Native Drums
Explore the powerful symbolism of drums in African American culture, once tools of communication and resistance during the darkest times of slavery. We confront the lingering shadows of economic exploitation and the pervasive influence of media and religion in controlling black narratives. Let’s reexamine the role of the black church and its mission to fight systemic injustices, urging a return to prophetic ministries that prioritize humanity and community over material wealth. This podcast episode is not just a reflection of the past but a call to action for the future, urging us to build a more just and liberated world.
Native Drums
“The Coming of The Gods, The Religious construction of Black Dehumanization”
This episode examines the complex relationship between Christianity and the institution of slavery, exploring how theological concepts shaped perceptions and experiences of Black individuals throughout history. We discuss the intersections of faith, identity, and the often-inverted narrative presented by pro-slavery ideologies.
- Historical context of African slavery impacting religious perspectives
- Christianity’s role in justifying dehumanization
- Presuppositions of pro-slavery Christian theology analyzed
- Exploration of biblical themes and their interpretations
- Emergence of anti-slavery theology and its historical significance
- Voices of the Black prophetic radical tradition
- The enduring fight for justice through faith
- Reflections on faith as a vehicle for liberation
- Call for ongoing discussions on faith and social justice
Hello everyone and welcome to this continuing segment of the podcast Native Drums, a podcast created by Dr Ralph W Canty and Savannah Grove Baptist Church. I am Harry Singleton. I'll be with you today with this segment of the podcast, as we have discussed up to this point the travails of African slavery, but we discuss equally as much today, and unfortunately, the role that Christian faith has played in the dehumanization of Black people. And yet, at the same time, we were able to take this imposed Christianity, this concocted Christianity that was designed to make us better slaves and to socially control us, not to make us more righteous and fashion it into a liberating instrument, moving forward from the Black abolitionist tradition. And so today I want to talk with you in this particular segment on the subject the coming of the gods, the religious construction of Black dehumanization, the coming of the gods, the religious construction of Black dehumanization. From the outset of the Slavocracy in 1619, white planters and white ministers had committed Christian faith to this process. They understood the kidnapping of Africans not just to be a process of economic gain for them, but also to be an opportunity, as it was revealed to them by their God and Christian stewardship, to kidnap Africans, to enslave them, to make salvation possible for West African people as part of the ongoing propagandistic approach to Africa, and to make Africans and the world think that Africa was no major contributor to civilization and certainly did not think within the context of God and the context of their relationship with a God or gods in Africa. And so the Slavocracy was just as much theological as it was economic. And so as we begin to grow in the Slavocracy, we also begin to grow in a theology, a slave-holding theology, or what I would refer to as pro-slavery Christian theology, that motivated whites to know in, not only to maintain the slavocracy but to fight for its very existence and to fight for it in the name of God. They too listened to sermons in church every Sunday that touted the virtues of slavery from a salvific and a redemptive standpoint and that their ultimate salvation was inextricably linked with maintaining slavery and, of course, the slave salvation ultimately linked with maintaining slavery. And so we saw a virulent pro-slavery Christian theology emerge in plantation life that would lay the cornerstone for the worldview, the theological worldview, of the Slavocracy and its perpetuation until, supposedly, the end of time.
Speaker 1:I want to begin with a few major presuppositions of pro-slavery Christian theology that guided not only the early theology but, in my judgment, has made its way up to present day America, as we continue to suffer theologically in ways that we're not able to detect from this theological understanding of both Black and white humanity and subsequently of Christian faith. The first major presupposition of pro-slavery Christian theology is that the white race is superior to people of color and women, that God had revealed to white men their superiority not only on the basis of race but certainly on the basis of gender as well, and that they to be the primary stewards of effectuating the kingdom of God on earth in the form of slavery. And so the first and major presupposition of pro-slavery Christian theology was not only of social, economic and political orthodox understanding, but also religious and theological understanding as well. The logic is is that if a white male has not thought of it, then it's a thought that's not worthy of public discourse. And so what they were doing was they were cementing a legacy where the legitimacy of humanity would be seen, particularly as it related to the development of ideas and the furthering of civilization, through the eyes and through the mindset of white males, and white males only. And in that sense we still live in that tight world today, wherein if a significant number of white males have not given proper approval of an idea or movement, then of course the mediums of mass communication are used to defeat and to defame that particular movement or that figure. We have seen that racially throughout American history, and it begins actually with the pro-slavery supposition that white men are superior.
Speaker 1:The second major presupposition of pro-slavery Christian theology is that African enslavement was ordained of God and therefore eternal. I tell my students all the time that we're not supposed to be free, or at least not in slavery anymore, in 2025. That slavery, from its outset, was to be styled as an eternal institution, meaning that it was supposed to last until the end of time. And so I tell my students, as an older Black man, I'm supposed to be teaching you, as younger Black people, how to survive the plantation. And one of the main reasons why is because African enslavement was seen as ordained of God, not only for the salvation of whites through Christian stewardship, but it provided the only hope that Africans would ever have in order to obtain salvation, since they had not been exposed to Christian faith in Jesus Christ. While in Africa that is a misnomer of the highest proportion, the reality is is that West Africans had been exposed to Christianity, along with Islam and African traditional religions, when they were abducted and sold into the slave trade. And so it's a misnomer of the highest proportion.
Speaker 1:Major presupposition number three black skin is a visible sign of the demonic. In many ways, like the notion of leprosy, which of course was light or white, in the Bible, this color symbolism was reversed in the Slavocracy and, of course the manifestation of one's dark skin was a visible and physical manifestation of one's demonic nature. This was done for two reasons Number one, to make the slave dependent on white people, who were lighter and not dark skin, for the direction in terms of proper living. And number two, it was also done from a pragmatic standpoint, so that slaves could be identified by their skin color alone. This would be a tremendous problem for free blacks who came to America and were not enslaved, but who were eventually enslaved because they were kidnapped by white planters and brought into slavery, even though they had their paper certifying that they were free. Those papers were usually torn up, burned, and they were kidnapped and taken into slavery. And so the reason why this was done with such great alacrity by slaveholders is because black skin was a visible sign of the demonic and therefore deserve. Black people deserve to be enslaved, namely so that they could be exposed to the wonderful teachings of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. And so it was styled as doing these free blacks a favor for enslaving them, if you can wrap your mind around that and not taking into consideration the physical and psychical trauma to which they were being subjected.
Speaker 1:Presupposition number four the African possessed no soul. The reason why they were abducted in Africa and exposed to Christianity once they came to America is so that they could be converted. And so the original teaching as we begin the 17th century was that the African possessed no soul. But as we move into the 18th century, that presupposition had to be rethought, because if you possess no soul, then there's no way that your soul can be saved, and if your soul can't be saved, then there's no need in trying to convert them, because it will be a futile enterprise. And so, as we move into the beginning of the 18th century, you see white Christian ministers and theologians backing away from this presupposition and giving the African a soul, which then, of course, justified the need to enslave and to convert to Christianity. But the original presupposition in the 17th century is that Africans possess no soul.
Speaker 1:Presupposition number five Jesus and God and the angels were white in color. Well, this is not surprising when you're trying to establish your superiority racially in America, in a hierarchical system where you occupy the top rung of that ladder. Small wonder then that you would make as you began to bring about visible images of Jesus and the angels in the 12th century with the Renaissance. And of course, we see the Sistine Chapel of the Catholic Church with Michelangelo being commissioned to paint a portrait of Jesus on the ceiling. And of course, he chooses someone who is a derelict cousin of his, not of much worth, with the long brown hair and with the beard, and uses his image. And that became one of the more lasting images of Jesus, not only in Europe. That became one of the more lasting images of Jesus not only in Europe, but one of the more lasting images of Jesus as it makes its way across the pond even to the Americas as well. And so Jesus, and therefore God, since Jesus said when you see me, you see God of the Father that made God white as well. And of course, the angels, as the assistants of God, were presented to both black and white people, as white as well, and of course the obvious reason is to establish the superiority of whiteness and color, and therefore in thought and therefore in idea.
Speaker 1:Six major presupposition of pro-slavery Christian theology is that you are to live as slaves, in a life of complete toil. No sign of being free from slavery this side of Jordan. And so it brings into notion the theological category of what we call eschatology, meaning literally the study of the last day. So when you're engaged in conversation with someone about the soul, what happens to the soul after death? Are we conscious of death? Are we not conscious of it?
Speaker 1:When you are engaged in that type of conversation with someone, you are engaged in what we refer to as eschatological language, and the early eschatology taught to slaves by white Christian ministers was that you could go to heaven, that there was a spatial place that existed, called heaven, that you could go to after you die. The Bible refers to it in image, wise, as a land flowing with milk and honey and streets paved with gold, and that it would be yours only after physical death and only after you lived the life of complete toil, as a slave and didn't engage in any insurrections, and you were what they refer to as a good slave, and so the ethic of the good comes from the slave and meeting their daily workloads and not trying to do anything to topple the Slavocracy. And so heaven came through hard work for Blacks, and it came from Christianizing heathen, africans for whites. And so a huge part of Christian stewardship became interpreted in such a way that whites would make it to heaven in their attempts to keep Blacks enslaved. One and number two, convert them to Christianity. And so this has been a major understanding in the life, probably one of the more prominent ones in Christian thought, particularly by black abolitionists who have been relentless and constructively critical of both white and some black churches and black leaders who continue to preach a theology of heaven first and not earth first. And so most abolitionists in our tradition Professor VZ Turner, daniel Payne, bishop Henry McNeil Turner, martin Luther King, malcolm X certainly engaged in a merciless critique of Christianity and it being a heaven first of faith, which of course they understood to be a clever ruse created by the slave master in order to make blacks more docile slaves and readily accepting of their oppression. And so this is a very significant presupposition relative to where the fulfillment of promise of God to human beings occurs. Does it occur on earth as a futuristic event in human history, or does it occur in a so-called spatial heaven that you go to only after you die? The other rub with that as well is that when you do die and you do find out whether it exists or not, you do die, you know, and you do find out whether it exists or not. Even if it does exist, no one is able to come back to this side of Jordan and tell you whether it's real or not. And so it made for clever rules to try to induce greater workloads in slaves and to get them to think that their enslavement was divinely ordained.
Speaker 1:And the seventh major presupposition of pro-slavery Christian theology is that piety that is living a life of being soft-spoken. Supposedly Jesus never raised his voice, which is a lie. Supposedly he never went after structural racism, he never went after those who demonized and vilified the Samaritans and, of course, his own Samaritan people. And so piety became interpreted as this presentation of Jesus, not only in white form but in pious form, walking around saying only nice platitudes to people, never raising his voice, always in some type of prostrate or prayerful position, and, of course, never being constructively critical of the system that he inherited and the structural injustices that he inherited. And so piety became the ultimate Christian virtue, as taught by white slaveholders and white Christian ministers, but not freedom. That Christian freedom was a tangential or peripheral issue at best in Christian discourse, because of course slaves were not supposed to be free this side of Jordan, to be free only after they die. And so if you can imagine a Christian theological approach in which freedom is not the ultimate value, but of course piety is, then certainly that is what we encountered as black people in American history during the Slavocracy. And so those are the major presuppositions of pro-slavery theology.
Speaker 1:We turn our attention to some major biblical themes of pro-slavery theology. We turn our attention to some major biblical themes of pro-slavery theology. We begin number one with the polygenesis theory, which makes sense from the standpoint of a racist mind, and of course polygenesis sounds like what it means. The prefix poly means many, genesis means creation. Of course the polygenesis theory maintains that Black people were not created by the God of the Bible, that Black people were created by an inferior God and therefore they are inferior, that their diminished ontology begins from creation itself and, of course, does not begin socially and historically in the life of this world. The theory one was that Blacks were created by an inferior God and therefore made them inferior. Now they had to back off this presupposition too, just as they had to back off the presupposition that Africans possess no soul, because it detracted from the biblical notion that out of one blood has God made all human beings. And so, as we move into the 19th century, this polygenesis theory transitions from Blacks being created by an inferior God to Blacks being created by the God of the Bible, like white people, but that God created black people as a lower species, or what we refer to as diminished ontology relative to their actual being, than white people are. And so this particular theory takes us into the 19th century and even into the 20th century, relative to the diminished ontology of black people on the one hand, over and against the superior ontology of white people, on the other hand.
Speaker 1:The second major biblical theme emanating from the first or old testament and pro-slavery Christian theology is the hermetic hypothesis. This is referred to practically as the curse on ham that in Genesis 9, 18, 27, 27,. One of Noah's sons, ham, mocks Noah in his drunkenness and as Noah is passed out, ham is mocking him and his brother Shem and Japheth, once Noah comes to, tells Noah what Ham did, and of course the pronouncement goes out from Noah cursed be Canaan, a draw of water, and here of wood shall his descendants be to the descendants of his brothers. And so this was interpreted as Ham moving and settling in what we call modern day Africa and his brother, shem and Japheth, moving and settling in what we call present day Europe. That, for white Christian planters, laid the foundation for them to conclude that God wanted white people to rule over black people, because of the hermetic hypothesis, because Ham, who supposedly moved to Africa meaning Ham, meaning burnt literally moved to Africa, and that it justified the enslavement of West Africans based on that particular passage. It was one of the most widely used biblical passages in plantation life to justify the enslavement of Africa, and, of course, it finds itself in Genesis 9, itself in Genesis 9, 18, and 27. The reality is, though, is that curse it be Canaan, which is what Noah said, was not meant for a future reality 14 centuries, 15 centuries later, for European people to enslave African people. It was meant for when, of course, the Israelites went into the promised land and in the Canaan and destroyed everything in it. It was not a fulfillment of a futuristic reality in human history, beyond biblical times, but was actually fulfilled in biblical times and had nothing to do with one race of people enslaving another race of people enslaving another, but yet very powerful in its impact in terms of how it was internalized, particularly by white planters and by whites who saw an inextricable link between this passage and the Slavocracy and, of course, post-slavery.
Speaker 1:The third biblical theme used in the Old Testament pro-slavery Christian theology was the Tower of Babel. Of course, god confuses the languages of people who are trying to build this statue, this tower, to erect this edifice, to go all the way up to heaven, because they wanted to see an actual image of the face of God. And God interpreted this as the arrogance of human beings for wanting to see the face of God and not, of course, live in the will of God and live in the creative power of God, as God had demonstrated in creation on earth. And so for that, god supposedly punished the human race by separating them and sending them to the different parts of the earth geographically and had them speak different tongues so they could no longer communicate with each other. In terms of building this edifice, believe it or not, this was used as a major biblical plank and foundation for whites, justifying their physical separation from Black people and creating segregated conditions for Black people. Not separate but equal, but separate but highly unequal, coming out of the Plessy decision in 1896 and moving into the 20th century. And it was preached ad nauseum by white ministers who maintained that the Tower of Babel was now biblical proof, post-slavery, that God wanted segregation and that segregation emerged out of the mind of God, not out of the mind of white men.
Speaker 1:And so those are three of the major biblical themes in the First Testament or the Old Testament, and we take a look now at four major biblical themes in the Second Testament or the New Testament used by white Christian ministers to justify slavery. The first one we take a look at is the Book of Philemon. It is the shortest Bible in all of the Bible, in all of the books of the Bible. It is only 27 verses, but no less a powerful plank in the justification of slavery on biblical grounds. In this book, of course, the apostle Paul comes across a runaway slave by the name of Onesimus, and once he learns that Onesimus is a runaway slave, he instructs Onesimus to go back to his slave holder, philemon. What they left out conveniently in the teaching is that Paul then goes to Philemon and tells Philemon to treat Onesimus as a full brother in Christ. And so in that sense freedom was paramount for Paul, not slavery. And Paul goes to Philemon and tells Philemon to treat Onesimus as a full brother in Christ. That doesn't come out in the teaching, namely because whites have never wanted to be full brothers, even in Christ, with black people.
Speaker 1:The second major biblical theme in the New Testament, or Second Testament, was 1 Corinthians, 7, 20 and 24. Let every human abide in the same calling in which she was called. Let every human, wherein she is called, therein, abide with God. Now, what does this mean? This was interpreted in such a way that as we talk about callings, we really talk about callings in contemporary times relative to ministerial callings. He got called to the ministry, she got called to the ministry, but this passage is interpreted in such a way to maintain that white and black people were called to the reality of slave holding and to the reality of being enslaved through their callings from this passage in First Corinthians call, meaning that, of course, as the Slavocracy starts, then if that was your calling at the beginning of this institution, then you are to remain that until the end of time. And if your calling was to be a slaveholder when the Slavocracy started, you are to maintain that position until the end of time and therein. Abide with God. A major New Testament plank for teaching the legitimacy of slavery on biblical grounds. The third major biblical theme Ephesians 6.5,. Slaves obey your earthly master with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. This was also a major theme hammered home by white Christian ministers on a weekly basis in church.
Speaker 1:The reality is with this passage is that the slave system that existed in first century Palestine was far different from the chattel racial slavery that existed and the imposition of the physical and psychical trauma on Black people. We were deprived of our rights constitutionally. That was not the case in this system. We were dehumanized in terms of our aesthetic value on every front. That was not the case with this system. We were dehumanized relative to our cultural expressions. Africa even called a dark continent and we were not allowed to participate in the political or education process. Because we were not allowed to not only not pursue formal education, but it was the penalty of death here in South Carolina to teach a slave to read and write. None of that existed in the system in first century Palestine.
Speaker 1:In fact, the word in Greek is servant system, not slavery system. It became slave and slave put in to later editions of the New Testament, particularly the English version, as we begin with the King James Version. Slave is put in there, but it's really servant, and so there are distinct differences between this system and the system that we inherited as African-Americans, and that's very important in understanding nuances of what servanthood is. On the one hand, slavery is, on the other. In the servant system, if you are a servant to a man, he would consider it an honor if you married his daughter. That certainly was not the case, for instance, in chattel, racial slavery in America.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the fourth major biblical theme Titus 2, 9, and 10 teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not talk back to them and not steal from them, but to show them that can be fully trusted, so that in every way, they will make the teaching about God, our savior, attractive. What's saliently missing from this particular passage is that there was a respectful interaction between the servant and the servant holder or the boss or the person in charge. That again was not anything like the chattel racial system that we encountered, but nevertheless Titus and Ephesians both preached at nauseam to justify the enslavement of Africans by whites on biblical grounds. And so those are the major presuppositions and biblical themes of pro-slavery Christian theology. I close today with the other side.
Speaker 1:Even in the inability to receive formal education, to read and write, to have families broken up, we began to see the emergence of an anti-slavery Christian theology on the plantation, particularly as we see the emergence of the Black prophetic radical tradition and the incendiary leader that agitated slaves to fight for justice and to end the Slavocracy, particularly as we move into the 18th century. We've been here close to 100 years and begin to develop some allies and a layout of the land, and we begin to develop a plan not only as to how we were going to think about making a new America, but how we were going to think about our own humanity, despite the highest protestations from whites, when we concede of our humanity in positive terms. The first major presupposition of anti-slavery Christian theology is that the human race includes Africans, that out of one blood has God made all human beings and that God never says in the Bible that one race of people should be considered superior to others, one race of people should be inferior to others, that we were all created from the same God and we were created to equally share the resources on this earth. That's why human equality has been such a major theme with the Black prophetic radical tradition and with the Black leadership tradition, that we have, from day one, asked that America respect us as human beings, manna, not to vilify us and to demonize us, but to fully recognize our cultural expressions, our intellectual contributions and, of course, recognize our aesthetic features as uniquely ours and not to be demonized by you simply because we don't possess European characteristics in terms of skin color and facial features.
Speaker 1:The second major presuppositions African enslavement, not ordained of God, of course, going from the biblical understanding that God is no respecter of persons, meaning that God does not favor one group or one individual over another, that all human beings are created equal. But, as we're going to see with the emergence of black liberation theology in the 20th century, when oppressor-oppressed context or enslaved context do exist and come into being because one human group of human beings decide they want to enslave another group of human beings, god does begin to actively participate in history on the side of those who are enslaved, advocating for their freedom, as we saw God eventually do in sending Moses to Egypt to tell Pharaoh that it's time and to let my people go. And so African enslavement, based on the biblical notion that God is no respect of persons, is not ordained of God, that we cannot connect the God of freedom with the God of enslavement at the same time. The third major presupposition the demonic scene primarily in actions and not skin hue. Of course, if you can remember from pro-slavery Christian theology, dark skin itself was a manifestation of the demonic. To create racial category and racial categories of hierarchy, between. To create racial category and racial categories of hierarchy, between the superiority of whiteness and the inferiority of blackness. The demonic will be seen in anti-slavery Christian theology primarily in actions, not in skin hue, and this is one of the reasons why a lot of the mothers of slavery refer to whites as demons or referred to them as Satan incarnated, namely because their brutal and harsh treatment of African-Americans. It has some choice words too for those Black people who sold out insurrection struggles by running to the slave mast and divulging to him the plan that was involved in the escape. And so for Black people, the demonic has always been interpreted within the context of your actions. It's been a moral and ethical construction, not a racial construction, and we have maintained consistency with that throughout our time here in America.
Speaker 1:Presupposition number four Africans, as creations of God, did possess a soul. So there was never a time for us when we didn't possess a soul. And when you go back and look at ancient Egypt, look at Coptic Christianity and even West African Christianity, you will see Christianity being practiced in an exuberant way with a liberation imperative. And, of course, never, ever take it into consideration that, as Africans, our ontology possess no soul. That is a concoction created by white slaveholders as a means of bringing slaves to redemption that they supposedly didn't have an opportunity for in Africa, but slaves were being redeemed and slaves were counting on eternal life as Christians in Africa long before they were abducted.
Speaker 1:Presupposition number five Jesus, god, angels, is still white Now. This is a construction that has created a lot of debate in the African-American community, particularly in the 20th century down to 21st century, because the white Jesus, image-wise, is the only one that we have ever really known, because we really didn't imagize for lack of a better term Jesus in Africa that it became such a fixture in the lives of the slaves that for many of those same mothers, you would have holy hell on your hand, literally trying to get an image of a white Jesus off the wall. And we see that still in a lot of black churches, even today, let alone white churches, that we still have images of white Jesuses up and that white Jesus with the long brown hair and the brown beard still considered the standard in terms of the image of Jesus. Not that they see themselves as inferior to white people, but they still see whiteness in Jesus and it's part of the psychological and the psychical moving forward of black people relative to our seeing divinity in whiteness and seeing non-divinity in ourselves. And so, if we're ever going to be a truly free people, this is an aspect of Christian faith that has to become a part of more contemporary discourse, that we have to make the case for Jesus's blackness in this context, namely because Jesus identifies with the inhumanity and the inhumane treatment of black people and therefore sides with black people in their oppressive condition as they seek to affirm themselves in a society that's committed still to white supremacy, and both black and white, as we construct an understanding of Jesus that is more liberating in nature.
Speaker 1:Number six heaven through quality of life, if there was one. And so for black folk, heaven always came through our quality of life, not as slaves, but our quality of life in terms of how we treated each other and how we treated all other human beings, including white human beings, and so it was the quality of life that we sought to create that would bring us heaven and or hell. Not, of course, being a good slave to white people and making sure we met our daily requirements. That was part of the economic teaching of slaveholders, in order to use slaves and to, of course, maximize their labor by getting them to observe daily work goals so they could make ultimate profit. And of course they did. They made ultimate profit. That money has been used, invested it, and part of the wealth of white America even today, allowed white America to start its banking institutions, its educational institutions, and so, in that sense, it has been money that has been passed down and been used to maximize itself, particularly on the stock market as well, and in annuities, to grow white wealth.
Speaker 1:And yet African-Americans still have not received reparations for 244 years of chattel racial slavery. You would almost have to be a genius to figure out how to fail in a business when you don't have to pay your employees. And so they did not fail in that business. They succeeded in that business and their wealth perpetuates to this day. And so heaven was seen through the quality of life and treatment, not in becoming pawns in a system of injustice.
Speaker 1:And of course, the black prophetic radical tradition we saw probably the latest with Malcolm X challenged the whole notion of heaven and hell, maintaining that the whole heaven and hell construction was a carefully designed ruse designed to divert Black people's attention away from their earthly suffering and that if we were going to experience freedom and bliss of any kind, it was going to be on this earth in human history. And so the Black prophetic radical tradition challenged us to think theologically beyond the structures given to us by white theologians and Christian ministers and to think about freedom now and freedom on earth. And of course, the seventh major presupposition freedom from slavery was the ultimate Christian virtue and not piety. So we see a reversal of this presupposition in pro-slavery Christian theology that piety was and not freedom. Freedom from slavery, not inward freedom, not freedom from one's sexual desires and lusts, as Bishop Berkeley maintained in this famous letter in 1727, that it frees slaves from their inward lust but doesn't free them from slavery. No, for slaves, christian freedom meant freedom from slavery objectively and in history, not just inwardly, and so this created the Black prophetic radical tradition that sought to agitate for social justice as the best means of achieving Black liberation.
Speaker 1:Major biblical themes in anti-slavery Christian theology in the first testament we begin, number one with the exodus narrative. This is one of the reasons why the first bible we got as african americans in slavery was only the new testament, because they didn't want us to read the old testament. And of course, we're about to discover why. What's in the old testament? First of all, the exodus narrative is there where god appears to moses. It's in the Old Testament. First of all, the Exodus narrative is there where God appears to Moses. It's not the figment of Moses' imagination. God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush and tells Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh let my people go. He does not condone slavery, but he condemns slavery by sending Moses to end slavery. And of course, not only that. As they are escaping, pharaoh's army drowns in the Red Sea, trying to recapture them and bring them back to Egypt as slaves. And so it certainly is suggestive of the fact that God does not condone slavery, that God rather condemned slavery.
Speaker 1:And of course you didn't want slaves reading that, david and Goliath. This has nothing to do with slavery directly, but indirectly we see in this narrative the hope developed by many slaves when they read it and had it read to them for those who were illiterate that we see this ultimate hope giant. We see this ultimate villain who scared everybody, who made everybody tremble in their boots, in the form of Goliath that no one wanted to take on, goliath except one person, and that was David. He took five smooth stones from a brook, needed only one and, of course, killed Goliath. And so you see this prohibitive underdog conquering this prohibitive favorite, this prohibitive giant in Goliath, and it gave slaves hope that, even against all odds, when things looked their bleakest, they could use the David and Goliath narrative as the basis for them to continue, to be motivated to topple the Slavocracy. And of course, the prophets, all of them, but particularly Amos, who was very, very critical of religious ritual that did not address freedom, that did not address liberation Don't bring me the noise of your solemn assemblies, don't bring me your burnt offerings. This was very galvanizing to slaves and particularly to leaders like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman and some of our established church leaders who had a liberating vision theologically, that Amos wanted justice to roll of many black leaders and particularly Martin Luther King Jr, amos was his favorite prophet In the Second or New Testament.
Speaker 1:Major biblical themes, the life of Jesus himself. This is very important and was very galvanizing for many slaves. Is that God's choice of incarnation. Incarnation we mean, of course, how God becomes Jesus and who God chooses to become Jesus to. And of course God decides to become Jesus to take on human flesh, to take on the sinfulness of the world, not to an aristocratic community, not to a bourgeois community, but to the poor, the vilified, the demonized, to Jews in the first century. And of course he mentions the Samaritans quite frequently in his public ministry also, people who are reviled and vilified in New Testament literature in first century Palestine. And so God's choice of incarnation. God chooses to incarnate God's self to a poor people, to a despised people, to a marginalized people, to an exploited people. This was huge for many slaves once they were able to read the Bible.
Speaker 1:The second major theme in New Testament, of course Luke 4, 18, 19, one used today by liberation theologians such as myself. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom from the prisoners and recovery of the sight of the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And so this is the cornerstone of the liberation tradition that developed first of all during slavery, makes its way into the 20th century that we're dealing with a Jesus that, from a ministerial standpoint, is primarily concerned about the liberation of human beings, concerned about the freedom of human beings more so than any other phenomenon. Jesus' primary concern is seeing those who are vilified, demonized, marginalized, be free. And so the Luke 4, 18, 19 passage, a major plank in anti-slavery Christian theology. And of course, the third one used quite frequently by the black prophetic radical tradition Galatians 5 and 1.
Speaker 1:Paul writes in his letter to the church at Galatia that was more concerned about circumcision and ritual, more so than they were about freedom. That Paul gets to after. He criticizes them for being that concern and being visionless in giving optimum attention to circumcision and not liberation. He maintains in chapter five, verse one it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Speaker 1:And so, seen in this passage, slaves saw the basis by which they would fight ardently against slavery, and that they were motivated not only to get out of slavery, but they were motivated by their understanding, their understanding despite what white Christian ministers taught them their understanding of God, their understanding of Christian faith, which did not call for them to be slaves until the end of time, but call for them to do the opposite to ardently fight against their enslavement, against their oppression, even at the point of death, knowing that God will be with them even until the end of the world. And so you start seeing Black resistance not only take on social, economic and political dimensions. You start seeing Black resistance take on profound theological dimensions that we are serving a God. The good news of the gospel for us is that we're serving a God that doesn't want us to be slaves. We're serving a God that wants us to be free and that we're ready to fight tooth and nail for our freedom, and to fight for it in the name of God, knowing that God has made a choice, that God has not chosen white supremacy, that God has not chosen white rule, that God has not chosen slavery, god has not chosen segregation, god has not chosen racial discrimination, but rather God has chosen the freedom of human beings, from the time God created human beings to right now that God has chosen freedom not only in terms of creation of the world and creation of human beings, but chooses freedom in any oppressor-oppressed context, in any enslaved context, whether it's the Israelites in Egypt, or whether it's Black people in America, whether it's black people in South Africa, whether it's the outcasts in India.
Speaker 1:God chooses liberation, not oppression. God chooses and is partial to those who are struggling to free themselves from structural injustice and in that sense, god is not just a God who's concerned about what happens to us after we die. God is not just concerned about heaven and hell and has no concern for the earth, as many of us, as black people, have been taught, but that God is ultimately concerned about earth. And God is so concerned about earth that God decides and this is the distinctive of Christian faith that God decides to come to the earth in the form of a human being in order to make God's purpose known to the world. And in making that purpose known, god has chosen liberation and not oppression. God has chosen freedom and not slavery, and that became the basis by which the Black prophetic radical tradition started, beginning with the insurrections in the 19th century with Gabriel Prosser, denmark Veazey, right down in Charleston, and Nat Turner, and we began to see an anti-slavery Christian theology that becomes the precursor to Black liberation theology.
Speaker 1:Womanist theology from the 1960s emerge in not only the antebellum period, but emerges in the 20th century and now into the 21st century. And it is imperative to me in this day and time that we recapture that sense of destiny, that we recapture that sense of liberation and know, despite what is happening in the country today, that God still chooses to marginalize, to exploit it and to vilify the people, who are being told that they don't get jobs because they're lazy and that they're getting jobs because they're lazy, not because they have earned it. And so, in this milieu in which our humanity is continually vilified, that it lacks industry, that it lacks proper education, that it lacks proper qualifications, we must understand and be at the vanguard of social change and understand that we are dealing with a God who has not chosen those who choose to vilify us, but that God has chosen us as we move forward and as we recapture our sense of destiny, our sense of oneness and our sense of freedom, as we take on this latest round of racism that has mutated itself for another generation. And so that wraps up this segment of Native Drums. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:I've been your host, dr Harry Singleton, and we'll see you next time. Thank you, and have a good night.