Can I get an Amen? Of course I can. Church people give those out in abundance, along with, finances, blind faith and a yearning desire to follow ‘the Bible’. The church has been a cornerstone of our community since (slavery) the beginning of time in this country.

How does the existence of the church and oppression in the Black society go hand in hand? Who are you giving your time and attention to and why? Have you been conditioned to look outside yourself for the answer to the problems of your community rather than believing the answer and solution is one within your grasp? Have you ever questioned what you heard in Church but were scared to voice it?

There has undoubtedly been much good done by Christians in this country and the many different denominations of the Black Church. There has been much good done by White Christians and Jews on behalf of Black people in this country as well. There has also been much evil done in the name of Christianity in more than equal number. If Blacks are as religious as other cultures than why are we the only ones still suffering? Maybe a belief in God isn’t enough to save us?!

True, the Civil Rights Movement was largely spearheaded by the Black Church and Churches of many ethnicities and denominations. It was also just as vehemently opposed by the Black Church and churches of every hue all over the country who preferred that we all keep quite and wait rather than protest and march and fight for our rights. In the antebellum south and even in so-called “free states” the number of churches with an abolitionist bent were outnumbered more than 2 to 1 by those who equated abolitionism with atheism because Jesus expressly commanded slaves to honor and obey their masters as they would Christ and, in the Old Testament, the rules for the treatment of slaves (including when it was permissible to kill one) were laid out in detail. I don’t think anyone would claim that Christianity was given to the slaves as a tool for them to use to gain their freedom. It was clearly forced upon us as a means of pacification.

Has anything changed about that?

Slave masters used the bible to justify slavery. Slaves were often told that they were the cursed children of Ham whose duty under God was to serve the White man and their only hope of salvation was to accept Jesus Christ as their savior so that they would inherit heaven when they died. In this way Christian missionaries attempted to persuade the slave that his life here on earth was insignificant and that they should bear their burdens without complaint in order to receive their reward in heaven.

Grandma waited until her death to “Go Home to Glory!” but she may have been the only one.All those coins she tithed throughout her life meant so much to Pastah!

As a means of organizing large groups of people toward a uniform goal, religion is hard to beat. Of course, the problem with this is that the uniform goal need not be positive and often was not positive. Listening to Frederick Douglas describe the sale of slaves to fund the church one can only imagine the feeling of betrayal.

“The church and the slave prison stand next to each other; the groans and cries of the heartbroken slave are often drowned in the pious devotions of his religious master. The church-going bell and the auctioneer’s bell chime in with each other; the pulpit and the auctioneers’s block stand in the same neighbourhood; while the blood-stained gold goes to support the pulpit covers the infernal business with the garb of Christianity. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support missionaries, and babies sold to buy Bibles and communion services for the churches.”

The bullshit stops and the education begins tonight @ 10 p.m

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