Expressions of Faith: Black Church, White Church, Style, Substance, and Ways Forward

Today we again consider our spiritual practices.  Given the role of the church in the African American experience, race and religion often become entangled.  Presently, we examine our history with the black church and where we stand with it now.

Woodson’s ideas

Which way America:  The black church and liberation theology, or the white church and maintenance of a segregated society?  Perhaps the multi-ethnic church?  Should homogeneous black and white churches become relics?  I see a compelling case for the proposition they both should.

My family and I belong to Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, a multi-ethnic, socio- economically diverse church in Little Rock.  Henry, who worships at all-black Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, recently sent me a recording of a sermon by his pastor, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley.  Rev. Wesley’s sermon content and how he connected scripture to a call for compassion and justice for the marginalized caused me to think about the history of the black church, its role in the struggle for social justice, and my personal history with the black Baptist church.

Though my faith is rooted in the black Baptist church, I left after fifty years to join Mosaic.  Why?  I now believe the multi-ethnic, socio-economically diverse church represents the last, best hope for solving America’s racial problems.  We will solve many of America’s other problems only when we solve her racial problems.

In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line – the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.”  The color line remains the problem even into the twenty-first century.  I now believe we can’t solve the problem of race in this country until men and women of different racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds learn to worship together.  Only then will we learn to work together.  As Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the

Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama suggests, magical things occur by putting people in proximity of each other.  We learn from each other.  We “de-other” others.  We see common humanity.  This is the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  While teaching the redemptive power of that gospel, Mosaic relentlessly pursues social justice – feeding the hungry, mentoring inner city children, providing immigration services, and more.

As much as black spirituals and black prophetic preaching still resonate with me, I willingly sacrifice that cultural preference in order to help the church overcome racial, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic divisions.

Participating in a multi-ethnic church often requires giving up central cultural preferences associated with historical worship experiences – “ethno-sectarian identity” if practiced in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.  It is the same here and just as destructive.  Being a part of a diverse church like Mosaic, with its United Nations flavor, requires sacrificing cultural preferences by all worshipers.  That sacrifice elevates the culture of Christ above all contrary “ethno-sectarian” cultures, and allows practicing the true gospel, calling men and women of diverse backgrounds to worship, walk, and work together as one.

Henry’s thoughts

As I’ve said in a previous post referencing religion, I prefer expressing my love in a place where diversity reigns and understanding abounds.  So, Woodson has it right, and I cannot disagree with him.  I believe, however, the realities of

Alfred Street Baptist Church

today do not always make that personal choice practical.  As long as ministries focusing on the black community remain essential to the spiritual, material, and social needs of many black people, the “black church” (though usually open to all ethnicities) remains where I find fulfillment.  The community service these churches render demonstrates the continuing need for such places.  Perhaps those needs will be met in the future in other ways but, for now, I find an Alfred Street Baptist Church the kind of place where my needs, and the needs of the communities it serves, blend harmoniously.

Rob’s View

I’m not speechless in response to Woodson’s missive about the cultural aspects of expressing faith.  I’m seldom speechless about anything.  But, I can’t add much.  His approach emanates from a place of high moral and spiritual virtue.  Woodson, in effect, says multi-ethnic worship serves his fellow human beings.  That service, not stylistic presentation, matters most.  It strikes me if religion doesn’t promote such service, it’s really not worth much.

I come from a similar, if not identical, faith tradition as my co-authors (the black Methodist church, not Baptist).  I’ve gone a different direction, coming to rest in progressive Christianity as practiced in some Unitarian Universalist churches and in the United Church of Christ.  By involving myself in these mostly white denominations, I stated that whatever cultural affinity I once had for the black church, it took a back seat to the theology I found in my new spiritual homes.  Woodson makes a similar statement with his commitment to the theology of the multi-ethnic church.  He finds his “true gospel” in the “United Nations” of his church’s makeup, as I’ve found mine in progressive Christianity.  I believe the proper response to both our paths is:  AMEN!