Frederick Douglass' indictment of hypocritical Christianity and so-called 'Christians'
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
The so-called President of the U.S. recently catapulted Frederick Douglass into black history month news headlines, demonstrating a clear ignorance of both black history and Douglass. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and John Stauffer wrote a piece in response to Trump’s ignorance for the Washington Post, “Five Myths about Frederick Douglass’ and one of those myths touched on his religious beliefs:
Douglass was a pious Christian.
Traditional Christian ministries such as the Colson Center claim that “Douglass was a committed Christian.” Likewise, Christian publishing house Concordia includes Douglass in its “Heroes of the Faith” book series. And Douglass referred often to Christianity in his speeches and writing.
But his views on the religion were less than conventional. While a practicing member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church for most of his adult life, Douglass used the Bible to interpret the North’s role in the Civil War allegorically, with “Michael and his angels” battling “the infernal host of bad passions” in our country’s version of the apocalypse. He frequently expressed his disgust at the fact that slaveowners cited scripture to argue that slavery was divinely ordained and that the Lord demanded the docility of the enslaved.
In his final years, Douglass became drawn to Unitarian and openly critiqued traditional doctrines. His home contained artifacts and writings from several world religions, as well as busts of his favorite philosophers, Ludwig Feuerbach and David Friedrich Strauss, both of whom viewed Jesus as a moral person but not the son of God.
To get a deeper understanding, one only needs to read the appendix Douglass added to his autobiography, Life of an American Slave, 1845.
I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of "stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in." I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me.
We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families, — sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers, — leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good of souls! The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other — devils dressed in angels' robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.
He closes his biting critique with a parody written by a northern Methodist minister — which begins with:
"Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell How pious priests whip Jack and Nell, And women buy and children sell, And preach all sinners down to hell, And sing of heavenly union.
"They'll bleat and baa, dona like goats, Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes, Array their backs in fine black coats, Then seize their negroes by their throats, And choke, for heavenly union.
Go read the whole thing.
I doubt that modern day Republican who call themselves Christians, like Franklin Graham and his ilk, will be sharing Douglass’ words with their psalm-singing hypocritical racist congregations.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The first episode of science fiction streaming service Dust's "Afrofuturism" animated series depicts jazz-fusion musician Sun Ra's life as a space-traveling mission to liberate Black people from Earthly oppression.
"The term, 'Afrofuturism,' first appeared in an essay titled, 'Black to the Future,' by Mark Dery in 1994," says the narrator, identified by Dust as British rapper Little Simz. "But its roots go back to a fateful night in the late 1930s in Huntsville, Alabama. On that peculiar evening, a beam of light shot down from the sky and lifted Herman Sonny Blount into an alien spacecraft," she continues over a visual of a Black man ascending into a yellow light. "On a voyage to Jupiter, his alien captors prompted him with a mission: to transport Black people away from the violence and racism of planet Earth. Sonny became Sun Ra, who worked on the other side of time."
Anthropologist John Szwed's Sun Ra biography, "Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra," includes the musician's description of meeting aliens in the late 1930s, which compelled him to leave college and turn to music. It varies a bit from the show's account of events:
It looked like a giant spotlight shining down on me, and I call it transmolecularization, my whole body was changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up. ...Then I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn. ...They talked to me. They wanted me to stop [teachers training] because there was going to be great trouble in schools. There was going to be trouble in every part of life. That's why they wanted to talk to me about it. 'Don't have anything to do with it. Don't continue.' They would teach me some things that when it looked like the world was going into complete chaos, when there was no hope for nothing, then I could speak, but not until then. I would speak, and the world would listen.
The episode also touches on Sun Ra's imprisonment for avoiding the World War II draft, a 1969 Rolling Stone cover and other "Earthly stops" on "his cosmic voyage."
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THE Nigerian edition of “Big Brother” has the same mix of narcissism, banality and back-stabbing found in every other version of the show. But an extra controversy was added to the fallouts and flirtations when Nigerians learned that their programme, in which contestants are locked in a house and filmed 24/7, was being made in South Africa. On January 24th the country’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, opened an investigation into “the issue of possible deceit”, urging those who had “bombarded” him with complaints to stay calm.
MultiChoice, the production company behind “Big Brother Naija”, was unapologetic, pointing out that it was easier and more cost-effective to stage the show in its existing house in Johannesburg. During the only previous Nigerian edition a sponsor had removed the fuses from the house’s generators in a dispute over advertising, taking the programme off-air for eight hours, says Remi Ogunpitan, a producer at the time. Eleven years later Nigeria’s power supply is still erratic, and the price of diesel for generators has more than doubled in the past six months because of short supplies.
This is just the latest spat between Nigeria and South Africa as they spar for economic supremacy in the continent. In 2014 Nigeria leapfrogged its rival to the position of Africa’s largest economy, when its GDP was recalculated by the government and found to be almost double the previous estimate. (Its population is more than three times South Africa’s.) But it was overtaken again last year because of falling oil prices and the subsequent devaluation of its currency, the naira.
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Lawyers have long put up with laws that aren’t translated into their native English. They have endured French-speaking judges whose English is barely passable and who aren’t familiar with their judicial system.
Last fall, after another new law, regarding business transactions, was not translated, the lawyers here in Bamenda, a bustling city in Cameroon’s northwest, decided they’d had enough. They organized a demonstration to protest a government that they believed had long slighted their English-speaking region by failing to uphold a constitutional promise of a bilingual nation.
The demonstrations grew, as teachers vented their frustration that the government in Yaoundé — dominated by the French-speaking majority — sent teachers with shoddy English skills to schools in their area. Hundreds of citizens joined in, carrying banners and chanting against what they said were longtime injustices against their region.
By December, the protests had turned violent. Security forces used live ammunition to disperse demonstrations in Bamenda. At least two unarmed protesters were killed and others were injured, according to human rights groups. News media reports said as many as four protesters died.
As the violence and calls for secession in English-speaking areas rise, the issue is quickly becoming a big problem for the central government. In recent days, protest organizers have called on businesses in Anglophone areas to stop paying taxes.
For four decades, Cameroon was split into English and French territories. After independence in the early 1960s, the nation unified into one republic made up mostly of French speakers and a minority who speak English and adhere to British common law. The setup has been plagued by constitutional disputes and complaints from English speakers who say the government gives them fewer resources and generally fails to represent their interests.
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The decision comes two years after activists observed officers recording protestors at an action in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal.
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More than two years after a Black Lives Matter protest in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, a judge just ruled that the New York Police Department (NYPD) must provide activists with documents, photos and videos collected during the November 2014 action.
Activist and law student Keegan Sephan tweeted the news yesterday (February 8):
View image on Twitter
Per a judgment handed down by Justice Manuel J. Mendez in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the Department must follow in the footsteps of the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Police and Metro North Railroad and comply with Freedom of Information Law requests filed by James Logue, an activist who saw uniformed and plainclothes officers recording the protest.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
When the Department of Education misspelled W.E. du Bois’ name the other day, it was emblematic of a more systemic problem inflicted on the body politic; how entrenched opinions about race are predicated on a lack of knowledge and facts, knowledge and facts as basic as the spelling of a great man’s name.
I’ve heard it argued that political change takes time. We may never see the results of our activism. I’ve heard it argued that the irrevocable change of rocks being worn away by the crashing of the sea is the result of our actions, it may not happen in our lifetime, but change will indeed occur.
But I see that the rocks need to be smashed with sledge hammers, that change and freedom in the future mean little when folks are suffering now. I cannot accept this safety in incrementalism. The gates need to be crashed and the walls of oppression need to be made to tumble down. Now.
Waiting for Time to wear away oppression has never worked for those living in oppression.
When american Latino families are murdered by white nationalist vigilantes, when black men and women are incarcerated in astronomical numbers, when income and housing inequality ravage communities, when segregation is still prevalent; incrementalism is somewhat then, like a nice shiny ribbon on a gift. The package looks nice, but the hate contained within is not negated by the beauty of the bow.
Going along to get along has never worked.
Booker T. and W.E.B.
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook.
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house.”
“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.,
“For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail.
Unless you help to make the laws,
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”
“It seems to me,” said Booker T.—
“I don’t agree,”
Said W.E.B.
--Dudley Randall
“Booker T. and W.E.B.”
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