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five ⭈ ‘‘The Consciousness of God’s Presence Will Keep You Well, Healthy, Happy, and Singing’’: The Tradition of Innovation in the Music of Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement LEONARD NORMAN PRIMIANO I first read Arthur Hu√ Fauset’s account of Father Divine in the 1980s, as a doctoral student at Fauset’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Don Yoder, the dean of American folklife studies, liked to use Black Gods of the Metropolis in his classes, including ‘‘Sects and Cults in American Religion.’’ The text spotlighted groups Yoder felt were extremely important for understanding the full picture of religion in America . Fauset’s descriptions of the believers he encountered mirrored the ethnographic work that Yoder had done since the late 1940s with the Pennsylvania Germans, another group of understudied American sects. Yoder’s admiration stemmed from Fauset’s attempt to create a historical and contemporary picture of American religiosity based on fieldwork—direct contact with believing men and women. Furthermore , to his enormous credit, Fauset was one of the first scholars of American religion to take seriously the study of ‘‘sects’’ and ‘‘cults,’’ and especially African American sects and their leaders, including Father Divine. Fauset did not write derisive exposes on Father Divine’s sexuality, money, or possessions, but worked to achieve what he felt was a dignified analysis through ethnographically based research .1 The fact that Fauset’s research was primarily centered in the city of Philadelphia and that a Peace Mission hotel, the Divine Tracy, along with its public cafeteria, could be found only a few blocks from Yoder’s Penn classroom in West 92 New Religious Movement(s) of the Great Migration Era Philadelphia satisfied him even more because the students could experience at close range at least one of the communities that Fauset had studied. Being trained in the folklife studies approach by Yoder, I recognized that attention to the nuances of everyday life is a singularly important contribution that ethnographic work can make to understanding religious culture, especially emphasizing aesthetic or artistic creation; historical process; the construction of mental, verbal, or material forms; and the relationship and balance of utility and creativity to such forms within a particular context.2 As a budding folkloristic ethnographer, especially interested in the expressive culture of religious movements, I, therefore, was delighted that Fauset opened his discussion of Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement not with a portrait of Father Divine as so many other authors had done, but with the moving account of the conversion of a male follower named Sing Happy.3 Fauset o√ered a portrait of this man, including Sing Happy’s powerful testimony of how Father Divine helped him gain stability in his life and robustness in his health during seven years of committed belief in this religious leader, thought to be an incarnation of God on earth. Fauset also thoughtfully included an explanation of how this follower received his spiritual name. For Sing Happy made a public testimony with his name every day, conveying the importance of the tradition of singing in the lives and rituals of the Peace Mission membership. Fauset’s approach to studying this man and his religious community can be viewed as folkloristic in nature, as he was mindful of this religion’s rhythms of work, play, eating, and ritual, as well as the powerfully familiar musical and lyrical soundscapes that accompanied those occasions. Throughout his study, Fauset was particularly attentive to the music and songs of the Peace Mission, noting how the rhythm of life was best described through song in the case of one female follower.4 In paying attention to the beliefs and practices of such followers and by giving attention to how they expressed themselves—privately, publicly, ritually—Fauset both challenged and reassessed the scholarly and popular impression of the sti√ness and rigidity of the members of so-called sects and cults.5 Still, many questions appear to have been left unasked by Fauset. How, for example, did the variety of songs fit into the lives of followers and connect to Father Divine himself? What was it about the expressive culture of the Peace Mission that prompted this child of Father Divine to ‘‘Sing Happy’’ and be in such improved health? Fauset, of course, was trained as a traditional sociocultural anthropologist of his time. Thus, while attentive to the worldview of members of African American sects, especially in such symbolic forms as their expressive arts of song, testimonial, and costume...

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