Ain’t nobody dope as me, I’m just so fresh, so clean.
It was my father on the phone singing.  It is always surprising when your parents sing your music, and even more so when they invite you to the video shoot.  Earlier that day, my father had met with Big Boi and Andre 3000 and agreed to let them shoot the “So Fresh and So Clean” video in his church, St. Luke’s Episcopal, in downtown Atlanta.  So my dad was now tight with Outkast.  But the biggest surprise of all was that they had chosen the church.  Outkast's rhymes were socially conscious, and above the altar at St. Luke’s was a giant painting of a Caucasian Jesus: “Servants be obedient to them that are your masters” (Ephesians 6.5).

Any discussion of Southern Religion must begin with the questions (1) how could white folks use the Word of God to justify slavery? and (2) how could black folks adopt the religion of those who enslaved them?  The first answer is easy: throughout history, religion has been used to justify the status quo.  To answer the second question, African Americans also turned to the scriptures.  The Israelites also spent 400 years in bondage, and Jesus, as a Jew living in Roman-occupied Palestine, certainly sided with the poor and the oppressed. 

In music, enslaved blacks found their justification for God, their theodicy.  In the words of the spiritual: "Over my head I hear music everywhere / there must be a god somewhere."  The slaves sang so they could believe, and in their voices was evidence of divinity: “There must be a God somewhere.”

Music represents a people’s hope, and so as the people changed so did their songs.  Because the everyday lives of slaves were filled with such brutality, their theology was inevitably centered on the afterlife: “Soon will be done / with the troubles of the world/ Goin home to live with God.”  Today on wide-screen televisions, through high fidelity car speakers, rap songs speak of heaven on earth.  “Whose world is it?” Nas asks, “the world is yours.”

The Spirituals, however, are themselves secular.  To “Steal away to Jesus” was to steal a way to freedom.  We are living in a material world, and yet there is a spiritual message at the heart of Nas’s song: The world is yours.

Outkast claims to be “torn between Saturday Night and early Sunday morn.”  It is the ability to represent both spiritual and secular that makes them so popular.  Each Outkast album is stylistically distinctive, and yet follows the same formula, blending soul and rock, country and techno, the word of the spirit with the world of the flesh.  My father did not think it would be controversial to shoot a rap video at the church because of Outkast’s positive message.  He was particularly impressed with Andre 3000, a vegetarian who doesn’t drink or do drugs.  At the video shoot when he introduced me to them as his “hip hop son,” I was a little embarrassed, but mainly I was glad to have met them.    

Two months later they sent us a copy of “So Fresh and So Clean.” The video is a satire on the worldly concerns of black religious people, the need to be “so fresh and so clean” at church.  The first half of the video is devoted to Andre and Big Boi getting ready.  They go to church at night, and when St. Luke’s appears, its red Romanesque structure is lit up like a nightclub, golden rays of light shining out into the cloudy, purple sky.  Inside, Outkast strolls down the center aisle of the church like models on a catwalk.  Big Boi in a beige mink with lime silk knickers; Andre 3000 in a black and gold African dictator’s suit.  Both nod and wink at the congregation.   Towards the front is an empty pew.  The preacher is 6'5", 300, bust out his lavender suit.  Two ladies head for the altar, callipygous, bootylicious.  The preacher wipes his brow.  The video ends with cameos of other Atlanta rappers, all dressed to the nines, and finally concludes with the caption, one that didn’t make the MTV cut: 99% of people who go to church go for the fashion.

Fashion is derived from the Latin verb facere, “to make.”  As a verb it means “to shape, mold.”  As a noun it is “the current style of dress, speech, conduct, etc.”   Religion is derived from religare, “to rebind,” the secular with the spiritual, and the individual with the group.  99% of people who go to church do go for the fashion, that is, for the sense of communal identity. 

But what is the fashion fashioning? What does it mean when Outkast rents out a “white” church to have a laugh at the way black folks worship?  Since black and white people have such different histories, 11-12 on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour in America. 

Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.  To see the what the fashion is fashioning, we will compare the Social Gospel of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (the site of the video shoot) with the Prosperity Gospel of World Changers’ Church, International (the largest predominately black church in Georgia). 

In 1986 Dr. Creflo Dollar, Jr. founded World Changers’ in a former elementary school.  It is now the largest church in Georgia with over 20,000 members, the majority African American, Evander Holyfield among the famous.  The sanctuary is known as the World Dome, a seven-million dollar, 8,000-seat structure easily mistaken for a sports arena.  Inside two giant TVs broadcast the service. The steps and aisles are carpeted in a plush purple.  Inside the World Dome there is no picture of a white Jesus.  In fact, there is no picture of Jesus, no cross at all. Above the altar is a giant orange and black globe. The world is yours.

In 1864 St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was founded by Charles Quintard, a chaplain of the Confederate Army.  The church was burned in the Battle of Atlanta and after several relocations came to its permanent home of 435 Peachtree Street in 1906.  With 3,000 members St. Luke’s is the second largest Episcopal Church in Atlanta.  Though home to many of Atlanta’s oldest families, its vision is of the New South, the Wind Done Gone.  The church is best known for its ministry to the poor. For the past thirty years the community kitchen has served hundreds of people each day.  Above the altar is a painting of white Jesus carrying a sheep over his shoulders.  The caption reads, "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."      

When my father meets strangers on the golf course, he often does not tell them he is a pastor.  “I don’t want them to project their feelings of God onto me.”  His feelings are understandable.  A people’s image of their pastor often represents their image of divinity.   The Pope is known as Christ’s vicar, his representative on earth.

When Dr. Creflo Dollar drives, he drives a Rolls Royce.  A private Leer Jet ushers him through the skies.  He is very handsome, with large eyes and a strong jaw, a face both stern and boyish.   He wears the finest suits.  On television his shoes are hidden, but his parishioners know them: black crocodile leather with shiny white tops.  99% of people who go to church go for the fashion.  He has all these items because his parishioners want him to have them.  As their priest, their vicar, he symbolizes their historic poverty, their desire for success.

When Dr. Spenser Simrill drives, he drives a 1983 Volvo station wagon, its diesel engine emitting thick clouds of black smoke.  (Just recently the car was sold for one hundred dollars.) When he flies, he flies coach.  With large eyes and a warm smile, he too is handsome, especially when he wears a hat to hide his baldness.  He is a notoriously poor dresser.  His Rockports need resoling.  Every Christmas an unknown parishioner buys him a suit.  And yet he too is following the will of his congregation.  99% of people who go to church go for the fashion.  As their priest, their vicar, he is a symbol of their historic wealth, their desire for poverty.    

With fashion both pastors are constructing their people’s alternate identity, an identity based on their memory of the past.  Though each church claims to celebrate diversity (when I attended World Changers’ I felt very welcome) St. Luke’s is predominantly white, World Changers’ predominantly black.  To put it frankly, the majority of St. Luke’s parishioners had ancestors who were slaveowners, just as the majority of World Changers’ parishioners had ancestors who were enslaved.  And so with fashion, new wine is put into new bottles, and both are preserved (Luke 6.38).  

Enslaved African Americans were denied citizenship.  They could not vote or own property.  They were also refused the right to marry.  Women were raped, families split apart, sold down river.  The Prosperity Gospel attempts to build a new identity, based on (1) the ownership of property and (2) commitment to the institution of marriage. 

European Americans, on the other hand, were allowed their unalienable rights.  Their wealth, however, was based on the poverty of others.  White people were rich because black people were poor.  Since the racial caste system prohibited intermarriage, the black male was demonized, lynched for the wrong look or word.  The Social Gospel attempts to build a new identity for white Americans, based on (1) the commitment to economic parity and (2) the acceptance of interracial marriages.  

The message at World Changers’ is the Prosperity Gospel: you have to think rich to be rich; God rewards the faithful with material wealth.  Prosperity, however, will come only to those who know their true identity.  In a sermon entitled “Receiving the True Image of God,” Dr. Dollar cites Galatians 4.7, the cornerstone of the Prosperity Gospel: “You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has also made you an heir.”  In this verse the false identity of slave is replaced with the true identity of son, heir to God’s bounty.  Christians often refer to themselves as servants, but to many African Americans this term has a negative connotation.  “I’m no longer a servant,” Dr. Dollar says. “Abraham was a servant, Jacob was a servant, Joseph was a servant, but I’ve been adopted, I’m a son.”  At World Changers’ much emphasis is placed on ownership, of self and of property. “When you are a son, you are an owner.  You are the owner and I’m your son, and I’m an owner too.”

World Changers’ vision is integrationist.  On April 28, 2002, Dr. Dollar preached a sermon that ridiculed behavior unacceptable to the mainstream: wild hair, baggy clothes, a refusal to “master the language.” “I know the image I came from,” he says.   I’ve been made in God’s likeness. The days of living in the ghetto eating peanut butter sammiches is over.”  Yes, he said “sammiches.”  Dr. Dollar often uses the ghetto dialect to make fun of the ghetto mentality.  He also voices these same ideas in a nerdy “white” accent, the message being that it is “white” to be ghetto.  Dr. Dollar reminded the congregation that BET, Black Entertainment Television, was no longer black-owned, that people were making money “so you can look like a fool.”  His message of personal responsibility, however, does not place all the blame on white America: “Black people put black people in chains.”  His vision, however, is too either/or—not all rap music is the "work of the devil."  It also doesn’t recognize the separation between worklife and homelife.  Even Mr. Rogers changed clothes when he came home.

The Prosperity Gospel, the idea that God rewards the faithful, has received much criticism.  To receive “the blessing,” one must tithe.  World Changers’ collects parishioners' pay stubs, and those who don’t tithe cannot participate in church business.  Though most churches recommend tithing, it is not a commandment.  Jesus often criticizes the Pharisees for being outwardly religious and inwardly corrupt.  Furthermore, since bad things happen to good people (the Book of Job) the connection between wealth and goodness is troublesome.  And by tithing World Changers’ members aren’t investing in themselves, they are investing in the church, or to put it more cynically, in the addition to Dr. Dollar’s mansion.    

Dr. Dollar is certainly hip to such criticism.  “I know what y’all are saying.  That preacher trying to get our money.”  He invites four ushers on stage.  They stand behind him in a line, and as Dr. Dollar walks forward, the ushers begin to argue. “If you’re envious and fighting,” he says, “you won’t know when it’s your turn to move up…If I move up, then you can move up.  As goes the shepherd so go the sheep.”  But when it comes to money, the opposite is true.  Dr. Dollar profits off their gains.  As go the sheep so goes the shepherd.  His wealth only benefits them psychologically.  And yet the people seem fulfilled.  If the church were a scam then the people would have long left.  World Changers’ offers courses in money management, and tithing does force members to balance their checkbooks, be more cognizant of where their money is spent.  The church is also a good place to network, with many people sharing the same dreams and goals. 

The cornerstone of the Social Gospel is Luke 3:11: “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none.”  At St. Luke’s the emphasis is on service.  Members volunteer at the soup kitchen and build houses for Habitat for Humanity.  The health clinic tests for HIV and includes a center for drug detoxification.  For many years St. Luke’s Academy has accepted students unable to make it in a traditional school setting.  For the past two years Dr. Simrill has worked with Dr. Joseph Lowery of Ebenezer Baptist to raise money for “I Have a Dream,” a program that will mentor twenty students from A.D. Williams Elementary throughout all the years of their schooling, and then pay for their college education. 

The Social Gospel is too based on the fashioning of a new identity.  One of privileges of whiteness is the gift of individuality: one’s successes and failures are attributed to the person and not race.
    How do you know that Jesus was Black?

1. He loved Gospel.
2. He called everybody “brother.”
3. He couldn’t get a fair trial.

While one and two are based on stereotypes, three is based in truth.  In America blacks have been guilty before proven innocent. The Social Gospel believes in free will, and yet recognizes the role history plays in determining destiny.  Identity is derived from the Latin word for “the same,” and so to quote Dr. King, the new identity sought by the Social Gospel is the belief in “the united garment of destiny, that what affects one, affects all.”

In 1903 W.E.B. DuBois prophesied that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”  The world is still full of injustice, but after the horrors of the past hundred years, it seems ready to accept that Jesus was a Jew, a dark haired, dark skinned Jew, whose kingdom included all kinds of people. So when Outkast enters a “white” church to have a laugh at how black people worship, they too are fashioning a new identity, one that no longer sees themselves as outcasts.  Their pastor wears a lavender suit, and he is so prodigious, white Jesus is all but invisible. 

Keep it real.

Keep it Rodney.