The Pentacostal Church’s Influence on Young Black Girls Perceptions Of Sexuality

“The belief that, ‘Women submitting is just a humble repayment for good dead’s instead of a gendered expectation”- Tee Noir

Shot by Dennis Morris

Within the Pentacostal church there is a hyperfocus on black girls, in the way they use their bodies, and express beauty. This enviroment demonstrates the parallels between sexuality and purity. Growing up in this environment made me think about how when your sexuality is suppressed,  it can affect the way you perceive yourself and sexual desire. But also the wider culture surrounding this environment, and how much it’s influenced black girls throughout my experience. 

Black women's bodies are heavily policed, within this denomination of churches. A part of me wants to blame it solely on western imperialism and colonialism, in the ways that christianity reached Africa. But that is'nt the full story. In 1872, the christian church created a denomination called Pentocostalism. One of the leading founders was David Du Plessis South-African born American preacher. Its inception by a white man, to garner black followers indicates that this ideoligies purpose has always been to ostracise through aspiration of pure holiness, one that is impossible to achieve, especially being black. You achieve this holiness through performance, whether you pray in tongues, whether you dress santicly and for black girls how submissive you are. There are members of the church in the present time that aid in indoctrinating the young minds of black girls to one fear their own body and view it as a weapon. It begins through the environment when you begin puberty and suddenly the men you felt were going to protect you, were also the men who were going to hurt you. You're paraded by the older women to start covering up without fully understanding why but knowing you must comply. This inevitably teaches young black girls to attach shame to their bodies , their bodies are a weapon to the men around them. They should know better. Through this shaming we then see a catalyst into ‘purity culture’, how women are blamed for a male's sexual ‘sin’ this weight causes them to hate themselevs. Because by this idea they're that powerful to make another man do what God hates. I remember being in school and a young black girl telling me that she doesn't wear revealing clothing because she didn't want to cause other men to fall into sin; she said her Pastor preached this to her. I felt sad, but I could also resonate with that feeling. The guilt you feel for existing in your own body because that's what they tell you to feel. It's inescapable, when everyone around you wants you to agree to confirmthey'rer doing right by God. But I started questioning, right? 

You're taught not to appreciate the sexaul parts of yourself in ‘purity’ culture, but these pentacostal ideologies aren't only pushed in the church but also within African Media this is depicted, in Congolese/Angolan novellas I’ve seen the woman who is open about her sexuality is punished by the men and her peers, leading her to be isolated and shamed. The effect is that young black girls who watch this are taught to suppress this part of themselves in order to be accepted, because of what happens to the women around them. The woman who is Christian and perceived as “good” gets her happy ending because she abides by the rules that patriarchy taught her. The policing of the ‘others’ body, is an exercise of black male power which ceases to exist in wider western society because of racism. It's an

overcompensation to feel the power they're taught to feel within patriarchy. Embodying patriarchy is aspiring but serves no true benefit to anyone.

A friend who is a black queer woman, that i spoke to  , spoke about their experience of sexual shame. Within the Christian Religon gay sex is considered a sin, they mentioned to me that though they knew this they still participated. In their life though they did not feel sexual shame, due to the people she surrounded herself with. Those people held liberated views on sexuality. I then began to think about queerness, and the relashonship it has to the church. In the pentacostal church, sexuality is oppressed heavily and for those who are queer, it can lead them to believe that how they chose to express love or lust is inherently wrong. Which is caused by heteronormativity, within christianity. Oftentimes you're taught that the part of you that wants to express sexual desire is the ‘devil’ and if you act on those desires you're immoral, causing an intense amount of shame and embarrassment for feeling normal human emotion. You begin to ostarsice yourself from your body. Almost becoming a shell. But, this is always discussed by default assuming every young black girl also desires a man, for those girls who want to express sexual desires to other women, or people they are told they're going to burn. That this isn't only immoral but you are the devil.

Gender performance is heavily encouraged within the pentacostal church with sermons preached by both men and women, telling young girls who they should be, and how they should act. ‘Close your legs’, ‘Cover up’ and most importantly ‘Don't be too opinionated’. Your told that in order to survive, whether straight or especally queer that you have to peform. The church encourages you to assimilate your personal identity to fit one ideal, for young black girls this is essentially silence and submission. There's nothing liberating, or powerful about this, we are taught that if we adopt these behaviours God will love us, and care about us more. 

 The older men around us encouraged us to be silent, to mute our personalities in our own communities to deny ourselves true self expression sexually. You are constantly hearing male pastors rave and complain about the shortcomings of their wife but then praising the power her vagina has and its use to him.  Black girls learn that, that is what they amount to. They become attached and indebted to men, servicing them with submission. I myself was beginning to realise my place with the African men around me, was simply to be a soon to be mother, and a sex object. I guess this was the beginning of gender performativity for many young black girls. We see how its arrival on mainstream media has rebranded into ‘divine femininity’. There's no ownership of womanhood, it's all a performance, to showcase that they are the best women, the lovable, the most marritable and the most pure. If your body count is low, or you lack sexual experience or are socially beautiful you are who you should be. Yet, knowing all these things I don't entirely blame black women for overcompensating what they believe womanhood to be. When you really think about it from the earliest stages of their life they were pushed to behave in this way, their opinions, bodies, face and skin complexion was demonised before they could even reach puberty or understand what they meant socially. The churches pushed them to grow into the women they wanted them to be. Their chance of constructing gender identity for themselves was taken from them, so they adapt to their surrounding culture. In the end it's a lose-lose, there's nothing genuine and authentic about it, when your true self is lost in standards that were set by the dominant beliefs around you.

Pentecostalism prides itself in setting people free. But this freedom actually is about constraint. It’s about putting black women in this box to control. I find it quite fascinating when looking at it through a black British lens. Many Black British people are conservative around sex, that even speaking about it in a positive way is uncommon. When sex is discussed within our culture it is often with shame. With intent to demonise black girls ‘uckers badders’ ‘sket’ words used to describe young girls. With the rise of social media used by early teens they have access to opinions across the world. There was a phenomen on social media discussing whether girls should eat chicken and chips or not. It goes without saying that this opinion was directed at black girls and women. But all I think about when I see things like this, is there is going to be a young girl that see’s this and realises that so many people do not respect her because she is black. It may seem humorous but in actuality this is the extension of the effets of the pentecostal church. The men with mic’s did not start on podcasts; it started within the church and most of the ideals being spewed onto those platforms were first heard within the church. Young black girls are constantly surveilled and criticed, in spaces that are intended to be freeing are actually places that keep them imprisoned. 

Here in the UK there is a boom of multiple pentecostal youth churches that target black people in their early teens. Understanding that they have access to them because of their shared experience of blackness. They manipulate this and then cast their prey. And then here lies our next generation of judgemental elders, the cycle continues. Many join major churches to find community because they may have been isolated from the ones they grew up with. Or as a way to cleanse themselves of a sexual past, even ones they gain in adulthood. But it is very easy for these same churches to become occult. They extend this brainwashing masking itself as radical rather than simply stupid. 

 It would be easier to implament proper sex education but this would mean the men would have to see  women as equals which also causes a loss of power and that is not what they bargained for when they became pastors.  The women in the Bible who are upheld highly ,Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of Jesus are caregivers or participants in male storieswith no real identity outside of that. We see how Mary Magdalene was demonised for being a prostitute and we also see how Mary, mother of Jesus was a virgin mother. The paralles between them showcase how black women today are treated within the church. It is either your a virgin or a prostitute no inbetween. When I think about the implications of a Virgin mother and how the most holy man alive mother is a virgin, in a way I believe that this connotes that in order to be the purest of self as a woman is to not have sex, until your marriage which she did end up doing. The church's culture has posed this forward to women as aspirational and showcasing how important it is for us to remain virgins until we find our ‘Joseph’. Not only this but the emphasis of Mary being a white woman can confirm how the oppression of black girls' identities are by design within the church. We look up to the virgin white mother, someone who is so far from their experiences to remind us of who we should be.