Hi. It's been ten years. No biggie. Here's a post like I never left:
The other day, I asked my FB for some of their hardest questions for Christians. I received a few from FB and few from my father, and elsewhere. I wanted to have a place to put them to record them for the long haul and while I have a blog for my book(s) that wasn't specifically my author blog. (Oh, hey, yeah; that book I said I was writing: I wrote it. I edited it. I revised it. I had folks read it and then I did it all again. And again. It's ready to be professionally edited then published, but I'm taking my time and writing a second book before I go down that rabbit hole. So. If you want to check out ANOTHER neglected blog, but one on which I plan to be more active as I develop this second story and finally start some type of online following, go ahead and check it out here. But I tell you. I'm not current over there, either. I just... these things just aren't my forte man... [fun fact: one of my clients told me today "forte" is actually pronounced "fort." Hunh].)
Anyhow. Here's the first of the Hard Biblical Questions. There will be the person's comment/question, followed by my response:
"How do black folks whose ancestors felt forced to convert, possibly out of fear or manipulation or desperation, by white missionaries, justify practicing Christianity today? Though I respect anyone’s religious choice I have always been baffled by this.
Update: I did look into it a little bit, and white slave
owners actually were afraid of their slaves converting because they were afraid
they would see themselves as equal, and they actually forbade them from going
to church in many cases. But nonetheless, I still have a hard time
understanding how folks today (not the slaves, and many I’m sure did not
convert) don’t dissect this more. I do understand culture and traditions are
passed down, and their children and their children’s children may not have been
subjected to the hypocrisy and contradiction of it like their ancestors. It’s a really interesting topic to me.
My question wasn’t regarding how slavery is viewed/explained
by Christian theology/philosophy, but rather how African Americans justify
their Christian practices/beliefs/traditions today knowing the history. Less of
a theological question more of an anthropological question 
Was hoping
someone with an interesting perspective on being a black Christian would chime
in!
Thanks for responding!"
My reply:
Thank you for your question!
First, let’s dissect your own question. You ask how
modern-day black Americans (or black people in general) can be Christians when
their ancestors were forced to convert by white people during the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, correct? You are not questioning how the Bible
defines slavery or addresses it, but how modern-day folks can believe something
when the history of it seems so contradictory and hypocritical.
Assuming I have this question right, here goes:
Again, I thank you. I will speak directly for sake of
clarity.
To address the first issue: Christianity being passed down
or forced upon their slaves by white people.
Christianity
itself goes back to 0 A.D., the death of Christ, to the Man who split time in
two (before/after his death; modern folks try to take Him out of it with using
B.C.E. and C.E. but His death is still the historical event which denoted this
separation). Christianity was originally called “the Way,” and the term
Christians came about derogatorily by non-Christians, mostly by Romans and
others who considered them a nuisance as they gathered to worship Jesus and
celebrate love and forgiveness and encouragement in the face of oppression, and
later the name was taken on by the believers themselves, but technically,
early-Christians are better called “Messianic Jews,” for Jesus is their
Messiah. As Christianity grew, it bled outwards west towards Egypt and south
into Africa before spreading up to Europe and beyond.
Christianity, by its roots, is NOT
a white-man’s-religion, but an ancient Near-Eastern, Middle-Eastern, if you
will, neither black nor white. While yes, there have been some movements and
wars and enforcing of this belief that utterly and completely contradicts what
Jesus and the Bible teaches, we must remember to separate GOD and Jesus and the
Bible from Humankind and its tendency to enslave, oppress, and belittle each
other. This fact, that humanity has done such horrible things and Othered
people since the dawn of time, does not mean it is okay or should be accepted
or brushed off. But we need to remember that, while we all have moral rules and
laws which govern our lives, we are and still remain human. We strive to do our
best, sometimes we succeed, but many times, our own desires or self-interest
gets in the way, and we fail.
The blessing of Christ: this is
where the beauty comes in. Slaves (both during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
[which again, only lasted about 150 years, whereas the slave trade in general
had been going on for hundreds and thousands of years before Africans were
involved] and earlier slave trades like the Arabic Slave Trade) were forced
into a horrible existence. As for how they could be Christians when it was also
the religion of those who owned them, that goes into who Jesus is and what
having the Holy Spirit does for someone. He is the Comforter, our Counselor.
They did not accept Jesus because it was forced on them (there are many
practicing “Christians” today who are not actually followers of Jesus, but
follow the lifestyle and culture… that doesn’t make them true believers). The
reason behind African-Americans who were in the slave trade, many of the
oppressed peoples today in China, in Africa, in the Middle-East, Indonesia, and
across the world today (of which about 7,000 people or more are annually being
killed for their Christian faith today in 2024), the reason all these people
are Christians and follow Christ is because of WHO He is, what He does for them
(gives them a hope, a future, not just in this life, but in the one beyond).
Christianity is the only religion that has stood the test of time in regards to
scientific, historical, philosophical, and social scrutiny. Jesus gets a bad
wrap from a lot of people presuming to know who He really is, when they haven’t
even met Him or read His words. I understand this part might come across a bit
weird, because many who do not believe in Jesus think of Christianity as merely
another religion, no different than another, when to us believers, He is a
Person, not an idea. But the difference is that, in other religions, you must
DO something to achieve your salvation or reach nirvana or become one with the
universe. You go to God, in whatever form and method that means. With
Christianity, God comes to YOU. You only need to admit that you keep making
mistakes, aren’t perfect and can’t be, and accept His gift of salvation by
trusting in Him and obeying Him (which sounds scary, but if you read His words,
it’s like Mom saying “don’t play in the street because you’ll get hurt.” The
guidelines are for our good, not our oppression). THIS is why I know—not just
believe, but know—why descendants of slaves and other modern people believe and
follow and rely on Christ as their Saviour. Because they met Him, gave Him a
chance, and in the bleakest of days, in the darkest of nights, when their world
was full of so much pain and darkness and when life’s meaning seemed empty or
fruitless or ultimately unnecessary… He gave them a Light in the darkness,
hope, and a life that extends beyond their (our) present circumstances and into
an eternity of true, deep-seeded Peace, Love, and Joy.
Sources: the Bible (duh) [But seriously: If you haven’t yet,
read the Gospels and Hebrews, then jump back and check out Exodus and see how
God leads the Israelites out of slavery and delivers them into their new land,
and then jump to Isaiah and how He shows up there. He’s pretty cool, this God).
Google: TransSarahan Slave Trade (dates back to 1500 or
more, prior to Trans-Atlantic), OSU articles about Mediterranean/Trans-Atlantic/Faith
slavery, JSTOR arab slave trade, Barbary slave trade (all this can be googled;
I looked at too many lol), and more.
And even though it wasn’t the basis of your question: just
because something is in the Bible does not mean it is condoned by God. God
addresses things as they are and then instructs how they ought to be. In
regards to slavery, most slavery in the ancient Near East was more of a form of
indentured servitude, where you could “sell” yourself in order to pay back what
you should have rightly been able to pay, but even then, it does not condone
poor treatment. There are laws in Leviticus which outline the proper and good
and just and kind treatment of such people, and there’s even a 7-year jubilee
where all debt etc was void come every 7 years and all slaves and servants,
etc, were released from their agreements. Just because people have failed in
obeying God’s law or have even twisted it for their own purpose does not mean
God’s law itself is flawed or permissive until evil acts. God, by His nature,
is completely counter to all things evil, even in the slightest.
I would still encourage you to ask a Black Christian this
question and see what they say. You may be surprised 😊
___
Alright! Well, there's that. I hope it blesses you.
And... we'll see if I keep this up. Who knows. I'm promising nothing.
But life is still good, God is still grand, I'm still a writer, and while the two cats I had when I last posted have passed, as well as have my grandfather, my mother, and my maternal grandmother (lots of pain and loss these last couple years), I have three other kitties who own my heart, and there's the goodness of God everywhere I look, and His joy suffuses me daily.
God Bless,
Jess
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