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The first time I heard of the concept of “multifaith affiliation” was when I was a university student. Iyanla Vanzant was a visiting professor at the university. bennett college During my senior year of college in 2011. Although I wasn’t officially enrolled in the course, I would often stop by and listen to the lectures.
Multireligious affiliation refers to situations in which someone participates in the rituals of more than one spiritual tradition. She remembers Van Zandt, her Yoruba priestess and ordained minister, speaking openly about the duality of her faith.
In her first book, Unleash your inner power: Women’s path to self-development” she writes about the value of bringing ancient traditions to the table of modern faith.
In his later books, Van Zandt said that through the process of writing he developed an intimate and personal relationship with God. “In the process of writing her, I learned that there are many paths that lead to one path. I realized that God doesn’t care whether I am Yoruba or Christian,” she wrote. Ta. “God wanted me to love myself.”
Her message had great appeal among black women across religions. Even my conservative Christian grandmother gave me books when I became a woman.
Although I grew up reading Van Zandt’s work, I never considered myself a religious pluralist. I grew up in the church and have a deep respect for God’s Word as taught to me in the Bible. Christianity is the foundation of my faith. But after my mother suddenly passed away in 2022, something deep within me changed and awakened.
I was seeking divine intimacy and needed more things in my spiritual toolbox to get through that season of grief. I prayed daily for guidance. One day, I had a flashback to my memories of being a college student in my 20s. I remember VanZandt standing at the front of the class and saying that we all have the power to uncover our own spiritual and ancestral roots. It was a ray of light and the next step in my spiritual discovery began. I push myself to seek out, question, and pull things from other spiritual homes that resonate on a soul level, including Chemistic spirituality (which I learned many years ago in Queen Afua’s writings). I allowed it. holy woman), Vedic yoga and meditation, and ancestral altar work.
Theologian Candice Marie Benbow spoke of a similar spiritual quest after her mother passed away in 2015. She didn’t go to church for a year and a half.
“I was meeting weekly with a Buddhist prayer community,” she says. “I was always walking through this maze of prayer. A lot of my relationship with my mom was tied to church, so I was doing all these completely different things to connect spiritually away from church. I did.”
Benbow, a graduate of Duke Divinity School, said she needed time to grieve without the added pressure that “the church can make you feel like you owe it.” I didn’t want to feel like I had to act out this kind of holiness and righteous sadness. ”
Furthermore, she added: “One of the most difficult things for me was the fact that so much of my religious identity…is based and rooted in what I’ve been taught, not what I believed or felt. And my mother’s death revealed to me that there were cracks in all of that.”
It was during that season that she generated the idea for her first book. Red Lip Theology: For the girls in church who are thinking about tithing to the beauty supply store when Sunday morning just isn’t enough. She now calls herself a Christian and seeker.
“I love the word seeker. I really like calling myself that,” she says. “I am a Christian. I follow Christ. I am rooted in it and grounded in it…and at the same time, I consider myself a seeker because I am always looking for ways to feel and connect with Spirit.” I call it that.”
different religions
Today, it’s not uncommon for Black women to set up ancestral altars, practice yoga, do mindfulness meditation, or receive tarot card readings. and I can still go to church on Sunday.
According to the Pew Research Center’s Black American Faith report, the majority of Black Americans identify with Christianity, but they also engage in a variety of spiritual practices and practices that extend beyond traditional Christian churches. I also accept beliefs.
For example, 40 percent of blacks say they believe in reincarnation, and 30 percent say they pray to their ancestors. More than 40 percent of black churchgoers also meditate daily or weekly. Additionally, 20% said they pray at their home altar or shrine at least once a week.
Erica D. Gault, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, believes the time has come to develop a new language to describe our spiritual identity. suggests that it may. She called it an effort to catch up with “a situation where Black youth hasn’t really had a diverse box to check in the past.”
“When we say or hear things like, ‘I’m spiritual,’ we’re actually talking about change that we’re allowed to manifest,” she says. Get this from here on the internet. ” Gault is also the author of the following books: Black Church Networking: Digital Black Christians and Hip Hop.
However, she points out that borrowing does not necessarily mean belonging. “When I talk to people who believe in Ifa, they take issue with the way people tap into and exploit that sacred tradition. We borrow from there, but not everything is necessarily there,” she says. We may borrow meditation from Buddhism, yoga from Hinduism, and dietary habits from Islam, but we do not rely on those groups “in the traditional sense in which those communities understand belonging.” It doesn’t belong.
When digging deeper into the concept of multifaith affiliation, Reverend Monica Coleman recommends thinking of it as “being on the religious spectrum,” or a more nuanced understanding of spirituality.
find a new path
Data shows that more and more people are leaving the church. Black Americans, the country’s most religious demographic, are turning away from organized religion in large numbers, according to a report from Pew Research. Over the past 10 years, the number of black people who identify as Christians has fallen by 11 percent, and the number who say they have no religious affiliation has increased by 7 percent. Another study found that “black youth are less religious and less likely to attend black churches than older generations.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t hungry for spiritual connection. Coleman is an ordained AME minister, an African American professor of religion, and a bipolar beliefs, states that people seek spiritual connections beyond traditional churches for several reasons. Some people have had terrible experiences in places of worship. Some feel that the experiences of Black women are not adequately represented in church leadership. Those looking for these spaces to evolve and innovate may become frustrated because “churches are organizations, and organizations are slow to change.”
Levonne Briggs, an ordained Pentecostal minister, saw a need and started a virtual church during quarantine. “This proverbial experience is for Black women who are Christian/Christian-adjacent, embrace African traditions, practice African and African Diaspora spiritual practices, and wish to begin or deepen ties with their ancestors.” It belonged to.”
Mr. Briggs is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Columbia Theological Seminary, and is currently sensual faith podcast. “My purpose is to answer questions that we are told not to ask in Bible study or Sunday school.” In short, “I want to help Black women decolonize Christianity.” I’m helping,” he says.
Christianity and Black Spiritual Traditions
Most spiritual practices among enslaved people were feared and prohibited by plantation owners. says Dr. Tamra Lomax, associate professor of religious studies at Michigan State University. “White people were very afraid of African-derived religions. “And their solution was to teach that our religion is satanic. That’s what you have to do to oppress people,” she says. “The demonization and dehumanization of people in religion is central to their oppression and total control.”
It is this form of religious propaganda that has passed down generations of fear associated with openly discussing practices associated with African spirituality, such as hoodoo, conjure, and rootwork. The reason is.
Some of our ancestors found ways to circumvent the erasure of their spiritual practices, says Lomax, author of Lomax. Jezebel Unhinged: The loss of black women’s bodies in religion and culture. They established a secret “port of silence”, a secluded spot in the forest, where they could socialize and worship as they pleased. They held African spiritual guardians by merging them with Catholic saints and the Christian Holy Spirit.
“Our ancestors used everything they had access to to survive…so, yes, they are using the spirit world,” Lomax explains. “The spirit world becomes very important to them because it gives them a sense of power back. It gives them a way to control their environment. Many people turn to hoodoo, witchcraft, and Christianity. They didn’t even reject Christianity because they practiced it together.”
become mentally free
A mixture of ritual and faith has existed in every generation, but what we’re seeing today is the freedom for Black women to live that reality more openly.
Benbow says this religious fluidity “gives us permission to tap into the wholeness of our true nature, align all the elements, and allow them to synergize spiritually.” says.
For example, Devi Brown draws inspiration from multiple spiritual homes in her faith journey, including Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. He is an educator of happiness, deeply and well On the podcast, she said her mission is to be like Christ and provide service.
“Personally, I do not consider myself a Christian, although I feel that the teachings of Christ have always been a guide to living my life. I look at it as the way I want to move forward,” she says. “I don’t think you should focus on what you call yourself.”
She goes on to say, “Instead of always being dedicated to the organization you’re a part of, I think it should always be dedication to God first. And then I think it should always be dedication to God first, and then the systems and religions that best help us get closer to God and meet our spiritual needs.” We should find out,” he added. ”
beyond the label
For me, allowing myself to adopt new habits opened up a connection with my spiritual mother. I have been able to commune with her every day at her altar and have developed a relationship with her that transcends this earthly realm. And that saved me. I never lost faith in God. Faith spread.
Perhaps it’s time for us to focus less on labels and embrace how powerful what we get can be. choose how we worship Whether it’s Sunday service, bedside baptism, or participation in group meditation, we are privileged to have freedom in our spirituality, and that freedom is the answered prayers of our ancestors. .
Myeisha Essex is an LA-based journalist and wellness advocate. She spotlights Black women’s spirituality and holistic health journeys through storytelling, events, and sharing of mindfulness, meditation, and radical self-care practices.
