white folks thought that by giving us Christianity that they were giving us
something that would keep us docile that would oppress us but what man
intends for evil God uses for good and there's one priest that tells a
different story about the Christian faith of African people in America and
that's our discussion today
hey y'all welcome to Blacks with power where we are emancipating ourselves from
mental slavery so that we can lead the movement of Jah people out of Babylon
into the Promised Land I'm father Jabriel your host for this show thank you for
joining us subscribe to the show iTunes stitcher Google Play tune in watch us on
YouTube click the subscribe button and give a review give a thumbs up give a
thumbs down let me know what you liked what you dislike so that we can
fine-tune and refine this show for you and in this episode I want to introduce
you to some foundational things for me right this is near and dear to my heart
man it was back in 2004 yeah 2004 when you know just coming out of
Rastafarianism had been introduced to ethiopian orthodoxy
you know and on an on a trip I went to I was living in st. Louis Missouri misery
misery loves company I was living in st. Louis and went to visit my spiritual
father was living in Kansas City one of the one of the Ethiopian priests one of
the monks and um on that journey you know was was you know just was able to
see a consecration of an ordination reception rather of a priest into
Orthodoxy who came out of Roman Catholicism was into converted to
orthodoxy and was introduced to a a Serbian Orthodox priest named father
paisius house to now goes by father Alexei after his wife passed he became a
monk and when they become when you take orders of a monkey took it and took on a
new name of the the Brotherhood of st. Moses the black I'll put a link to the
Brotherhood st. Moses to black in the description you can find out more but
the book wade in the river the story of the African Christian faith right off
the bat you can see how much this book meant to me because when I finally
published my book if you see I wanted it to be as similar to um in in cover
layout and designed to father Alexis as possible man because it just had such a
profound effect on me you can find a link to this book you are on the
description you can get so you can get a copy but it's transformative so way in
the river the story of the African Christian faith I met I met father
paisius father Alexei in Kansas City and you know just you know he leads a
reconciliation network that talks about orthodoxy that talks about the witness
of the Christian faith and and he in in in in the course of our conversation he
gave me a copy of this book you know so that as he said so that inspiration of
of these holy ones may inspire me in my pursuit of the Christian faith and so we
talked about the African Christian faith what he does is he goes back through
ancient times through Old Testament times through ancient African history
and identifies the the icons of the faith who are African right he talks
about he talks about them talks about the martyrs of the church talks about
how the Fathers of monasticism did the first monks were African people how the
you know some of the some of the the defenders of the faith some of the ones
that helped Christianity to survive and it's early days were African people and
he makes the case for how Christianity cannot be could never be the white man's
religion that yes it has taken on that mantra in the West but if we are
students of history if we are students specifically of Christian history we
would know that it could never be don't white man's religion right and so you
know goes throughout the book and and then coming out of the Bible coming out
of Old Testament and New Testament history coming over to America coming
into the slave period talking about the deep Christian witness of slaves of of
the enslaved I don't know I still I'm reprogramming myself right we talked
about emancipating ourselves from mental slavery I don't I don't like to call my
ancestors our ancestors slaves every now and again I slip because they weren't
slaves they were people you know they are people they were enslaved
so I hear me say that check me on it correct me but to the faith of the
enslaved of those who were enslaved our ancestors and how those who so deeply
and strongly embraced Christianity were killed by their masters for their
Christian witness right and he talks about about all of those who you know he
doesn't list all of them no one can list all of the people right of that of the
American Holocaust of the Marfa right but he talks about many of those martyrs
of those Cross bearers of those passion bearers of those black persons who by
virtue of their faith were killed by those who did not want to see black
people by white folks who did not want to see black people embrace Christianity
to that degree and so in talking about all of these people who were killed for
preaching the Bible beyond slaves be obedient to your masters so those who
would dare go beyond that right those who were killed for gathering by the
river and baptizing and and and praying and and and and and and shouting and and
and singing and and and you know marrying people and and doing things in
in in Christian fashion that were killed because of their of their Christian
faith he talks about those who suffered for their Christian witness right and if
we know anything about Orthodox Christianity one of the names for
orthodoxy is the suffering faith right it is that
idea that um the deep faith of Christianity is born from suffering
because we follow Christ right and we follow Christ to the cross as he said
those who wish to come after me let them deny themselves and pick up their cross
and follow me for those who want to save their life will lose it but those who
lose their life for my sake and for the Gospels will save it and so this idea
that the true essence deep essence of the faith is born out of suffering right
and so what his premise is is that the Masters the slave masters wanted to give
black folks a a docile form of Christianity that would keep them
obedient not to God but obedient to white folks obedient to white power
obedient to white supremacy right and I want to make that distinction clear
because what we're talking about is not just obedient to their masters right
they were programming black folks to be obedient to white supremacy to acquiesce
to white power and so they wanted to give black folks a faith like that and
for many of us that's stuck right we we got a faith quote-unquote that kept us
in bondage to white supremacy in bondage to whiteness and bondage to white power
right but as father Aleksey argues in wade in the river
there were those of us that embrace the faith there is this legacy of African
people that embrace the faith in such a way that they were willing to suffer in
meaning to obey God and not man they were willing to obey God and not white
power they were willing to obey God and not white supremacy and because of that
they suffered under the hands of white supremacy but by that suffering similar
to how Christ suffered under the hands of the Romans and under
the hands of the Jewish leadership by their suffering under the hands of white
supremacy under the hands of their slave masters under the hands of those who
were upholding the institution of white power the faith of African people was
transformed into Orthodoxy it was transformed into something deep
something rich something beyond the Christianity that you found in white
society right that this the the enslaved that our ancestors were were were were
cultivated a faith that was deeper more Christian more authentic more orthodox
than the faith of white society that could abide with such a system of
oppression right or that could appease or placate or play nice with such a
system of oppression and so you know I really encourage you to read this book
get a copy of this book and read it because it serves as the backdrop for
for where my thinking came from right so if you want to understand
I don't know hell did this guy begin thinking like this right you read a copy
of this book and you understand you begin to understand that there is
something special about the black experience there is something
transformative transcendent even about the black experience something
transcendent about the authentic witness of the faith the Christian faith of
African people in this country right and when we see that it enables us helps us
to begin breaking free from this dynamic that keeps us in bondage to white power
and white supremacy keeps us in a quote unquote
faith narrative that keeps us docile that keeps us you know accomplices in
our own oppression and allows us to point
in a new direction that is liberating that is life-giving that is
transformative that resonates that that resembles in some sort of real way the
faith of Jesus Christ so again wade in the river the story of
the African Christian faith on the author's father paisius outs - you will
find the links to that in the description of this of of this episode
and I hope you get a copy and I'd love to know what you think what are your
thoughts on the idea of that one that the faith that was cultivated by those
who were enslaved the faith that was cultivated by the oppression that they
experienced by the suffering that they experienced that that faith became the
authentic witness of the gospel in America right so about that what do you
think of that idea that the faith of our ancestors that was born in slavery
became the authentic witness of Christianity and that it is the
authentic witness of Christianity in the West what do you think about that and
how does that shape your interpretation of your own faith I'd love to hear your
thoughts on that so leave a comment leave a review leave a thumbs up leave a
thumbs down let me know what your questions are as well because a charge
to keep we have brothers and sisters a God to glorify a never dying soul to
save and fit it for the sky we have come a long way but Lord knows there is a
long way yet to go so we ain't there yet so now let us march on till victory is
won live with power
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