“One of the Best Causes of the World”

This chapter discusses the views of British clergymen regarding the doctrine of political resistance and American resistance activities in the 1760s and 1770s. The perspective of the British clergy provides important context for understanding the American clergy’s arguments in this period. Many British clergymen affirmed the doctrine of political resistance and sympathized with the American cause. The existence of a robust British resistance tradition calls into question those who would understand the political resistance thought of the period to be something uniquely American. While John Wesley believed the American colonists were in the wrong to resist their British authorities, his Tory views were not shared by a number of evangelical clergymen in England and were by no means representative of the evangelical perspective of the issue. When the American clergy deviated from Wesley on this question of resistance, they were not deviating from British evangelicals in general.

Introduction

This opening section introduces the argument of the entire work, namely, that the American clergy who supported political resistance to the British did so in continuity with their own theological tradition. It also surveys a number of different approaches to interpreting the American Revolution. The influence of Bernard Bailyn’s Neo-Whig school of interpretation upon recent scholarship has significantly shaped how the American clergy’s arguments for resistance have been understood. Mark Noll, especially, has influenced how a number of historians have viewed the American clergy’s thought of this period, namely, as co-opted by secular philosophies and radical political views. The nature of political resistance doctrine sheds light on the role that Christianity played in the American founding.

“No Bishop, No Tyrant!”

This chapter discusses the apprehensions many American clergy felt over the issues of religious liberty on the eve of the American Revolution. The clergy in America were concerned about a rising political absolutism in England that threatened both their civil and religious liberties, and concern over religious issues played a significant role in the final break between the colonies and Great Britain. The plans to impose Episcopal bishops upon the colonies generated great concern, even as the British Parliament adopted an increasingly absolutist posture toward the colonies. The fear of a rising Roman Catholic presence in North America also put the colonies and clergymen on edge, provoking further calls for resistance and vigilance against these growing religious threats.

African American Clergy Perspectives About the HIV Care Continuum: Results From a Qualitative Study in Jackson, Mississippi

<p>Mississippi has some of the most pro­nounced racial disparities in HIV infection in the country; African Americans com­prised 37% of the Mississippi population but represented 80% of new HIV cases in 2015. Improving outcomes along the HIV care continuum, including linking and retaining more individuals and enhancing adherence to medication, may reduce the disparities faced by African Americans in Mississippi. Little is understood about clergy’s views about the HIV care continuum. We assessed knowledge of African American pastors and ministers in Jackson, Mississippi about HIV and the HIV care continuum. We also assessed their willingness to promote HIV screening and biomedical prevention technologies as well as efforts to enhance linkage and retention in care with their congregations. Four focus groups were conducted with 19 African American clergy. Clergy noted pervasive stigma associated with HIV and believed they had a moral imperative to promote HIV awareness and testing; they provided recommendations on how to normalize conversations related to HIV testing and treatment. Overall, clergy were willing to promote and help assist with linking and retaining HIV positive individu­als in care but knew little about how HIV treatment can enhance prevention or new biomedical technologies such as pre-expo­sure prophylaxis (PrEP). Clergy underscored the importance of building coalitions to promote a collective local response to the epidemic. The results of this study highlight important public health opportunities to engage African American clergy in the HIV care continuum in order to reduce racial disparities in HIV infection. <em></em></p><p><em>Ethn Dis.</em>2018; 28(2): 85-92; doi:10.18865/ed.28.2.85.</p>

Black Theologies

Black theology burst onto the scene in the late 1960s as a new cohort of progressive African American clergy and seminarians responded to the imperative of a burgeoning black freedom movement and global anticolonial struggles. Taken collectively, their work championed a distinctive black theological tradition, birthed in the context of enslavement and transmitted through independent black churches, which placed primacy on God’s preferential and emancipatory activity on behalf of the poor and oppressed. This chapter traces the origins, development, and legacy of black theology over three consecutive generations, identifying important debates related to the discipline’s defining motifs, methods, and approaches as well as the emergence of alternative paradigms, including womanist theology and African American humanism.