A Double Standard about Worship? African-American Worship and Caucasian Pentecostal Worship

A Double Standard about Worship? African-American Worship and Caucasian Pentecostal Worship

As usual, before I get into my “musings,” I must define my terms. Here I am using “worship” in the specific sense of “what goes on in church on Sunday morning and other gatherings for praise to and adoration of God.” Here I am not talking about the kind of “all Christian life is worship” idea. I’m setting that aside for the moment. (I happen to agree with Nicholas Wolterstorff in his most recent book The God We Worship [Eerdmans, 2015] that the “all Christian life is worship” tends to thin “worship” to the point of vanishing, but that is not related to my point here.) Here—in what follows—I am talking about specific Christian gatherings where people come together intentionally to praise and adore God. Other things usually happen in such meetings, but the heart, the center, of worship, as I mean it here, is praise to and adoration of God—especially in Christian gatherings for that primary purpose.

By “African-American worship” I refer to the typical pattern of such worship found in most American “black churches.” Of course there are exceptions; here I am talking about the typical and traditional as opposed to the exceptions. (For example, some black churches have intentionally adopted liturgical styles of worship that are carefully scripted, but that is not, I believe, the norm.)

By “Caucasian Pentecostal worship” I refer to the typical pattern of such worship found in most traditional, classical and neo-Pentecostal churches in America. Again, there are many exceptions where Pentecostal and other “renewalist” churches have adopted “contemporary worship” that is not traditional. Some have even adopted scripted liturgies, but those are not what I mean here by “Caucasian Pentecostal worship.”

One more clarification to “head off” objections: Yes, to be sure, many Pentecostal and black churches have integrated and blended their worship styles together. But that actually helps my point. Read on….

Traditional African-American worship tends to be “revivalistic” in style and is normally conducted without the use of traditional scripted liturgies. Of course the worship leaders come to the worship service prepared, but normally there is intentional openness to “the moving of the Spirit” on the leaders and congregants with some degree of spontaneity allowed if not actually expected.

My experience among mostly Caucasian Christian academics for almost forty years is that they, we, tend to valorize African-American non-liturgical, planned but spontaneous, often very emotional worship while disparaging Caucasian revivalist worship that is very similar to African-American worship as somehow bad. Let me put into words what I think many Christian academics think: African-American revivalist, non-liturgical, emotional worship is authentic while Caucasian revivalist, non-liturgical, emotional worship is inauthentic.

*Sidebar: The opinions expressed here are my own (or those of the guest writer); I do not speak for any other person, group or organization; nor do I imply that the opinions expressed here reflect those of any other person, group or organization unless I say so specifically. Before commenting read the entire post and the “Note to commenters” at its end.*

I find it difficult to “pin down” the difference that makes traditional African-American worship authentic but Caucasian revivalist, Pentecostal-style worship inauthentic.

I am reading a book about worship by a well-known, influential American Christian philosopher-theologian (yes, he’s both). The book is about liturgy—especially the so-called “rich, traditional liturgies” of the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and mainline Protestant (Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed) churches. These are contrasted with “Pentecostal worship” as superior to it. Although he does not say it outright, I am quite sure he means Caucasian Pentecostal worship. If there was any hint that he meant to include traditional African-American worship as inferior he would probably open himself up to some pretty harsh criticism by his fellow Christian academics.

My point here is not to disparage scripted liturgical styles of worship (e.g., use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer). Nor is it to promote non-liturgical styles of worship such as one often, normally, finds in African-American worship and Caucasian Pentecostal and other revivalist worship. My one and only point here is to raise a question about what I perceive to be a double standard especially among American Christian academics with regard to worship.

So, let me offer an illustration from my own experience. Some years ago I eagerly attended a chapel service at a well-known evangelical Christian liberal arts college. I knew beforehand that the “special guest” in this chapel would be a locally well-known African-American male vocalist singing “black spirituals.” It was truly amazing; he was extremely talented. In this mostly Caucasian-attended chapel he did not hold back; he sang loudly and fast and all songs the audience would probably associate with African-American worship. One that I especially remember was “I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord.” It was all I could do to stay seated. Having grown up Pentecostal “the Spirit came on me” and I wanted to stand and raise my hands in the air and look up to heaven and praise God along with the vocalist. (By the way, nobody did that.) The response to each song was enthusiastic clapping. I could tell just by looking around especially at the professors and administrators that this performance was well-received. (Ironically, some of them, I knew, wanted to expunge from our own evangelical hymnals all references to war—including spiritual warfare hymns!)

Now, I can’t read the hearts or minds of those academics, but I can predict that if the vocalist had been Caucasian and sang well with the same style the same songs he or she would not have been as well received. In fact, he or she would not have been invited in the first place.

Over the many years I’ve been involved in American Christian higher education, with some exceptions, I have had to “live down” having grown up Pentecostal (or just revivalist). I have had to hide my revivalist preferences for worship. When I have expressed it I have often received strange looks and felt a certain coldness in the response (even among Baptists). On the other hand, in my opinion, based on my experiences, an African-American who prefers the same style of worship that I do—non-liturgical, revivalistic–never gets that same response.

Now, I predict that someone will say “Well, that double standard of which you speak is because Caucasian revivalist, Pentecostal-style, emotional, non-liturgical worship is not as authentic as traditional African-American worship.” Really? What is the litmus test being used for discerning the difference? I am quite sure that my preferred style of worship (non-scripted, somewhat spontaneous, moderately emotional) is not borrowed from African-American worship. It goes back a very long way—back to the Second Great Awakening if not the first Great Awakening.

To those who argue that scripted liturgy is superior (such as the author I am reading right now) I point out that in 1 Corinthians 14 the Apostle Paul gave a pattern for Christian worship that included everyone participating with his or her own contribution. To try to fit scripted liturgy into Paul’s prescription for early Christian worship in verse 26 is a stretch, to say the least.

So to those American Christian advocates of scripted liturgy as superior to “Pentecostal worship” I ask “What about African-American worship?” Do you include it in your snobbish put-downs of non-liturgical, revivalist style worship? Somehow I doubt it.

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