CAMP Spirit

The months of February and March are very special times for me because we honor Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March). I believe that people of privilege must always listen to the under-represented and marginalized voices in our midst, and, in the United States, that includes the voices of African-Americans and of women. I believe that it is possible and desirable to learn from others without co-opting or trivializing their beliefs and cultures; and so, in my recent studies, I have been looking at the spirituality of black women, many of whom call themselves "womanists."

The term "womanist" was coined by poet-novelist Alice Walker in her book In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1983): "A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, ‘You acting womanish,’ i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered good for one."

A specifically womanist spirituality developed among a group of doctoral students at New York’s Union Theological Seminary in the 1980s. Stimulated by the black liberation theology of James Cone and the feminist theology of Beverly Wildung Harrison and Dorothée Sölle, each of whom were their professors at Union, these women began to ask themselves how theology, biblical studies, and ethics might be challenged through a black woman’s analysis.

The oppressive nature of white feminist theology was first articulated by black lesbian poet and theorist Audre Lorde: "To imply...that all women suffer the same oppression simply because we are women is to lose sight of the many varied tools of patriarchy.... [B]eyond sisterhood is still racism" (Sister Outsider; The Crossing Press, 1984). Additionally, black women have had to endure their second-class status within the black community in general and in the black churches in particular. In the struggle for black liberation, any concern with women’s issues was seen as disloyalty to the black male and to the agenda of black power. Moreover, African-American women struggle not only with the racism of their white sisters and the sexism of their black fathers, brothers, and husbands, but also with the classism of American society, which relegates black women and children to its lowest economic level. Thus, most womanist discourse bases its discussion upon the threefold nature of African-American women’s oppression through an analysis of gender, race, and class. They contend that the triple oppression of African-American women puts them in a unique position from which to "do" theology.

Because the spirituality of black women emerges from these three perspectives, I believe it is particularly instructive for a community such as ours, which includes so many diverse elements: We are not all male, nor all white, nor all well-to-do—even though some of us would like to think so. We are not all from traditional Judeo-Christian backgrounds, and those of us who were may no longer be. Therefore, we can definitely benefit from a spirituality that does not privatize any particular group as "the right one," but revels in the interconnectedness of all people. Interconnectedness and the intersection of oppressions are the guiding principles of a womanist spirituality.

For example, womanist ethicist Emilie Townes notes that "to ignore acts of oppression is to condone them and encourage their repetition" ("Introduction" to her anthology Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation; Orbis Books, 1997). Much as we would like to live with our heads in the sand like the quintessential ostriches that we often aspire to become, we must not ignore that, just a few miles from our beach paradise, Hispanic workers are discriminated against in their jobs, people of all colors live below the poverty level, women’s personhood is distorted at "gentlemen’s clubs," and the essential goodness of gay and lesbian people is questioned by groups that seek to "transform" them. While it would be nice to say,

"I don’t know these people" or "That’s not my issue," Townes reminds us that oppression is oppression. We don’t oppose it because it is our issue or because it affects a loved one; we oppose oppression because it is the right thing to do. The silent, apathetic majority in our country often gives ground to the vocal minority that seeks to erode individual rights. In my own Christian tradition, I see people of faith and good conscience abdicating their religion to right-wing fundamentalists who would have us look, talk, think, act, love, and vote the same.

Womanist theologian Diana Hayes goes a step further and names oppression as out-and-out violence: "Violence is an assault on human dignity in whatever form it takes.... Whatever violates another in the sense of infringing upon or disregarding or abusing or denying that other, whether physical harm is involved or not, can be understood as an act of violence" ("My Hope Is in the Lord: Transformation and Salvation in the African-American Community" in Embracing the Spirit, above). Hayes believes that the incivility that we see in our world comes out of a failure to recognize every human person—and the earth!—as interconnected and sacred. She points out that psychic violence escalates to the violence we see on the news that commentators try to blame on gangs, drugs, the homeless, and youth.

Perhaps if we looked at affronts to personal dignity the same way we do murder, battery, and financial indiscretions, we could put a stop to these slights to personhood in our community in our lifetime. If we began to see every person as a bearer of Spirit able to teach us unique truths and raise a mirror before our eyes, perhaps then our beach would indeed be a paradise!

Other Sources on "Womanist Spirituality":

• Delores S. Williams, Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk (Orbis Books, 1993)

• Emilie M. Townes, ed., Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil and Suffering (Orbis Books, 1993)

• Marcia Y. Riggs, Awake, Arise, and Act: A Womanist Call for Black Liberation (The Pilgrim Press, 1994)

• Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, and Class (Vintage Books, 1983)

• Jacquelyn Grant, White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response (Scholars Press, 1989).