The one thing I hate to keep hearing is that "it is because of slavery that the African black man learned of the one true god." I'll swear that I have heard that again in commentary since Donald Trump was elected. This is white supremacy at its finest.

Basically nothing really changes...same script, new cast!

Congrats on finding your way out. It took years for me to find the truth.

I never made the connection before, but the data backs it up strongly. According to the Pew Research center, belief in a god is most common amongst blacks, with the overwhelming majority being historically black protestant. It would seem atheism and agnosticism is most common amongst Asians.
[pewforum.org]

The church (all inclusive) has for centuries worked with the rich and powerful to get and control the population. Rather than slavery, currently, the church induces a form of indentured servitude from which so few escape. One can walk away, and depending on where in the world one lives, stay away, but the multitude has been brainwashed.

I think it is very hard for a white man like me, even though I have had friends of color all my life, to grasp how hard it is for a black person to escape the religion. While both our ancestors were indoctrinated, mine did not have it as a forced replacement for an smorgesboard of cultures, did not have it as a forced religious compliance for generations, did not have it as the only social outlet for generations, and of a certainty did not have it used as a justification of Massa's whippin post, or the 1/3 of a person claim.

A thing like that does not just twist individuals, but cultures. I found it common in the 70's at black friends homes, that their Momma's would have Dr King and Jesus and JFK all hanging on the same wall as a single display.

At least Stevie had our backs.

It is so sad and disturbing to me that so few really understand the terrible impacts of disrupting a native people's view and knowledge of themselves. I can never hope to fully understand how christianity impacted others because I quit that shit when I was 12. The christianity for the slaves also sort of made their race/color part of the equation for salvation (truly fucked up - IMHO). Given the deep roots of that christian indoctrination and the whites who still hold fast to their views we have a long way to go.

It was Flavor Aide that Jim Jones used, the Kool Aid thing is what Bill O'Reilly made up to denigrate the liberals. We need to use Flavor Aide when talking about religion and always let them know why we are using it.

Other than that I agree, Chris Rock ~ If you're a black christian you have a real short memory.

The Black Church is merciless to young, Black LGBTQ people. I've met far too many Black men and women who were damage by Black churches.

This is a great point - not only did white christians enslave africans, they destroyed their culture and replaced it with christianity "for their own good."

Not only racist, but Machavellian.

You are so right. I could talk to I'm blue in the face about it but fear grips many black Americans like a plague. I'm personally ashamed of my own past but I've gotten over it and moved on. It's extremely difficult to have an educational conversation about it.

What a fascinating and apropos take on this.

I don't understand this at all

Agree,like changing masks- a person should not be required
to wear one. To be me ,I have to know who I am first(and
honor that).
Thanks.

Ah yes! Pimping from the pulpit! (You tube). Take the chain from yer brain & be 'free at last'!

First, 'antiquity' means the long, long ago past, not about 150 years ago.
Also, comparing the experience of real, flesh-and-blood, actual SLAVES with that of relatively much better-off free people, while maybe tempting--there ARE similarities--is in my humble opinion an insult to African Americans and their 300-400-year ordeal.
The trials and tribulations of modern-day blacks, while still a troublesome disgrace, PALES by comparison.
They are much more able, AS ARE WE, to throw off the shackles of religious ignorance.

This is a forward-oriented society. If you ask me, we'd all be better off building on the progress we've made, rather than dwell on the past. That may be both a common AND an unpopular opinion, but it is unapologetically mine.
We've come a long way, still a long way to go.
Just a superficial impression, but one I'm sure is shared by many others.

So many layers of evil.

Do you have that book? It must have some really juicy lines in it.

Wow .

Wow even now we have moved past this point...