The Black Church: a Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Community Influence
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1997 The Black Church: A Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Community Influence Rupe Simms Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Simms, Rupe, "The Black Church: A Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Community Influence" (1997). Dissertations. 3688. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3688 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1997 Rupe Simms LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO THE BLACK CHURCH: A HEGEMONIC AND COUNTER-HEGEMONIC COMMUNITY INFLUENCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BY RUPE SIMMS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JANUARY 1997 Copyright by Rupe Simms, 1997 All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTORY ISSUES . 1 The Thesis The Definition of Terms The Problem and the Literature Review The Preview of Chapters 2. THE RESEARCH DESIGN 19 The Proposition The Data Collection The Data Analysis The Data Display The Data Presentation The Conclusion 3. THE PRODUCTION OF IDEOLOGIES IN BLACK CHICAGO 1840-1996 . 46 The Migration and Ideology of the 1840s-1916 The Migration and Ideology of 1916-1930 The Migration and Ideology of 1930-Present The Conclusion 4. THE IDEA PRODUCTION OF ST. LUKE CHURCH, CHICAGO FELLOWSHIP OF FRIENDS, AND LIGHT OF LIBERTY CHURCH . 157 The Ideology of St. Luke Church iii The Ideology of Chicago Fellowship of Friends The Ideology of Light of Liberty Church The Cross-case Analysis and Results 5. THE CONCLUSION .. 268 The Black Church: A Historically Hegemonic Institution The Black Church: A Potentially Counter-hegemonic Institution Appendix QUESTIONNAIRE FOR CHURCH LEADERS AND MEMBERS 287 WORKS CITED 290 VITA 307 iv CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTORY ISSUES The Christian Church has been the indisputable epi- center of cultural development in the African-American community from the early days of slavery to the present. Lincoln discusses this institution as a source of social and intellectual formation, stating: The Black Church has no challenger as the cultural womb of the black community. Not only did it give birth to new institutions such as schools, banks, insurance companies, and low income housing, it also provided an academy and an area for political activities, and it nurtured young talent for musi cal, dramatic, and artistic development. 1 1 C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Exoerience (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), 8. Lincoln's view of the church is held by the large majority of scholars writing on the Black experience from varying perspectives. For example, Aldon D. Morris, professor of sociology at Northwestern University, identifies the church as "the dominant institution within black society" as he discusses the role of the church in the Civil Rights Movement in The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change (New York: The Free Press, 1984), 4. Similarly, Theophus H. Smith, professor of religion at Emory University, views the church as the political and religious center of the Black community and the Scriptures as its "conjure book" in Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994) as he traces the history of African-Americah religion. Finally, Abdul Alkalimat, in a African-American history for college students, identifies the church as "the most important social institution in the Black community. " Introduction to Afro-American Studies: A Peoples College Primer (Chicago: Twenty First Century Books and Publications, 1973), 190. 1 2 The idea of the church as the cultural fountainhead of the community provokes challenging questions for the sociologist. What is the nature of the church-produced culture? How does that culture influence community values? What is the political orientation of the church as a cul ture-producing institution? Does the church reproduce hegemony and thereby stabalize social inequality, or does it exert a counter-hegemonic influence in opposition to ruling class domination? The Thesis This study will address these questions as they apply to three of Chicago's African-American churches. It will give emphasis to Gramsci's notion of hegemony as a type of ·leadership through culture in which one class dominates another by controlling ideology. The research will employ a multiple-case design in exploring these churches as hegemonic and counter-hegemonic institutions relative to religion, education, politics, and State authority. Case study research will replicate and inform Gramscian theory regarding the groups as institutions creating a worldview that at times stabilizes and at other times opposes the capitalist structure. It will investigate the day-to-day social activity of these congregations and record how they flesh out their community culture and idea production. Preliminary research supports the notion that these assem blies are primary sources of hegemonic and counter- 3 hegemonic ideas in the African-American community. I have been conducting explanatory research on the religious and social life of selected Black Chicago churches intermittently over the past two years. After conducting forty-five open-ended interviews and spending many hours as a participant observer, I have concluded that, pursuant to culture production, some churches are hegemonic, while others are counter-hegemonic. This is based on my examination of four specific areas including morality, theology, community rituals, and group norms and values. In so far as the church is a moral community, the focus on personal sin engenders both spiritual responses, supporting the ruling order, and political activism, chal lenging the status quo. Their theology, that is, their notion of God and His relationship with humankind frequent ly obstructs, but on occasion stimulates counter-hegemonic development. In terms of community rituals, their worship services commonly reinforce, but in some instances depre cate ruling class views. Regarding group norms and values, their teachings on Christian living usually support, but oftentimes scorn dominant ideology. Thus, at this juncture, I hypothesize that the churches described in this study produce both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic beliefs relative to religion, education, politics, and State authority. In developing this argu- 4 ment, I define several critical terms from a Gramscian theoretical perspective. The Definition of Terms Christian Churches of Cabrini-Green and Religion I would like to define the phrases "Christian churches of Cabrini-Green" and "religion" by relating the Gramscian notion of religion to the specific assemblies of the community. In stating the significance of "religion," Gramsci quotes Turchi: The word religion in its broadest sense denotes a relation of dependence that binds man to one or more superior powers on whom he feels he depends and to whom he renders acts of worship of both an individual and collective nature. 2 Therefore, in Gramsci's view, the church is a social insti- tution in which people express their dependence on superior powers and their individual and cooperate worship. Of course, for Gramsci religion is political by nature, not spiritual; it is an institutionalized system of beliefs, influencing a community of devotees: Note the problem of religion taken not in the con fessional sense but in the secular sense of a unity of faith between a conception of the world and a corresponding norm of conduct. But why call this unity of faith "religion" and not "ideology, 11 or 2 In Further Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. and ed. Derek Boothman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), 9, Antonio Gramsci quotes Turchi's Storia delle religioni (Turin, 1922). 5 even frankly "politics"?3 In this study, the three churches under investigation are sites of spiritual expression and ideological produc- tion in the Gramscian sense. They are situated within a five-by-eight block area of 70.5 acres and bounded on the north by North Avenue, on the south by Chicago Avenue, on the east by Franklin Street and on the west by Halsted Street. The churches are Christian in that, regardless of their theological, political, or social orientation, they view the Judea/Christian Bible as a sacred book and guide to faith and practice, and they acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Founder of their religion. Hegemony The term "hegemony" as it applies to Cabrini churches and their influence in the community refers to a type of ideological leadership in which one class exercises au- thority o~er another through the control of beliefs and worldview. The ruling class does not employ violence or coercion to govern, but instead relies on a popularly accepted worldview to solicit voluntary consent--this notion of voluntary consent cannot be over emphasized. According to Gramsci, the hegemonic apparatus defines popular consciousness so effectively that it dominates the values, traditions, lifestyles, and cultural orientation of 3Quintin Hoare, Selections from