Spiritual Slavery is the Root of Bondage
Why do you think white people gave White Christianity to the enslaved?
It damn sure wasn’t because white people wanted to bring Africans to Christ. Clearly, white people don’t know Christ.
I mean…a people are freed by Christ from their bondage, come out of the Dark Ages, into the “Enlightenment,” and the first thing they do is go an a rampage to “exterminate all the brutes” & put all those who survive into some form of bondage?
Clearly, they missed the liberative message of the Gospel.
So, why did white people give their heretical brand of Christianity to the enslaved?
They understood that the mind and body will go no further than the soul allows. So, if they control you soul…if white power establishes the heights to which your spirit can rise, you yourself will limit your mind and body to the freedom they have allowed.
Now understand this: it wasn’t until the 1840’s that white people began a mass (white) christian-ing effort. In “the Big Cycle,” internal conflict was definitely brewing. They had recently experienced the “horror” of Nat Turner’s “rebellion.” And so, white power began an effort to ensure that Domestic Missionary Societies were committed to the white-christianization of “every Negro in this country.”
So…why did they give us Christianity? And why do we still have anything to do with their Christianity, or any Christianity derived from theirs, to include the Black Church?
For those of you who are reading even after that last question, the question we must first answer is: What is the single greatest detriment to the descendants of the enslaved, caused by our spiritual slavery?
The inability to break free from our enslavers, even though the physical chains have been removed and we’ve been allowed to read.
Spiritual slavery is the reason why although we have been freed from plantations, explicit Black Codes and Jim Crow segregation, we remain under the authoritarian control of white power and those empowered to protect and serve white power. We cannot envision a world where Black Lives Matter, that doesn’t depend upon white America respecting our rights as free people.
Spiritual slavery is the reason why although we have many highly educated negroes in every field of intellectual and civic pursuit, the Black community remains wholly and solely dependent upon politicians – and then upon politicians given to us, not any who are owned by us. #PowerNomics
We cannot think beyond the box that has been presented to us. Our options have been provided. We are “free to choose” from options we didn’t choose. That is spiritual slavery.
Spiritual slavery is the reason why although white America remains unrepentant in her stance toward Black people, we demand/hope for/expect and will accept “reparations” that won’t make us a people who do not need to interact with them, or their system, in order to live.
The Souls of Black Folk have become yoked to the lifestyle of our enslavers.
And the problem is that most of us don’t see the problem with that.
We are the American White Man’s niggers!!!
With all the niggers throughout the world catching hell…with all the niggers throughout the world dependent upon the white man…with all the niggers all over the world literally looking to the American white man for help…
As far as it goes for African people in this world, we are the Blacks who have US Citizenship…by birth!
Like poor whites in Appalachia, the “Rust Belt” and the “Bible Belt” have their whiteness as comfort to silently endure being screwed by the shitstem (at least I ain’t a nigger), Black Americans have our “Americanness” as comfort to silently endure being screwed by the shitstem.
With all the colored people of the world clamoring for US Citizenship, we subconsciously know that we have that thing, that thing, that thing…that “every other colored person” in this world, wants.
Mark 8:36
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Black People: have we not come to prefer the niceties we’ve gained access to in the land of our bondage, at the expense of our own souls?
What is indeed “better?” To have gained access to all the things of the (“developed”) world? Or to have kept our souls?
Is it better to have all the comforts & conveniences? Or would it be better to be “undeveloped” or “shit-hole” by their standards? For what is “undeveloped?” What is a shit-hole?
Is “developed” simply in regards to one singular aspect of the self, dissected from all other aspects? Is it merely a matter of “reason,” & the “technological advances” of white society?
Or might “developed” consider the whole of the self? Or might the “developed” human and society be the one where reason, experience and intuition are fully actualized? Might “developed” be a society of people attuned to…able to – and willing to – submit to the Spirit that connects all Life?
And might a society that actually has the ability and potential to become Beloved Community be considered more “developed” than one that we know consistently and willingly betrays truth and love?
Again, It wasn’t until the 1840’s that white people began a mass (white) christian-ing effort. There may have been some enslavers who made their slaves Christian before then. There may have been some who even tried to be Christian. But, it wasn’t until the 1840’s that a collective and concerted effort was made by white people to “spread the gospel” to Black people.
They gave us Christianity as a means to keep us under control, while allowing us to think we are free. If for no other reason, white power needed to keep niggers in America in order to keep a floor below the poor whites they exploit. #AtLeastIAintANigger
And they gave us a faith that sees favor with whiteness and acquisition of white luxuries as markings of God’s favor in our life.
Garvey said and Marley put to song: “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for none but ourselves can free our mind.” Yet, I am saying that we must emancipate ourselves from spiritual slavery for unless we ourselves free our spirits, we will always remain in bondage no matter how free we think and feel that we are.
Have you ever consciously and intentionally freed yourself from the spiritual plantation in which white Christians set you? Have you examined your faith and the beliefs of your faith in order to determine and ensure that they are not sourced from depraved – white supremacist – roots?
Even the “Black theology.” Have you ensured that its roots are not merely a dispute with some problematic piece of white theology? Have you ensured the practices of your faith do not reinforce the spirit of your oppression? For instance, are you tired of all these slave movies, but still jumping brooms and lighting unity candles at your weddings?
Believe me, I get it…
I am constantly uncovering more oppressive residue that my soul needs to shed. That’s the only reason I have anything to share with you. It is all what the Spirit has brought me to confront. And having confronted, my love compels me to share with those who would be truly free.
I can assure you: I will not ask you to abandon the Way of Jesus Christ. Rather, I am asking you to abandon White Jesus, who is the antichrist, and embrace Eyesus Kristos – the Jesus Who was and is and is to come. I am inviting you to embrace the Way as it has been proclaimed and practiced in the Land of the Free People, i.e. Beher Ge’eze, b.k.a Ethiopia.
Do you want to get free? Do you want to be agehazit (i.e. “free people” or “Ethiopian”)? Come, let us become followers of Medhane Alem (i.e. “the world’s medicine” or “the Savior of the World,” b.k.a. Jesus Christ).
Click here to continue this journey, and you’ll receive a short booklet compiled by an early mentor of mine, now deceased, His Grace Abuna (Bishop) Gabriel, where he provides a brief overview of the Christian faith as proclaimed and practiced by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. And once you get the download, you’ll have my email. So, as you have any questions, please reach out so that we might discuss and find answers, by God’s grace.
In peace and with love,
Fr. Jabriel