The Diminished Public, and Black Christian Promotion of American Civic Ideals

Abstract

Black public activism has been guided largely by black affinities toward the U.S. Constitution, including its core democratic liberalist premises. This range of constitutionally defined political possibilities has both animated (and confined) a sense of public imagination and agency for many black Christians. Divergences and convergences between black religion-based public confidence and dissent are examined here, with reference to three paradigmatic approaches: (1) civil religious patriotism; (2) religious counter-publics; and (3) socio-religious liminality and semi-publics. Contrasts and continuities between these approaches are examined with attention to the impact of these approaches on a beleaguered and diminished American public realm and their relative affirmations or negations of broad understandings and undertakings of public purposes.

The Political Mobilization of African American Churches: Forms, Models, Mechanisms

“…19-20). Over time, researchers began to notice that more and more Black churches were promoting the individual dimension of religion, including (in some cases) the prosperity gospel 26 , while neglecting the social gospel ideas (Glaude, 2010;Smith, 2021). Eddie S. Glaude Jr. even stated in his article for the Huffington Post, The Black Church Is Dead (2010), referring to the "death" of an active church that fought for the rights of African Americans.…”

Baldwin and the Role of the Citizen Artist

“…And they must retain an awareness both that their regime may well merit their loyalty and sacrifices despite its flaws, and that, even if their nation is in many respects worthy of their loyalty, there may be times when its interests are not justified in light of their broader membership in the community of humanity. 11 At once loyal to and skeptical of the promise of American democracy, Baldwin devoted himself to representing the full complexity of human character-both Black and white-in his fiction, and specifically guaranteeing that Black life was granted a place in "the broader membership in the community of humanity. " Representing the anguish, vitality, and history of Black Americans, Baldwin and his peers together produced a truer, more complete vision of America.…”