Posted by Min. Paul Scott on 8/4/2001, 11:40 pm I can not help but wonder, how my life, as well as the When our African ancestors were enslaved and brought What is most tragic is that this mentality is still in As we look at the condition of Afrikan people today, How else can you explain our inability to respond What we need is Afrikan Liberation Theology; a African Liberation Theology recaptures the scriptures
White Jesus, White Lies and Black Liberation
Minister Paul Scott
Even as a child, I knew something was wrong with that
picture; a Black minister, preachin to an all Black
congregation with a blue eyed, blond haired Jesus
looking over his right shoulder. The congregation
would rise to their feet screamin and shoutin as an
all Black choir sang that when he comes back he
will make us white as snow. They sang loudly and
proudly that we should suffa on earth because he
will give us a long, white robe when we get to heavn.
I remember walking out of church thinking that I
should reverence every white woman that I saw because
she might be an angel in disguise. But as they say, in
the church, When I was a child, I thought as a
child..
lives of countless other Black boys and girls, would
have been changed if someone had told me that Judaism
was one of the many religions originally practiced by
African people. If someone had only told me that what
is called Christianity was the recorded history of a
Black Revolutionary named Yeshua (Jesus is derived
from a Greek word, Yeshua was not Greek) who rebelled
against the Roman Empire and tried to teach the Black
Hebrews a clearer understanding of the word of God.
But no one took time to tell me that the picture of
the blue eyed, blond haired Jesus hanging from the
wall in my parent's living room was actually the
family member of some European artist from the 16th
century who was commissioned by the leaders of the
white church to paint the Son of God in the image of a
white man in order to enslave and dominate the
original people of the scriptures. So I grew up
thinking that I was Gods little nappy headed step
child.
to America, they were taught a slave theology that
made most of them docile and submissive, however a
chosen few of them saw through the lies of the white
man and embrased a Liberation Theology and shouted
Before I be a slave, Ill be buried in my grave.
Because it was forbidden for the enslaved Africans to
read, if massa sent a preacher to tell them that God
was white and they were a cursed people who had no
soul . Or if he told them that they were blessed to
have been enslaved because if it wasnt for slavery,
they would still be heathens who never would have
gotten to know tha lawd , they believed it. Most
damaging was the teaching that to rebel against
slavery was to rebel against God.
the hearts and minds of Black people today. Instead of
seeing the Bible as a book to be read and understood,
many see it as a magical good luck charm and if we
place it under our pillows at night, we would learn
the word by osmosis. Because many of us use the King
James version of the Bible, written in Old English,
many feel that if Jesus talked like that surely he
must have looked like one of those Shakespearian
actors from TV. Hollywood has also pushed this lie
that the people of the Bible were European, by
allowing white actors to play Moses and Jesus but
making Black actors play muggers and junkies.
we can attribute the drugs, the Black on Black
violence and poverty to our being brainwashed by
European nationalism under the guise of religion.
How else can you account for our perpetual misery? How
else can you account for the state of mind of our
young Black boys who think that they are thugs and
gangbangers. Or our Black girls who think that they
are hos and chickheads unworthy of respect. No
one has told them that they are the people of God. No
one has told them that the Jesus that they hear
about in church was the same color as the one that
they see staring back at them in the mirror. Can we
really expect to reach out for the Hip Hop generation
with one hand while clutching a figurine of a lily
white Jesus with the other?
effectively to the problems that have faced our people
for the last 400 years. Why do we accept racism,
economic exploitation and racial profiling ? With all
our fancy jobs and college degrees, we still cannot
find a way to stop crack from coming into our
communities or AIDS from spreading at an alarming
rate. The reason that we tolerate such injustice is
that we are looking for a white
man to come down from heaven and save us and if we
cant have Jesus right now any white man will do.
theology that reveals the TRUTH that will make us
free. Afrikan Liberation Theology gives us a
theological foundation to fight the battle for the
upliftment of Afrikan people. This theology teaches
that the fight for Justice is not against God, as the
white man has taught us, but is your religious duty if
you are truly a follower of Yeshua, the Black
Revolutionary Messiah.
from the white supremacist system and brings it back
home to the African people upon which they were based.
Most importantly Afrikan Liberation Theology
challenges us to finally confront the question, Can a
white Jesus save Black people? Our current condition
answers that question loudly and clearly.
Min. Paul Scott is the founder of the New Righteous
Movement based in Durham NC. He can be reached at
operationmedia@yahoo.com.
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