Sunday, August 9, 2015

The Negro Church: Report of a Social Study...

by Dubois, W. E. B., 1868-1963 

William Edward Burghardt, co-founder of the NAACP, was a civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar.

In 1891 DuBois got his master of arts and in 1895 his doctorate in history from Harvard. His dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870, was published as No. 1 in the Harvard Historical Series.

In 1896-1897 DuBois became assistant instructor in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. There he conducted the pioneering sociological study of an urban community, published as The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899).

The above mentioned two works assured DuBois's place among America's leading scholars.

In 1909 DuBois was among the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and from 1910 to 1934 served as director of publicity and research, a member of the board of directors, and editor of their monthly magazine entitled, 'Crisis'.

This article was written in an attempt to delineate the perplexing, paradoxical element surrounding Christianity and it's sordid history. Utilizing excerpts from a few essays by one of the first recognized black scholars in America, the author hopes to highlight the illogicality of following a religion initially used to manipulate and control the ancestors of today's African Americans. The Christian holy book was also used as an instrument to prove inferiority and keep the slave humble, subservient and loyal to his Caucasian master.

If your mind is bastardized to the point that you would question why the author is broaching such a sensitive and controversial subject, the answer is because of the lasting deleterious effects today of blindly adhering to a religion that has done far more harm than good.

THE BLACK CHURCH

The slave trade so mingled and demoralized the west coast of Africa for four hundred years that it is difficult today to find the remains of the Africans religious system. There was the spirit belief of the Ewe people; they believe that men and all Nature have the indwelling "Kra," which is immortal.

"To the Kaffirs [derogatory S. African term for black people], as to the most savage races, the world was full of spirits; spirits of the rivers, the mountains, and the woods. Most important were the ghosts of the dead, who had power to injure or help the living, and who were, therefore, propitiated by offerings at stated periods, as well as on occasions when their aid was especially desired. This kind of worship, the worship once most generally diffused throughout the world, and which held its ground among the Greeks and Italians in the most flourishing period of ancient civilization, as it does in China and Japan today, was, and is, virtually the religion of the Kaffirs."

Slavery and Christianity: The most obvious reason for the spread of witchcraft and persistence of heathen rites among Negro slaves was the fact that at first no effort was made by masters to offer them anything better. The reason for this was the widespread idea that it was contrary to law to hold Christians as slaves. One can realize the weight of this if we remember that the Diet of Worms and Sir John Hawkins' voyages were but a generation apart.
HOODWINKED, BAMBOOZLED, LED ASTRAY

From the time of the Crusades to the Lutheran revolt, the feeling of Christian brotherhood had been growing. It was pretty well established by the end of the sixteenth century that it was illegal and irreligious for Christians to hold each other as slaves for life.

 This recognition did not equate to a widespread abhorrence of forced labor.

 On the contrary, it was linked with the idea that the enslavement of the 'heathen' was meritorious, since it punished their blasphemy on the one hand and gave them a chance for conversion on the other. Therefore, when the slave-trade from Africa began it was met with feeble opposition. Opposition that was nullified when it was continually stated that the slave-trade was simply a method of converting the heathen to Christianity.

The corollary that the conscience of Europe immediately drew was that after conversion the Negro slave was to become in all essential respects like other servants and laborers, that is bound to toil, perhaps, under general regulations, but personally free with recognized rights and duties.

Most colonists believed that this was not only correct, but congruent to English law. 

The colonies began to declare that certain distinctions lay between "Christian" inhabitants and slaves, whether they were Christians or not.

In 1641, Massachusetts enacted an edict stating that slavery should be confined to captives in just wars, and such "strangers [heathens: slaves] as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us."

 Connecticut adopted similar legislation in 1650 and Virginia declared in 1661 that Negroes "are incapable of making satisfaction" for time lost in running away by lengthening their time of service, thus implying that they were slaves for life, and Maryland declared flatly in 1663 that Negro slaves should serve "durante vita" (for life).

The Duke of York's laws sent over to the new colony of New York in 1664 the old idea seems to prevail:

"No Christian shall be kept in bondslavery, villenage, or captivity, except such who shall be judged thereunto by authority, or such as willingly have sold or shall sell themselves, in which case a record of such servitude shall be entered in the Court of Sessions held for that jurisdiction where such masters shall inhabit, provided that nothing in the law contained shall be to the prejudice of master or dame who have or shall by any indenture or covenant take apprentices for term of years, or other servants for term of years or life."

In 1667, Virginia eliminated the double-speak by declaring by law:

 "Baptism doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom, in order that diverse masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity."

 If you don't know, here's a contemporary breakdown of this edict:

 If you're Black, it matters not whether you're baptized, this did not change your bondage situation; you're still a slave and will remain a slave until the day you die. Giving you your freedom would interrupt or undermine the spread of Christianity. In 2015, sadly, Christianity is the religion of choice for over 80% of the African American population. The tragic irony is that Blacks today who adhere to the exact same macabre belief system, will perpetually remain in mental bondage.

 The state of Virginia, in 1670, 1682, and 1705, declared that only slaves imported from Christian lands should be free. Next Virginia exempted Negroes and mulattoes from even this restriction unless they were born of Christians and were Christians when taken in slavery. Finally only personal Christianity in Africa or actual freedom in a Christian country excused a Virginia Negro slave from life-long servitude.

 These inhuman laws were passed because:

"Several of the good people of this province have been discouraged from importing or purchasing therein any Negroes or other slaves; and such as have imported or purchased any there have neglected - to the great displeasure of Almighty God and the prejudice of the souls of those poor people - to instruct them in the Christian faith, and to permit them to receive the holy sacrament of baptism for the remission of their sin, under the mistaken and ungrounded apprehension that their slaves by becoming Christians would thereby be freed." 

 In a nutshell, the aforementioned paragraph is saying, "The good slave-masters of the state are discouraged from purchasing slaves under the banner of Christianity because this canonical loophole might some day, free the slave. Doing so, would not be pleasing to God and would be a disservice to the slaves."

This type of evangelical duplicity is how the powers that be, kept this 'peculiar institution' alive and well, and how, over four centuries later, the Christian Church continues to dominate, manipulate, and destroy the psyche of Black America.

The attitude of Christians toward Negroes was reflected in Locke's Fundamental Constitutions for Carolina in 1670.

 Here's an excerpt:

"Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves as well as others to enter themselves and to be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and thereof be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all things in the same state and condition he was in before."

The Christian Program

One major program that holds this country in servitude is referred to as the "Christian Program." This mentality, and 'way of life' dominates the psyche of millions of black people in America.

Unfortunately, falling hook, line, and sinker, for such pious chicanery is the equivalent to spiritual genocide. The tragedy is that the 'Christian Program' has gripped the minds of so many black people in the U.S.

Christianity was the religion of the slave-owners; it's has and still is the religion of the Ku Klux Klan. There symbol is the cross, or a burning cross.

Today's black bishops, ministers, and priest are promoting the same religion, same concepts, and the same principles that were used to enslave the ancestors of African Americans. The control system of the slave-owner has been absurdly passed down to the people that come from the former slaves. This is a tragedy of the highest order and the lack of knowledge and spiritual awareness exhibited by people of color, on a global scale, is downright embarrassing.

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