FORUM:
Schomburg Library in Harlem, NY
Understanding Black Theology: A 40-Year Retrospective
Monday, May 12, 2008, 6:30 PM
Black Liberation Theology is a product of the black power movement of the 1960s.
It provides the moral, ethical, and social foundations of black churches that share a social justice mission and traces its roots back to the original theology of Jesus Christ.
This forum presents a comprehensive survey of the origins, nature, character, and practice of Black Liberation Theology.
This conversation is moderated by Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr., Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, and features guest speakers Dr. James H. Cone, the Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor, Union Theological Seminary; Dr. Dwight N. Hopkins, Professor of Theology, The University of Chicago Divinity School; Dr. Obery Hendricks, Professor of Biblical Interpretation, New York Theological Seminary; Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church; and Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church, and other guests.
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Dr. Sapphire Mann Ahmed
sapphiremdmph@yahoo.comTo: Panelist
From: Sapphire Mann Ahmed
I attended the “Understanding of Black Theology” seminar last evening. I came away relieved to hear that most of the panelists support much of Reverend Wright’s rights to speak on social maladies and interpret the Bible from a non-slave master perspective.
On the other hand, I was disappointed because I believe that African Americans are still intimately tied to a religion that is intrinsically flawed with White Supremacy. This is why you will never be welcomed into European Christian Churches. Christianity is a white man’s religion to maintain his superiority. If Jesus came back as Indian, Chinese or African, all Europeans would convert to something else, stat! The Black Church focus continues to be not on GOD (the invisible), rather on Jesus, a man, who will forever be white in the minds of Europeans and you.
In order for Africans, Asians, South Americans and non-European ethnic groups to plant the seeds of complete freedom in their people, they must abandon, not the words or service of Jesus, but the GOD Jesus image. The sparrow must be an invisible, un-divisible, neither male nor female POWER/CREATOR that energized and gave life to Jesus and Eve/Adam and all the billions of humans that came and lived between them. GOD (the so-called Father) must be the focus of prayer and glory ALONE. Like many Muslims are distorting the religion of Islam with Mohammedanism, Christians have completely contaminated and perverted the beliefs of Jesus with Christianity. Jesus never organized a religion and never said glorify me. He came to purify the same word and directives that were given to Eve, Adam, Noah, Abraham and Muhammad. Please, free the people from the focus on humans for energy! You are doing a disservice to your people and to your own souls.
Think! Reason! Why would GOD choose a man child over a woman? Or a “white child over a black or yellow child”? There are more Chinese and Asian children of GOD on this planet do they not have Prophets and a GOD in their image? All archaeological evidence reveals that God’s first create a human soul which was clothed or materialized into the bodies of Adam and Eve of African genome. This is scientific evident Black Theology. Adam and Eve who had no human father or mother can not be less than their descendant Jesus; who came to the earth tens of thousand years after billions of people loved by GOD came and left! Please read the so-called Father’s prayer and stop hallowing Jesus name and conjuring up a human image. Follow, but do not focus on Jesus the person because Jesus did not focused on himself. African American youth will never come back to this slave theology even if you do paint Jesus Black because it is obvious that human arrogance has created this Jesus/man-GOD phenomenon that Europeans have patented.
Finally, please do not organize a Black Theology program without participation of the Nation of Islam, Black Hebrews and other Black religious views. Also, I urge you to recognize that the basis of Malcolm Shabazz’s Blackness was Islam. Furthermore, it is inappropriate to give credit to Dr. Cone as a leader yet ignore the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm’s teacher. It is odd that so-called Black Nationalist and Black Theologians seem to hate to focus on the ‘Muslim’ of Malcolm and they rarely give credit to Malcolm’s teacher. This, I believe, is part of the narrow-mindedness and self hypocrisy of many so-called Black Theologians. However, Reverend Wright is no deceived Negro pastor. He knows that truth is not limited to the Bible or Christianity. “Different but not defiant” is the Islamic view of GOD that was expressed by Black Muslims as Malcolm X. Islam is a theology of Africa just as Christianity and Judaism are of Africa. All these major originally monolithic religions were borne in and of Abyssinia and the Abyssinians peoples. John Henry Clark was wrong! These are original African (including the African Peninsular of Arabia) religions in their original form. It is their tainted forms that have been re- imported into Africa by others that keeps us mentally en-slaved. There are no original major religions out of Europe. All Europeans are the coverts and the conversions factor of all these religions.
It is time to move the bar. Or as Brother Hendricks (corrected), the theologian suggested, the few surviving Black Churches are going in the same direction as the Black funeral homes, to the white man’s mega church industry that will push materialism and selfishness, in the name of Jesus, AMEN!
I am neither a Black Muslim nor Black Christian. I have not organization affiliation.
I am an African American woman whose mother was AME and father was Southern Baptist. I maintain my faith in the GOD of my mind from birth, God the Creator of every thing. Like LOVE, this God embodies and is sensed but not physically visible in the literal. God should never be reduced to a man or woman or child of any color.
I love the words of Rev. Wright so did most Blacks except that some were scared to stupidity that his speech was going to hurt Obama changes. Rev. Wright was God sent in my view. He was Malcolm and Martin in one on international display. He was animated for reasons yet to be understood but I think that I understand. Every African child in America and in the world needs to listen to Rev. Wright’s “different but not deficient speech” every Sunday. It should be preached every first Sunday for at least one year. Rev. Wright speech to the NAACP was the best interfaith speech but those who are the Deceivers will try to portray the opposite. But God is designing so let them go on planning and plotting.Dr. Sapphire Mann Ahmed
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