Can “blackness” and faith co-exist?

July 20th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Young Black Professional Guide Can “blackness” and faith co-exist?Most of us have read about the Pope’s comments earlier this month about the Catholic Church being the only “real church.” The response from non-Catholics, Catholics and non-Christians alike has been all over the board.

Honestly, not being a Catholic, I initially thought this doesn’t have much of a personal affect on me. Besides, I admittedly subscribe to religious principles that believe certain philosophies and practices done by others are wrong, so I can take it when someone else’s interpretation of their faith says what I do and believe is wrong.

(On a side note, I was actually a bit shocked at the number of Protestants who got so upset about someone essentially damning them to Hell considering we spend so much time doing the same to others, but I digress … which is I guess what happens when you grow up under black Baptist preachers.)

Some have questioned why this incident was getting so much attention. For those that don’t know, the reason is because the Catholic Church is the world’s largest religious organization, claiming about a sixth of the world’s population as its members as recently as 2005. And given the increased role of morality, specifically religious faith, in our politics – not to mention that seven of the Democrats and Republicans competing to head the “free world” define themselves as Roman Catholic, I guess what Catholics believe is right and wrong does indeed matter … kinda.

Now bringing this around to YBPs and their families, how do Pope Benedict XVI’s traditionalist views affect black Catholics? I mean, we already know how he feels about the rest of us, but is there even a place in Catholics’ Earth and heaven for the black Catholic experience?

History has shown that like with food, music, clothes and nearly everything else, black people have found a way to make faith their own – especially blacks in America when it comes to Christianity. While I grew up Baptist, black Catholics were omnipresent in my native Washington, D.C. My father and my wife’s father (both D.C. natives) defined themselves as Catholic at some point in their religious lives. And while I’m sure traditional Catholic churches with predominantly black congregations exist in D.C., NONE – and I stress none – of the black Catholic churches I’ve been to have been “traditional.” They were very …. well, … “black” in their worship.

So the question is are black interpretations of the “only way” – according to the Pope – wrong? Is there a place for ethnic diversity in other faiths? Even non-Christian faiths? How do traditional views of faith – even within the black Protestant churches – affect how we deal with real world issues like poverty, AIDS and nontraditional families?

There Are 7 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Timothy on 20 July 2007:

    Greetings! Spotted your post in Google Blogsearch…

    >”someone essentially damning them to Hell”

    Nope. The Pope was NOT essentially daming anyone to hell. That’s a common mis-interpretation by people who don’t read Catholic. The document was an internal document directed at Catholic theologians and written in a very Catholic vocabulary. The doctrine being restated is an ancient Christian doctrine from the earliest days of the Church:

    http://christian-apologetics-society.blogspot.com/2007/07/outside-church-there-is-no-salvation.html

    A good explantion of the doctrine in easier to understand language is here:

    http://www.crisismagazine.com/may2007/shea.htm

    >” is there even a place in Catholics’ Earth and heaven for the black Catholic experience?”

    While the Catholic Church in America is majority white due to European immigrants, Americans only account for 7% of the Catholic faith. The vast majority of the world’s Catholics are, in fact, persons of color. The 130,018,400 African Catholics are twice as many as American Catholics and account for about 12% of the worldwide Catholic Church. Catholicism is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world.

    http://www.beliefnet.com/story/164/story_16421_1.html

    >”are black interpretations of the “only way” – according to the Pope – wrong?”

    Of course not. One of the key reforms of Vatican II was the localization of the Liturgy. While a Catholic Mass in Africa is largely identical to a Mass in the US, an African Mass is distinctly African by language, song, dress, and decor. That’s probably why the Catholic Churches with large numbers of blacks have “black” services. Some aspects of the Mass cannot be changed, but much is open to localization.

    I’m fortunate to live in a “stained glass” parish. What was a German-Polish-Italian parish is now a Euro-Vietnamese-Indian-African (Nigeria/Cameroon) parish. There’s no telling what language you’ll hear prayers in and you just as often bow a greeting to fellow worshippers as shake their hands. Its great to see a slice of Christ’s worldwide Church in one room.

    God bless…

  2. Comment by DeWayne Hendrix on 20 July 2007:

    I like the fact that you wrote an article on this subject. I believe that as Christians no matter what faith you practice, that we fellowship together and worship the God we serve as one unit, in the way that each individuals see fit. Too many faiths are practiced separate (race and culture wise) whether it is Catholic, Baptist, AME, CME, Church of God in Christ, Protestant….. If we are serving the God of all who loves all of us equally, then we are we serving him separately?

  3. Comment by crenee on 20 July 2007:

    Thank you, ETS, for helping us think about this issue in a different way. Very interesting indeed.

    As for your questions, I certainly think there are places for ethnic diversity in other faiths. During my stay in Japan, my Shinto host family was more than willing to share their faith with me. I know several Black Buddhists personally, and as Malcolm discovered, Muslims come from a myriad of cultures and colors. Not to mention that Buddha himself probably never imagined the type of fame many Eastern practices would gain when Caucasians started their trancendental soul-searching in the 1960s.

    With that said, I’m not sure the Catholic faith is ethnically exclusive, either. Like ETS, I am descended from Black Catholics on my father’s side, and have known many others outside of my family. To my knowledge, none of them have felt particulary smothered or looked down upon by the faith. And let’s not forget where a significant portion of Catholics hail from; if the Catholic Church loses Latin America, somebody’s head is going to roll - pointy-hat and all.

    In my view, faith is not the issue; tradition is the culprit. There are probably many individuals who practice Catholocism who would not have made the statements made by the Pope (which, as ETS mentioned, are pretty much a given for most Christian denominations.) I’m not sure what the Pope thinks about Black Catholic worship. However, if he finds fault with even that, I’d blame it on the fact that Catholic higher-ups are up to their collars in millenia-old tradition, not on the faith itself, which is much more individualized and esoteric.

    Similarly, I think it is tradition, not faith, that hinders the function of other religious practices (Black protestants included) in the context of the modern world. I consider myself a Christian, but I came into the faith as a young adult, not having been properly “groomed” for the church. That is, like most people I know, my lineage is made up of more sinners than saints, and unlike most people I know, I was not raised in the church. Since my association with the church began, I have found Black Christian tradition to be the heaviest, most painfully binding force I have ever encountered. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some good in there too, but we have got to let go of interpretations of the Bible that were based on temporary cultural traditions. For example, now that the US has allowed the women-folk (even colored ones) to read, write and vote, the church cannot continue to interpret all of Paul’s writings about women and marriage literally. Unfortunately, many do, which may be one of the reasons that the divorce rate in the church exceeds that of the general population. Pure speculation, I know, but worth thinking about. Worthy of thought as well are the other outdated traditions that many churches continue to grip tightly in one hand, holding pride in the other, as the pressing issues of the day fall by the wayside. What would Jesus do? That’s easy - feed the poor, heal the sick, promote love at all costs. What do churches do? Well…

  4. Comment by ETS on 21 July 2007:

    Sorry Timothy. Call it what you want. But when you say that your church is the only church, and thus the only way to Heaven, you’ve made it clear where people who don’t belong to your church are going. I honestly don’t find that problematic. Faith gives us the freedom to believe and say such things. The problem is the refusal to acknowledge what you really believe. If you think so and so is wrong. Say it. Don’t be scared to and back away from it.

  5. Comment by Garry on 24 July 2007:

    I want so desperately to say that any judgment about someone else’s faith or someone else’s tradition is a reflection of that person’s insecurity and missing of the mark. I want so desperately to say that the more time we spend analyzing and critiquing someone else’s ability to go to Heaven and follow the two Greatest commandments (love the Lord with all thy heart and love thy neighbor as thyself), the FURTHER we get from ACTUALLY doing so. I long to beseech from rooftops whether we truly believe God is responsible for so grand a universe, so diverse a people but could only come up with and accept a SINGLE religion. One! Him being so great. So EVERYWHERE present.

    Instead, all I have to say is “Bravo!” to the contributions of each individual and each faith that does something to create more love. Hallelujah to each cause and each domination that is making some effort to achieve piece. Thank God for all the ways each one of us is looking and searching for more ways to give and share goodness.

  6. Comment by Ibn Adam on 29 July 2007:

    The religion of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed all stressed one point. Worship the one true God not any man, idol, political leader, guru, magician. The word worship means more than going to an edifice it includes abstaining from the 7 deadly sins, the universal law in the commandments. Basically living clean wholesome lives within the religious laws God reveals to man through the messengers and prophets sent down through time. The problem is man always rebels and corrupts the law God sends. Man always wants to impose his own desires on the law his own interpretations which he calls culture and cultural norms. Committing homosexual acts is an abomination. The homosexual is not and must control his or her perverted sexual desires. Society has come to a point where they ignore this religious law and have imposed what is now accepted cultural norms. Culturally the west and many other societies openly practice and have imposed culture on religious laws fighting to make the church accept their perversion. Read the Old Tesatment, the New Testament, the Quran. Sexual perversion is rejected. Man and woman must control their lust. Unfortunately culture alway manages to degenerate and tear the moral fiber and dance and wild out until destruction!

  7. Comment by Chris on 5 June 2008:

    Well. I know I’m late, but this is sad :(

    That’s the first time I ever used one of those little made-up emoticons with the keyboard to express my feelings.

    The “only way” is somthing that I do not believe belongs to the Catholic religion. And black and white is not what it’s about either. I truly think that peole need to believe the Bible to be God’s word…and all argument ends.

    The bible says there is one faith. Ephesians 4:4-6

    I have not had the experience of calling anyone “Father” except God. This is something in the Catholic faith that i don’t understand.
    (of course I called my father on earth father b/c he’s my dad)
    The Bible also talks about this.
    Mathew 23: 7-11

    As far as it goes for blacks being Catholic… I don’t think it’s about black or white. I think it’s about the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not made up of one race and it doesn’t talk different races and ethnicities having church separately.

    Acts 2:5-9
    Mathew 13: 47 - all kinds of fish=all kinds of people

    I believe this is true because I have experienced it. I grew up in a black baptist church where it was a huge deal when an all white church came to have church with us. It was all in the newspaper and everything.

    Now I attend a church that resembles the scripture (Matthew 13:47). There are all kinds of ethnicities in my church. I think it’s the best b/c I see that God looks at the heart.

    I totally understand how those in the Catholic faith could think that way b/c I’ve been there, but I hope that they could come to understand and appreciate…and Love all people. I’ve been there, God’s not done yet.

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