418 Omar McRoberts
the neighborhood still appeared too “disorganized” to attract public money for com-
munity development. He suspected that white people from Community Development
Corporations (CDCs) in adjacent neighborhoods, who attended community organizing
meetings at both churches, were reporting to City Hall and telling officials “that Four
Corners isn’t ready.” He feared that the city would ultimately “give the neighborhood”
to one of the powerful CDCs in nearby locales.
Later I asked if he had heard about the Charitable Choice clause. Powell grew visibly
disturbed at the mere mention of that particular piece of legislation:
We [churches] should try to getawayfrom the secular world’s money. Because they
want to come control what you do. The Feds are trying tocontrolthe churches. We
used to be an institution that nobody touched, but preachers like PTL [Praise The
Lord television ministries], Swaggert – the Feds want to crack down on them. The
Feds are ‘round about, giving churches money through organizations so they can
take control. They will come and say what you can’t teach and preach.On another occasion I met Rev. Powell at his apartment, which is located just above
the church. He told me he was trying to purchase the entire building so that the church
could open a youth education complex there. He complained about the paucity of
money available for churches to do this work. I asked if he had approached any public
agencies for funding. “I can’t sell out to politicians,” he replied in a cynical conflation
of politicians with agencies. “They’ll try to put something in the neighborhood, and
I’ll have to support it even if it’s bad for the neighborhood. Then I have to be the one
who goes to the people to tell them.”
The words of Pastors Calvin and Powell indicate that there are ideological con-
straints to certain forms of activism other than those embedded in theological con-
servatism. To be certain, both clergy seek to protect the integrity of the black church;
their high esteem for the church partly reflects their conservative belief in Christian-
ity’s exclusive possession of Truth. That is, they believe Jesus’ statement, “I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”(John
14:6), and they believe that their religious doctrines and practices constitute the surest
path “through” Jesus. Still, their objections to certain forms of activism do not come
from the same cognitive place as the “trickle down” philosophy discussed previously.
Calvin and Powell are not protecting their churches from the corrupting influence of
“the world” in its entirety. They are protecting their churches from the perceived mal-
intentions of white people and agents of the state. This protectiveness in turn betrays a
latent conspiracy theory that partly attributes black suffering to the malicious actions
of hostile outsiders.^1
RELIGIOUS RITUAL AND “TRICKLE DOWN” SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM
Many black churches in Four Corners could be called “priestly” – that is, they are
organizationally geared entirely toward the spiritual and social needs of members. This
could imply that they are otherworldly and have little or no impact on the wider society.
One might conclude that these churches operate as alternative social worlds, as isolated
(^1) For more on conspiracy theories in African-American public opinion, see Waters (1997) and
Cohen (1999).