Faith & Spirit Quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon

There is a quiet sting in Reagon admitting she once measured faith by her repertoire. It’s funny in the way a confession can be funny: not a punchline, but a small self-indictment that exposes how easily religion turns into a performance metric. If you can “sing all of the songs,” you can pass the test, blend in, sound convincing. Belief becomes something you can memorize and execute on cue.

Reagon’s phrasing does two things at once. “Proof” frames religion as something that must be verified, like identity under surveillance. And “used to think” signals a hard-earned revision: she’s naming a younger self shaped by church culture, where spiritual belonging is often policed through participation. For a musician, that pressure intensifies. In many Black church traditions, singing isn’t decorative; it’s communal labor, testimony, emotional infrastructure. Knowing the songs can mean you know the people.

The subtext is that technique and devotion are not the same, even when they travel together. Reagon, whose work sits at the intersection of sacred music and Civil Rights organizing, is also hinting at how movements and institutions reward fluency in their codes. You can master the language of a community without surrendering to its values, or you can believe deeply and still not know every verse.

It’s a line about growing up, but it’s also a critique of gatekeeping: when the easiest thing to measure becomes the thing that counts, we risk mistaking competence for conviction.