For Caribbean persons, is Christianity just a brainwashing from slavery? YES or NO?
This topic was debated by my friends and I all during this week. First off, before I pick let's do a little history. When the Europeans created the slave trade and the Africans were captured and brought from Africa to the Caribbean to work as slaves. Once here, they were completely stripped of their identity and one of the methods used, especially by the Spaniards, was to force the Christian faith on the African slaves.
Furthermore, Christianity was used as a means to justify slavery and convince the slaves that the harsh conditions they were put in were righteous. Now, many years later, the majority of us Caribbean people have accepted Christianity as our belief but, is it really our choice or a predetermined choice because of our enslaved ancestry?
For me, I know it is my choice, and I believe that Christianity is more than just a brainwashing. I don't deny the history of it but it was the malice and hypocrisy of the whites at that time, which corrupted the reputation of the religion. I will also not deny the fact that many of us Caribbean people are just walking around with the title "Christian" because of the teachings of our parents and grandparents and not actually living the Christian life.
My conclusion, Christianity is a choice, it only remains a form of brainwashing if you follow it with no meaningful resolve or reason for doing so.
I must say i agree with you for once on it being a choice. There are so many people who blindly follow and they can not answer when you put their faith to the test.
ReplyDeleteImagine this, in America they are no longer allowed to pray in schools yet here we are praying before we do every little thing. what is going on? do we not have a mind of our own.
Maybe that's why America going through all the stress it going through :D. But on a serious note, we gotta make sure we practice religion with purpose or else we are just acting like puppets of slavery.
DeleteI believe religion is not a choice until adulthood. When growing up most likely the religion of our parents is forced upon us so we have no "say" until we become adults where we can "say" on our own! But my problem is that people fail to accept others for their religious views just become of the "My religion is right" mentality. Which is why I agree with the fact that there shouldn't be any religious activity in schools unless the school itself is based on one religion! And now that I'm thinker deeper... I'll just say that I believe people of African decent don't belong in Christianity. Many of us have accepted but in all honesty this isn't who we were and so I see it as a gigantic wall between us now and our former religious activities because we don't know what it was like.
ReplyDeleteFair point
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