Comic: I’m tired of homophobia and feigned Afrocentrism from Black Christians
Sweet cherry Christ, some of you Black Christians are getting on this gay man's entire last nerve.
by JeCorey Holder
Image: JeCorey Holder
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I believe in freedom of religion. Sternly. I believe that everyone should be allowed to follow whatever harmless spiritual philosophy, or lack thereof, that gives them any sort of solace in this moral shitstorm of a society.
But sweet cherry Christ, some of you Black Christians are getting on this gay man’s entire last nerve.
I don’t care how far removed I am from my African roots, what you will NOT do is tell me what is or isn’t a part of African culture as you sit here pedaling the same belief system as white colonizers. The same bearded white man who lives in the sky that was used, and continues to be used, to justify the oppression of Black people in the first goddamn place.
Not only do you display your ignorance through the outright erasure of HUNDREDS of diverse African cultures and abundant religious traditions across centuries of civilization, but you make it even worse by having the absolute gall to weaponize Christianity against me. A religion that was forced upon our stolen ancestors while they had their own culture literally beaten and bred out of them through colonialism and enslavement. You use this to shame me, because you think two men being happy together is gross, because that’s what Christianity told you to believe.
You try to tell me that homosexuality isn’t “a part of African culture” while you, yourself, follow a spirituality that has no basis among African culture.
How beautifully ironic that homosexuality has a long history of being widespread and embraced in Africa, but Christianity does not. Christianity did not exist there until white people brought it along with their colonialist violence, and the condemnation of homosexuality along with it. You’re literally parroting the very colonist violence that you claim to be against. I’m sure The Ancestors would LOVE that.
Your Jesus-flavored homophobia isn’t rooted in African culture, but my gay ass is. Shut up, do your Googles, and do better.
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Gamer, geek, and social activist. JeCorey Holder has been weaving tapestries of shade and fury since the early 2000’s. Pro-LGBTQ, pro-black, and pro intersectional feminism, he is full of feelings and opinions that try to call out and tear down the oppressive status quo.
Christianity was African too. Axum (Ethiopia) was an African Christian empire within 300 years of the death of Christ; Later the Kongo gave us African style Christianity during the slave period. White folks had nothing to do with that. But I see your point, do your Googles.
While the criticisms in this article can be made of a many many Black churches, there is no monolithic Black church to which they can all be applied. Today, just as it is true in churches of all other colors, Black churches represent many different theological persuasions when it comes to LGBTQ members, women and Black liberation. The logic being expressed here is similar to the logic Black men who refuse to date Black women use to justify their self-hate. They say all Black women are this and all Black women are that and All White Women are this and All White Women are that and all Chinese women are this… and on and on. When, in fact, with respect to every trait that they name, there are women of every stripe who have it. So it goes with “THE Black church”. Check out churches like Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, that church, and numerous other progressive and African-centered churches across the land, are clear exceptions to the rules laid down in this aritcle.
What have gays done for Black people except side with divisive bedwenches and help white supremacy as a result? You are on no moral ground to criticize Christians.
But many of the captives during slavery were either animists (worship spirits) or Islamists. The natural belief of most Africans was in spirits. King Ezana established Axum as a Christian state after being converted himself when he was young by a Syrian Christian. However, Egyptian mysteries was the first form of salvation that contributed to the creation of other religions, including Christianity. Roman Catholicism, influenced by Greek philosophy (which was stolen from Egypt and re-written), adopted the belief of human hierarchy, thus supporting idea of the enslavement of people with darker skin because their skin and climate made them inferior and they modernized Christianity in their language to support. This Christianity was the basis of forceful conversion on African captives during American chattel slavery. So, the question becomes, would Africans even know about Christianity without outside influence? Just curious, I enjoy conversations like this…
It’s a good question. Islam and Christianity were missionary religions in Africa, hence the outside influence in converting powerful heads of state to the latter, as with Ezana, or even Afonso of Kongo in the 15th century and others like them who embraced the prestige of what must have seemed to be the new and powerful magic of Catholicism. Not always by force esp. when the Protestants moved in. But both of these religions quickly became indigenized, as they did in the Americas. The traditional/animist traditions, being local and nature-based, were too tied to their immediate environment and specifically, the land and its formations, to be able to travel very far from their sites of origin and to have the sort of impact that the missionary religions did at the time. Of course now African orisa religions have gone global, without the benefit of missionaries! An interesting study might be look at sexuality and gender, the role and meaning of homosexuality in the Yoruba orisa traditions in contrast with Christianity. Matory’s SEX AND THE EMPIRE is a good place to start. I love intelligent woke conversations about Africana religions, good bad as well as ugly. Peace.