In his eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, President Obama focused much on the life of Reverend Pinckney and on God's grace - even breaking out into song with the first verse of "Amazing Grace."
In describing his life, Obama said:
"Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public servant. But the person who asked probably didn’t know the history of AME Church. As our brothers and sisters in the AME Church, we don’t make those distinctions. 'Our calling,' Clem once said, 'is not just within the walls of the congregation but the life and community in which our congregation resides.'"
In July 1902, a man named J.W. Sanders wrote "On Unity of the Human Race" in the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review. Writing over 100 years ago, Sanders states his belief that all humans are unified under God regardless of race, religion or culture and that science has shown that human beings are more similar than they are dissimilar. He ends his article with the following poem:
"The planets at their Maker's will
Move onward in their cars,
For Nature's wheel is never still:
Progressive as the stars,
The moments fly on lightning's wing:
And life's uncertainty, too—
We've none to waste on foolish things,
There's work enough to do."
View a scanned image of the article available from the Ohio Historical Society.
Although we think of the Census Bureau as the agency that measures our population, there was a time when it gathered and published information about "religious bodies." In 1906, 1916, 1926 and 1936, the Census Bureau published the Census of Religious Bodies that included not only statistics and data about churches and other religious organizations, but detailed descriptions and histories of them as well. As an example, here is the section from the 1916 census about the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It includes sections on "History,""Doctrine and Polity,""Work," and "Statistics" (including statistics by state).
To learn more about the AME Church, check out some of these items in our collection and visit the AME Church website.
