Category Archives: Congregations

Black Delta Religion

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Film Info: Black Delta Religion – Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis (1974) – 15 minutes, B/W

Distributor: ??????????

Summary: A brief but lively depiction of a wide range of Southern black religiosity, including ecstatic dance, singing, preaching styles, social-community context.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Keeping the Faith

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Film Info:  “Keeping the Faith” – by Sherry Jones — PBS (Frontline series) (1987) – 58 minutes

Distributor:  PBS

Summary: Depicts two black churches in Chicago, with particular focus on one middle-class congregation and a secondary focus on a lower-class congregation.  Examines these congregations as sources of vitality, activism, community, and identity.

The larger congregation — Trinity United Church of Christ — is pastored by Jeremiah Wright, the man whom President Barrack Obama said brought him to Christ.  The film was shot nearly 20 years before the controversy over Wright’s political remarks before the 2008 election.  One gets a very good sense of Wright’s drive, his charisma, and his solid theological grounding.  It seems clear to me (JS) that the whole ‘controversy’ was a political hatchet job designed to turn White voters against Obama’s candidacy.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Protestant Spirit: USA

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Film Info:  Part of “The Long Search”, a BBC series hosted by Ronald Eyre – 52 minutes

Distributor:  Ambrose Videos has the entire series on DVD for $99

Summary:  In the 1100 churches of Indianapolis, we see bewildering multiplicity of Protestantism. Churches with the seating and styling of deluxe first-run theaters. Services conducted with the professionalism of television spectaculars. And congregations that occupy every seat at four staggered services every Sunday. All are features of the US church-going boom. We discover that religion is not in a state of apathy in America; in some quarters it is decidedly big business.

Two Black Churches

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Film Info: “Two Black Churches” (n.d.) – Center for Southern Folklore (Memphis) – 21 minutes

Distributor: ??????????

Summary:  Images of black religious expression in two very different churches: one in rural Mississippi, the other in urban New Haven, Connecticut.  Includes inspired preaching, faith healing, glossolalia, ecstatic dance.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Separate Realities

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Film Info: “Separate Realities” (1979) – Part of the”Profiles of Rural Religion” series produced by P.J. O’Connell for the Rural Documentary Project and Penn State Broadcasting – 58 minutes

Distributor:   Pennsylvania State University Media Sales DVD – $25

Summary: Suzie Anderson attends St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lock Haven, PA. Glenn Stover attends First Baptist, just across a 25-foot alleyway. But their religious beliefs and practices are separated by a far greater distance. Suzie is a “seeker”; she is exploring her religious commitment, asking questions, questioning the answers. Glenn is “born again.” There are no questions in his settled and serene religious faith. This film develops the religious viewpoints of two very different–but strongly committed–individuals and offers the opportunity to compare these two variations on the ages-old question of “proper” religious behavior.