What Role Does Race Play In Religion

idea that theology is not universal, but tied to specific historical contexts. In A Black Theology of

This leads to a major issue within the slave community. Slaves possess little knowledge of life outside the plantation or house in which they are working at. This means they have no idea how humans are supposed to be treated, and rather that a “god” would never allow for another to be beaten in such severity. This is an advantage that the slave owners held over the actual slaves. If the slaves were to gain an understanding of the world around them, the “religious” quotes recited by slave owners would quickly lose their worth and soon mean nothing as well as hold no influence over the slaves. Frederick Douglas was fortunate enough to understand this, and even addressed the issue in his life story, “What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference- so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked(71).” Douglas understands that the Christianity practiced by the slave owners was far different from the Christianity intended by Jesus Christ. As Douglas referred to it, the “Slaveholding religion” was prominent throughout the slavery era, not only was this damaging for the slaves,

African firmly believes that there is a living communion or bond of life which makes for solidarity among members of the same family. Before Christianity, Africans did have their own system of salvation. In traditional religions, salvation can and does take the form of courage to face the reality of morality. The church was looked art as a place for political activity, a source of economic cooperation, an agency of social control, and a refuge in a hostile white world. Slaves worshiped with great enthusiasm. Religion, after all, provided a ready refuge from their daily miseries and kindled the hope that one day their sorrows might end. Planter's actually encouraged religious observances among their slaves hoping that exposure to Christian precepts might make their laborers more docile, less prone to run away, and more cooperative and efficient workers. But slaves turned biblical scriptures to their own purposes forging a theology that often emphasized the theme of liberation. It was easy for them to see, for example, in the figure of Moses a useful model for their own dreams; like the Israelites, they too were ready to cross a River Jordan into a promised land of freedom. The religious services held in the quarters provided slaves with so many positive experiences that, even as they were being exploited, they managed bravely, but perhaps not too surprisingly, to feel that they were free within themselves. In this way slaves began to achieve a degree of liberation well

Religion by itself has its own effect on the community, influencing a person's way of thinking. Personal identity is likely to be effected by the religious ideals one may associate with. Countries based around religious ideals, for example Karachi, Pakistan heavily influence one's personal identity, as someone from a strict religious background is likely to have different morals and beliefs compared to someone from a less religious background. This also applies to whether an individual is raised in the Middle East, or a Westernised country. The difference in upbringing moulds the way in which and individual behaves and thinks and thus influences their personal growth and Identity.

Christianity provided African American slaves with hope, because although they were suffering as merely human instruments of work, God was watching them and all of theirs suffering would be rewarded by him. “Slavery, with all its

Black theology can be traced back to when slavery times. During this time Christianity became the blacks man’s purpose of life,

Race and religion are two concepts in American culture that can really tie people together, or clearly separate them apart. A group forged by strong common roots in both race and religion can be a powerful societal force, if it wants to be. The Nation of Islam is a small but growing religion in America that has become somewhat of a social movement because of its strong and radical ideas on race. In this paper, I will try to explore the beliefs of the Nation of Islam, and the ramifications it could and has had on racial relations in America. The Nation of Islam, or NOI, is a relatively new religion. The first temple of Islam was established in Detroit by Master Fard Muhammed in 1930. Much

Long before their contact with whites, Africans were a strongly religious, and deeply spiritual people. During the early history of slavery, the African American spirituality was often seen by whites as a pagan faith. These rituals and dogmas were seen by whites as Voodoo, Hoodoo, Witchcraft, and superstitions. They often commented on these "pagan practices," and fetishes, and were threatened by them. As a result, great effort was put on eradicating these practices, and many were lost within a generation.# Although tremendous efforts was placed on eradicating the “superstitious” religious beliefs of the African slaves, they were not immediately introduced to the religion of white slave masters, Christianity. Many planters resisted the idea of converting slaves to Christianity out of a fear that baptism would change a slave's legal status. The black population was generally untouched by Christianity until the religious revivals of the 1730s and 1740s. The Bible was manipulated to support the institution of slavery and its inhumane practices. Christianity was used to suppress and conform slaves. Slaveholders, priests, and those tied to the Church undermined the beliefs of the millions of African-Americans converts.# White Christianity was used to justify the enslavement of blacks. By the early nineteenth century, slaveholders had adopted the view that Christianity would make slaves more submissive and orderly.

James H. Cone’s God of the Oppressed is his examination of the origin, development, and significance of black theology as it relates to how he and the black Christian community view God. For Cone, in an America seemingly dominated by white theology and the white Christian community’s views of God, it is imperative to acknowledge and attentively listen to the voices of the theologies of other races and what God means to them, especially that of the black community. Cone asserts without hesitation that the God that is referred to in the Bible and black religion is a Deliver of those held captive by the bondage of oppression. Cone not only asserts this viewpoint of God as the Freer of oppressed people, but he validates this assertion through the use of Scripture, the black experience, history, and tradition. Overall, the central theme of this book is that a plethora of factors continually shape and construct a people’s theology and how that theology is significant in regards to how they see God, the world, and themselves.

There is no special blood typing for a specific group that the others won’t have. Black, White mongoloid people all had blood types A, B, AB and O without any measure of prevalence amongst the three major ‘races’. When a person needs blood for whatever reason he gets either type A, B, AB or O without any regard as to which race the donated blood came from. The idea of Caucasian being more intelligent came with Darwin and was carried through to form some of the most warped ideologies mankind has ever had, it gave us communism, Semitism and apartheid. Darwin presented the view that some races were more superior than others especially the Negroid race which he claimed were close descendants of apes because the “looked more like primates”

Unfortunately us humans can't go without seeing something different in another crowd, just because of their differences, whether they are physical, like skin color, or religion differences. You will see good and bad people from your race or, and different races. Then you will be able to demolish hatred towards other people, and prove to yourself, that there are good and bad people, no matter what color or religion they are.

If your religion is Judaism you will most definitely encounter an instance of someone claiming that Judaism is a race. While to practicing Jews Judaism is a religion, outsiders sometimes see it as something that is racial. Judaism is quite the conundrum, is it a race or is it a religion? The answer to this question is that it is both. It’s a religion in the technical sense because it is something people can join into and is the central belief system for a group of people. The racial piece has to do with how others see Jews.

While religion plays a big role in the lives of many throughout the world, there are some people who are non-religious. In fact, a study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2015) reported that 23% of people claimed no religious affiliation in 2014. Those who are unaffiliated with any religious group often identify as an atheist, someone who does not believe in God, or as an agnostic, someone who is unsure if there is a God (Gallup 2014; Kosmin and Keysar 2009; Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 2012; Hirsbrunner, Loeffler, & Rompf, 2012). Surveys show that most non-religious people do not start out this way; instead they choose to become non-religious as adults (Manning, 2013). The non-religious people who choose to reject the dominant beliefs and practices of their culture may sometimes face negative reactions from those around them, including those within their own families (Kalkan, Layman, & Uslaner, 2009; Zimmerman, Smith, Simonson, & Myers, 2015).

After an overnight flight and a six hour time shift, our Calvary Church delegation received warm greetings at Lyon Saint-Exupery Airport in France, a seventy minute flight southeast of Paris and a sixty minute drive to our home-base city of Grenoble.

Before I begin to talk about my personal calling, allow me to share some wisdom I heard at my first SEND Conference in the Fall of 2014. Christians make such a major ordeal of “their call”. In churches across the country, people ask others “what’s your call” or use a lack of a “Macedonian Call” as an excuse to not be evangelistic. I came to Holmes with that mindset. I knew I was “called” to missions. I had gone to Honduras in September 2011. Before that, I had heard Isaiah 6:8 while Steve Harrelson was trying to recruit people for the trip. I knew that I had always loved history, geography, and anything involving other cultures. My favorite channel was the Travel Channel; my favorite program was “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern”. So I