Ethics That Matters: African, Caribbean, and African American Sources

Chapter 10: Overcoming Christianization

159 Chapter 10 Overcoming Christianization Reconciling Spiritual and Intellectual Resources in African American Christianity .Rosetta E. Ross. in her book Your Spirits Walk Beside Us, social historian Barbara Dianne Savage says the civil rights movement “with churches, church people, and church culture at its center was a powerful and startling departure from” conflicting perspectives about the relationship of religion and politics among black Christians. Within the historical context of “decades of complaints and controversies on the question of how and whether African American churches could be a progressive political force,” Savage says, the civil rights movement “changed our notions and expectations about the relationship between African American religion and politics.” Because of the magnitude and accomplishments of the civil rights era, many persons today look back through the lens of the civil rights movement and consider the history of black Christianity as having always integrated religion and politics. However, Savage says, there never has been a single perspective among African Americans about the relationship of religion and politics, in spite of the common belief across black Christianity that enslavement was morally wrong. Savage also argues that the civil rights movement contrasts with earlier twentieth-century narratives that “treated African American religion with despair and disdain.”1 160 rosetta E. ross Savage presents an intentional and clear distinction between church people participating in the civil rights movement and the historic posture of black churches. The movement and the people in it pursued (and partially achieved) political ideals embodied in much black church culture. However, within the institutional context of black churches, Savage says, there have been (and continue to be) questions about the relationship of religion to politics and about the religious value of intentionally organizing to achieve political ideals. The reality of some black Christians embodying political and religious ideals apart from churches (sometimes even being seen as conflicting with beliefs and practices of black churches) reflects the tension within black Christian institutions about how to value both the spiritual and intellectual resources that reside there. While some church people, such as those who participated in the civil rights movement, overcame this tension as individuals, the challenge for black Christianity is to determine ways to reconcile this conflict at the institutional level if it is to maintain relevance to progressive movements that enhance the lives of persons in general and dispossessed black people in particular. Before Savage’s observation that some black persons departed from traditional beliefs and practices across African American Christianity and actively engaged political life, Christian social ethicist Peter J. Paris argued that black churches have an institutional dilemma that impedes setting and achieving political goals. Noting considerable ambiguity about affirming the nation while also valuing the race, Paris says black churches lack political realism demonstrated in “a distinct lack of discernment . . . concerning the importance of constructive analytical and critical thought.”2 During the civil rights era, persons like Septima Poinsette Clark used critical thought and practical reasoning to analyze conflicting traditions within black Christianity, to integrate religion and politics, to develop a unified self-concept, and to help pass on critical thinking skills to others. Building on the critical thought and practical reasoning of the civil rights era, young progressives in the Obama movement integrate religion and politics more fluidly by affirming values that sometimes hold together ideas some older religious activists oppose. By exploring analyses of Savage and Paris and the examples of activists like Clark and contemporary young progressives, it is possible to consider Overcoming Christianization 161 some of what is required to reconcile spiritual and intellectual resources in African American Christianity. Identifying the Conflict: Black Christians and Black Churches Engaging Politics Embedded in Savage’s analysis of the civil rights movement as a departure from the historic posture of black churches is a distinction between the practices of some black Christians who actively engage political issues and the practices and beliefs of black churches. According to Savage, institutional black churches have often wavered on whether there ought to be a relationship between religion and politics. However, some individual black Christians have consistently challenged the idea that religion and politics are incompatible. These persons are intellectually rigorous in considering the relationship of religion and politics and live active lives integrating the two. Savage sees such persons as having made the civil rights movement a reality. By differentiating the practices of black churches as institutions from the practices of some black Christians , Savage...