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Dude! Who told you Jesus had blue eyes? He was a Jew. He had brown eyes. Deal with it.
Africans are like Native Americans: they practice their own spiritual traditions alongside Christianity (those who who have adopted Christianity. Many haven't). Why haven't people like you ever taken a class in African history or culture, or ever bothered to educate themselves on those topics? It's not as if you don't have any research tools at your disposal.
Yes, I know that JC was of jewish extraction, but he is portrayed as blond, blue eyed in some churches. I'm much more interested in learning about African American culture than Africans. But I find it odd when newspaper articles are always claiming that the catholics and mormons are experiencing rapid growth in African countries, which begs the question, "why don't the Africans have religions of their own?", and what makes the white man's religions so appealing to them? fyi, I went to st patricks church in San Francisco and saw a statue of a black jesus in the back of the church! What a shock that was.
Some of the Christian sects are heavily into proselytizing. That gets results if you push long enough on people. Islam spread its creed over into India at one time, and through much of Central Asia. Buddhism did the same, in its time. Buddhism was adopted by Indo-European communities living in Central Asia in ancient times, and by descendants of Alexander the Great's Greeks in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and that general region. It hasn't always been about Europeans spreading Christianity to more "primitive" peoples. Asians have spread their creeds to European peoples as well.
The Central Asians, Mongols, Tibetans, and related peoples practiced shamanism and had their own sky god, Earth Goddess and pantheon before Islam and Buddhism. When those religions were sold to them, they were told their own religions were backward and evil. In the case of the Mongol region and Tibet, the people refused to give up their own religion, so Buddhist monk-proselytizers had to incorporate elements of shamanism and goddess-worship into Buddhism.
Often, that's how Christianity was spread, as well. The local religions blended in with the new religion; traditional deities became Catholic saints, for example. If you go to Guatemala or southern Mexico and look at Mayan people worshipping, it's not going to look much like any Christianity you know. Some African peoples do the same. Others go to church and do the whole goody-two-shoes thing, but at home they practice their own traditions.
It's not as cut-and-dried as you think. The old religions are alive and well. They've merely made room for a new religion alongside the old one. There's a term for this in Russian: "dual faith". The Orthodox Church faced similar challenges not only in obvious places like Siberia, but even among East European peoples, who to this day retain aspects of pre-Christian spirituality. This gets labeled "superstition", but that doesn't stop anyone from practicing it.
Indigenous religions are not cast aside so easily. A few people may allow themselves to be brainwashed into abandoning their traditions, but most people either practice the old and the new separately (dual faith), or they create a synthesis of old and new. The Church usually helps them incorporate elements of their tradition into Church doctrine, in order to gain converts.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 07-08-2013 at 11:30 PM..
Voodoo, which Hollywood predictably mis-depicts as sticking pins in dolls, is the fundamental spiritual faith brought from West Africa to the Americas on the slave ships. It meets all the criteria associated with a pre-literate religion, including a theology, but of course has no written scriptures to congeal the various aspects of into an organized "religion" with a "book" to give it an aura of perpetual authority. In West Africa, I found many manifestations of Voodoo in the daily lives of the people, who take it very seriously alongside the attractive and narcotic trappings of Christian pageantry, none of which they regard as being in any kind of conflict with each other. West Africans who have nominally converted to Christianity still fear Voodoo more than they fear the thundrous Old-Testament God and all his implied gratuitous terror. They think Jesus is just another of the many spirits that walk among them, but one that it is a lot of fun to get dressed up and sing and shout about together in elaborate buildings that strangers have come and built for them. The Christians brought group pageantry, and Africans love pageantry.
No, I actually am inquisitive about other worldly things. I am a bit lazy when it comes to research and like firsthand comments from people. That being said, I wouldn't want even more prejudiced african people emigrating to my country. They can fester in their own intolerant countries.
Ahem so the lazy way is to post on CD and spoon feed you instead of doing your own research ?
I wouldn't want even more prejudiced african people emigrating to my country. They can fester in their own intolerant countries.
They don't need to fester in their own intolerant countries. They can emigrate to your tolerant country, where nobody is prejudiced and nobody objects to their immigrating.
No, he made a huge incorrect assumption and then asked questions based on his assumption. The proper question would have been "Do Africans have their own indigenous religions?" And then he could have explained that he has never heard of any.
But then s/he'd have to admit to himself and the greater world that s/he is ignorant. Unfortunately s/he's too arrogant to do that.....like a typical American.
There are just so many things wrong with your post. For one, I believe Islam is more prevalent. .
I'd disagree with that. Christianity is much more prevalent in black Africa than Islam. At least today. Most sub-Saharan African countries have been colonized and heavily influenced by Christian European countries.
Also, as a side note, Islam is not originally a black religion as it is sometimes portrayed. It originated in the Middle East, just like Christianity. Given this, it's most likely that the founders of both religions looked pretty similar - no blue eyes.
There are a few white man religions that are successful in converting the africans to their religions. African Americans have totally absorbed white mans religion and worship blond blue eyed Jesus. Why have Africans never invented their OWN religions in the way that all other races have?
LOL. What are you talking about? Africans do have their own religions. In addition Christianity existed in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans and European colonialism. Christianity in Africa pre dates the European exploitation of Africa. Christianity didn't even originate in Europe anyway.
Also why aren't you or others calling out the Arabs and Arab slave trade that has been going on in Africa and Arab and Muslim nations and regions and areas since ancient times. If any oppressor or group should be called out it should be the Muslims and Arabs. They are still oppressing and enslaving Africans and trying to influence and change the traditional African cultures. In Arabic they still call black peoples "abd" which means slaves.
Why overlook this?
And there are tons of animist and traditionalist religions in Africa. There are also voodoo like religions in West African nations such as in Benin.
But many dynamics have changed since ancient times when Arabs came in and changed and divided up Africa and imposed racism and categories.
Africans were NEVER one monolithic people. They never were. They were all individuals and all unique.
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