During the Holocaust, there was a noted rift in how Jewish people viewed God and their religion as a result of their ordeal. I specifically remember the supposed quote carved on the wall of the concentration camp saying “If there’s a God, he will have to beg for my forgiveness.”
I know slaves were taught to from the Bible and many couldn’t read or write, but I know they weren’t dumb. Why, throughout this entire horrible ordeal, did they maintain in the thought of a merciful God above? A God that was very often the same God their masters believed in. Even afterward, the tradition of Christianity ran (and runs) strong throughout the African American community, despite it being the exact same religion practiced by racist white supremacists who captured their ancestors, put them into slavery, fought to keep them slaves, and then continued to oppress them even to this day. Especially with the masters justifying their use of slavery with direct scripture from the Bible, it seems like slaves would just be disingenuous to their slave masters and pretend to follow their same God, while, in their head, have a secret revulsion towards Yahweh.
As opposed to what? It’s not as if much of the West African religions survived the Crossing, although I have heard arguments that many of the distinctively Black American styles of worship can be traced back to West Africa. People tend to follow the religion they were raised in, no matter if it is objectively good for them.
I fully believe that then, as now, most churchgoers do not really have the time, education or inclination to deeply question anything they are told from the pulpit.
Presumably many African Americans were and are well aware of the efforts that many Christians made to abolish slavery, and that may have been involved in their decision to become a Christian.
Alternatively, African Americans may simply have become Christians for the same reasons that so many members of all races did and still do.
In any case, it’s certainly true that a great many African Americans did and still do believe in Christ, and I’m sure that no one on this board is going to suggest that it’s because they’re less intelligent than other races.
Really? A book filled to bursting about promised lands, persecuted chosen people and a god figure that dies like a criminal would seem to me very appealing to a persecuted populated.
It wasn’t the religion of their masters. The “Christianity” taught to the slaves focused entirely on subservience and wasn’t intended to much more for the slaves than to reinforce the culture of slavery. One of the reasons it was illegal to teach slaves to read was so that they couldn’t read the bible for themselves.
[ul][]It’s rare for anyone to consciously sit down, compare religions, analyze benefits and beliefs and come to a conclusion about which one to subscribe to or not. Most people continue in the same religion they were brought up in. []It might have been expedient to believe (or pretend to believe, at first) what they were told to believe to avoid exacerbating master-slave conflicts. [] You can justify almost anything if you try hard enough, and preachers can distort an angry, vengeful god into a sacrificing, loving one as long as the congregation wants to believe and isn’t too skeptical.[]The idea of Christians being persecuted, then redeemed in Heaven provided a ready excuse for belief.[/ul]
Also, remember that slavery of Africans was not limited to the United States. In St. Domingue, slaveholders were required by law to convert slaves to Catholocism, and African religious practice was suppressed. The result was, among other things, Haitian Voodou, a blend of West African religion and Catholicism (plus a few other influences).
Well, how much do you actually know about “the whole situation”. You say “I know slaves were taught to from the Bible”, but among all the black slaves in the Americas, how many are you sure are taught from the Bible? The wealthy Spanish landowners were not known for being particularly fervent in their religious beliefs. The claim that “white supremacists captured their ancestors, put them into slavery” doesn’t mention that slavery had always existed in Africa, long before European explorers arrived. Both the Muslim kingdoms in the north and other African nations captured and traded slaves for centuries. Portugese and Spanish traders simply joined a system already in existence. The comment about “continued to oppress them even to this day” also calls out for explanation.
A crappy life and the fact that their religion had been forced on their ancestors didn’t cause medieval European serfs to abandon Christianity - so why should slaves be any different?
The masters were more powerful than the slaves, so the god(s) of the masters is more powerful than the gods of the slaves. If you’re going to worship, you want to worship the most powerful god and get on his good side.
I also suspect that a lot of the worship that slaves did was pure lip service…that is, the slaves would act as if they believed in Christianity (or the version of Christianity that was taught to them) simply to avoid the appearance of being uppity. I can’t say that I blame them. Uppity slaves got treated even worse than compliant slaves, so why invite trouble? Just say the words, do the actions, and avoid another whipping. You can always worship in your own way in private.
In fact this leaves out a major reason that religion was relevant here: Christians believed it was wrong to enslave other Christians, but doing it to non-Christians was OK. The racial component didn’t exist until later on. In that sense it’s incorrect to call these horrible people white supremacists.
I bet you can figure out what he means without hijacking the thread.
A lot of supposition here, much of it wrong. There are several books that get into the subject of how and why Christianity was purposefully spread among the slaves, but this Wiki link tells of the organizations that got the whole ball of wax rolling:
One of the central stories of the Bible is that of the Exodus: the escape of the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. This resonated powerfully with the slaves in the American South.
Christianity set root in the African American community long before that, due to the efforts of The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the effects of The First Great Awakening: