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The African American Churches have played several
different roles for the African American communities. These roles are
different from its basic role that is, preaching. In this paper, the
role of African American churches as conduits for political skills,
resources and mobilization; as an essential ingredient in the
development of African-American theatre and drama; and as a place to
confront the problem of education about teenage pregnancy in the
African-American community will be discussed.
As Conduits for Political Skills, Resources and Mobilization
Over
the years, an undeniable and convincing body of evidence has emphasized
the importance of African-American churches as conduits for political
skills, resources, and mobilization. Among African Americans, church
attendance has played a significant role in facilitating political
mobilization and participation (Tate 1993; Walton 1985). Blacks who
consistently attend church belong to a larger number of politically
relevant organizations, harbor more positive political and racial
attitudes, and vote at higher levels (Reese and Brown 1995; Tate 1993;
Verba, Schlozman and Brady 1995; Verba and Nie 1972; Dawson, Brown and
Allen 1990).
However, as an increasingly high number of African Americans become
trapped in impoverished and debilitating inner-city environments--30%
of poor African Americans live in neighborhoods of concentrated
poverty, over 50% live in single-parent households, and an
ever-increasing percentage report limited contact with mainstream role
models and institutions--it is important to examine the extent to which
the church and its politically relevant resources are accessible to the
most disadvantaged African Americans. In a large measure, re-search on
the political impact of church attendance has not focused on the
influences of contextual factors. However, urban poverty researchers
have demonstrated that concentrated poverty neighborhoods and never
married-parent households have had profoundly negative implications for
educational attainment, organizational involvement, and socioeconomic
mobility (Alex-Assensoh 1998; Cohen and Dawson 1993; Wilson 1987).
Moreover, current research has shown that what separates today's
inner-city communities from the disadvantaged neighborhoods of the past
is their limited connection with upwardly mobile individuals and
mainstream institutions (Wilson 1987; Wilson and Wacquant 1989).
Therefore, while research on the political consequences of church
attendance assumes that all African Americans have an equal opportunity
to attend church and reap the political benefits of such environments,
mounting evidence on the undermining and deleterious influences of
inner-city environments suggests that this is not the case (Wilson
1987; Wilson and Wacquant 1989).
As An Essential Ingredient in the Development of African-American Theatre and Drama
The African-American church influences also the two essential modes
operative in the creative process: word and gesture; the speech of the
imagined character and the physical movements of the imagined
character, respectively. In the performance of a play, word and gesture
become text and performance. For example, the influence of the
African-American church is clearly evident in James Baldwin's The Amen
Corner, a play wherein a woman preacher, Sister Margaret, struggles to
maintain her leadership role in the church and meet successfully with
her past when it haunts her as her estranged husband reappears.
Baldwin, who was himself a preacher at one point, was obviously
influenced by the dynamic of the Black church as he wrote. So the
church affects the creative process of the Black playwright in ways
that are quite obvious. A look at the church's centricity in the
culture may help to reveal a larger influence of the church on
African-American theater and drama. (Du Bois 1926)
In the performance of its religious services, the African-American
church celebrates the faith of Black people and sustains the traditions
of the culture by giving voice to faith through the performance of
certain cultural roles that are imbued with "style" and which are
reflected in the everyday, secular lives of African-Americans. As an
element of performance, style is essential in manifesting cultural
difference; it is the singular, Black way of being that clearly
distinguishes African-American religiosity from White religiosity.
How is the church theatrical? In what ways does the church function as a performance ritual?
There are five main elements to most church services: preaching,
singing, praying, testifying, and offering. None occurs in isolation;
since the performance of any one element may be supplemented by another
as the congregation sees fit to join in with one of the other elements
as the main one is being performed. What follows is a brief discussion
of the functioning of these elements, performed in the church with
sincerity and earnestness.
Preaching
As I mentioned above, the preacher is the focal point of
the theatrical and dramatic functioning of the church. He or she is the
leader of the church. Each preacher has an individualized style which
is drawn from the larger paradigm of performance. Chanting, hollering,
dancing, foot-stomping, and singing, along with rhyme, metaphor,
analogy, and antiphony, are all parts of this larger paradigm from
which a preacher draws his or her style. The effectiveness of this
style is indicated by the extent to which the preacher enlivens what
George Bass has called the moment-by-moment dynamic. (Edmonds 1949)
Singing
In the Black church, music also arouses and sustains the
participants. And just as preaching has a more spontaneous and
emotional manifestation in churches closer to the center of the
culture, singing too can be more or less lively. A major difference
between the A.M.E. and the Baptist churches, for example, is that
A.M.E. churches incorporate hymns that are not part of the cultural
heritage of Black religious music, such as classical ensemble pieces.
They may also avoid spirituals. Singing is done by both the choirs and
the congregation in Black churches, and in many churches an individual
in the congregation may break forth with a song of his or her own,
leading the rest of the church into it. Singing may also be included in
testifying or praying. The singing incorporates body movements,
including gestures. A whole choir may sway rhythmically in unison to a
song, and a choir member may get happy and do a holy dance among the
choir. (Davis 1985) Praying. A person may be singled out for his or her
ability to beseech the Lord. As with preaching, there is a larger
paradigm from which individualized styles are drawn. Everyone in the
church joins in when someone comes before the congregation to pray. A
good praying person, in imploring the Lord to touch his or her heart,
will touch everyone's concerns. Praying is somewhat more sedate than
the other elements, but an emotional prayer will incite call and
response. . (Edmonds 1949)
Testifying
There are many performance modes that fall under this
category. A literal example occurs when, in some Baptist churches,
members are asked to stand up and say what the Lord has done for them.
Offering
Embodying the principle of sacrifice, offerings are taken
up in a number of prescribed ways. In some churches, the entire
congregation gets up and marches around to the offering table. In other
churches, the ushers may do a staccato walk up the aisle to the altar
to get the plates. In most instances, the offering is taken to the
accompaniment of music from one of the choirs. Still another variation
consists of the tithers coming forward. But in all instances, the
ushers and other participants are performing their roles with
sincerity, and it is important to remember that the five elements of
performance overlap and work in unison. (Sobel 1988)
As a Place to Confront the Problem of Education about Teenage
Pregnancy
Of the enormous social issues facing the African-American
family today, few have as many long-range detrimental implications as
teenage pregnancy (Ladner, 1987). Even though it is true that the
African-American community has always "survived" and embraced its
illegitimate young, and though this inclusive community motif
identifies with the theology of the cross and represents a clear
strength of the African-American family (Smith, 1985), the community
must refocus and rechannel its resources toward education and
prevention as opposed to reaction. This refocus involves "counting the
cost" of teenage pregnancy many years down the road and realizing that
the decrease in quality of life, economically and emotionally,
attributable to teen pregnancy has tremendous intergenerational
implications and a negative psychological impact. Because most
African-American teenage parents rely on their family of origin as
their main and/or sole financial and emotional support (Stack, 1974),
it behooves clinicians to cease the underutilization of the church and
other "survival" strongholds that the African-American family trusts
(Boyd, 1982; Butts, 1981).
The African-American church has not actively joined or been actively
used in the battle against teenage pregnancy, despite its preventive
potential. Brown (1985) investigated the influence of social class,
church attendance, and the permissiveness of close friends on the
premarital sexual permissiveness of 702 African-American adolescent
women and stated that "the influence of Black [sic] religious
institutions on sexual permissiveness may be more important than [was]
previously assumed" (p. 385). This work may point toward the influence
of the African-American church on teenage pregnancy, but the direct
effects are still unclear. One study suggests that religiosity has
little to do with sexual behavior (McCormick, Izzo, & Folcik,
1985). I believe that the religious values of parents that exist within
the African-American cultural community are not being applied to
influence the behaviors of its teenagers in a systematic manner.
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