THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
This is a very sensitive topic as many people have the herd mentality of being religious, everything can be criticized, but dare not criticize religion for its profit-making ventures. If anyone does that, there is always a problem. Any hardships (financial or otherwise) black people are asked about, they mention slavery as the cause of all their problems. So I ask this question do people know that slavery was sanctioned by the bible which Is why people got away with it for so long, I’m going to point to a few things in the Holy book and we shall go from there. There are a lot of verses In the bible, but a few of them stand out to me, How come anyone hasn’t explained this?
Ephesians 6:5
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and sincerity of the heart, just as you would Obey christ
Titus 2:9-10
Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
Luke 12:47-48
the servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows, but the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much much more will be asked.
Timothy 6:1-2
All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect. So that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters would not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are clear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves. These are the things you are to teach and insist on.
These passages bring questions to mind, why does a Holy book not only condone slavery but tell masters and slaves how to behave towards each other. If slavery is the cause of the suffering of black people, how is it possible that on one hand black people will complain about how bad slavery was, and on the other hand their God condones slavery, I chose these passages to show that the bible condones slavery? Sad thing is that a lot of people are going to comment against this and tell me what the bible is trying to say instead of what it said.
Some reasons will be in those days there were things like debt slavery, where people can work their debt off instead of paying for it, well look at what we have today aren’t we working to pay off debts? If black people believe this then they shouldn’t complain about slavery anymore, because it is in the Holy book when they are asked about wealth, and why there is so much suffering throughout black societies and cultures ( especially here in America, )they go back to slavery, they would say slavery is the cause of all their problems, but they don’t trace the roots of slavery to the very thing they believe! but they can believe the bible is how God wants them to live yet they overlook the fact that it never solved the problem of slavery, it condoned it which is bad. How do they rationalize both in their minds? Maybe fundamentally black people still have a slavery mindset because they will come to church every Sunday and the preacher conveniently skips over all this. The old testament is even worse. There are so many incidents in the bible, when explained to us, we as rational human beings would never agree to let alone follow in those footsteps, people marrying their half cousins, and their cousins, people marrying 2 sisters, it is almost like a pornographic fantasy in the bible especially when it came to sex. Jacob married two sisters, Solomon had 1000 women, Er’s brother, and his father had sex with his wife, all these things happened in the holy bible that we all read on Sundays. ( the sabbath)
If these things are not being told in church then by default the pastors have something to lose when everyone knows the truth w in the bible. someone once said Salvation is an individual thing, how we find salvation differs from person to person. we have to ask a lot of questions because we can safely say life hasn’t been fair to the black man. I think when a man grows to a certain level he needs to be told this truth, the truth about slavery in the bible, not try to justify it when someone stumbles across it.
The preaching of the Gospel according to many people changed, when preachers like Oral Roberts stepped on the scene with Prosperity gospel, here is what happened, a lot of pastors were able to get a lot of capital and funnel it into their businesses. They may have a point that they don’t take money from the church, but the church helped these people in some way to become multi-millionaires. The sad thing about this is with the rise of the prosperity gospel, people don’t even read the bible for themselves anymore, the church is done like a show by a celebrity with every expensive sound equipment. Another subject I have a problem with is the chosen people theory, why would God create different people and choose one to be his favorite and have everyone else be subject to be his favorite to the point where everyone is struggling to be his favorite
For the liberation of black people, we must first tell the truth about the very thing we believe in and how it has contributed to our demise. Then we can make the decisions from there, I think it’s time to look at religion again!
With the way things are set in the world due to religion, everyone wants to be the apple of God’s eye, ( I mean the God of the bible). we all think that if we remain faithful, God is going to reward us, if not this world, then maybe the next, we always attribute any suffering to God’s big plan, so God wouldn’t let us suffer yet at the same time suffering is part of his plan. This leads to the question of who the real Jews are, it is so sad that people cannot be themselves and hate themselves because of this “chosen one” mentality. I remember someone was telling me I was Gentile, that by default is a second-class citizen when it comes to the Kingdom of GOD. They went ahead and told me about being a spiritual Jew, My question to him was, if God created all things, and he created me as who I am, wouldn’t it be crazy if I change and want to be something else?? somehow this person did not understand that!. when it comes to the institution of slavery as humanity everyone is guilty of that for that was the way to get labor at a very cheap price. Most of the kings in the old testament had slaves. The inspiring thing is that even those who were “ On God’s side” had to suffer, it’s a paradox we don’t understand, Now if God always rewards people who are faithful to him, can anyone explain the story of Job to me?? He got punished because he was too faithful. Some were born into slavery, some were born into nobility, we can’t always understand why……..
There are more churches in poor neighborhoods than rich neighborhoods, is almost as if people always want more of what destroys them!
