TOP STORY: ANATOMY OF AN ATONEMENT: Free-form spirituality marks Farrakhan’s `Holy Day of Aton

c. 1996 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ For two and a half hours Wednesday (Oct. 16), the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan stood in a bullet-proof glass enclosure in the shadow of the United Nations and preached fire and brimstone. He expounded on Cain and Abel and the roots of human violence. He inveighed […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ For two and a half hours Wednesday (Oct. 16), the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan stood in a bullet-proof glass enclosure in the shadow of the United Nations and preached fire and brimstone.

He expounded on Cain and Abel and the roots of human violence. He inveighed against the European colonial powers that shaped the modern Middle East to exploit its oil. He explained the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jerusalem’s importance to Muslims and denounced the international weapons trade. Above all, Farrakhan spoke of Armageddon, the Bible’s promised final battle between God and the forces of evil.


That conflagration, he warned, will soon engulf the world because of its”wicked, wicked”ways. God, he said, demands atonement _ particularly for whites’ enslaving blacks _ or the final battle will commence with the coming millennium.

But among the estimated 38,000 black men, women and children who turned out for Farrakhan’s Holy Day of Atonement, which marked the first anniversary of the Million Man March, a different set of concerns seemed to prevail.

In conversation, many in the crowd spoke not about Farrakhan’s global demands _ including his call for the United Nations to press the United States to pay African-Americans reparations for their suffering _ but about far more personal concerns connected to their day-to-day struggles.

Like Farrakhan, those in the crowd used language laden with spiritual references. However, their spirituality tended to be disconnected from organized religion, be it of the church or the mosque.

Theirs was, instead, a personal spirituality pregnant with the need for self-respect and responsibility to family and community. It had little to do with some of Farrakhan’s more controversial ideas about international conspiracies or his scolding of world leaders.

For many in the crowd, this free-form spirituality _ often haltingly expressed in ambiguous terms _ was what the Million Man March and the Holy Day of Atonement were all about.

It was as if two separate events had unfolded on the streets surrounding the United Nations.


One took place on stage, expressed in the angry rhetoric of Farrakhan and the day’s other speakers. The other event took place in the hearts and minds of people like Lloyd Sheldon Johnson, an actor and community-college professor from Boston, who attended Wednesday’s rally.”People get confused about the intention here,”said Johnson, who also attended the Million Man March last year in Washington.”The press pays attention to Farrakhan, but it’s not about him. I don’t agree with everything he says by a long shot.”What this is about is personal transformation,”Johnson added.”The spirit moving people here is not about making a commitment to the Nation of Islam, or not necessarily even some church. It’s commitment to yourself and the people right around you.” Mark McCord, a 35-year-old truck driver from Brooklyn, N.Y., also attended both the Holy Day of Atonement and last year’s Million Man March.”I’m not a church-goer, but the march stays with me in a very spiritual way,”he said.”It enlightened me to the need for black unity, which means men like me taking responsibility and giving to others. That’s spiritual.” Members of the Nation of Islam _ easily spotted by the men’s dark suits and bow ties and the women’s head scarfs _ were out in force in New York. But the vast majority of those who turned out for the rally on a warm, sunny day had little or no direct connection to the Nation of Islam and its strict discipline.

In interviews, it was apparent that many also had no strong connection to any Christian church.

The leaders of major black denominations, as well as other Christian churches, have largely distanced themselves from Farrakhan, citing his often incendiary comments about Jews, the Roman Catholic Church and whites in general.

Farrakhan’s frequent denunciations of what he says is the church’s failure in the black community has further alienated mainstream Christian leaders and their more committed followers.

Farrakhan also is locked in a bitter dispute with the largest organization of mainstream African-American Muslims, the Ministry of Warith Deen Mohammed. Mohammed _ son of the late Elijah Muhammad, who brought the Nation of Islam to prominence within the black community _ rejected his father’s race-based theology. Farrakhan has not, prompting deep divisions between the two men and their followers.

As a result, many of those attracted to Farrakhan are unchurched or favor an eclectic spiritually that enables them to relate to his intensely religious message while staying aloof from any deeper involvement in organized religious life.


Some of those interviewed at the Holy Day of Atonement criticized organized religion, casting it as a divisive element within the black community today.

John Harper, a 47-year-old New York State tax agent from Far Rockaway, N.Y., said he’s”given up on the church”because”one group thinks it’s better than the next. What’s spiritual about that?” Reuben Hargett, who works for a pharmaceutical company and lives in Richfield Park, N.J., said what he”most appreciated”about Farrakhan was that he”brings together Muslims and Christians and whatever to work together for the uplifting of the black community.”It doesn’t matter what you worship, or where you worship, as long as you feel a greater spirituality in your life and express that in your actions.” The Million Man March was, as the name implies, a male-only event, although some women did show up. The Holy Day of Atonement was billed as a family day. Men, however, predominated.

One woman who did attend was Wanda James, who works in Washington’s black community with people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

James, 43, who has AIDS, said she has witnessed”big changes”among the black men she knows who attended last year’s Million Man March.”They’re more respectful of others, more humble,”she said.”It’s hard to say, but I guess you can say they’re more spiritual and that makes them more loving, less likely to do harm to themselves and others.”It don’t necessarily mean they’re going to church or anything. It’s in their hearts. It’s an intangible thing” The Million Man March brought upwards of 400,000 African-American men to Washington, according to the National Park Service, which issued the official crowd count. The Nation of Islam claims some 2 million men participated.

The Holy Day of Atonement _ which Farrakhan said he fashioned after Judaism’s Yom Kippur holiday, also known as the Day of Atonement _ was organized on a much smaller scale. For the most part, blacks were asked to mark the day where they live by fasting and engaging in spiritual reflection.

One who did just that was Rick Nix, who last year helped organize the participation of black Catholics in the Million Man March.


Nix works for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw in Michigan. Nonetheless, he did not go to church Wednesday. He chose, instead, to do his own thing, in this case a Native American ritual.”Catholicism is not just what happens in a church building,”he said.”It’s what happens in the hearts and minds of Catholics. In a similar way, the Holy Day of Atonement isn’t about actually being there.”It’s keeping that place in your heart and in your mind and reflecting on how you can help your people in particular and the planet in general, both of which also help you.”

MJP END RIFKIN

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