Black Christians - Why do they exist?

[Blackleaf]

So I recently found the Cult of Dusty channel on YouTube via a collaboration video with The Amazing Atheist and several others. The guy is hilarious and has some really interesting points. Last night, I watched a video of his titled "Black Christians = Uncle Toms." I remember this thought passing through my head once. Why would a people adopt the religion of those who brutally kill and torture them, who capture them from their homes and treat them as subhuman property? Why wouldn't black people cast aside the religion that was forced upon them after they were made free? I could understand black Muslims, but Christians?

And one of the funny things I've noticed is that some predominantly black churches still have old white men in leadership positions. So little has changed. White men still use their religion to control black people. How do they never make this connection?

Dusty made some very good points. If Christianity is true, then black people kind of owe their ancestors' slave masters, don't they? If it wasn't for them, these black people would be doomed to eternal Hell fire. Isn't it better to suffer for a little while on earth than to die and go to Hell to suffer forever? So on behalf of my (probably) slave owning ancestors, you're welcome black Christians!

But as a student in psychology, of course I understand. After generations and generations of the religion being forced on them, of course they'd stop questioning it. It's kind of like Stockholm Syndrome, except applied to generations rather than individuals. But it's time that black Christians woke up and realize that it makes absolutely no sense for them to continue worshiping the god who was used to defend the slavery and treatment of their ancestors.

[SGOS]

I've often wondered about this too.  I usually explain it as Christianity (or Islam or any other idiotic fantasy) promising rewards to the oppressed and those living in a world of despair from which they are not capable of extracting themselves.  However, I have a black friend, a Christian fundamentalist, who chose that wacky religion for much the same reasons as stupid white men choose it.  And when I re-read my theoretical description of the blackman's world of despair, it pretty much mirrors the whiteman's world of despair.  Not to say there aren't differences in degree, but it's the same psychological mechanism that leads people into prisons of false hope.

[Mike Cl]

I've wondered the same for quite some time.  I still have no real answers.  Except that black people are people and like all people, they generally like to believe and not think.  So, any religion would fit that category--christian or muslim; both religions condone slavery and engage in it even today.  The eternal question of all ages and cultures--why am I alive?--demands an answer.  To find it, it is easier to simply believe something rather than having to engage in thinking and looking for logical facts and data.  It's easy to say that the bad christians used and distorted the bible to allow slavery.  The good ones fought it using the same bible.  It's easy to say the slaves used the bible and religion to 'communicate' among themselves and the masters did not realize that.  It is easy to make up things to believe in--hard to have to think and analyze what really is going on.  Science and reason takes work--religion only takes believing in something.

[Baruch]

The slaves were pagans or Muslims, brought here against their will.  If there had been African pagan or African Muslim organizations back then, they would have stayed the way they were.  But Christianity was part of the colonialism and slavery.  So since most people don't choose to be atheists, they took up what religion they could ... though segregated.  Black preachers are good at preaching for a reason, they preach from their pain.

[SGOS]

Well then too, there's that old saw about "One's religion is most often determined by the religion of the environment you grow up in."  That pretty much underscores the hypothesis that one's religion is not a product of logical processes, but most often a simple product of mindless tradition, or better yet indoctrination.

[stromboli]

Well then too, there's that old saw about "One's religion is most often determined by the religion of the environment you grow up in."  That pretty much underscores the hypothesis that one's religion is not a product of logical processes, but most often a simple product of mindless tradition, or better yet indoctrination.

Working at Hill I knew a black Master Sergeant that was very into black American history. He did portrayals of American "Buffalo Soldiers" in the cavalry. and he was a devout Christian. Surprised there aren't more blacks that would hearken back to their pagan roots and worship the deities of their ancestors.

[Munch]

They exist for the same reason that gay Christians exist, for the same reason gay muslims exist, because despite Christianity and islam being deeply rooted in homophobic and gay hating storytelling, people are easily manipulated and lead when indoctrinated from an early age, and find it hard to break from that indoctrination, even when it goes against their very nature.

[SGOS]

Working at Hill I knew a black Master Sergeant that was very into black American history. He did portrayals of American "Buffalo Soldiers" in the cavalry. and he was a devout Christian. Surprised there aren't more blacks that would hearken back to their pagan roots and worship the deities of their ancestors.

Considering the importance cultures attach to the preservation of their heritage (although I've seen this more in Native Americans, Hawaiians, and Eskimos, but to a lesser extent in African Americans), religion seems like a part of each culture that would be most highly prized.  On the other hand, the religion that shaped American culture has at its heart, the elimination of all other forms of belief.  So you have a "war to the death" between two cherished cultural values with higher than ordinary penalties attached to attempting to preserve the minority cultural religions.

Yes, the United States takes pride in its freedom of religion, but we all know that is mostly just empty political correctness, and in extreme Christian interpretations, freedom of religion just means the freedom to impose Christianity on others.  So the cultural reality of the US is hardly as open as the picture we like to paint.  There is a great deal of religious suppression at the heart of our democracy.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but church was the social hub of the community back in the day. Women who didn't get off the farm for six days straight had incentive to insist on church attendance just to get out of the house and speak with other women of their age. Black church or white church this held true until casual mobility became common, i.e., cars and trucks. After that is was social inertia that kept the pews full. That's winding down now, I think.

[Hydra009]

Yes, the United States takes pride in its freedom of religion, but we all know that is mostly just empty political correctness, and in extreme Christian interpretations, freedom of religion just means the freedom to impose Christianity on others.  So the cultural reality of the US is hardly as open as the picture we like to paint.  There is a great deal of religious suppression at the heart of our democracy.

Ideally, I could believe in no gods, my neighbor twenty gods, and my neighbor's neighbor one and it wouldn't matter.  But in reality, these differences quickly affect public policy and society.  Your religion doesn't like birth control or abortion?  Then neither does the state.  My kids have to say your prayers at school.  Your religion has a special day of no work?  Businesses are shut down that day.  And if your religion frowns on beer being sold at certain times then no one can buy it at that time.  Praises to your God go on our money.  Etc, etc, etc.

In theory, religion is private and tolerant.  In reality, it is public and domineering.  And the dominant cult makes the rules, a notion that should be reconsidered quickly in light of virulent and fanatical strains of religion cropping up and making plays for political power.

[drunkenshoe]

Considering that the Christianisation of black people started hundreds of years ago with colonisation and that these people were sold and bought as property, it's stupid to expect these people to continue their pagan culture or any culture of their own when they are not defined as human or people.

Do you think they adopted Christianity by choice or a result of some consideration? Or they had a chance to question it? Did 'free' white people common or in master status had a chance to question Christianity?

In their case, at that time, it is not even defined as imposing Christianity. It's imposing today. It's simply matter of life and death, torture.

[drunkenshoe]

Yes, the United States takes pride in its freedom of religion, but we all know that is mostly just empty political correctness, and in extreme Christian interpretations, freedom of religion just means the freedom to impose Christianity on others.  So the cultural reality of the US is hardly as open as the picture we like to paint.  There is a great deal of religious suppression at the heart of our democracy.

Right now you look sexy.

[GSOgymrat]

Why would black people be smarter than any other people? Everyone has been screwed over by religion.

[FaithIsFilth]

Education is part of it. Blacks are less educated on average, so they will be more likely to have a higher religiosity, just like rednecks who drop out of highschool are far less likely to ever drop their religion compared to a while college student. Blacks have a higher level of poverty on average, so they are going to want to hold onto their religion tight, because it gives them a sense of hope and promises future rewards. Also, blacks are less accepting of their fellow blacks leaving the faith. Being a white atheist is just easier than being a black atheist or a brown skinned atheist who has left Islam.

[drunkenshoe]

Why would black people be smarter than any other people? Everyone has been screwed over by religion.

And compared to the white group, no education at all. Illiterate.