This paper will focus on preaching, African Americans in the United States, and the influence of the pulpit in African American culture.
John Jasper, the African American pastor of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, VA, became an international celebrity by preaching the movement of the Sun. Jasper was a slave for 40 years and became a follower of Christ while in bondage. When freedom came, he immediately planted a church in Richmond, which he pastored until his death in 1901. He became famous with his sensational sermon “De Sun Do Move.” The sermon was based on a compilation of texts from the Bible that hinted at the movement of the Sun around the earth.
The paper will address the African American pulpit and how Jasper became the prototype of the pastor/leader in the African American community. Jasper, not Martin Luther King, Jr., was the first pastor/celebrity in the African American tradition and became a pattern for the prominence of the African American pulpit in American society. He has largely been ignored in modern times because of the absurdity of his claim that the Sun moves and the earth is square and flat. Although his sermon is exegetically incorrect, it elevated him to a position of leadership akin to saviorhood among the former slaves of the United States.