The Black Church is Dead.
Harlem has roots, deep in the ground, concerning this topic. Black churches have influence, impacted, and shaped the way many Harlemites have appreciated and loved for over a century. But is that charm and that connection within the community disappearing?
The recent controversial comment that was made in February by Dr. Eddie Glaude, the chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, was not something that went over without ruffling some feathers and sparking debates. “The black church is dead.”
It is believed that a lot is both gained and lost when bringing a community together. Scholars from Princeton University have been noted to say while we move further from the activism surrounding the civil rights movement, black churches are losing their power to unite communities.
“The problem is that most of our churches are individual and not collective as a community within the communities they live in,” Butler said, adding that black churches were strongest and most prominent when united by the political aims of the civil rights movement.
Jake Wilson, a lifetime congregant at the United House of Prayer for All People, a Baptist church on Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 126th Street, also recognized this change and said that there was little interaction between the Baptist churches of Harlem.
In post-civil rights America, African Americans don’t need the church as a gathering place, said Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall, assistant minister of Christian education at Abyssinian Church on 138th Street.
“Before … we were restricted from theaters, from restaurants, from schools, so the church served as the social center,” she said.
According to Marshall, this change particularly affects urban churches. “Our ministries [in Harlem] are competing against the city that never sleeps,” she said.
The phenomenon is both local and national. The greater Baptist community, Glaude said, “is not as powerful as it once was.”
“There are churches that are doing extraordinary work … but what we’re seeing is all sorts of pressures affecting the black church,” Glaude said, adding that confronting social issues and a demand for overly-theatrical services have been big challenges.
“COMING TO SEE A SHOW”
Obery M. Hendricks, a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s department of religion and African American studies, said at the panel that as more churches lean increasingly on theatrics to bring in congregants, their services lose spiritual substance.
“I’d like to see churches more concerned with reading the gospel and less concerned with proclamations … and performances,” Hendricks said.
He added that instead of attempting to curb the problem, clergy are relying more and more on popular notions of what a black church service should be—gospel choirs, dancing, and loud booming voices—to keep congregants in their seats.
The house music at the United House of Prayer for All People is the Sons of Thunder Brass Band, a 16-piece shout band including seven trombonists, a sousaphone player, a trumpeter, a tuba player, two drummers, cymbal players, and two men on tambourines. Band leader Elder Edward Babb often improvises as ministers speak and dances down the aisles frequently during services.
As a result, the United House of Prayer has been listed on tourist websites as a “must see” attraction in Harlem. Congregant Wynter Williams said, “It’s never a surprise to see Asians and Eastern Europeans at our services … and we welcome them.”
About 60 churches in Harlem participate in “gospel tourism,” a relatively new industry that has become increasingly popular this year.
Companies like Expedia, CitySights, NY Tours, and even the Metropolitan Transportation Agency charge $50-300 a person to take mostly European and Asian tourists to see free Sunday services north of 96th Street.
Although foreign tourists have been visiting Harlem churches for over a decade, Marshall said that the tours have become so popular that groups of tourists wait each Sunday on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to get a glimpse of the Abyssinian’s famed gospel choir.
Marshall added that her church was not consulted before being added to the “gospel circuit.” The few churches that were consulted receive minimal compensation. Slate Magazine reported that Greater Highway Deliverance Baptist Church “receives three dollars per visitor from Harlem Spirituals, which charges $55 to $99 per ticket for tours of their free Sunday services.”
“It’s quite disheartening,” Marshall said. “Many of these tourists are coming to see a show. … It’s a site of tension for us.”
NEW NEIGHBORS
With the recent influx of North African immigrants and a growing Muslim population, race and interfaith dialogue have become a priority for Rev. Calvin Butts at Abyssinian, who started arranging annual joint worship services with Jewish and Muslim congregations.
“People will suggest … that Harlem is no longer a black community,” Marshall said, “but that’s absolutely wrong.”
A congregant at United House of Prayer, who wished to remain anonymous so as not to speak for the congregation, said that African American churches have not been affected. “Yes, now you see various cultures walking through Harlem, but we’re still here.”
In the panel, Marshall and Glaude addressed the conception that a historically black Harlem was being overrun with other populations—particularly Muslim residents—in a way that was damaging to the neighborhood. They both attributed these issues to the negative image of Islam in the media. Marshall said, “The reason why interfaith dialogue is engaged more, especially in light of … what’s happening in Lower Manhattan, fear is at the core, fear of the unknown.”
“What we see of the other in media is predominately negative,” Glaude added.
But at the controversial World Missionary Church on 123rd Street and Lenox Avenue, Pastor James David Manning, UTS ’85, said he has formed a loyal congregation around the ardent defense of radical political views.
A large sign that reads, “The blood of Jesus against Obama/History made 4 November 2008 A Taliban/Muslim Illegally Elected/President USA Hussein” hanging at his church is only further evidence of that.
“AN ABOMINATION AGAINST GOD”
Addressing questions of sexual orientation has become sticky for Baptist clergy members. The public’s increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage and gay rights conflicts with conventional Baptist views—that homosexuality is a sin.
According to Butler, skirting around this debate “is tearing our churches apart.” Panelist Otis Moss, a pastor at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, said his congregation shrunk when they became a “same-gender loving community.” He attributed the decrease to “straight flight,” the loss of heterosexual congregants when the ministry formally declares their tolerance of gays. Abyssinian has yet to broach the topic of sexual orientation.
“We have not yet even tiptoed into that arena … of sexuality in the black church,” said Marshall. “We do not affirm a homosexual lifestyle at Abyssinian and we do not oppose any lifestyle choice.”
At the World Missionary Church, Manning has been more vocal on the issue. “Certainly I support the biblical position that homosexuality is an abomination against God,” he said, and posited that his congregants generally agree.
While his radical positions may not have united the neighborhood, they have united his congregation. He declined to give the number of congregants in the World Missionary Church, but said its 350-person sanctuary is full during Sabbath services and that he is eyeing a larger space farther downtown as the church becomes more popular.
FOR RICHER AND FOR POORER
Although representatives from both Abyssinian Church and the United House of Prayer for All People said that membership has not declined in recent years, the economic depression has changed the religious landscape of Harlem.
Over the past three years several churches have closed, including Our Lady Queen of Angels Church and Greater Calvary Baptist Church.
For Marshall, the economic crisis “affected how people support the church financially.” Abyssinian advocates the practice of tithing, or giving 10 percent of income to the church. However, as Marshall recognizes, “when people are going through hard times, they tighten what they give.”
For Abyssinian, this creates a huge problem. The church has an open door policy, meaning it is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Our being open requires that the lights are on, that the heat is on, that the water’s running,” Marshall said. “If people aren’t giving, you can’t always pay the light bill.”
“It’s important that while we look at generalizations … we highlight the exceptions,” said Marshall at the panel. Baptist churches are once again beginning to work together, especially as some fall on harder times. “Here in Harlem, there are small conventions of storefront churches.”
Even as they face a challenging social and financial climate, congregants and clergy said that they remain optimistic about the future. At House of Prayer, many congregants work in the kitchen and volunteer throughout Harlem.
The Abyssinian Church Development Corporation runs a food bank and a homeless shelter, and has built affordable housing as well as the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a public charter high school.
According to panelist Moss, these developments are reassuring. “There are people who are doing incredible work on the ground. Is it national? No…but local is how we go global.”