The Special Characteristics Of The American Negros Church

Author : Bishop Raymond Johnson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781720863021
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (63 download)

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Download or read book We Hung Our Harps written by Bishop Raymond Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land? (Psalms 137:1-2)Dr. King rightly asserted that the Church is arguably the most segregated institution in America; and that the Sunday "Church Hour" is the most segregated hour of the week. Our purpose in embarking upon the undertaking, before you, is to arrive at a fundamental understanding of how this came to be. The Black church is the core of the story, in We Hung Out Harps; but it is a core story set against the landscape of an emerging nation at odds with itself about the perceived "Negro problem;" and how in the midst of that the Black man got religion and made spiritual sense of his situation.This book has two sections. The first section gives an overview of the emergent Black chnrch; from the first Black churches of the eighteenth century. Through the separation and segregation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the beginnings of three Black traditions, the Baptists, the Methodists, and the Pentecostals; with a view to how each of these traditions transitioned from their beginnings to where they are, today.The second section examines four social constructs trough which Black churches have had and continue to have an impact on society: higher education; women in the church; the church and homosexuality; and the church as community, which focuses on the Black church's response to some of the social issues in American society, today.Our objective is to lend perspective to the question of why the stratification of the Black church, in America - as opposed to any other American churches - persists, today; when there has been integration across other American social institutions. Possible a second question to ponder would be whether there is any likelihood that this so-called Black church will ever cease to exist -whether it is likely that, at some future point in time that entity will assimilate into the larger church I some way. For that matter, does it matter? Needless to say, the term Black church or African-American church refers to Christian churches that minister to predominantly African-American congregations in the United States. While some black churches, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), were founded by African-Americans, many other black churches emerged either from or alongside predominantly white denominations, such as the United Church of Christ and - of course - the Baptist and Methodist Churches.The trajectory of this discourse will, necessarily, take us all the way back to a time before the arrival of the first Africans to America; or, at least to a point in time not long after they got here. As it turns out, in just a year, from now, it will be four-hundred years, since those first Negroes arrived in America, at Jamestown settlement.So, then, the Black church exists, not as a cause for racial separation; but, because a Black community exists - with all the characteristics of an indigenous community. We are the product of our history, in America, to be sure; but we are also the product of our history. We are not a monolithic community; but, the "African Collective Unconscious" I reference in other places, in this book, results in what seems to be a common persona, so that Black churches have similar characteristics, no matter where we are in the world.