“A Radical Pro Feminist” writes about her struggles with white Christianity…..
I grew up in the U.S., which has always been proclaimed by powerful white heterosexual men to be “a Christian nation”. I am a Jew, and I know Jews did not found this country. Christian-identified, Bible-reading heterosexual white men did, by enslaving West Africans and by committing genocide against the Indigenous people of the Americas, and by possessing and raping women of all colors.
Most of the teachers in my early life were white Christians and they taught me horrible lies about this country, and about what this country has always required to exist. I was told it required democracy and “freedom for all” but found out as I grew up that this Christian-dominated country I live in, this white, male, and heterosexual dominated society, this anti-Semitic society, this anti-Muslim society, this anti-Indigenous society, has thrived by hating and killing people who are not Christian/white/heterosexual/male/heterosexual.
My whole life I have head white Christian people tell me that white = superior, male = superior, heterosexual = superior, and so I hope it comes as no surprise that I have no great fondness for a Christianity that, when spoken about by people, is heterosexist, racist, misogynist, and genocidal.
A brief comment. Correction – the TransAtantic slave trade was not only from West African. Africans people were enslaved from Central, East and Southern Africa as well as West Africa.
Christianity – I have a problem with all religious institutions (with the possible exception of Buddhism) which have, to varying degrees, enslaved, repressed, oppressed, controlled, excluded, murdered all in the name of various God[s] not to speak of the lies and myths created to support all of the above and more and continue to do so today. There are very few honest inclusive religious practices which dont preach hatred to one group or the other, to life choices such as abortion, or LGBTIQ people and so on. So if we are going to talk about one religion then lets talk about the whole lot of them.
There are exceptions of course and their voices are not always the ones that shout the loudest.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm #
It’s interesting how she uses the phrase “white Christianity.” I had to sit back and think for a minute because it wasn’t until recent years that I felt that Christianity was a major part of Black culture. I was raised by a Black church family*: My maternal grandfather was a deacon, my maternal grandmother was church treasurer, my paternal grandfather was a reverend, and my paternal grandmother was head of the Board of Church Mothers (she calls it The MotherBoard ^_^). So, growing up, I really didn’t see the face of Christianity as being White.
Also, I have struggled with being a Christian when I see so much ignorance and hatred being spewed in the name of God. I find that disgusting and disrespectful to His Name. People like to pull apart the Bible and twist its passages for their own gain. But they seem to forget one of the most important:
After Jesus was betrayed by Judas, he turned to his disciples and said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” ~ John 13: 34-35
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm #
*I was going to say I was raised in the Black church, but that’s not technically true. Being an Air Force brat, we were never really able to settle in one church. And when we did go it was sporadic.