{"id":2992,"date":"2023-02-05T12:01:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T17:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nnpa.org\/education\/?p=2992"},"modified":"2023-05-30T12:30:35","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T16:30:35","slug":"a-brief-history-of-the-black-churchs-diversity-and-its-vital-role-in-american-political-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nnpa.org\/education\/2023\/02\/05\/a-brief-history-of-the-black-churchs-diversity-and-its-vital-role-in-american-political-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of the Black Church\u2019s Diversity, and its Vital Role in American Political History"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jason Oliver Evans,\u00a0<\/strong>The Conversation<\/p>\n

With religious affiliation\u00a0on the decline, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church\u2019s role in today\u2019s United States.<\/p>\n

For instance, on April 20, 2010, an African American Studies professor at Princeton,\u00a0Eddie S. Glaude, sparked an online debate by provocatively declaring that, despite the existence of many African American churches, \u201cthe Black Church, as we\u2019ve known it or imagined it, is dead.\u201d As he argued, the image of the Black church as a center for Black life and as a beacon of social and moral transformation had disappeared.<\/p>\n

Scholars of African American religion responded to Glaude by stating that the image of the Black church as the moral conscience of the United States has\u00a0always been a complicated matter. As historian\u00a0Anthea Butler\u00a0argued, \u201cThe Black Church may be dead in its incarnation as agent of change, but as the imagined home of all things black and Christian, it is alive and well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As\u00a0a scholar of Christian theology and African American religion, I\u2019m aware of this long history of the Black church and its contribution to American politics. Its story began in the 15th and 16th centuries, when European empires authorized the capture, auction and enslavement of various peoples from across the coast of Western and Central Africa.<\/p>\n

Origins of African American Christianity<\/h2>\n

As millions were transported through the \u201cMiddle Passage\u201d to the Americas, Europeans forcefully baptized the enslaved into the Christian faith despite many of them adhering to traditional African religious systems and Islam. European slave traders dismissed Africans as \u201cheathenish\u201d to justify their enslavement of Africans and the\u00a0coercive proselytization to Christianity.<\/p>\n

In the 1600s, British missionaries traveled throughout the American Colonies to convert enslaved Africans and the Indigenous peoples of the continent. Originally, however, white slaveholders were hesitant to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity because they feared that Christian baptism would lead to the enslaved Africans\u2019 freedom, causing both economic ruin and social upheaval. They widely supposed that\u00a0British laws mandated the freedom of all baptized Christians, and thus white slaveholders initially refused to grant missionaries permission to instruct enslaved Africans into the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

By 1706, six Colonies had passed laws that declared that Africans\u2019 Christian status\u00a0did not alter their social condition as slaves. Consequently, missionaries created \u201cslave catechisms,\u201d modified religious instruction manuals that instructed enslaved Africans about Christianity while reinforcing their enslavement.<\/p>\n

Over time,\u00a0evangelical Protestant groups\u00a0followed suit in their proselytization of the enslaved community, most notably during the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Protestant religious revivals that swept across the American nation in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries.<\/p>\n

Denominations that form the Black church<\/h2>\n

Both during and after the end of slavery, African Americans began to establish their own congregations, parishes, fellowships, associations and later denominations.\u00a0Black Baptists\u00a0founded first the National Baptist Convention USA, in 1895, the largest Black Protestant denomination in the United States. The National Baptist Convention of America International and the Progressive National Baptist Convention\u00a0were founded years later.<\/p>\n

The first independent Black denomination,\u00a0the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was formalized in 1816, grew out of the Free African Society founded by Richard Allen, a former enslaved man and Methodist minister, in the city of Philadelphia in 1787. Allen and his colleague Absalom Jones walked out of St. George\u2019s Methodist Episcopal Church after white members demanded that Allen and Jones, who had been kneeling in prayer, leave the ground floor and go to the upper balcony, which was designated for Black worshippers.<\/p>\n

Other Black Methodists founded two other denominations \u2013 the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821 and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870. The\u00a0Church of God in Christ, the largest Black Pentecostal denomination in the United States, was founded by Charles Harrison Mason, a former Baptist minister, in 1897 and incorporated in 1907.<\/p>\n

Other Black Christians belong to mainline Protestant denominations. Additionally, there are\u00a03 million Black Roman Catholics\u00a0in the United States, and a smaller number of African Americans who attend Eastern Orthodox churches. Moreover, a number of African Americans belong to independent nondenominational congregations, while others belong to white conservative evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic churches.<\/p>\n

Contributions to American politics<\/h2>\n

The Black church has played a vital role in the shaping of American political history. African American churches provided spaces for not only spiritual formation but also political activism.<\/p>\n

Black churches were spaces where slave abolitionism was envisioned, and insurrections were planned. Black preachers such as\u00a0Denmark Vesey\u00a0and\u00a0Nat Turner\u00a0were actively involved in attempted and successful slave insurrections in the South<\/p>\n

During the Reconstruction era, the African Methodist Episcopal Bishop\u00a0Henry McNeal Turner\u00a0served as one of the first African American legislators for the state of Georgia. Turner was famous for his scathing critiques of American Christianity and the nation at large.\u00a0Ida B. Wells\u00a0was an investigative journalist and educator who wrote extensive accounts of the lynchings of Black people in the South, fought against Jim Crow policies, and advocated for Black women\u2019s right to vote. An active churchgoer, Wells also organized and led Bible study classes for young Black men at Grace Presbyterian Church, a predominantly Black church founded in 1888 in the city of Chicago.<\/p>\n

Many Black Christians participated in the Civil Rights movement, including Bayard Rustin, an openly gay Quaker, who was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963. Despite his contributions to advancing Black people\u2019s freedom, Rustin was pushed to the background by his peers\u00a0because of his homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Pauli Murray, the\u00a0first Black woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church, was a lawyer, legal scholar, civil rights and gender equality advocate and poet. Murray compiled an extensive collection of laws and ordinances\u00a0that mandated racial segregation\u00a0and wrote extensively on women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

An influential institution<\/h2>\n

The Black church is far from monolithic. Its members hold different theological positions and hail from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels and political affiliations.<\/p>\n

Some African American Christians did not participate in efforts to end racial segregation, fearing violent backlash from white people. Today, Black Christians are divided over other social justice issues, such as whether to\u00a0support LGBTQ equality. Nevertheless, African American Christians have drawn insights from their experience of enduring racism and their Christian faith to contest racial subjugation and advocate for their freedom and human dignity.<\/p>\n

Despite the rise of the religiously unaffiliated or \u201cNones\u201d within the African American community, the Black church, I believe, continues to be an influential institution.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in <\/em>San Diego Voice and Viewpoint<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO VOICE AND VIEWPOINT- With religious affiliation on the decline, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church\u2019s role in today\u2019s United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1362,31,462,600],"tags":[7025,7039,7040,7050,258,7016,721,7021,7014,7047,7036,7031,7022,7066,7044,7013,7065,7053,7069,7057,7064,7037,7030,7010,7054,1921,7019,7035,7026,7020,7029,271,519,7038,7058,7015,7075,2075,7032,7041,7023,7028,7042,7048,7079,7072,7018,7070,7080,6512,7012,7033,7062,7027,7077,7063,7068,7059,7045,7071,6094,7055,544,7046,7043,7067,2986,7078,5455,5694,7011,7049,4810,2329,7017,7060,7076,7074,7051,7061,7052,6071,2660,7024,7056,7034,7073],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nnpanewswire","category-community","category-featured","category-history","category-legislation","tag-middle-passage","tag-slave-catechisms","tag-evangelical-protestant-groups","tag-absalom-jones","tag-activists","tag-african-american-churches","tag-african-american-community","tag-african-american-religion","tag-african-american-studies-professor","tag-african-methodist-episcopal-church","tag-africans-freedom","tag-american-colonies","tag-american-politics","tag-bayard-rustin","tag-black-baptists","tag-black-church","tag-black-men-at-grace-presbyterian-church","tag-black-pentecostal-denomination","tag-black-peoples-freedom","tag-black-preachers","tag-black-womens-right-to-vote","tag-british-laws","tag-british-missionaries","tag-by-jason-oliver-evans","tag-charles-harrison-mason","tag-chicago","tag-christian","tag-christian-baptism","tag-christian-faith","tag-christian-theology","tag-christianity","tag-civil-rights","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-colonies","tag-denmark-vesey","tag-eddie-s-glaude","tag-education-levels","tag-educator","tag-enslaved-africans","tag-enslaved-community","tag-european-empires","tag-european-slave-traders","tag-first-and-second-great-awakenings","tag-free-african-society","tag-freedom","tag-gender-equality-advocate","tag-historian-anthea-butler","tag-homosexuality","tag-human-dignity","tag-ida-b-wells","tag-income-inequality","tag-indigenous-peoples","tag-investigative-journalist","tag-islam","tag-lgbtq-equality","tag-lynchings-of-black-people-in-the-south","tag-march-on-washington-for-jobs-and-freedom","tag-nat-turner","tag-national-baptist-convention-of-america-international","tag-pauli-murray","tag-poet","tag-political-activism","tag-princeton","tag-progressive-national-baptist-convention","tag-protestant-religious-revivals","tag-quaker","tag-racial-segregation","tag-racial-subjugation","tag-racism","tag-reconstruction-era","tag-religious-affiliation","tag-richard-allen","tag-san-diego-voice-and-viewpoint","tag-scholars","tag-scholars-of-african-american-religion","tag-slave-insurrections-in-the-south","tag-social-justice-issues","tag-socioeconomic-backgrounds","tag-st-georges-methodist-episcopal-church","tag-state-of-georgia","tag-the-church-of-god-in-christ","tag-the-conversation","tag-united-states","tag-western-and-central-africa","tag-where-slave-abolitionism","tag-white-slaveholders","tag-womens-rights"],"yoast_head":"\nA Brief History of the Black Church\u2019s Diversity, and its Vital Role in American Political History - 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