The history of the Black church in America is a complicated one. In the days of slavery, the church could be a place of refuge and support, but religion, as one professor and author points out, was also used as a way to try and justify slavery.

“The idea was that these Africans were not Christians. Therefore, they were beneath the Christians … so it was not anticipated that slaves would turn that around and use religion as a way of justifying the value of their lives, sometimes justifying revolting in the case of Nat Turner. He had visions, and he quoted the Bible: ‘The last first, the first shall be last,’ ” said Dr. Joan Bryant, associate professor of African American Studies at Syracuse University.

Bryant said the 19th century churches also had libraries offering literacy, documentation and preservation of history.

“In church, they could be important in church. They could be fully free in church. They could speak their mind," said Phil M. Turner, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Syracuse.

The Black community also used spiritual songs to tell stories of hope.

“Spirituals have a way of saying that this reality that slave owners are creating — it’s supposed to be your whole reality until death — is not true, and you do have value; you have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and people who are not your blood, [who] can be your people because you value human life,” Bryant said.

“People of African heritage could actually exercise some of the things that were missing in the communities that they came from, and in the motherland, the ability to celebrate with exuberance; the ability to communicate through dance,” Turner said. “Songs of praise that took me away from the stress and oppression of life, the things that enable me to build myself up.”

The Pew Research Center shows the percentage of people who believe in a god or higher power is rising slightly. In 2023, 28% of American adults surveyed described themselves as atheists or agnostics; in 2022, 31% surveyed said they were religiously unaffiliated.

“The church has to now look at itself, rid itself of all things that perpetrates hate, perpetrate separation, and now it must be itself of hypocrisy,” Turner said. “The atmosphere of love and acceptance for all, which is what Christianity proposes anyway … it still works, and the children are raised with the great sense of morality, where etiquette and character is shaped and people in within the church community. Most of them are gainfully employed or they’re successful entrepreneurs and business owners.”

Today’s church is needed, Turner said, to help the community thrive by developing character, ethics and high moral standards. But Turner adds the face of Christianity is not historically accurate.

“Your early churches were in Alexandria, Egypt, and also there was an enormous church in Ethiopia, and so we need to change the face of Christianity so that those who are [presently] marginalized can see themselves,” Turner said.