Fic or Fact: The Liberating Black God

Fic or Fact:  The Black Liberating God

I view Christianity with a hermeneutic of suspicion. I come from a very devout Catholic family, and my father is a non-dimensional pastor, so God has always been a central part of my upbringing.  Growing up a Black Catholic, I also knew that there was a distinction that was made between Black Catholics and regular Catholics (meaning white Catholics)-even in church race was an issue. My grandmother grew up in Grand Coteau, Louisiana and frequently told stories about learning her prayers in Latin from a young white priest who was not from the area that was gracious enough to come to the house to teach my grandmother and her siblings their prayers-for a small fee, so they could make their “proper communion” because they couldn’t attend catechism with the white kids.  During the 1930s the town didn’t have separate churches for the Blacks and whites, but the church was segregated---the church.  African Americans sat in the back and received communion last, and if the priest ran out of hosts, the black folks were turned away. It would be almost twenty years before the diocese saw fit to build separate churches for the African American parishes, and even though, the Catholic Church is the richest world, black parishes, particularly black parishes with schools have been forced to close because of a lack of funds.  I have seen the savage inequalities as it pertains to Blacks in all aspects of my life, including my church. The inequalities that exists in these churches can still be seen today, so it is very hard for me to digest the idea that I serve that same God that white people or serve, and to put it more frankly, that we serve a God who has the interest of oppressed people in mind.

Cone believes that God is for those that are oppressed and that Jesus was not just this passive, peace loving man, but a man who represented marginalized people and lived and died like many oppressed people do, and that if we say we are followers of Jesus, we must do the same.  While I agree with his assessment of Jesus as being a radical during his day, and that Christians are called to be world changers, I question his overly optimistic view of the condition of the oppressed in which he states:

Theologians must make the gospel clear in particular social context so that God’s people

will know that the struggle for freedom is God’s struggle too.  The victory over evil is certain because God has taken up the cause of the oppressed, promising today what was promised to the people of Israel while they were yet Slaves in Egypt…Because we know that we can trust the promise of God, we also know that the oppressed will be fully liberated (Cone 91).

I grappled with this part of the text and myself because I wondered what it says about me as a Christian since I do not believe Cone’s statement is true.  Each time I read that passage over with the hopes of finding something I could buy into, I could not.  My mind keep bringing me to two verses in Bob Marley’s song, “Get Up, Stand Up”:

Most people think,
Great god will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. jah!

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty god is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (what you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (yeah, yeah, yeah! )

I believe this song is more of a reflection of my ideology and theology as an African American woman in America.  Let me be clear, I do believe in God, but I am not sure that I believe in the God of Christianity who does not seem to hear the prayers and petitions of people of color when it comes to justice and oppression. 

In my opinion, not much has changed in this country or the world as it pertains to people of color.  Here in America, it seems to be open season on African American males who are slaughtered each day simply because they are Black.  I wonder if the family of Jonathan Ferrell, the unarmed man who was killed in Charlotte, NC feels that freedom or liberation Cone says we possess, knowing that their son/brother/grandson was murdered simply because he was an African American man.  Where is the “victory” over evil when this man death is simply referred to as being “unfortunate”?  How are we to find such a circumstance liberating?

Cone parallels the Exodus narrative of the Bible when God liberated the people from the tyrannical hands of the Egyptians to that of slaves in America.  While I can see how the comparison can me made, it seems that African Americans have continuously been in cycles of slavery that manifests in different ways. First, Africans were slaves, literally property that was owned by white folks in America.  After hundreds of years in bondage, Black people were emancipated only to be thrust into the grips of segregation where the only thing about their condition that changed was that people could no longer say that they technically owned you, but one could be forced to become a sharecropper to survive, which was another form of captivity. Now in America, where I live and where my children go to school are usually dictated by my socio-economic status and are connected to the color of my skin.  Forgive me if I fail to see how we have been fully liberated. 

A few years ago, I had a talk with a friend of mine who was attending seminary, and she expressed concern about the salvation of her your brother because she said, he refused to go to church.  When she pressed him about it, he simply said he would deal with God on his own terms and he did not have to do it in church.  After I listened to her share her distress, I asked her if she ever considered the fact that her brother viewed Christianity as an extension of the oppression or racism he dealt with all week?  She looked very puzzled, so I continued, “ I think there are Black men who find it hard to go to church and worship a god that in their mind is white. Why would you want to church and worship a god that represents the system of racial oppression that has stepped on your neck all week?”  I was only able to come to this conclusion after talking to a few of my guy friends that do not attend church because they consider Christianity more of a detriment to what they believe as Black men.

I must say I agree with Dr. Cone when he said that Black folks and white folks do not serve the same God, but I sure would love to know what God whites do serve because they have always had the freedom, we’ve been assured through God that we would get, and we are still waiting.  I attended a white church for over a year and a half, and as Dr. Cone has pointed out “they emphasized the relativity of faith in history, they have seldom applied insight to the problem of the color line…because it did not benefit their own social interest (Cone 42).  This whole notion of everyone sitting at the table of Christ is empty rhetoric thrown around the likes of Vanderbilt Divinity School to help people ease their consciences when in reality, many people want to minister to and worship with people who look like them, think like them, and are from the same socio-economic status they are from.

Now, I know this view is also problematic, but it is something I have given lots of thought to especially since when the perpetual suffering of African peoples are questioned, the only answer that can be given is “the meaning of black suffering remains a part of the mystery of God’s will” (Cone 177).  I just cannot not accept that as an answer nor can I swallow the notion that it was “through Jesus that [African slaves] could know they were people, even though they were sold like cattle (Cone 31).  Africans knew they were people before they were introduced to Christ because they knew the DIVINE because the divine was a part of who they were.  They knew they were people because before that fateful trek across the Atlantic Ocean, they had not only known freedom, but they possessed it.

So maybe I should say I do have a few issue with Black Christianity.   While I won’t say that it has taught us to be completely passive, I think it has caused us be lulled to sleep in situations that require immediate action.  The Bible says, “Faith without works is DEAD.”  So, why are we sitting around waiting to be completely liberated?  Where is the work?  When will the rubber meet the road?  Did not Jesus put in work to be liberated?  That didn’t just consist of going to church and singing and shouting. Perhaps to Dr. Cone I would be considered one of those radical students that is misguided.  Maybe I am.  Does my theology need a bit of reflection?  Sure.  But, I think every Black person in America who calls themselves Christian needs to start reflecting on what they believe and why.  Besides feeling a spiritual connectedness when you cry out in worship or praise, what shift have we seen in the condition of Black people?  We still are not free.  While white folks are receiving their eternity now, we are waiting to get ours when we die.  I find this problematic and forgive for my being blunt, but I want mine now. 

I recently spoke with someone who said there has been an increase in Latinos becoming members of the NOI (Nation of Islam), while I don’t agree with all the teachings of the NOI, I wonder if there is something they are giving people that Christianity isn’t.  I believe it is worth looking into.  I would love to interview them to hear their rationale behind becoming Muslim.

 

So for now, I will pray for clarity regarding our plight, and I wonder how many other Black folks out there struggle with the notion of Christianity like I do.  Until then, I will use my Sundays to reflect on what I want to spiritually in the confines of my own home and listen to the worship songs of Bob Marley because for me they constitute liberation.