In some of Langston Hughes' writing he deals with the issue of Religion and often the reader will see that for most of his life he has conflicting views when it comes to religion. His views on it is like a roller coaster one minute he is for it the next he does not believe in it. Also, in his writing about religion he points out how people tends to "pimp" out God and how some people make Him in their image of who they think He is and they make His teachings convenient and flexible enough to follow Him. Hughes was not afraid to voice his opinion when it comes to religion. Sometimes that would strike a nerve with some African Americans who uses religion as a way to escape the oppression from the dominant culture. They often looked at religion as a beacon of hope of going to heaven and finally being free from oppression. The pieces that I picked out reflects not only his conflicting views of religion and his viewpoint of how society treats religion. Also, it will show you how the roller coaster effect takes place in his work. In these selected pieces you will see how his life experiences affects his views on religion and the environment in which he was in can also have an affect to where he stood when it comes to this topic. This was an interesting topic for me to do because I found it interesting that he questions a subject that people found part of their lives. Also, he was not afraid to challenge authority and he was not afraid to address his curiosity and concern about religion. While reading some of these texts I noticed that he brought a comedic feel to some of his writings but at the same time it made you think, 'why would the character make religion into something that would benefit them financially instead of spiritually?' Many people believe that Langston Hughes wrote some of his work about religion only to throw people's faith under the bus and being disrespectful to their faith. I think what he is doing is writing about not only his upbringing in the church but what he has observed and his opinion about it. Also, in the article called "Tambourine to Glory" Loften Mitchell explained that, "Religion meant a lot to Langston. He and Richard Wright had been victims of the same kind of religious fundamentalism in their childhood. so they had expectations about religion that religion did not deliver, and they hated dishonesty in the church. This statement that is made by Mitchell makes Hughes an atheist. I do not think that he felt the church was dishonest I think they wanted a true faith, especially Langston; For example, in Hughes short story
Salvation he talks about how his aunt told him when he accepts Christ into his heart something inside of him will be different. In this story when he is a boy he does not see Jesus like his aunt told him. Which is the beginning of him questioning religion and what folk his aunts' age are traditional.
