Is so many Blacks embracing Christianity a sign of our weakness?
I'm Black myself and Agnostic and this is a serious question I'm asking.
Now, during the times of slavery, we all know Christianity was forced upon African Americans but it sort of confuses me that even after we were freed, so many Black people still embraced the religion chained upon them and even passed it down to their children. The very religion the slave masters had put upon, I suspected that would be the last religion if any that a now free black person would ever choose. If anything, during those times and I was freed, Christianity would be the last religion I would ever be apart of. I just can't comprehend why a black person would ever be apart of the religion that justified their very torture.
Please read the whole paragraph not just the question before answering.
Then don't embrace Christianity and get over incidents that happened probably 100 years before you were born. Or keep talking about slavery and how bad it was and see where it gets you in five years.
What does religion have to do with race? So you shouldn't be an agnostic because Black Communists across Africa were imposing atheism(yeah I know the difference but its connected) on the masses?
You shouldn't practice voodoo because Voodouns were selling slaves to Europeans?
You shouldn't be a Muslim because Arabs were imposing the religion on Slaves?
And what's with you separating humanity based on race? That's pretty racist.
I suggest you check out the history of slavery in Christianity. It is true almost all protestant sects supported slavery, the Catholic church for the most part did not. Especially the American form of slavery. The strongest pro argument in the church for slavery was you could only enslave those you captured in combat who were not Christians. If the slave converted then you had to free him.
The Papal States almost went to war with Portugal for enslaving Catholics from the Azores.
Finding Jesus Christ is never a bad thing. Read some of the things Jesus said and you may understand better. Sometimes God allows bad things to happen to bring people closer to Him.
(Romans 3:22-24) .?.?.God?s righteousness through the faith in Jesus Christ, for all those having faith. For there is no distinction. 23?For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24?and it is as a free gift that they are being declared righteous by his undeserved kindness through the release by the ransom [paid] by Christ Jesus.
The abduction of South Pacific islanders during the 19Th and early 20Th centuries came to be called black birding. During the early 1860?s, the practice brought thousands of the islanders to South America. During the decade that followed, the focus moved to the west as islanders were taken to Australia. In 1867, Ross Lewin, formerly of the Royal Navy, offered sugar growers and cotton planters the ?best and most serviceable natives to be had in the islands at 7 [pounds] a head.?
Efforts of the British Colonial Office to combat black birding were unsuccessful. For one thing, it was difficult to apply British law to subjects of foreign powers. For another, English law did not have a comprehensive definition of slavery. Thus, in court, black birders successfully argued that these islanders?although deceived and taken forcibly?were not really slaves but were indentured laborers who would be paid and, in time, sent home. Some went so far as to assert that they were doing these former heathens a favor by bringing them under British law and teaching them to work! Blackbirding thus proliferated, at least for a time.
No, it's a sign of how powerful religions are at controlling minds. No one chooses a belief system, they just believe. It may have been due to indoctrination as a child or due to some kind of traumatic event in adulthood or some other kind of powerful, driving need or desperation, but it's not chosen and therefore it's not entered into as part of a rational decision-making process. It's therefore irrelevant that Christianity was forced on their ancestors or justified their enslavement. They believe because one way or another they were brought to believe. Understand the psychology behind religious belief, and you'll be less shocked at how a people can embrace a religion that makes so very little sense.
I have no idea why it would be... why would a 'belief' be a weakness for a group of people? Although I am a white atheist, I have no idea why all other white Christians would be considered a weakness.
I don't think it's good judgment but it's hardly a weakness...
The church takes away with one hand and gives back with the other.
With one hand it takes your money, your individuality, your freedom, and your dignity.
With the other it hands you back the promise of a better deal in the afterlife.
There were puritans and then there were the pilgrims. The pilgrims did not force God on anyone, but the puritans did. God does not force Himself on us, if that were the case we would not be ability to choose Him. Religion is conversion of the mind, God deals with the conversion of our hearts, which bring about the conversion of our minds. God is not a religion to be followed. God incorporated symbols, rituals, traditions, holidays, prophesies....etc... into Israel, so that they would recognize their God when He was among them. Religion was never supposed to be an end in itself.
There are those who do things their way and then there are those who do things God's way. Jesus said Himself there would be tares among the wheat (false Christians among true Christians). This was true even in Jesus' group of disciples....a man named Judas Iscariot. Also, it is good to look at history...knowing that Islam was and still is a religion of forced conversion, if they cannot get you to come willingly, you may suffer persecution or even death. Any branch of Christianity, which has the same practices of forced conversion is not of God. You can have tons of religious converts and people who follow along with a religion, who have no concept of who God is, nor do they have a relationship with Him.
i know right? what most whites don't realize it that blacks were all the people in the bible. Jesus moses, Noah all of them! our spiritual thinking is WAAA then the bible. Remember we were the same people who built the pyramids and the ancient city Kermit who were very advance in math even more then we are today. The people who taught Jesus his miracles were the ancient Kemetics. During that time Kemet was known for doing their ancient version of voodoo *hint hint*.
The slaves from Africa adapted the bible mainly because they were forced to. WHen they were able to read they realized that they liked the bible and became loyal to it and somehow ignore our horrible past on how we were taught it. my stubborn grandfather refuses to believe that the whites made a law in the bible that blacks were suppose to be slave. The bible has a history of forcing others on it's religions. even though the Muslim's religion is to kill someone if they don't believe in their god the christian leaders seemed to force that message 10xs harder them the muslim community. how could a great religion be in the hands of such assholes?
''The truth will set you free.'' Most African people that were kidnapped and forced into slavery were highly superstitious people, in fear of the dead and practiced magic and other forms of spirit-ism.
That they allowed themselves to be taken as slaves, even turning on their own race, is hardly a sign of strength. Christ gave his life on behalf of all people, that none may be destroyed, but may retain repentance and gain life everlasting. The color of ones skin has nothing to do with what is in their heart. Quit judging that you are not judged also. It is by our actions that we are judged by God, something even Africans of old believed in, not the color of ones skin.
The reason prejudice is alive and well today is because people haven't learned to be color blind when it comes to others and themselves.
It's a sign of the weakness of humans, not just of blacks. As for Christianity being the religion that justified the torture of slaves, who do you think we got a lot of our slaves from ? The Muslims.
Anyway, I'm an atheist. I'm white. But I think that when people are raised a certain way, it gets into their brains. They then raise more people the same way... To think of yourself as 'black' and concerned with your 'blackness', with whether it's a weakness or whether it's tainted by weakness, isn't that racist too ?
Racism, yet another human problem. Invented by humans.
But here's some food for thought. If humanity came from Africa, if all humans are descended from black people, and if racism comes from humans, then doesn't racism come from black people ? Or do you think that it's some mutation that happened to white people ? Or maybe racism is just the natural progression of 'us versus them' that began with the earliest animals when they stopped eating others of their own species. It's just an extension of normal human divisiveness that we have b/c tribes differentiate themselves from other tribes. I care about MY sister, MY brother, MY cousin, MY kids more than about YOUR sister, YOUR brother, YOUR cousin, YOUR kids, and this leads me to care more about MY tribe, about MY group, about MY nation. It may not be nice but until we find where these stupid things come from (racism, religion, etc) we won't be able to really deal with them in any lasting way.
You can be any co lour and be delusional with imaginary friends. I believe there are a lot of reasons why people cling to religion, socialism, comfort, hope, faith just for a few. Many people are born into religious families and cultures and they naturally take on the ways of the others.
Like you I don't really know why the black people take on the religion of the slave masters when at some point you must of had your own religion but times change. I hope you do not get hung up about slavery which in the way most know was abolished a long time ago. Nobody living now needs to apologies for it after all; we are all living off the proceeds of it.
The slave masters were wrong. Galatians 3:28 states:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
If they read and followed the above verse they would realize that we are brothers in Christ and slavery is wrong. It was Christians in England who were instrumental in ending the slave trade.
The reason slaves would pass on their faith is because they recognized that we all have a sin problem. And Christ is our only salvation.
edit:
Jack Jack Jack.
Quick question- What religion do the 21st century slave holders practice?
Yes. They are Muslim.
First off, I don't know what you're talking about. Apparently, you're some White American trying to understand Black Americans....
FACT: The FASTEST growing religion in the world today is ISLAM, not Christianity. Indeed, the number of Christians in the world is SHRINKING - you might want to consider that in any analysis of the world situation today.
You are partially correct - many blacks in America are realizing Christianity was the religion of the slave-owner. That why they're leaving Christianity in DROVES. You probably don't hear about this on American news media ( controlled by whites) but it's true nonetheless. Many are converting to Islam, but a substantial number are calling themselves agnostic
To the previous poster STEVE:
You don't know what you're talking about. You're just some cracker hon key who wants to retain the myth of the good little "uncle tom' Niagara . Again,blacks in America are leaving Christianity in droves, they're becoming Muslims or atheist/agnostics. Deal with it!!!
I think that a belief in a lord kept slaves stronger. Voodoo, whilst having a Catholic influence, was a religion which has its roots in Africa and practiced by slaves. Not all black people practice Christianity, and religion is generally passed down from generation to generation, so there is a historical influence to their belief. There is a dark side to all religions, many religious scriptures advocate slavery and other unsavory practices. I find religious belief to be illogical, and ill thought out, with many people blindly following what is passed down to them. I don't think that, as a weakness, it is exclusive to black Christians. If you go back to the dawn of time there is not a race on this earth that hasn't experienced slavery at one time or another. The enslavement of Africans is the most recent of a long history of mass slavery.
It is understandable why you feel that way. Religion is the cause of much pain. However if you see Gods view it will bring you at peace. There have been slaves since way back in bible times (Gen.14:14,15) How God feels towards racism will comfort you. In Acts 10:34,35 it says "For a certainty I perceive that God is Not partial, but in every nation the man that serves him and works righteousness is acceptable to him". In John 13:34,35..Jesus said the identifying mark of a true Christian is "that you love one another, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves". Jesus and his father Jehovah do not judge according to outward appearance (Isa 11:3,4) As a matter of fact God will not allow the ones who are racist and cruel to live in the paradise earth. (Jude 1:18,19) The good news of all of this is that in the near future Jehovah God promises that the former things will pass away, so any bad that has happened to anyone will be a thing of the past (Rev 21:4)
Is so many Blacks embracing Christianity a sign of our weakness?
