TV Land had another Good Times marathon on this weekend. Someone at that station really likes that show because they have one once a month. Since it’s not football season and weekends at home are boring this time of year I watched a few episodes. One of the episodes I caught was the day JJ painted black Jesus and Michael put him up on the wall. The entire Evans family had some good things happen and gave all the credit to a picture of Ned the Wino. Everybody loved it except for Florida who couldn’t accept the black man as God even after Michael showed it to her in the bible. Now, I love this episode but I never really thought about it the same way I did Sunday. The things that happen to the Evans that day were just random things but they were willing to give all the glory to black Jesus because he looked like them. Now you can pick up a bible and read about Jesus and determine what color he is but visual images are powerful. My grandmother had a huge picture of The Last Supper hanging in her living room and there was no feet the color of brass and hair of lamb’s wool anywhere. It was just a bunch of white men. The basic reasoning and the essence of white supremacy for people who believe in that idea is that they are superior because God’s son looks like them so they must be the closest to Him. That makes everyone else inferior. That is the whole idea in a nutshell. That’s why so many racist ideas have been validated by people who claim to be religious. It‘s the idea that helped Adolph Hitler make all the Germans go crazy. When the Africans came over on the slave ships the first thing they did was take whatever religion you had and make you worship the image of the blue eyed white man. Pretty soon, the slaves subconsciously believed they were inferior and it made them submissive. You can say what you want about the Nation of Islam. Everyone has their opinion but those brothers are empowered by the fact that they believe they are the original man and the closest to God. Listen, this is just an observation. This blog is not intended to give my opinion on religion. I believe in God and probably think about it more than the average person. I don’t want anybody sending me a page full of scriptures thinking I don‘t believe. If you read this correctly you should understand. If you don’t then it only shows your closed mindedness as far as I am concerned. I hope there is someone willing to answer the question I am about to ask. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. The question is this. Would black people in this country be more empowered and more progressive if we had created our own form of Christianity or other religion as opposed to adopting the one we were conditioned to worship?
2 comments:
I don't think our empowerment has a lot to do with religion but spirituality and a personal relationship with God. If black people took the time to read the scriptures for themselves and seek God for an understanding rather than people for an interpretation, I think we'd be a whole lot better off. If you really look at it, a lot of people follow the religion and not God Himself.
I would venture to say the answer to that question no. If you have read the bible, starting way back in the book of Genesis, the two people who were the closest to God disobeyed God. They were punished and restricted from the garden of eden. Next, you have the people of Isreal. Moses led the Isrealites out of bondage and despite having communications with God, they still questioned and doubted Gods' capabilities and throughout the bible is the same behavior. The people were always sinning, however God would forgive them. And I am sure you are familiar with the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. All of these people who I have mentioned are people of color. Because people kept sinning and God saw that the people behavior was not going to change, God sent Christ so that He would die for our sins and we would have everlasting life through Christ if we believed that Christ was the Messiah and we accept Christ. I said all of that to say this. We will never be empowered because not only do we have a history of defiance when it comes to God, but we also have a history of hatred towards the next person and ourselves. Everything I have read in the bible in my opinion has pretty much come full circle. The purpose of Christ is not to enjoy this life, but the life hereafter. We as people have to make the determination if we want our riches now or later. I truly believe if God walked the face the earth, people would still doubt him. But I see the reason behind not being able to see what God looks like or what color He is because it really shouldn't matter. The only thing that should matter is your belief and faith in Him. I don't need a picture of Christ and his disciples in order to believe in his presence. If we were to follow the logic in your question, then the next question would be do you think if God was a woman more women would be empowered and perhaps we should have a picture of God as a woman on our walls to give someone empowerment. Or the question would be if God were Mexican or Haitian would they be more empowered. Black people need to believe in themselves and have faith. Black people made it through slavery despite believing in a white God. Black people broke barriers during the civil rights movement despite believing in a white God. What helped them get through was their faith not whether or not they could identify with a black Jesus.
Shan
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