March 2, 2025 • 49 mins
This episode examines the complex relationship between Christianity and the institution of slavery, exploring how theological concepts shaped perceptions and experiences of Black individuals throughout history. We discuss the intersections of faith, identity, and the often-inverted narrative presented by pro-slavery ideologies.
- Historical context of African slavery impacting religious perspectives
- Christianity’s role in justifying dehumanization
- Presuppositions of pro-slavery Christian theology analyzed
- Exploration of biblical themes and their interpretations
- Emergence of anti-slavery theology and its historical significance
- Voices of the Black prophetic radical tradition
- The enduring fight for justice through faith
- Reflections on faith as a vehicle for liberation
- Call for ongoing discussions on faith and social justice
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello everyone and welcome to this continuing
segment of the podcast NativeDrums, a podcast created by Dr
Ralph W Canty and Savannah GroveBaptist Church.
I am Harry Singleton.
I'll be with you today withthis segment of the podcast, as
we have discussed up to thispoint the travails of African
(00:37):
slavery, but we discuss equallyas much today, and unfortunately
, the role that Christian faithhas played in the dehumanization
of Black people.
And yet, at the same time, wewere able to take this imposed
Christianity, this concoctedChristianity that was designed
to make us better slaves and tosocially control us, not to make
(00:58):
us more righteous and fashionit into a liberating instrument,
moving forward from the Blackabolitionist tradition.
And so today I want to talkwith you in this particular
segment on the subject thecoming of the gods, the
religious construction of Blackdehumanization, the coming of
the gods, the religiousconstruction of Black
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dehumanization.
From the outset of theSlavocracy in 1619, white
planters and white ministers hadcommitted Christian faith to
this process.
They understood the kidnappingof Africans not just to be a
process of economic gain forthem, but also to be an
opportunity, as it was revealedto them by their God and
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Christian stewardship, to kidnapAfricans, to enslave them, to
make salvation possible for WestAfrican people as part of the
ongoing propagandistic approachto Africa, and to make Africans
and the world think that Africawas no major contributor to
civilization and certainly didnot think within the context of
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God and the context of theirrelationship with a God or gods
in Africa.
And so the Slavocracy was justas much theological as it was
economic.
And so as we begin to grow inthe Slavocracy, we also begin to
grow in a theology, aslave-holding theology, or what
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I would refer to as pro-slaveryChristian theology, that
motivated whites to know in, notonly to maintain the slavocracy
but to fight for its veryexistence and to fight for it in
the name of God.
They too listened to sermons inchurch every Sunday that touted
the virtues of slavery from asalvific and a redemptive
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standpoint and that theirultimate salvation was
inextricably linked withmaintaining slavery and, of
course, the slave salvationultimately linked with
maintaining slavery.
And so we saw a virulentpro-slavery Christian theology
emerge in plantation life thatwould lay the cornerstone for
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the worldview, the theologicalworldview, of the Slavocracy and
its perpetuation until,supposedly, the end of time.
I want to begin with a few majorpresuppositions of pro-slavery
Christian theology that guidednot only the early theology but,
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in my judgment, has made itsway up to present day America,
as we continue to suffertheologically in ways that we're
not able to detect from thistheological understanding of
both Black and white humanityand subsequently of Christian
faith.
The first major presuppositionof pro-slavery Christian
theology is that the white raceis superior to people of color
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and women, that God had revealedto white men their superiority
not only on the basis of racebut certainly on the basis of
gender as well, and that they tobe the primary stewards of
effectuating the kingdom of Godon earth in the form of slavery.
And so the first and majorpresupposition of pro-slavery
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Christian theology was not onlyof social, economic and
political orthodox understanding, but also religious and
theological understanding aswell.
The logic is is that if a whitemale has not thought of it,
then it's a thought that's notworthy of public discourse.
And so what they were doing wasthey were cementing a legacy
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where the legitimacy of humanitywould be seen, particularly as
it related to the development ofideas and the furthering of
civilization, through the eyesand through the mindset of white
males, and white males only.
And in that sense we still livein that tight world today,
wherein if a significant numberof white males have not given
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proper approval of an idea ormovement, then of course the
mediums of mass communicationare used to defeat and to defame
that particular movement orthat figure.
We have seen that raciallythroughout American history, and
it begins actually with thepro-slavery supposition that
white men are superior.
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The second major presuppositionof pro-slavery Christian
theology is that Africanenslavement was ordained of God
and therefore eternal.
I tell my students all the timethat we're not supposed to be
free, or at least not in slaveryanymore, in 2025.
That slavery, from its outset,was to be styled as an eternal
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institution, meaning that it wassupposed to last until the end
of time.
And so I tell my students, asan older Black man, I'm supposed
to be teaching you, as youngerBlack people, how to survive the
plantation.
And one of the main reasons whyis because African enslavement
was seen as ordained of God, notonly for the salvation of
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whites through Christianstewardship, but it provided the
only hope that Africans wouldever have in order to obtain
salvation, since they had notbeen exposed to Christian faith
in Jesus Christ.
While in Africa that is amisnomer of the highest
proportion, the reality is isthat West Africans had been
exposed to Christianity, alongwith Islam and African
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traditional religions, when theywere abducted and sold into the
slave trade.
And so it's a misnomer of thehighest proportion.
Major presupposition numberthree black skin is a visible
sign of the demonic.
In many ways, like the notionof leprosy, which of course was
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light or white, in the Bible,this color symbolism was
reversed in the Slavocracy and,of course the manifestation of
one's dark skin was a visibleand physical manifestation of
one's demonic nature.
This was done for two reasonsNumber one, to make the slave
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dependent on white people, whowere lighter and not dark skin,
for the direction in terms ofproper living.
And number two, it was alsodone from a pragmatic standpoint
, so that slaves could beidentified by their skin color
alone.
This would be a tremendousproblem for free blacks who came
to America and were notenslaved, but who were
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eventually enslaved because theywere kidnapped by white
planters and brought intoslavery, even though they had
their paper certifying that theywere free.
Those papers were usually tornup, burned, and they were
kidnapped and taken into slavery.
And so the reason why this wasdone with such great alacrity by
slaveholders is because blackskin was a visible sign of the
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demonic and therefore deserve.
Black people deserve to beenslaved, namely so that they
could be exposed to thewonderful teachings of the Bible
and of Jesus Christ.
And so it was styled as doingthese free blacks a favor for
enslaving them, if you can wrapyour mind around that and not
taking into consideration thephysical and psychical trauma to
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which they were being subjected.
Presupposition number four theAfrican possessed no soul.
The reason why they wereabducted in Africa and exposed
to Christianity once they cameto America is so that they could
be converted.
And so the original teaching aswe begin the 17th century was
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that the African possessed nosoul.
But as we move into the 18thcentury, that presupposition had
to be rethought, because if youpossess no soul, then there's
no way that your soul can besaved, and if your soul can't be
saved, then there's no need intrying to convert them, because
it will be a futile enterprise.
And so, as we move into thebeginning of the 18th century,
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you see white Christianministers and theologians
backing away from thispresupposition and giving the
African a soul, which then, ofcourse, justified the need to
enslave and to convert toChristianity.
But the original presuppositionin the 17th century is that
Africans possess no soul.
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Presupposition number five Jesusand God and the angels were
white in color.
Well, this is not surprisingwhen you're trying to establish
your superiority racially inAmerica, in a hierarchical
system where you occupy the toprung of that ladder.
Small wonder then that youwould make as you began to bring
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about visible images of Jesusand the angels in the 12th
century with the Renaissance.
And of course, we see theSistine Chapel of the Catholic
Church with Michelangelo beingcommissioned to paint a portrait
of Jesus on the ceiling.
And of course, he choosessomeone who is a derelict cousin
of his, not of much worth, withthe long brown hair and with
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the beard, and uses his image.
And that became one of the morelasting images of Jesus, not
only in Europe.
That became one of the morelasting images of Jesus not only
in Europe, but one of the morelasting images of Jesus as it
makes its way across the pondeven to the Americas as well.
And so Jesus, and therefore God, since Jesus said when you see
me, you see God of the Fatherthat made God white as well.
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And of course, the angels, asthe assistants of God, were
presented to both black andwhite people, as white as well,
and of course the obvious reasonis to establish the superiority
of whiteness and color, andtherefore in thought and
therefore in idea.
Six major presupposition ofpro-slavery Christian theology
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is that you are to live asslaves, in a life of complete
toil.
No sign of being free fromslavery this side of Jordan.
And so it brings into notionthe theological category of what
we call eschatology, meaningliterally the study of the last
day.
So when you're engaged inconversation with someone about
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the soul, what happens to thesoul after death?
Are we conscious of death?
Are we not conscious of it?
When you are engaged in thattype of conversation with
someone, you are engaged in whatwe refer to as eschatological
language, and the earlyeschatology taught to slaves by
white Christian ministers wasthat you could go to heaven,
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that there was a spatial placethat existed, called heaven,
that you could go to after youdie.
The Bible refers to it in image, wise, as a land flowing with
milk and honey and streets pavedwith gold, and that it would be
yours only after physical deathand only after you lived the
life of complete toil, as aslave and didn't engage in any
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insurrections, and you were whatthey refer to as a good slave,
and so the ethic of the goodcomes from the slave and meeting
their daily workloads and nottrying to do anything to topple
the Slavocracy.
And so heaven came through hardwork for Blacks, and it came
from Christianizing heathen,africans for whites.
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And so a huge part of Christianstewardship became interpreted
in such a way that whites wouldmake it to heaven in their
attempts to keep Blacks enslaved.
One and number two, convertthem to Christianity.
And so this has been a majorunderstanding in the life,
probably one of the moreprominent ones in Christian
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thought, particularly by blackabolitionists who have been
relentless and constructivelycritical of both white and some
black churches and black leaderswho continue to preach a
theology of heaven first and notearth first.
And so most abolitionists inour tradition Professor VZ
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Turner, daniel Payne, bishopHenry McNeil Turner, martin
Luther King, malcolm X certainlyengaged in a merciless critique
of Christianity and it being aheaven first of faith, which of
course they understood to be aclever ruse created by the slave
master in order to make blacksmore docile slaves and readily
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accepting of their oppression.
And so this is a verysignificant presupposition
relative to where thefulfillment of promise of God to
human beings occurs.
Does it occur on earth as afuturistic event in human
history, or does it occur in aso-called spatial heaven that
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you go to only after you die?
The other rub with that as wellis that when you do die and you
do find out whether it existsor not, you do die, you know,
and you do find out whether itexists or not.
Even if it does exist, no oneis able to come back to this
side of Jordan and tell youwhether it's real or not.
And so it made for clever rulesto try to induce greater
workloads in slaves and to getthem to think that their
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enslavement was divinelyordained.
And the seventh majorpresupposition of pro-slavery
Christian theology is that pietythat is living a life of being
soft-spoken.
Supposedly Jesus never raisedhis voice, which is a lie.
Supposedly he never went afterstructural racism, he never went
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after those who demonized andvilified the Samaritans and, of
course, his own Samaritan people.
And so piety became interpretedas this presentation of Jesus,
not only in white form but inpious form, walking around
saying only nice platitudes topeople, never raising his voice,
always in some type ofprostrate or prayerful position,
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and, of course, never beingconstructively critical of the
system that he inherited and thestructural injustices that he
inherited.
And so piety became theultimate Christian virtue, as
taught by white slaveholders andwhite Christian ministers, but
not freedom.
That Christian freedom was atangential or peripheral issue
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at best in Christian discourse,because of course slaves were
not supposed to be free thisside of Jordan, to be free only
after they die.
And so if you can imagine aChristian theological approach
in which freedom is not theultimate value, but of course
piety is, then certainly that iswhat we encountered as black
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people in American historyduring the Slavocracy.
And so those are the majorpresuppositions of pro-slavery
theology.
We turn our attention to somemajor biblical themes of
pro-slavery theology.
We turn our attention to somemajor biblical themes of
pro-slavery theology.
We begin number one with thepolygenesis theory, which makes
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sense from the standpoint of aracist mind, and of course
polygenesis sounds like what itmeans.
The prefix poly means many,genesis means creation.
Of course the polygenesistheory maintains that Black
people were not created by theGod of the Bible, that Black
people were created by aninferior God and therefore they
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are inferior, that theirdiminished ontology begins from
creation itself and, of course,does not begin socially and
historically in the life of thisworld.
The theory one was that Blackswere created by an inferior God
and therefore made them inferior.
Now they had to back off thispresupposition too, just as they
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had to back off thepresupposition that Africans
possess no soul, because itdetracted from the biblical
notion that out of one blood hasGod made all human beings.
And so, as we move into the19th century, this polygenesis
theory transitions from Blacksbeing created by an inferior God
to Blacks being created by theGod of the Bible, like white
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people, but that God createdblack people as a lower species,
or what we refer to asdiminished ontology relative to
their actual being, than whitepeople are.
And so this particular theorytakes us into the 19th century
and even into the 20th century,relative to the diminished
ontology of black people on theone hand, over and against the
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superior ontology of whitepeople, on the other hand.
The second major biblical themeemanating from the first or old
testament and pro-slaveryChristian theology is the
hermetic hypothesis.
This is referred to practicallyas the curse on ham that in
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Genesis 9, 18, 27, 27,.
One of Noah's sons, ham, mocksNoah in his drunkenness and as
Noah is passed out, ham ismocking him and his brother Shem
and Japheth, once Noah comes to, tells Noah what Ham did, and
of course the pronouncement goesout from Noah cursed be Canaan,
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a draw of water, and here ofwood shall his descendants be to
the descendants of his brothers.
And so this was interpreted asHam moving and settling in what
we call modern day Africa andhis brother, shem and Japheth,
moving and settling in what wecall present day Europe.
That, for white Christianplanters, laid the foundation
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for them to conclude that Godwanted white people to rule over
black people, because of thehermetic hypothesis, because Ham
, who supposedly moved to Africameaning Ham, meaning burnt
literally moved to Africa, andthat it justified the
enslavement of West Africansbased on that particular passage
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.
It was one of the most widelyused biblical passages in
plantation life to justify theenslavement of Africa, and, of
course, it finds itself inGenesis 9, itself in Genesis 9,
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18, and 27.
The reality is, though, is thatcurse it be Canaan, which is
what Noah said, was not meantfor a future reality 14
centuries, 15 centuries later,for European people to enslave
African people.
It was meant for when, ofcourse, the Israelites went into
the promised land and in theCanaan and destroyed everything
in it.
It was not a fulfillment of afuturistic reality in human
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history, beyond biblical times,but was actually fulfilled in
biblical times and had nothingto do with one race of people
enslaving another race of peopleenslaving another, but yet very
powerful in its impact in termsof how it was internalized,
particularly by white plantersand by whites who saw an
inextricable link between thispassage and the Slavocracy and,
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of course, post-slavery.
The third biblical theme used inthe Old Testament pro-slavery
Christian theology was the Towerof Babel.
Of course, god confuses thelanguages of people who are
trying to build this statue,this tower, to erect this
edifice, to go all the way up toheaven, because they wanted to
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see an actual image of the faceof God.
And God interpreted this as thearrogance of human beings for
wanting to see the face of Godand not, of course, live in the
will of God and live in thecreative power of God, as God
had demonstrated in creation onearth.
And so for that, god supposedlypunished the human race by
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separating them and sending themto the different parts of the
earth geographically and hadthem speak different tongues so
they could no longer communicatewith each other.
In terms of building thisedifice, believe it or not, this
was used as a major biblicalplank and foundation for whites,
justifying their physicalseparation from Black people and
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creating segregated conditionsfor Black people.
Not separate but equal, butseparate but highly unequal,
coming out of the Plessydecision in 1896 and moving into
the 20th century.
And it was preached ad nauseumby white ministers who
maintained that the Tower ofBabel was now biblical proof,
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post-slavery, that God wantedsegregation and that segregation
emerged out of the mind of God,not out of the mind of white
men.
And so those are three of themajor biblical themes in the
First Testament or the OldTestament, and we take a look
now at four major biblicalthemes in the Second Testament
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or the New Testament used bywhite Christian ministers to
justify slavery.
The first one we take a look atis the Book of Philemon.
It is the shortest Bible in allof the Bible, in all of the
books of the Bible.
It is only 27 verses, but noless a powerful plank in the
justification of slavery onbiblical grounds.
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In this book, of course, theapostle Paul comes across a
runaway slave by the name ofOnesimus, and once he learns
that Onesimus is a runaway slave, he instructs Onesimus to go
back to his slave holder,philemon.
What they left out convenientlyin the teaching is that Paul
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then goes to Philemon and tellsPhilemon to treat Onesimus as a
full brother in Christ.
And so in that sense freedomwas paramount for Paul, not
slavery.
And Paul goes to Philemon andtells Philemon to treat Onesimus
as a full brother in Christ.
That doesn't come out in theteaching, namely because whites
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have never wanted to be fullbrothers, even in Christ, with
black people.
The second major biblical themein the New Testament, or Second
Testament, was 1 Corinthians, 7,20 and 24.
Let every human abide in thesame calling in which she was
called.
Let every human, wherein she iscalled, therein, abide with God
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.
Now, what does this mean?
This was interpreted in such away that as we talk about
callings, we really talk aboutcallings in contemporary times
relative to ministerial callings.
He got called to the ministry,she got called to the ministry,
but this passage is interpretedin such a way to maintain that
white and black people werecalled to the reality of slave
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holding and to the reality ofbeing enslaved through their
callings from this passage inFirst Corinthians call, meaning
that, of course, as theSlavocracy starts, then if that
was your calling at thebeginning of this institution,
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then you are to remain thatuntil the end of time.
And if your calling was to be aslaveholder when the Slavocracy
started, you are to maintainthat position until the end of
time and therein.
Abide with God.
A major New Testament plank forteaching the legitimacy of
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slavery on biblical grounds.
The third major biblical themeEphesians 6.5,.
Slaves obey your earthly masterwith respect and fear and with
sincerity of heart, just as youwould obey Christ.
This was also a major themehammered home by white Christian
ministers on a weekly basis inchurch.
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The reality is with this passageis that the slave system that
existed in first centuryPalestine was far different from
the chattel racial slavery thatexisted and the imposition of
the physical and psychicaltrauma on Black people.
We were deprived of our rightsconstitutionally.
That was not the case in thissystem.
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We were dehumanized in terms ofour aesthetic value on every
front.
That was not the case with thissystem.
We were dehumanized relative toour cultural expressions.
Africa even called a darkcontinent and we were not
allowed to participate in thepolitical or education process.
Because we were not allowed tonot only not pursue formal
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education, but it was thepenalty of death here in South
Carolina to teach a slave toread and write.
None of that existed in thesystem in first century
Palestine.
In fact, the word in Greek isservant system, not slavery
system.
It became slave and slave putin to later editions of the New
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Testament, particularly theEnglish version, as we begin
with the King James Version.
Slave is put in there, but it'sreally servant, and so there
are distinct differences betweenthis system and the system that
we inherited asAfrican-Americans, and that's
very important in understandingnuances of what servanthood is.
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On the one hand, slavery is, onthe other.
In the servant system, if youare a servant to a man, he would
consider it an honor if youmarried his daughter.
That certainly was not the case, for instance, in chattel,
racial slavery in America.
And, of course, the fourth majorbiblical theme Titus 2, 9, and
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10 teach slaves to be subject totheir masters in everything, to
try to please them, not talkback to them and not steal from
them, but to show them that canbe fully trusted, so that in
every way, they will make theteaching about God, our savior,
attractive.
What's saliently missing fromthis particular passage is that
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there was a respectfulinteraction between the servant
and the servant holder or theboss or the person in charge.
That again was not anythinglike the chattel racial system
that we encountered, butnevertheless Titus and Ephesians
both preached at nauseam tojustify the enslavement of
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Africans by whites on biblicalgrounds.
And so those are the majorpresuppositions and biblical
themes of pro-slavery Christiantheology.
I close today with the otherside.
Even in the inability to receiveformal education, to read and
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write, to have families brokenup, we began to see the
emergence of an anti-slaveryChristian theology on the
plantation, particularly as wesee the emergence of the Black
prophetic radical tradition andthe incendiary leader that
agitated slaves to fight forjustice and to end the
Slavocracy, particularly as wemove into the 18th century.
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We've been here close to 100years and begin to develop some
allies and a layout of the land,and we begin to develop a plan
not only as to how we were goingto think about making a new
America, but how we were goingto think about our own humanity,
despite the highestprotestations from whites, when
we concede of our humanity inpositive terms.
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The first major presuppositionof anti-slavery Christian
theology is that the human raceincludes Africans, that out of
one blood has God made all humanbeings and that God never says
in the Bible that one race ofpeople should be considered
superior to others, one race ofpeople should be inferior to
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others, that we were all createdfrom the same God and we were
created to equally share theresources on this earth.
That's why human equality hasbeen such a major theme with the
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Black prophetic radicaltradition and with the Black
leadership tradition, that wehave, from day one, asked that
America respect us as humanbeings, manna, not to vilify us
and to demonize us, but to fullyrecognize our cultural
expressions, our intellectualcontributions and, of course,
recognize our aesthetic featuresas uniquely ours and not to be
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demonized by you simply becausewe don't possess European
characteristics in terms of skincolor and facial features.
The second major presuppositionsAfrican enslavement, not
ordained of God, of course,going from the biblical
understanding that God is norespecter of persons, meaning
that God does not favor onegroup or one individual over
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another, that all human beingsare created equal.
But, as we're going to see withthe emergence of black
liberation theology in the 20thcentury, when
oppressor-oppressed context orenslaved context do exist and
come into being because onehuman group of human beings
decide they want to enslaveanother group of human beings,
god does begin to activelyparticipate in history on the
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side of those who are enslaved,advocating for their freedom, as
we saw God eventually do insending Moses to Egypt to tell
Pharaoh that it's time and tolet my people go.
And so African enslavement,based on the biblical notion
that God is no respect ofpersons, is not ordained of God,
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that we cannot connect the Godof freedom with the God of
enslavement at the same time.
The third major presuppositionthe demonic scene primarily in
actions and not skin hue.
Of course, if you can rememberfrom pro-slavery Christian
theology, dark skin itself was amanifestation of the demonic.
To create racial category andracial categories of hierarchy,
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between.
To create racial category andracial categories of hierarchy,
between the superiority ofwhiteness and the inferiority of
blackness.
The demonic will be seen inanti-slavery Christian theology
primarily in actions, not inskin hue, and this is one of the
reasons why a lot of themothers of slavery refer to
whites as demons or referred tothem as Satan incarnated, namely
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because their brutal and harshtreatment of African-Americans.
It has some choice words toofor those Black people who sold
out insurrection struggles byrunning to the slave mast and
divulging to him the plan thatwas involved in the escape.
And so for Black people, thedemonic has always been
interpreted within the contextof your actions.
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It's been a moral and ethicalconstruction, not a racial
construction, and we havemaintained consistency with that
throughout our time here inAmerica.
Presupposition number fourAfricans, as creations of God,
did possess a soul.
So there was never a time forus when we didn't possess a soul
.
And when you go back and lookat ancient Egypt, look at Coptic
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Christianity and even WestAfrican Christianity, you will
see Christianity being practicedin an exuberant way with a
liberation imperative.
And, of course, never, evertake it into consideration that,
as Africans, our ontologypossess no soul.
That is a concoction created bywhite slaveholders as a means
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of bringing slaves to redemptionthat they supposedly didn't
have an opportunity for inAfrica, but slaves were being
redeemed and slaves werecounting on eternal life as
Christians in Africa long beforethey were abducted.
Presupposition number five Jesus, god, angels, is still white
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Now.
This is a construction that hascreated a lot of debate in the
African-American community,particularly in the 20th century
down to 21st century, becausethe white Jesus, image-wise, is
the only one that we have everreally known, because we really
didn't imagize for lack of abetter term Jesus in Africa that
it became such a fixture in thelives of the slaves that for
(33:33):
many of those same mothers, youwould have holy hell on your
hand, literally trying to get animage of a white Jesus off the
wall.
And we see that still in a lotof black churches, even today,
let alone white churches, thatwe still have images of white
Jesuses up and that white Jesuswith the long brown hair and the
brown beard still consideredthe standard in terms of the
(33:56):
image of Jesus.
Not that they see themselves asinferior to white people, but
they still see whiteness inJesus and it's part of the
psychological and the psychicalmoving forward of black people
relative to our seeing divinityin whiteness and seeing
non-divinity in ourselves.
And so, if we're ever going tobe a truly free people, this is
(34:19):
an aspect of Christian faiththat has to become a part of
more contemporary discourse,that we have to make the case
for Jesus's blackness in thiscontext, namely because Jesus
identifies with the inhumanityand the inhumane treatment of
black people and therefore sideswith black people in their
oppressive condition as theyseek to affirm themselves in a
(34:42):
society that's committed stillto white supremacy, and both
black and white, as we constructan understanding of Jesus that
(35:03):
is more liberating in nature.
Number six heaven throughquality of life, if there was
one.
And so for black folk, heavenalways came through our quality
of life, not as slaves, but ourquality of life in terms of how
we treated each other and how wetreated all other human beings,
(35:23):
including white human beings,and so it was the quality of
life that we sought to createthat would bring us heaven and
or hell.
Not, of course, being a goodslave to white people and making
sure we met our dailyrequirements.
That was part of the economicteaching of slaveholders, in
order to use slaves and to, ofcourse, maximize their labor by
(35:47):
getting them to observe dailywork goals so they could make
ultimate profit.
And of course they did.
They made ultimate profit.
That money has been used,invested it, and part of the
wealth of white America eventoday, allowed white America to
start its banking institutions,its educational institutions,
(36:07):
and so, in that sense, it hasbeen money that has been passed
down and been used to maximizeitself, particularly on the
stock market as well, and inannuities, to grow white wealth.
And yet African-Americans stillhave not received reparations
for 244 years of chattel racialslavery.
You would almost have to be agenius to figure out how to fail
(36:29):
in a business when you don'thave to pay your employees.
And so they did not fail inthat business.
They succeeded in that businessand their wealth perpetuates to
this day.
And so heaven was seen throughthe quality of life and
treatment, not in becoming pawnsin a system of injustice.
And of course, the blackprophetic radical tradition we
(36:51):
saw probably the latest withMalcolm X challenged the whole
notion of heaven and hell,maintaining that the whole
heaven and hell construction wasa carefully designed ruse
designed to divert Blackpeople's attention away from
their earthly suffering and thatif we were going to experience
freedom and bliss of any kind,it was going to be on this earth
in human history.
(37:11):
And so the Black propheticradical tradition challenged us
to think theologically beyondthe structures given to us by
white theologians and Christianministers and to think about
freedom now and freedom on earth.
And of course, the seventhmajor presupposition freedom
from slavery was the ultimateChristian virtue and not piety.
(37:34):
So we see a reversal of thispresupposition in pro-slavery
Christian theology that pietywas and not freedom.
Freedom from slavery, notinward freedom, not freedom from
one's sexual desires and lusts,as Bishop Berkeley maintained
in this famous letter in 1727,that it frees slaves from their
inward lust but doesn't freethem from slavery.
(37:56):
No, for slaves, christianfreedom meant freedom from
slavery objectively and inhistory, not just inwardly, and
so this created the Blackprophetic radical tradition that
sought to agitate for socialjustice as the best means of
achieving Black liberation.
(38:17):
Major biblical themes inanti-slavery Christian theology
in the first testament we begin,number one with the exodus
narrative.
This is one of the reasons whythe first bible we got as
african americans in slavery wasonly the new testament, because
they didn't want us to read theold testament.
And of course, we're about todiscover why.
What's in the old testament?
(38:38):
First of all, the exodusnarrative is there where god
appears to moses.
It's in the Old Testament.
First of all, the Exodusnarrative is there where God
appears to Moses.
It's not the figment of Moses'imagination.
God appears to Moses in theform of a burning bush and tells
Moses to go to Egypt and tellPharaoh let my people go.
He does not condone slavery,but he condemns slavery by
sending Moses to end slavery.
(39:00):
And of course, not only that.
As they are escaping, pharaoh'sarmy drowns in the Red Sea,
trying to recapture them andbring them back to Egypt as
slaves.
And so it certainly issuggestive of the fact that God
does not condone slavery, thatGod rather condemned slavery.
And of course you didn't wantslaves reading that, david and
(39:21):
Goliath.
This has nothing to do withslavery directly, but indirectly
we see in this narrative thehope developed by many slaves
when they read it and had itread to them for those who were
illiterate that we see thisultimate hope giant.
We see this ultimate villainwho scared everybody, who made
(39:44):
everybody tremble in their boots, in the form of Goliath that no
one wanted to take on, goliathexcept one person, and that was
David.
He took five smooth stones froma brook, needed only one and,
of course, killed Goliath.
And so you see this prohibitiveunderdog conquering this
prohibitive favorite, thisprohibitive giant in Goliath,
(40:07):
and it gave slaves hope that,even against all odds, when
things looked their bleakest,they could use the David and
Goliath narrative as the basisfor them to continue, to be
motivated to topple theSlavocracy.
And of course, the prophets,all of them, but particularly
Amos, who was very, verycritical of religious ritual
(40:30):
that did not address freedom,that did not address liberation
Don't bring me the noise of yoursolemn assemblies, don't bring
me your burnt offerings.
This was very galvanizing toslaves and particularly to
leaders like Frederick Douglassand Harriet Tubman and some of
our established church leaderswho had a liberating vision
(40:50):
theologically, that Amos wantedjustice to roll of many black
leaders and particularly MartinLuther King Jr, amos was his
favorite prophet In the Secondor New Testament.
(41:11):
Major biblical themes, the lifeof Jesus himself.
This is very important and wasvery galvanizing for many slaves
.
Is that God's choice ofincarnation.
Incarnation we mean, of course,how God becomes Jesus and who
God chooses to become Jesus to.
(41:32):
And of course God decides tobecome Jesus to take on human
flesh, to take on the sinfulnessof the world, not to an
aristocratic community, not to abourgeois community, but to the
poor, the vilified, thedemonized, to Jews in the first
century.
And of course he mentions theSamaritans quite frequently in
(41:54):
his public ministry also, peoplewho are reviled and vilified in
New Testament literature infirst century Palestine.
And so God's choice ofincarnation.
God chooses to incarnate God'sself to a poor people, to a
despised people, to amarginalized people, to an
exploited people.
This was huge for many slavesonce they were able to read the
(42:18):
Bible.
The second major theme in NewTestament, of course Luke 4, 18,
19, one used today byliberation theologians such as
myself.
The spirit of the Lord is uponme because he has anointed me to
preach the good news to thepoor.
He sent me to proclaim freedomfrom the prisoners and recovery
(42:39):
of the sight of the blind, torelease the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord'sfavor.
And so this is the cornerstoneof the liberation tradition that
developed first of all duringslavery, makes its way into the
20th century that we're dealingwith a Jesus that, from a
ministerial standpoint, isprimarily concerned about the
(43:01):
liberation of human beings,concerned about the freedom of
human beings more so than anyother phenomenon.
Jesus' primary concern isseeing those who are vilified,
demonized, marginalized, be free.
And so the Luke 4, 18, 19passage, a major plank in
anti-slavery Christian theology.
And of course, the third oneused quite frequently by the
(43:24):
black prophetic radicaltradition Galatians 5 and 1.
Paul writes in his letter to thechurch at Galatia that was more
concerned about circumcisionand ritual, more so than they
were about freedom.
That Paul gets to after.
He criticizes them for beingthat concern and being
(43:46):
visionless in giving optimumattention to circumcision and
not liberation.
He maintains in chapter five,verse one it is for freedom that
Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do notlet yourselves be burdened again
by a yoke of slavery.
(44:06):
And so, seen in this passage,slaves saw the basis by which
they would fight ardentlyagainst slavery, and that they
were motivated not only to getout of slavery, but they were
motivated by their understanding, their understanding despite
what white Christian ministerstaught them their understanding
(44:27):
of God, their understanding ofChristian faith, which did not
call for them to be slaves untilthe end of time, but call for
them to do the opposite toardently fight against their
enslavement, against theiroppression, even at the point of
death, knowing that God will bewith them even until the end of
the world.
And so you start seeing Blackresistance not only take on
(44:50):
social, economic and politicaldimensions.
You start seeing Blackresistance take on profound
theological dimensions that weare serving a God.
The good news of the gospel forus is that we're serving a God
that doesn't want us to beslaves.
We're serving a God that wantsus to be free and that we're
(45:10):
ready to fight tooth and nailfor our freedom, and to fight
for it in the name of God,knowing that God has made a
choice, that God has not chosenwhite supremacy, that God has
not chosen white rule, that Godhas not chosen slavery, god has
not chosen segregation, god hasnot chosen racial discrimination
(45:33):
, but rather God has chosen thefreedom of human beings, from
the time God created humanbeings to right now that God has
chosen freedom not only interms of creation of the world
and creation of human beings,but chooses freedom in any
oppressor-oppressed context, inany enslaved context, whether
(45:56):
it's the Israelites in Egypt, orwhether it's Black people in
America, whether it's blackpeople in South Africa, whether
it's the outcasts in India.
God chooses liberation, notoppression.
God chooses and is partial tothose who are struggling to free
(46:17):
themselves from structuralinjustice and in that sense, god
is not just a God who'sconcerned about what happens to
us after we die.
God is not just concerned aboutheaven and hell and has no
concern for the earth, as manyof us, as black people, have
been taught, but that God isultimately concerned about earth
.
And God is so concerned aboutearth that God decides and this
(46:43):
is the distinctive of Christianfaith that God decides to come
to the earth in the form of ahuman being in order to make
God's purpose known to the world.
And in making that purposeknown, god has chosen liberation
and not oppression.
God has chosen freedom and notslavery, and that became the
(47:07):
basis by which the Blackprophetic radical tradition
started, beginning with theinsurrections in the 19th
century with Gabriel Prosser,denmark Veazey, right down in
Charleston, and Nat Turner, andwe began to see an anti-slavery
Christian theology that becomesthe precursor to Black
liberation theology.
(47:28):
Womanist theology from the 1960semerge in not only the
antebellum period, but emergesin the 20th century and now into
the 21st century.
And it is imperative to me inthis day and time that we
recapture that sense of destiny,that we recapture that sense of
(47:49):
liberation and know, despitewhat is happening in the country
today, that God still choosesto marginalize, to exploit it
and to vilify the people, whoare being told that they don't
get jobs because they're lazyand that they're getting jobs
because they're lazy, notbecause they have earned it.
And so, in this milieu in whichour humanity is continually
(48:14):
vilified, that it lacks industry, that it lacks proper education
, that it lacks properqualifications, we must
understand and be at thevanguard of social change and
understand that we are dealingwith a God who has not chosen
those who choose to vilify us,but that God has chosen us as we
(48:36):
move forward and as werecapture our sense of destiny,
our sense of oneness and oursense of freedom, as we take on
this latest round of racism thathas mutated itself for another
generation.
And so that wraps up thissegment of Native Drums.
I hope you have enjoyed it.
(48:58):
I've been your host, dr HarrySingleton, and we'll see you
next time.
Thank you, and have a goodnight.
Hello everyone and welcome to this continuing
segment of the podcast NativeDrums, a podcast created by Dr
Ralph W Canty and Savannah GroveBaptist Church.
I am Harry Singleton.
I'll be with you today withthis segment of the podcast, as
we have discussed up to thispoint the travails of African
(00:37):
slavery, but we discuss equallyas much today, and unfortunately
, the role that Christian faithhas played in the dehumanization
of Black people.
And yet, at the same time, wewere able to take this imposed
Christianity, this concoctedChristianity that was designed
to make us better slaves and tosocially control us, not to make
(00:58):
us more righteous and fashionit into a liberating instrument,
moving forward from the Blackabolitionist tradition.
And so today I want to talkwith you in this particular
segment on the subject thecoming of the gods, the
religious construction of Blackdehumanization, the coming of
the gods, the religiousconstruction of Black
(01:20):
dehumanization.
From the outset of theSlavocracy in 1619, white
planters and white ministers hadcommitted Christian faith to
this process.
They understood the kidnappingof Africans not just to be a
process of economic gain forthem, but also to be an
opportunity, as it was revealedto them by their God and
(01:42):
Christian stewardship, to kidnapAfricans, to enslave them, to
make salvation possible for WestAfrican people as part of the
ongoing propagandistic approachto Africa, and to make Africans
and the world think that Africawas no major contributor to
civilization and certainly didnot think within the context of
(02:04):
God and the context of theirrelationship with a God or gods
in Africa.
And so the Slavocracy was justas much theological as it was
economic.
And so as we begin to grow inthe Slavocracy, we also begin to
grow in a theology, aslave-holding theology, or what
(02:25):
I would refer to as pro-slaveryChristian theology, that
motivated whites to know in, notonly to maintain the slavocracy
but to fight for its veryexistence and to fight for it in
the name of God.
They too listened to sermons inchurch every Sunday that touted
the virtues of slavery from asalvific and a redemptive
(02:46):
standpoint and that theirultimate salvation was
inextricably linked withmaintaining slavery and, of
course, the slave salvationultimately linked with
maintaining slavery.
And so we saw a virulentpro-slavery Christian theology
emerge in plantation life thatwould lay the cornerstone for
(03:07):
the worldview, the theologicalworldview, of the Slavocracy and
its perpetuation until,supposedly, the end of time.
I want to begin with a few majorpresuppositions of pro-slavery
Christian theology that guidednot only the early theology but,
(03:27):
in my judgment, has made itsway up to present day America,
as we continue to suffertheologically in ways that we're
not able to detect from thistheological understanding of
both Black and white humanityand subsequently of Christian
faith.
The first major presuppositionof pro-slavery Christian
theology is that the white raceis superior to people of color
(03:51):
and women, that God had revealedto white men their superiority
not only on the basis of racebut certainly on the basis of
gender as well, and that they tobe the primary stewards of
effectuating the kingdom of Godon earth in the form of slavery.
And so the first and majorpresupposition of pro-slavery
(04:24):
Christian theology was not onlyof social, economic and
political orthodox understanding, but also religious and
theological understanding aswell.
The logic is is that if a whitemale has not thought of it,
then it's a thought that's notworthy of public discourse.
And so what they were doing wasthey were cementing a legacy
(04:47):
where the legitimacy of humanitywould be seen, particularly as
it related to the development ofideas and the furthering of
civilization, through the eyesand through the mindset of white
males, and white males only.
And in that sense we still livein that tight world today,
wherein if a significant numberof white males have not given
(05:09):
proper approval of an idea ormovement, then of course the
mediums of mass communicationare used to defeat and to defame
that particular movement orthat figure.
We have seen that raciallythroughout American history, and
it begins actually with thepro-slavery supposition that
white men are superior.
(05:32):
The second major presuppositionof pro-slavery Christian
theology is that Africanenslavement was ordained of God
and therefore eternal.
I tell my students all the timethat we're not supposed to be
free, or at least not in slaveryanymore, in 2025.
That slavery, from its outset,was to be styled as an eternal
(05:53):
institution, meaning that it wassupposed to last until the end
of time.
And so I tell my students, asan older Black man, I'm supposed
to be teaching you, as youngerBlack people, how to survive the
plantation.
And one of the main reasons whyis because African enslavement
was seen as ordained of God, notonly for the salvation of
(06:14):
whites through Christianstewardship, but it provided the
only hope that Africans wouldever have in order to obtain
salvation, since they had notbeen exposed to Christian faith
in Jesus Christ.
While in Africa that is amisnomer of the highest
proportion, the reality is isthat West Africans had been
exposed to Christianity, alongwith Islam and African
(06:38):
traditional religions, when theywere abducted and sold into the
slave trade.
And so it's a misnomer of thehighest proportion.
Major presupposition numberthree black skin is a visible
sign of the demonic.
In many ways, like the notionof leprosy, which of course was
(06:58):
light or white, in the Bible,this color symbolism was
reversed in the Slavocracy and,of course the manifestation of
one's dark skin was a visibleand physical manifestation of
one's demonic nature.
This was done for two reasonsNumber one, to make the slave
(07:18):
dependent on white people, whowere lighter and not dark skin,
for the direction in terms ofproper living.
And number two, it was alsodone from a pragmatic standpoint
, so that slaves could beidentified by their skin color
alone.
This would be a tremendousproblem for free blacks who came
to America and were notenslaved, but who were
(07:39):
eventually enslaved because theywere kidnapped by white
planters and brought intoslavery, even though they had
their paper certifying that theywere free.
Those papers were usually tornup, burned, and they were
kidnapped and taken into slavery.
And so the reason why this wasdone with such great alacrity by
slaveholders is because blackskin was a visible sign of the
(08:04):
demonic and therefore deserve.
Black people deserve to beenslaved, namely so that they
could be exposed to thewonderful teachings of the Bible
and of Jesus Christ.
And so it was styled as doingthese free blacks a favor for
enslaving them, if you can wrapyour mind around that and not
taking into consideration thephysical and psychical trauma to
(08:27):
which they were being subjected.
Presupposition number four theAfrican possessed no soul.
The reason why they wereabducted in Africa and exposed
to Christianity once they cameto America is so that they could
be converted.
And so the original teaching aswe begin the 17th century was
(08:50):
that the African possessed nosoul.
But as we move into the 18thcentury, that presupposition had
to be rethought, because if youpossess no soul, then there's
no way that your soul can besaved, and if your soul can't be
saved, then there's no need intrying to convert them, because
it will be a futile enterprise.
And so, as we move into thebeginning of the 18th century,
(09:11):
you see white Christianministers and theologians
backing away from thispresupposition and giving the
African a soul, which then, ofcourse, justified the need to
enslave and to convert toChristianity.
But the original presuppositionin the 17th century is that
Africans possess no soul.
(09:33):
Presupposition number five Jesusand God and the angels were
white in color.
Well, this is not surprisingwhen you're trying to establish
your superiority racially inAmerica, in a hierarchical
system where you occupy the toprung of that ladder.
Small wonder then that youwould make as you began to bring
(09:57):
about visible images of Jesusand the angels in the 12th
century with the Renaissance.
And of course, we see theSistine Chapel of the Catholic
Church with Michelangelo beingcommissioned to paint a portrait
of Jesus on the ceiling.
And of course, he choosessomeone who is a derelict cousin
of his, not of much worth, withthe long brown hair and with
(10:20):
the beard, and uses his image.
And that became one of the morelasting images of Jesus, not
only in Europe.
That became one of the morelasting images of Jesus not only
in Europe, but one of the morelasting images of Jesus as it
makes its way across the pondeven to the Americas as well.
And so Jesus, and therefore God, since Jesus said when you see
me, you see God of the Fatherthat made God white as well.
(10:42):
And of course, the angels, asthe assistants of God, were
presented to both black andwhite people, as white as well,
and of course the obvious reasonis to establish the superiority
of whiteness and color, andtherefore in thought and
therefore in idea.
Six major presupposition ofpro-slavery Christian theology
(11:06):
is that you are to live asslaves, in a life of complete
toil.
No sign of being free fromslavery this side of Jordan.
And so it brings into notionthe theological category of what
we call eschatology, meaningliterally the study of the last
day.
So when you're engaged inconversation with someone about
(11:29):
the soul, what happens to thesoul after death?
Are we conscious of death?
Are we not conscious of it?
When you are engaged in thattype of conversation with
someone, you are engaged in whatwe refer to as eschatological
language, and the earlyeschatology taught to slaves by
white Christian ministers wasthat you could go to heaven,
(11:49):
that there was a spatial placethat existed, called heaven,
that you could go to after youdie.
The Bible refers to it in image, wise, as a land flowing with
milk and honey and streets pavedwith gold, and that it would be
yours only after physical deathand only after you lived the
life of complete toil, as aslave and didn't engage in any
(12:10):
insurrections, and you were whatthey refer to as a good slave,
and so the ethic of the goodcomes from the slave and meeting
their daily workloads and nottrying to do anything to topple
the Slavocracy.
And so heaven came through hardwork for Blacks, and it came
from Christianizing heathen,africans for whites.
(12:32):
And so a huge part of Christianstewardship became interpreted
in such a way that whites wouldmake it to heaven in their
attempts to keep Blacks enslaved.
One and number two, convertthem to Christianity.
And so this has been a majorunderstanding in the life,
probably one of the moreprominent ones in Christian
(12:52):
thought, particularly by blackabolitionists who have been
relentless and constructivelycritical of both white and some
black churches and black leaderswho continue to preach a
theology of heaven first and notearth first.
And so most abolitionists inour tradition Professor VZ
(13:12):
Turner, daniel Payne, bishopHenry McNeil Turner, martin
Luther King, malcolm X certainlyengaged in a merciless critique
of Christianity and it being aheaven first of faith, which of
course they understood to be aclever ruse created by the slave
master in order to make blacksmore docile slaves and readily
(13:33):
accepting of their oppression.
And so this is a verysignificant presupposition
relative to where thefulfillment of promise of God to
human beings occurs.
Does it occur on earth as afuturistic event in human
history, or does it occur in aso-called spatial heaven that
(13:55):
you go to only after you die?
The other rub with that as wellis that when you do die and you
do find out whether it existsor not, you do die, you know,
and you do find out whether itexists or not.
Even if it does exist, no oneis able to come back to this
side of Jordan and tell youwhether it's real or not.
And so it made for clever rulesto try to induce greater
workloads in slaves and to getthem to think that their
(14:18):
enslavement was divinelyordained.
And the seventh majorpresupposition of pro-slavery
Christian theology is that pietythat is living a life of being
soft-spoken.
Supposedly Jesus never raisedhis voice, which is a lie.
Supposedly he never went afterstructural racism, he never went
(14:40):
after those who demonized andvilified the Samaritans and, of
course, his own Samaritan people.
And so piety became interpretedas this presentation of Jesus,
not only in white form but inpious form, walking around
saying only nice platitudes topeople, never raising his voice,
always in some type ofprostrate or prayerful position,
(15:05):
and, of course, never beingconstructively critical of the
system that he inherited and thestructural injustices that he
inherited.
And so piety became theultimate Christian virtue, as
taught by white slaveholders andwhite Christian ministers, but
not freedom.
That Christian freedom was atangential or peripheral issue
(15:30):
at best in Christian discourse,because of course slaves were
not supposed to be free thisside of Jordan, to be free only
after they die.
And so if you can imagine aChristian theological approach
in which freedom is not theultimate value, but of course
piety is, then certainly that iswhat we encountered as black
(15:52):
people in American historyduring the Slavocracy.
And so those are the majorpresuppositions of pro-slavery
theology.
We turn our attention to somemajor biblical themes of
pro-slavery theology.
We turn our attention to somemajor biblical themes of
pro-slavery theology.
We begin number one with thepolygenesis theory, which makes
(16:15):
sense from the standpoint of aracist mind, and of course
polygenesis sounds like what itmeans.
The prefix poly means many,genesis means creation.
Of course the polygenesistheory maintains that Black
people were not created by theGod of the Bible, that Black
people were created by aninferior God and therefore they
(16:35):
are inferior, that theirdiminished ontology begins from
creation itself and, of course,does not begin socially and
historically in the life of thisworld.
The theory one was that Blackswere created by an inferior God
and therefore made them inferior.
Now they had to back off thispresupposition too, just as they
(16:59):
had to back off thepresupposition that Africans
possess no soul, because itdetracted from the biblical
notion that out of one blood hasGod made all human beings.
And so, as we move into the19th century, this polygenesis
theory transitions from Blacksbeing created by an inferior God
to Blacks being created by theGod of the Bible, like white
(17:20):
people, but that God createdblack people as a lower species,
or what we refer to asdiminished ontology relative to
their actual being, than whitepeople are.
And so this particular theorytakes us into the 19th century
and even into the 20th century,relative to the diminished
ontology of black people on theone hand, over and against the
(17:43):
superior ontology of whitepeople, on the other hand.
The second major biblical themeemanating from the first or old
testament and pro-slaveryChristian theology is the
hermetic hypothesis.
This is referred to practicallyas the curse on ham that in
(18:03):
Genesis 9, 18, 27, 27,.
One of Noah's sons, ham, mocksNoah in his drunkenness and as
Noah is passed out, ham ismocking him and his brother Shem
and Japheth, once Noah comes to, tells Noah what Ham did, and
of course the pronouncement goesout from Noah cursed be Canaan,
(18:27):
a draw of water, and here ofwood shall his descendants be to
the descendants of his brothers.
And so this was interpreted asHam moving and settling in what
we call modern day Africa andhis brother, shem and Japheth,
moving and settling in what wecall present day Europe.
That, for white Christianplanters, laid the foundation
(18:49):
for them to conclude that Godwanted white people to rule over
black people, because of thehermetic hypothesis, because Ham
, who supposedly moved to Africameaning Ham, meaning burnt
literally moved to Africa, andthat it justified the
enslavement of West Africansbased on that particular passage
(19:09):
.
It was one of the most widelyused biblical passages in
plantation life to justify theenslavement of Africa, and, of
course, it finds itself inGenesis 9, itself in Genesis 9,
(19:30):
18, and 27.
The reality is, though, is thatcurse it be Canaan, which is
what Noah said, was not meantfor a future reality 14
centuries, 15 centuries later,for European people to enslave
African people.
It was meant for when, ofcourse, the Israelites went into
the promised land and in theCanaan and destroyed everything
in it.
It was not a fulfillment of afuturistic reality in human
(19:53):
history, beyond biblical times,but was actually fulfilled in
biblical times and had nothingto do with one race of people
enslaving another race of peopleenslaving another, but yet very
powerful in its impact in termsof how it was internalized,
particularly by white plantersand by whites who saw an
inextricable link between thispassage and the Slavocracy and,
(20:17):
of course, post-slavery.
The third biblical theme used inthe Old Testament pro-slavery
Christian theology was the Towerof Babel.
Of course, god confuses thelanguages of people who are
trying to build this statue,this tower, to erect this
edifice, to go all the way up toheaven, because they wanted to
(20:39):
see an actual image of the faceof God.
And God interpreted this as thearrogance of human beings for
wanting to see the face of Godand not, of course, live in the
will of God and live in thecreative power of God, as God
had demonstrated in creation onearth.
And so for that, god supposedlypunished the human race by
(21:01):
separating them and sending themto the different parts of the
earth geographically and hadthem speak different tongues so
they could no longer communicatewith each other.
In terms of building thisedifice, believe it or not, this
was used as a major biblicalplank and foundation for whites,
justifying their physicalseparation from Black people and
(21:23):
creating segregated conditionsfor Black people.
Not separate but equal, butseparate but highly unequal,
coming out of the Plessydecision in 1896 and moving into
the 20th century.
And it was preached ad nauseumby white ministers who
maintained that the Tower ofBabel was now biblical proof,
(21:43):
post-slavery, that God wantedsegregation and that segregation
emerged out of the mind of God,not out of the mind of white
men.
And so those are three of themajor biblical themes in the
First Testament or the OldTestament, and we take a look
now at four major biblicalthemes in the Second Testament
(22:08):
or the New Testament used bywhite Christian ministers to
justify slavery.
The first one we take a look atis the Book of Philemon.
It is the shortest Bible in allof the Bible, in all of the
books of the Bible.
It is only 27 verses, but noless a powerful plank in the
justification of slavery onbiblical grounds.
(22:30):
In this book, of course, theapostle Paul comes across a
runaway slave by the name ofOnesimus, and once he learns
that Onesimus is a runaway slave, he instructs Onesimus to go
back to his slave holder,philemon.
What they left out convenientlyin the teaching is that Paul
(22:53):
then goes to Philemon and tellsPhilemon to treat Onesimus as a
full brother in Christ.
And so in that sense freedomwas paramount for Paul, not
slavery.
And Paul goes to Philemon andtells Philemon to treat Onesimus
as a full brother in Christ.
That doesn't come out in theteaching, namely because whites
(23:16):
have never wanted to be fullbrothers, even in Christ, with
black people.
The second major biblical themein the New Testament, or Second
Testament, was 1 Corinthians, 7,20 and 24.
Let every human abide in thesame calling in which she was
called.
Let every human, wherein she iscalled, therein, abide with God
(23:40):
.
Now, what does this mean?
This was interpreted in such away that as we talk about
callings, we really talk aboutcallings in contemporary times
relative to ministerial callings.
He got called to the ministry,she got called to the ministry,
but this passage is interpretedin such a way to maintain that
white and black people werecalled to the reality of slave
(24:03):
holding and to the reality ofbeing enslaved through their
callings from this passage inFirst Corinthians call, meaning
that, of course, as theSlavocracy starts, then if that
was your calling at thebeginning of this institution,
(24:24):
then you are to remain thatuntil the end of time.
And if your calling was to be aslaveholder when the Slavocracy
started, you are to maintainthat position until the end of
time and therein.
Abide with God.
A major New Testament plank forteaching the legitimacy of
(24:44):
slavery on biblical grounds.
The third major biblical themeEphesians 6.5,.
Slaves obey your earthly masterwith respect and fear and with
sincerity of heart, just as youwould obey Christ.
This was also a major themehammered home by white Christian
ministers on a weekly basis inchurch.
(25:05):
The reality is with this passageis that the slave system that
existed in first centuryPalestine was far different from
the chattel racial slavery thatexisted and the imposition of
the physical and psychicaltrauma on Black people.
We were deprived of our rightsconstitutionally.
That was not the case in thissystem.
(25:26):
We were dehumanized in terms ofour aesthetic value on every
front.
That was not the case with thissystem.
We were dehumanized relative toour cultural expressions.
Africa even called a darkcontinent and we were not
allowed to participate in thepolitical or education process.
Because we were not allowed tonot only not pursue formal
(25:47):
education, but it was thepenalty of death here in South
Carolina to teach a slave toread and write.
None of that existed in thesystem in first century
Palestine.
In fact, the word in Greek isservant system, not slavery
system.
It became slave and slave putin to later editions of the New
(26:13):
Testament, particularly theEnglish version, as we begin
with the King James Version.
Slave is put in there, but it'sreally servant, and so there
are distinct differences betweenthis system and the system that
we inherited asAfrican-Americans, and that's
very important in understandingnuances of what servanthood is.
(26:33):
On the one hand, slavery is, onthe other.
In the servant system, if youare a servant to a man, he would
consider it an honor if youmarried his daughter.
That certainly was not the case, for instance, in chattel,
racial slavery in America.
And, of course, the fourth majorbiblical theme Titus 2, 9, and
(26:54):
10 teach slaves to be subject totheir masters in everything, to
try to please them, not talkback to them and not steal from
them, but to show them that canbe fully trusted, so that in
every way, they will make theteaching about God, our savior,
attractive.
What's saliently missing fromthis particular passage is that
(27:15):
there was a respectfulinteraction between the servant
and the servant holder or theboss or the person in charge.
That again was not anythinglike the chattel racial system
that we encountered, butnevertheless Titus and Ephesians
both preached at nauseam tojustify the enslavement of
(27:39):
Africans by whites on biblicalgrounds.
And so those are the majorpresuppositions and biblical
themes of pro-slavery Christiantheology.
I close today with the otherside.
Even in the inability to receiveformal education, to read and
(27:59):
write, to have families brokenup, we began to see the
emergence of an anti-slaveryChristian theology on the
plantation, particularly as wesee the emergence of the Black
prophetic radical tradition andthe incendiary leader that
agitated slaves to fight forjustice and to end the
Slavocracy, particularly as wemove into the 18th century.
(28:23):
We've been here close to 100years and begin to develop some
allies and a layout of the land,and we begin to develop a plan
not only as to how we were goingto think about making a new
America, but how we were goingto think about our own humanity,
despite the highestprotestations from whites, when
we concede of our humanity inpositive terms.
(28:45):
The first major presuppositionof anti-slavery Christian
theology is that the human raceincludes Africans, that out of
one blood has God made all humanbeings and that God never says
in the Bible that one race ofpeople should be considered
superior to others, one race ofpeople should be inferior to
(29:07):
others, that we were all createdfrom the same God and we were
created to equally share theresources on this earth.
That's why human equality hasbeen such a major theme with the
(29:31):
Black prophetic radicaltradition and with the Black
leadership tradition, that wehave, from day one, asked that
America respect us as humanbeings, manna, not to vilify us
and to demonize us, but to fullyrecognize our cultural
expressions, our intellectualcontributions and, of course,
recognize our aesthetic featuresas uniquely ours and not to be
(29:51):
demonized by you simply becausewe don't possess European
characteristics in terms of skincolor and facial features.
The second major presuppositionsAfrican enslavement, not
ordained of God, of course,going from the biblical
understanding that God is norespecter of persons, meaning
that God does not favor onegroup or one individual over
(30:12):
another, that all human beingsare created equal.
But, as we're going to see withthe emergence of black
liberation theology in the 20thcentury, when
oppressor-oppressed context orenslaved context do exist and
come into being because onehuman group of human beings
decide they want to enslaveanother group of human beings,
god does begin to activelyparticipate in history on the
(30:35):
side of those who are enslaved,advocating for their freedom, as
we saw God eventually do insending Moses to Egypt to tell
Pharaoh that it's time and tolet my people go.
And so African enslavement,based on the biblical notion
that God is no respect ofpersons, is not ordained of God,
(30:55):
that we cannot connect the Godof freedom with the God of
enslavement at the same time.
The third major presuppositionthe demonic scene primarily in
actions and not skin hue.
Of course, if you can rememberfrom pro-slavery Christian
theology, dark skin itself was amanifestation of the demonic.
To create racial category andracial categories of hierarchy,
(31:19):
between.
To create racial category andracial categories of hierarchy,
between the superiority ofwhiteness and the inferiority of
blackness.
The demonic will be seen inanti-slavery Christian theology
primarily in actions, not inskin hue, and this is one of the
reasons why a lot of themothers of slavery refer to
whites as demons or referred tothem as Satan incarnated, namely
(31:41):
because their brutal and harshtreatment of African-Americans.
It has some choice words toofor those Black people who sold
out insurrection struggles byrunning to the slave mast and
divulging to him the plan thatwas involved in the escape.
And so for Black people, thedemonic has always been
interpreted within the contextof your actions.
(32:03):
It's been a moral and ethicalconstruction, not a racial
construction, and we havemaintained consistency with that
throughout our time here inAmerica.
Presupposition number fourAfricans, as creations of God,
did possess a soul.
So there was never a time forus when we didn't possess a soul
.
And when you go back and lookat ancient Egypt, look at Coptic
(32:26):
Christianity and even WestAfrican Christianity, you will
see Christianity being practicedin an exuberant way with a
liberation imperative.
And, of course, never, evertake it into consideration that,
as Africans, our ontologypossess no soul.
That is a concoction created bywhite slaveholders as a means
(32:48):
of bringing slaves to redemptionthat they supposedly didn't
have an opportunity for inAfrica, but slaves were being
redeemed and slaves werecounting on eternal life as
Christians in Africa long beforethey were abducted.
Presupposition number five Jesus, god, angels, is still white
(33:08):
Now.
This is a construction that hascreated a lot of debate in the
African-American community,particularly in the 20th century
down to 21st century, becausethe white Jesus, image-wise, is
the only one that we have everreally known, because we really
didn't imagize for lack of abetter term Jesus in Africa that
it became such a fixture in thelives of the slaves that for
(33:33):
many of those same mothers, youwould have holy hell on your
hand, literally trying to get animage of a white Jesus off the
wall.
And we see that still in a lotof black churches, even today,
let alone white churches, thatwe still have images of white
Jesuses up and that white Jesuswith the long brown hair and the
brown beard still consideredthe standard in terms of the
(33:56):
image of Jesus.
Not that they see themselves asinferior to white people, but
they still see whiteness inJesus and it's part of the
psychological and the psychicalmoving forward of black people
relative to our seeing divinityin whiteness and seeing
non-divinity in ourselves.
And so, if we're ever going tobe a truly free people, this is
(34:19):
an aspect of Christian faiththat has to become a part of
more contemporary discourse,that we have to make the case
for Jesus's blackness in thiscontext, namely because Jesus
identifies with the inhumanityand the inhumane treatment of
black people and therefore sideswith black people in their
oppressive condition as theyseek to affirm themselves in a
(34:42):
society that's committed stillto white supremacy, and both
black and white, as we constructan understanding of Jesus that
(35:03):
is more liberating in nature.
Number six heaven throughquality of life, if there was
one.
And so for black folk, heavenalways came through our quality
of life, not as slaves, but ourquality of life in terms of how
we treated each other and how wetreated all other human beings,
(35:23):
including white human beings,and so it was the quality of
life that we sought to createthat would bring us heaven and
or hell.
Not, of course, being a goodslave to white people and making
sure we met our dailyrequirements.
That was part of the economicteaching of slaveholders, in
order to use slaves and to, ofcourse, maximize their labor by
(35:47):
getting them to observe dailywork goals so they could make
ultimate profit.
And of course they did.
They made ultimate profit.
That money has been used,invested it, and part of the
wealth of white America eventoday, allowed white America to
start its banking institutions,its educational institutions,
(36:07):
and so, in that sense, it hasbeen money that has been passed
down and been used to maximizeitself, particularly on the
stock market as well, and inannuities, to grow white wealth.
And yet African-Americans stillhave not received reparations
for 244 years of chattel racialslavery.
You would almost have to be agenius to figure out how to fail
(36:29):
in a business when you don'thave to pay your employees.
And so they did not fail inthat business.
They succeeded in that businessand their wealth perpetuates to
this day.
And so heaven was seen throughthe quality of life and
treatment, not in becoming pawnsin a system of injustice.
And of course, the blackprophetic radical tradition we
(36:51):
saw probably the latest withMalcolm X challenged the whole
notion of heaven and hell,maintaining that the whole
heaven and hell construction wasa carefully designed ruse
designed to divert Blackpeople's attention away from
their earthly suffering and thatif we were going to experience
freedom and bliss of any kind,it was going to be on this earth
in human history.
(37:11):
And so the Black propheticradical tradition challenged us
to think theologically beyondthe structures given to us by
white theologians and Christianministers and to think about
freedom now and freedom on earth.
And of course, the seventhmajor presupposition freedom
from slavery was the ultimateChristian virtue and not piety.
(37:34):
So we see a reversal of thispresupposition in pro-slavery
Christian theology that pietywas and not freedom.
Freedom from slavery, notinward freedom, not freedom from
one's sexual desires and lusts,as Bishop Berkeley maintained
in this famous letter in 1727,that it frees slaves from their
inward lust but doesn't freethem from slavery.
(37:56):
No, for slaves, christianfreedom meant freedom from
slavery objectively and inhistory, not just inwardly, and
so this created the Blackprophetic radical tradition that
sought to agitate for socialjustice as the best means of
achieving Black liberation.
(38:17):
Major biblical themes inanti-slavery Christian theology
in the first testament we begin,number one with the exodus
narrative.
This is one of the reasons whythe first bible we got as
african americans in slavery wasonly the new testament, because
they didn't want us to read theold testament.
And of course, we're about todiscover why.
What's in the old testament?
(38:38):
First of all, the exodusnarrative is there where god
appears to moses.
It's in the Old Testament.
First of all, the Exodusnarrative is there where God
appears to Moses.
It's not the figment of Moses'imagination.
God appears to Moses in theform of a burning bush and tells
Moses to go to Egypt and tellPharaoh let my people go.
He does not condone slavery,but he condemns slavery by
sending Moses to end slavery.
(39:00):
And of course, not only that.
As they are escaping, pharaoh'sarmy drowns in the Red Sea,
trying to recapture them andbring them back to Egypt as
slaves.
And so it certainly issuggestive of the fact that God
does not condone slavery, thatGod rather condemned slavery.
And of course you didn't wantslaves reading that, david and
(39:21):
Goliath.
This has nothing to do withslavery directly, but indirectly
we see in this narrative thehope developed by many slaves
when they read it and had itread to them for those who were
illiterate that we see thisultimate hope giant.
We see this ultimate villainwho scared everybody, who made
(39:44):
everybody tremble in their boots, in the form of Goliath that no
one wanted to take on, goliathexcept one person, and that was
David.
He took five smooth stones froma brook, needed only one and,
of course, killed Goliath.
And so you see this prohibitiveunderdog conquering this
prohibitive favorite, thisprohibitive giant in Goliath,
(40:07):
and it gave slaves hope that,even against all odds, when
things looked their bleakest,they could use the David and
Goliath narrative as the basisfor them to continue, to be
motivated to topple theSlavocracy.
And of course, the prophets,all of them, but particularly
Amos, who was very, verycritical of religious ritual
(40:30):
that did not address freedom,that did not address liberation
Don't bring me the noise of yoursolemn assemblies, don't bring
me your burnt offerings.
This was very galvanizing toslaves and particularly to
leaders like Frederick Douglassand Harriet Tubman and some of
our established church leaderswho had a liberating vision
(40:50):
theologically, that Amos wantedjustice to roll of many black
leaders and particularly MartinLuther King Jr, amos was his
favorite prophet In the Secondor New Testament.
(41:11):
Major biblical themes, the lifeof Jesus himself.
This is very important and wasvery galvanizing for many slaves
.
Is that God's choice ofincarnation.
Incarnation we mean, of course,how God becomes Jesus and who
God chooses to become Jesus to.
(41:32):
And of course God decides tobecome Jesus to take on human
flesh, to take on the sinfulnessof the world, not to an
aristocratic community, not to abourgeois community, but to the
poor, the vilified, thedemonized, to Jews in the first
century.
And of course he mentions theSamaritans quite frequently in
(41:54):
his public ministry also, peoplewho are reviled and vilified in
New Testament literature infirst century Palestine.
And so God's choice ofincarnation.
God chooses to incarnate God'sself to a poor people, to a
despised people, to amarginalized people, to an
exploited people.
This was huge for many slavesonce they were able to read the
(42:18):
Bible.
The second major theme in NewTestament, of course Luke 4, 18,
19, one used today byliberation theologians such as
myself.
The spirit of the Lord is uponme because he has anointed me to
preach the good news to thepoor.
He sent me to proclaim freedomfrom the prisoners and recovery
(42:39):
of the sight of the blind, torelease the oppressed, to
proclaim the year of the Lord'sfavor.
And so this is the cornerstoneof the liberation tradition that
developed first of all duringslavery, makes its way into the
20th century that we're dealingwith a Jesus that, from a
ministerial standpoint, isprimarily concerned about the
(43:01):
liberation of human beings,concerned about the freedom of
human beings more so than anyother phenomenon.
Jesus' primary concern isseeing those who are vilified,
demonized, marginalized, be free.
And so the Luke 4, 18, 19passage, a major plank in
anti-slavery Christian theology.
And of course, the third oneused quite frequently by the
(43:24):
black prophetic radicaltradition Galatians 5 and 1.
Paul writes in his letter to thechurch at Galatia that was more
concerned about circumcisionand ritual, more so than they
were about freedom.
That Paul gets to after.
He criticizes them for beingthat concern and being
(43:46):
visionless in giving optimumattention to circumcision and
not liberation.
He maintains in chapter five,verse one it is for freedom that
Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do notlet yourselves be burdened again
by a yoke of slavery.
(44:06):
And so, seen in this passage,slaves saw the basis by which
they would fight ardentlyagainst slavery, and that they
were motivated not only to getout of slavery, but they were
motivated by their understanding, their understanding despite
what white Christian ministerstaught them their understanding
(44:27):
of God, their understanding ofChristian faith, which did not
call for them to be slaves untilthe end of time, but call for
them to do the opposite toardently fight against their
enslavement, against theiroppression, even at the point of
death, knowing that God will bewith them even until the end of
the world.
And so you start seeing Blackresistance not only take on
(44:50):
social, economic and politicaldimensions.
You start seeing Blackresistance take on profound
theological dimensions that weare serving a God.
The good news of the gospel forus is that we're serving a God
that doesn't want us to beslaves.
We're serving a God that wantsus to be free and that we're
(45:10):
ready to fight tooth and nailfor our freedom, and to fight
for it in the name of God,knowing that God has made a
choice, that God has not chosenwhite supremacy, that God has
not chosen white rule, that Godhas not chosen slavery, god has
not chosen segregation, god hasnot chosen racial discrimination
(45:33):
, but rather God has chosen thefreedom of human beings, from
the time God created humanbeings to right now that God has
chosen freedom not only interms of creation of the world
and creation of human beings,but chooses freedom in any
oppressor-oppressed context, inany enslaved context, whether
(45:56):
it's the Israelites in Egypt, orwhether it's Black people in
America, whether it's blackpeople in South Africa, whether
it's the outcasts in India.
God chooses liberation, notoppression.
God chooses and is partial tothose who are struggling to free
(46:17):
themselves from structuralinjustice and in that sense, god
is not just a God who'sconcerned about what happens to
us after we die.
God is not just concerned aboutheaven and hell and has no
concern for the earth, as manyof us, as black people, have
been taught, but that God isultimately concerned about earth
.
And God is so concerned aboutearth that God decides and this
(46:43):
is the distinctive of Christianfaith that God decides to come
to the earth in the form of ahuman being in order to make
God's purpose known to the world.
And in making that purposeknown, god has chosen liberation
and not oppression.
God has chosen freedom and notslavery, and that became the
(47:07):
basis by which the Blackprophetic radical tradition
started, beginning with theinsurrections in the 19th
century with Gabriel Prosser,denmark Veazey, right down in
Charleston, and Nat Turner, andwe began to see an anti-slavery
Christian theology that becomesthe precursor to Black
liberation theology.
(47:28):
Womanist theology from the 1960semerge in not only the
antebellum period, but emergesin the 20th century and now into
the 21st century.
And it is imperative to me inthis day and time that we
recapture that sense of destiny,that we recapture that sense of
(47:49):
liberation and know, despitewhat is happening in the country
today, that God still choosesto marginalize, to exploit it
and to vilify the people, whoare being told that they don't
get jobs because they're lazyand that they're getting jobs
because they're lazy, notbecause they have earned it.
And so, in this milieu in whichour humanity is continually
(48:14):
vilified, that it lacks industry, that it lacks proper education
, that it lacks properqualifications, we must
understand and be at thevanguard of social change and
understand that we are dealingwith a God who has not chosen
those who choose to vilify us,but that God has chosen us as we
(48:36):
move forward and as werecapture our sense of destiny,
our sense of oneness and oursense of freedom, as we take on
this latest round of racism thathas mutated itself for another
generation.
And so that wraps up thissegment of Native Drums.
I hope you have enjoyed it.
(48:58):
I've been your host, dr HarrySingleton, and we'll see you
next time.
Thank you, and have a goodnight.
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