Analysis of the Black Church: Black Theology and Racial Empowerment

Since the arrival of African Americans in this country blacks have always had differing experiences. Consequently, African-Americans have had to forge a self-identity out of what has been passed on to them as fact about their true selves. History has wrought oppression and subjugation to this particular race of people and as a result, certain institutions were formed in order aid African-Americans, culturally, spiritually and economically. The African-American Church has served of one such institution. From the time of slavery, though outlawed, many slaves found ways to congregate and form their own "churches", away from the one-sided and bias lessons about the bible that they were being taught in the white church. The white ministers and clergymen of this time argued that it was the will of God that Blacks should be obedient and submissive to their masters, and that that was the will of God. In his article "Black Consciousness and the Black Church: A Historical and Theological Interpretation," James Cone examines whether the African-American Church and calls into question whether or not it has truly evolved and separated itself from the traditionally pacifistic ways of the Anglo-Saxon and Post-Civil War black church. He is arguing whether or not the Black church meets the basic need of African-American to resist oppressive forces of society and to find teachings that are void of the white perspective of religion. In her article "The Image of God: Black Theology and Racial Empowerment in the African American Community," author Allison Calhoun Brown conducts a scientific study as to the significance of the image of God in shaping views about religion in the African American community. Calhoun attempts to draw a link between how big an impact the image of God in the African-American community affects political participation in the Black community. The articles provide the basis for examining the effect of religion in the lives of African-Americans, and also an