This semester has been great with school. My class this semester has been looking at pre-civil war African-American protest literature. The interesting thing is that this literature is largely unread by anyone--unless one's field is Black Studies. Even more astounding is that this literature is largely Christian in nature. For instance, in two weeks I will be doing a presentation for my class on a book called
Sisters of the Spirit. This book features three gospel testimonies of former african american slaves. I am really excited about this class, and just the expansion of knowledge it has been.
So many people advocated slavery in the name of Christianity, but these educated african-american writers and theologians easily saw how evidently contrary these actions were to the gospel. It's a shame that many more didn't have eyes to see in that day--they were blinded by greed, among other things. It makes me wonder though...what are the issues that our churches are blinded to today?
Here is a quote from Henry Highland Garnet that I just read this morning.
Humanity supplicated with tears for the deliverance of the children of Africa. . . Slavery had spread its dark wings of death over the land, the Church stood silently by--the priest prophesied falsely, and the people loved to have it so.
What issues are we standing silently by today?
