Jesus and justice: an outline of liberation theology within black churches

The institutional development and infrastructure that mark the various African American denominations provide the physical structures through which African American Christians live out their doctrine, their beliefs. However, we often forget that there are links between the thought (or theology) and history (institutional structure and infrastructure) of African American denominations. That is to say, the evolution of the various black denominations is an outgrowth of what African American Christians believed and thought.

A potent approach to social transformation within churches during the 1800s and early 1900s was the Social Gospel (or social Christianity as it is commonly called). This activist interpretation of the Gospel of Christ first hit print and church agendas with figures such as Walter Rausenchbush, who urged Christians to apply their faith to the elevation of poverty. Religious leaders and theologians like Rausenchbush recognized that the industrialization marking the twentieth century was at best a mixed blessing in that it promoted the wealth and stability of the United States as a major force. Yet, only a small percentage of the population benefited from capitalism's economic boom. In essence, the cliche is correct: the "rich got richer and the poor got poorer." Although beneficial on the surface, this Social Gospel often held a racial chauvinism. In other words, for some social gospellers the movement of Christians in the social realm was justified by a racist sense of manifest destiny by which white Christians in the United States were recognized as God's chosen people, divinely selected to dominant the earth. Appeal to chosen status did not first emerge with these religious teachers. To think this is to dismiss, for example, the rationale for the movement of Pilgrims across the Atlantic Ocean. However, the twentieth century brought technological advances that increased the scope and depth of this philosophy's impact.

African American ministers who found troubling the lack of attention to racism by white social gospellers rethought social Christianity in light of African Americans' experience. Although not consistently observed, this race sensitive social Christianity was the general principle that shaped Black Church activity during reconstruction and before. And, it continued to be the operational stratagem for activist preachers throughout the twentieth century.

In keeping with this call for a mirroring of Jesus' activity on behalf of the despised, a minority of preachers including Reverdy C. Ransom of the AME Church, James Walker Hood of the AMEZ Church, Baptist ministers L. K. Williams, and Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., argued that the Gospel called Christians to work for the betterment of African Americans by meeting a full range of needs. That is to say, spiritual development is only authentic if it pushes Christians to live the gospel's message in their mundane dealings. Churches with the necessary resources formalized this commitment by constructing "institutional" churches that provided job training, childcare, educational opportunities, and housing as part of their religious instruction.

Restrictions on ministry opportunities meant women expressed the social gospel through alternate forms of leadership. For example, as a journalists and activists, Ida Wells-Barnett did more than most to bring mob violence, rooted in a warped desire for social control, to the attention of the American public. The Black Church, at its best, has moved in part out of the energy and push of religious black women such as Jarena Lee, Maria Stewart, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by women such as Nannie H. Burroughs, Fannie Barrier Williams, and Wells-Barnett during the early to mid-twentieth century. But we must also remain mindful of the National Federation of Afro-American Women founded in 1895. Through this organization, black women from a variety of denominations worked toward racial uplift. And this organization must be understood in the context of the Women's Club Movement through which African American women applied the gospel to the existential questions and concerns of the day.

Closer to mid-century, preachers such as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. blended the best of the Christian tradition with the wisdom of the "streets," a combination evident in his oft quoted line: "Keep the faith, baby." This rethinking of the Church's program entailed a critique of inactivity. As beneficial as these Social Gospellers were, they were no doubt in the minority and represented an isolated pocket of protest. Most local churches lacked the leadership, vision, and resources necessary for such multi-leveled ministries.

With growing momentum during the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement, through the work of figures such as Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer, affected southern cities such as Albany, Selma, and Birmingham, while the nation watched. These activists worked for a "participatory democracy" through which all humans exercise a full range of life options. Much of what they understood as the proper shape of life in the United States, as defined by this "participatory democracy," stemmed from their commitment to the Christian faith. That is to say, it grew out of Christian beliefs. Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer and others like them were committed to the Church and pushed it to embrace the full meaning of the Gospel, complete with its implications for mundane life. Being a Christian--or Christ--like-required spirituality and a commitment to the welfare of those who suffer.