Words of Fire

by Beverly Guy-Sheftall

  As far as the issue of women is concerned, it is obvious that the black church described by C. Eric Lincoln has not fared much better than the Negro church of E. Franklin Frazier.27 The failure of the black church and black theology to proclaim explicitly the liberation of black women indicates that they cannot claim to be agents of divine liberation. If the theology, like the church, has no word for black women, its conception of liberation is inauthentic.

  THE BLACK EXPERIENCE AND THE BLACK WOMAN

  For the most part, black churchmen have not dealt with the oppression of black women in either the black church or the black community. Frederick Douglass was one notable exception in the nineteenth century. His active advocacy for women’s rights was a demonstration against the contradiction between preaching “justice for all” and practicing the continued oppression of women. He, therefore, “dared not claim a right [for himself] which he would not concede to women.”28 These words describe the convictions of a man who was active both in the church and in the larger black community. This is significant because there is usually a direct relationship between what goes on in the black church and the black secular community.

  The status of black women in the community parallels that of black women in the church. Black theology considers the black experience to be the context out of which its questions about God and human existence are formulated. This is assumed to be the context in which God’s revelation is received and interpreted. Only from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed can theology be adequately done. Arising out of the Black Power movement of the 1960s, black theology purports to take seriously the experience of the larger community’s struggle for liberation. But if this is, indeed, the case, black theology must function in the secular community in the same way as it should function in the church community. It must serve as a “self-test” to see whether the rhetoric or proclamation of the black community’s struggle for liberation is consistent with its practices. How does the “self-test” principle operate among the poor and the oppressed? Certainly black theology has spoken to some of the forms of oppression that exist within the community of the oppressed. Many of the injustices it has attacked are the same as those that gave rise to the prophets of the Old Testament. But the fact that black theology does not include sexism specifically as one of those injustices is all too evident. It suggests that the theologians do not understand sexism to be one of the oppressive realities of the black community. Silence on this specific issue can only mean conformity with the status quo. The most prominent black theologian, James Cone, has recently broken this silence. “The black church, like all other churches, is a male-dominated church. The difficulty that black male ministers have in supporting the equality of women in the church and society stems partly from the lack of a clear liberation-criterion rooted in the gospel and in the present struggles of oppressed peoples.... It is truly amazing that many black male ministers, young and old, can hear the message of liberation in the gospel when related to racism but remain deaf to a similar message in the context of sexism....”29 It is difficult to understand how black men manage to exclude the liberation of black women from their interpretation of the liberating gospel. Any correct analysis of the poor and oppressed would reveal some interesting and inescapable facts about the situation of women within oppressed groups. Without succumbing to the long and fruitless debate of “who is more oppressed than whom?” I want to make some pointed suggestions to black male theologians.

  It would not be very difficult to argue that since black women are the poorest of the poor, the most oppressed of the oppressed, their experience provides a most fruitful context for doing black theology. The research of Jacquelyne Jackson attests to the extreme deprivation of black women. Jackson supports her claim with statistical data that “in comparison with black males and white males and females, black women yet constitute the most disadvantaged group in the United States, as evidenced especially by their largely unenviable educational, occupational, employment, and income levels, and availability of marital partners.”30 In other words, in spite of the “quite insignificant” educational advantage that black women have over black men, they have “had the greatest access to the worst jobs at the lowest earnings.”31 It is important to emphasize this fact in order to elevate to its rightful level of concern the condition of black women, not only in the world at large, but in the black community and the black church. It is my contention that if black theology speaks of the black community as if the special problems of black women do not exist, it is no different from the white theology it claims to reject precisely because of its inability to take account of the existence of black people in its theological formulations.

  It is instructive to note that the experience of black women working in the Black Power movement further accented the problem of the oppression of women in the black community. Because of their invisibility in the leadership of the movement they, like women of the church, provided the “support” segment of the movement. They filled the streets when numbers were needed for demonstrations. They stuffed the envelopes in the offices and performed other menial tasks. Kathleen Cleaver, in a Black Scholar interview, revealed some of the problems in the movement that caused her to become involved in women’s liberation issues. While underscoring the crucial role played by women as Black Power activists, Kathleen Cleaver, nonetheless, acknowledged the presence of sex discrimination.

  I viewed myself as assisting everything that was done.... The form of assistance that women give in political movements to men is just as crucial as the leadership that men give to those movements. And this is something that is never recognized and never dealt with. Because women are always relegated to assistance, and this is where I became interested in the liberation of women. Conflicts, constant conflicts came up, conflicts that would rise as a result of the fact that I was married to a member of the Central Committee and I was also an officer in the Party. Things that I would have suggested myself would be implemented. But if I suggested them the suggestion might be rejected. If they were suggested by a man, the suggestion would be implemented.

  It seemed throughout the history of my working with the Party, I always had to struggle with this. The suggestion itself was never viewed objectively. The fact that the suggestion came from a woman gave it some lesser value. And it seemed that it had something to do with the egos of the men involved. I know that the first demonstration that we had at the courthouse for Huey Newton I was very instrumental in organizing; the first time we went out on the soundtrucks, I was on the soundtrucks; the first leaflet we put out, I wrote; the first demonstration, I made up the pamphlets. And the members of that demonstration for the most part were women. I’ve noticed that throughout my dealings in the black movement in the United States, that the most anxious, the most eager, the most active, the most quick to understand the problem and quick to move are women.32

  Cleaver exposed the fact that even when leadership was given to women, sexism lurked in the wings. As executive secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Ruby Doris Robinson was described as the “heartbeat of SNCC.” Yet there were “the constant conflicts, the constant struggles that she was subjected to because she was a woman.”33

  Notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary, some might want to argue that the central problem of black women is related to their race and not their sex. Such an argument then presumes that the problem cannot be resolved apart from the black struggle. I contend that as long as the black struggle refuses to recognize and deal with its sexism, the idea that women will receive justice from that struggle alone will never work. It will not work because black women will no longer allow black men to ignore their unique problems and needs in the name of some distorted view of the “liberation of the total community.” I would bring to the minds of the proponents of this argument the words of President Sekou Toure as he wrote about the role of African women in the revolution. He said, ‘If African women cannot possibly conduct their strugg
le in isolation from the struggle that our people wage for African liberation, African freedom, conversely, is not effective unless it brings about the liberation of African women.“34 Black men who have an investment in the patriarchal structure of white America and who intend to do Christian theology have yet to realize that if Jesus is liberator of the oppressed, all of the oppressed must be liberated. Perhaps the proponents of the argument that the cause of black women must be subsumed under a larger cause should look to South African theologians Sabelo Ntwasa and Basil Moore. They affirm that”black theology, as it struggles to formulate a theology of liberation relevant to South Africa, cannot afford to perpetuate any form of domination, not even male domination. If its liberation is not human enough to include the liberation of women, it will not be liberation.“35

  A CHALLENGE TO BLACK THEOLOGY

  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.

  I feel that if I have to answer for the deeds done in my body just as much as a man, I have a right to have just as much as a man. There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the whole thing going while things are stirring: because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again....36

  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: Westminster Press, 1974); and Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973).

  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.