The AME Breath
By Claire B. Crawford
To inhale sorrow and tragedy and exhale justice and triumph is an act Black people know all too well. This form of breathing founded the AME Church. It is a church built on resistance, resilience, and religious conviction of an equitable future for Black folks. We are a part of a church that seeks to create a place for Black bodies to breathe in peace.
The AME Church reconfigured the stifled, unbreathable atmosphere of injustice for centuries. Its breath is resilience and disruption because we are a church that has created possibility for Black life. That breath demonstrates we are enough to produce the conscious, equitable world we seek.
At this very moment, the promises of the future are the dreams of our ancestors. Around the world, Black people are no longer allowing or waiting for freedom to arrive in front of them but are demanding it from the existing institutions of power. We are reminded daily of the cost of living as our bodies are sacrificed through a system that promotes fear. We have adapted our breath to survive the complicit violence against Black life. The AME Church stands as an institutional symbol that regards Black life as sacred, a revolutionary act of resistance in a society that only acknowledges Black death.
As a young, Christian, African American woman, I stand for harmony. I breathe harmony. I stand for the harmony of those across the world in Black skin. We are human. Harmony does not start with the way we treat others but the way we treat ourselves. Harmony is the ability for your mind, body, and soul to say, “I am.” I am free.
As members of the church, we embody the AME Church motto of “God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, the Holy Spirit our Comforter, Humankind, our Family.” In embodying this slogan, we reflect our relationship with God and the efforts to look at all equitably. As members of the church, we must continue to seek ways to maintain the relationship of equity, justice, and God through all realms of life.
The AME Church is the place where Black folks can breathe. It is a unified body of Christ that breathes justice without limitations. The AME Church embodies a revolutionary breath that provides life in a troubled world. It is a breath that holds society accountable, unifies community, and renews souls across the world.
So, we will not hold our breath in the face of injustice. Instead, we exhale power and love with the hope to never inhale agony again.
