Newspaper Page Text
—
february, 1970
Religious relevance
Spelman Spotlight
page 3
Students trip out on religion
By gwendolyn solomon
Blacks, especially young blacks,
are suffering from a shortage of
cheeks, according to a Spelman
sophomore.
“The Bible says if someone
slaps one cheek, we should turn
the other,” she said. “I go along
with that, but if I am slapped a
third time, 1 will slap back, since
I don’t have another cheek to
turn.”
This statement is not only a
good explanation of the
increasing militancy among
young blacks, but, to an extent,
explains their alienation from the
traditional type of religion, which
has so long been a part of black
culture. In essence, it is Christian
not to fight back, but after more
than 400 years, it is hard not to
fight back.
In explaining the traditional
type of religion, as opposed to
what it should be today, The
Rev. Norman M. Rates quotes
Albert B. Cleage, Jr., author of
The Black Messiah.
The church in its traditional
sense is where the black man has
gone on Sunday’s to gain the
strength to endure the insults and
abuses of the following week.
This can no longer be the role of
the black church, he said. It must
be a place where the black man
can go to receive strength to fight
back heroically and to appreciate
his inestimable worth.
In his book, Cleage admonishes
that “...Today the church must
reinterpret its message in terms of
the needs of a Black Revolution.
We no longer feel helpless as
black people. We do not feel that
we must sit and wait for God to
intervene and settle our problems
for us. We waited for 400 years,
and he didn’t do much of
anything, so for the next 400
years, we’re going to be fighting
to change conditions for
ourselves.
“We have come to understand
how God works in the world,”
Cleage continues. “Now we know
that God is going to give us
strength for our struggle. As
black preachers, we must tell our
people that we are God’s chosen
people and that God is fighting
with us as we fight.”
Those persons who didn’t
actually approve of the violent
movement in the Black
Revolution said they had no
trouble in understanding why
some individuals have turned to
violence.
“As a minister, I abhor
violence,” said Rev. Rates. I
would rather that man be
non-violent in his conduct. I
don’t condone violence, but I can
understand it. Some people are
violent about that which means
the most to them.”
“They (militants) don’t act as
if they are going by what is in the
Bible,” opinioned one student,
“But who am I to say they are
sinners?
In response to the question,
what place does religion have in
the lives of today’s young blacks,
those who condone violence
apparently feel that religion in its
traditional sense no longer has a
place in their lives. They seem to
feel that the religion to which
blacks have turned for so many
years is hypocritical.
“The purpose of religion is to
benefit the people who believe in
it,” a Morehouse freshman
declared, “And black people have
not advanced as much as they
should have.” This is presumably
where the hypocrisy comes in.
The fact that all people don’t
live according to the doctrines of
their particular religion also
exemplifies the hypocrisy in the
church, according to several
people. One student referred
specifically to her aunt who is a
Seventh Day Adventist.
“My aunt isn’t supposed to
wear eye make-up,” she apprised,
“So instead of using an eyebrow
pencil, she paints her eyebrows
with an ordinary writing pencil,
which gives the same effect.”
The student emphatically
stated that such practices are
wrong and that if one really
believes in a religion, she should
abide by its rules and regulations.
Other forms of hypocrisy,
according to the students
interviewed, exist among the
people who run the church. For
example, there are deacons who
play the numbers, commit
adultery, and do countless other
things that they know are wrong.
Then there are the “beloved”
pastors who take the hard earned
money of their congregations,
comprised mostly of poor people,
and buy fine cars to match the
length of their fine houses. And
those who stuff their closets so
full of high-priced suits and shoes
that they end up spending more
time deciding what to wear than
they spend writing their sermons.
If young blacks are turning
away from the customary type of
religion, one might ask, “What
are they turning to in the place of
itT
One answer to this question
was “dope”. To put it in the
words of one person, “A lot of
people are turning to dope,
because they feel that religion has
nothing to offer them.”
Although some students feel
that dope is a substitute, they
don’t feel that their peers have
actually turned their backs on
religion. Narcotics, they feel, is
something to resort to in addition
to their religion.
“Blacks have gone the way of
all Americans,” contributed Rev.
Rates. As young blacks acquire
more materialistic things, as they
obtain higher levels of education
and sophistication, they turn
further away from the traditional
type of black religion.”
Although the younger blacks
are weaning away from the
conventional black religion, they
still attend the usual type church
services. For instance, the
Morehouse freshman, who was
mentioned earlier, attends the
Holiness church, when he seeks
religious inspiration.
Another Morehouse student, a
senior, attends Baptist church
services. Although he gets
spiritual gratification from the
services, he also attends them
because there he has access to the
people with whom he would like
to communicate. “From eleven
to one on Sunday’s,” he
observed, “You always know
where the people are.”
One example of blacks Straying
ways "from convention, as far as
religion is concerned, is the belief
that it is not necessary to actually
attend church to serve God.
“There are people outside the
church who are more religious
than those who go every
Sunday,” maintained one
Spelman student. “A church is
only a building, she continued,
and you can have church in your
house.”
Although this particular
student, whose father is a
minister, had some sound
opinions on religion as such, she
admitted that she hates to go to
church, and she even went so far
as to get a Sunday job so she
wouldn’t have to go.
The Rev. Rates agreed that it
isn’t necessary to attend church
to serve God, however, he does
feel that it is an essential
institution.
“The church serves those who
want to be served,” he asserted.
“We need it for our sake not
God’s.”
Most students who were
interviewed did not negate the
importance of the traditional
black religion. They felt that it
had a definite place in their lives.
Many of them participate in
church activities.
It is the opinion of the Rev.
Rates, that those who have lost
faith in the conventional type of
religion will eventually return to
a more relevant form of it.
“One who is brought up in the
church, he theorizes, “will very
likely return to it later in life.”
In the meantime, some blacks
are looking for something more
meaningful than the religious
concepts of their ancestors. They
are looking for something real
and sound, compared to the
fickleness and confusion of
traditional religion. They, in
short, are looking for a bigger and
better escape from the pressures
of modern society.
The question is, will they find
it?
^ Vocational exploration 5
Career corner
By janice white
Did you notice a pink stack of
papers on the corner table in
Read Hall during second semester
registration?
If you didn’t maybe you
should have...because those
papers concerned a class in
Vocational Exploration. This
course if being offered by the
Spelman College Counseling
Service.
The objectives of this class are:
1) To develope an awareness of
crucial factors to be considered in
career planning, 2) To help the
student in self appraisal of
abilities, interest, personality,
goals, etc. 3) To acquaint the
student with facts regarding
occupational and vocational
fields of interest, and 4) To
provide guidance to the student
while she makes her career
selection.
Vocational Exploration is a
non-credit course which may be
taken by any student
sophomore and above.
Counseling Service personnel
are greatly dissatisfied with
student response to this
Vocational exploration class.
“The response to this course
was much less than we
anticipated,” revealed Mrs. Le
Conyea Butler, College
Counselor.
“There is difficulty in getting
students interested in careers in
general,” she continued.
Both students and Counseling
Service feel that the lack of
interest in the new course stems
form the fact that the class is a
non-credit class.
Also discussed in the interview
with Counseling Service
personnel was the bulletin board
found in the snack shop. On this
board can be found current and
pertinent SGA news and
announcements of career choices.
Daily information relative to
career choices is posted for the
student body.
Another service of particular
interest is the up-to-date career
and vocational material housed in
the SGA library located in the
SGA building.
Meanwhile the Counseling
Service is continually striving to
reach and assist as many students
as possible. Printed material,
recruitment notices and course
offerings are but a few of the
attempts to aid you in the
selection of careers.
Take advantage of the services
of the Counseling Service.