This book deals specifically with the topic of the sexual abuse of power in black churches. This problem has been estimated to be three times as prevalent in the black churches, yet scant attention has been brought to bear on this subject. This book is meant to provide a framework for understanding the problem for the purpose of preventing its occurrence in the context of the black church. It examines the history of sexual ethics in the black community as a means of understanding its deep-seated place in the life of the black churches. The book uses the narratives of black women and children who have been the primary victims of this abuse. It identifies the major social and psychological reasons why and how this abuse develops and continues. It is directed to pastors and leaders of the church who wish to put an end to this injustice that is largely born of ignorance and the adoption of a sexual ethic that is derived from slavery and it effects.

Donald Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scientists, and literary critics in the study of African-American religion and the Negro spiritual leads him to develop a methodology that encompasses contemporary scholarship without compromising the integrity of African-American religion and culture. Because the Negro spiritual is the earliest extant body of African-American folk religious narration, Matthews believes that it holds the key to understanding African-American religion. He explores the works of such seminal black scholars as W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale Hurston, tracing the early development of the African-centered approach to the interpretation of African-American religion. This approach involves "cultural/structuralism", the author's term for the method used by DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston that emphasizes the thick reading of narrative expressions. Such a reading allows the scholar to identify the cultural significance of particular oral and written texts and serves as a point of identification and a cultural link between African and African-American religion. Matthews' close analysis of the spiritual employs a dialectical and postmodernist reading and reveals a religious philosophy that addresses the deepest concerns and desires of Africans in America. These concerns are cultural, political, and psychological, but are ultimately related to African religious structures of meaning. Honoring the Ancestors poses a challenge to end the battle between Afrocentrists and multiculturalists by acknowledging their common intellectual heritage in the works of DuBois, Herskovits, and Hurston. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of African-American religion and culture and those interested in Afrocentric literature.

This book has two major emphases: it is an analysis of the methods employed by social scientists, historians, and literary critics in the study of African American religion; and it is a constructive theological statement regarding African American religion. The Negro Spiritual serves as the source material for both purposes. Since the Spiritual is the earliest body of African American folk religious narration, Matthews posits that it holds the key to the interpretation of African American religion. In presenting the results of the seminal black scholars W. E. B. Du Bois and Zora Neale Hurston, the author traces the early development of an African centered approach to the interpretation of African American religion.

This book deals specifically with the topic of the sexual abuse of power in black churches. This problem has been estimated to be three times as prevalent in the black churches, yet scant attention has been brought to bear on this subject. This book is meant to provide a framework for understanding the problem for the purpose of preventing its occurrence in the context of the black church. It examines the history of sexual ethics in the black community as a means of understanding its deep-seated place in the life of the black churches. The book uses the narratives of black women and children who have been the primary victims of this abuse. It identifies the major social and psychological reasons why and how this abuse develops and continues. It is directed to pastors and leaders of the church who wish to put an end to this injustice that is largely born of ignorance and the adoption of a sexual ethic that is derived from slavery and it effects.