"Thank God for slavery"

[krazeeboi]

If you've heard of Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, then this should come as no shock. If you don't, well here's your introduction:

[krazeeboi]

If you viewed this and did not comment, shame on you!

[MinLisa]

WHAT IN THE WORLD!!!!! he's kidding right!!

I'm Lost of words and I just don't know to say at this moment


But my mind goes back when the Children of Israel was in bondage/salvery because of their disobedient to God..But God heard the cries...etc..etc.. and Rasie up Moses to set-them free..yes they was thankful to be free.....But this is a difference case to me


To be very honest I haven't done research of how the African American became salves (shame on me) even to the point of segregation began .. because i wasn't there but it's hurtful for me to see it.. I can't handle it!!!

I had many of talks with my Grandmother, Grandfather and others that had went through the segregation and they did told me it was still just like slavery.... picking cotten for the white man..etc.etc...etc.. Those times were hurtful Terrible...

How dare he thank God for slavery... MayBe I'm wrong for saying it....that sound stupid to me...

I

[krazeeboi]

No MinLisa, you've got it right. That was an extremely stupid comment. Elsewhere, he's said some things I've agreed with, but it's pretty rare.

[Nikkol]

I am looking at it in a "different way". In terms of some of the abuse that you do see in Africa in some areas, had it not been for slavery we may not be where we are today. Looking at it from an "in everything give thanks" for "all things work for our good...including the bad."

Segregation......well that's a whole different story and thread. (KRAZEE: Did we have a discussion about this before?)

[krazeeboi]

What Peterson wrongly assumes is that much of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, would be in the same condition it is in today had the slave trade never existed. I STRONGLY disagree with that. It doesn't matter where you look in the world today, European colonialism has NEVER left a people in better shape than they were in before, whether you want to look on the African continent, South America, meso-America, or North America. Furthermore, this viewpoint assumes that West Africa in particular was some hellhole overrun with savages before Europeans swept in to "save the day" and "rescue" us. That couldn't be further from the truth. For starters, check out the Asante empire that was in place in West Africa during the time Europeans first arrived. It was a large, complex, self-sustaining kingdom doing quite well for itself. The same is true for other empires pre-dating European colonialism, such as the Mali and Songhai empires.

Nikkol, I can't remember if we've had a discussion about this before or not. I'm getting old, LOL.

[Nikkol]

Aug 14, 2009 9:43:27 GMT -5 krazeeboi said:

What Peterson wrongly assumes is that much of Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, would be in the same condition it is in today had the slave trade never existed. I STRONGLY disagree with that. It doesn't matter where you look in the world today, European colonialism has NEVER left a people in better shape than they were in before, whether you want to look on the African continent, South America, meso-America, or North America. Furthermore, this viewpoint assumes that West Africa in particular was some hellhole overrun with savages before Europeans swept in to "save the day" and "rescue" us. That couldn't be further from the truth. For starters, check out the Asante empire that was in place in West Africa during the time Europeans first arrived. It was a large, complex, self-sustaining kingdom doing quite well for itself. The same is true for other empires pre-dating European colonialism, such as the Mali and Songhai empires.

Nikkol, I can't remember if we've had a discussion about this before or not. I'm getting old, LOL.

From that point, I can understand.... but from the "spiritual standpoint", I'm not as certain. We can prove that Africans were very intelligent and were YEARS above their time. Yet, most of the traditional religions of Africa are not "Christian" (I remember something from my African Traditional REligion Class....LOL)

Side Note: I think so only because I think that we both agreed on desegregation not possibly being the "best" thing for blacks in the US. I'll look to see if I can find it in the array of topics we got all over the place.

[krazeeboi]

OK Nikkol, I remember that point having come up before, but I can't remember the discussion.

And concerning religious life in Africa, I'll always remember the late, great Bishop G.E. Patterson in one of his sermons pointing out that the first Gentile saved in scripture was an Ethiopian eunuch in order to counter the religious "justification" of the slave trade. And then we can point to several fathers in the early church who were African. One of the oldest churches in Christendom, the Coptic Church, is Ethiopian in origin. Of the three historic theological schools of thought in what is known as the patristic period of the early church, two were based in Africa (Alexandria, Egypt and in western North Africa). And even now, evangelism in Africa is at an all-time high and the church there is growing and many converts are being made, so there could have very well been evangelism without colonialism. I'm pretty sure Sis. Beulah can present more informed commentary in this regard than I can.

But even aside from all of that, if you listen to Peterson's comments in context, it's clear that he has NONE of this in mind. He said the middle passage was just a "rough ride" and compares it to a flight with a lot of turbulence, but you're glad when you reach your destination (?!?!?!?). He speaks so detached from the whole thing and even laughed at one point in his so-called "description" of slavery and the middle passage. He's simply bought into and internalized White supremacy as the standard. It's really sad.