Pastor Jamal Bryant has a question for people who have publicly walked away from their Divine Nine fraternities and sororities in the name of faith. If their convictions were strong enough to give up their letters, why haven’t those same convictions led them to speak out against Donald Trump?
During his Sunday’s sermon that’s now circulating on social media, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in metro Atlanta spoke directly to former members of Black Greek-letter organizations who have “put down your colors” and “threw away your paraphernalia.”
He made it clear he wasn’t trying to change their minds about leaving. “You have a right to do so in this nation and under the doctrine of free will,” he said. “In no means am I asking you to rejoin. Stay over there.”
What he wanted to know was why that conviction stopped at the Greek letters. “I want to ask how you renounced your D9 affiliation, but you have not found enough Holy Ghost conviction or discernment to renounce not one Trump policy,” Bryant said. He accused those who stay quiet of watching “Trump ask people to pledge allegiance to him” while doing nothing, and calling them “tap dancing Negroes.”
The sermon arrives amid a years-long wave of renunciation videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, in which former members of Black Greek-letter organizations announce they are leaving. Many argue that the organizations’ oaths, rituals and demands for loyalty conflict with their Christian faith.
The trend has divided Black churches, with some pastors encouraging members to leave and others, many of them proud Greeks themselves, pushing back.
“I stand before you today as a born again, Holy Ghost filled, fire baptized, tongue talker with miracle signs and wonders as evidence, and a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi,” he declared. Then he flipped the language of renunciation on its head. “I came to renounce, but it’s not what you think,” he said, quoting Ephesians to renounce “principalities,” “powers” and “spiritual wickedness in high places,” and “every weapon formed against Black people and oppressed people and marginalized people and undocumented people.”
From there, the sermon became a list of policies and political figures. Bryant renounced efforts to keep Georgia’s state minimum wage at roughly $5 an hour, the lack of support for Black farmers, food deserts and limited access to affordable healthcare. He condemned what he described as the protection of predators connected to Jeffrey Epstein, and took aim at Health and Human Services leadership, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he called “the rogue gang known as ICE.”
It’s familiar territory for Bryant, who has become one of the most outspoken Black clergy voices against Trump and his administration. He led a high-profile boycott of Target after the retailer rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion commitments, and he has drawn both praise and sharp criticism for sermons aimed at Black Trump supporters.
Check out the sermon below.
