What is your view when it comes to "race relations"? That while we don't have signs any more that say "WHITES ONLY"/ "COLORED ONLY" We still have tennsions and things are very7 violtile at times...Do the ultra-religous justify the treatment of different races ( because usually other races have varying relgious affiliations)
A lot of denominations started as white only because people of color didn't have access or the financial means to join its a little hard to tithe when you are already at poverty level.
I never Intended to say religion began in white society or the US merely that there are denominations that began in white society.
he irony is that those racists are contradicting the very tenets of their purported faith. It goes all the way back to the act of the Southern Baptist convention in 1960. The Convention was formed as a breakaway sect from the larger American Baptist church with the specific intent of expressing full support of the Confederacy and for the institution of slavery. The comingling of politics, racism, and religion of today is a direct result.
Although they will not say so th southern Baptists are still condoing racism to be expressed within too many of their churches.
I agree that the most blatant forms of overt racism have disappeared from the American landscape but that racism is alive and well. In my own life I give everyone the benefit of the doubt and enough rope to hang themselves one way or another. I worked in Food and Beverage for about 20 years and chefing in kitchens that were largely minority populated enjoying my working with relationships with just about everyone. Lately, though, I have been accused of being a racist for harboring one view, namely, that minorities and especially blacks must take more responsibility for their inability to thrive as a subculture in the variegated tapestry of American life. Many individual have, through motivation and personal effort broken through the remaining barriers. Others seem to prefer to self-ghettoize and feed on each others' negative energy blaming systematic racism rather than their own lack of drive for their station in life. Though I understand what you are saying about fundamentalist religion's discrimination against peoples of color one could point out the same "racism" in black churches. Religion has been a stalwart foundation for racism for its entire history and certainly in the US back to its colonial days. This is nothing new and to atheists or agnostics totally irrelevant. What is relevant is a subculture's anti-intellectual leanings which does not encourage the young to slog through the tedium of schooling and then taking those basics to expand their horizons and their skill sets by pursuing formal education at a higher level. What is relevant is a cultural bias toward "bling" and away from investing in an educational and financial future. What is relevant is a subcultural bias toward adapting identifying trademarks like "gangsta" signals, language, music, fashion and intimidation that purposefully sets it apart from the mainstream. What is relevant is the undeniably higher crime rates and incarcerations that tag an entire community. What is relevant is the anti-racism of hating "whitey." Trying to indict religion which we all know is already guilty of racism is just conceding power to a force that should easily be overcome in a losing game of blaming systematic racism for that failure to thrive. If you want to thrive, then just do it!
What response do I get to such exhortations? I'm just the picture of white entitlement who has had every barrier smoothed out before me by birth right of my skin color. I won't bore you with the details but that is a lie. I am white an I am gay. There has been no other out group so despised as homosexuals have been and yet, beginning with Stonewall when many gays said "I am not going to concede power to the haters! I am going to live my life to the fullest and make the best of it whatever the adversities." that progress began to be made. The law does not dictate cultural revolution. That starts at the bottom and works its way up culminating in changes to the law. The black community needs to stop looking for boogeymen and start reevaluating its own values and priorities if it wants to see substantive change in society.