The Church as a Tool For Financial Gain: Brainwashing and Control
After the advent of colonization and the countries resources being ravaged and commandeered by European settlers, Africa is considered to be the poorest of all the continents. Isn’t it somewhat puzzling that the largest church in the world is in Africa (Ivory Coast), also that it was built after the country regained its independence, years after abolition.(?) To show the extent of brainwashing of Africans in the name of Christianity, an edifice, aka a church built at a cost of over 3 billion dollars was erected by an African leader while citizens lived in abject poverty! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Peace
There are many churches in Africa whose pastors are multi-millionaires yet, they are surrounded by so much human suffering. The concept of a village partnership by which the Africans lived before colonization no longer exists and many have adopted the European christian ideology wherein the pastor as head of the church inherits the ‘lion’s share’ of the spoils; in this instance, monetary tithes and offerings. Is it any wonder as to why there are so many churches per square mile in areas largely populated by Africans? Admittedly, there are pastors who genuinely believe in the gospel they preach but unfortunately, there are those who see this as a profession to make easy money by exploiting their brothers and sisters.
Although regarded as the continent with the most impoverished people, Africa is home to 3 of the top five mega churches in the world. https://www.kirche-u30.de/en/10-largest-churches-worldwide/
Texts such as:
- Cast your bread upon the waters and it will remain after many days
- The widow’s mite
- Give and you will receive
- Blessed are the poor—-
- It will be difficult for the rich man to enter Heaven
These are a few of the scriptures taken from the Bible, the Christian handbook, that are used to gain financial control and to brainwash believers into making financial sacrifices in their quests to reach the land of milk and honey #the promised land!
While we may criticize our black pastors for using religion as a means of exploiting their race, we need to acknowledge that they were programmed to do so. There is an idiom that says; “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The Society For The Propagation Of The Gospel, while purporting to improve the plight of the slaves by teaching them to read, also used Christianity as a tool to subjugate Africans. With the Bible as the only text, and out of fear of rebellion while they sleep, they taught the slaves to read specific scriptures that would create fear, thereby making them more docile. They were taught to fear hell and the devil on one hand, while revering God and aspiring for Heaven on the other. Being subjected to unbearable atrocities at the hands of their masters, the slaves were ready to accept any doctrine that appeared to offer any relief (be it real or unreal) from their sufferings. In their mental and physical abuse, most were unable to rationalize that they were living their hell and their heaven was the place from where they were uprooted.
“Whoever is in control of the hell in your life, is your devil.” Dr. John Henrik Clarke, 1915-1998
This may be why the only people to physically fight their way out of slavery are the Haitian people. Haiti is also one of the countries known to openly practice voodoo (a black religious cult practised in the Caribbean and the southern US, combining elements of Roman Catholic ritual with traditional African magical and religious rites,–).
Dutty Boukman, a former Afrikan slave who orchestrated the Haitian revolution had this to say:
He had the most profound effect on Jean Jaque Dessalines, who later went on to become the head of free Haiti. Toussaint L’ouverture on the other hand was a great military strategist and Catholic who ultimately allowed himself to be captured as he saw the French being his “countrymen”.
“Show me a population that is deeply religious and I will show you a servile population, content with whips and chains… content to eat the bread of sorrow and drink the waters of affliction.” Hubert Harrison
References
The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United States
The Irritated Genie – Jacob Carruthers
The History Of Christianity – Walter Williams
