I hope this is the right forum, if not mods please move.
I’m going to try and be as PC as possible and try not to anger too many people (bare with me, I’m an idiot sometimes so go easy).
With that out of the way:
I personally don’t know too many African Americans, so I want to know how true this is. My main exposure is from TV and the media (yea great sampling, I know). I have noticed that the large majority of African Americans have a very, very strong faith in God and seem to be super religous.
I work at a historically black university, and I would have to say from my limited perspective that this is true. I’m sure it has more to do with the fact that bleak circumstances and poverty tend to engender religious faith and prayer than any inherent racial tendency toward faith.
If we’re going to keep this to GQ, let’s concentrate on the statistics: A higher proportion of African-Americans say they believe in God than Americans generally. A higher proportion of African-Americans go to church regularly than Americans generally. This is especially interesting because more Americans say they believe in God and go to church regularly than in most countries.
Yes, it’s true. Ironically, blacks had Christinity foisted on them as a way to keep us docile and meek during the times of slavery. The white missionaries probably never envisioned that black slaves would draw comparisons between their circumstance and that of the Jewish slaves in the bible. Harriet Tubman, the rescuer of thousands of slaves, was viewed as a new-age Moses.
Negro spirituals, those beautiful songs that have their origins in slavery times, are based straight out of biblical tales of oppressors and other big ole meanos. They also speak to salvation from present-day horrors. “I’ been 'buked and I been scorned” but there are “long white robes in the heaven I know”. Christianity constantly reminded slaves that their home was not “here” but in the hereafter. “Swing Lo Sweet Chariot” isn’t exactly a song that rejoices about life.
“Black” music has its roots to gospel. The blues comes out of the same pain that sprung old-time gospel.
I think black people still hold onto their Christian faith out of loyalty to this heritage. Many black people give God, not humans, the credit for our victories against oppression. Black athetists tend to be viewed as betrayors of not only God, but the culture that has depended on Him for so long. Since we have a long way to go still, I don’t think that faith will be shaken any time soon.
ElectoSunDog, I consider myself a Christian but I also accept the theory of evolution. The two aren’t mutally exclusive unless you want them to be.
You know this thread has got me thinking. How important is the Christian faith particularly and the Muslim faith to a lesser degree in the evolution of the African-American position in American society. I’d suggest both as a source for the moral indignation of inequality of whites and blacks as well as the unifying force among blacks to challenge the status quo, religion was essential. And the need is not over yet.
I don’t know if it’s a “black” thing necessarily but I’ll point out that the man dubbed “the next Billy Graham” by (thinking) either Time magazine or People (one of those major ones) is a black guy
