Together Again

By Jennifer Thome

March 14, 2004

Bernard Powers, a history professor at the College of Charleston, humors Covering Religion student Cassandra (right) and Covering Religion teaching assistant Alexandra Alter at a dinner with local religion reporters and scholars. Photo: Chris Karmiol

For the first time since Friday morning at 8:00 a.m., the Covering Religion class came together as a whole. Dinner at Magnolia's restaurant in the French Quarter of Charleston united 16 members and religion writers and historians from Charleston.

Dave Munday of the Charleston Post and Courier spoke about his coverage of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." Bernard Powers, Associate Professor at the College of Charleston, discussed his upcoming book on the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Reporter Christina Lee Knauss spoke about covering Christianity for The State Newspaper; and Robert Rosen, author of "The Jewish Confederates," discussed the changing roles of Southern Jews as slave owners, Confederate Army soldiers, and participants in the civil rights movement.

Over a dinner of greens and seared yellow fin tuna steaks, students and area experts discussed everything from the debate over same-sex marriage in the church to the history of Judaism in the Confederate South.

By 10:00 p.m. everyone gathered at the front steps of the restaurant for the quick walk back to the hotel and toward much needed sleep. Most people needed the early night in preparation for the next day's Sunday church services.

Queen Quet shared the history of the Gullah nation and the Gullah language with the Covering Religion class. Photo: Anne Lilburn

We were up early to head out to Strawberry, South Carolina. At a United Methodist church, across from the road from an old Plantation, we met the Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Queen Quet, and two elders, Carlie Towne and her husband Halim Gullahbemi.

The Gullah nation extends from North Carolina to Florida from the ocean's edge to about forty miles inland, Towne and Gullahbemi said. These descendants of enslaved West Africans speak a unique dialect that is a mixture of English, French and traditional African languages.

Queen Quet, the first elected spokesperson and official liaison of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 1, 1999. Thanks in part to her efforts, the Gullah nation is now classified by the United Nations as a linguistic minority. With the ease of one who grew up speaking Gullah at home and learning English at school, Queen Quet switched effortlessly between English and Gullah.

Peppering her talk with questions aimed at testing the students' comprehension of the Gullah language, Queen Quet spoke about the importance of the praise house in the Gullah community. Historically, the praise houses were a place for slaves to gather, worship together and to seek refuge from their daily lives, she said, adding that today, Gullah people practice many different religions but believe in one God.

Queen Quet sang one of the songs the slaves would sing. The lyrics, which describe crossing rivers after death, provided a sort of code that indicated whether it was safe for someone to escape from the plantation that night. She also demonstrated a traditional dance of the Praise Houses -- a handclap. Hands clap together in a quick rhythm while the feet shuffle with the beat. "It lifts the spirit," Towne says.

The meeting with Queen Quet led into a church service at the United Methodist church where she was a guest speaker. The children lead the service, singing hymns and reading biblical passages. Two children holding candles led the rest of the group down the aisle to the front of the church singing.

Church Service at Life Center Ministries, North Charleston, SC. Photo: Anne Lilburn

Thirty minutes away in North Charleston, another group gathered for Sunday worship. Slipping in just before the start of the sermon, students settled toward the back of a cavernous room at the Life Center Ministries, an African-American Pentecostal denomination, where Prophet Todd Hill spoke about same-sex marriages, the movie "The Passion of the Christ", and, above all, money. A self-described "sanctified thug," Hill urged his congregants towards a "new lifestyle" to match their new lives in Christ.

"You don't have to work hard, if you praise hard," Hill says. "Money is not going to those who work, but to those who praise."

"My Jesus, My God," a woman in the back called out.

His message was of God, keeping faith and economic gain. Urging the crowd to talk back to him, he told the enthused congregation that the end of their hardships were close at hand; that now, with God's power, they were in for a salary increase and maybe a new Lexus.

Photo: Anne Lilburn

Five hours into the service and almost two hours into Hill's sermon, his coat and tie were on the ground and sweat gathered on his forehead. Despite the late hour, the congregants were on their feet repeating after Hill, their hands raised up.

"If God has something that is yours, it takes a long time to get it," says Hills. "If you get something from God, just a little, it's an appetizer before the meal."

(Updated April 19, 2004)