Questioning Chavis Muhammad

Christian Century, June 4, 1997 by Linda A. Mercadante

The bow tied Fruit of Islam guards, the Nation of Islam's elite security corps, stood conspicuously in the parking lot, doorways and rooms of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. They were there to protect Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, formerly a United Church of Christ minister and executive director of the NAACP, who in February converted to the Nation of Islam. Chavis Muhammad had been invited to a press conference and a dialogue with a panel of theologians and ministers about his contention that one can be a Christian minister and a Nation of Islam minister simultaneously. (The Eastern North Carolina Association of the UCC later rejected that claim and on April 24 voted to terminate Chavis Muhammad's ministerial standing.)

With his national prominence, his reputation as a civil rights leader, his long tenure in professional circles of the church and his facility with Christian concepts, Chavis Muhammad is obviously a very valuable convert to the Nation. At both the press conference and the panel, the Fruit of Islam guards maintained a watchful posture over Chavis Muhammad and his wife, scrutinizing visitors, periodically rotating their positions. It was striking that after only two months as a Muslim, Chavis had already been designated a minister and a national spokesman, and was permitted to retain his Christian surname (called a "slave name" in Nation literature), simply adding Muhammad.

The April 18-19 visit to Trinity was initiated by Carl Upchurch, a student at Trinity who had previously worked with Chavis on the 1993 Gang Summit in Kansas City and on the Million Man March of 1995. He wanted Chavis's conversion subjected to public theological scrutiny because, he said, "Ben Chavis is attempting something that threatens the long-term spiritual reconnection of the African-American community with the church."

The event was not sponsored by the seminary. Funds for it were raised by Upchurch through a private donor. When that donor pulled out because of concerns about the "anti-Semitic and antiwhite" attitudes of the Nation, Upchurch reported, he covered the $5,000 fee that Chavis Muhammad received for his appearance at Trinity and at two other church-related events in Columbus. Upchurch is an ex-convict who has told his life story in the 1996 book Convicted in the Womb: One Man's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker.

Trinity's dean, James Childs, stressed that the school did not seek out the meeting. "But when it was offered to us we felt it was worth doing. We provided a venue, because we have a share of concern and solidarity with the social witness of the African-American church. If it's important to them, it's important to us."

I was one of eight people asked to participate on the panel, which was composed equally of white and black members, representing various denominations and theological disciplines. We were each to prepare a set of questions and were to be given equal time to present them and hear responses. Chavis Muhammad opened the dialogue by calling for mutual confession of one God, cooperation and tolerance. This put the panelists in an awkward position. All of us were Christian clergy and had serious theological questions about Chavis Muhammad's desire to keep a foot in each religious world. Yet we wanted very much to affirm our mutual social concerns, to dialogue honestly, and to be willing to confront the racial sins of the church.

Chavis Muhammad got a positive response from the audience when he made such assertions as, "The God who called me into Christian ministry is the same one who has now called me to be a minister in the Nation of Islam"; "If God is one, then why aren't we?"; "Will the church deny me obedience to God when God has called me to Islam? I'm going on, and to God be the glory." He took much of the time appealing to the largely black audience. He masterfully spoke to both Muslim and Christian constituencies, often adopting a sermonic tone, quoting scripture frequently and occasionally Muslim texts, and eliciting vocal encouragement from listeners. Given the audience's frequent cries of "Amen," it felt like being in church.

The panelists' frustration mounted as we realized that time was running out and many of our carefully prepared questions were not being directly addressed. In what panelist Dexter Wise, pastor of Faith Ministries in Columbus, called"equivocation, "Chavis Muhammad eluded many of the hard questions by using Christian terminology in ambiguous ways.

For instance, when asked about his understanding of Christ and the Trinity, he answered, "For us in the Nation of Islam, we do have a Christology. Our response is to be obedient to Allah. We affirm not only creedal but practical Christology. What do you do when you get up from kneeling? Some can get up and do the work of the devil after they've kneeled.... What do we mean by triuneness? It was God in Christ. Jesus is a perfect example of obedience to God. So Jesus is not just a prophet. He is a son of God and we are sons and daughters of God. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is a Christlike figure. Would we not think that God would send prophets and messengers in our time?"