THE BRIDGE THAT BROUGHT US OVER
It is more than mildly ironic to me, indeed it is downright confounding to me, that so many people of African descent, in the Americas, are either atheist or agnostic; and that so many African descendants , are so decidedly anti-Christian.
Of course mankind began in Africa. There "religion" began with history, arts, sciences, mathematics, crafts, languages, agricultural; in short all that is associated with man began with man, well over a million years ago. Thereafter man emigrated to the rest of the earth and mutated.
In process of time, new forms of man came to be, who were unique unto themselves; but still were men. Phenotypes differed from the original versions of man in African, which has differences themselves.
The megalithic monuments of the ancient African world , Kemet , Kush, Carthage, are assiduously dedicated to God or to the gods, according to their conceptions of same by their votaries, priests, followers. Their ancient papyrus writings, tales, wise sayings, instructions, were affirmed by all of divine nature, heavenly, terrestrially, memorialized in stone.
When these and other ancient African nations' iconic civilizations were conquered by non-African people from Asia and Europe, there began a gradual decline, descent from celebrations of things African to celebrations of things foreign brought on by the conquering nations' images and conceptions of God. Especially was this so with Christianity, which, like Jesus, was indigenous to Africa, his birthplace.
The earliest scholarship is African. The earliest martyrs were African. Much more was African in Christian worship, religion, literature, polity .
Certainly the crucifiers of Jesus Christ (or any other name), Rome, reluctantly came to the knowledge of "the way"--as the Christian motif was first known--through Emperor Constantine to preserve his empire.
After feeding tens of thousands of original African Christians (and others) to hungry lions, or as lethal gladiators in amphitheaters all across the Roman Empire--as 2nd Century African theologian, the Carthaginian Tertullian wrote in his "Apology," --Romans still had failed to blot out "the way."'
Chastened by their embarrassed and frustrated by failures, and without stamping out this "pernicious superstition," after crucifying many thousands more, Romans finally woke up with a new strategy: "if we can't beat them, join them!"
Saying in effect, "since we Romans can't wipe out these holy folks' pernicious superstitions, or them, which now threaten Rome; then, let us do what we best do; that is to conquer them and "the way," then then remake them all over in our image and likenesses for our glory!"
It is the devolution of this Roman makeover, centuries ago, that has come down into modern times that has flummoxed so many present day African American descendants! They find "the worship of the white man as God," as they put it, to be utterly intolerable, utterly anathema! So did I, until I learned better, after my mother's persistent prayers and pressure! Somebody prayed for me! My eyes were opened to see! And to seek the truth about black history, and Christianity!
So, I write as one who understands the angst of religious abnegation that is especially hard-felt by black men, who must suffer through images alien to himself as if divine!
These images came to be after 14-15th century Renaissance era Italians like Cesar Borgia had his image painted as model for Jesus Christ appearing on religious memorabilia and in pictures. And it was especially after many American slave masters' white ministers began to quote selected passages favoring slavery, scriptures, supporting the doctrine of white supremacy and hoax of black inferiority, that they began to slip away. As written by Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman in JESUS AND THE DISINHERITED the sanctity of brush arbor lifted up slave preachers like Nat Turner; and ex-slave, Methodist itinerant, more beneficent and enduring Richard Allen. These men stole away, broke away to their own vine and fig trees to find peace and love, and to find their reasons for being here!
Even so, if too many, modern day, urban-modified, post-migration, African Americans who "claim" to have an innate disdain for Jesus Christ , were to seek their reasons for being, as did Nat Turner, Richard Allen, Martin Luther King, Jr, and their immediate ancestors did and do, it would liberate them and embolden them too! This relation was the bridge that brought them over. It was a rope that they clung to in swampy waters of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, mis-education!
Many still are faithfully holding on to the lifeline from heaven that is anchored in Christian faith. They did not know and do not know, the history or the theology, but they did know and do know Jesus as their personal savior! And that's what made all the difference! That's what gave them power to make a way out of no way. It is what brought us here today!
Amen!

http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/djones-07-07.shtml
THE BRIDGE THAT BROUGHT US OVER
It is more than mildly ironic to me, indeed it is downright confounding to me, that so many people of African descent, in the Americas, are either atheist or agnostic; and that so many African descendants , are so decidedly anti-Christian.
Of course mankind began in Africa. There "religion" began with history, arts, sciences, mathematics, crafts, languages, agricultural; in short all that is associated with man began with man, well over a million years ago. Thereafter man emigrated to the rest of the earth and mutated.
In process of time, new forms of man came to be, who were unique unto themselves; but still were men. Phenotypes differed from the original versions of man in African, which has differences themselves.
The megalithic monuments of the ancient African world , Kemet , Kush, Carthage, are assiduously dedicated to God or to the gods, according to their conceptions of same by their votaries, priests, followers. Their ancient papyrus writings, tales, wise sayings, instructions, were affirmed by all of divine nature, heavenly, terrestrially, memorialized in stone.
When these and other ancient African nations' iconic civilizations were conquered by non-African people from Asia and Europe, there began a gradual decline, descent from celebrations of things African to celebrations of things foreign brought on by the conquering nations' images and conceptions of God. Especially was this so with Christianity, which, like Jesus, was indigenous to Africa, his birthplace.
The earliest scholarship is African. The earliest martyrs were African. Much more was African in Christian worship, religion, literature, polity .
Certainly the crucifiers of Jesus Christ (or any other name), Rome, reluctantly came to the knowledge of "the way"--as the Christian motif was first known--through Emperor Constantine to preserve his empire.
After feeding tens of thousands of original African Christians (and others) to hungry lions, or as lethal gladiators in amphitheaters all across the Roman Empire--as 2nd Century African theologian, the Carthaginian Tertullian wrote in his "Apology," --Romans still had failed to blot out "the way."'
Chastened by their embarrassed and frustrated by failures, and without stamping out this "pernicious superstition," after crucifying many thousands more, Romans finally woke up with a new strategy: "if we can't beat them, join them!"
Saying in effect, "since we Romans can't wipe out these holy folks' pernicious superstitions, or them, which now threaten Rome; then, let us do what we best do; that is to conquer them and "the way," then then remake them all over in our image and likenesses for our glory!"
It is the devolution of this Roman makeover, centuries ago, that has come down into modern times that has flummoxed so many present day African American descendants! They find "the worship of the white man as God," as they put it, to be utterly intolerable, utterly anathema! So did I, until I learned better, after my mother's persistent prayers and pressure! Somebody prayed for me! My eyes were opened to see! And to seek the truth about black history, and Christianity!
So, I write as one who understands the angst of religious abnegation that is especially hard-felt by black men, who must suffer through images alien to himself as if divine!
These images came to be after 14-15th century Renaissance era Italians like Cesar Borgia had his image painted as model for Jesus Christ appearing on religious memorabilia and in pictures. And it was especially after many American slave masters' white ministers began to quote selected passages favoring slavery, scriptures, supporting the doctrine of white supremacy and hoax of black inferiority, that they began to slip away. As written by Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman in JESUS AND THE DISINHERITED the sanctity of brush arbor lifted up slave preachers like Nat Turner; and ex-slave, Methodist itinerant, more beneficent and enduring Richard Allen. These men stole away, broke away to their own vine and fig trees to find peace and love, and to find their reasons for being here!
Even so, if too many, modern day, urban-modified, post-migration, African Americans who "claim" to have an innate disdain for Jesus Christ , were to seek their reasons for being, as did Nat Turner, Richard Allen, Martin Luther King, Jr, and their immediate ancestors did and do, it would liberate them and embolden them too! This relation was the bridge that brought them over. It was a rope that they clung to in swampy waters of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, mis-education!
Many still are faithfully holding on to the lifeline from heaven that is anchored in Christian faith. They did not know and do not know, the history or the theology, but they did know and do know Jesus as their personal savior! And that's what made all the difference! That's what gave them power to make a way out of no way. It is what brought us here today!
Amen!

http://www.blackandchristian.com/articles/academy/djones-07-07.shtml