Why do African Americans continue to practice Christianity if it was forced upon them during slavery

Funny I basically asked the same thing in the Noah's Age thread a few weeks ago, never got an answer 
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You probably won't get one in this thread either.
 
keeL252 said:
You black?
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Dude wants more attention on himself.

He gets so upset about racially charged thread..

But posts consistently in racially charged thread

WhatsLosinLike said:
Why are there so many atheists on this board? Always wondered. I know only 1-2 offline, but it's like every single person on here is one...
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I'm not an atheist...

Im just not a fan of Christianity...

More has to do with it being forced on my ancestors...

Less about it's inconsistencies... Even though they're there!
 
LIONBLOOD said:
ohmygosher said:
Because Black Christians today are not slaves, and were never, slaves.
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Wow, i've never seen someone miss a point this badly. :lol:
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What I mean is, I could understand this question being asked if slavery ended shortly after beginning. Like if you saw an ex slave and he was still practicing Christianity, you could go "hey man, why are you still following this religion that was forced on you?" But to ask why Blacks today follow Christianity because it was forced on them doesn't really make sense to me.
 
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Lol Christianity and Islam were taken from native African beliefs and structred into the tools of domination they are today. Europeans and Arabs took our traditions and stories and created their organized religions from them. Heck you have some of the oldest Orthodox Christians and Jews in the world originating in Ethopia.
 
Religion isn't segregated, peoples beliefs are. What was taught to the slaves was the Bible through a colonized slave owner perspective. Slaves were taught jesus is white, africans were half demon half human, and as the colonized race it was their burden through god to colonize the "sub-humans" now since We have our own beliefs we have our own choice in to believing what we want to as african americans and human beings.
 
not a race thing at all, its the same as why white people are christians, it was forced upon them during birth/growing up.

when you grown up going to church on sundays and preying before meals then the whole christian ideology becomes a part of you, this happens to people of all races across the world

it comes down to education, 99% of african american christians dont know or think that their religion was forced on them during slavery so they practice it thinking that it is the right way to think about the world. same can be said about any other race of people that practice a different religion than their ancestors did
 
Good question.I don't get it...not like this isn't a proven, documented and blatantly obvious fact. I don't see how people do it with a straight face.

I brought this up to my family once...didn't go well. Managed to spark my sister's curiosity tho so at least it was a partial win.
 
A) I'm not African American, I'm a Negro, I don't rock dishikis, I don't speak Swahili, I believe in Americam capitalism, i believe in the american system of gov. etc. Brother Malcom didn't fight for the rights of 'African Americans,' he fought for the rights of Negros.

B) there are people in Africa (Ethiopians for example) that practiced Christianity way before AFRICANs sold other Africans into slavery.

C) I'm a Christian because it provides me with some symbol of hope and inner peace, I know to much about this wretched condition called humanity to completely put my faith in it, the ideal that one day things will get better if I'm patience and have diligent hands, the morals the church has taught me, the traditions that I have learned all make me who I am, I'm not turning my back on that because it suddenly became cool to say 'we don't know what came before the Big Bang so religion is wrong' (which is Bs logic) where we should be talking about 1. Love thy neighbor(treat others like you want to be treated) 2. Fear me for I am The Lord (respect this planet, the universe and each other because that is god).


Cats always talking that 'slave mentality ruins you' but disregard the struggle of my mother, my grandmother, etc. to be accepted as an American.


Call me a Sambo if you want, but as far as I'm concerned you brothas can go back to the motha land and let me be free from your rigid, confused ideals and let us who enjoi the American way of life cook.
 
WhatsLosinLike said:
Why are there so many atheists on this board? Always wondered. I know only 1-2 offline, but it's like every single person on here is one...
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Cuz it's easier for them to be one online than in person. How would you know the person sitting next to you on the bus is an atheist?
 
oidreez said:
WhatsLosinLike said:
Why are there so many atheists on this board? Always wondered. I know only 1-2 offline, but it's like every single person on here is one...
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Cuz it's easier for them to be one online than in person. How would you know the person sitting next to you on the bus is an atheist?
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Plus, I'm not an atheist at all, but it seems to me like being (for the sake of this thread let's say) a Black atheist is not good for your socially AT ALL.

Think about any Black person over the age of 40 and how they would typically deal with knowing that this young Black person is an atheist.

I'm agnostic and I find myself having to bite my tongue ALOT and just go along with some of the stuff people say concerning God and who they think is right/wrong.

I think it's weird how it's always the super Christian people who are always talking about how Christians in America are under attack or being discriminated against, but really if I were to just say I'm an atheist to the older black lady telling me about her church, then I'm the one that's gonna get treated funny from now on.

Let's not even get into the idea of being Agnostic/Atheist within a Black family. If they find out then you might as well be sacrificing babies to Lucifer.

My grandfather's a 70-something year old atheist Black man and he's just been straight up lying and pretending for years out of how much African Americans love organized religion.
 
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Meek Meals said:
Why do African Americans continue to practice Christianity if it was forced upon them during slavery?​

On top of that, why are African Americans/minorities the ones who go the hardest with it?​
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MY VIEWPOINT as an African-American Christian.

Because as wrong as slavery was, it has nothing to do with one's religious choice. Those individuals/Christians that engaged in slavery sinned, just like any other sinner, and it was wrong.

Practicing Christianity is about a personal relationship between God and one's self. Not between one's self and the "Christian" institution of churches. Sometimes (maybe oftentimes) Christians overstep their boundaries and judge addicts/homosexuals/racists/etc, even though God is the utmost authority and should be the only judge.

Likewise, atheists often transfer their feelings from judging "Christians" to Christianity, and while I don't blame them, one does need to distinguish that Christians and Christianity are not one in the same. Christians are human (full of error, sin, mistakes, etc) and Christianity is pure. So being an African-American and practicing Christianity has nothing to do with other Christians associations to Christ; its a personal endeavor.
 
puffishurr said:
Meek Meals said:
Why do African Americans continue to practice Christianity if it was forced upon them during slavery?​

On top of that, why are African Americans/minorities the ones who go the hardest with it?​
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Because as wrong as slavery was, it has nothing to do with one's religious choice. Those individuals/Christians that engaged in slavery sinned, just like any other sinner, and it was wrong.
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In the instance of enslaved Africans in America and religious conversion, wouldn't you concede that slavery had a lot to do with one's religious choice in this situation?
 
I always ask people this same question! I'm no atheist but I'm no Christian either.

Seems like common sense to me but some people are so brainwashed that it's like talking to a brick wall. Especially here in the South.

I remember I posted this pic on FB/IG a day after Xmas and it sparked an interesting debate...lol


View media item 901405
 
knowledgebones72 said:
Plus, I'm not an atheist at all, but it seems to me like being (for the sake of this thread let's say) a Black atheist is not good for your socially AT ALL.

Think about any Black person over the age of 40 and how they would typically deal with knowing that this young Black person is an atheist.

I'm agnostic and I find myself having to bite my tongue ALOT and just go along with some of the stuff people say concerning God and who they think is right/wrong.

I think it's weird how it's always the super Christian people who are always talking about how Christians in America are under attack or being discriminated against, but really if I were to just say I'm an atheist to the older black lady telling me about her church, then I'm the one that's gonna get treated funny from now on.

Let's not even get into the idea of being Agnostic/Atheist within a Black family. If they find out then you might as well be sacrificing babies to Lucifer.

My grandfather's a 70-something year old atheist Black man and he's just been straight up lying and pretending for years out of how much African Americans love organized religion.
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Bingo. I've heard a few of our women say things to the effect of "if he can't love God, he can't love me." The **** does that even mean? I believe in you for a fact, you're standing right here! The limitation of my dating pool within my own race is just a microcosm of the prevailing attitude in the religious community (especially the black one) toward those of different or less faith.

Hell, I've still never really went into my agnosticism with my parents...whenever they say stuff like "let go and let God" or "he makes everything happen for a reason" while I'm trying to discuss some deep **** in my life with them, am I supposed to enter into a 3 hour theological debate or just swallow down all that logical venom and say "okay Mommy, thanks."
 
LIONBLOOD said:
knowledgebones72 said:
My grandfather's a 70-something year old atheist Black man and he's just been straight up lying and pretending for years out of how much African Americans love organized religion.
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I'd like to have a drink with someone like this. :wow:   :nthat:
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There are LOTS of old Atheist Black dudes.

Alot of them are involved directly in the Black Church community, too.

It's like, "You mean to tell me I can hire this crazy guy to say crazy things to these crazy people, and they just throw all their money at us???"

Those church people can talk all day about who the deacon at their church is, but not who actually owns the church legally and is entitled to a share of its profits.
 
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Western Christianity was designed to incorporate it's conquered subjects into their practices rather than destroy them completely.
LIONBLOOD said:
West Africa were most slaves were taken from did not have anything that resembles Christianity or Islam.  West African mythology was a polytheistic, nature, animalism and ancestral worship based system. There's no mention of Jesus Christ or even a similar story in the Gambia.


How many slaves taken from Ethiopia? :lol: :stoneface:
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Animism and ancestral worship begin to occur where cultures are destroyed or decentralized.

The African continent was already divided and decentralized by colonial times. Cultural centers of the West African region were ancient history by that time.

Europeans were animist and polytheistic before uniting under the Christian state/flag.

Egypt was not known to have a monotheistic era or system because it was erased from history and relatively recently found out about (i.e. Akhenaten, the historical Moses)

The Eastern and Western traditions of Christianity had a schism in one of Nicean councils. They took two different paths.
 
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