The Negro's church,.

92

The Negro's Church

The shouting, highly emotional, sermon cannot survive
except in an atmosphere where the response is spontaneous
and warm; and two years' observation during the period of
this study would lead one to believe that the "shouting"
sermon is rapidly on the wane. A minister has to work too
hard to get a verbal response or shout. It was really pathetic
to watch a college graduate try to shout his audience during
three distinct intervals in his sermon by picturing a graphic
scene in heaven where his hearers would meet again their
beloved dead. There were two or three "amens"; but for the
most part the audience appeared indifferent, and each time
the minister had to retreat.
Reflecting the Experience of the Race
In slightly more than 65 per cent. of the this-worldly, and
in many of the other-worldly sermons, one is able to glimpse
the present social and economic problems that confront the
Negro. There is definiteness in many of them as to what a
minority group should do to make better adjustment to a
social and economic order constructed primarily to meet the
needs of the ruling majority.
The other-worldly sermons also reflect the experience of
the race. Other-worldliness is an element in the Christian
tradition. As the Christian teachings are accepted rather literally, it is not surprising that a high percentage of the 100
sermons are flavored with the idea of eternal salvation to be
experienced outside the processes of history. Church history
shows that to a large degree other-worldliness has at some
time characterized Catholicism, both Greek and Roman, and
practically all forms of Protestantism. It first arose in Jewish
history at a time when Israel had been subject for generations
to domination by one or another of the imperial powers.
When the Jewish people, after prolonged suffering and persecution, accepted the idea that they could never hope to gain
lasting political supremacy in this world, the belief in an age