Christians used the Bible and the story of Noah’s son Canaan and the curse of Ham to justify keeping black men in bondage. From their perspective, God originally made all men white and black men were black because God cursed them. The religion that many African Americans follow so blindly, is a result of that doctrine.
The church, through its clergy and as an institution, supported and encouraged the very onset of the European slave trade, as well as attitudes about Africa and Africans as being heathens without the knowledge of a supreme being. Thus slavery involved absolute obedience, which the clergy and slave masters tried to instill.
Today this blind ignorance continues to enslave just as slavemasters did prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The main problem is that the message, albeit hidden in Scripture, is presented in the form of greed and material gain. And unfortunately, many who believe and accept these teachings without question, manifest a psychopathy that makes them venerate men as opposed to worshipping God. Many members of the church behave just like the groupies who adore movie stars, rappers and star athletes.
The situation confronting Bishop Eddie Long has also been prevalent in white churches, but unlike African Americans, whites were never slaves nor forced to accept a religion without question. And I am not picking on ministers, for it was Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1960 stated that he was “sick and tired of seeing Negro preachers riding around in big cars and living in big houses and not concerned about the problems of the people who made it possible for them to get these things.” –torrance stephens, ph.d.
