The Destruction of the Black American Community through the Destruction of the Black American Church

“This is why I left the church!” is an all too familiar phrase we are hearing more and more in Black American communities regarding their relationship with the church. Interestingly enough, the reason why many are leaving may be deeper than the surface presentation of offense and disagreement. In truth, upon examination, one may find the core issue isn’t so much what people believe it is — instead it is the realization of a disconnect. The question is, what is this disconnect, and when/where did it occur?

Forgotten History

The biggest detriment to the Black American Church is the generational gap that creates the atmosphere for a lost history. A lost history creates a lost people. A lost people creates trauma, conflict, strife, discord, division, and more, all often rooted in misunderstanding. The Bible says “with all thy getting get understanding” (KJV). The Bible teaches us to seek wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. My personal definition of wisdom, after the fear of God which is the beginning (Bible), is knowledge applied through understanding. Knowledge puffs up, but knowledge with understanding abases — creating humility, and cultivates godly wisdom.

This lost history of the Black American Church has fueled misunderstanding and a rejection of the very fabric of Black American culture. This rejection of history has created a generational gap that has been exploited as more and more controversy, tension, and disagreement emerges and evolves. A conflict directly impacting the condition of Black American communities. A conflict that, if resolved, could very well be the elixir our communities have been looking for to replace the bandaids that have consistently been applied to the deep wounds of Black America.

What Is This History?

This history of the Black American Church is essential to the history of Black Americans. Whether one agrees with how the Bible was manipulated to justify the horrors of American slavery or not, you cannot deny the central role that faith played in the life of Black Americans before, during, and after, the transatlantic slave trade.

Before the transatlantic slave trade, Bible believers existed in Africa. In fact the continent Africa was initially known as Egypt and Ethiopia. Prior to that history shows the following:

“The Kemetic or Alkebulan history of Afrika suggests that the ancient name of the continent was Alkebulan. The word Alkebu-Ian is the oldest and the only word of indigenous origin. Alkebulan meaning the garden of Eden or the mother of mankind.” The reason this matters is for a couple of reasons.

First, the word Kemetic has Semitic origins. In the Bible, according to the story of Noah in Genesis chapters 5–9, there were three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japeth. Shem is where the Semitic peoples originate, Ham is where the Hamitic people originate. The importance here is to understand how ancient linguistics functioned regarding the pronunciation of words and letters. Specifically the Semitic languages and how they pronounced the “h”. The “h” was often spoken with a “k” sound, so when we see the paragraph above refers to the earliest language used to describe or name “Africa” as Kemetic, then we can understand this to reference Hamitic, or Ham. In other words, the language that refers to the original meaning of “Africa” as the “motherland” or “Garden of Eden” is not only biblically accurate, it is historically accurate as well. Moreover, the language used is directly connected to descendants of Noah.

Now, this does not mean that only Hamitic people existed in Africa. This is understood because other names given to Africa were Libya, Egypt, and Ethiopia. It was not until Romans arrived that the entire continent began to gain the title of Africa. Prior to then, historically, references to Egypt and Ethiopia were speaking of the entire continent of which many Romans and Greeks were unaware existed. There is very rich history of the East that many western people were simply unaware of. Evidence of this is withing the historical accounts of the various conflicts and wars found in the bible wherein we do not see Greek or Roman influence until the New Testament, several centuries after ages of history had been unfolding. The story of Israel and Moses in Egypt (Africa) is telling in itself.

What Does This Mean?

This history is key because it disannuls many arguments that the Bible arrived in Africa after colonizers. In truth, the Bible and its people existed in Africa quite possibly from the onset of creation. If not at creation, historically they existed, lived in, fought in and around, traveled to and from, traded with, and overall had a presence within the continent. Beyond that, the Bible shows that Bible faith and lineages of the Bible were present before the arrival of Jesus (Yeshua) and after the crucifixion.

This means the history of who we deem as “Black” in America is inseparable from Bible faith as the Bible shows in Acts 8:26–39 that in the first century Hebrews were in Africa, aka “Ethiopia”. At the time, at least until Acts 10, the only people still viewed as God’s people were Hebrew descendants. So when the Bible says “the Ethiopian Eunuch”, we know that the man being identified was a Hebrew from Africa. He was traveling to Jerusalem to participate in a holiday (holy day), something only Hebrews did.

Later in the New Testament we see similar parallels regarding confusion around the ethnicity of Paul the Apostle. Acts 21:27–40 shows that Paul, a Roman citizen was mistaken as an Egyptian (African). To their surprise, he spoke Greek/Roman. After asserting his citizenship he was allowed to address the crowd in Hebrew. Again this shows the history of Biblical faith among who we know as “Black” people. Fast forward to the transatlantic slave trade which started between the 15th and 16th centuries, more than 1,400 years after these incidents in the book of Acts occurred. Other history regarding Constantine and his relationship with the church also prove that Bible faith was present in Africa prior to 300 AD.

Now that we see the pre-slavery history, we must understand that during the slave trade, Africans sold other Africans, whom they deemed as foreigners, to the Europeans as slaves. There were Hamitic (Kemetic) “Black” people who viewed themselves as native to the land (consistent with the story of Noah) and Semitic “Black” people whom the Kemetics viewed as “other”. This is a similar pattern seen around the world where those of similar appearance physically would oppress and enslave those they deemed as “other”. This concept is difficult for us to process in modern society because of the social engineering of race which erased the original identifiers people carried, i.e. tribal/clan names-which are ultimately based on their culture's faith, forefathers’ names, and other cultural identifiers.

Essential Center of Culture and Community

This means that before, during, and after slavery in the Transatlantic empires, who we deem as “Black” people already had faith in the Bible and in the same way that spirituality was the foundation and center of civilizations around the Earth, it was the same for Black Americans. This is why the church was so central to Black America. This is why there are so many Biblical references observed in encoded communications during slavery and among runaways — especially the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman being referred to as Moses and the slavers being viewed as Phaorh or the Egyptians.

This rich history is why we see the establishment of Faith as integral to Black American communities. Through repetitive domestic terrorism, oppression, and outright humanitarian violations of gruesome proportions, Black Americans were deemed as “other” and less than human. Because of these atrocities and a hellish system of discrimination, the Black American church became the anchor of Black American culture as the church became our community’s safe space. It was our school, our recreation center, our community meeting space, our headquarters. The church is the place where, when it wasn’t being bombed, we were free to be. Free to be leaders, free to be valued as God’s special people, free to be dignified, free to laugh, party, and play. The Church was our freedom.

Over time, the Civil Rights movement — fueled by the church — became the very thing that eventually led to its demise. With bounds toward some form of equality, newfound freedoms began to cultivate a feeling of indifference to what was so essential for centuries in America for Black Americans. There was a sense of irrelevance that became imminent as Black Americans integrated into society and adopted other ideologies, cultures, and philosophies which were contrary to the very history, culture, and traditions of our community and those of our ancestors. As our grandparents and great-grandparents tried to hold on to this value and pass along the culture, tradition, and history, younger generations drunk on their newfound freedom rejected this history and is wealth, and subsequently, the self-destruction of our communities soon followed. Many of what plagues our community would not have gained the dominance it has if this foundation of our community was left intact.

The Church Hasn’t Done Anything, So How is This True?

The reason why the church hasn’t done anything is because the damage has already been done. Core values are not deemed important so the power and influence of the church in truth has become irrelevant to many. The foundation of Bible faith itself has become one of subjective truth, open to personal interpretation instead of the premise of absolute truth which has one interpretation — that which is of itself. There are many influences as to what perpetuates this dysfunction, misunderstanding, and generational gap, some of which are captured in two books I highly recommend: Misreading Scriptures with Western Eyes and Misreading Scriptures with Individualist Eyes.

Conclusion

There are many attempts to solve the problems which plague our community, but the core problem must be addressed. Many in the Black American community resist the Bible and Church as a whole because of how it has been weaponized against us. Historically a strong tactic for dominating a culture is to find the source of its strength and separate it from the people you wish to dominate. The Bible and its constructs were essential to the livelihood, protection, upliftment, and advancement of the Black American people, and historically, it is observable that the destruction of this root of our history and tradition has led to a direct correlation to the increase of everything that plagues and cripples our communities. If we want to solve the problems we have to restore what was broken. This cannot happen until people understand the truth.