804) 754-1822 • www.saveus.org