Gender Talk: "The Black Church: What's the Word?"

In Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities, authors Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall discuss the Black church and masculinity. The chapter I want to discuss here is called “The Black Church: What’s the Word?” In this chapter, Sheftall and Cole look at the privileges of Black males in the church setting and the expectations of women. They begin by saying, “What are the principal lessons about gender that we were taught…? That God is a male and that Jesus is both white and male; that the relationship between women and men in everyday life is to be like that between God and His church, for God is the head of the church, and all members are to follow Him” (104). They further state that “The Black church is an institution that is a critical site for the subordination of women and the perpetuation of conservative gender ideologies on the one hand” (105). I find this book and this chapter to be very engaging and important in the study of masculinity because each culture has its own spin on the meaning of what it means to “be a man.” I also like that this book was written by women and highlights proactive women who are trying to put a stop to gender inequality. The ideas that I find most fascinating in this chapter are the ones that Cole and Sheftall discuss in regards to the origins of Black masculinity. They talk about the emasculated Black man, who yearned to take their rightful place in the American body politic and adopt ideas from the dominant culture. The ideas of gender norms were becoming heavily influenced by white culture, and these Black men felt the need to assimilate themselves into white culture by discrediting women and their rights.

In as early as 1789, Black women connected with Black men to help end slavery, and even though the churches were mainly ran by men, the women helped to prayer warriors, singers, and teachers, but at the beginning of the twentieth century, that changed. Women were forced to give up their access to leadership and hand over the reins to Black men. Cole and Sheftall theorize about the reasons that this happened, stating, “Perhaps it is not surprising that African American men, who were prohibited from exercising power in other public arenas would be adamant about maintain authority in the one institution they did manage to control, Black churches” (109). The interesting concept behind Black male domination in the church is that they use the bible to justify their hegemonic masculine views, the same way the bible was used to justify members of the white culture having slaves and using harsh tactics towards them. Male dominance in the Black community has been “expressed most clearly by the fact that Black women were forbidden to be ordained and to preach from a pulpit. These prohibitions continue to be ‘justified’ by reference to biblical sources” (109). Some preachers in the Black church believe that women are just as inferior to man as man is inferior to God. Males have found a way to use the teachings of the lord to create an air tight argument on why they are of higher importance. The analysis of Black males and the pull towards dominance is filled with so many complexities that it would take many blog posts and many years to peel back the layers. One of the most obvious reasons behind Black male dominance is the feeling of being able to control some area of life that has for so long been controlled for them by the dominant culture. Black males feel weakened by white society and therefore feel the need to pull from some other area in their lives and overcompensate for the power that has been taken from them. This does not offer excuses for the behavior that is being described, just background. I think it is important to know where our society has been so we do not go back to that place again.

Cole and Sheftall describe very disturbing practices that are going on in the Black church, aside from the overt masculinity. Sheftall describes a painful incident where her sister was going to a well-known preacher for marital advice pending a separation from her husband. The preacher “literally chased her around his office and offered sexual solace rather than marital counseling” (118). This is not a new problem; women have been getting assaulted by their preachers for years. What is more, some women have actually submitted to it and allowed the preachers to have relations with them that betray families and the church. This part of the chapter goes back to Kimmel’s Guyland in that I see where women are helping to reiterate to men that they are dominant and can have whatever they like, even if it is access to another woman’s body that is not his wife’s. Women have got to stop giving up their bodies to anyone, especially men who are only using it as a means to assert their control over. The reason I love this book so much is because at the end of each chapter, they discuss ways in which these problems are being addressed in order to show the reader that they must act and not feel powerless to this struggle. There are women who are working to directly change the issues of male dominance and female resistance (123) and openly discuss sexual violence and how one avoids becoming a victim. There are also religious leaders who are openly gay and churches who speak out against homophobia. One of the club organizations, Tender Loving Care clubs are for children in the churches who are provided with “sophisticated knowledge about sexuality so that they can behave responsibly as adults” (123). I think it is important that there are these kinds of groups to counteract the massive amounts of male dominance and hate that is being sent out into the world. I can only hope that some of these children who are apart of these clubs will take the lessons they have learned and help create a better future.

Stay tuned for more posts about Gender Talk and homophobia, hip-hop, and the body politic.