Unsurprised by Cynicism

Christianity does not seem to have done much for the African ; daily we are beat down, bruised and broken; we seem to be the hewers of wood and drawers of water that is mentioned in the Bible. And yet each day we look to a blond blue-eyed Jesus as our savior. As the late Fela, my favorite musician would say, "which kind sens be dat"? I was a believer in Jesus Christ for a good 12 years of my life, and for the most part, there were always doubts.

My primary doubt is : "If the Christian God is a just God, why is the Black man's stature in this world so low?" As a good friend of mine would often say "How come the Black man is not in charge anywhere?" We all know that the West imposes its control over Africa's natural resources.

A second question in my mind is the Absoluteness of Christianity - "no one goes to the Father but by Jesus Christ". All those who have not accepted Christ are doomed to a fiery furnace in hell. So my great-great-great grandfather, who hailed from Abeokuta in Yorubaland in what is now Nigeria before the whiteman or oyibo came to give us the Gospel went to play chess with the devil in Hell, just because the almighty oyibo didn't come to Africa soon enough to enslave us? To repeat again, "which kind sens be dat?"

I believed that even though in some aspects Chistianity has been helpful to the Black race, for example it provided the moral basis for the American civil rights movement, its overall effects have been largely negative. It has been used to confuse us, cause us to look heavenward instead of "looking for ours on earth" to quote the great Bob Marley. These unresolved questions have caused me to lose my faith in Christianity as it is currently practised.