Friday, March 29, 2024

Can Racist Love Jesus?

February 4, 2014 by  
Filed under Christian Talk, News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) For years, Racism has been defended by fastidious individuals by means of quoting selective portions of the Holy Scriptures. While proliferating this ignorance, these people are quick to quote Old Testament verses to justify many actions as such, but not limited to: slavery, prejudice, injustice, and pride. Even today, prejudice is still a “hot topic” for many people. Like the ancient arguments, the bible is, or so it appears, to be the source for racial justification. Let’s take another look! In doing so we’ll attempt to take the time to finally debunk this archaic myth. Jesus said (John 10:5) “my sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow.” It is tragic when people quote the bible to justify their own self righteousness and indignation when nothing can be farther from the truth.

The Bible and Slavery

The bible is revered as the “world’s bestseller,” yet, a paradox of human frailty reveals the fact that it is also the #1 stolen book on the planet; conversely, the bible does deal with slavery. Yes, the bible does validate slavery. However, as we look deeper at scripture, we find that the bible does not justify slavery, or at least not in the manner that racists try to impose on us. The word slavery as used in the Old Testament was often used interchangeably for what we call today, “indentured servitude“. So,KKK-Jesus-saves basically, slaves of the Old Testament were indentured servants.

But how does the bible not justify slavery?  It does not condone slavery.   It gives us instructions on how slaves were to be treated. Most importantly, the bible speaks against the act of “man stealing“, which is what happened to Africans in the past. This is what the bible condemns. As we all know Jesus Himself spoke numerous times against prejudice. He says we are all one race: the human race. The bible itself never stresses a particular skin color or ethnicity over another.

Slave Owners

Although just a movie, I can remember watching the film, Twelve Years a Slave; the slave master was trying to indoctrinate the masses of slaves that the bible teaches that slavery is just. He finishes his lecture with the declarative phrase, “This is Scripture“.  Ones initial reaction would be, “Dude, get a life!” But this depiction is based on real life events and this kind of indoctrination did happen during this course of history. Unfortunately, historical accounts are typically swayed towards the opinions or ethnicity of the writer.

The Ku Klux Klan and Black Panther Party

While this can be a touchy subject, both ethnocentric groups, the Ku Klux Klan and The Black Panther Party were among a number of groups who applied the bible to justify their missions. The same holds true for some Islamic groups. A commonly used phrase was “do not mix kinds” (even though this is not found in scripture, not even by interpretation). The biblical intention of not mixing is an instruction by God that pagans and believers should not intermarry. Even this verse is intended to be explained. God, according to the bible, did not want believers to intermarry with pagans and submit themselves to a blasphemous lifestyle. Instead, believers should be influential advocates by virtue of their love. The racism, hatred and divisiveness we see in politics and social media has no place in the pulpit, schools or progressive communities of our time.

In the present day, racism has breached our politicians and other elected officials, in my view, because they allow their personal perspective to be shaped by the lens of their politics. Our elected representatives are supposed to convey the will of the people. This is what I call the great divide. Political principles should be about choosing the best candidate. Instead, we circumvent the natural process by “not voting” because we don’t identify with the candidate pool. We’re often tempted to choose the candidate who runs the best smear campaign instead of the person with the best policies and innovative ideas.

It really saddens me to see a politician say one thing to his base in the primary; then move closer to the center as the campaign moves toward the general election. A spiel designed specifically for Caucasians, as the case may be and another to woo African Americans. When will this madness stop? Why is this? Because of racism, prejudice, and ethnic pride many will fail to see or inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

These are not my words, it’s found in the Scriptures. One day, we as a nation, will adhere to the premise outlined in the bible that is referred to as The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Rising up to live out this decree we will survive as a nation and the racist will be powerless to adversely affect our outlook on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Can the church say Amen???!!!

Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford

Feel free to connect with this brother via Twitter; Stanley G. and also facebook http://www.facebook.com/sgbuford.

 


Comments

4 Responses to “Can Racist Love Jesus?”
  1. cicero says:

    True question would be to.the inverse of the subject stated,

    Would jesus love a racist, no not the sin…true but the person…?

  2. The answer to the articles question is no. If they showed what Jesus really looked like, absolutely not. But this begs the question, in the beginning of slavery by Europeans towards Africans in the 1600s and on, in the US and all over the world, if these so called Christians saw that Jesus looked more like a Black man then a white man, would they have still enslaved Black people or not allowed slavery to exist.

    The Arabs sure didn’t care. As far as the Black Panthers, they were reacting to a racist society, in order to protect our people. If they did in fact use religion to justify what they were doing, it was only in defense of the racist attacks to their community. This I think is what any sane person would do.

    Black Unity means financial independence and happiness

  3. Yocheved says:

    Just last week I went to a wonderful Torah class on this subject. The conclusion was interesting. The whole section about slavery was not a “how to”, it was an indictment against society for needing the institution of slavery in the first place.

    If a society has fallen so low that there are thieves and robbers, then it needs to ask itself “why”. There were no jails in those days, so when someone stole or committed any other crime, they were “sentenced” to go live with a righteous, upright family. They lived as a sort of family member, had to follow the house rules, and hopefully become rehabilitated in that way. The family had an obligation to teach the slave, to give him a trade, to find him a wife, to feed and shelter him, and most of all, to give him a moral structure that would serve him when he is set free. This could be the first family he’s ever had who treated him with dignity!

    Again, the question to society is “where were you, when this man needed you? Why did you allow yourselves to look the other way while he was sinning? Now you can’t look the other way, because he is living in your home, and it is your responsibility to help him.”

    Imagine what society would look like today, if every fine, G-d fearing family was REQUIRED to take a convicted criminal or two into their home and treat him as a family member. Just think on it. Things that make you go “Hmmmmm”….

  4. Papacool says:

    Just the thought of the title of this topic piece is enough to make most people skip over the subject matter. In using the Bible, we must be reminded that most things have been left to individual interpretation, which has led to the startup of most of the backward ass thinking that we have all experienced in one way or another. People seem to want to pick and choose the parts of it that they like and disregard other parts that would serve to question how they operate on a daily basis. For example, it is stated that if any man hates his brother, then the love of the Father (God),is not in him. So if any faction cites hatred, then it is time to go elsewhere. The world was one at one time as there was only one language spoken and on the day of Penecost, the Apostles and their followers established Christianity and started the foundation of what we would call CHURCH. People sold their valuables and provided across the board for everyone that needed.

    This idea would not work in our modern day society due to the fact that we put ourselves and our ideals before the commandments of God and have developed a me first attitude. Racism has also proven to be a money maker in the same guise as the war on drugs. Two sides exist in being Pro and Anti, with neither one making the necessary impact on the world at large. Everytime you hear about a record drug bust, you need to know that 99 other transactions go undetected. Then you find out that the system designated to prevent such actions is just as corrupt as those that practice organized crime. It is all for show and maintained to dumb us all down if we were to buy into the hype. When you have solid and concrete information that even the government is involved in the drug trade and not one documentary or town hall discussion is done on the major networks, you know something is rotten and we do not have to be in Denmark. The Klan utilizes a cross, which is the sacred image for religion, and burns it while sending out a message of extreme racial hatred. We create Homeland Security and allow internal sects like this to strive under the guise of the Constitution and the right to assemble.

    I have always wondered why America wants to solve the problems of the world without cleaning up our own backyard? The simple truth is that if we do not demand, we do not get. Due to the racism that exists on Capitol Hill, we have witnessed the lack of getting anything worthwhile accomplished. Gridlock and ignorance has been accepted by the masses enabling this chaos to continue without resistance. Meanwhile we are playing the role of the sheep being led to the processing plant to be killed off. Recently a white guy took the opportunity to randomly select a elderly black man and knocked his teeth out in a sneak attack mode in Houston.

    Although arrested, the excuse was given about medication and previous psychiatic problems that were untreated. Acts such as this have to be done away with and the people who commit such acts need to be dealt with without regard to race. Peace out, Papacool.

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