Tammy Williams: The Black Church and Health in the Community
New Divinity faculty member studies how churches increasingly take on health issues
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Durham, NC -- The Rev. Tammy Williams became intrigued by healing in black Christian churches after she lost loved ones to cancer when they were in their early 30s. If their churches had been more active with health issues, she thought, perhaps they would still be alive.
Times change. Williams, a Baptist preacher and new assistant professor of theology and black church studies at Duke Divinity School, has found in her research that black Christian churches of all denominations are indeed becoming more proactive in trying to improve the health of their members.
More black churches are taking a “holistic” approach to healing, she said, offering health screenings, diet programs and aerobics workouts with Gospel music alongside Bible study, choir practice and worship services.
“Churches today are asking important questions about illness and health,” she said. “They are beginning to see sickness as a group issue, as a phenomenon, which requires the church to think about healing the entire body.”
History makes health issues especially important to African-American churches, she said. Historically, African Americans were denied health care because of racism, classism and poverty, and a distrust borne from past unethical medical practices (such as the Tuskegee syphilis study) lingers among many black Americans. Death rates for African Americans suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other ailments still are higher than those in the general population.
“Jesus may be the only doctor that many African-American members see on a regular basis,” Williams said. “Churches feel a real need to address healing. It’s a matter of life and death.”
The West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, for example, offers Weight Watchers groups, fitness classes and recovery programs and counseling for substance abuse. Body and Soul in Pasadena, Calif., is a health-centered partnership of African-American churches in the area, offering healthy cooking classes, fruit and vegetable tastings, high blood pressure screenings after church and a weekly health support group.
“The practice of healing takes a different shape in contemporary churches today than it did 20 years ago,” Williams said. “Churches are trying to reflect on the larger social context.”
Williams cautioned that while preventive medicine in a church setting is effective, it must be presented in a “larger theological framework.”
“The question I have as a theologian … is to ask do Christians have anything distinctive to offer regular healing that we’re not getting directly from diet programs” and other preventive medicine programs readily available in secular society.
“These ministries are effective,” she said, “but how is God as a healer at work in these various practices?” The church must maintain the theological connection between the program and God, she said.
Williams suggested that every aerobics or Weight Watchers session, for example, could begin with prayer, a scriptural passage on health or healing, or a reflection on the fact that God wants people to be fit, healthy and happy.
“We must explicitly spell out how God is at work in what we are doing. Otherwise, it’s just another health-related program that happens to be housed in a church.”
While a new professor at Duke Divinity School, Williams is not new to the school. For the last two years while finishing her doctorate, she has been a lecturing fellow at Duke.
She said she especially appreciates the fact that students and faculty come from a variety of Christian denominations. “That makes teaching exciting,” she said. “You get to address students of different Christian traditions, which makes work more challenging. I am especially excited to be here.”
