Introduction
The African American Churches have played several
different roles for the African American communities.
These roles are different from its basic role
that is, preaching. In this paper, the role of
African American churches as conduits for political
skills, resources and mobilization; as an essential
ingredient in the development of African-American
theatre and drama; and as a place to confront
the problem of education about teenage pregnancy
in the African-American community will be discussed.
As Conduits for Political Skills, Resources and
Mobilization
Over the years, an undeniable and convincing body
of evidence has emphasized the importance of African-American
churches as conduits for political skills, resources,
and mobilization. Among African Americans, church
attendance has played a significant role in facilitating
political mobilization and participation (Tate
1993; Walton 1985). Blacks who consistently attend
church belong to a larger number of politically
relevant organizations, harbor more positive political
and racial attitudes, and vote at higher levels
(Reese and Brown 1995; Tate 1993; Verba, Schlozman
and Brady 1995; Verba and Nie 1972; Dawson, Brown
and Allen 1990).
However, as an increasingly high number of African
Americans become trapped in impoverished and debilitating
inner-city environments--30% of poor African Americans
live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty,
over 50% live in single-parent households, and
an ever-increasing percentage report limited contact
with mainstream role models and institutions--it
is important to examine the extent to which the
church and its politically relevant resources
are accessible to the most disadvantaged African
Americans. In a large measure, re-search on the
political impact of church attendance has not
focused on the influences of contextual factors.
However, urban poverty researchers have demonstrated
that concentrated poverty neighborhoods and never
married-parent households have had profoundly
negative implications for educational attainment,
organizational involvement, and socioeconomic
mobility (Alex-Assensoh 1998; Cohen and Dawson
1993; Wilson 1987).
Moreover, current research has shown that what
separates today's inner-city communities from
the disadvantaged neighborhoods of the past is
their limited connection with upwardly mobile
individuals and mainstream institutions (Wilson
1987; Wilson and Wacquant 1989). Therefore, while
research on the political consequences of church
attendance assumes that all African Americans
have an equal opportunity to attend church and
reap the political benefits of such environments,
mounting evidence on the undermining and deleterious
influences of inner-city environments suggests
that this is not the case (Wilson 1987; Wilson
and Wacquant 1989).
As An Essential Ingredient in the Development
of African-American Theatre and Drama
The African-American church influences also the
two essential modes operative in the creative
process: word and gesture; the speech of the imagined
character and the physical movements of the imagined
character, respectively. In the performance of
a play, word and gesture become text and performance.
For example, the influence of the African-American
church is clearly evident in James Baldwin's The
Amen Corner, a play wherein a woman preacher,
Sister Margaret, struggles to maintain her leadership
role in the church and meet successfully with
her past when it haunts her as her estranged husband
reappears. Baldwin, who was himself a preacher
at one point, was obviously influenced by the
dynamic of the Black church as he wrote. So the
church affects the creative process of the Black
playwright in ways that are quite obvious. A look
at the church's centricity in the culture may
help to reveal a larger influence of the church
on African-American theater and drama. (Du Bois
1926)
In the performance of its religious services,
the African-American church celebrates the faith
of Black people and sustains the traditions of
the culture by giving voice to faith through the
performance of certain cultural roles that are
imbued with "style" and which are reflected
in the everyday, secular lives of African-Americans.
As an element of performance, style is essential
in manifesting cultural difference; it is the
singular, Black way of being that clearly distinguishes
African-American religiosity from White religiosity.
How is the church theatrical? In what ways does
the church function as a performance ritual?
There are five main elements to most church services:
preaching, singing, praying, testifying, and offering.
None occurs in isolation; since the performance
of any one element may be supplemented by another
as the congregation sees fit to join in with one
of the other elements as the main one is being
performed. What follows is a brief discussion
of the functioning of these elements, performed
in the church with sincerity and earnestness.
Preaching. As I mentioned above, the preacher
is the focal point of the theatrical and dramatic
functioning of the church. He or she is the leader
of the church. Each preacher has an individualized
style which is drawn from the larger paradigm
of performance. Chanting, hollering, dancing,
foot-stomping, and singing, along with rhyme,
metaphor, analogy, and antiphony, are all parts
of this larger paradigm from which a preacher
draws his or her style. The effectiveness of this
style is indicated by the extent to which the
preacher enlivens what George Bass has called
the moment-by-moment dynamic. (Edmonds 1949)
Singing. In the Black church, music also arouses
and sustains the participants. And just as preaching
has a more spontaneous and emotional manifestation
in churches closer to the center of the culture,
singing too can be more or less lively. A major
difference between the A.M.E. and the Baptist
churches, for example, is that A.M.E. churches
incorporate hymns that are not part of the cultural
heritage of Black religious music, such as classical
ensemble pieces. They may also avoid spirituals.
Singing is done by both the choirs and the congregation
in Black churches, and in many churches an individual
in the congregation may break forth with a song
of his or her own, leading the rest of the church
into it. Singing may also be included in testifying
or praying. The singing incorporates body movements,
including gestures. A whole choir may sway rhythmically
in unison to a song, and a choir member may get
happy and do a holy dance among the choir. (Davis
1985)
Praying. A person may be singled out for his or
her ability to beseech the Lord. As with preaching,
there is a larger paradigm from which individualized
styles are drawn. Everyone in the church joins
in when someone comes before the congregation
to pray. A good praying person, in imploring the
Lord to touch his or her heart, will touch everyone's
concerns. Praying is somewhat more sedate than
the other elements, but an emotional prayer will
incite call and response. . (Edmonds 1949)
Testifying. There are many performance modes
that fall under this category. A literal example
occurs when, in some Baptist churches, members
are asked to stand up and say what the Lord has
done for them.
Offering. Embodying the principle of sacrifice,
offerings are taken up in a number of prescribed
ways. In some churches, the entire congregation
gets up and marches around to the offering table.
In other churches, the ushers may do a staccato
walk up the aisle to the altar to get the plates.
In most instances, the offering is taken to the
accompaniment of music from one of the choirs.
Still another variation consists of the tithers
coming forward. But in all instances, the ushers
and other participants are performing their roles
with sincerity, and it is important to remember
that the five elements of performance overlap
and work in unison. (Sobel 1988)
As a Place to Confront the Problem of Education
about Teenage Pregnancy
Of the enormous social issues facing the African-American
family today, few have as many long-range detrimental
implications as teenage pregnancy (Ladner, 1987).
Even though it is true that the African-American
community has always "survived" and
embraced its illegitimate young, and though this
inclusive community motif identifies with the
theology of the cross and represents a clear strength
of the African-American family (Smith, 1985),
the community must refocus and rechannel its resources
toward education and prevention as opposed to
reaction. This refocus involves "counting
the cost" of teenage pregnancy many years
down the road and realizing that the decrease
in quality of life, economically and emotionally,
attributable to teen pregnancy has tremendous
intergenerational implications and a negative
psychological impact. Because most African-American
teenage parents rely on their family of origin
as their main and/or sole financial and emotional
support (Stack, 1974), it behooves clinicians
to cease the underutilization of the church and
other "survival" strongholds that the
African-American family trusts (Boyd, 1982; Butts,
1981).
The African-American church has not actively
joined or been actively used in the battle against
teenage pregnancy, despite its preventive potential.
Brown (1985) investigated the influence of social
class, church attendance, and the permissiveness
of close friends on the premarital sexual permissiveness
of 702 African-American adolescent women and stated
that "the influence of Black [sic] religious
institutions on sexual permissiveness may be more
important than [was] previously assumed"
(p. 385). This work may point toward the influence
of the African-American church on teenage pregnancy,
but the direct effects are still unclear. One
study suggests that religiosity has little to
do with sexual behavior (McCormick, Izzo, &
Folcik, 1985). I believe that the religious values
of parents that exist within the African-American
cultural community are not being applied to influence
the behaviors of its teenagers in a systematic
manner.
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