Baptismal, "Mourning," and "Building" Ceremonies of the Shouters in Trinidad

Abstract

IN TRINIDAD, the Shouters, or Spiritual Baptists as they prefer to be called, are lower-class men and women, mainly of African descent, who belong to demonstrative, fundamentalist cult groups. Their conservative supernaturalism includes the five of the fundamentalist movement which flourished in the Protestant churches of the United States during the decade after World War I: the inerrancy of the Bible, the virgin birth of Jesus, the supernatural atonement, the physical resurrection of Jesus, and the authenticity of the Gospel miracles.2 Unlike American fundamentalists, however, the Shouters groups are not units of established denominations nor seceders from them. Certainly the Shouters do not constitute an aggressive movement directed against liberal, scientific, and secular interests in Trinidadian society. With the exception of basic doctrinal similarities, the Shouters are more akin to Negro charismatic sects in the United States than to the general run of fundamentalists. Both in Shouters churches and in the American Negro charismatic sects greater emphasis is placed on shouting, handclapping, trances, dancing, and rejoicing than on formal worship. Clark points out that no adequate census of Negro churches has ever been taken in the United States, adding that in any large city one can find unheard-of sects.3 Among Negro charismatic sects with more than a few churches Clark mentions: The United Holy Church of America (Durham, North Carolina, I894); The Church of the Living God, Christian Workers for Fellowship (Wrightsville, Arkansas, 1889); The Church of Christ, Holiness, U.S.A. (Selma, Alabama, I894); The Church of God in Christ (Memphis, Tennessee, I895); The Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God (Mobile, Alabama, I9I6); Father Divine's Peace Mission (New York and Philadelphia); The Latter House of the Lord for All People and the Church on the Mountain, Apostolic Faith (Cincinnati, 1936); and The Sought Out Church of God in Christ and Spiritual House of Prayer, Incorporated (Brunswick, Georgia, I947)4 These charismatic churches are distinguished from orthodox Protestantism, mainly racially separate Baptist and Methodist denominations, with which four fifths of the Negro population in the United States is affiliated. The most orthodox of all