Tuesday, September 13, 2016

I am not ashamed of being more Christian than Black.

This past weekend, I have been reading passages of this book by Kimberley Cash Tate.  She is an author who is not ashamed for Jesus Christ.  She wrote this book called "More Christian Than African American".  I highly recommend this book, so far.  It is about a young woman who admitted that her identity was shaped by our heritage as black Americans.  She later got saved and her views on race have been transformed.

Why have I written this today of all days?  I have had obsessive thoughts about race, racism, and social class and social status as it relates to the issue of race.  My obsession became one about how black people are being viewed and how we have been treated during the eons of time.  Black people just like the rest of us have made mark after mark and contributed to the human race just like all others.

Christianity is not a white man's religion nor is it a black man's religion.  The Bible is not and should never be about professing Christian believers taking apart scripture to justify ungodly positions.  That is what I believed happened to our African ancestors, who came to various parts of the continent. I read that the slaves saw through the deception of the European masters.  Christianity in the black American community is a mix of African and European beliefs.  America is the land of a mixing or races, and cultures from Africa, Europe, Asia, and the American indigenous.

The first Christians came in a variety of shades, including black Africans and Semites from Israel. The first Christians were blacks, Semites, and Persians among others.  I believe that while our black ancestors were exposed to Christianity, it was a Semite who baptized an Ethiopian eunuch and Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament was a Jew who risked his life and freedom to spread Christianity to the Europeans.  Christianity was first a Middle Eastern, African, and Central Asian religion as Persians (or rather Parthians, Elamites, and Medes) and Arabs were among the believers who received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Correct me if I am wrong, but all that I have written so far are based on biblical and historical fact.

I have had thoughts about this for a while and even thought by some Christianity is a white man's religion, Jesus Christ suffered for all of us, Semite, African, Asian, Central Asian, or European.  That is the truth.  I myself consider being a Christian more than black American is the way to describe me. Christianity is not a black man's religion or a white man's religion, or an Asian man's religion either. It is so sad that we as believers in Christ would allow lies to be spread about Christianity (namely Jesus), live lives contrary to the word while being unrepentant, or allow ourselves to be divided.

I wish I had more thoughts about that.  I also realize that the truth does indeed set one free.  I finally find myself reveling over my thoughts and feeling anger and even "hatred" and doing nothing about it.  I am so glad that I finally expressed my views on Christianity as it truly is. Jesus doesn't see color the way man does, but the Holy Trinity made me, a black person, in His image and in his likeness. It was annoying to have these thoughts about race and racism yet I did nothing to learn the truth or live what is true for myself.  I am not ashamed of my heritage, but I am not ashamed of being a child of the Lord and a joint-heir to my Judge, Jesus Christ.  

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