synonymous with “sinful.” Randall J. Stephens writes, “The fact of human sinfulness was taken for granted by most southern evangelicals” ([12], p. 25). Darren Dochuk adds that anything leading to what was perceived as “secularization was immediately suspect in the evangelical mind” ([13], p. 16).
Although institutional racism and segregation during the Jim Crow era separated Southern blacks
and whites, especially when worshiping, both black and white working-class Southerners shared
many important religious beliefs. This is not meant to gloss over the significant differences between
Southern “black” and “white” religious traditions, styles, and histories. To cite a few examples,
Africans brought to America had radically different religious traditions from their European enslavers,
a “sacred mentality” where “the line between purely religious and purely secular” was not made,
“and some of this blurring remained well after freedom” ([14], p. 170). During the post-Reconstruction
era of lynchings, African American Christians in the South had a distinct identification with Christ’s
crucifixion, and “affirmed the moral sublimity of Christ for having lived his life amid persecutions
like their own” ([15], pp. 178–79). At the most extreme, sometimes the differences between black and
white worship seemed so profound that “typically each group thinks nothing very religious is going
on in the worship services of the other” ([16], p. 37).
Despite these very real differences between “white” and “black” Christianity in the South in terms
of history, theology, and worship style, there are many significant similarities vital to the topic of this
essay. The distinctive African roots of African-American Christianity began to fade after emancipation
when first and second-generation freed men were “determined to divest themselves of the behavior
patterns of the slave past”, which included “the religious practices which had been so crucial to slave
culture” ([14], p. 162). Amiri Baraka argues that as black churches grew more autonomous, they “began
to take on social characteristics that, while imitative of their white counterparts in many instances,
developed equally, if not more rigid social mores of their own” ([17], p. 48). Charles Reagan Wilson
claims that, “the predominant style of religion in the South is a shared tradition, one that reflects
black influence as much as white. Distinctive African American church practices reinforce southern
evangelicalism” ([9], p. 132). While there are differences between white and black evangelical worship
in the South, by the early twentieth century there were many beliefs held in common, and this essay
will focus on some of those key common beliefs.
One of the common beliefs of southern evangelicals is their attitude toward the “secular” world.
Albert Murray, a scholar of African American music and culture, describes the general Southern
evangelical attitude toward the world: “The church is not concerned with the affirmation of life as
such, which in its view is only a matter of feeble flesh to begin with. The church is committed to the
eternal salvation of the soul after death, which is both final and inevitable. Human existence is only a
brief sojourn in a vale of trials, troubles, and tribulations to be endured because it is the will of the
Creator, whose ways are mysterious” ([18], p. 38). Therefore, at best, “worldly” matters were temporal
and of no value during the long march through this life on the way to Heaven; at worst, they could be
sinful snares of a Fallen world that must be avoided.
While evangelical Protestants mistrust the Fallen, secular world, they also ironically believe it
to be highly alluring because of its many tempting, sensual pleasures. Southern Protestants created
stern codes for moral behavior intended to prevent the faithful from being ensured by the world’s
sinful pleasures. For example, the Assemblies of God—the denomination of Elvis Presley and Jerry
Lee Lewis—prohibited “drinking, smoking, gambling, picture shows, dance halls, swimming in public,
and even life insurance” ([19], p. 93). Southern state and local governments got involved in shielding
its citizens from sinful temptations by passing local “blue laws”, which kept stores and other businesses
closed on Sundays, particularly any place that served liquor. As Samuel S. Hill notes, the only sensual
experiences typically condoned by the dominant southern religion are, “hearing and speaking . . .
Words are sacred, an utterly reliable guide to reality” ([20], p. 10), as reflected in the South’s strong
sermonizing culture. Conversely, most other forms of sensual experience have traditionally been met
with distrust to varying degrees as too secular and potentially sinful.
