The Civil War Era
African American Religion
Religious Civil War
African American Christianity
The Civil War Era
¨ Righteous
crusade: North & South articulate the cause in religious terms; “God is on
our side.”
¨ Revivalism:
war as the ultimate revival
¨
Redemptive sacrifice: spilling of blood is necessary
for covenant violations
¨ Rebirth:
the nation will be resurrected after the “terrible swift sword” of war
Religiopolitical Oppression
¨ “We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
¨ Who
“counts” in the culture core covenant?
¨ African
Americans, Native Americans, immigrants are not seen as part of the chosen
people; leads to dehumanization, exploitation, slavery, & racism
Justifications For Slavery
¨ Socioeconomic
reasons in the South
–
Slave labor was essential to the Southern economy
–
Africans were less human than whites so they did not
suffer the same level of emotional or physical pain
–
Non-rational righteous indignation develops
against criticism from the North
Justifications for Slavery
¨ Religious
Justifications:
–
Genesis 9:18-27 – Noah’s curse on his son Ham makes
“blackness” a sign of servitude and punishment: biblical justification
–
Philemon – Paul’s personal letter in the New
Testament used to support the claim that slavery is “Bible-based”
–
African slaves may lose freedom but gain salvation
in a “Christian society”
Abraham Lincoln
¨
The “high priest” of American civil religion
¨ Saw
slavery as a national sin
¨
April 30, 1863 = National Day of Fasting; Civil War
is punishment for covenant violation; nation should confess “sins”
¨ March
4, 1865 = 2nd Inaugural Address
–
Asks God for forgiveness
–
Calls for a return to the covenant
African American Religion
Shaped by 3 Sources:
•
West African primal spirituality
•
Animism – spiritual power is present in all
phenomena;
•
Ritual/myth link – everything has power;
ritual is the way to address that power
• Shaman
= ritual specialist
• The
condition of slavery
• Euro
American Christianity
African American Religion
West African Influence:
• Jesus
is “the magic man” – similar to the Trickster figure; wild,
unpredictable
•
Turns the world on its head; Jesus’ “down to earth”
parables
•
Heals = knows the voodoo healing rituals for
purification, protection, sacrifice, dream interpretation
•
Holy Spirit wards off “the devil” spirits
African American Christianity: In Slavery
¨
Apocalyptic revolts
in the 1830s led to prohibition of Christian meetings without white supervision
¨
“Brush Arbor”
meetings in secret
¨
Spirituals developed,
very experiential
¨
Jesus is the suffering
servant
¨
Rhythmic/participatory
ceremonies
¨
Other-worldly concerns emphasized
¨
Holy Spirit
“energies” and guides the service
African American Christianity:
In Freedom
¨ Key
African American Abolitionists:
–
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)
–
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
¨ The
AA church is the key institution in the AA community
¨ Separate
churches develop within white Baptist and Methodist organizations
¨ AA
religious leaders become the conscience of the nation
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSLIM MOVEMENT
¨ Religion
= identity and relationship
¨ Identity
= self-esteem
¨ Relationship
= empowerment
¨
Response to religiopolitical oppression
¨
Makes the American culture a black experience
–
African Americans are the “chosen people”
–
Manifest destiny - to create a new nation
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSLIM MOVEMENT
¨ Nation
of Islam = the reinterpretation of traditional Islamic (Muslim) doctrine in
order to meet ethical challenges in a society that is perceived to be racist by
many African Americans,
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSLIM MOVEMENT
¨ Nation
of Islam = a new “ethno-religious” identity for African American believers.
¨ Goal =
the remaking of the social dimension according to the new “ethno-religious”
identity.
NATION OF ISLAM
¨ Key
players:
–
Wallace D. Fard = 1st prophet of the Black Muslim
movement
–
Elijah
Muhammad = founder of the Nation of Islam
–
Malcolm X =
key leader, assassinated in 1965
–
W. Deen
Muhammad = son of Elijah M.
–
Louis
Farrakhan = current leader
America Diversifies: The
Challenge of Immigration
Ø Religious freedom in 1789 meant:
Ø The 1st Amendment guaranteed religious
liberty under the assumption the choice meant some form of Protestant
Christianity
Ø The challenge:
Ø “Give me your
tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to Breathe Free, the wretched
refuse of your Teeming Shores, Send these, The Homeless, Tempest-Tost to me.” –
Statue of Liberty inscription by Emma Lazarus (1886)
Immigration: The Problem
¨ How
is a culture core based on Protestant Christianity able to handle other
cultures and other religions?
¨ Between
1820 and 1920 over 33 million non-English, non-Protestant immigrants
entered the United States
¨ Reaction
A: Nativism – NO to difference
¨ Reaction
B: “Melting pot” inclusiveness
The Immigrants
¨
Roman Catholics
–
Largest single
religious denomination by 1850
–
10 different ethnic
groups, including Irish, Germans, Italians, Poles, etc.
¨
Asians
–
Hindus, Buddhists,
Taoists, Shinto, Confusianists
¨
Muslims
¨
Eastern Orthodox
Christians
¨
Jews
–
By 1900, 1.1 million
Jews live in the United States
WASP Reaction: Nativism
¨
Anti-Catholic groups
= The American Protestant Union, headed by Samuel Morse (inventor of the Morse
Code)
¨
Six Months in a
Convent by Rebecca Reed; best
seller anti-Catholic book
¨
Ursulin Convent
burned in 1834
¨
13 die, 50 wounded, 2
Catholic churches burned in Kensington, PA
¨
Our Country by Josiah Strong (1885) = WASPs are the “chosen
people” – others, get out!!
Social Pressures on Immigrants
¨ The
denominational system = competition with other religious groups
¨
Justifying their religious perspective according to
the intellectual criteria of American society = pragmatism!
¨ Sacrificing
ethnic customs in the interest of social mobility = making their religion more
Protestant in outward apperance
Social Pressures on Immigrants
¨
The pressure to
relinquish allegiance to symbolic centers of authority = Rome
¨
Culture Core pressure
= religion B modifies the unique ethnic and cultural aspects of each
tradition
¨
Key question: “How do
you balance difference and unity?”
¨
Answer: “Find unity
in the fundamentally Protestant aspects of the culture core.”
The Third Awakening
¨ The
“2-Party” split in American Protestantism explains many of the religious,
cultural, and political differences in how Americans see the nation, today.
¨ The
intellectual and socioeconomic revolutions of post-Civil War American challenge the
“Protestant” nature of the culture core.
The Intellectual Revolution
¨
Material Determinism:
–
Darwin = biological
determinism
–
Freud = behavioral
determinism
–
Marx = socioeconomic
determinism
¨
Higher Biblical
Criticism:
–
The Bible is
“subjected” to historical and literary analysis
–
Bible-based authority
of America is undermined
–
Bible-based culture
core is challenge
–
Is the Bible “true?”
Is America “true?”
The Socioeconomic Revolution
¨ Urbanization
= center of life moves from the farm to the city
¨ Mass
industrialization = livelihood moves from the family to the factory
¨ Immigration
= difference leads to alienation in work and social life
¨ Secularization
= ration arguments abound for living “without God”
2-Party Split: Conservative/Fundamentalist
¨ Primary
culture core interpretation: America exists to gather souls for God’s glorious
trip to heaven:
–
Evangelical = convert sinners
–
Biblical inerrancy
–
Premillenial dispensationalism
– The
Fundamentals
–
Dwight L. Moody = key evangelist
–
Anti-modern
2-Party Split: Liberal/Modernists
¨
Primary culture core
interpretation: America exists to build God’s perfect Kingdom on Earth:
–
The Social Gospel = Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden are key
thinkers
–
Post millennial
– Blend of progressive theology & politics
–
Bible open to
interpretation
–
Science is “God’s way
of doing things”
–
Pragmatic = ideas
need to work in society
2-Party Split
¨ Major
denominations actually split into conservative/evangelical and liberal/social
gospel “sectarian” denominations: Each group:
–
“ is doing Christianity” the way God wants
Christianity done!”
–
Knows best about what America’s destiny is and how
to get there
–
Distrusts (or worse!) the other group
Alternative Religions in the 3rd Awakening
¨ Christian
Science: founded by Mary Baker Eddy
¨ Theosophy:
founded by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steele Olcott
¨ Unity
School of Christianity: founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore
¨ Homes
of Truth: founded by Annie Rix Militz
Alternative Religions
¨ These
groups form the worldview basis of current alternative movements in
America:
–
Illuminism
–
Pragmatism = health, wealth, happiness, spiritual
enlightenment are there for all!
–
Perfectionism
–
Unitive rather than dualistic
–
Optimistic