LOS ANGELES TIMES CROSSWORD
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
ACROSS
1 5
9
14
15
16 17 18 19
20 23 24
28 29 32 34 35
36
41
42
43 44
48 51
“I __ out!”
Slavic title derived from “Caesar” President born in Hawaii
Wrath, in a hymn title
Syllables from Santa
Egret, for one Highway reading __ of March “Good Will Hunting” actor “Even dialogue wouldn’t have saved that show,” e.g.?
Stir-fry ingredient Camden Yards player
Golden __
Alpo holder? Needlefish
Guys
Abbr. after Shaker or Brooklyn Misleading gossip?
Richard Wright’s “Native __” __ Center: L.A. skyscraper
Urge
Face of a petty criminal?
Egyptian goddess Anatomical ring
52
55 58 61 62
63
64
65
66 67 68 1 2
3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11
Dead Sea Scrolls sect
Pilot lighter, and a hint to the four other longest puzzle answers
Goes after Do nothing
Hot under the collar
On top of things
Pentagon measure
Lacking depth and width Phone messages Exec’s benefit Lepidopterists’ tools
DOWN
Tiny tufts
“God Is a Woman” singer Grande
“Stop badgering me!”
Camper’s supply Wind instrument? Belt with 12 parts “I’m standing right here”
Flower with hips “Phooey!” Brimless cap
Limb with biceps and triceps 12 13
21 22 25 26 27 30
31
33
36 37
38
Low in the field Martin who wrote many of the “Baby-Sitters Club” novels Winfrey of HBO’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”
Sharp
Folk singer Phil Wood strip Minnesota twins? “May I see __?”: diner’s query 1980s-’90s game console
Find incredibly funny
Stern
“Bus Stop” dramatist
__ de plume
39
40
41 45 46 47 49
50
53 54 56 57 58 59
60
Reason-based faith
Available and fresh
Like a wee bairn Small racer
Select groups Eccentric type
Pray aloud, perhaps
It’s not for everyone __ preview
Tool storage sites Thunder sound Rabbit-like animal Bowler, for one More than impress
Jazz instrument
2-18-21
Henry Louis Gates’ thoughtful, comprehensive survey, which serves as a companion to the new PBS series (check your local listings) but also stands sturdily on its own, might be titled “The Black Church,” but it doesn’t reduce a complicated institution into one monolithic presence.
His nuanced study, backed but not overwhelmed by mountains of research, examines the political as well as the spiritual role of the Black Church, and the way it has both shaped and been shaped by the world outside the walls of individual churches.
According to Gates, “roughly 80 percent of African Americans – more than any other group – report that religion is very important in their lives.”
Often, these days, that religion is a form of Protestant Christianity, but that wasn’t always the case.
REVIEW
In the 17th century, more than a few slaves escaped the British colonies for Florida and there converted to Catholicism, and were granted freedom. And many of the first slaves on the North American continent were practicing Muslims.
Gates goes back to examine their stories, and of the influence of African spirituality on the music and sermons of the “praise houses” where people gathered before the Civil War and the churches built in great numbers after the war.
Before the Civil War, the Black Church “fueled slave rebellions, nurtured and sustained the Underground Railroad, and was a training ground for the orators of the abolitionist movement.”
After the war, the church encouraged literacy, financed the development of historically Black colleges, contributed to the development of the civil-rights movement and led to the growth of the “preacher politician.”
Gates doesn’t ignore problems within the church, including a certain amount of “homophobia and misogyny,” and he carefully documents the way diverging branches of Black Protestantism reflect “a complicated class war over culture in the Black community.”
Gates’ book is amply illustrated and contains enough references and book recommendations to fuel a rewarding independent study of the subject.
It ends with a fascinating dive into Gates’ personal experience of religion growing up in a tiny town in northwestern West Virginia, where a vow he made after his mother nearly died swept him away from their relatively staid Methodist and Episcopalian houses of worship into the Pentecostal “Holiness Church,” where “speaking in tongues” was a routine part of the service.
Still balanced between being an insider and an objective observer, Gates makes an apt guide to what he calls the “world within a world” of the Black Church.