AS my fascination with the history of Saint Lucia continues, I have been researching the relationship of slavery and Christianity. It is still inconceivable that the Christian church as expressed in Protestant and Catholic format never raised their voices against this evil commerce of slavery. Even Bartholomew De Las Casas, which may have been historically viewed as a small spark, advocated for the use of African slaves instead of native Indians. The Christian church leaders in the most evil distortion of the Bible, sought to use passages of scripture to provide the soothing of the consciences of the elite that the practice of slavery was acceptable in the sight of God.
Obviously, the African slaves saw this travesty of the truth and were never attracted to Christianity in the pre-emancipation period. However after the emancipation there was a dramatic change. In referencing the book – A History of St Lucia – Harmsen, Ellis, Devaux, it is recorded that even up to 1837 attendance by slaves at churches was extremely sparse. In 1841 there was a dramatic change with churches island wide overflowing with the newly freed people.
The following comment in a historical record is pregnant with seeds of understanding the relationship of slavery and Christianity. It was said in 1841: ‘ The chief ambition of the labouring population now is to dress themselves and their children, and conduct themselves in a manner that would surpass our European peasantry. On Sundays and fete days, the church is actually crowded with these persons, many of whom come a considerable distance from the country to attend the mass’. This was the experience in differing records for Castries, Anse la Raye, Gros Islet, Laborie, Choisuel, Vieux Fort . It is recorded that the District Magistrate for Soufriere was shocked that the auctioned seats in the church were taken by the freed slaves. It is recorded ‘ about 100 places were purchased by the newly freed, at prices varying from two to six dollars, mostly by women, who, I am sadly afraid, go to church principally to display their finery’.
It is clear from the historical records that it was not the message of Christianity that caused the sudden movement in large numbers into the churches. The principal reason for the growth of attendance was that the Sunday morning became an avenue to express equivalence of status. The women and men can dress as their former masters and sit in the same pew, a powerful expression of empowerment.
The tradition lives on, and even today the special days of Christmas, New Year’s and Easter would create the same display of finery and high attendance. The new dress has to be purchased to go to church on those days. The term ‘Sunday Best’ is now established within the Caribbean vocabulary. The traces of distortion have now shifted, with certain groups within the society saying that Christianity is a white man’s religion. This is totally incorrect as Christianity was in Africa before any European white ever heard the name Jesus Christ.
As a young teenager embracing Christianity in the midst of the Black Power revolution, you were bombarded with these statements of a ‘white man religion’. However I always wanted this to be shown to me as it was contrary to the very Bible that I read. The symbolism of Jesus with the Caucasian features also bolstered their arguments; however I knew that Jesus would have had Jewish features, wooly hair and definitely not that nose we see in drawings. So if any ill-informed individual mouths these inaccuracies be so advised that this is not so.
This is an aspect of slavery that needs to be considered in understanding our society. It is a challenge for church leaders to present a new message, one which says that church attendance has nothing to do with your soul’s salvation. In our local context to also show that Africans played a dominant role in the Early Church and convey the historical truth about Haile Selassie. The truth must be told.
This is a difficult one. Ultimately, there is one race, the human race, with all its greed, corruption, double standards and brutality. Many acts of brutality have been committed in the name of religion, both historically and with the current set of lunatic head bangers in the middle east. The difference is that the Christian societies developed to be less militant and through the Renaissance, allowed scientific principles and the rule of law to supersede the voodoo and hocus pocus still followed by said lunatics.
Jesus christ, if he existed at all, would have had arabic / persian features. The European expression is typical of the audience the religion was aimed at at the time; namely Europeans. Saying somebody has ‘jewish’ features is an extremely clumsy way of expressing yourself. What do you mean by that? Would you care to come and clarify it? You are confusing ethnicity and religion.
Christianity was in ‘Africa’ but only in the sense that it is connected as a large continent. You cannot compare the arabic, persian and egyptians civilizations with what was going on in sub saharan african. Entirely different cultures. I think in the 21st century we need to move beyond religion in the public realm. Faith, by its very definition means holding out for something that defies any sense of logic.
I think you should stick to bridges and roads; this is not the place for cod theology. Sorry.
It was also the Church that said: ” the black man has no soul” Reason, Appetite and Sprit. We need to also examine the connection between the Church and the promotion of Slavery in the name of Christianity. That promotion was based on the center piece of Christianity: Penance…. The truth will be told Eng. Peters. Keep giving ’em hell
John:
You have a credibility problem from the gate. Who in this day and time, when the name of Jesus is mentioned, does not see an image of a Caucasian in his mind’s eye? If you had done the appropriate research you would have learned that before the enslaved Africans could form any congregation the leadership of their congregation had to be licensed by the so-called white man/Slave-master.
Negroes like yourselves who worship a Naked, Blood-dripping Caucasian as God, hoping to be socially accepted by the enforcers of White Supremacy and obtaining some worldly gain are the most disgraceful Samboes of all times.
You should know, that when the Slave Masters realized Christianity could serve as an excellent mechanism to control the enslaved Africans, they allowed the Africans to attend Church as long as they were accompanied by a White Overseer in makeshift churches on plantations. Later in the eighteenth Century Caucasians allowed Blacks to conduct their own religious services.
A policy evolved, requiring Caucasians to select and grant licenses to Black Preachers. The Catechism taught: Q. Who gave you a Master and a Mistress ? A. God gave me my Master and my Mistress. Q. Who says you must obey them ? A. God says I must obey them.
These ideas are present with you today in the perverted book you claim to be the “Word of God”. It is a book that you hold as your guiding light and it instructs the victims of White Male Worship as follows:
◄ Ephesians 6 ►
New International Version
4. Fathers,b do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
5. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
6. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
7. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,
8. because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Now John Peter Josie Wayne, you Negroes need to make up your minds, this is what you ask us Free Africans to believe; what you call God’s word – therefore I ask you: do you believe your own self, or are you a Negro with major comprehension problems ?
And lastly Peters, it was your Great Grand father times 10 who was the First Black to receive a Preaching License in 1783. His name J. Peters, Jesse Peters in Silver Bluff, South Carolina.
I leave you with this image, although I deem you Negroes as abandoned cases – incorrigible Samboes
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByhFz5e5Tno
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It is bad enough to have Black men and women begging an idol of a Naked Caucasian for assistance as their God, but it is even more offensive to allow Liars to insult our intelligence by telling us such preposterous tales and nonsense, of God becoming a man ; God incarnate; God in person coming to kill himself to ransom the human from Satan. Allah/God Created the Sun providing light and energy through the process of Nuclear Fusion, a process we are incapable of producing here at home/Earth. This object Sun, is a Star; one of some five hundred billion Stars in our local Galaxy the Milky Way, a Galaxy, one of the billions of Galaxies known to man.
You have to be short circuited in your intellect to believe the Romans and Jews Killed Allah/God and buried him under some big stones in Nicodemus’ tomb – how stupid can you be ? Allah controls the Universe and has subjected the Sun to serve man, and to run its course for a determined period, until it dies.
Surah Fatir
Lo! Allah is the Knower of the Unseen of the heavens and the earth. Lo! He is Aware of the secret of (men’s) breasts. (38)
He it is Who hath made you regents in the earth; so he who disbelieveth, his disbelief be on his own head. Their disbelief increaseth for the disbelievers, in their Lord’s sight, naught save abhorrence. Their disbelief increaseth for the disbelievers naught save loss. (39)
Say: Have ye seen your partner-gods to whom ye pray beside Allah? Show me what they created of the earth! Or have they any portion in the heavens? Or have We given them a scripture so they act on clear proof therefrom? Nay, the evil-doers promise one another only to deceive. (40)
Lo! Allah graspeth the heavens and the earth that they deviate not, and if they were to deviate there is not one that could grasp them after Him. Lo! He is ever Clement, Forgiving. (41)
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Here are some images of God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzE7VZMT1z8
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Allah created you from the dust of the Earth/Elements – Fe, Zn; Na; Cu; Au; K; all the Elements found in the dust extracted through vegetation that feed us. He has set for you an appointed term and we don’t know the hour. That time cannot be hastened or delayed, and you will return to Allah and questioned about all that you did.
Surah Al-Zalzala
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
When Earth is shaken with her (final) earthquake (1)
And Earth yieldeth up her burdens, (2)
And man saith: What aileth her? (3)
That day she will relate her chronicles, (4)
Because thy Lord inspireth her. (5)
That day mankind will issue forth in scattered groups to be shown their deeds. (6)
And whoso doeth good an atom’s weight will see it then, (7)
And whoso doeth ill an atom’s weight will see it then. (8)
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Everything a human does and says is recorded and the secret of his heart/intention is known to Allah, that is why Allah is the perfect judge.
Allah forgives all sins EXCEPT joining partners with God – Allah is ONE, UNIQUE and can be compared to nothing in Creation – There is Allah and everything else is Creation – Allah exist independent of Space and time. Before Allah created that which we call Space there was no space, not a cubic centimeter. Today the known universe continues to expand; I think Hubble, the man after which the telescope is named, discovered the expanding universe through the Doppler effect.
Surah Qaf
Were We then worn out by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt about a new creation. (15)
We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (16)
When the two Receivers receive (him), seated on the right hand and on the left, (17)
He uttereth no word but there is with him an observer ready. (18)
And the agony of death cometh in truth. (And it is said unto him): This is that which thou wast wont to shun. (19)
And the trumpet is blown. This is the threatened Day. (20)
And every soul cometh, along with it a driver and a witness. (21)
(And unto the evil-doer it is said): Thou wast in heedlessness of this. Now We have removed from thee thy covering, and piercing is thy sight this day. (22)
And (unto the evil-doer) his comrade saith: This is that which I have ready (as testimony). (23)
(And it is said): Do ye twain hurl to hell each rebel ingrate, (24)
Hinderer of good, transgressor, doubter, (25)
Who setteth up another god along with Allah. Do ye twain hurl him to the dreadful doom. (26)
His comrade saith: Our Lord! I did not cause him to rebel, but he was (himself) far gone in error. (27)
He saith: Contend not in My presence, when I had already proffered unto you the warning. (28)
The sentence that cometh from Me cannot be changed, and I am in no wise a tyrant unto the slaves. (29)
On the day when We say unto hell: Art thou filled? and it saith: Can there be more to come? (30)
And the Garden is brought nigh for those who kept from evil, no longer distant. (31)
(And it is said): This is that which ye were promised. (It is) for every penitent and heedful one, (32)
Who feareth the Beneficent in secret and cometh with a contrite heart. (33)
Enter it in peace. This is the day of immortality. (34)
There they have all that they desire, and there is more with Us. (35)
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That Evil Caucasian Christian, who murders and brutalizes your sons and daughters, shooting them for being Black, did not give you this Naked Caucasian God because he loved you. He gave you this book – written by the homosexual pervert King James, son of Mary of Scot the English Queen known as Bloody Mary, daughter of Henry VIII – to control and confuse Negroes even as he created a bogus God in his image.
Do not be mesmerized by the speech of these mis-educated Negroes, Peter Josie, Rick John Wayne, and John Peters who are calling you to worship dead people and a Naked Caucasian as your God, they are firewood for Hell’s Fire.
These Caucasian Christians will never respect you Negroes walking around with a symbol of death hanging from your necks with a dead Naked Caucasian that you teach your daughters to love. What kind of man hangs a naked picture/statue of a naked man and makes his wife and children pray and beg that naked image for favors – this is an abomination. Do you think those you call White would ever hang a naked picture of Stephenson King in their bedrooms and make their wives and daughters beg King for money and good health?? how shameless can you mis-educated Negro-slaves of white supremacy be ?? you people make me sick.
SOM you go half way towards seeing the light – namely that we are all cosmic matter then you discard that and quote chapter and verse from the books. Your new found religion is from the same stable as the other two main religions.
I’ve seen white christians do good and evil. I’ve seen black christians do good and evil. Same for the sikh, jew and atheist. One thing is not in doubt, and that is all of them are happy to use the tools and science of medicine and technology. Those tools and benefits have not come about from living a daily routine as set out by a religious book; they have come about from the clash of ideas generated by free speech and scientific empiricism (precise measurement, trial and error, peer review).
The main religions are like three bald men arguing over a comb, when the most likely and logical solution is the one we are learning from evolution. I don’t understand why people are happy to use the benefits of logic, science and reason for everything in life but then invoke some mediaeval sorcery to exempt themselves from the standards civilised people expect (equality, protection of free speech etc). You follow a path of subjugation, you are the one that is mentally enslaved. Your dress, eating habits, social interactions and customs are decided for you by what your book instructs.
Imagine you are getting into hospital. Do you want to have the best science treating you, or do you want a man kneeling and wailing?
YEAH:
You present some soundness in your argument, but as usual, we associate the Religion of Islam to the Cultural practices of Arabs. At the time of the advent of Islam, the Arabs of Saudi Arabia were one of the most ignorant humans on the planet; a people who buried their female offspring alive. Today Arabs in this region of the world are some of the most racist people on Earth, and having traveled to Arabia at least four times, I can tell you even these Arab Muslims have not escaped the damage of white supremacy.
Saudi Arabia has a culture that boggles the mind, from denying the female the right to drive to the prejudice sewn towards other Muslims. I dress in western attire since I was born in Castries, and see no need to wear the dress of the Saudis – I do wear a Jalabiyah/Jilbab on occasion but dress styles does not make one a Muslim. My wife has her own car and I have mine, so your statement about how one dresses from the instructions of Allah is limited to modest dress of any style.
I grew up in the Catholic Church right there on Micoud Street – Baptized, First Communion. Confirmation, RC Boys/Saint Aloysius, Saint Mary’s College – until I rejected this demonic practice of worshiping dead people and a Naked Caucasian as God to the point that I have serious issues with Samboes like Linus Clovis and other Samboes who make a living teaching people, Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Are these people insane ? MOTHER OF GOD ?
Mother of God, pure Satanic speech. Allah/God is neither a man nor woman, and unless a person reads the Qur-an they will be misled by those who pray to dead people and say the naked statue serves to remind them what God looks like.
Mathematics is the language of Allah/God. We are told in the Quran that Allah Created everything to an exact measure. The Mass of the Creation is measured to a precision.
Surah Al-Qamar
And warnings came in truth unto the house of Pharaoh (41)
Who denied Our revelations, every one. Therefore We grasped them with the grasp of the Mighty, the Powerful. (42)
Are your disbelievers better than those, or have ye some immunity in the scriptures? (43)
Or say they: We are a host victorious? (44)
The hosts will all be routed and will turn and flee. (45)
Nay, but the Hour (of doom) is their appointed tryst, and the Hour will be more wretched and more bitter (than their earthly failure). (46)
Lo! the guilty are in error and madness. (47)
On the day when they are dragged into the Fire upon their faces (it is said unto them): Feel the touch of hell. (48)
Lo! We have created every thing by measure. (49)
Because of the crippling effects of Satanic worship in the churches, and the teaching that god has begotten a baby/boy, many follows of Satan have become mentally paralyzed; incapable of reason. You are told that one father + one son + one ghost = one, and you accept that as a mystery. Nothing mysterious about addition, it is a simple fabrication; an invented lie.
I call your attention to the Modus operandi of the Caucasian Devil Worshipers Christians who arrive with blazing guns and cannons as they murder and kill men women trees and ants. They subjugate the Arawak and the Africans, and when they have killed enough and resistance to his invasion is crushed, what happens next ?? This answer should be easy if you were not a mis-educated people; he sends in the Missionaries and the Bibles to destroy your language and history and takes away your name, while teaching you that God is a Naked Caucasian who killed himself because he loved you so much, while you live in shacks and huts eating mud and dying from Dengay and Ebola.
Surah Al-Kahf
Say: Shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers by their works? (103)
Those whose effort goeth astray in the life of the world, and yet they reckon that they do good work. (104)
Those are they who disbelieve in the revelations of their Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefor their works are vain, and on the Day of Resurrection We assign no weight to them. (105)
That is their reward: hell, because they disbelieved, and made a jest of Our revelations and Our messengers. (106)
Lo! those who believe and do good works, theirs are the Gardens of Paradise for welcome, (107)
Wherein they will abide, with no desire to be removed from thence. (108)
Say: Though the sea became ink for the Words of my Lord, verily the sea would be used up before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even though We brought the like thereof to help. (109)
Say: I am only a mortal like you. My Lord inspireth in me that your God is only One God. And whoever hopeth for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work, and make none sharer of the worship due unto his Lord. (110)
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Son-of-Man,
Thanks for pointing out that the primary method of the “Caucasian Devil” is to project his sins onto a proxy (monarchs, fascists, despots & dictatorships), so as to hold himself blameless for the results he so assiduously seeks!
John Peters,
Your phrase “Jewish features” had me rolling on the floor, and immediately had me thinking that you never reached the part in your Bible which said:
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
However, I am not surprised that a man of such telling lack of critical thought would fall for the most effective hoax perpetrated on man-kind, to date!
Jewish features?? W.T.F. These confused honorary whites are being paid to keep black people in hell. One only has to examine the ignorance fed to Lucians by these honorary whites to understand why our people are suffering so much.
Nudge, there was a lawyer writing some garbage, named Cenac( snack), who has since evaporated from the heat you applied to the crap he was writing. Unfortunately these fraudsters have been able to fool the masses unopposed. Don’t allow these mentally dead zombies to practice such deception unopposed. Thanks
I will hold my peace not because I am wise but I am just a fool….lol
As self styled theological referee, may I tip toe into this fray to acknowledge the most powerful -if not profound statement ” GOD is God and everything else is CREATION”
The very deep believer -and regardless of where we are on the journey of “knowing GOD”- must respect the noble if not valiant defense and even outreach that SOM attests to -with no compromise of his faith.
A logical reasoning entity understands that FAITH is on a plain above human sensory needs and limitations. This is the frontier where folks like SOM boldly venture (reminds me of my earliest fascination with Star Trek).
Many of us here did go to St Aloysius and were confirmed in the nearby Cathedral BUT for all the Benedictions and novenas o’er the years we never took time to consider our personal quest to understanding the Divine -outside the context that was handed down to us. After all Salvation as we were taught is personal -not a team sport . However, we were never allowed to venture with our own on board apparatus to question the dynamic systems of the “Club” of worship that we inherited.
I must confess that the SOM has challenged my cognitive apparatus in ways that university deadlines never did.
Religion and or the Divine as a poignant consideration in my personal life was always waylaid by the press of achievement as in getting ahead. The heady exhilaration of yearning for economic well being managed to postpone this current introspection.
That’s it- a work in progress for me.
SOM has the high ground-thus far.