Father Divine:
An African American Charismatic Religious Man
Historical Background
Known as Father Divine, . was an African American ghetto in the Deep South most likely in Georgia and predictably a son of sharecroppers. According to some data revealed by scholars who deeply involved in the study, Father Divine worked as a gardener in Baltimore, Maryland then found himself in a sojourn to California, where he became oriented to the New Thought Movement. Scholars unanimously agreed that Father Divine’s exposition to the New Thought Movement greatly influenced his life and latter on in his spiritual, political, and social life (retrieved June 25, 2008).
Father Divine’s heretical proclamation that he was a “God clothed in human flesh” supplanted complex issues and at the same time attracted many followers, majority of them were fellow Black Americans. However, Father Divine leaved many legacies to his fellow followers and to the America itself, one of which was the establishment of today’s known International Peace Movement. Moreover, his role in the Period of Depression made people appreciate his kindness and authenticity of service. While he tried to assemble a new religious order with theological foundation rooted in the New Thought Movement, he was ostracized by his neighbors due to insensitivity to the peace order of the neighborhood, with such cases; he became notorious, arrested and went to prison many times.
Father Divine: An Advocate of Civil Rights and Racial Equality
In the journal article written by entitled : Father Divine’s Vernacular Architecture of Intention, he praised Father Divine’s legacy to the historical, social and religious material culture of America quoting verbatim: “through purchasing, restoring, re-using, and preserving many different types of American and domestic commercial structures, Father Divine and followers developed a theology of material culture and historic preservation that expressed a major theological perspective of their belief system – to spiritualize the material and to materialize the spiritual – all in the service of God and for the transformation of human nature (2004).” This commentary expressed by the author gives us an idea on how Father Divine, despite of all the controversies and notorieties he created, cannot be denied the fact that he helped transform the life of the Americans.
Moreover, the significance of Father Divine’s advocacy on racial equality and civil rights were considered valuable. Although, these drive derived from his religious and spiritual orientation, it only shows how positive thinking and the ability of transforming such into action is important. In this age, when “religion is no longer significant marker or determinant of identity and community in the modern world ( 2004:)”, it was a different case in the time of Father Divine, wherein religion stands as a backdrop for activism and social transformation.
In book entitled: , he credited Father Divine’s work as a “civil rights leader, which campaigns were precursors to the civil rights struggles of 50’s and 60’s”, this action made him considered not only a religious and spiritual leader but accidental a “social critic” and one of the first ministers to reintroduce “social relief” and “political activism” to the Black Church. Moreover, Wiesbrot’s critical investigation on Father Divine’s role in the social and economic fields, led (1992) in his dissertation paper, that Father Divine’s social actions “rested on his religious leadership and that those social, political, and economic programs maybe understood only in the light of his theological orientation (p. xi).”
Moreover, (1999), in his article delivered during a conference entitled: , cited Father Divine as part of the “morass of racism and anti-cult prejudice to conclude that he created an original philosophy of positive thinking, and helped thousand of impoverished followers to escape the worst miseries of the Great Depression and influential as early advocator of racial equality.” Meanwhile, Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his article published in New York Times, agreed on such significant contribution of Father Divine, in fact a “serious, sincere, and honest religious leader and civil rights advocate.”
In contrast, book , criticized significant role as merely a man who is “a ruthless black autocratic who amassed millions of dollars in assets and surrounded himself with lovely young women (1953)”, even he enforced in his followers the austerity on celibacy.
Father Divine: The God
The theological foundation of Father Divine was influenced by the emerging and influential movement of his time, the New Thought Movement. Such movement emphasized primarily on the idea of positive thinking as a means of transforming and producing positive life force. Because of this doctrinal belief, Father Divine, in his well articulated and charismatic preaching believed that even “poverty can be avoided” only if and when one condition his mind to think positively because poverty is only in mind.
Not only his charismatic preaching attracts followers of the same race and of few whites, but also his self-proclaimed identity as “God” magnate numbers of followers, instead of despairingly treat him.
In (1997) article ?”: Images of Christ in African American Painting, situated the significance of the concept of “God” as not only a “white God”, and therefore, the example made by which illustrates clearly the struggle of Black religious concept of God, was that of Father Divine’s self-proclaimed “God”. justified that this conscious attribution of Father Divine would trace the search of African American concept of God that tempered a racial slur that God is only white color.
Moreover, Father Divine’s religious organization used different religious and spiritual name codes as part of its tradition. Though, he had married twice he still practiced celibacy and abstention in sexual activities.
Again, the Father Divine’s significant role was not only restricted to social, economic, and spiritual system but also extends further in the political order. examines the implication of Father Divine’s interracial romance with his wives as archetype of racial equality. In his article: Romance and Rights: The Politics of Interracial Intimacy, 1945-1954, Robinson exemplifies his theory by using the case of Father Divine’s marriage bond with white women. He noted that “Father Divine like any other Afro-American personages championed the cause of interracial romance (2007).” This in Robinson’s understanding sparks debates over the effects of their unions had on the “civil rights movement.”
Conclusion
In this short essay, I presented selected important information about Father Divine, his significance contribution to the development and formation of the American material culture, racial equality, and civil rights advocacy.
Moreover, his meeting with the New Thought Movement sparks a great influence on his theological and spiritual formation as far as his religious organization is concern. Although, he was regarded indifferently and being labeled as heretical and “ruthless Black autocratic” man, we cannot deny his great contribution not only on the spiritual and religious formation of Americans but what became more significant was his struggle to advocate civil rights and racial equality among his fellow Negroes.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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