ATLANTA -- Two days after Aretha Franklin was laid to rest, the Atlanta pastor who delivered her eulogy is coming under fire for remarks made about the black community during the funeral service.
Rev. Jasper Williams, pastor emeritus of the Salem Bible Church in northwest Atlanta is expected to address his comments at a Sunday afternoon news conference, but he is not expected to apologize for his comments. He says he plans to "steadfastly, eloquently and unapologetically explain the 'Biblical perspective' he shared during Friday's service.
Franklin specifically asked him to speak at her funeral. But when he did, some called his comments demeaning to black people.
He said that black America has lost its soul. He also criticized black-on-black crime and said that single mothers are incapable of raising sons by themselves.
"There was a time when we as a race had a thriving economy," Williams said. "I remember we had our own little grocery stores. We had our own little hotels. They weren't big and fancy, but they were ours.
"As bad as the days as Jim Crow and segregation were ... it forced us to each other instead of forcing us on each other. We quickly come to realize that as a people, all we really have is one another.
"But when we marched, when we protested, when we got through saying we shall overcome, yes, we were rewarded with integration, we got what we fought for, we got what we marched for. But with the birth of integration, there also came the loss of not only the black community's economy, but there also came the loss of the black man’s soul."'
Williams said the majority of black households are run by women — but also said women cannot raise boys to be men.
"Where is your soul, black man?" he asked. "As I look in your house, there are no fathers in the home no more. Where is your soul?"
"Seventy percent of our households are led by our precious, proud, fine black women. But as proud, beautiful and fine as our black women are, one thing a black woman cannot do. A black woman cannot raise a black boy to be a man. She can’t do that. She can’t do that."
Then, Williams touched on the Black Lives Matter movement and called for an end to black-on-black violence.
“It amazes me how it is that when the police kills one of us, we're ready to protest march, destroy innocent property," he said. "We’re ready to loot, steal whatever we want. ... But when we kill 100 of us, nobody says anything. Nobody does anything.”
Social media took Williams to task, with some calling him homophobic and misogynistic and even bigoted. And some saying he disrespected the memory of Franklin at her funeral.
Others were more supportive of his comments, saying there was a reason that Franklin asked Williams to do her eulogy and that she knew her people needed some truth.
Williams insisted the strength and discipline of fatherhood in the black community needs to come home, saying that was part of what is missing.
"What good is a community without the strength and discipline of fatherhood? We see the results every day," he said during the eulogy. "Black boys and men slaughter each other by the thousands. No one can bring correction, because the community has no manhood. Men bring strength, correction and direction."
Williams plans to elaborate on his comments at the Sunday afternoon news conference in Atlanta.
