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Black Christ Worship
The black Christ: not the Sunday School picture
By Kara Breens Who worships a black Christ? Are African
American Christians who perceive Christ as black more likely to
be politically active than those for whom Christ's color is
insignificant. And how is a black Christ different from a white
Christ?
Dr. Ron Brown, chair of the political Science
department at Wayne State University, spent the last four years
researching these questions. This past Tuesday, in a
lecture sponsored by the Paul B. Henry Institute, he reported on
some of his findings.
To conduct his study, brown had a staff of
African Americans conduct telephone interviews on a sample of
roughly 1000 African Americans. Ninety-eight percent of those
interviewed identified themselves as Christians.
Most of the people surveyed (64%) had been
exposed to questions regarding the color of Christ. When Brown
asked respondents what color they perceived Christ to be,
however, the consensus was less definitive. Although the
respondents were only given two choices— white or black—58%
refused to assign a color to Christ—28% believed Christ
to be black and 7% believed him to be white.
Brown then sought to determine whether a
person who worshipped a black Christ would be more politically
active than someone who pictured Christ as white or colorless.
He found that those Christians who perceive
Christ to be black usually attend highly political churches with
Pan-African emphases. For example, they often identified Africa
rather than United States as the spiritual home of African
American Christianity.
In contrast, the African American Christians
who perceived Christ as having no color were more likely to
engage in social activism. for example, they would spend more of
their activist energy serving at soup kitchens or offering
volunteer childcare than in such outright political activities
as recruiting voters.
Finally, brown asked: What does it mean to
worship a black Christ? Here again he found that there is more
than one answer to the question. certain African American
churches pray to a black Savior as the backdrop for salvation,
presumedly as a way in which African American Christians can
better identify with Christ.
According to Brown, other African American
Christians especially Black men, associate certain Nat-Turner-like characteristics with a Black Christ; they emphasize
the characteristics of Christ as Yahweh, the warrior God. * * * *
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updated 28 July 2008 |
