Why, Lord? <\/em>23-5).<\/p>\nEvans attributes the profound import of scripture within both the slave church and the modern black church to the revelatory sense of relevance and redemption culled from the biblical texts and ascribed to the black tradition. Of the earliest African American Christians, James Evans writes, \u201cIf the Middle Passage and slavery obscured their history as Africans, they found in the biblical story a sense of themselves as remembered by God. This aspect of the life of the Black Church is the reason for its tendency toward engagement with the world and social witness\u201d (141).<\/p>\n
Similarities between the Invisible Institution and the Black Lives Matter movement are widespread. Both could be construed as grassroots, African American-led responses to systemic white oppression and rampant institutional sin. Granted, members of the slave church gathered in the secrecy of the woods, most often under the cover of darkness, while the Black Lives Matter protesters frequently assemble in highly public spaces to demonstrate during daylight hours. However, actions of both the church and the movement were, and typically are, orchestrated in secret, in conversation and collaboration only with those individuals who are trustworthy and demonstrated \u201csupporters\u201d of the cause. In both instances, the primary intended outcome of the gatherings is liberation from oppression.<\/p>\n
For the enslaved, liberation was necessary both physically, to grant them freedom from bondage, and spiritually, to undercut the imposition of a foreign religion, touting a false biblical witness to promote cheerful earthly servitude while promising glory \u201con the other side.\u201d For the protestors, physical liberation is necessary for the multitude of disproportionately and often unjustly incarcerated African American men (and women). Economic liberation is necessary to address disproportionate income and wealth ratios along the color line, both by way of reparations and through establishment of equitable compensation practices, regardless of race or gender. Social liberation is necessary to spark a paradigm shift in the country\u2019s pervasive cultural perception of black as \u201cless than\u201d white, and to promote a balancing of the scales in the distribution of resources for education and health care.<\/p>\n
Finally, liberation for the soul is necessary to begin tending the wounds incurred through centuries of emotional, mental and spiritual scarring as a result of poor, negligent, cruel and even torturous treatment at the hands of the white race. In both instances, the central focus of the African American-led collective is to subvert the dominant oppressive forces of the age \u2013 religious subjugation and enslavement in the early 19th century, and racist government infrastructures in the 21st century.<\/p>\n
The first-century Christian church fits this model, as well, as its pronounced allegiance to the radical teachings of Christ positioned it in direct opposition to the will and mandates of the Roman Empire. Involvement in each of these three institutions \u2013 the early Christian church, the slave church and the Black Lives Matter movement \u2013 meant the possibility of personal harm, harm of loved ones, loss of liberty and even loss of one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
In the volume Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue: Black Theology in the Slave Narratives<\/em>, constructive theologian, author and University of Chicago Divinity School professor Dwight N. Hopkins outlines the sociological implications of the Invisible Institution in language that heavily mirrors the implications of the Black Lives Matter movement. According to Hopkins, the religious experiences depicted by members of the slave church differed from \u201ctraditional\u201d white religious encounters in at least two distinct ways: \u201cFirst, African American slaves pictured a political dimension in their theology\u2026second, slaves\u2019 religious thought accented an original cultural expression\u201d (3). Of these alternative theological interpretations Hopkins concludes, \u201cThus the \u2018Invisible Institution\u2019 symbolized both a cultural statement of slave theology and a liberated space in which slaves controlled the political power to develop their theology\u201d (9).<\/p>\nThe Black Lives Matter movement is undoubtedly a pronounced cultural statement of a call for liberation, and an occupation by the people of a liberated space in which protestors aim to influence the political powers. Just as class operates as one of the defining factors influencing the unjust conditions that sparked the Black Lives Matter campaign, Hopkins observes that \u201cthis subversiveness in black chattels\u2019 paradigm of theological anthropology grew out of their use of the intellect from the poor\u2019s perspective\u201d (31). And much like enslaved believers in the Invisible Institution exercised freedom of religion through original cultural expression, members of the Black Lives Matter movement intentionally employ the use of counter-culture language, imagery, slang, apparel, chants, songs and dedication of sacred space (such as the street memorials to Michael Brown and Freddie Gray) to \u201cmark\u201d the movement, and to ensure the movement\u2019s relatability and accessibility to an angry, disenfranchised population. Authentic participation in the movement means aligning oneself with the perspective and plight of all those who are impoverished, unemployed, imprisoned, underpaid, disrespected, dismissed and undervalued because of discrimination on the basis of skin color.<\/p>\n
In my next post, I will shift our focus to the contemporary black church. In so doing, I will compare interpretations of the modern institution set forth by author and womanist Zora Neale Hurston, who explores the relationship between folklore and the black church in her cultural anthropological work, The Sanctified Church<\/em>, and by professor of Urban Ministry R. Drew Smith in his essay, \u201cThe Church in African American Theology,\u201d exploring similarities between the modern church and the movement. Drawing upon Hurston\u2019s work, close comparisons may be identified between the Black Lives Matter movement and, again, W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019 \u201c\u2018marks\u2019 of the Black Church: the music, the preaching, and the frenzy\u201d (J. Evans 144).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the subversive underground church of enslaved African peoples \u2013 would congregate in the woods, sometimes known as the \u201cbush arbor\u201d or the \u201chush harbor,\u201d in the hidden places and spaces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2271,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[85,61,44,705,4],"class_list":["post-3222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-katherine-whitfield","tag-black-church","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-black-theology","tag-katherine-whitfield","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-25T14:13:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-25T14:14:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2015\/05\/speak-the-truth.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1494\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katherine Whitfield\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katherine Whitfield\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html\",\"name\":\"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-25T14:13:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-25T14:14:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/9ff320f6fe347d050e3dcadcfedc6e2d\"},\"description\":\"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/9ff320f6fe347d050e3dcadcfedc6e2d\",\"name\":\"Katherine Whitfield\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1c8e807e76b0bc8136172cccab0c7b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1c8e807e76b0bc8136172cccab0c7b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katherine Whitfield\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/kwhitfield\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3","description":"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3","og_description":"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2015-05-25T14:13:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-05-25T14:14:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2656,"height":1494,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2015\/05\/speak-the-truth.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Katherine Whitfield","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katherine Whitfield","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html","name":"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-25T14:13:17+00:00","dateModified":"2015-05-25T14:14:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/9ff320f6fe347d050e3dcadcfedc6e2d"},"description":"Read part 1 here and part 2 here Much like the secret gathering spaces of the early Christian church, members of the Invisible Institution \u2013 the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/05\/the-church-and-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-pt-3-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Church and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement-Pt. 3"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/9ff320f6fe347d050e3dcadcfedc6e2d","name":"Katherine Whitfield","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1c8e807e76b0bc8136172cccab0c7b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b1c8e807e76b0bc8136172cccab0c7b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Katherine Whitfield"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/kwhitfield"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"speak](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2015\/05\/speak-the-truth.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n