DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
A History of the Influence and Importance of 'The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song'
February 16, 2021  | By David Hinckley  | 112 comments
 


The Black church, like the Black community, isn't the monolithic entity to which it is sometimes reduced in sociological shorthand.

But like the Black community, it has a deceptive strength, and part of that strength stems from its diversity.

The depth of the Black church's roots becomes clear very early in The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, a four-hour documentary whose first two hours air at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday on PBS (check local listings).

Dr. Henry Louis Gates wrote and hosts the documentary, which harks back to the 17th-century roots of North American slavery, but spends most of its time on the modern church and the integral role it has played in shaping modern society.

Not even slightly by chance, Gates asserts, was the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s led by ministers like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Fiercely as opponents and critics tried to deny it, their presence affirmed that The Movement was drawing on powers far more timeless and universal than those of mortal man.

In the end, it got too hard to argue that a righteous and just God did not create all human beings equal.

The Black church, This Is Our Story notes, has been making this point since its founding, laying down the unwavering declaration that, as Dr. King famously said, America must work toward the day when its children will be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

With that as a foundational throughline, Gates lays out the fascinating and sometimes contentious dramas that have shaped the church – or more accurately, churches – of today.

When the first slaves arrived in the New World, many came from different belief traditions than the Western Christianity that was, by then, more than 1,600 years old.

Western Christianity had not always offered enlightened views on human equality, so the first New World Blacks to embrace Christianity began putting their own stamp on it.

At the same time, the early Black church was less a resistance movement than a refuge, a place of comfort, and perhaps a respite from the cruel realities often enforced by White Christians.

Like the drums in Africa, elements of the Black church evolved into coded messages. Eventually, the Black church became more of an overt base for those seeking change through moral suasion.

Here again, though, the Black church was not a single entity. Gates notes how the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) required that its ministers have a formal education so they might better guide others, where the Baptist Church was "congregational," that is, anybody could round up some friends and start a church.

This Is Our Story explores some of the different approaches and philosophical divergence within the Black church while simultaneously acknowledging how its collective institutional power transcended theological disagreements.

This Is Our Story also doesn't shy away from one of King's most disturbing observations, that the Sunday morning worship hour is among the most segregated of the American week. Even philosophically compatible denominations rarely integrate Black and White worshippers.

This is treated here as a powerful reminder of America's historic and ongoing struggle with racial equality.

Perhaps the one area in which there has been significant integration is music.

It's not that Black spirituals like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" or "Peace in the Valley" have replaced traditional White Christian anthems, but more that Black gospel music has woven its way into almost all American popular music. When a force is powerful enough, four walls will never hold it in.

The Black Church, in one sense, simply reinforces what millions of Black folks knew already: that it has strengthened its own community and changed America, sometimes at a steep price.

 
 
 
 
 
Leave a Comment: (No HTML, 1000 chars max)
 
 Name (required)
 
 Email (required) (will not be published)
 
TYRSC
Type in the verification word shown on the image.
 
 
 Page: 1 of 6  | Go to page: 
112 Comments
 
 
It is imperative that we read blog post very carefully. I am already done it and find that this post is really amazing.
Dec 9, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
thank you for your interesting infomation.
Dec 9, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
I found your this post while searching for some related information on blog search...Its a good post..keep posting and update the information.
 
 
Thank you very much for the sharing! COOL..
Dec 7, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
thanks this is good blog.
Dec 7, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!
Dec 6, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
thank you for a great post.
Dec 5, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
I really appreciate this wonderful post that you have provided for us. I assure this would be beneficial for most of the people
Dec 5, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Nice Informative Blog having nice sharing..
Dec 4, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Great post I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this interesting and knowledgeable article.
Dec 4, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!
Nov 30, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
This is really a nice and informative, containing all information and also has a great impact on the new technology. Thanks for sharing it
Nov 23, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
The information you have posted is very useful. The sites you have referred was good. Thanks for sharing...
Nov 22, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
thanks for this usefull article, waiting for this article like this again.
Nov 19, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
I appreciated your work very thanks
Nov 19, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Thanks for sharing nice information with us. i like your post and all you share with us is uptodate and quite informative, i would like to bookmark the page so i can come here again to read you, as you have done a wonderful job.
Nov 19, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Please share more like that.
Nov 18, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.
Nov 14, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
Nov 13, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
Most of the time I don’t make comments on websites, but I'd like to say that this article really forced me to do so. Really nice post!
Nov 12, 2023   |  Reply
 
 
 
 Page: 1 of 6  | Go to page: