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The Emergence, Development, and Challenge of African-American Evangelicalism

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The Emergence, Development, and Challenge of African-American Evangelicalism In Whose Image: The Emergence, Development, and Challenge of African-American Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah Date: _______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. Willie James Jennings, Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Kate Bowler ___________________________ Dr. Valerie Cooper ___________________________ Dr. A.G. Miller Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2016 ABSTRACT In Whose Image: The Emergence, Development, and Challenge of African-American Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah Date: ________________________ Approved: ___________________________ Dr. Willie James Jennings, Supervisor ___________________________ Dr. Kate Bowler ___________________________ Dr. Valerie Cooper ___________________________ Dr. A.G. Miller An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology in the Divinity School of Duke University 2016 Copyright by Soong-Chan Rah 2016 Abstract The current era of American Christianity marks the transition from a Western, white- dominated U.S. Evangelicalism to an ethnically diverse demographic for evangelicalism. Despite this increasing diversity, U.S. Evangelicalism has demonstrated a stubborn inability to address the entrenched assumption of white supremacy. The 1970s witnessed the rise in prominence of Evangelicalism in the United States. At the same time, the era witnessed a burgeoning movement of African-American evangelicals, who often experienced marginalization from the larger movement. What factors prevented the integration between two seemingly theologically compatible movements? How do these factors impact the challenge of integration and reconciliation in the changing demographic reality of early twenty-first Evangelicalism? The question is examined through the unpacking of the diseased theological imagination rooted in U.S. Evangelicalism. The theological categories of Creation, Anthropology, Christology, Soteriology, and Ecclesiology are discussed to determine specific deficiencies that lead to assumptions of white supremacy. The larger history of U.S. Evangelicalism and the larger story of the African-American church are explored to provide a context for the unique expression of African-American evangelicalism in the last third of the twentieth century. Through the use of primary sources — personal interviews, archival documents, writings by principals, and private collection documents — the specific history of African-American evangelicals in the 1960s and 1970s is described. The stories of the National Black Evangelical Association, Tom Skinner, John iv Perkins, and Circle Church provide historical snapshots that illuminate the relationship between the larger U.S. Evangelical movement and African-American evangelicals. Various attempts at integration and shared leadership were made in the 1970s as African-American evangelicals engaged with white Evangelical institutions. However, the failure of these attempts point to the challenges to diversity for U.S. Evangelicalism and the failure of the Evangelical theological imagination. The diseased theological imagination of U.S. Evangelical Christianity prevented engagement with the needed challenge of African American evangelicalism, resulting in dysfunctional racial dynamics evident in twenty-first century Evangelical Christianity. The historical problem of situating African American evangelicals reveals the theological problem of white supremacy in U.S. Evangelicalism. v Acknowledgements I am indebted to my academic mentors who made this project possible. My dissertation supervisor Willie Jennings has been a source of inspiration, encouragement, and tremendous knowledge. This project would not have been possible without his strong support. I could not have asked for a more helpful and accomplished group to serve as my dissertation committee. Valerie Cooper, Kate Bowler, and A.G. Miller provided insight that formed the final product. I am particularly thankful for Kate Bowler for her ongoing courage, inspiration, and challenge. The faculty at Duke Divinity School provided the fertile environment to foster my research. I am grateful for Emmanuel Katongole who sparked my initial interest in the important role of lament. Additional Duke faculty provided significant formation for my academic work. They include Grant Wacker, Mark Chaves, J. Kameron Carter, Ellen Davis, and Sam Wells. Additional faculty at other institutions also made significant contributions in shaping the trajectory of my academic inquiry: Doug Sweeney, K.K. Yeo, Eldin Villafane, Humberto Alfaro, Terry LeBlanc, Ray Aldred, Peter Cha, Doug Hall and Judy Hall. I am indebted to the friendships forged in my involvement in Evangelicals for Justice, CCDA, and Sojourner communities. They have been instrumental in the formation of my ongoing passion to see God’s work for justice among evangelicals: Lisa Sharon Harper, Andrea Smith, Mae Cannon, Sandra VanOpstal, Liz VerHage, Paul Metzger, Randy Woodley, Jimmy McGee, Mark Charles, Kathy Khang, Peggy Flanagan, Adam Taylor, Chanequa Walker-Barnes, Danny Carroll, Leroy Barber, Michael McBride, Gabriel Salguero, David Gushee and many others who have helped shaped my personal passion for God’s social justice. vi I am acutely aware that I am not telling my own story through this work. I am grateful for many of the names in this work that have graciously invited me into their communities and also granting me permission to tell their stories. With tremendous gratitude to Barbara Williams-Skinner, John Perkins, Bill Pannell, Ruth Bentley, Walter McCrae, Ron Potter, Carl Ellis, Russ Knight, Henry Greenidge, Johnny Skinner, Stan Long, and Peter Sjoblom. Thanks to my friends and colleagues at North Park Theological Seminary, North Park University and the Evangelical Covenant Church. These communities intersect my work, my vocation, my calling, and my ministry and I am grateful for those who have been an integral part of these learning communities: Gary Walter, David Parkyn, Dave Kersten, Linda Cannell, Michael Emerson, Joe Jones, Stephen Chester, Terry Lindsay, Dan White Hodge, Elizabeth Pierre, and Stephen Spencer. I want to extend much gratitude towards our extended family, my father-in-law in Korea, my brother-in-law in California, my sisters and their families in Maryland. My mother has always been the best example of pursuing the holiness of God alongside the embodiment of God’s justice. Every time I finish a writing project, I am reminded how much my family shapes my writing efforts. I often write with my children, Annah and Elijah in mind. I pray that my words would encourage and inspire you to live into God’s calling for your lives. My hope for you comes from my understanding of God’s work and faithfulness. My wife Sue serves as an example of God’s faithfulness towards me. I thank God every day for a partner in life and family that encourages and strengthens me to serve Him. vii Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 Part I: The Broader Historical and Theological Context of the African-American Evangelical Story………………………………………………8 1. The Historical Context of U.S. Evangelicalism………………………………………...9 1.1 Defining Evangelicalism…………………………………………………….11 1.2 Evangelical Engagement with Culture………………………………………20 1.3 The Church Growth Movement Between Church and Culture……………...34 1.4 Religion, Culture, and Politics………………………………………………56 1.5 Analysis……………………………………………………………………...68 2. African-American Christianity………………………………………………………..70 2.1 The Slave Trade and African American Christianity………………………..71 2.2 The Contextual Burden of Slave Religion…………………………………..80 2.3 George Liele and the Activist Mission Impulse……………………………..85 2.4 The Spiritual Freedom Road and the Great Migration……………………....93 2.5 Civil Rights and the Imagination of Liberation……………………………101 2.6 Analysis…………………………………………………………………….104 Part II: Race and the Problem of Evangelical Theology………………………………..107 3. The Theological Imagination and the Sin of Exceptionalism…………………..……108 3.1 The Diseased Theological Imagination…………………………………….108 3.2 The Sin of the Racialization of the Image of God……………………….…113 viii 3.3 The Sin of Elevating the White Body……………………………………...117 3.4 The Exceptionalism of the White Mind……………………………………127 3.5 The Warping of Human Community………………………………………136 4. The Problem of Triumphalism in Evangelical Christianity………………………….143 4.1 Dysfunctional Christology…………………………………………………145 4.2 The Soteriology of Whiteness……………………………………………...159 4.3 The Necessity of Lament in a Reconciled Ecclesiology…………………...167 4.4 Analysis…………………………………………………………………….178 Part III: The Story of African-American Evangelicals 1960s and 1970s………………180 5. The National Black Evangelical Association………………………………………..181 5.1 The Advent of the NBEA…………………………………………………..182 5.2 Fellowship and Ministry…………………………………………………...196 5.3 Conflict and Contest………………………………………………………..198 6. The Particular Voice of Tom Skinner………………………………………………..205 6.1 From Harlem……………………………………………………………….206 6.2 Tom Skinner’s Evangelical Testimony…………………………………….212 6.3 From Testimony to Confrontation…………………………………………219 7. John Perkins and the Power of Story………………………………………………...231 7.1 Out of Poverty……………………………………………………………...232 7.2 A Conversion Narrative and an Activist Faith……………………………..236 7.3 A Civil Rights Story………………………………………………………..241
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