African Americans and Christianity

[Nickman]

I am not racist by any means. I do think that if it wasn't for slavery that African Americans wouldn't have taken in Christianity. I think that they would still adhere to the African gods and godesses.

Here is a list of African gods.

When white Europeans took Africans as slaves they were held under Christian beliefs. Over time these beliefs filtered into their culture. Today African Americans hold to such beliefs (most). I deduce this from prior and after. Prior to slavery they didn't know about Jesus and had their own gods. After slavery they have beliefs in Jesus. Some people in Africa still have their old gods.

Do you think that slavery played a part in Africans becoming Christian? Do most African Americans realize the connection?

[TheTruth101]

@Nickman,


The Africans back in the days BEFORE they were enslaved and broght to the U.S had biblical influence in their native land. care to look into the Steven Spielberg movie "Amistad". Its based on a TRUE STORY and within the very movie, when they are being transported to the U.S, in midst of it the Africans start talking about Jesus Christ from which they got a hold of in their own native land.

Yeah a movie based on a true story is evidence! Ill believe that. Please provide actual evidence that Africans had christian beliefs prior to 1619.

Source
Christianity became alive as slaves began to combine their African religious beliefs with Christian beliefs in order to make up what is called slave religion. At the beginning, between 1619 and the early 1700’s, slave owners were not really trying to convert their slaves into Christians. Then, slave owners began to have different thoughts between each other as well. Some believed that slaves were more than inferior so this meant that they should try to acquire Christian redemption. Others believed that converting slaves into Christians would cause many problems because they could start thinking that they were equal to whites since they were sharing the same beliefs. To them, a converted slave would become lazy or even resistant to their white masters.

Then, in 1701, this all began to change when white missionaries and slave masters realized that slaves should be converted into Christians. The formation in London of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) was how this all began. The number of slaves that they converted was limited due to the lack of ministers that were sent to North America and because some slave owners objected for their slaves to be taught Christian beliefs. The SPG was converting slaves as they demanded control of their body instead of African beliefs in which they emphasize on physical movement caused by spirit possession.

Works cited

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
2452-2454 and 2465.

Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll. New York: Random House, Inc., 1972. 232-255.

It is ecidence somewhat. Steven Spielberg wouldn't put in a Chrstiain "doctrine" into his movie as a cut when it never happenened. He's not even a christian, there is no need to.

Is that you Truth101 in the pic?

Look I justed posted actual evidence of slave religion which states that Christianity was not something they knew until they were converted by missionaries as slaves. You posted a movie. Youll have to more than that. Some good scholarly material would be nice.

Yes, it is me.

There are some more "works" out there that states that Africans adopted the Bible before they were enslaved here to the States.

Will post up links tmr.

Yeah, when they were enslaved by European Christians prior to being taken to America and even the ones long before. Africans had their own gods and none resemble or are correlated with the biblical god or the Christian Jesus. Please provide real evidence.

Gospel of Christ was spoken in Africa 2,000 years ago Nickman.

http://www.allaboutreligion.org/history ... ca-faq.htm

The history of Christianity in Africa probably began during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago. The New Testament of the Bible mentions several events in which Africans were witnesses to the life of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. It is possible that the history of Christianity in Africa began when these Africans shared what they witnessed with other Africans.

Thats long before slavery by the U.S.

[Nickman]

@Nickman,


The Africans back in the days BEFORE they were enslaved and broght to the U.S had biblical influence in their native land. care to look into the Steven Spielberg movie "Amistad". Its based on a TRUE STORY and within the very movie, when they are being transported to the U.S, in midst of it the Africans start talking about Jesus Christ from which they got a hold of in their own native land.

Yeah a movie based on a true story is evidence! Ill believe that. Please provide actual evidence that Africans had christian beliefs prior to 1619.

Source
Christianity became alive as slaves began to combine their African religious beliefs with Christian beliefs in order to make up what is called slave religion. At the beginning, between 1619 and the early 1700’s, slave owners were not really trying to convert their slaves into Christians. Then, slave owners began to have different thoughts between each other as well. Some believed that slaves were more than inferior so this meant that they should try to acquire Christian redemption. Others believed that converting slaves into Christians would cause many problems because they could start thinking that they were equal to whites since they were sharing the same beliefs. To them, a converted slave would become lazy or even resistant to their white masters.

Then, in 1701, this all began to change when white missionaries and slave masters realized that slaves should be converted into Christians. The formation in London of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) was how this all began. The number of slaves that they converted was limited due to the lack of ministers that were sent to North America and because some slave owners objected for their slaves to be taught Christian beliefs. The SPG was converting slaves as they demanded control of their body instead of African beliefs in which they emphasize on physical movement caused by spirit possession.

Works cited

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
2452-2454 and 2465.

Genovese, Eugene D. Roll, Jordan, Roll. New York: Random House, Inc., 1972. 232-255.

It is ecidence somewhat. Steven Spielberg wouldn't put in a Chrstiain "doctrine" into his movie as a cut when it never happenened. He's not even a christian, there is no need to.

Is that you Truth101 in the pic?

Look I justed posted actual evidence of slave religion which states that Christianity was not something they knew until they were converted by missionaries as slaves. You posted a movie. Youll have to more than that. Some good scholarly material would be nice.

Yes, it is me.

There are some more "works" out there that states that Africans adopted the Bible before they were enslaved here to the States.

Will post up links tmr.

Yeah, when they were enslaved by European Christians prior to being taken to America and even the ones long before. Africans had their own gods and none resemble or are correlated with the biblical god or the Christian Jesus. Please provide real evidence.

Gospel of Christ was spoken in Africa 2,000 years ago Nickman.

http://www.allaboutreligion.org/history ... ca-faq.htm

The history of Christianity in Africa probably began during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago. The New Testament of the Bible mentions several events in which Africans were witnesses to the life of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. It is possible that the history of Christianity in Africa began when these Africans shared what they witnessed with other Africans.

Thats long before slavery by the U.S.

Thats not evidence. You are disregarding the fact that the slaves brought to America did not worship Jesus. I posted above and sourced my post that they had what is called slave religion. If they already believed in Jesus then there would have been no such melding of African religion with Christianity. The link also states that many slaves that became free started to realize this and switched to Islam because they didn't want to be associated with the deity of their captors.

[Nickman]

@Truth
To add, your site is a Christian site. It is all about promoting christianity. It also provided no sources for its claims. I provided a sourced article.

[Nickman]

@Truth
Notice your article

The history of Christianity in Africa probably began during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, two thousand years ago. The New Testament of the Bible mentions several events in which Africans were witnesses to the life of Christ and the ministry of the apostles. It is possible that the history of Christianity in Africa began when these Africans shared what they witnessed with other Africans

.

It is not based on facts. It is based on assumption.

[theopoesis]

Just dropping in for a bit this morning. Won't really have time to be back until another few weeks have gone by, but saw this thread and thought it had some good questions. Figured I'd make a few quick points:

(1) Since the end of the first century, Christianity has always had roots in Africa. This is true in two main geographic locations: North Africa and East Africa. In the North, Christianity spread along the Mediterranean sea. In the East, Christianity spread into Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Orthodox church is one of the oldest Churches in Christianity. Some of the most important early theologians were North African. Tertullian (who developed the term "trinity" among other contributions), Augustine of Hippo (arguably the most important theologian ever), Athanasius of Alexandria (who fought against Arianism), and many others were all African. Today, because of the spread of Islam, we tend to think of Christianity as a European religion, but that's not historically accurate. Christians were in Africa long before they were in what is today the UK, Germany, Scandanavia, or Russia.

(2) Most of the Africans captured in the slave trade were not captured from the Christian areas. It is unlikely that more than a very small minority would have been Christian. Thus, Christianity was a novel phenomenon for many slaves.

(3) It does not follow that black Christians today are simply following the religion of their one-time slaveholders. Many Black Church theologians, preachers, and scholars have argued that Christianity is originally very African, and that Europeans and Americans who practiced the religion and held slaves or oppressed minority rights were not actually following the God of Jesus Christ. In this way, Whites had stolen a religion that was originally African, and were falsely claiming to follow God. The true Christians were the slaves who shared in the suffering of Jesus Christ, not the whites who caused that suffering. Therefore, say these theologians, to say the religion is truly the whites' religion is to be completely incorrect. (see, for example, James Cone's God of the Oppressed)

(4) Christianity today is increasingly becoming a global phenomenon. While numbers of believers in Europe and North America are decreasing, the number of Christians in Africa is increasing significantly. Thus, Christianity isn't just a historical religion of Africa. It is very much a contemporary religion of Africa. This is especially true in nations like Nigeria. Nigerian Christian missionaries are active across the world. Nigerians even send missionaries to the USA. So to make mission work completely a project of Europe and North America is to miss the complexity of Christianity in the globalized world.

[bluethread]

[quote="theopoesis"

(3) It does not follow that black Christians today are simply following the religion of their one-time slaveholders. Many Black Church theologians, preachers, and scholars have argued that Christianity is originally very African, and that Europeans and Americans who practiced the religion and held slaves or oppressed minority rights were not actually following the God of Jesus Christ. In this way, Whites had stolen a religion that was originally African, and were falsely claiming to follow God. The true Christians were the slaves who shared in the suffering of Jesus Christ, not the whites who caused that suffering. Therefore, say these theologians, to say the religion is truly the whites' religion is to be completely incorrect. (see, for example, James Cone's God of the Oppressed)
[/quote]

I think this is just sour grapes. Not that the "white" grapes were not in fact sour. However, I still see the "social justice" gospel as reactionary, while "white" christianty has historically been more about justification than justice.

[Nickman]

[Replying to post 25 by theopoesis]

(2) Most of the Africans captured in the slave trade were not captured from the Christian areas. It is unlikely that more than a very small minority would have been Christian. Thus, Christianity was a novel phenomenon for many slaves.

This then gives creedence to my argument as does the article I posted about slave religion. Christianity was new to the slaves and over time it was integrated into their culture. The same way that Roman, Greek, Babylonian, and Egyptian influence crept its way into Judaism.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tse ... ligion.htm


Preserving African religions in North America proved to be very difficult. The harsh circumstances under which most slaves lived—high death rates, the separation of families and tribal groups, and the concerted effort of white owners to eradicate "heathen" (or non-Christian) customs—rendered the preservation of religious traditions difficult and often unsuccessful. Isolated songs, rhythms, movements, and beliefs in the curative powers of roots and the efficacy of a world of spirits and ancestors did survive well into the nineteenth century. But these increasingly were combined in creative ways with the various forms of Christianity to which Europeans and Americans introduced African slaves. In Latin America, where Catholicism was most prevalent, slaves mixed African beliefs and practices with Catholic rituals and theology, resulting in the formation of entirely new religions such as vaudou in Haiti (later referred to as "voodoo"), Santeria in Cuba, and Candomblé in Brazil. But in North America, slaves came into contact with the growing number of Protestant evangelical preachers, many of whom actively sought the conversion of African Americans.

[The Nice Centurion]

[Replying to Nickman in post #27]
Islam also crept his way into the the african continent.

Without research I suspect that a good part of the captured Negros were Muhammaddans.

Example: The series "Roots" was relatively good researched historicially.
Kunta Kinte, when captured in Episode 1 is a Muhammadan. Another black slave with a drum, whom he meets in America and wants to flee with, also is a Muhammadan. This seems common.

Addittionally interesting fact: Malcolm Twitter . . . Umm . . . I do mean Malcolm X converted fom Christianity to Islam 'cause he saw this religion as threating blacks as equals.