Everything about Black Church totally explained
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This page is about the term. For the Romanian cathedral see Biserica Neagră.
The term
black church or
African American church refers to predominantly
African-American Christian churches that minister to predominantly black congregations in the
United States. While some groups of black churches, such as
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Churches, belong to predominantly black
denominations, many black churches are part of predominantly
white denominations, such as the
United Church of Christ (which formed from the Congregational Church of New England.)
Historically, after Emancipation blacks established separate church facilities and congregations to create their own communities, escape white control, and worship in their own culturally distinct ways. They had already created a unique and empowering form of Christianity that creolized African spiritual traditions, a Christian tradition which developed more fully during the late 19th century. Within the black churches, they built strong community organizations and held positions of spiritual and political leadership. In addition, African American churches have long been the centers of communities, serving as schools in the early years after the Civil War, taking up social welfare functions, such as providing for the indigent, and going on to establish schools, orphanages and prison ministries.
History
To make them easier to control, white slave owners systematically stripped African slaves of their cultural heritage including religion, sometimes passing laws prohibiting African religious practices. Despite these efforts, slaves managed to retain elements of their culture. In the context of religion, expressive and ritual elements included
call and response interactions, shouting, and dance.
Slavery
Slaves often learned about Christianity by attending services led by a white preacher or supervised by a white person. In such settings, whites used
Bible stories that reinforced the sense of place that each group had in society, urging slaves to be loyal and to obey their masters. During the later 19th century, they used stories such as the
Curse of Ham to justify slavery. They promoted the idea that loyal and hard-working slaves would be rewarded in the after-life. Sometimes slaves established their own Sabbath schools to talk about the Scriptures and, in some cases, those who were literate taught others to read, as
Frederick Douglass did while still enslaved as a young man in
Maryland.
Slave revolts in the early 1800s, often inspired by passages in the Bible promising deliverance from slavery, as with the Exodus out of Egypt, or by black preachers, led to southern states' passing laws barring exclusively black churches, black preachers and assembly of blacks in groups unsupervised by whites. Slaves organized underground churches and hidden religious meetings, where slaves were free to mix
evangelical Christianity with African beliefs and African rhythms and turn traditional hymns into
spirituals. The underground churches provided psychological refuge from the white world. The spirituals gave the church members a secret way to communicate and, in some cases, to plan rebellion. In 1831,
Nat Turner, a slave and Baptist preacher, killed about 50 white men, women, and children in an armed rebellion in
Virginia.
Where it was possible, free blacks organized independent black churches
Reconstruction
After
emancipation, Northern churches founded by free blacks, as well as those of predominantly white denominations, sent missions to the South to minister to newly freed slaves, including to teach them to read and write. The AME and
AME Zion churches gained hundreds of thousands of members. In 1870, the Southern-based
Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church was founded. The
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., now the largest black religious organization in the
United States, was founded in 1894.
Politics and social issues
The black church continues to be a source of support for members of the African-American community. When compared to American churches as a whole, black churches tend to focus more on social issues such as
poverty,
gang violence,
drug use,
prison ministries and
racism. A study found that black Christians were more likely to have heard about
health care reform from their pastors than were white Christians. Black churches are typically very conservative on sexuality issues, such as
homosexuality.
Black liberation theology
One formalization of theology based on themes of black liberation is the
Black liberation theology movement. Its origians can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ad hoc group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full page ad in the
New York Times to publish their "Black Power Statement," which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the
Bible for inspiration.
Black liberation theology was first systematized by
James Cone and
Dwight Hopkins. They are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are many scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. In 1969 Cone published the seminal work that systemized black liberation theology,
Black Theology and Black Power. In the book, Cone asserted that not only was black power not alien to the Gospel, it was, in fact, the Gospel message for all of 20th century America.
In 2008, approximately one quarter of African American churches follow a liberationist theology. The theology was thrust into the national spotlight after a
controversy arose surrounding Rev.
Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to presidential candidate
Barack Obama at
Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago. Wright had built Trinity into a successful
megachurch following the theology developed by Cone, who has said that he'd "point to [Trinity] first" as an example of a church embodying his message.
As neighborhood institutions
Although black urban neighborhoods in cities which have deindustrialized may have suffered from civic disinvestment, with lower quality schools, less effective policing and fire protection, there are institutions that help to improve the physical and social capital of black neighborhoods. In black neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion.For some African Americans the kind of spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of poverty and racism. Churches may also do work to improve the physical infrastructure of the neighborhood. Churches in
Harlem have undertaken real estate ventures and renovated burnt-out and abandoned
brownstones to create new housing for residents. Churches have fought for the right to operate their own schools in place of the often inadequate
public schools found in many black neighborhoods.
Traditions
Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a
Christmas play.
Black Nativity by
Langston Hughes, is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with
gospel music. Productions can be found at black theaters and churches all over the country. The
Three Wise Men are typically played by prominent members of the black community.
Historically black denominations
Throughout U.S. history, religious preferences and racial segregation have fostered development of separate black church denominations, as well as black churches within white denominations.
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The first of these churches was the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). In the late 18th century,
Richard Allen, a former slave, was an influential
deacon and elder at the integrated and affluent St. George's Methodist Church in
Philadelphia. After white members of St. George's started to treat his people as second-class citizens, in 1787 Allen founded the all-black Mother Bethel AME Church. The charismatic Allen had attracted numerous new black members to St. George's. White members had become so uncomfortable that they relegated black worshippers to the balcony.
Over time, growing numbers of African-American congregations withdrew from the
Methodist Episcopal (ME) Church. In 1816, representatives of these congregations convened to establish the AME Church and consecrated Allen as their bishop.
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion or AME Zion Church, like the AME Church, is an offshoot of the ME Church. Black members of the John Street Methodist Church of
New York City left to form their own church after several acts of overt discrimination by white members. In 1796, black Methodists asked the permission of the
bishop of the ME Church to meet independently, though still to be part of the ME Church and led by white preachers. This AME Church group built Zion chapel in 1800 and became incorporated, subordinate to the ME Church, in 1801. In 1820, AME Zion Church members began further separation from the ME Church. By seeking to install black preachers and elders, they created a debate over whether blacks could be ministers. This debate ended in 1822 with the ordination of Abraham Thompson, Leven Smith, and
James Varick, the first superintendent (bishop) of the AME Zion church.
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
The National Baptist Convention was first organized in 1880 as the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention in
Montgomery,
Alabama. Its founders, including Elias Camp Morris, stressed the preaching of the
gospel as an answer to the shortcomings of a segregated church. In 1895, Morris moved to
Atlanta,
Georgia, and founded the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., as a merger of the Foreign Mission Convention, the American National Baptist Convention, and the Baptist National Education Convention. The National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., is the largest African American religious organization.
Church of God in Christ
In 1907,
Charles Harrison Mason formed the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) after his Baptist church expelled him. Mason was a member of the
Holiness Movement of the late 19th century. In 1906, he attended the Azusa Street Revival in
Los Angeles. Upon his return to
Tennessee, he began teaching the
Pentecostal Holiness message. However,
Charles Price Jones and J. A. Jeter of the Holiness movement disagreed with Mason's teachings on the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Jones changed the name of his COGIC church to Church of Christ, Holiness (USA) in 1915.
At a conference in
Memphis, Tennessee, Mason reorganized the Church of God in Christ as a Holiness Pentecostal body. The headquarters of COGIC is
Mason Temple in
Memphis, Tennessee. It is the site of
Martin Luther King's final sermon, "
I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered the day before he was assassinated.
Other denominations
Further Information
Get more info on 'Black Church'.
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