Black Churches Are Still Targets
美非裔教堂仍為攻擊目標
By Rachel L. Swarns and Campbell Robertson

In Atlanta, former slaves sang their hallelujahs in an abandoned railroad boxcar. In Lincoln County, North Carolina, they called out to Jesus in a building made of old pine poles. Near Cartersville, Georgia, they raised their voices to the heavens from a roofless barrel shop.
在美國喬治亞州的亞特蘭大市，曾是奴隸的非裔美國人在廢棄的火車貨車車廂唱起哈利路亞。在北卡羅來納州林肯郡，他們在老舊松木電桿搭成的屋裡呼求耶穌。在喬治亞州卡特斯維爾市附近，他們從沒有屋頂的木桶店向天祈禱。

After the Civil War, African-Americans abandoned the white congregations where they had prayed as slaves and created their own centers of worship.
美國南北戰爭後，非裔美國人不再以奴隸身分參加白人的教堂聚會，轉而創建自己的禮拜中心。

What emerged after Emancipation is what the African-American scholar W. E. B. Du Bois and others have described as the “first social institution fully controlled by black men in America.” Black churches ran schools, offered burial assistance and served as clearinghouses for information about jobs, social happenings and politics. More than just spiritual homes, they also embodied their communities’ political aspirations.
奴隸獲得解放後，美國出現了杜波依斯等非裔美籍學者說的「第一個全由黑人掌控的社會機構」。非裔教堂不但辦學校，協助喪葬事宜，也是就業、社會事件與政治等訊息的交流中心；不僅是屬靈的家，也代表著非裔族群對政治的盼望。

And before long, they became targets.
不久之後，非裔教堂成了攻擊目標。

In 1870, as the Ku Klux Klan battled to return African-Americans to subservience, nearly every black church in Tuskegee, Alabama, was engulfed in flames. Ninety-three years later, during the civil rights movement gained momentum, a bomb blast killed four young girls in a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, that was a well-known meeting place for movement leaders.
1870年，美國祕密恐怖組織三K黨發動攻擊、要讓非裔美國人重回奴隸狀態時，阿拉巴馬州塔斯提吉市幾乎每座非裔教堂都被縱火。93年後的民權運動期間，在知名的民權領袖開會處、阿拉巴馬州伯明罕市一座非裔教堂裡，一顆炸彈奪走四個年輕女孩的生命。

So when the Reverend Henry A. Belin III heard about the mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he was not surprised that a racist gunman had set his sights on a historic black church.
因此，當牧師亨利．貝林三世得知，南卡羅來納州查爾斯頓市「非洲裔循道聖公會以馬內利堂」近日發生開槍濫殺案時，他對於持種族偏見的槍手看中具有歷史意義的非裔教堂，並不驚訝。

“You attack the center, whatever you think is going to hit at the heart,” said Mr. Belin, the pastor of the Bethel First A. M .E. Church in New York. “The black church has been the heart.”
紐約市「第一非洲裔循道聖公會伯特利堂」的牧師貝林說：「你會攻擊你認為能衝擊人心的社交中心。非裔教堂就是社交中心。」

Even at a time of waning attendance, the church remains an important institution for African-Americans. In 2014, 79 percent of African-Americans identified themselves as Christian, a rate that has dipped in recent years but remains higher than other ethnic group, according to the Pew Research Center.
雖然上教堂的人逐漸減少，但教堂仍是非裔美國人的重要機構。皮優研究中心資料顯示，2014年，79%的非裔美國人自認是基督徒，比率雖較幾年前下滑，卻仍高過美國其他族群。

The churches have always extended their mission beyond Sunday services. In the 19th century, they became vital community engines. More than 100 of the first black men to be elected to legislative office in the United States were ministers, according to Eric Foner, a history professor at Columbia University in New York.
非裔教堂的使命一直不限於主日崇拜。19世紀這些教堂成為提升族群地位的重要引擎。紐約市哥倫比亞大學歷史學教授艾瑞克．佛諾指出，美國第一批當選議員的黑人中，超過100人是牧師。

During segregation, churches became places where black men and women found leadership opportunities denied to them elsewhere. Some became headquarters for protest movements, most recently in connection with the issue of police brutality.
在種族隔離的年代，黑人男女在教堂發現成為領袖的機會，這在別處不可得。有的教堂成了抗議運動的中心，最近的抗議與警察暴力議題有關。

The deacons of small clapboard churches that dot the Southern countryside have become soldiers in the fight to improve public health, organizing walking clubs and healthy potlucks in places ravaged by heart disease and diabetes. And churches still serve as efficient communications hubs, as evident from the political figures who shuffle in an out of pews at election time. In New Orleans, black churches became channels to share information when residents were scattered and their homes destroyed after Hurricane Katrina.
美國南部鄉村許多小隔板教堂的執事成了促進公共衛生的戰士，在心臟病與糖尿病盛行的地方，組織健走社團，並舉辦各人準備一兩道健康菜餚來分享的派對。教堂目前仍是高效率的交流中心，從選舉時政治人物在教堂長椅之間穿梭就可看出。在路易斯安納州紐奧良市，卡翠納颶風肆虐後，居民四散、家園被毀，非裔教堂成了分享資訊的管道。

“It’s not just African, it’s not just American, it’s not your run-of-the-mill religious experience,” said the Reverend Dwight Webster, of the Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans. “It’s what was needed to help a people survive.”
紐奧良浸信會合一堂牧師德威特．韋伯斯特說：「這些教堂不只是非裔的，不只是美國人的，也不是你平常的宗教經驗，而是幫助一個族群活下去不可或缺的東西。」

Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said hate groups remained aware of the church’s significance.
民權組織「南方貧困法律中心」資訊專案主任海蒂．貝力奇說，仇恨團體仍然知道教堂的重要性。

“It’s a symbol of the black community,” she said. “If you want to harm black folks, it’s an obvious easy target.”
她說：「那是非裔群體的象徵，如果你想傷害黑人，教堂顯然容易下手。」

Even as the church has evolved, racial violence has been a perennial companion. The killing of the four girls in Birmingham still lingers in memories. But it was only one of more than 300 such church bombings in the 1960s, according to “Black Church Arson in the United States 1989-1996,” which appeared in The Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies in 1999.
教會雖隨時間演變，種族暴力卻一直存在。伯明罕四個女孩被炸死事件仍長存在記憶裡。不過，1999年「族群與種族研究期刊」中「美國1989-1996年非裔教會縱火案」一文指出，這只是1960年代300多件教堂爆炸案中的一件。

The violence continued. From 1989 to 1996, more than 200 black and multiracial churches in the country were burned, according to a congressional hearing held in 1997, the article said.
暴力持續不斷。這篇文章指出，根據1997年國會聽證會的資料，1989到1996年美國被縱火的非裔和多種族教堂超過200個。

The shooting in Charleston has resurrected fears. Pastors said they were thinking hiring security guards.
查爾斯頓槍擊案勾起人們的恐懼。許多牧師表示考慮聘請保全。

“In churches all over the country people are asking, ‘Do we need someone at the door, someone who is a little bit more questioning?’ ” said Barbara D. Savage, author of “Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion.” “This is an example of how terrorism works.”
「你的靈長伴左右：非裔宗教的政治學」一書作者芭芭拉．沙維吉說：「全美國的教堂都有人在問：『我們是否需要有人站在門邊，多點警覺性？』這就是恐怖主義奏效的例子。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/in-charleston-black-church-is-target-again-for-deadly-strike-at-the-heart.html

2015-07-07聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 李京倫譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版左