So Many Churches and So Much Crime

One of the striking contradictions that you can't avoid when you travel through a typical inner-city neighborhood is the abundance of churches and the proliferation of crime. In the past, the church usually provided a strong moral influence within its community that translated into low crime rates, low school dropout rates, strong families and a dearth of lasciviousness and depravity.

Unfortunately, that influence no longer exists in many inner-city neighborhoods where churches and criminals often share the same real estate. Travel down any major Chicago inner-city street and you'll see gangbangers, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, drunks and drug addicts hanging out in front of churches. Many of these people attend these churches which reveals an extremely serious problem that the pastors and ministers of these churches are reluctant to admit; that their churches are providing absolutely no moral influence at all to the surrounding community.

That's because the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, that the apostle Paul stated "is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16) has been replaced by a toothless social gospel that looks to the government instead of God for answers to moral and spiritual problems that only Christ can solve. For example, when a local minister who pastors an inner-city Chicago church was recently asked what he believed was causing the abundance of crime and violence in his community, he claimed it was the availability of guns.

While that's the politically correct answer that most inner-city church leaders will typically offer, that's the wrong answer. Guns are merely a symptom of a far greater problem rather than the cause. The real problem has been the breakdown of the family because the of the eroding Judeo-Christian influence throughout the western world that can be seen particularly in big cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington D.C. The breakdown of families has resulted in skyrocketing divorce rates, low marriage rates and numerous children that are born outside of wedlock that often leads to juvenile delinquency, academic failure, dropping out of school, drug and alcohol addictions, prison incarceration and the increased odds of suffering an early death.

While some church leaders like to blame utopian government welfare programs for the collapse of families, the blame lies squarely on their shoulders. Had these ministers and pastors continued to "contend for the faith" as the apostle Jude exhorted the early church to do (Jude 1:3) these problems wouldn't exist. Instead, what passes for Christianity within many inner-city neighborhoods has morphed into cultural-Christianity where Jesus Christ has been forgotten and replaced by carnal celebrations and pagan festivals not unlike a religious Mardi Gras.

And sadly, these powerless, counterfeit churches have become a fulfillment of end-time prophecy. According  to the apostle Paul, the last days will be extremely wicked and feature a world that possesses "a form of godliness but denying its power." (2Timothy 3:5) Judging by the typical inner-city Christian church, we are now living in those days.