The gifts of black youth
"Teens have the ability to do theological reflection and to connect their faith to issues of justice."
Almeda M. Wright teaches at Yale Divinity School, where she concentrates on African American religion and youth ministry. Ordained in the American Baptist Churches, she’s been a pastor and a middle school teacher. She’s the author of The Spiritual Lives of Young African Americans and coeditor of the volume Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World.
It’s sometimes said that the current generation of African American activists is more estranged from the church than was the previous generation. Is that true?
We tend to romanticize the church of the civil rights generation. In his day, Martin Luther King Jr. got a lot of pushback from many people both inside and outside of the church. So there was not a seamless relationship between the black church and activism even then. At the same time, studies by Pew have shown that young African Americans are still very likely to be affiliated with church. And a lot of current activists are engaged in theological reflection.
