The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-04-24
THE NEED OF EDUCATED
LEADERS.

ped from the National Monitor, tn
organ Of the colored Baptist churcl
OF the United States, Published il
New York. We commend it to tn,
careful and thoughtful considerable,
of our readers. The pulpit can b.
made powerful engine in the educa
ton and elevation of the race, if only
honest, intelligent men are permitted
to occupy it. But how often do we
find at the head of a great church an
ignorant, lying, scheming, treacher-
Gus rascal whose only ambition is
gain, and whose only love is for him.
self, and who would sacrifice every
interest of the race in order to
strengthen and perpetuate his own
pernicious power and influence. We
know many good men of limited edu-
cation who are doing a world of good
as ministers. They are honest and
conscientious, and in their intercourse
with the men of the world they prac-
tice those virtues of the heart which
they preach. Far be from us to say
one word in disparagement of them
or the noble work they are doing
for humanity. Our crusade is against
the sly, unscrupulous schemer, who
considers honesty a fiction, edu-
cation a foe, and educated men bar
barian usurpers. Such ministers have
been and are the bane of the race.
They are not confined to the col
ored people of the South, howev-
er. There is scarcely a city in
the land in which one or more
may not be found. Happily for
the race the influence of this class
is waning before the rising sun ofin
telligence. With the school, the press,
the rostrum and the intelligence of
the pulpit, church and people against
them, these teaches on the body poll
tic, libels on honesty, intelligence
and leadership will be driven from
the places they have usurped into the
obscurity and contempt which their
crimes and characters merit. Lead
on brother Monitor, you will be solid
ly backed by press and people,
AS the success of an army depends on
the skill and bravery of the commanding
general, 80 the success of the colored peo-
pie of the South depends on the intellec-
tual and moral fitness of their leaders in
educational, political, ecclesiastical and
social affairs. Their teachers and leaders
should be thoroughly educated. If their
preachers are unlearned in temporal
things, it is reasonable to doubt their pro.
fessed knowledge OF spiritual things If
they do not practice virtue, It is reasona-
BILE to charge them with hypocrisy if they
preach virtue. If the political leader be
not an upright man, it is unsafe to trust
him on account of his color or his profess
ed political faith.
IL ls true that the cOlOred people have
made astonishing progress since the aboli-
ton of slavery, but if their leaders had
been Thoroughly educated and upright men,
their progress would have been still more
amazing. They have advanced by reason
Of an inherent force in spite of bad lead.
ership.
The leadership of the school and press
is superior to that of the pulpit. 1t is true
that we have number of learned colored
divines, but they are not hundrdth part
of what is demanded. We have men fill
ing metropolitan pulpits that do not under
stand the first principles of their mother
tongue, and know no more of natural, in
tellectual and moral philosophy than if no
such science existed. They can take a text
and brawl and groan and with peculiar
aptitude work up the emotional nature of
their uncultured hearers, but they cannot
teach. What we need as people is to be
taught. We need teachers in the school,
teachers in the pulpit and teachers in
every department of social action till we
shall see the truth and can give reason
for the hope that is within us.