Christians... Help?!?

Question

Christianity is the dominant religion of the western world but to get that way, it had to do some dirty things. I'm not talking about the Crusaders, they lost remember.

Africa was tribal (with a few major exceptions), and Meso America had well developed civilizations with their own gods and cultures. They didn't know Jesus from Zeus. Then European imperialism placed Africa in bondage and decimated the Americas with guns and plagues.

So there is the obvious paradox of men like Sharpton and Jackson being both Christian and prejudice against white people when the only reason that they know Jesus is because their ancestors were slaves.

Christians, here is where you come in. I need you to justify the enslavement of a continent and the eradication by murder and disease of another as God's will and that you are okay with that being the method he choose to spread Christianity? And tell me what happen to those that died via disease and on the boats before their indoctrination/conversion...

Answer 1

Africa was tribal, true, however, Christianity had arrived in Africa long before the slave trading began. In fact, Ethiopian bishops were present at the council of Nicea (where the official Holy Bible was constructed). Also, it is believed that the last sighting of the Ark of the Covenant was in Ethiopia (Moses wife was from Ethiopia). Also, many Meso Americans held a belief in one creator with messianic prophecies. And although Europe may have started the slave trades in America, the countries of Europe soon made slavery illegal while countries in the Americas embraced it for a good 100 years or more after it being declared illegal in many European countries. As for Sharpton and Jackson, their are always extremist in every group. However, your comment about them only know Jesus because of slavery is quite absurd. Christianity was spreading in Africa, slowly. So it is reasonable to believe that if their had been no enslavement of our ancestors, both African and Native American, then we would have heard of Christ by some other, perhaps more peaceful, means.

Answer 2

The way you phrase your question shows that you are not approaching it objectively. It reflects a lot of bitterness and cynicism. You can't expect people to take your question seriously and answer it objectively if you won't even take the trouble to phrase it in an objective manner.

One thing I don't understand is, why do you "need" us "to justify" these things? Are you thinking of converting and only need to clear these intellectual obstacles before you do? Are you going to have us executed if we can't justify them? What is this "need" you have to have these things "justified"?

But getting down to answering you: It's true that Europeans placed some Africans in bondage, mainly the ones in the coastal areas. However most of Africa was not affected. Therefore it's false to say that "Africa was placed in bondage", as though the entire continent were made slaves. That's ridiculous.

Further, Africans themselves cooperated with the slave trade, by kidnapping other Africans and selling them. Some Africans kept other Africans as slaves. And not only that, but over a million Europeans were kidnapped and sold into slavery, a lot of them in Northern Arica. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_slave_trade#Slavery_within_Africa

The point being, Africans do not have entirely clean hands with respect to slavery. Slavery has taken place in virtually every human society since the dawn of history, whether in Asia, Africa, Europe or, yes, even Meso-America. And let's not forget that the Meso-Americans themselves practiced human sacrifice on a scale of thousands.

But my main point would be, that your statement that "God willed" all these things is entirely unfounded. Who said that God willed it?

You need to understand that one of the most basic points of the Christian religion is that EVERYONE SINS. Guess what? That includes Christians. Jesus said, "I have come to call the sick, not the well." The fact that Christians have committed horrible sins has nothing to do with God's will. God never wills sin.

Answer 3

ok...sigh...its like this...God has a divine plan. What that is...no man can truly know BUT God did (in the BIble and past history) and does use the choices that 'men' make to bring out that divine plan. He promised that He would basically stay out of things...let man do what he was going to do, but still as the bible says "all things work together for good". God allowed men to elect Saul as King over them even when that was NOT God's choice. WHy? Because it accomplishes His plan, no matter how bad man jacks up his choices. So there is no 'justification' for men to do things that God didnt say to do...but it doesnt make God at fault-it makes Him loving that He gives you free will. People want it both ways...dont tell me what to do God but stop all the bad stuff. God says NO...you will have free will and suffer the pain that comes along with that choice no matter what. Those that did horrible things in God's name will have to account for it.It doesnt make GOD bad, it just further solidifies the defiled state of mankind and our need to embrace God and really hear from Him.

As for those that die without knowing Christ, the BIble says that all who never heard the Word will have the opportunity to accept Him.

Answer 4

They don't seem to be Jews on the grounds that Jew's do not consider the messiah has come but. They do not feel Jesus so believing in Jesus and announcing your Jewish certainly contradicts one a further.... It's unhappy that there are these Evangelist Christians that decision themselves "Jews". Stop this observe now, your disgracing each Judaism and Christianity.

Answer 5

You are misinformed. Christians did not enslave a continent nor did they eradicate another by murder and disease.

Answer 6

By no means do I or would I condone the type of slavery used by the forerunners of America. They may have claimed 'Christianity' but failed to live to the true teachings of Christ. It's not Christianity that you have a problem with it's the morality of the people.

Answer 7

Keep in mind, god is not subject to any moral constraints whatsoever. They don't see the need to defend their god, because they can't imagine anything their god does being wrong, even if it's something they would condemn if done by a human being. It's a severe mental block, and it's not limited to Christians.

Answer 8

I am from a people on the other end of the diseased blanket and the small pox nearly wiped out my people. That being said the scripture does tell us why God would send such cruel people to defeat us;
Leviticus 18:20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.
21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

So I guess it was our own faults for being so wicked or are you so perfect you don't need God to save you from your sin?

Answer 9

Who said that it was God's will that his message was spread in this way.
The Bible says that man has dominated man to his injury. (ecc. 8:9)
It doesn't matter in the name of what religion he does it in.

As for the dead, havn't you ever read "..that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous (those who know god) and the unrighteous" (those who don't)
So they are in the grave waiting for the resurrection.

Answer 10

In order to answer this, you have to read a long boring story: The book of Job (it's in the Bible)