Is Christianity African American's get out of jail free card?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-bo...ree-card-for-african-americans_b_1183026.html

There's nothing more awkward than to be the one southern black man in the room who says that he's not quite sure about Christianity. No one attacks you for asking questions, they just "pray" for you. Some will talk to you like a mentally disabled 2-year-old who has never been taught to see the light. You might even get the crooked brow and pursed lips of concern, like they feel sorry for you or that your parents somehow didn't raise you right. If only you could understand the consequences that come with thinking for yourself and questioning the ideas that have been accepted by everyone else around you, you might be better off.

It's not a matter of being criticized for how you actually live. Rather, the penalty comes from your unwillingness to play the game, sort of like the teenage girl who actually admits that she likes having sex, instead of pretending that she's a virgin to make her daddy feel better. While most of my devout church-going friends don't openly attack me for having a unique perspective, they certainly feel that I've somehow been led astray.

When someone asked me how I feel about Christianity, I said, "I respect it. My father is a Baptist minister. When I do go to church, I choose a Christian church. But one concern I've always had is that Christianity has become a 'get out of jail free' card for those who are choosing to live an unethical existence. It doesn't appear (to me) to be a true, untainted quest for spiritual clarity, but instead appears to be a club that you join if you want to get into heaven."

I knew a man who was a thief, a liar, an adulterer and even a child molester. He did things to others that no decent man would ever do. Yet, he loved to thump bibles against my head to remind me that he's going to heaven and I'm not. Why? Because of the "Get out of jail free card" he received when Jesus died for his sins. Whenever he did something wrong, all he had to do was pray for forgiveness and all sins would be washed away. And since all sin is apparently equal in the eyes of God (his pastor told him so), his actions were no worse than my own.

I tried not to judge the man, but I couldn't help but question what he was telling me. He said, "Why can't you simply accept what I'm saying to save your eternal soul?"

I told the man, "Because my spirit tells me not to, and I believe that God speaks to me too."

It was difficult to accept the idea that no matter how horribly or righteously I chose to live my life, my existence was somehow tainted because I'd refused to participate in a set of rituals. In contrast to my Christian upbringing, my spirit could not accept this to be the truth, at least not the only truth.

When I told my friend what I thought, he explained that my spirit was simply wrong. Somehow, while all of us are encouraged to find our own personal relationship with God, it's not truly meant to be personal unless your "personal" conclusion happens to be the one that correlates with the "personal" vision that is shared by your relatives who all go to church on Sunday and give their money to Pastor Smith. If your "personal" search for God leads you anywhere other than the church down the street, then your spirit has told you a lie.

One of my friends called me on New Year's Eve, probably feeling sorry for me because I spend most New Year's Eves at home by myself. Sure, I get invited to a lot of parties every year (I guess a few people know me), but I typically enjoy starting the year alone, connected with my core. But I don't judge others who choose to have fun. So, I asked my friend what her plans were, and she said that she was "going to church and then to the club." After joking about her challenge of finding a dress she could wear to both locations, she asked me what I was doing. I simply told her, "I'm searching for God."

After hearing my answer, my friend said, "You can find God at church." I then replied, "Is it possible that I am most likely to find God by looking outside the church? If the relationship with God is truly personal and my spirit leads me in a direction that is different from those around me, then perhaps that's God's way of telling me that his/her existence is more complex than what we've been led to believe."

The bottom line is this: If a man's spiritual journey leads him to a unique place, this message from God is no less authentic than the one received by those who've been socialized since birth to buy into a set of rules and protocols that get them into heaven in spite of any dastardly thing they've done. Part of the allure of a faith can be the rewards of conformity, as well as the threat of punishment from deviation. There is nothing more tempting than to know that saying a few simple words can clear my soul of any horrible things I've done to others. There is also nothing more frightening than to hear that my lack of compliance will result in burning in hell for all of eternity. That, my friends, is a very powerful marketing plan. At worst, it is a form of coercion that would lead Michelle Obama to call the anti-bully police.

Let's be honest for a second: Most black folks would not be Christians were it not for how we were raised. Our mothers took us to church and threatened to beat us if we didn't go. Some find that the consequences of living a double life are less painful than the price of questioning your mother's beliefs. If you see the world in a unique way, you can be chastised, attacked, preached at and told that you've somehow been tainted by too much education. Being given a set of beliefs before you were able to think for yourself is not quite the same as an open-minded search that leads you to conclusions that are not impacted by the actions of those around you. In other words, it is no coincidence that nearly every black person in the south is a Christian, that nearly every person in the middle east is a Muslim and that the vast majority of people in Brazil are Roman Catholic.

When I was set to be married five years ago, I recall some members of my fiance's church turning their noses up at the wedding. It didn't matter that I loved this woman more than anything in the world, or that I was devoted to treating her like my personal princess. All that seemed to matter was that I didn't attend her church or practice her faith. When I was confronted on this issue, I simply said: "The love I have for this woman could only have been created by God. The hatred, disdain and unnecessary condemnation being thrust at us is nothing less than pure evil as far as I'm concerned. So, if you're looking to extract Satan from your life, you might want to start by looking in the mirror."

My point is that if faith is truly a personal spiritual journey, then one man or woman's spiritual conclusions are no less valid than the ones that have been backed up by social norms, peer pressure, pyramid marketing and thousands of years of paperwork. If I search for God individually and come to my own understanding, this cannot be written off as meaningless or incorrect just because I don't do what my neighbors are doing.

Maybe it's ok for us to rethink how we view religion. In fact, I believe that it was God who woke me up this morning and told me to write this article. So, following the orders of the "higher power," I put on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, walked into my office and let my spirit do the typing (just like the authors of the bible, right?). I personally deem this message to be no less authentic, honest or spiritually driven than the messages being heard by Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long or anyone at my daddy's church. None of us has a monopoly on truth.

 

Have to admit I've seen that before. You can be a drug dealing, dead beat father with a criminal record but if you wear a cross around your neck and tell everyone how much you love Jesus, Blacks are willing to let a lot of shit slide or at least think you're a decent person at heart.

 

a bunch of b.s. really. I have never had any oppsition to my religious belief. In fact, I find that people never have any evidence to prove me wrong. I am also one of those who doesn't swing main stream with religion.

 

This is part of the problem with alot of "Christians" - they believe the part about forgiveness, but choose to forget the part about repentance and righteous living.

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Matthew 3:8

Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God

 

This goes for any sin too. So any serial killer or genocidal freak can be forgiven and repent and be accepted into heaven. No matter how many people they killed or in the manner in which they did it.

However, if any of those victims didn't do the same and died, they are doomed to a fate worst then death for the crime of not believing a story in a book or believing in another god, no matter how honest and sincere the belief actually was.

That's what so funny to me in the Casey Anthony case. So she killed her kid, if she's sincerity sorry and repents to Jesus, she ends up in heaven. What do all those Christians say to her then?

If that doesn't disgust you, nothing will.

 

Actually, I think they are disgusted but they block out the disgust to maintain their 'relationship' with their god. The fact that none of them responded to your post is a prime example of what I mean. Walk away, cover your ears, shut your eyes - anything to evade the lunacy and horribleness of Abrahamic religions.

 

hmm..

Sometimes I honestly think the churches hold us back.

 

As an adult looking back, it was a cognitive luxury being raised without any of that stuff.

No religion
No superstition
Not even referring to irony as 'karma'.

I didn't even know there were people that took any of that stuff serious until early adulthood.

 

I feel your afrocentric view on religion but thats a gross and absurd overgeneralized view on religion period. Religion itself is an organized structure of spirituality- which pretty much every single culture on Earth has. Though I hate the politics of religion, they all share central ideas on how to: be a good person, live your life and help others.

 

John 3:16. Emphasis on the word "whosoever." Christians don't set the requirements, God does.

(While you're at it, read Romans 14:11 & Philippians 2:10. Emphasis on the word "every." Jus sayin.)

 

I don't see how this has anything to do with what I just said or how it in any way proves the existence of God. I don't know why people try to use the Bible to prove the Bible. That's like me trying to use J.K. Rowling's books to prove that Harry Potter is real.

 

I should've quoted wayne317 not you. My post was more an answer to his post.

 

Though these ideas were more or less written through many of its doctrines, the purpose of any religious institution is simply to amass and control an entire population through the use of superstition and fundamental ideology. Religion, spirituality, God, etc...all man made conceived ideas. The reasons varies between individuals, but there is a collective reasoning behind it, though not explicitly shown or demonstrated.

 

:smt081

 

Prove me wrong then.

 

Only the Holy Spirit can do that. I can only testify to what I believe to be true. I simply can't believe that God was man's idea. Nor that this world created itself.

 

Of course. Yet, subliminally, humans like to be defined. It's a sad reality, but the day labels come to end would be the day humans would struggle to find a new sense of reassurance of their own existence.

 

I see where you are coming but I really don't buy into any of that crap. I don't believe Jesus was blond haired and blue eyed just as much as I don't believe he was black.

 

Very well.