This space was not operational during what was mostly a one-sided public discussion rather than an honest, healthy debate about the movie "Passion of the Christ."
There was a lot to consider as that production pulled at the heartstrings of folk who forgot (or perhaps never knew) what this most critical story of the foundation of Christianity means in depth vs. how it was depicted by actor who is just another Emperor.
Here alongside Author, Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, Dr. Cornel West provides what may be the most eloquent - and also short - analysis of which passions an authentic movie about Christ might have drawn from its audiences.
Below that, find what will be an expanding presentation of perspectives on Black religiosity and spirituality.
Dr. Cornel West on "The Passion"
"The Cross, where Political Prisoners were put to death"
Sadomasochism:
A combination of sadism and masochism, in particular the deriving of pleasure (or sexual gratification) from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse).
Voyeur (as in Voyeurism) - An obsessive observer of sordid or sensational subjects.
Mahalia Jackson died at the early age of 59 in 1972.
This is she in her later years - great as ever.
"We Shall Overcome."
Traditional Healers in Southern Africa
"In traditional cultures, then, healing emphasizes righting this disequilibrium."
"The diviner begins the session by chanting, and removing his equipment from a leather bag—a cowhorn filled with cowrie shells, metal rings, and bits of other materials.
He spills the contents of the horn on the table, then taps the horn on the stone slab top of the table, which that has air pockets inside so that various tones are produced by striking it in different spots."
The Pope: "You're doing this to an infidel who is outside of God's grace."
The ship ship was called the good ship Jesus . . . the coat of arms on the ship was two Africans bound back to back with their arms tied. So they saw no contradiction in perpetrating" chattel slavery and, "being Christian at the same time."
"That we pass from death to new life is a common belief in African traditions. The christologist B. Bujo holds that the Proto-ancestor is the unique source of life and the "One From Whom All Life Flows".
(A Same Gender Loving woman discusses her evolving relationship with God. This site does not find the term "lesbian" palatable as previously mentioned, but the exposing of the lack of acceptance, intra race bigotry, and how spirituality is used to abuse the people is beautifully communicated here).
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Freedom of Religion for Thee, Not For Me
"Many lived together in shared communities and neighborhoods, went to schools together and visited one another.
Today however, families are kept apart by the religious sectarianism that divides their cities, friendships between Shiites and Sunnis are increasingly strained, and religion has become a social litmus test for one's standing on a whole host of unrelated issues."
"The theology used to enslave and persecute you on Friday can't be the same one to uplift and resurrect you on Sunday," says the Rev. Paul Scott, head of the New Righteous Movement."
"Seventh, Garveyism represented a way of life that did not separate the spiritual from the secular and therefore represented an integrated view of man and indeed a New African Humanism based on the Father/Motherhood of God and the brother/sisterhood of woman/man."
Manila: 80,000 Faithful in Black Nazarene Procession
"More than 80,000 people celebrated today the Black Nazarene, a black statue depicting Jesus bearing the cross to Calvary that is carried in a traditional procession in the streets of central Manila.
"A study of the images of ancient deities of both the Old and New Worlds reveal their Ethiopic origin.
This is noted by Kenneth R. H. Mackezie in T. A. Buckley's Cities of the Ancient World, p. 180: "From the wooly texture of the hair, I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of India, the Fuhi of China, the Sommonacom of the Siamese, the Zaha of the Japanese, and the Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans, the same, and indeed an African, or rather Nubian, origin."
Most of these black gods were regarded as crucified saviors who died to save mankind by being nailed to a cross, or tied to a tree with arms outstretched as if on a cross, or slain violently in some other manner.
Of these crucified saviors, the most prominent were Osiris and Horus of Egypt, Krishna of India, Mithra of Persia, Quetazlcoatl of Mexico, Adonis of Babylonia and Attis of Phrygia.
Nearly all of these slain savior-gods have the following stories related about them:
They are born of a virgin, on or near Dec. 25th (Christmas); their births are heralded by a star; they are born either in a cave or stable; they are slain, commonly by crucifixion; they descend into hell, and rise from the dead at the beginning of Spring (Easter), and finally ascend into heaven.
The parallels between the legendary lives of these pagan messiahs and the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible are so similar that progressive Bible scholars now admit that stories of these heathen Christs have been woven into the life-story of Jesus.
(These remarkable parallels are discussed and interpreted in a pamphlet, Christianity Before Christ, by John G. Jackson, New York, 1938.)"
He had hair like wool, feet the colour of burnt brass, and resembled jasper and sardine stones (Rev. 1:14, 15, Rev 4:3)
"Who benefits"
Vashti McKenzie
Making Black History Sacred: African Spirituality Before Slavery
"How many Blacks who embrace and practice Christianity or Islam know that the oldest sacred spiritual text in the world is titled "The Teachings of Ptahhotep?"
It is the oldest complete book in the world as we know it. It was first published during the Fifth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt."
Why American Needs The Uncensored Voice of the Black Church
"Prophets foretell the future in the name of God, speaking truth to power against injustice while calling us back to God's word and kingdom.
According to Obery Hendricks, prophetic speech is characterized by an overwhelming sense of an encounter with God and a message of moral and political judgment that a prophet feels divinely compelled to proclaim - to change social orders that have stratified inequities of power and privilege and wealth so all can have access to the fullest fruits of life."
"To the tired climbers, the horizon was ever dark, the mists were often cold, the Canaan was always dim and far away.
If, however, the vistas disclosed as yet no goal, no resting-place, little but flattery and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection and self-examination; it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect."
"In the 1960s, Malcolm X contributed to Black Theology by his demand that Blacks love themselves and in doing so, validate their own humanity before the world.
He noted that many Blacks existed in the mental slavery of loving their modern masters and their theology more than they loved their own or themselves."
(Honoring CeCe Winans who has been criticized throughout the right wing, love starved segment of the religious community for performing at the Same Gender Loving affirming Victory Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Her response to that criticism was simply "I will not back down to the enemy, in any way.")
Reverend Dr. Dennis Wiley, Reverend Dr. Christine Wiley
(While certainly affirming the right to marry, your host also opposes the use of the term "civil rights" in relation to marriage equality).
African Christologies: Naming Jesus
"A summary account of the various aspects of African christology, the principles used to develop it through simultaneous attention to African anthropology and culture and the data of revelation, and how this theology enriches and relates to the received formulations of faith."
"The progressive black women of "Jesus, Jobs, and Justice" fought for respect from the male-dominated churches in which they worked, even as they confronted the common enemy of white racism."
"When a person dies, the spirit survives as an ancestral spirit (iDlozi) and is "experienced in a very real sense"3 through dreams and the mediumship of diviners (izangoma).
Diviners and others who are honored or gifted are said to have strong isithunzi and to be beloved of their ancestral spirits." - metmuseum.org
"Vumani"
(A Song For The Diviners)
Suthukazi Arosi (South Africa)
The African Experience of God Through The Eyes of an Akan Woman
"God is experienced as source of women's oppression and Jesus as the author of the exclusion of women from sacramental roles in the Church.
This is the God the Christian tradition wants women to love and obey.
For many women, however, this is a clear substitution of the will of God for the will of the male of the human species.
Many women experience God differently and cannot allow themselves to be subjected to cultural codes that mask the image of God in women.
They experience God as empowering them with a spirituality of resistance to dehumanization."
"Pick yourself up and start all over again . . . I'm not perfect just like you."
The Future of African Gods
"We must understand that when others extend their values, religion and institutions they are penetrating our traditions with the poison of alien power that teaches us to hate ourselves and to love our oppressors.
Meanwhile, they never follow the prescriptions they leave for us."
"For there is a universal striving for freedom in the experience of the poor everywhere. Some call it Jesus Christ, some call it Buddha, and others refuse to personify it at all . . . .
"Founded in 1996 by Hip Hop pioneer and legend KRS-ONE, the Temple Of Hiphop is an international ministry, archive, school and society (M.A.S.S.) movement that teaches Hip Hop beyond entertainment.
Dark Skinned Nativity Scene Angers Conservatives in Verona
"They've also advocated for separate buses and trains for immigrants, banning new mosques, and getting rid of all Chinese and kebab restaurants in the towns where they have the most influence."
"bell, would have us abandon such standards, it appears, as he - a harvard professor of law - turns to the tradition of black spirituality in search of lessons. "
"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land." - Bishop Desmond Tutu
"If it doesn't matter what 'color' Jesus was, then telling the truth shouldn't present a problem." - T. H.
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