Black Church
I went to an African-American church this evening. I've only been to a handful of these types of services in my short life, and I find each one a bit refreshing and at the same time irritating. The black church services are refreshing to me because the people at these services do their worship with body, mind, heart, (and most especially) soul. They dance, they sing, they cry, they sing loud. They engage their minds in the spoken word and in the words of the songs they sing. If you ever go, you'll notice an "Amen" or a "Hallelujah" now and again. It means that they agree with what's going on. They've given their faith so much consideration and thought. Their religion permeates them on every level and they are what they were made to be--human beings. It's the most beautiful thing in the world to see and I can do nothing aside from sit on my large, pale tuchas and watch amazed.
These services also irritate me because I am not integrated as they are. I sing songs, and I consider the words, but I do not dance. Worship does not sync with me as it does them. I can't dance because there is nothing to dance to. Somehow the African American Christian can shake off their chains that hold them down and they can be free, if but a moment, in worship. Church is a time for them to be completely unbridled and they run free.
I've never known white church to be that way. White people (I at first misspelled it "Shite" people, which I find rather appropriate) sing and shout and cry. Some jump up and down. But they somehow fight themselves and each other. They've got to be cool, trendy, or serious. They've got to look dignified. Black people just want to look honest. White people argue about which songs to sing and what to believe because they don't have a song to sing all the time. They don't have a prayer that the live out. They can't seem to square their experiences of life with their experiences with God. Rather I should say, they don't square their experiences with their idea of God. They can't.
Why, Dear God, was I born white? Born among a race of people so concerned with what other people think that they chain themselves down and chain down the others around them for the sake of "feelings" and "ideas." Feelings must not get hurt! Ideas must be respected and held as equal to all others because we want to avoid making others seem stupid! White people hold back their fears, anger, and anxieties because they are unseemly. And so they remove anger from God.
Black people understand an angry God. They appreciate an angry God because that God will not tolerate oppression and abuse. An angry God won't tolerate half baked ideas and false doctines. A God that never gets angry never needs to worry about oppression and false teachings because everyone is "a-ok." And without the anger where is the love? The true love that says "I will not leave you alone to die at the hands of your enemies! I am coming to protect you and care for you and make you whole and right and free again!" The Israelites leaned on God and trusted on God to free them from real oppression. Oppressive words, deeds, and ideas were all trampled under the foot of the Almighty. Jesus came to help the sick and release slaves and love people who could not love themselves. All these things are real life needs. Physical needs, mental needs, emotional needs, and not just spiritual needs. to say that Jesus came for the sole purpose of saving people from sin in the strictly spiritual sense is to cheapen and dilute the work of Christ.
Sin does more than condemn a soul to hell. It kills people. Murder ends lives! It leaves people hungry. Greed makes people poor and destitute. Arrogance leaves people lonely and depressed. Adultery obliterates trust, hope, and love.
Jesus came, died, and was resurrected so that we could enter a new life without murder or greed or arrogance or adultery. This life would be one in which we could all live peacefully together and be what we were meant to be without worry or fear of what others would think of our creation.
I wish I knew how the black people do it. I wish I knew how they managed to be human when they went to church and allowed themselves the fullness of their humanity. How they do not wish to be someone else or shrink away from what they are! I wish I could have that. Maybe some day I will.
These services also irritate me because I am not integrated as they are. I sing songs, and I consider the words, but I do not dance. Worship does not sync with me as it does them. I can't dance because there is nothing to dance to. Somehow the African American Christian can shake off their chains that hold them down and they can be free, if but a moment, in worship. Church is a time for them to be completely unbridled and they run free.
I've never known white church to be that way. White people (I at first misspelled it "Shite" people, which I find rather appropriate) sing and shout and cry. Some jump up and down. But they somehow fight themselves and each other. They've got to be cool, trendy, or serious. They've got to look dignified. Black people just want to look honest. White people argue about which songs to sing and what to believe because they don't have a song to sing all the time. They don't have a prayer that the live out. They can't seem to square their experiences of life with their experiences with God. Rather I should say, they don't square their experiences with their idea of God. They can't.
Why, Dear God, was I born white? Born among a race of people so concerned with what other people think that they chain themselves down and chain down the others around them for the sake of "feelings" and "ideas." Feelings must not get hurt! Ideas must be respected and held as equal to all others because we want to avoid making others seem stupid! White people hold back their fears, anger, and anxieties because they are unseemly. And so they remove anger from God.
Black people understand an angry God. They appreciate an angry God because that God will not tolerate oppression and abuse. An angry God won't tolerate half baked ideas and false doctines. A God that never gets angry never needs to worry about oppression and false teachings because everyone is "a-ok." And without the anger where is the love? The true love that says "I will not leave you alone to die at the hands of your enemies! I am coming to protect you and care for you and make you whole and right and free again!" The Israelites leaned on God and trusted on God to free them from real oppression. Oppressive words, deeds, and ideas were all trampled under the foot of the Almighty. Jesus came to help the sick and release slaves and love people who could not love themselves. All these things are real life needs. Physical needs, mental needs, emotional needs, and not just spiritual needs. to say that Jesus came for the sole purpose of saving people from sin in the strictly spiritual sense is to cheapen and dilute the work of Christ.
Sin does more than condemn a soul to hell. It kills people. Murder ends lives! It leaves people hungry. Greed makes people poor and destitute. Arrogance leaves people lonely and depressed. Adultery obliterates trust, hope, and love.
Jesus came, died, and was resurrected so that we could enter a new life without murder or greed or arrogance or adultery. This life would be one in which we could all live peacefully together and be what we were meant to be without worry or fear of what others would think of our creation.
I wish I knew how the black people do it. I wish I knew how they managed to be human when they went to church and allowed themselves the fullness of their humanity. How they do not wish to be someone else or shrink away from what they are! I wish I could have that. Maybe some day I will.
posted by Justin | 7:19 PM
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