Why Black Churches?

Does the US only consist of white people and African-Americans? Are these churches colored black for a reason? Why does the color of the church matter?

I think you may have missed the entire point.

There are churches that are traditionally called “black churches”. They are a cultural phenomenon. Yes, there are African-Americans who attend more traditional churches. And I expect that the congregations of black churches are not exclusively black. However, these churches are part of African-American culture and have been an important part of their historic struggle against segregation.

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There are Black Churches because of the deplorable history of segregation in the United States, that continued as official policy in at least one major Fundamentalist Institution till the year 2000. At the moment, even though it is legal to integrate, we are still segregated. Segregation has a long shadow, and lives even now.

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I hope that @Ben_Sanders would pipe into this one…

I was being sarcastic. You are implying the reason why whiteness is tied to atheism is because African Americans are forced by societal pressures to attend church and identify as theists. This makes a couple of assumptions:

  1. non-white is mostly African American (false)
  2. church ties are due to political resistance instead of sincere belief (Bulverism)

An alternate theory is atheism’s amoral nature makes it a natural fit for the status quo maintaining power through immoral means.

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I am not making those assumptions.

The assumption that I do make, is that religion is connected with community. Most African-Americans shared a common problem, due to segregation and racism. It is entirely natural that they would form a community over that.

I do not doubt the sincerity of their beliefs. However, the black churches mostly teach a social gospel, so the beliefs are not the same as you will find in other churches.

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That is not true.

Many if not most tend towards pentecostalism and “fundamentalism” which is not quite white fundamentalism (no surprise).

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I can’t really comment on that, since I am not a churchgoer.

I regularly attend African American Pentecostal churches. @Swamidass is right. The social gospel is more white, liberal churches. The “black churches,” as you call them, actually really believe in regular divine intervention in their lives, not government handouts.

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In line with this, I would also like to point out that at least in the more liberal, secular parts of the US such as Northeast, Christianity seems more popular among Asian Americans than whites. All the campus fellowships I went to were majority Asian, with some black students, but very few whites. Many white communities here seem to be thoroughly secularized.

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How is atheism amoral? My morals, ethics, and values are just fine. I question your morals, ethics, and values.

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What out buddy. You are treading on thin ice.

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Technically, it is amoral. If atheism consists only of the lack of a belief in gods, then atheism does not come with a moral code. So it is without morals (or “amoral”).

Of course, this does not imply that atheists are amoral. It only implies that the morality of atheists is not a consequence of their atheism.

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Then I claim that theism specifically Christianity, Judaism, Islam comes with an immoral code.

My morals, ethics, and values come from my reasoning, my family upbringing and experience, and my culture and society that I live in NOW. I claim that NOT having a God, makes my morals, ethics and values more humane ,more empathetic, more tolerant, than immoral Christian morals and values.

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There were black churches for the reason, In canada, there are Chinese evangelical churches. Its a different people who want to be segregated.
Nothing to do with racism or Southeern segregation.
the churches reveal the heart.
Different people groups living in a single bounday.
however the problem comes in sharing the mutual nation.
the blacks in the south didn’t think they got what they should. its not because they were opposed to segregation but only being the losers in it.
Evangelical churches are the most diverse in america/canada. my church started as a canadian/then european people but now is a indian/Asian/black/canadian/european and others.
yet , except for the indian, the others do segregate also.
indian people in our church say India was very segregated and more so then even the old south.
The essence of different nations is the essence of segregation.
there is nothing morally wrong to desire to segregate based on identity.
its only wrong if it interferes with existing contracts of a nation that everything belongs to everyone.
then also if the original people desrire immigrating peoples to fully assimilate.
However what can you do, it seems, if people groups insist on segregating. especially bad in evangelical churches whee the unity of the brotherhood should trump all.

Under the present regime, that seems a reasonable expectation (my emphasis).

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I think you’re reading too much into it. Black people are statistically more likely to be religious than white people, and I don’t think that I would have to look too far to show the same about various immigrant communities. It’s cultural. As a result of that, being white is one statistical predictor of atheism. To my knowledge most white people aren’t atheist, and it’s merely one statistical factor while not having an overwhelming predictive value.

That certainly is one alternate theory. Any evidence? Who are the people maintaining power in this case? Any demonstration of their atheism you could make? I suspect you may have a problem doing so in the US at least :slight_smile:

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That certainly is one alternate theory. Any evidence? Who are the people maintaining power in this case? Any demonstration of their atheism you could make? I suspect you may have a problem doing so in the US at least

Trump? Atheist? Hmm!

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Theists like to claim that their moral code comes from their theology. But, too often, their behavior does not reflect that.

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I go to a Baptist Church that is a mixture of various races.
The point is I am completely white; however, we have many African-Americans in my church.