As I ride through The Cleveland Plantation I am always amazed by the number of churches. I was also reminded that I have visited a great many of the larger churches. I attended those churches for various meetings or ceremonies.

Yesterday, I was invited to attend another church for Ecumenical Solidarity Day.

This church is a very old church within the community. There were very few people in attendance. There were more people in the choir and working for the church than members in attendance.

People today are part of mega churches.

The Cleveland Plantation is not dissimilar from other cities in the US. The reason for the amazing number of African churches is to provide a resource to the African American community. Ultimately, it helps to keep us sedated.

The role of the church has change significantly. When African Americans were allowed to leave the inner city plantations for the suburbs there was a fundamental shift in the church.

Pastors, typically do not live in the community in which they serve. In some of the older churches, many of the members do not reside in the community in which they attend church.

Some of the ties with the inner cities and the people that resided there have been severed.

Churches used to serve a myriad of social services within the community. Of course they provided the balm in Gilead but churched people formed a formidable community that provided services to the community. Additionally, there were roles in the church that assisted people in becoming whole.

Churches are one of the institutions granted by the oligarchs and plutocrats to keep us under control. If they believed what was rewritten in the Bible churches would not be separate there would not be two churches, one white one black. African American churches would not be in business.