One of the biggest themes explored in the Civil Rights Movement is the Christianity. Despite its appearance of being majorly secular or having no apparent connection to the gospel, the movement is a major turning point in how the American Christian really perceives the Bible. A Christian’s response to injustices, whether they be individual or systemic, is love. Individual sin is costly. Everyone knows this. To sin is to not be one with God. As Steven Van Riessen quotes, “Sin is any act -- any thought, desire, emotion, word, or deed- or its particular absence, that displease God and deserves blame,” (What is the Extent of Corporate Sin 1). There are multitude of ways to sin and not loving your brother, or any of God’s creation is that also. …show more content…
Van Riessen says, “Corporate sin is defined as any sin committed on a larger scale, from a community or society,” (What is the Extent of Corporate Sin 1). Better seen as when the government brings down clauses that specifically target a group of people to keep them from their full potential. Systemic racism as a whole is a corporate sin. Systemic racism can be fought by the Christian church, but first they must understand its fullness. When a church gathers together and fight the sin of racism and specifically targets groups that hate, they do their part in responding to injustices as a group. Van Riessen says, “This shows the corporate nature of a church, both its ability to obey as a whole and dot be disobedient as a whole,” (What is the Extent of Corporate Sin 5). When injustice occurs, inside or outside the church, love can reconcile. Romans 13:8 says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law,” (English Standard Version Romans 13:8). When it says law, it speaks of God’s law. The law of love which God has given the church to use and influence the hearts of evil. The response of a church is to love the system so that it can be
In A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow, David L. Chappell sheds new light on the components of the civil rights movement, concretely adding prophetic religion to the mix of ingredients of those tumultuous times from 1940s-1960s. Chappell’s thesis states “that faith drove black southern protesters to their extraordinary victories in the mid-1960s, grew out of a realistic understanding of the typically dim prospects for social justice in the world.” The protester’s prophetic content of their speeches, diaries, and other paraphernalia related to the civil rights movement, illuminates this great divide. With an eye for detail, Chappell points to the factors of religion that have been overlooked by
In the book, “Jesus and the Disinherited,” the author, Howard Thurman in chapter five expounds on “Love.” Moreover, Thurman, a black man in the early 1900, with the ultimate goal to offer a humanizing combination as the basis for an emancipatory way of being, moving toward an unchained life to all women and men everywhere who hunger, thirst for righteousness, especially those “who stand with their backs against the wall.” By the same token, Thurman experienced “Fear,” “Deception,” and “Hate” that causes internal, spiritual damage to those who choose compliance, isolation, and violent resistance over the way of Jesus (www.smootpage.blogspot.com). Notably, Howard Thurman’s message helped shaped the civil rights movement that
The key to the success of religious leaders was the idea of combining religious practices with politics. It was these political motives that supported the Brown v. Board of Education court case (Harvey). However, politics did not play the only role in the success of the Civil Rights Movement, but so did religious power. Religion was the driving force that started the Civil Rights Movement, due to the belief that all men are created equal. It was the idea of the church to spread their teachings amongst society and integrate races. Although, this belief was part of Christianity, it was only African Americans that recognized its importance, because white congregations had no interest in ruining white supremacy. Although, some white preachers began to listen to the message of the protesters and started to support the movement. Tyson’s father was one of these preachers and began preaching about civil rights and tried to create a diverse environment. It was because of religion that Tyson’s father and other preachers could see through the corrupt ways of white supremacy and spread awareness to their congregations to gain
It has played a major role in history, persecution, church, wars and most importantly in slavery. in this essay i have focus in how hypocrisy was use in race relations using the slave narrative Equiano. In Equiano 's slave narrative examines Christianity and how it allows hypocrisy in slavery. As Equiano travels he sees and learns how whites use religion as a pocketbook, whites pretended to be holy and virtue by attending church and being thrilled of their practice when in reality they were unjustly treating African slaves and not living up to the tenets outlined in the bible. Equiano studies the bible carefully; despite of the hypocrisy Equianos faces he remains loyal to god and always kept his faith in god. Once his convince of the authenticity of his spiritual transformation and studies of the bible then Equiano convert to Methodist
This paper elaborates on the diverse contributions peoples of African descent have made to the pluralistic religious landscape of America and replicates various passages from our textbook. It focuses on the personal narratives of non-religious to religious leaders—exemplifying their influence on the African American religious movement during slavery and the reconstruction of America. Each section represents different historical periods, regional variations, and non-Christian expressions of African-American religion.
Religion is often something people turn to during times of difficulty. During the times of enslavement, Christianity was a double edged sword. The Angela Davis edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, illustrate how religion, mainly Christianity, was immensely complex and moved from one extreme to the other. When preaching Christianity to the slaves, slaveholders emphasized the Bible’s passages teaching obedience and pacifism. Thus, slaveholders used religion to justify their brutal actions and condone slavery. Douglass and Jacobs demonstrate the moral contradiction between slavery and Christianity, thereby illustrating that slaves must be able to alienate themselves from
Lee’s positive experience of the Christian religion, are the collection of the readings from Frederick Douglas, Peter Randolph, and the former slave interviewed by B.A Botkin on the recollections of their negative experience of the Christian religion. Frederick Douglas was an African-American social reformer, writer, and an abolitionist. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became the national leader for African American abolitionist movement in the fight to end slavery. He viewed Christianity in the negative plight because in his understanding it is the driving force to maintain the African American as slaves to their owners. According to the book in the section for Frederick Douglas’s reading the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, American slave” he stated, “that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes…I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For all slaveholders…religious slaveholders are the
James H. Cone is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Dr. Cone probably is best known for his book, A Black Theology of Liberation, though he has authored several other books. Dr. Cone wrote that the lack of relevant and “risky” theology suggests that theologians are not able to free themselves from being oppressive structures of society and suggested an alternative. He believes it is evident that the main difficulty most whites have with Black Power and its compatible relationship to the Christian gospel stemmed from their own inability to translate non-traditional theology into the history of black people. The black man’s response to God’s act in Christ must be different from the whites because his life experiences are different, Dr. Cone believes. In the “black experience,” the author suggested that a powerful message of biblical theology is liberation from oppression.
Complete Title: An Exploration of the Relationship between Southern Christianity and Slaveholding as seen in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by Himself”
Black liberation theology has made valuable contributions, both positive and negative, to theological discussion today. To some extent, it has situated in political struggles and movements like the U.S. civil rights movement, human rights movements against Latin American dictatorships, and feminist movements in other regions of the globe.
Third, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. uses Christian references to show the clergymen the values that they have lost during the racism in Birmingham. “In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence.” “Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?” Dr. King is telling the Clergymen that judging him for peaceful acts is like judging God for sending Jesus to earth. Although God did send Jesus to Earth to be crucified He did not send Jesus to start riots or wars, Dr. King’s peaceful acts resemble the acts of God.
Christianity in the context of American slavery took on many faces and characteristics. As a religion, it was used as a tool of manipulation for slave masters to further justify the institution, and particularly assert authority over their slaves. In the slave community, Christianity was adapted in the slave community as a means to shape an identity and create a sense of dignity for an oppressed people. Christianity in the context of the slave community was a means to uplift and encourage the slaves, a way in which to advance the interests of slave-holders, and in some cases, a means used to justify freedom.
From these convictions, the idea of black liberation theology was created. Blacks relate Christianity to the struggles they have endured, therefore it has to be black. “In a society where men are defined on the basis of color of the victims, proclaiming that the condition of the poor is incongruous with him who has come to liberate us.”
The Christian belief transpires as a prominent role in the short story “Salvation” By Langston Hughes and the novel Black Boy By Richard Wright. Both pieces of literature endeavor to convey the dichotomy present in the Christian church; furthermore, turning all its attention to the young African American male experience in the Church versus the rest of the African American population. In both the novel and short story the narrators’ struggles to conform to society deliver the reader to understand the pains of growing up. Just when the reader deems both the narrators as finally understanding the role of religion as being a virtue, it then becomes superficial. To young African American males, church was just hypocrisy. From the essence of both stories it is evident that both Richard and Langston have been secluded in a place that conforming to society is the only way out; moreover in their efforts to become what society wants them to be their adolescence plays a major role in their discovery, pain, and definitive loneliness; ultimately leaving them as not only the betrayer but the betrayed in society and the Christian religion.
Recent happenings in history; For instance, the apartheid that was about the racial oppression that a contest of supremacy of races is traced to the religion of Christianity. Christian teachings of the gospel are totally opposed to domination or being subdued of one race by another. “The biblical understanding of racial differences has been taken out of context resulting to racism an issue Christianity is seeking to address to combat racism true to the Scripture”. Christianity itself places a duty on its faithful to object and protest against racism.