The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aretha Franklin’s family rips Atlanta pastor’s eulogy
Comments ‘offensive and distasteful’ nephew says in statement.
Aretha Franklin’s family has issued a statement saying the eulogy delivered by Atlanta pastor Jasper Williams Jr. was “offensive and distasteful.”
Williams, pastor emeritus of Salem Bible Church, was heavily criticized for the eulogy in which he focused not on the life of the award-winning Franklin, but instead on what he sees as ills in the black community.
“I want to speak on behalf of the Franklin family as it relates to the comments that Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. made on Friday during my aunt’s (Aretha Franklin) Celebration of Life service on Friday, August 31,” the singer’s nephew, Vaughn Franklin, said in a statement. “We found the comments to be offensive and distasteful.”
He said Williams d id not properly eulogize his aunt, and he also disputed that Franklin personally asked for Williams to deliver the eulogy.
Rather, the statement continued, Williams was asked by the family to do the honor because he had done the same for Franklin’s father, prominent Detroit pastor the Rev. C.L. Franklin.
“However, there were several people that my aunt admired that would have been outstanding individuals to deliver her eulogy, including Dr. William J. Barber,
Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Rev. James Holley and Pastor E.L. Branch.
“We feel that Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. used this platform to push his negative agenda, which as a family, we do not agree with.”
During the eulogy, which came near the end of an hours-long service, Williams, 76, spoke about blackon-black crime and single black women raising sons. He even seemed to criticize the parenting of the Rev. C.L. Franklin.
Many found it disturbing that he addressed single women raising sons when Franklin raised her four sons for the most part on her own.
While some may have agreed with his statements, even some of them have said the funeral was not the place or time for Williams to air his concerns, and that he failed to address the systemic causes that contribute to issues in the black community.
Williams has stood by his eulogy.
“When you’re criticized as much as I’ve been, you don’t let it get to you,” Williams said in an earlier interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I know where my heart and head are, and I’m willing to explain and talk about it.”
“I saw what is happening in black America today that is really leading us to lose our soul, so to speak,” he said.
“Eulogies are not letme-get-this-off-my-chest speeches,” said Teresa Fry Brown, the Bandy Professor of Preaching at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, in a critique on her Facebook page. She never mentioned Williams by name, and said she had issues with other speakers as well.
“Eulogies are not, ‘Let me see what dirt I can share on the family or the deceased.’ Eulogies are not personal soap boxes. Eulogies are not star events. Eulogies are not ‘throw rocks,’ or eviscerating folk proclamations masquerading as deep prophetic pronouncements,” Brown said.