Righteous Content

Black Women's Perspectives of Church and Faith

Daphne C. Wiggins

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780814784693
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Religión

Enter most African American congregations and you are likely to see the century-old pattern of a predominantly female audience led by a male pastor. How do we explain the dedication of African American women to the church, particularly when the church's regard for women has been questioned?

Following in the footsteps of Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham's pathbreaking work, Righteous Discontent, Daphne Wiggins takes a contemporary look at the religiosity of black women. Her ethnographic work explores what is behind black women's intense loyalty to the church, bringing to the fore the voices of the female membership of black churches as few have done. Wiggins illuminates the spiritual sustenance the church provides black women, uncovers their critical assessment of the church's ministry, and interprets the consequences of their limited collective activism.

Wiggins paints a vivid portrait of what lived religion is like in black women's lives today.

1
We Always Went to Church
Women and Religious Socialization

Church attendance among African Americans is proportionately higher than attendance among white Protestant Americans. Attendance rates are one indication that the church has not lost its stature among black Americans to the extent it has among whites. The high regard for the Black Church has been predicated on its institutional centrality to the cultural, social, familial, and economic well-being of African Americans. Its autonomy and leadership in these areas have also been persuasive features that promote and extract loyalty from its membership. This loyal membership is predominantly female. Why are women the dominant membership in an institution committed to the welfare of the entire black community? Why do women participate in the church so consistently? Did they start attending as children and never stop?

“Going to church” was a constant in the lives of the majority of the women I studied. They were church members at the time of the study; in addition, prior to joining their current congregations, they had been in other churches, either voluntarily or by mandate. The sociologist Hart M. Nelsen has found a correlation among the importance of religion, maternal church attendance, and the religious participation of African Americans.¹ The effects of maternal religiosity upon male and female youth were the same, suggesting that the enduring effect of maternal devotion is supplanted or finds another expression among males as they mature past adolescence. It also suggests that the social, cultural, and psychological factors that anchor women in the church merit a closer look. It may also point to the effect of the larger community and societal values upon parental and familial efforts to provide religious training.

The family unit has been the primary context for religious socialization; however, it does not have a monopoly on teaching religious values. The values and norms of the neighborhood, as well as the availability and types of churches in the community, influence whether members attend. These women’s stories revealed household practices and community norms that transcended regional and class boundaries. The nonattendance of adult males occurred in families from every economic status and geographic region.

In the following pages, we examine these women’s early religious socialization and church involvement. I didn’t know these women in their early years, so I am dependent upon their own recollections of these events. Since memory is selective, some important facts may have been forgotten or replaced with events that are more contemporary. It was beyond my ability to authenticate these memories. However, since the significance of the data lies more in what the women actually regard as important than in the empirical nature of the facts, I consider these retrievals to be accurate. I am less interested in the exactness of the women’s memories than with what the memories reveal about the women’s religious development, what types of events they recount, the impact of social forces, and the meanings the women have assigned to them.

Let me say a word about the definition of “community” in this study before we turn our attention to the women’s lives. There are two standard sociological definitions of “community,” one territorial, the other “relational” or “sociopsychological.”² When community is defined as territory, community is equated to a spatial dimension or a physical area; community is seen as a synonym for approximate neighborhoods. However, persons who share a bond of common identity develop and share a community, as well. This meaning emphasizes the relational aspect of community. Marcia Riggs asserts that this connection is aptly applied to African Americans because of their shared identity of collective oppression and continued discrimination. Many times this common oppression took place in the confines of black residential enclaves (slave or free) or a segregated labor market. Being a part of the community establishes the expectation and warrant for blacks to make “special claims on each other.”³ This common identity has as its counterpart cultural norms and practices that have been born out of a history of oppression. I define “community” as inclusive of both dimensions; both meanings were reflected in the questions I asked, as well as suggested by the women’s responses.

Profile of the Women

The women in this sample were aligned either with Calvary Baptist Church or Layton Temple Church of God in Christ. There were twenty-five from Calvary Baptist and thirteen from Layton Temple. They covered a spectrum of ages, occupations, and marital statuses. They also varied in their length and history of church participation. All were regular in their attendance at the time of the interviews.

Twelve persons were native to the state, and twenty-six were migrants. Ten of the transplants had relocated in the last eight years. All of the women were African Americans except two, who were natives of Jamaica. Their ages ranged from twenty-four to seventy-seven, with a median age of forty-five. Nearly a third were in their thirties, and another third were in their forties. Fourteen women were married, and twenty-four were single. Of the single women, four were divorced, two were widowed, fifteen had never been married, two were separated, and one was in a common-law marriage. Just over half were mothers.

Educationally, two had not completed high school, ten had some college or vocational school training, ten had earned a college degree, and fifteen had completed advanced work beyond the bachelor’s degree. Thirty-three were employed, while five were either retired or disabled. Their median annual income was between $20,000 and $34,999, which situated them as a group in the ranks of the middle class. They had belonged to their present church on average about three and a half years. All but five had at least one other family member attending the same church. In most instances, this person was a spouse or a child. Just under half had been members of other denominations.

Compulsory Childhood Attendance

In many contemporary churches, Sunday attendance looks like a gathering of adults and senior citizens. Children often constitute a minute portion of the worshippers in the sanctuary. In some congregations, children’s church, Sunday school, and the nursery are the contexts in which youth are introduced to the faith. However, there still is often a lapse in children’s participation as they get older. Pastors express frustration about the lack of youth involvement, the loss of a spiritual and moral compass among teenagers and young adults, and increased levels of biblical illiteracy among adult members. It seems that the past practice of taking children to church in black communities is waning. With the lessened participation of youth, church leaders find that transmitting the faith to the younger generation is an exasperating task.

The place of the church in the community and the religious socialization of the women in our sample points to a different era. Almost without exception, these women were expected to go to church as youth and grew up in communities where attendance was normative. Jerri was raised in her formative years by an aunt. Church was not an option.

We couldn’t tell our mama or ask mama “can we go to church” or [say] we didn’t want to go to church. We had to go to church. I was raised by my aunt. I had to go because my aunt made us go to church regardless of whether we wanted to go to church. … That is why now when I hear children telling their parent that “I don’t want to go to church” and the parents say “stay home”; deep down that hurts because I know [back] then we didn’t have a choice unless [we] were dying [laughs]. When we couldn’t get to the Anglican Church, which was further away, there was another little Church of God close by, that we’d go to Sunday school and Bible study. It didn’t matter what church we went to as long as we left the house that Sunday and [went] to church.

Many other women echoed these sentiments and experiences. The expectation of their participation was often present whether or not both parents attended. More than half of the sample went to church with only one parent or primary caretaker. A few women were sent to church in the custody of other relatives or adults. For example, Denise and her sister were given permission by their mom (her biological aunt) to go to church in the care of the local school bus driver and his wife. Her mom did not go to church.

Regardless of who took them to church, attendance was a common feature of these women’s lives. All the women had participated in church by the age of ten. Most had started earlier and continued to go until they left their parents’ home and gained independence.

Theresa summed up her church attendance in a few words. I asked when she started attending church. She responded, “I guess since I was born, I mean, I’ve been going since I’ve known myself.” Joyce also frequented church since childhood. As a preacher’s child, she found that her early years revolved around church services.

We went to church every time the doors were opened eventually. We went to church every Sunday, three times for the day, because we had morning worship, then we’d have Sunday school about 4 p.m. Then we had gospel service in the night. We lived right behind the church, so it was like what would be offices was where we lived. So even if we weren’t physically present in church, we heard everything that was going on in church. We heard all the hymns lined and everything.

The most consistent religious practices women reported during their childhood were attending Sunday school and morning worship service and participating in youth activities. Opportunities for participation beyond Sunday worship varied according to the denomination to which they belonged. Some of the most common offerings were choirs, Sunshine Band, Purity Class, Junior Church, Baptist Training Union, Girl Scouts, and Youth Day. Michelle was exposed to church life and its youth activities at an early age, and church has been a consistent part of her life. She started church “right after I started breathing. Honey, I don’t ever remember not going to church, I’ll put it like that.” As we continued to talk about her early years in church, she gave a rich description of the ethos of her initial church home.

The church that I grew up in was a small, kind of close-knit family congregation. Lots of, not lots of, several large family groups, generations and generations of a family attending this particular church. Both my mother and father were always very active in church and in auxiliaries, and my father was a trustee. My mother did some different roles around the church. [She was] very active. My grandmother was a member of the church, she was very active, and she was a deaconess. My grandfather was a minister, but he did not pastor at that church. He was the pastor of a couple of smaller little country churches that were a couple of hours away. They weren’t weekly meeting churches. That’s why he pastored a couple of them. They met alternating Sundays. I was always active in the church. We went to Sunday school, youth groups, and choir. The church itself was, I won’t say completely opposite of Calvary, but it was very different. Well, there were some similarities and some differences. It was a traditional Baptist church, real quiet, no hooping, no hollering, no screaming or jumping, no clapping. You know none of that kind of carrying on [laughs].

Church participation did not feel like a conscious choice to Michelle. It became such a part of her lifestyle that she rarely questioned it. As we talked about whether she was made to go, she responded.

No, I mean yes and no. It was so repetitive after a point. It was not even a conscious decision. It was not like “oh, I wonder if I’ll get up and go to church today.” It’s not that kind of thought. It’s like “I’m going to church every Sunday unless there’s a reason not to like death, some major illness, something out of the ordinary.” You don’t just get up and decide you’re not going to church today.

Choice was not an option for most women in relation to church. Attendance was mandatory for nearly two-thirds of them. Often, women originally from the northern states were sent “down South” during school breaks or to spend the summer with relatives. Their southern relatives in rural areas required attendance while visiting, so the visitors would make sure to pack their “church clothes.” While most said that they had to go to church, only four said they felt forced to go. It seems that choice was neither interpreted as oppressive or met with much resistance. As children, the women went to church to be obedient to parental rules, to exhibit the proper respect due elders, or as a requirement that was necessary to get other privileges in the home. Sharon remembered that one of the house rules was that if you went out on Saturday night, you had to get up and go to church on Sunday. However, Sharon did not need to be coerced to go to church.

We went to Sunday school, morning service, we stayed for dinner, and we’d stay for afternoon service. So we’d get to church about 9 or 9:30 in the morning for Sunday school and wouldn’t get home until 7 or 8 p.m. at night. That was every Sunday, and we did it because we wanted to. My mother didn’t make us do it. I remember one time, I did something, I don’t recall what I did, and my punishment was I couldn’t go to church that evening…. I guess it bothered me because I wanted to go to church. My mother knew it was something I was really looking forward to going to. It was an anniversary of some type. She just wouldn’t let me go.

Rosalind and her siblings realized that church attendance got them more than just spiritual sustenance:

If we went to Sunday school and church, then we could go to the movies on Sunday afternoon. They [her parents] weren’t very strict. They tried to make it strict for a little [while] and make us go to BTU [Baptist Training Union] and we used to say, “Now, mom, you know this is a little much.”

Among the twenty-two who described themselves as “having to go,” a third admitted that they enjoyed going to church. There were positive benefits of church participation—seeing neighbors, playing with classmates, and getting answers to their religious curiosity. As they got older, these women learned to negotiate absences from afternoon services or midweek programs. Parents allowed some concessions so that they might participate in school- and church-sponsored activities.

To say they “attended church” does not fully capture the positive regard for church conveyed by this group. Beyond attending the primary worship services on a regular basis, they perceived their congregations as welcoming. Church provided an outlet for individual expression of talents, encouraged social relationships, and provided spiritual sustenance. Church was also regarded as meaningful because it was an activity undertaken with a parent; in some cases, going to church with a parent not only reinforced religious values but also had a favorable impact on the parent-child relationship.

During their youth, few women challenged their parents on the issue of attending church, believing that there was no room for debate or change. While some admitted not being converted to Christianity during these years, the stress upon participating communicated their parents’ genuine concern for their spiritual foundations. Kelly spoke of her mother’s concern in this regard. Her mother was more concerned with her having some type of religious grounding than with her being a member of a particular faith tradition. Kelly was introduced to Christianity while being reared by her southern grandmother, who was Baptist. Later, she was suddenly thrust into the Islamic faith when she was sent north to live with her mother, who was Muslim. In her later teen years, she was drawn toward the Presbyterian church; this was the denomination of an aunt with whom she spent summer vacations. Throughout this period of experimentation, her mother was nonjudgmental and continually encouraged her to become committed to God and a fellowship somewhere. It was only when she took a hiatus from participating in church altogether that her mom became directive. In the most succinct fashion, her mom told her, “I went somewhere; you’re going somewhere. I don’t care where you go as long as you believe in something.”

Family Devotions

Religious instruction for the women I studied took place largely in the church, but family devotions were a secondary, although not consistent, source for introducing the women to God. Using collective Bible reading, instruction, and family prayer as measurements of a family’s devotional practices, I identified four women as products of families that had regular devotional periods. An additional three were from families that occasionally had collective devotional periods. The most structured devotional times occurred in one of the households where the father was a pastor. This family had a period of prayer and Bible study daily. In other families, it was the custom to offer a prayer at dinnertime or to read the Bible on Sunday, a task usually fulfilled by a parent. Gail shared how talking about the Bible was a nightly event in her household.

Yeah, we did Bible, we didn’t pray together that much as a family. We would read the Bible, we would discuss it.… See, the way we grew up, we had family hour when my father came home. Like I told you, my mother was always at home, so mamma cooked dinner, had dinner cooked every night at 5 o’clock. Daddy would come home; we’d eat dinner, and after we ate dinner we would always sit around the table and talk. You know we would talk about the Bible. We’d talk about God [and] about what happened in our day.

Parents were also active in assisting children with learning a recitation for church or memorizing a Bible verse for Sunday school. It was the rare occasion when children actually saw or heard their parents pray together or when they were given the responsibility to lead the family prayers.

Postadolescent Attendance

Following their early years of participation, many women experienced a lapse during their late teen years. More than three-quarters stopped going to church at least once after having started attending as youngsters, though they returned to church during their twenties and thirties. They were recruited back into a congregation by a friend or through a strong recommendation of the church or its pastor. Most of the explanations for these lapses were related to life transitions, such as gaining independence, rebelling, having children, or changing marital status. Twenty-nine women in the sample had attended or completed college or a trade school, and half of those who had received advanced training had a period of sporadic attendance or stopped attending altogether during their college years. Religious choice and independence were related to economic independence, professional development, the establishment of a separate domicile, and the expansion of social options. With their newfound independence came a shift in church participation. It is important to note that only rarely was the decreased participation due to distrust of religious institutions or doubt about the dogma of the church.

Karen converted to Catholicism at the age of twelve, influenced by her attendance with her aunt. She attended a Catholic high school, a Catholic university, and a Catholic church from her early teens until she started college. However, she started questioning some of Catholic theology in high school. She stopped going when she was in college and didn’t seriously start looking for a church until she was thirty-four and had relocated to Georgia.

I was in college. I might have go...