“The Oppressive Christian Faith as Detrimental to Africans and Native Americans”
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published 12/10/2007
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SummaryChristianity. It sounds innocent enough. But, with that religion comes a dogma with a dark side; an aspect of oppression for minorities. The Christian faith was never the choice for Africans and Native Americans. The word of God was on the lips of white Europeans who wanted to spread their religion to the primitive cultures in far away lands. The Native American’s and African’s pagan religion offended the white land conquerors in a disturbing turn of events. It was Christianity that embellished the minds of white males –that it was fine to perceive people of color as inferior. Oppression of Native Americans and Africans came in many forms; including the guise of Christian faith that put non-whites and women in a lesser place. The image of God was a white male; further pressing on the enslaved races that even in death they still are under the white male’s authority. The character Celie in Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple and Pauline in the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich, exemplify the harmful effects for Native Americans and African Americans to believe Christianity.
Table of Contents
- Christianity. It sounds innocent enough. But, with that religion comes a dogma with a dark side
- Celie was an African American woman who always felt the presence of dominance, by either males or whites, in Alice Walker's book The Color Purple.
- Shug perceived God in a very different light compared to the image preached by Christians.
- The character Pauline in the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich, underwent a similar change in spirituality, except she denied her pagan heritage and escaped the decimation of the Chippewa people by professing the Christian faith.
- The isolation created by her neglect of Chippewa culture enforced her Christian faith even more;
- The pagan religion practiced by their ancestors was deemed savage and primitive of the newly arrived white Europeans.
- A dark and hollow dogma as 'men of God, but really men of greed, misogyny, and violence, defined it' (Walker, 1).
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