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The new black spirituality
Ebony, Dec, 2004
INTRODUCTION
ALMOST without public notice, and with little or no fanfare, a new Black spirituality has moved to center stage and is coloring and affecting everything it touches.
The new spirituality, like the old, is rooted in The Great Black Spirit that enabled African-Americans to survive slavery and to change the color of American culture and, some say, American religion. But the new spirituality, like the old, is a growing, transforming, teaching thing, and it is evolving, even as we read, seeking its truth, like the old Spirit, in the heavens of our hope. And the first point to understand, by way of introduction, is that the new spirituality differs significantly and sometimes dramatically from the old spirituality and is defined by:
* More excitement and more--can we use the word?--adventure, with some ministers receiving adulation usually reserved for movie stars.
* More new and independent denominations, some of them with their own missionary groups in Brazil, Africa, and Europe.
* More S-I-Cs, Sisters in Charge, or, at least, out front.
* More church members and more supporters of Pentecostal churches and the demonstrative, fervent Pentecostal spirit.
* More megachurches open almost all the time and offering almost everything, including fast-food service, economic development corporations, and expert counseling on matters from money management to marital problems to yoga.
* More reverse integration, with more Hispanics and Whites worshipping at historically Black churches, and more Blacks supporting charismatic White preachers.
* Finally and perhaps definitively, there is more rhythm, more shouting, more dancing, more hand-clapping, more foot-stomping, more, some say, soul, including musical combos, drums, saxophonists and trumpet players on or near the altar or the pulpit.
The Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson Cook, the first female president of the 10,000-member Hampton University Ministers Conference, says the new spirituality is "a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit" and that "our music is exploding and our worship is exploding and preachers are finding the freedom to say what God is really saying to them and what He wants them to say to the people."
Bishop T. D. Jakes, who has been called "the Prophet of the New Spirituality," says the core message of the Church has not changed, but "there has been a shift in the direction of the Church as community needs have changed."
Not all of the voices are celebratory. Bishop Richard Allen Chappelle Sr. of the AME Church says: "If you close your eyes in some places where you're supposed to be worshipping, you can't tell whether you're at church or a rock concert." The Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, warns against"' a demonic spirituality" that makes excitement the sole manifestation of the spirit." One minister, who asked to remain anonymous, warns against a show business spirituality divorced from struggle and the Kings, Allens and Liberators. Speaking from another perspective, Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie asked, "Is this a new quest for spirituality, a way to be saved with our sins rather than from our sins?"
To answer that question and others, all EBONY editors and photographers made pilgrimages to Black churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles, from Dallas to Harlem. This special section, a pictorial essay, is an interim answer to a spiritual ferment that is growing and gaining strength in a religious institution near you.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
