Words of Fire (58 page)

My central argument is this: black theology cannot continue to treat black women as if they were invisible creatures who are on the outside looking into the black experience, the black church, and the black theological enterprise. It will have to deal with the community of believers in all aspects as
integral parts of the whole community. Black theology, therefore, must speak to the bishops who hide behind the statement, “Women don't want women pastors.” It must speak to the pastors who say, “My church isn't ready for women preachers yet.” It must teach the seminarians who feel that “women have no place in seminary.” It must address the women in the church and community who are content and complacent with their oppression. It must challenge the educators who would reeducate the people on every issue except the issue of the dignity and equality of women.

Black women represent more than fifty percent of the black community and more than seventy percent of the black church. How then can an authentic theology of liberation arise out of these communities without specifically addressing the liberation of the women in both places? Does the fact that certain questions are raised by black women make them any less black concerns? If, as I contend, the liberation of black men and women is inseparable, then a radical split cannot be made between racism and sexism. Black women are oppressed by racism and sexism. It is therefore necessary that black men and women be actively involved in combating both evils.

Only as black women in greater numbers make their way from the background to the forefront will the true strength of the black community be fully realized. There is already a heritage of strong black women and men upon which a stronger nation can be built. There is a tradition that declares that God is at work in the experience of the black woman. This tradition, in the context of the total black experience, can provide data for the development of a holistic black theology. Such a theology will repudiate the God of classical theology who is presented as an absolute Patriarch, a deserting father who created black men and women and then “walked out” in the face of responsibility. Such a theology will look at the meaning of the total Jesus Christ Event; it will consider not only how God through Jesus Christ is related to the oppressed men, but to women as well. Such a theology will “allow” God through the Holy Spirit to work through persons without regard to race, sex, or class. This theology will exercise its prophetic function, and serve as a “self-test” in a church characterized by the sins of racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression. Until black women theologians are fully participating in the theological enterprise, it is important to keep black male theologians and black leaders cognizant of their dereliction. They must be made aware of the fact that black women are needed not only as Christian educators, but as theologians and church leaders. It is only when black women and men share jointly the leadership in theology and in the church and community that the black nation will become strong and liberated. Only then will there be the possibility that black theology can become a theology of divine liberation.

One final word for those who argue that the issues of racism and sexism
are too complicated and should not be confused. I agree that the issues should not be “confused.” But the elimination of both racism and sexism is so crucial for the liberation of black persons that we cannot shrink from facing them together. Sojourner Truth tells us why this is so. In 1867, she spoke out on the issue of suffrage, and what she said at that time is still relevant to us as we deal with the liberation of black women today.

Black women have to keep the issue of sexism “going” in the black community, in the black church, and in black theology until it has been eliminated. To do otherwise means that they will be pushed aside until eternity. Therefore, with Sojourner Truth, I'm for “keeping things going while things are stirring....”

ENDNOTES

1
Beatriz Melano Couch, remarks on the feminist panel of Theology in the Americas Conference in Detroit in August 1975, printed in
Theology in the Americas
, ed. Sergio Torres and John Eagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976), 375.

2
Consuelo Urquiza, “A Message from a Hispanic American Woman,”
The Fifth Commission: A Monitor for Third World Concerns
IV (June-July 1978), insert. The Fifth Commission is a commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N.Y.

3
I agree with the Fifth Commission that “the Third World is not a geographic entity, but rather the world of oppressed peoples in their struggle for liberation.” In this sense, black women are included in the term “Third World.” However, in order to accent the peculiar identity, problems, and needs of black women in the First World or the Third World contexts, I choose to make the distinction between black and other Third World women.

4
For a discussion of sexual dualisms in our society, see Rosemary Ruether, New
Women/New Earth
(New York: Seabury Press, 1975), chapter I; and
Liberation Theology
(New York: Paulist Press, 1972), 16 ff. Also for a discussion of sexual (social) dualisms as related to the brain hemispheres, see Sheila Collins, A
Different Heaven and Earth
(Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1974), 169-70.

5
Angela Davis, “Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves,”
Black Scholar
4, no. 3 (December 1971): 3—15. I do take issue with Davis's point, however. The black community may have experienced “equality in inequality,” but this was forced on them from the dominant or enslaving community. She does not deal with the inequality within the community itself.

6
See Sheila Collins,
A Different Heaven;
Rosemary Ruether,
New Woman;
Letty Russell,
Human Liberation in the Feminist Perspective
(Philadelphia:

7
Surely the factor of race would be absent, but one would have to do an indepth analysis to determine the possible effect on the status of black women.

8
James Cone,
A Black Theology of Liberation
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1970), 23.

9
Eulalio Baltazar discusses color symbolism (white is good; black is evil) as a reflection of racism in the white theology that perpetuates it.
The Dark Center: A Process Theology of Blackness
(New York: Paulist Press, 1973).

10
One may want to argue that black theology is not concerned with sexism but with racism. I will argue in this essay that such a theology could speak only half the truth, if truth at all.

11
Karl Barth,
Church Dogmatics,
vol. 1, part 1, 2.

12
Cone,
A Black Theology,
230-32.

13
James Cone and Albert Cleage do make this observation of the contemporary black church and its response to the struggles against racism. See Cleage,
The Black Messiah
(New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969); and Cone,
A Black Theology.

14
A study that I conducted in the Philadelphia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, May 1976. It also included sporadic samplings of churches in other conferences in the First Episcopal District. As for example, a church of 1,660 members (500 men and 1,160 women) had a trustee board of 8 men and 1 woman and a steward board of 13 men and 6 women. A church of 100 members (35 men and 65 women) had a trustee board of 5 men and 4 women and a steward board of 5 men and 4 women.

15
Jarena Lee,
The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee: A Colored Lady Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel
(Philadelphia, 1836), in
Early Negro Writing 1760—1837
, ed. Dorothy Porter (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971) 494—514.

16
Ibid., 503 (italics added): Carol George in
Segregated Sabbaths
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973) presents a very positive picture of the relationship between Jarena Lee and Bishop Richard Allen. She feels that by the time Lee approached Allen, he had “modified his views on women's rights” (129). She contends that since Allen was free from the Methodist Church he was able to “determine his own policy” with respect to women under the auspices of the A.M.E. Church. It should be noted that Bishop Allen accepted the Rev. Jarena Lee as a woman preacher and not as an ordained preacher with full rights and privileges thereof. Even Carol George admitted that Lee traveled with Bishop Allen only “as an unofficial member of their delegation to conference sessions in New York and Baltimore,” “to attend,” not to participate in them. I agree that this does represent progress in Bishop Allen's view as compared to Lee's first approach; on the second approach, he was at least encouraging. Then he began “to promote her interests” (129)—but he did not ordain her.

17
Ibid.

18
“Elizabeth: A Colored Minister of the Gospel,” in
Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life,
ed. Bert James Loewenberg and Ruth Bogin (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976), 132. The denomination of Elizabeth is not known to this writer. Her parents were Methodists, but she was separated from her parents at the age of eleven. However, the master from whom she gained her freedom was Presbyterian. Her autobiography was published by the Philadelphia Quakers.

19
Ibid., 133.

20
Amanda Berry Smith,
An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord's Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Berry Smith, the Colored Evangelist
(Chicago, 1893), in Loewenberg and Bogin,
Black
Women, 157.

21
Ibid.

22
Ibid., 159.

23
The African Methodist Episcopal Church started ordaining women in 1948, according to the Rev. William P. Foley of Bridgestreet A.M.E. Church in Brooklyn, New York. The first ordained woman was Martha J. Keys. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church ordained women as early as 1884. At that time, Mrs. Julia A. Foote was ordained Deacon in the New York Annual Conference. In 1894, Mrs. Mary J. Small was ordained Deacon, and in 1898, she was ordained Elder. See David Henry Bradley, Sr.,
A History of the A.M.E. Zion Church,
vol. 2
1872—1968
(Nashville: Parthenon Press, 1970), 384, 393.

24
Yolande Herron, Jacquelyn Grant, Gwendolyn Johnson, and Samuel Robers, “Black Women and the Field Education Experience at Union Theological Seminary: Problems and Prospects” (New York: Union Theological Seminary, May 1978).

25
This organization continues to call itself the National Conference of Black Churchmen despite the protests of women members.

26
NCBC has since made the decision to examine the policies of its host institutions (churches) to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.

27
E. Franklin Frazier,
The Negro Church in America
; C. Eric Lincoln,
The Black Church Since Frazier
(New York: Schocken Books, 1974).

28
Printed in Phillip S. Foner, ed.,
Frederick Douglass on Women's Rights
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press), 51.

29
Cone, “Black Ecumenism and the Liberation Struggle,” delivered at Yale University, February 16—17, 1978, and Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church, May 22, 1978. In two other recent papers he has voiced concern on women's issues, relating them to the larger question of liberation. These papers are: “New Roles in the Ministry: A Theological Appraisal” and “Black Theology and the Black Church: Where Do We Go From Here?”

30
Jacquelyne Jackson, “But Where Are the Men?”
Black Scholar
, op. cit., 30.

31
Ibid., 32.

32
Kathleen Cleaver was interviewed by Sister Julia Herve. Ibid., 55-56.

33
Ibid., 55.

34
Sekou Toure, “The Role of Women in the Revolution,”
Black Scholar
, vol. 6, no. 6 (March 1975), 32.

35
Sabelo Newasm and Basil Moore, “The Concept of God in Black Theology,” in
The Challenge of Black Theology in South Africa
, ed. Basil Moore (Atlanta, Ga.: John Knox Press, 1974), 25—26.