The concept of community within the prophetic black church tradition is rooted in its African DNA and expressed in its African American being. Thousands of years before the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, African culture and society have been and continues to be largely characterized as communal in nature. This means African societies have as core values the well-being of community interests, even at the subordination of one’s individual interests. Thus, the enslaved brought a deep sense of collective identity aboard the slave ships. And, it was this collective identity that shaped our capacity to reinvent our humanity and human relationships despite ethnic, linguistic, age and gender related differences.
Howard Thurman, 20th-Century black theologian, would ponder the syncopation of songs and faith on the slave ship that reflected “tools of the spirit with which to cut a path through the wilderness of their despair” during those 200 day sailings and stops in the hole of the ships.
The historical records of slave life in the Americas, from the seasoning stops, to the auction blocks, to the plantations, evidence a constant affirmation of human dignity and personhood by the recreation of family life and community identity. It was within this search for identity in the crucible of horrific suffering that questions and answers of God and faith, slavery and freedom, good and evil were processed in the hearts, minds and souls of African Americans.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7) “How can we sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137) The answer was, we sing as one.
Communal faith, communal struggle, communal liberation and communal deliverance were the benchmarks of the faith of the enslaved. And community has been the centerpiece and soul of the prophetic tradition of the black church ever since its inception. From the historical eras marked by the stamp of emancipation, Jim Crow, urban migration, desegregation, civil rights, up to and including, this post-modern period, the community’s salvation, literally and figuratively, has been the nucleus and raison d’etre for the prophetic black church tradition.
Black church historian Henry Mitchell refers to the “audacity and dedication” of these churches to serve community and be a voice for justice. Womanist historian, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes celebrates the special role of women in forging “the solidarity and organizational strength that held the church in harness until deliverance came.”
The crisis, critique, calling and prophetic witness of the black church has its authentic being in the context of community. It did in the past and it does now. The late pastor and theologian, the Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, often told the story that when a child was baptized in the rural South, those gathered would say, “Is it he? Is it she?,” meaning is this child the one who will make a difference for us all? And because they could not afford to give up on any one child, the entire community supported the education of that child.
Today, we now have twice as many African American young people in prisons than in colleges and universities. The growth for prison cells are being projected by third grade reading scores and communities are decimated by joblessness, few recreational facilities, gang violence, dysfunctional and under funded school systems.
Some have overcome the odds by great strivings, but be not fooled. The reality behind these data and the unresolved systemic nature of racism in America, shape the call of the black church to continue to speak truth to power, right the wrongs for centuries of hateful injustices and its lingering consequences, and challenge this nation to healing and racial reconciliation. For in the end, our individual humanity is affirmed only through the humanity we accord others.
Dr. Iva E. Carruthers is General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc.
