The cruelties and oppression of slavery remain a dark stain in the history of the United States. Slaveowners frequently utilized Christianity as a means to justify their oppressive behavior. Christianity allowed them to hide behind misconstrued scriptures and parables that proclaimed whipping and torturing other humans as acceptable. Slave owners made Christianity a tool to ensure submission, all the while vigorously forcing the slaves to embrace this foreign religion. Christianity still functions as a tool to ensure submission. Many radical and extremists Christians from the United States and other developed countries travel to impoverished nations such as Uganda, and teach these people to hate homosexuals and those who do not conform to Western
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In the 1800s, the black community began to embrace in christianity, and through tradition, remain socially conservative on issues such as suicide, substance abuse, and organized crimes. The black church plays a major role in supporting political rights for people of color; however, when it comes to issues such as suicide, blacks tend to hold a conservative stance. Author Kevin Early interviewed pastors for his novel Religion and Suicide in the African-American Community, and discovered that the black church sees homosexuality, suicide, crime and substance abuse as sins. However, very rarely is suicide preached about in sermons because “there are many pressing spiritual and social problems that need frequent addressing from the pulpit, but suicide is not one of them.” This belief that suicide is a sin and simply unacceptable influenced the black community’s culture. These morals from the black church transfigured themselves into the black community and the culture itself. Early’s book, defines suicide as “unthinkable for black people.” Statistically, suicide is lower in the black community and many believe that blacks do not handled issues with suicide; rather it appears that substance abuse, a more prevalent issue, took its place. One pastor, in Kevin Early’s novel, states that suicide “is almost a complete denial of black identity and culture” and in the words of the first pastor interviewed, “suicide is a white thing.” To commit suicide in the black church remains unthinkable and “assumed [to be] outside the black experience and it was simply not done.” The black church condemns both organized crime and substance abuse and sees them as very wrong; however, the origin of the behavior is understood. The black church evaluates crime and substance abuse as understandable because often they “stem from environmental factors, societal conditions, economic
In the 1800s, the black community began to embrace in christianity, and through tradition, remain socially conservative on issues such as suicide, substance abuse, and organized crimes. The black church plays a major role in supporting political rights for people of color; however, when it comes to issues such as suicide, blacks tend to hold a conservative stance. Author Kevin Early interviewed pastors for his novel Religion and Suicide in the African-American Community, and discovered that the black church sees homosexuality, suicide, crime and substance abuse as sins. However, very rarely is suicide preached about in sermons because “there are many pressing spiritual and social problems that need frequent addressing from the pulpit, but suicide is not one of them.” This belief that suicide is a sin and simply unacceptable influenced the black community’s culture. These morals from the black church transfigured themselves into the black community and the culture itself. Early’s book, defines suicide as “unthinkable for black people.” Statistically, suicide is lower in the black community and many believe that blacks do not handled issues with suicide; rather it appears that substance abuse, a more prevalent issue, took its place. One pastor, in Kevin Early’s novel, states that suicide “is almost a complete denial of black identity and culture” and in the words of the first pastor interviewed, “suicide is a white thing.” To commit suicide in the black church remains unthinkable and “assumed [to be] outside the black experience and it was simply not done.” The black church condemns both organized crime and substance abuse and sees them as very wrong; however, the origin of the behavior is understood. The black church evaluates crime and substance abuse as understandable because often they “stem from environmental factors, societal conditions, economic