Sunday Supper is Killing Us! Black Church, Do You Want to be Made Whole?

Abstract

ABSTRACT ADAMA MELITTE ZAWADI SUNDAY SUPPER IS KILLING US! BLACK CHURCH, DO YOU WANT TO BE MADE WHOLE? Under the direction of David Garber, Ph.D. The history, the intergenerational relationship to food, and the culinary traditions of African Americans all too often manifest as deleterious lifestyle choices leading to preventable illnesses and death. From the first sip to the last sip, learned dietary behavior, good or bad emanates from the art of gathering around food As with the Eucharist, fellowship, communion, worship, and wellness have always been centered around the table. The church is ground zero for educating, empowering, and cultivating a spiritual awareness that aligns the people of God with the will of God that says, “You shall live and not die.” However, the numbers do not lie. Cornerstone Christian Church is a microcosm of a growing societal problem: the propensity to be sick by choice. The invitation to wholeness imagined a shift from being engaged in making detrimental lifestyle choices to accepting the invitation to exert one’s right to wellness. The research was a qualitative ethnographic study, peculiar in that it attempted to measure the intangible. Will faith affect one’s willingness to live a full, healthy life? Does faith have any bearing? The research was designed to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and legitimate threats to creating wellness within the faith community, particularly among the African American faith community. This is the population readily disposed to the most significant health disparities across the spectrum in modern society. Research instruments included participant questionnaires, individual pre- and post-interviews, observational field notes including extemporaneous conversations, as well as audio/video recordings of roundtable discussions. Data were collected, secured, coded, and analyzed. The findings corroborated potential barriers, validated health concerns, and nuanced indications for change. There was a total of six bi-weekly sessions: one dietary educational component, one documentary film review, one meditation session, and a Welcome to the Dinner Table potluck. Discussions were either concurrent or otherwise centered around questionnaires. The secular calendar was intentionally synchronized with the spiritual calendar during the first quarter of the year. Conclusions probably asked as many questions as were answered. Fresh ideas were germinated for assuming individual responsibility and self-determination to attain a higher quality of life. Conclusions also presented tangential opportunities for further study.