Black Church Strategies for the Twenty-First Century T. Vaughn Walker T. Vaughn Walker is Professor of Dr. Sid Smith has written that one of the The Black Church and Liberation Black Church Studies at The Southern greatest challenges facing the church in The black church has always provided Baptist Theological Seminary, where he the next century is ministering to the black the moral and ethical leadership for the holds the W.M.U. Chair of Social Work family. 1 No church will be relevant un- African-American community. The black Education. He has contributed to several less it implements an effective program church modeled empowerment before the journals and periodicals, and is a frequent of family ministry. This is especially true term was used in its present context. It was speaker at conferences on both the of churches serving the black community, (and is) the black church that provided church and the family. He also serves as so black church development must re- hope for the hopeless, faith for the faith- the pastor of First Gethsemane Baptist spond to the needs of the black family. In less, joy and celebration in the midst of Church in Louisville, Kentucky. This ar- his The Strengths of Black Families,2 Robert much pain and degradation. Major J. Jones, ticle is an abridged version of a faculty Hill points out five bulwarks of the Afri- speaking of the black church as liberator address first presented in the fall semes- can-American family: strong kinship and in an attempt to adequately under- ter of 1996. bonds, strong work orientation, adaptabil- stand the dynamic role which it has tradi- ity of family roles, strong achievement tionally played in the black community’s orientation, and strong religious orienta- liberation struggle, states that tion. These strengths have enabled the Not to understand fully that role in black community to survive in a society the liberation struggle is to fail to scarred by racism and social pathology. understand why the black man was The black experience has necessitated the able to survive slavery and the sub- sequent years which followed. It development of specialized behavior for should also be pointed out that any survival. This paper deals most exten- attempt to separate the black man’s sively with the last of those strengths. religion from his liberation struggle is to fail to see that the black church When one analyzes the multi-dimen- cannot be understood merely in sional role the black or African-American terms of programs or structures.3 church plays in society, no simple defini- tions or conclusions emerge. Much of the Indeed, Mays and Nicholson were right scholarship generated concerning the when they concluded that black church has tended to over-simplify There is in the genius of the “soul” or misinterpret this last institution outside of the Negro church something that of the family that remains influential in gives it life and vitality that makes all arenas of African-American life. One it stand out significantly above its buildings, creeds, rituals and doc- finds an expression of the black Christian trines, something that makes it a religious heritage in practically every unique institution.4 community in this country, regardless of its population or location. Thus, the Afri- Jones further asserts that it was because can-American church must take a leading of the church that black people did not role in creating solutions for African- accept the slavery-era white interpretation Americans in the twenty-first century. of Christianity, in which control and sub- 52 jection were the dominating reasons for church understood that this was not sim- evangelizing the slaves. Religion was ply a post-rapture experience, for the same meant to be a means of further enslave- Jesus proclaimed “the Kingdom of God ment of the body and spirit of the black is at hand.” person. Through the religious teachings The early black church survived and a slave received the society attempted to even thrived as an “invisible institution” convince the black person that during slavery despite the pressures of a society opposed to its existence. Though Whites derived their right to rule it may not have impacted the larger com- over blacks from God. To question this right was to question the will of munity, the church was a strong leader in God and to incur divine wrath. Cat- the quest for black empowerment and in- echisms for the instruction of slaves dependence. In addition, the black church in the Christian religion often con- tained such instruction as: undoubtedly provided the primary out- let for the expression of freedom for its Q.Who gave you a master and a people. This compelling desire for free- mistress? A. God gave them to me. dom and liberation was one of the pri- Q.Who says that you must obey mary reasons the church grew so rapidly them? and was accepted so universally. The Af- A.God says that I must.5 rican-American community generally re- It must be noted that the black church- jected its captors’ brand of the gospel and man rejected such teachings very early, by the power of the Holy Spirit came to and instead fixed on the liberation themes understand that “with God on our side, of the Bible. Contrary to the slave mas- nobody going to turn me around.” The ters’ intent, religious teachings created a black church has often been described as greater desire for freedom within the a “Jesus church” because of the strong mind of the slave. identification it holds with Jesus as one Jones continues to be absolutely accu- defending the oppressed. rate in his consideration of the reality of Some scholars contend that the post- this early religious experience of African- Civil War black church lost its zeal for free- Americans when he suggests that the dom, especially during Reconstruction black church has been very much a church and the immediate post-Reconstruction of this world, and that it has always spo- era. Others see a much different picture. ken to the issues of the times. Critics of They see the black church becoming more the black church have unjustly accused it holistic, broadening its menu of issues and of exclusively preaching an other-worldly, gradually addressing all areas of life, not escape-from-reality message. Yet those just spiritual matters. The Scriptures who really understand the nature of the present humankind as a body, a soul and African-American church realize that its a spirit. The black church began to under- message of hope, freedom and liberation stand its role as one addressing all aspects is just as applicable to a person’s present of human existence. This self-identity is earthly experience as it is to his or her fu- magnified today as the church aggres- ture heavenly destiny. Jesus taught the sively preaches economic, educational, church to pray for His kingdom to come social and cultural empowerment, yet this on earth as it is in heaven. The black in no way restricts or retards the tradi- 53 tional message of spiritual liberation that oppression as well as salvation from sin most in the black church believe is essen- and guilt.” While confederation means the tial to experience full empowerment in the formation of a group who live in a cov- other areas of one’s existence. enant relationship with one another and Jones is again correct when he states that with their Redeemer, in the Scriptures re- demption never means redemption from The black man’s religion enabled sin alone. It always means “deliverance him to survive the brutalities and oppression that a white racist soci- from some visible and tangible menace ety inflicted upon him. In spite of it which might or might not be regarded as all, it enabled black men to affirm a consequence of the sin of the people.” themselves as members of the King- dom of God while living in a culture Moyd further concludes that “neither which looked upon them as crea- the Black theologians nor the Euro-Ameri- tures less than humans. To miss this can and Latin American ‘liberation’ theo- point is to misread the role of the black church in the liberation logians have used redemption as a point struggle.6 of departure.” While liberation is one di- mension of redemption, it is limited in that The black church was destined to come it points primarily to the exodus out of forth as a powerful instrument of libera- Egypt or out of black oppression. It then tion and freedom. Wilmore assessed the neglects another important dimension, situation by stating that which has to do with coming into Canaan, or the forming of a community among the During the eighteenth century there people of God. Moyd argues that were more black and white Chris- tians worshipping in the same con- gregations, proportionate to their The major catastrophe which imme- numbers as baptized Christians, diately afflicted the four million than there are today. This should not, blacks when the Emancipation Proc- however, be taken to imply that lamation became effective on Janu- prior to the Civil War American ary 1, 1863, arose out of the fact that churches were racially integrated. only one aspect of redemption be- Blacks enjoyed no real freedom or came operative. While they were lib- equality of ecclesiastical status in erated out of the hands of their either the North or the South. It oppressors, there were no adequate never occurred to white Christians provisions for their going into or that the equality that was denied to forming their own communities.9 their brothers and sisters in civil so- ciety should at least be made avail- 7 The Black Church, Freedom able to them within the church.