Save the Brethren The moment that White men put their pale violent hands on African men’s (and, women) backs and kidnapped us from our country, families, homes, and friends was the moment a physical, psychological and spiritual battle ensued. The methodology of this battle is still raging today covertly and on an institutionally level. It is said that most wars are fought between males, especially the young. The casualties among young Black males indicates that fact, also we are experiencing heavy loses. The mental breakdowns, broken spirits, school drop rates, incarceration statistics, unemployment numbers, and homosexuality explosion are the major social, psychology and spiritual conditions that are haunts too many of us. If any time we needed a mighty Prophet, Savior, Messiah, somebody or something to come and rescue us---is now. Until that time comes the largest religious institution in our communities---the Black Church must take the lead and establish some standardized nationwide multi-level programs to save Black people from the negative images and forces that attack us relentlessly daily, especially the Brethren. Times are desperate and our Black backs are collectively pressed into the cold white brick wall. This text will …show more content…
The explosive statistics of Black youth (and adults) unplanned pregnancies (and, STD’s) are ungodly. Of course, abstaining from sex until marriage is the ideal behavior but the Black Church have to face the cold-blooded reality that the youths are stimulated to copulate everywhere they turn in this society, and humans have been too fruitful in multiplying of themselves. Black males, at the age from thirteen to forty, must be taught about abstinence, birth control and safe sex---the Black Church needs to set up on going classes and counseling around the issue
The second edition of “African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness,” covers the religious experiences of African Americans—from the late eighteenth century until the early 1980s. My paper is written in a chronological order to reflect on the progress blacks have made during the years—by expounding on the earliest religion of Africans to black religion of today. Race Relation and Religion plays a major role in today’s society—history is present in all that we do and it is to history that African-Americans have its identity and aspiration.
Slavery is an economic, legal system where humans are sold and treated as property. The history of slavery spans nearly almost from every culture, religion and nationality from ancient to present days. Slavery in the United States is identified as one of the darkest periods of the human kind where people from the African continent were sold to the white settlers in the United States. Based on research it was evident that the white Christianity supported the establishment and the continuation of slavery in America. This paper is a study of the history on how white Christianity helped and also offered support to American slavery. The paper will discuss how the black community was oppressed and the tools used to support the establishment and continuation of slavery. The research will adopt the use of the book titled “the cross and the lynching tree” written by James Cone.
What has been described here has kept African Americans proud of where they came from and how they can overcome any problem that they are faced with. The phrase “Strength in numbers” comes to mind when reading what they had to endure especially the families of the four little girls that died in the devastating bombing of the 16th street church. They will always be remembered and missed dearly.
Maffly-Kipp, L. (2001). The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html
James H. Cone is the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Dr. Cone probably is best known for his book, A Black Theology of Liberation, though he has authored several other books. Dr. Cone wrote that the lack of relevant and “risky” theology suggests that theologians are not able to free themselves from being oppressive structures of society and suggested an alternative. He believes it is evident that the main difficulty most whites have with Black Power and its compatible relationship to the Christian gospel stemmed from their own inability to translate non-traditional theology into the history of black people. The black man’s response to God’s act in Christ must be different from the whites because his life experiences are different, Dr. Cone believes. In the “black experience,” the author suggested that a powerful message of biblical theology is liberation from oppression.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
From these convictions, the idea of black liberation theology was created. Blacks relate Christianity to the struggles they have endured, therefore it has to be black. “In a society where men are defined on the basis of color of the victims, proclaiming that the condition of the poor is incongruous with him who has come to liberate us.”
For the past 400 year African Americans have suffered severe forms of oppression, hatred and racism. Even though America has made great strides to eliminate the practice of hatful ideologies and discrimination the residue of inhuman treatment still resides in our society. Racial violence and institutional racism is still in full effect and receiving media coverage like never before. Controversy has arisen due to lives of many African Americans being taken by law enforcement. The African American community has been in an uproar as they feel injustice has occurred being that many of those law enforcement officers have been acquitted of all charges. Birthed from this pain was a chapter-based national organization
The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was organized by people of African descent Heritage, The word “Methodist” means that our church is a member of the family of Methodist Churches, The word “Episcopal refers to the form of government under which our church operates.”
In the article, “Black Teenage Pregnancy Stereotypes…Or Are They”, presented by George Cotton, Sr. on www.cbcfinc.org. George Cotton, Sr. focuses on the issue of teen pregnancy in black women and how it has always been a topic that people seem to treat as if it’s something normal. The author also implicates how the parents and community needs to help the youth rather than bashing them.
"God of the Oppressed" is brilliantly organized into ten chapters. These chapters serve as the building blocks to the true understanding of Cone’s Black Theology. This progressive movement begins with an introduction of both him and his viewpoint. He explains that his childhood in Bearden, Arkansas and his membership to Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E) has taught him about the black Church experience and the sociopolitical significance of white people. “My point is that one’s social and historical context decides not only the questions we address to God but also the mode of form of the answers given to the questions.” (14) The idea of “speaking the truth” is added at this point because to go any further the reader must understand the reason and goal for Black Theology. Through the two sources in that shape theology, experience and scripture, white theology concludes that the black situation is not a main point of focus. Cone explains the cause for this ignorance, “Theology is not a universal language; it is interested language and thus is always a reflection of the goals and aspirations of a particular people in a definite social setting.” (36) This implies that one’s social context shapes their theology and white’s do not know the life and history of blacks. As the reader completes the detailed analysis of society’s role in shaping experiences, Cone adds to the second source, scripture.
As a result, the impact of the African Americans waiting for over three centuries for justice is causing them to be impatient and create tension throughout the society. Works Cited King, Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham.” The Arlington Clergymen Contexts and. Connections.
C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), 352. Lindsay A. Arscott, "Black Theology," Evangelical Review of Theology 10 (April-June 1986):137. James H. Cone, "Black Theology in American Religion," Theology Today 43 (April 1986):13. James H. Cone, "Black Theology and Black Liberation," in Black Theology: The South African Voice, ed. Basil Moore (London: C. Hurst & Co., 1973), 92, 96.
Today it is no longer a novelty to hear that teenagers are having sex. However, while this “bedroom” activity may be fun, there are now ample reports indicating that rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in teenagers have skyrocketed. Current data reveal that nearly 25% of adolescent girls who have sex are infected with one of the four commonly sexually transmitted infections-namely gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and HIV (Kann et al, 2015). Nationally, the prevalence of STDs account for 50% of cases in people under the age of 25. While every ethnic and race has been known to be affected, African American youth are disproportionately affected. These data are not a surprise to professionals who are engaged in adolescent sexual health because the numbers have been slowly creeping up over the decades, despite national educational policies to counter the threat of STDs (Sales & DiClemente, 2016). All the STDs have a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health, if they are mot promptly diagnosed and treated. Although many preventive strategies have been implemented in all communities, the rates of STDs are still increasing (Madkour et al, 2016).
The above-mentioned essays are: Nihilism in Black America, The Pitfalls of Racial Reasoning, The Crisis of Black Leadership, Demystifying the Black Conservatism, Beyond Affirmative Action: Equality and Identity, On Black-Jewish Relations, Black Sexuality: T...