Our black people have had to bear the grievous cross of racism during our American sojourn, even in the Christian Church , especially there!
"Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing . My sisters and brothers this should not be . Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring ?"
James 3:10-11
This text, pericope of scripture, came to mind, as I reflected upon black and white Christianity in America, and the different paths that each have trod, and yet tread, in the redeeming gospel of Jesus.
In his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO (1855, 1970), Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward, an early black abolitionist lecturer, has written:
"The American Tract Society not only publishes no tract against slavery, but they favor that abominable system in the two following ways... No poor slave: dumb as thou art, dumb shalt thou ever be, so far as this Society is concerned.
"The American Bible Society distributes no Bibles among the slave population. To do so, it is freely admitted, were contrary to law in some States--not in all. It is so in nine of the fifteen Slave States, but not in the other six...
"Slaveholders and their abettors belong to and are officers of the American Bible Society, and they control it. That slavery forbids the searchings of the Scriptures, which Christ enjoins, is to them not even a matter of complaint ....
"The American Sunday-school and Union stands in precisely the same category, and is controlled by precisely the same influences; and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is, and always has been , both in its policy and officers, of the very same character.... But the most lamentable fact is, that in Congregational New England the sons of Puritan sires are as guilty as the guiltiest enemies of the downtrodden slave. Such was the state of the case in 1839, when my labors began; such I regret to say, continues to be the case at this moment..."
P.48-49
Black and white Christians have surely had to tread separate paths to arrive at their present locations, given the account of Samuel Ward.
Or, if we have somehow trod the same path, we blacks, like our North African brother, Simon of Cyrene, must have carried the cross of Jesus Christ, while the white Christian folks rode atop it!
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
AT THE CROSS, AT THE CROSS....
AT THE CROSS, AT THE CROSS....
Our black people have had to bear the grievous cross of racism during our American sojourn, even in the Christian Church , especially there!
"Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing . My sisters and brothers this should not be . Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring ?"
James 3:10-11
This text, pericope of scripture, came to mind, as I reflected upon black and white Christianity in America, and the different paths that each have trod, and yet tread, in the redeeming gospel of Jesus.
In his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO (1855, 1970), Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward, an early black abolitionist lecturer, has written:
"The American Tract Society not only publishes no tract against slavery, but they favor that abominable system in the two following ways... No poor slave: dumb as thou art, dumb shalt thou ever be, so far as this Society is concerned.
"The American Bible Society distributes no Bibles among the slave population. To do so, it is freely admitted, were contrary to law in some States--not in all. It is so in nine of the fifteen Slave States, but not in the other six...
"Slaveholders and their abettors belong to and are officers of the American Bible Society, and they control it. That slavery forbids the searchings of the Scriptures, which Christ enjoins, is to them not even a matter of complaint ....
"The American Sunday-school and Union stands in precisely the same category, and is controlled by precisely the same influences; and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is, and always has been , both in its policy and officers, of the very same character.... But the most lamentable fact is, that in Congregational New England the sons of Puritan sires are as guilty as the guiltiest enemies of the downtrodden slave. Such was the state of the case in 1839, when my labors began; such I regret to say, continues to be the case at this moment..."
P.48-49
Black and white Christians have surely had to tread separate paths to arrive at their present locations, given the account of Samuel Ward.
Or, if we have somehow trod the same path, we blacks, like our North African brother, Simon of Cyrene, must have carried the cross of Jesus Christ, while the white Christian folks rode atop it!
Our black people have had to bear the grievous cross of racism during our American sojourn, even in the Christian Church , especially there!
"Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing . My sisters and brothers this should not be . Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring ?"
James 3:10-11
This text, pericope of scripture, came to mind, as I reflected upon black and white Christianity in America, and the different paths that each have trod, and yet tread, in the redeeming gospel of Jesus.
In his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FUGITIVE NEGRO (1855, 1970), Rev. Samuel Ringgold Ward, an early black abolitionist lecturer, has written:
"The American Tract Society not only publishes no tract against slavery, but they favor that abominable system in the two following ways... No poor slave: dumb as thou art, dumb shalt thou ever be, so far as this Society is concerned.
"The American Bible Society distributes no Bibles among the slave population. To do so, it is freely admitted, were contrary to law in some States--not in all. It is so in nine of the fifteen Slave States, but not in the other six...
"Slaveholders and their abettors belong to and are officers of the American Bible Society, and they control it. That slavery forbids the searchings of the Scriptures, which Christ enjoins, is to them not even a matter of complaint ....
"The American Sunday-school and Union stands in precisely the same category, and is controlled by precisely the same influences; and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is, and always has been , both in its policy and officers, of the very same character.... But the most lamentable fact is, that in Congregational New England the sons of Puritan sires are as guilty as the guiltiest enemies of the downtrodden slave. Such was the state of the case in 1839, when my labors began; such I regret to say, continues to be the case at this moment..."
P.48-49
Black and white Christians have surely had to tread separate paths to arrive at their present locations, given the account of Samuel Ward.
Or, if we have somehow trod the same path, we blacks, like our North African brother, Simon of Cyrene, must have carried the cross of Jesus Christ, while the white Christian folks rode atop it!