Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Christian 'Values' vs. Real Hope

One of the things that strikes me as most peculiar is that the descendants of conquered and converted people such as African Americans and both North & South American indigenous peoples still hold to the Christian faith that was violently forced upon them.

When I look at pictures of Atheist meeting groups or profile avatars on non theistic sites, I sadly notice that we are mostly made up of Caucasoids with a fair amount of Asians (which is to be expected considering the enlightened practices of many Eastern philosophies).

It never ceases to amaze me that the most faithful churchgoing people in any of the 6 states I have lived (as well as on 2 US foriegn stations) are African American and Hispanic. The Christian Church loves to tell you their faith is 2000 years old, well, it has definitely not been that long for either of these groups.

Such a powerful indoctrination which basically told the people that they are to kneel down to their oppressors because a book says that people of dusky hues are to be servants to those of the lighter "chosen" race!?! I wasn't there, but my own human survival instinct, when applied to a situation like this would tell me that if I were outnumbered and brutalized, I would say anything they wanted and go to any meeting they told me to.

Pain and abuse are strong persuaders. Applied over generations the result is a woeful amount of people who willingly and joyfully indoctrinate their own children with that same message.

And that is too depressing of a thought for such a nice summer morning. So I will leave you with this. I have never been more happy, more in love with my life, more connected with my children, my family and myself as I have been after I freely admitted to myself and my closest kith and kin that I am a proud atheist and walked out from beneath the dark cover of a hateful god and into the marvelous world of light and real HOPE.

Hope, because as I look behind me and around me, I see a lot of other people dusting themselves off, too.

So, how are you going to spend your day of light? Make your every breath today worth something, even if it is just making brownies with your kid and laying in the grass to read or working at something you love. No matter the maelstrom we are embroiled in by taking up the cause of reason, our world has the real hope.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Inspiring post!

I too am surprised by the number of fundamentalist blacks, and feel bad for them--white oppressors enslaved their minds as well as their bodies.

Unknown said...

I find it fascinating that an atheist's hope is completely different from a Christian's hope.

Our hope is simply that the human race survives itself and does not destroy the planet in the process.

Christian hope has nothing to do with the planet or with the human race. Christian hope steps all over the planet and uses it as a stepladder to get to heaven.

Sean Wright said...

Hey Darla check out the comments on Blue's blog on this subject. I think you will find that many religious blacks don't see their version of christianity the same as their oppressors.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.