To be black or to be christian..

That is the question that my prof. posed a few months ago. And a passage that we had to read made it come to mind again. So instead of posting more rap lyrics (will wait till tomorrow), I decided to submit my reaction paper for class….

“It is also essential that we, as African Americans, learn that Christianity is not a slave faith, some shameful remnant of our unlawful servitude on America's shores.” - Lora-Ellen McKinney “Christian Education In The African American Church”

Though the two terms describe cultural indicators, how can ones religion supercede ones race/ethnicity?

This question seems to raise it self in many quarters and often times in our very own classroom setting. The statement above by the author drew me out to a point where I could no longer resist the undertaking of the topic. While the author does put African religion and Christianity together pre-slavery in the first chapter; her word usage in the excerpted selection troubles me. Even within the context of her following statements she seems to verify that the slave had a different yet powerful rubric with which to understand Christianity, the statement seems to belie that point of view.

In this writer's point of view slave religion was a positive. To be clear the above quote seemed to suggest the opposite. Although if the statement’s crux was that we should not limit African American Christianity today to slave religion, I could understand it. But the statement seems to vilify the slave religion that got us over.

This issue is only my way to my real point of contention. That is, although largely a construct of post-middle passage, western thought; there is no way that a person can choose his or her race over religion or vice versa. The two although in the same realm are unlike enough that the notion of choosing is counterintuitive. But beyond the mere notion of this discussion being counterintuitive, the choice would seem to suggest that race could be chosen over any identifier. Race is not chosen, it is ascribed and while one can chose to more readily identify with other things (such as religion) and to even to reject ones own racial identity, the choice is not to be made ...it is.

Race is a sticky matter that causes these kinds of issues to rise, and by no accident. But religion should not govern these choices. Religion used as a tool can (and has been used to) divide people. Just as in this instance, where religion is deemed stronger than the natural bonds of humanity that make us the same, stronger than the idiosyncratic differences that makes groups of people similar.

So when it comes to the matter of choosing between being Black and Christian, I acknowledge that I can make a conscious decision to be Christian. However, since I can neither choose to be or not be Black I will not choose to negate my blackness by being so Christian that I can no longer be Black. As stated before, there is no choice to be made, my blackness just is. Therefore, I conclude that I chose to be Christian but Black... I am.