I want to spend a few minutes discussing the Black Church. The Black Church is something that I’ve taken for granted. Until recently, I haven’t really studied the matter. The Black Church was just something that existed. As most of you know, I grew up in Dallas. Almost every Sunday, our family worshiped in a Black Church. I never thought much about it.
Like nearly everything in this country, race and racism are at the core. After the American Revolutionary War, Baptists and Methodists spread across the South. Ministers evangelized and established churches. The initial idea was to create unified churches, but a problem arose. Since Blacks were slaves, many questions emerged. Did Blacks have souls? If they did, could they be saved? If they were saved, should they be freed? At a basic level, Jesus taught about love, freedom, and that all of us are God’s children. Do you really want to teach that to slaves? One thing was clear: Blacks and Whites could not, and should not, worship together in the same church or ministry. Ministers pushed to convert slaves to Christianity. This climate in the United States made it possible for slaves to start their own churches, leading to the birth of the Black Church.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Black Church was the cornerstone of the Black community. The Black Church spawned black education, black schools, and black banks. In the Black Church, the primary message preached every Sunday pertained to either justice or hope. Outside of the Black Church, society was oppressing Black men and women, but inside the Black Church, you, as a black person, could flourish. You could show your true self. Throughout the civil rights movement, marches started and ended at the Black Church. Organizational meetings were held at the church or at the house of a pastor or deacon. (Tisby, Jemar. The Color of Compromise. the Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism.)
Right now, in these dark times, we can all use the community, fellowship, and leadership that can be found in the Black Church.
Tylenol
A couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Junior stood before microphones and declared they found that Tylenol (acetaminophen) caused autism. They advised pregnant women to stay away from acetaminophen and simply “tough it out.”
First of all, acetaminophen has not been proven to cause autism. Autism is a complex syndrome. We know from twin studies that there is a genetic component to autism. Several hundred genes have been linked to autism. We also know that there is an environmental component. We know that if the mother is exposed to certain factors, her offspring are more likely to have autism. One of the things that has been clearly linked to autism is fever and infection in the mother. Precisely what a fever and/or infection triggers in the mother are still being investigated. So, what’s the most common drug administered to anybody who has a fever or the aches and pains that are associated with an infection? Tylenol (acetaminophen). There has not been a study that has investigated how to uncouple this relationship. There has been one large population-based study from Sweden, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which included over 2.4 million participants. The authors had access to the medical records of the mothers. Therefore, they knew if the mother was taking acetaminophen. They also had the records of the offspring. They found no link between acetaminophen and autism. Currently, this is the most comprehensive population-based study that has been conducted. The major societies of psychiatrists, OB/GYN, and pediatricians have all put out statements clearly stating that the data do not support a link between acetaminophen and autism. Currently, acetaminophen is the safest medication that a pregnant woman can take to relieve pain and fever.
I know I shouldn’t have to say this, but we shouldn’t take medical advice from politicians.
