I'm an athiest and have never held much regard for any religions in general. But the amount of Christianity/Catholocism practiced by non-whites worldwide sometimes amazes me. Discuss.

Just for your information.

Christianity is not a european religion it is middle eastern its roots are in Palestine infact the koptic church in Ethiopea is older than any European church. Africans have been Christians long before any Europeans.

And I am saying this as a Muslim

As long as they make a concious decision of what to believe, I can't blame them.

I may disagree vehemently with their doctrine, but I would still have to respect what they believe because they made an educated decision.

But those who are in a religion simply because they were "born" into it and their ancestors from generations back were forced into it...then I would have to question that person's decisions and reasons.






Mansa

The Christianity that is practiced by most African and Caribbeans is European. Why else would they convert the the black madonnas that adorn many European churches and gradually adopt them to their cultural norms. eg. white blond haired Jesus. Charlton heston playing Moses etc etc.

Dont know too much about Islam but any religion that preaches that the saviour of mankind does not come from one of their own is in dire straits.

The Chines have their converted chinese budda. Indians have there saviour. Europeans..

Where is the Black saviour. Where are the Black prophets and sages of old.

No sah/ cant deal with those aparteid religions.

Personally, I'm not looking for any Messiah to swoop down and save me.

If he comes, great....but I'm not holding my breath.

BBC

African Christianity could be said to be the Ethiopian Coptic church which developed much closer to the religion in Kemet which preceeded it. It could also be said to be the many beliefs/traditions that co-exist alongside traditional beliefs. But the nature of Christianity and the way it tramples on other ways of knowledge/ belief means there is usally only one winner there. If you look at the Carribean and look at Rasta which wasinfluenced by christianity you will find that most rasta still find it hard to separate themselves from the Bible and its connectations.

Omaar

MansaMusa

Well Im all for affirmative action even within the "organised" religions. Whether or not any messiah swoops down and saves the world why is it that Blacks/ Africans worldwide follow in the main/ religion whose "great men or prohets" are always foreign and look nothing like them. Yeah I know about Bilal but even he just got the Condoleeza Rice spot. This follow fashion mind set dont work.

As in the case of Christianity and Judaism, we have been given a false history of Islam by most of the Muslim scholars around the world who are controled by their Western colonizers. Most of our information in the West comes from Pakistan which is still heavily influenced by the racist Hindu system.

It's important to not only note that the racial classification system among ancient Arabs at the time of Muhammad was far different than that of today, but you should also remember that when people translate religions material they often do it inserting thier own biases and prejudices by manipulating certain words and terms.

There were far more narratives of slaves in the foundation of Islamic history than just Bilal, and most the slaves were Arabs and Persians.

People would be shocked to learn that far more white people were made slaves out of than black people, but these facts are covered up and manipulated in order to give the appearance that slavery is the only fate for black people in religion.




If Christians represented Jesus as a Black man unashamedly then I would have alot more respect for the religion. But we've been so indoctrinated and do not even take the next step which is of transforming the symbols to reflect us. If Jesus was Chinese the Europeans would still of turned him into a black man. Budda is represented as a Black man in many temples yet the Indians and Chinese still perform the vital metamorphis to adjust the budda symbol to a reflection of what they are.

Is it a lie?

It's not a lie....

And this is why Judaism as well as Islam forbid the crafting of pictures and images within the religion. Because they knew Satan would use racial loyalty, false imagry, and other forms of deception to detour people of the right path.

Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, and Buddha were all men of color yet white people have found a way to infiltrate the schools of thought these men founded and introduce white supremacy and racist doctrine inside their teachings in order to manipulate people or turn them away.

What you must remember is not to let Satan break your spirit or turn you into a savage by convincing you that we as black people have no place in organized religion.

We are the founders of religion and morality so organized religion is just as much ours as it is anyone else.

It pains me that so many of us are allowing white people trick us and our future generations by suggesting that Islam other organized religions are creations of white people and that our true nature is paganism.


They would like nothing better than for us to turn into God forsaken savages who reject all forms of civilization and morality.

Then they will feel justified by exterminating us.

Omaar

Mansa


Well to me it seems that paganism is defined by whoever has the relative power.

Not necessarily, because sometimes pagans had the power.

Paganism is basically worshiping anything or anyone other than the Creator of the universe. It was first used by Christians do describe the the polytheistic barbarians of Northern Europe.



Did not the pre Christian Roman class Christians and other ways of life as barbarian and pagan.

Bsrbarian yes, pagan no.



Did not our ancestors in Kemet class the asiatic and white tribes they encountered as barbarians and by extension pagan.

Again, theycalled them barbarian but not pagan.

Barbarian means savage, lacking class, civilization, or sophisitcation.

You can be a sophisicated and educated pagan.




Using that rationale before Africans were Christian or Muslim then they were savages who knew nothing of civilisation and morality. I dont subscribe to the theory that Islam has been about/ in some mysterious form in Africa/ from day one either.

Almost all traditional African religions acknowledged the existance of a single supreme Creator, whether they worship that Creator alone or not.

Many Africans worship the Creator alone, many did not.
Many Africans were pagan, many were not.....that's the living truth.

How you can draw the conclusion that I'm calling all Africans savages simply because they didn't ascribe to Christianity or Islam is beyond me.



Did the kingdom of Ghana know no morality or the art of civilisation prior to semi /quasi conversion to Islam?

Sure, but once the peoples of Ghana and thier neighbors in Songhai and Mali accepted Islam their kingdoms excelled rapidly and knowledge abounded.



What are you saying?

There are certain universal laws on this planet that EVERYONE must follow including black people in order to be successful.

The sooner we understand and accept this instead of trying to fashion our own personal psuedo-religions that absolve us of all responsibility and moral standards, the sooner we'll be able to reform ourselves and be successful in this world.

Let's be real brutha Mansa...

The opposition to organized religion has NOTHING to do with white racism, most of our people don't want to accept organized religion because it lays out clear rules and standards that they don't want to be held accountable to.

I don't believe that their should be any pictures of Jesus, because it can put different races off christianity and p[lus nobody knows what he looks like. But the Bible describes him as:

Revelation 1:13-15

13[/suP]And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

14[/suP]His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15[/suP]And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

The colour of Jesus shouldn't realy mattter oraffect what you believe in cause he didn't die for you because of the colour of your skin. Niether can you be saved by the colour of your skin.