First, my comments were not about the Bible. So before you go about stating that I am profoundly ignorant in regards to the Bible may I suggest that you at least wait until we are commenting directly about the Bible itself and then you might have an actual foundation to judge my knowledge?I don’t believe you know me so how you can conclude what my level of knowledge is about the Bible shows that you prove the point…..that critical thinking is essential!

In fact, the topic….the need for critical thinking…never appears anywhere in your comments. Why?

I would invite you to reread what I wrote, and I think Bob as well, and respond to what was actually said. For example, I offered a proposal to enhance the role of the Church in our community, now that is hardly something someone “ignorant of the teachings of Christianity” or our history would propose.

Hopefully you’ll reread the comments, crtique those comments in their proper context, and we can make some positive progress instead of playing the I Know The Gospel And You Don’t Game which really serves no useful purpose to all parties involved.

As a Christian, I will forgive you for personal attack.

“They are not dumb, but being a “good Christian” and adhering to the word, precludes almost all intellectual pursuit beyond the Bible.”

Then,

“Christainity is the first thing we need to shake out of if we as blacks are to ever become critical thinkers and empower ourselves.”

Um, Wrong; and WRONG.

Both of you have demonstrated your profound ignorance of the teachings of Christianity. CW says the story about the Good Samaritan is about helping others, but CW would be wrong. It’s about helping people whom you are trained by society to despise, recognizing them first and foremost as your fellow man, and ignoring their social, racial, or political differences in their time of need.

True enough, the Bible teaches “proper” ways to behave as a slave or as a master, because there’s no inherent shame in slavery. It’s abuse towards a fellow man that the Bible condemns, and it’s just as wrong in the context of Business or Politics as it is within the confines of slavery as an institution. We have deemed (and rightly so) that slavery’s treatment of human beings as property does violence against the Christian principle of the dignity and worth of the individual, so it’s been eradicated in our society, but to call the Bible a book of a “slave religion” because it speaks of being a Godly slave or master does the message of the book (and by extrapolation its followers) a grave disservice.

Bob, how about questioning the “gospel” of entitlement and government dependence? It’s doing a lot more harm to the black community than is Christianity, and it has a much stronger following.

Sebastian, you too, have a misconception of the Bible’s teachings. It does not require us to put logical thinking and scientific pursuits on hold, it simply requires that we adhere to certain presuppositions about the God who created our world. The proper position of the Christian is to grow both spiritually and intellectually, all to the Glory of God.

I don’t understand how Christianity is a threat to black people.

Your ‘God is going to work it out example’ demonstrates you to be fairly ignorant of Christianity.

It isn’t as though we Christians of any skin color just sit and wait for God to do everything for us. It isn’t as though Christianity teaches this either.

Joke,

you have an excellent blog.

Keep it up.

-Joke

I disagree with one of the comments made about those who teach their children to be “good Christians” and those who do not. I believe that part of the problem is that we apply critical thinking skills in regards to our faith, and nothing much else. We believe that if we follow the Bible, everything will be ok. If we participate in, and are devoted to church, then that is all we need to do.

I am not dismissing the importance of faith, nor am I not mindful of the historical role of the church. I am simply saying that we must keep our faith AND learn about the world around us.

For example,the other day I was having lunch with a group of people, and the subject of race came up. I pointed out that race was a social construct conceived by Europeans in order to justify slavery and colonialism. My comment was met with stares and I was told that there have always been race and that we were the children of Hamm. Now I was trying to make an intellectual argument, but my fellow African-Americans were not going to hear anything about anthropology and sociology.

They are not dumb, but being a “good Christian” and adhering to the word, precludes almost all intellectual pursuit beyond the Bible. How are we to begin to approach tackiling the issues that confront us, if we have a virulent string of antiintellectualism rampaging and replicating itself throughout our community?

The truth of the 21st century is that African-Americans are competing not only against those within the U.S. , but also those around the world. Call it globalization or whatever you will, but our world view can no longer just be local and national in scope. The old Black-White paradigm of the 20th century is no longer viable.We must be aware that what happens in Asia, or South America, or Africia, can have profound impact upon the present and future. We need to be conversant ..at least at some level….about economics , geopolitics, hard sciences, etc…

I am not saying to abandon faith. I am saying that we have to refocus and reform our communities. There will always be a place, and a role for church. For example, why don’t we use our churches as centers of economic development…beyond that of our particular church? How many times have we decried the presence of Asians and others in our communities, yet we never seek to duplicate the processes that lead to them being there in the first place? Most are there because Asians and other communities pool their money and invest in their people. Those people then will work night and day, 24/7 if they have to, in order to rise above their station and they insist that their children succeed academically. Why can’t we duplicate this?

How about dispensing micro-loans from the church or other civic organizations? The NCAA is losing it’s relevance to a younger generation; nothing would revive it quicker than to add some type of economic development agency to it’s mission.

Of course, there will be those that say that we are too poor as a community. To that I say that we have disposable income approaching 900 billion and growing collectively! Yes that’s right, though African-Americans grossly lag behind the economic clout of our white counterparts, we still have enough resources to make some improvements without the help of others. Our mindset is that we are poor, that is true relative to white America. But our amount of disposable income is greater than all but about 9 countries in the world! Hell, we have more money than Mexico, and almost as much as the entire continent of South America. Think about that for a minute.

If we had better critical thinking skills we would already be aware of the economic clout we posses now as well as what we could do ourselves to improve our own lives. No need to wait on whites or anyone else to understand, like or love us, no need to worry as much about the political party in charge. Of course this would mean a loss of influence for many in our community who now hold more esteem than they deserve.

Hopefully one day we will value intellectual pursuit as much as, hopefully more than, we value atheletic , and entertainment pursuits. There would be nothing better for all of our souls than to not just survive, but to prosper as well.