Stephan: What very few people in the United States seem to realize is that what passes for Christianity in this country has, and has for centuries, been intertwined with White Supremacy. Virtually every White slave owner saw themselves as a Christian, as does every KKK member. They don't burn crosses because they are Jews.
Of course, they don't teach this history in schools, yet it has pervaded every aspect of the Christian faith except the Quakers who, from the 18th century on were abolitionists.
For instance, were you told that in 1852 when the LDS (Mormon) Church was just getting started, Brigham Young, the president of the church pronounced that Black men could not become priests in the church, and that this did not change until well into the 20th century? If you look at the taboo history of Christianity in the United States you discover that the most frequently invoked justifications for White Supremacy are grounded in the Bible. This piece by an npr correspondent lays out some of the issues very well. In my opinion the real facts about slavery and White Supremacy should be required in courses on American history.
When a young Southern Baptist pastor named Alan Cross arrived in Montgomery, Ala., in January 2000, he knew it was where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had his first church and where Rosa Parks helped launched the famous bus boycott, but he didn’t know some other details of the city’s role in civil rights history.
The more he learned, the more troubled he became by one event in particular: the savage attack in May 1961 on a busload of Black and white Freedom Riders who had traveled defiantly together to Montgomery in a challenge to segregation. Over the next 15 years, Cross, who is white, would regularly take people to the old Greyhound depot in Montgomery to highlight what happened that spring day.
“They pull in right here, on the side,” Cross said, standing in front of the depot. “And it was quiet when they got here. But then once they start getting off the bus, around 500 people come out – men, women and children. Men were holding the Freedom Riders back, and the women were […]
Thanks for posting this.I followed the link and what a powerful article. Made me do some serious thinking.