Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America - Essay Example

Black Religion Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America is an important collection of essaysdealing with the impact of the African-American community on the Peoples Temple religious group. Some of the articles were published previously (as early as 1979 and 1980, directly following the mass suicide event in Guyana). Other essays were written specifically for this book. The various chapters thus bring together reflections on the Peoples Temple that span a twenty-five year time period. Contributors include African-American Studies specialists such as Milmon Harrison and Mary Sawyer as well as Religious Studies faculty including C. Eric Lincoln, Lawrence Mamiya, and Anthony Pinn. The book also includes chapters by Black pastors such as Muhammed Isaiah Kenyatta andj. Alfred Smith, Jr. Most of the writers attempt to revise the often-accepted view that the Peoples Temple was controlled by Jim Jones and other European-American leaders who exerted extensive charismatic control over a generally compliant and/or brainwashed African-American majority. This black majority (representing 67% of the population, for example, at Jonestown) was comprised of people who came predominately from the working classes of the southern United States and included twice as many women as men. The Peoples Temple was a racially mixed and substantially black religious society within which-the writers contend-African-Americans had tremendous influence. The editors contend that this influence has been downplayed by most academics who have written about the Peoples Temple, largely because scholars tend to identify the Peoples Temple as a "New Religious Movement" and to operate within the theoretical framework within which such groups are customarily analyzed. The writers do acknowledge that most leaders of the Peoples Temple at the highest levels were European-American. But they do not believe that this phenomenon automatically disempowered African-American members. In the Guyana outpost, for example, many of the key leadership positions were held by African-Americans. More importantly, many of the contributors to this volume believe that it is absolutely necessary to evaluate Jones as a church leader from the perspective of the African-American religious community. The editors, for example, note that Jones and the Peoples Temple "emulated Black Church culture in style and form and, to some extent, in substance" (Janzen 294-297). As Rebecca Moore writes in a chapter entitled "Demographics and the Black Religious Culture," we don't have to go to the jungle to see a similar dynamic between pastor and people, preacher and congregation. The isolation in Guyana prevented critical reflection on the process of audience corruption; nonetheless the pattern of congregational elevation of the pastor, the cult of personality)' . . . continues to exist in the twenty-first century' in black churches in the San Francisco Bay Area, and indeed in many churches throughout the nation. (Chapman N4C450) African American culture and idiosyncratic understandings of the Christian faith-as well as distinctive worship practices-influenced not only Jones himself but the entire Peoples Temple movement, from the roles played by ministers and other church personnel to an emphasis on social justice and humanitarian efforts-^what Lincoln and Mamiya describe as "this-worldly activism" (Battle 391-393). It is suggested that charismatic expressions of the faith, in particular, show a strong African-American influence on the Peoples Temple. Smith goes so far as to suggest that the Peoples Temple presented a prophetic critique of Bay Area African-American Christianity in general. He notes that "the 1970s were a dark age for the Black Church in San Francisco. Most churches had become little more than social clubs, where chicken dinners and raffle dockets were the only activities on the agenda" (Baker-Fletcher B353). Harrison writes that "Jones learned to speak the symbolic and religious language of black Americans quite fluency and made that language an integral part of the worship experience" (Andrews A53). Harrison also reminds the reader that the "Exodus to the Promised Land" mode generated by Slave-era Blacks-and referring to a psychological or physical location where they might find freedom-helped support the decision made by the Peoples Temple leadership to migrate southward to Jonestown. Under the leadership of Forbes Burnham, the nation of Guyana was itself trying to create better relationships among a variety of ethnic groups. Jonestown appeared to fit this model. Some doubt remains in this writer's mind with regard to the extent of the transformation of the Peoples Temple into a Black cultural/religious entity. The strong charismatic influence of Jones, regardless of theological and cultural transfigurations, does bear a suspicious resemblance to the old image of Blacks "betrayed by a white leader" (Zhuk 457), the thesis that is, in fact proposed in a chapter by Lincoln and Mamiya (written in 1980). This reader is also somewhat confused by the editors contend on that "New African American religious movements come into existence for different reasons than [sic] new white religious movements", which, although essentially true, implies that all new white religious movements are one and the same. This is definitely not the case. There is tremendous diversity in the groups that find themselves placed in that very general category we call "New Religious Movements." In any case, the unfortunate "demonic psychosis" (Kenyatta's term, 162) that ended the Peoples Temple religious experiment in late 1978 caused the group to be designated as a dangerous cult and deflected from any popular or even academic acceptance of many of the analyses that are contained in this book. This work, along with Mary Maaga's Hearing the Voices of Jonestown, is, thus, as an important corrective to mainstream accounts. Pinn develops his argument through the book's three parts. Part 1, "Constructing Terror," is a brilliant and painful exposition of the meaning of the Black body in the U.S. White consciousness as revealed in the social rituals of the slave auction and lynching. These rites of terror, Pinn avows, were instrumental in transforming Africans in the United States into "negroes," that is, beings with dehumanized and objectified identities. Part 2, "Waging War," argues that Black religion emerges as a creative response to the existential dread of identity loss by promoting various strategies of liberation. In the final part, Pinn deals with methodological concerns. He advances the claims that Black religion must be understood as encompassing more than the Black Christian Church; that what then becomes common to all forms of Black religious experience is the "quest for fullness" of meaning, identity, and agency; and that the study of Black religion entails "relational centralism", that is, an interdisciplinary approach that draws upon the fields of the psychology of religion, the history of religions, and art criticism. Pinn's most important contribution lies in his placing Black people's bodies at the center of religious discourse and the struggle against racism. He joins a growing chorus of Black theologians who argue that Black embodiment is a--if not the--central hermeneutical concern of Black religion. Less developed and convincing is Pinn's understanding of the religious quest and his own emerging methodology. He refuses to connote "religion" with a "trans-historical 'Sacred'" out of a two-fold concern that such theism excludes a number of Black "religious" traditions (e.g., Black humanism) and tends toward a "dogmatism" that resists critical interrogation. This last claim and Pinn's methodology of "relational centralism" need further articulation. This text is a significant contribution to the field and essential reading for serious scholars and graduate students of Black religion. Advanced undergraduates will find the book's first two parts a valuable resource. Early in The Holy Profane, Teresa L. Reed recounts the story of Annie Mae Bullock, who-upon being filled with the Holy Spirit during a Pentecostal church service - continued to dance in the spirit long after her underpants had fallen around her ankles. Years later this spirited dancer, whose stage name, of course, is Tina Turner, became renowned the world over for her emotionally charged performances of soul and R & B. Besides providing the reader with an indelible image, this anecdote crystallizes Reed's thesis for the book. Not only have the sacred and the secular been inextricably intertwined for generations, but a close examination of Black popular music reveals that the tensions between the two reflect the dynamic nature of Black religious consciousness. Certainly, other scholars (Portia Maultsby and Michael Harris, for example) have documented the blending of the holy and the profane within Black culture noting the ways the Black church and Black music have influenced one another. Still others, including Jon Michael Spencer in Blues and Evil, have examined in great detail the similarities between the blues and Black sacred music. Reed's work, however, appears to be the first extended look at the religious themes and allusions that can be identified in several genres: blues, R & B, soul, and hip-hop. Thus, it provides further evidence that the sacred has survived and even thrived within African American culture in part because of the mutual exchange between it and its alleged antithesis, secular music. The Holy Profane begins with a succinct historical and cultural overview in which Reed summarizes the worldview of most Africans before they were brought to the New World. Acculturated in environments in which no hard delineation was made between the sacred and the secular, the enslaved Africans began to incorporate a sacred/secular dichotomy in their expressive forms only after being exposed to the European belief that musical styles and movements should be compartmentalized. "Pentecostalism and Black Secular Music" examines the parallel birth of the sanctified church and Black popular music. Such artists as Louis Jordan, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry performed with a Pentecostal fervor that mirrors the duality within the African American cultural identity. In the succeeding five chapters, Reed highlights specific secular genres and texts that reference holy subject matter. In "Blues Lyrics: Voice of Religious Consciousness," she describes a perceptible, noteworthy "postbellum shift in black-American religious consciousness" from the heavenly/spiritual concerns that were prevalent during slavery to the concrete, mundane needs of daily life (p. 39). Nevertheless, the spiritual ties to that earlier, more religious time persisted as blues singers incorporated well known Biblical references, such as the devil, Daniel, and Jesus, in documenting the vagaries of love. Folk religion and humor, often paired in popular songs, are at the center of "Elder Eatmore and Deacon Jones." Such pairings, Reed writes, demonstrate the search by younger generations to turn from the old ways and find a religious life that is meaningful for them. The biggest religious targets, deacons and preachers, appeared as the butt of many a musical joke from the time of minstrelsy, and Reed shares some gems. But the Civil Rights Movement, which was led in large measure by church leaders, eventually helped to retire most of these lyrical buffoons. "Rethinking the Devil's Music" casts the phenomenon of artists "crossing over" from sacred to secular audiences as evidence of a further shift in Black America's religious consciousness: a step away from the stigma of Black religious fervor and a move toward a style that would garner mainstream acceptance. The last full chapter, "The Evolution of the Blues Preacher," covers the folk preaching style and its emergence in the singing style of soul and R &. B singers. Reed's relatively brief postlude, "God and Gangsta Rap," focuses on Tupac Shakur, who walked on both sides of the sacred/secular divide and referred repeatedly to "God, death, redemption, and the afterlife" in his lyrics/poetry - clearly placing himself on a continuum with his musical predecessors. Those who decide to read this succinct study will find a scholarly yet accessible examination of just how often the sacred and the secular have been interwoven in the popular music of African Americans and how their co-existence has reflected an ever-evolving Black religious consciousness. Works Cited "Workshop on Race and Religion: Thought, Practice, and Meaning." University of Chicago Divinity School. http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/rrtpm/ (accessed December 26, 2006). African American Biographical Database [Electronic Resource]. Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey Inc., 1997, http://aabd.chadwyck.com/. Andrews, Dale P. Practical Theology for Black Churches: Bridging Black Theology and African American Folk Religion. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002. Location: Regenstein, Bookstacks BT82.7.A53 2002 Baker-Fletcher, Karen and Garth KASIMU Baker-Fletcher. My Sister, My Brother: Womanist and XODUS God-Talk. The Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion ; v. 12. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 1997. Location: Regenstein, Bookstacks BT82.7 .B353 1997 Battle, Michael., Black Religion, Black Theology: The Collected Essays of J. Deotis Roberts (Book). Anglican Theological Review, Spring2004, Vol. 86 Issue 2, p391-393 Black Religion, Black Theology: The Collected Essays of J. Deotis Roberts. Available at: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3818/is_200404/ai_n9345614 Chapman, Mark L. Christianity on Trial: African-American Religious Thought before and After Black Power. The Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion ; v. 10. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996. Location: Regenstein, Bookstacks BR563.N4C450 1996 Janzen, Rod. Peoples Temple and Black Religion. Utopian Studies, 2005, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p294-297 Pinn, Anthony B., DuBois' Souls: Thoughts on "Veiled" Bodies and the Study of Black Religion. The North Star: A Journal of African American Religious History. Volume 6,Number2 (Spring 2003) Zhuk, Sergei I., Russia's Lost Reformation: Peasants, Milknnialism, andRadical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917.Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center P, 2004. ix + 457 Read More