Religion, spirituality, music, singing, chanting, drumming, movement, and alignment with nature are inherited traits of BIPOC and is a part of the African ethos and Black culture. When Christianity was introduced to the enslaved Africans, these elements became part of their church rituals. And, of course the enslaved African’s original beliefs and practices were interwoven into the American version of Christianity.
These enslaved Africans and their offspring created and adopted songs that told their story and captured their longing for freedom and a better life. They regularly used these songs of inspiration in church services to describe how their faith in Jesus, in God, in the Christian bible was helping to sustain them, and giving them the strength, tenacity and faith to survive against all odds. The bible stories gave them hope and faith that things could and would get better, they would experience liberation, if not here on earth, then when they died and went to heaven. Negro spirituals or hymns are one of the musical genres in American culture.
While there are several major denominations of African-American churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, founded in America as early as 1816; the AME Zion, the Baptist Church, and the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), there are also many off-shoots of these various denominations.
Church, as community, is pivotal and essential in African-American communities.
When walking through Black neighborhoods, a single block may have two, sometimes three churches interspersed between liquor stores and mom and pop restaurants. Black people, almost unconditionally respect the authority of the clergy. Ministers, whether appointed by a higher order of a recognized denomination, or self- proclaimed – the person announces that they were called by God to preach – are perceived as having a special relationship with God.
Here Are Some of the many ways the Church helps the Black community:
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Helps to keep us grounded
And, in some cases sane. Church services can offer spiritual relief, release and healing. Church activities provide social interaction, bonding and various activities throughout the week that supports community life. Church members are able to attend bible study during the middle of the week; helping them to cope with issues arising in the secular world or work/family relations. Members can also ask their pastors for counseling, prayer, or in some instances financial help. Most churches have formal support networks that require the pastor, or other designated church officers, to visit the sick or speak on behalf of members or their families who find themselves in trouble with the law.
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Talents are nourished
Even during modern times singing and chanting, as elements of church rituals became platforms for black talent. Many African American celebrities got their start and honed their talents in the church. Those who are interested in singing are able to join the choir. When you think of singers like Aretha Franklin, Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Hudson, Luther Vandross, Al Green, Lionel Ritchie and so many others, the church was their training ground. It played a key role in developing their talent.
Even in other areas it can serve as a training or proving ground to nourish potential talent. Members who have an aptitude for business may become officers in their church. Those who are drawn to working with the children and youth may become Sunday school teachers or leaders of youth groups or activities. For the most part, in church these individual’s natural abilities are recognized regardless of education or social status.
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A history of social bonding and political movements
Throughout the history of the Black church in America, the church has been a vehicle for the incubation of social movements. While the Christian bible was used to justify slavery, it also became the motivation for the resistance to slavery and the struggle for freedom. Although it was unlawful for blacks to be taught, or to learn to read, many were taught by their white owners or managed to learn on their own. Enslaved Blacks understood and empathized with the man Jesus who was hunted, brutalized, and crucified by a mad mob, just as many of the enslaved suffered the same fate of being hung by white mobs. The bible helped Black people in America to recognize the similarities between their enslavement and that of the enslaved Jewish people in Egypt. The possibility of freedom became real and achievable. Throughout the years of slavery in America (1619-1865) there were hundreds of slave revolts.
After slavery ended in 1865; during the Reconstruction era (1865-1877); and the Jim Crow era (1877-1964), and right up to the Civil Rights movement which began in the late fifties, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, it was important for Blacks to belong to a church. African Americans depended on their churches to help keep them safe. Often black clergy were able to speak for, or negotiate leniency for negroes who were seen as disrespectful to whites or those who whites might be ‘suspicious’ of. A church going negro was viewed more favorably than those considered ‘street’ people.
Although church involvement & membership is down in America across the board, it still plays a pivotal role in most black communities.
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