Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by The Big Blue Frog on August 4, 2010 at 5:57pm

Congrats, Shawn!

Permalink Reply by sunshinegirlie on August 4, 2010 at 8:34pm

I'm glad you exist. :) What a wonderfully written article. You spoke for a group of people that is rarely seen. The movement of truth is reaching everyone through education, an open mind, and free thinking. Well done.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on August 4, 2010 at 11:45pm

Great article. I agree the indoctrination of classes is utilitarian in nature.

I had not thought the promise of an afterlife was to intentionally foster complacency in life but rather it was a happy side effect from trying to 'sell' the hope of a better (after) life.

Would you say that you can infer the intention of complacency from the predictable consequences of an afterlife story or is the benefit of an afterlife story enough to foster repetition on its own? This is a question I have been struggling to answer.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Anonymous on August 5, 2010 at 1:34pm

@Blue- Thanks again! Much appreciated.

@Sunshine- Thank you for those kind words. Let's hope that we see the numbers of black freethinkers increase.

@Daniel- It is hard to say how it played out originally- whether slaveholders predicted that preaching about the afterlife would inspire complacency, or whether they simply observed that it did. What is obvious is that once the value of Christianity was recognized for this effect, church became the only time when the enslaved were allowed to control any facet of their own lives. They were allowed to run their own services, with the presiding preacher actually being one of their number. The slaveholder must have implicitly trusted Christianity to produce the desired effect.