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In wake of terrorism, theology scholar's book shows healing power of the pulpit

By Hope Green

Eloquence in times of crisis has long been a hallmark of the African-American church. Galvanizing speeches by 19th-century black abolitionists and the inspiring oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS'55, Hon.'59) in the midst of the 1960s race riots are among the better known examples of this legacy.

	Martha Simmons teaches how the great ministers preach. Photo by Fred Sway

School of Theology doctoral student Martha Simmons is an expert in the traditions of African-American Baptist homiletics, and when capacity crowds packed houses of worship after September 11, she knew that leading black clergy could be counted on for words of encouragement and solace. With astonishing speed, she and a colleague have edited and published 9.11.01: African-American Leaders Respond to an American Tragedy (Judson Press, 2001), a collection of 19 sermons delivered within a week after the terrorist attacks.

"I think black and white preachers knew this was a moment for non-fluff, the preaching that matters," says Simmons (STH'05), a lawyer and itinerant United Church of Christ preacher. "And that's the kind of preaching I celebrate, the kind of preaching I've loved all my life."

Completed in just one month and released in early December, the book sold 4,000 copies in its first four days of publication. Among its 19 contributors are Gardner Taylor, the author and civil-rights advocate Time magazine calls "the dean of the nation's black preachers," Jesse Jackson, Calvin Butts, who addressed the nation from Shea Stadium after September 11, and Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first woman bishop of the African-American Methodist Episcopal Church.

In the introduction, Simmons explains some of the traditional strands, or themes, that underlie African-American homiletics and make the preacher's message so profoundly soul-stirring. The first two are the strand of liberation (as in "Go tell Pharaoh, let my people go") and the strand of providence ("All things work together for good for those who love God").

"The third," she writes, "is a two-edged strand that focuses on the 'sweet by and by' while bringing us to grips with the sometimes 'nasty here and now.' The fourth strand embraces and critiques culture, reflecting the tension with which persons of African descent who are also Americans daily live."
Born and raised in Chicago, Simmons was called to preaching when she was 14, although surprisingly, most of her family were not regular churchgoers. At first it was the fiery, fundamentalist homilies in her home congregation that sparked her interest. But Chicago was also a major stopover for itinerant Baptist revivalists. Taylor and other oratorical stars frequented the churches that Simmons visited with her youth group during fellowship meetings and summer revivals.

"I didn't know it at the time, but I got to hear some of the best African-American preachers on the planet," she says. "I knew they were good; I just didn't know how good."

Simmons began preaching five years after graduating from college and was licensed and ordained a minister in San Francisco. Although by choice she had no congregation of her own, she was in demand for guest appearances around the city, and soon she was touring nationally as well. Later she completed a master of divinity program and a law degree.

"I primarily do mediation law," she says. "I guess it's my divinity side, but I've always felt that instead of people going to court and beating up on one another, they should sit down and talk and reach resolutions that work for everybody.

"I think the two careers naturally connect," she adds. "They're both about building community -- it's just how you get to it. They both involve oratory and both require good reasoning skills. I think the best lawyers are also the most poetic, and the best preaching involves good writing, so the two are really quite similar."

As time passed, Simmons wanted to teach and promote, as well as practice, the fine art of preaching. Not long after she completed her master of divinity degree at Emory University, Henry Mitchell, a preeminent homiletics scholar, asked her to write a workbook to accompany one of his textbooks. Next she was invited to join the advisory board of the African-American Pulpit, a quarterly magazine, and within a year she was tapped for the position of coexecutive editor.

Simmons has updated the magazine's format and added lively new features. For the fall 2001 issue, she and coeditor Frank Thomas, a Memphis pastor, traveled to South Africa and interviewed Nelson Mandela. The latest edition includes a CD of sermons by great revivalists, including the late Clarence Franklin, Aretha Franklin's father.

Thomas was also her partner on the 9.11 book project. Many of the preachers they contacted when compiling the book spoke of an uneasy familiarity with terror, whether its cause had been lynchings, gang warfare, or being harassed by police for driving in a white neighborhood.

"Although African-Americans were shaken," she says, "I don't think we were shaken at the level of people who had no previous sense of anything invading their world that could do them major harm. I talked to preachers in about 25 cities within two weeks after September 11, and that was consistently what I heard: 'It is awful, we are shocked, we are sad, but something about it feels familiar.' Especially for older African-Americans, it was a reminder of some very bad places in our history."

The sermons in the book at times reflect that familiarity. But Simmons believes they can be a source of inspiration to all people, regardless of race.
"I think the power and benefit of good preaching is so great that it needs to be promoted," she says. "Great preaching inspires because it educates. It can speak to us in ways we really need at the worst times, and it can help us to make it through in those times when we just don't know what to do next."

22 February 2002
Boston University
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