Bishop Henry McNeal Turner’s – God is a Negro

Afternoon good friends. I have posted this speech in part before and have mentioned Bishop Tuner on this site a couple times. I thought I’d post God is a Negro in full just in case anyone is interested in reading it.

God is a Negro

This was the response that Henry McNeal gave in which a newspaper editorial called him demented for saying that God is a Negro.Voice of Missions, 1898

We have as much right biblically and otherwise to believe that God is a Negro, as you buckra, or white, people have to believe that God‘ is a fine looking, symmetrical and ornamented white man. For the bulk of you, and’ all the fool Negroes of the country, believe that God is white- skinned, blue-eyed, straight-haired, projecting-nosed compressed-lipped and finely-robed white gentleman sitting upon a throne somewhere in the heavens.

Every race of people since time began who have attempted to describe their God by words, or by paintings, or by carvings, or by any other form or figure have conveyed the idea that the God who made them and shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves, and why should not the Negro believe that he resembles God as much as other people? We do not believe that there is any hope for a race of people who do not believe that they look like God.

Demented though we be, whenever we reach the conclusion that God or even that Jesus Christ, while in the flesh, was a white man, we shall hang our gospel trumpet upon the willow and cease to preach.
We had rather be an atheist and believe in no God or a pantheist and believe that all nature is God, than to believe in the personality of a God and not believe that He is Negro. Blackness is much older than whiteness, for black was here before white, if the Hebrew word, coshach, or chasack, has any meaning. We do not believe in the eternity of matter, but we do believe that chaos floated in infinite darkness or blackness, millions, billions, quintillions and eons of years before God said, “Let there be light,” and that during that time God had no material light Himself and was shrouded in darkness, so far as human comprehension is able to grasp the situation.

Yet we are no stickler as to God‘s color, anyway, but if He has any we should prefer to believe that it is nearer symbolized in the blue sky above us and the blue water of the seas and oceans; but we certainly protest against God being a white man or against God being white at all; abstract as this theme must forever remain while we are in the flesh. This is one of the reasons we favor African emigration, or Negro nationalization, wherever we can find a domain, for as long as we remain among whites, the Negro will believe that the devil is black and that he (the Negro) favors the devil, and that God is white and the (the Negro) bears no resemblance to Him, and the effect of such a sentiment is contemptuous and degrading, and one-half of the Negro race will be trying to get white and the other half will spend their days trying to be white men’s scullions in order to please the whites; and the time they should be giving to the study of such things will dignify and make our race great will be devoted to studying about how unfortunate they are in not being white.
We conclude these remarks by repeating for the information of the Observer what it adjudged us demented for — God is a Negro.

Fire side Chats?

Fire Side Chat

I’ve long toyed with the idea of interviewing other bloggers, artist (desperate enough to allow such a small blog interview them) and other nationalists and/or traditionalists.
Not sure whom I’m leaving this blog post for, just felt the urge to post it.
Good evening.

Pirates!

African Pirates Abducting Buckra Gal

Don’t all boys and many men love tall tales of pirates? Swashbuckling sea cowboys and such. There are many stories of Black pirates out there, some true, others false, I don’t think it matters much either way so long as it helps the childs imagination and creativity to soar.

An example of a true story would the pirate Black Ceasar’s. Born in West Africa he captained a pirate ship that dominated the area around the Florida Keys. He was one of the infamous Captain Blackbeard‘s chief lieutenants and even has an Island in the keys named for him.

Another tale maybe of superior intrigue if more dubious origins is that of the Black Haitian pirate Black Caesar aka Henri Caesar. He was said to have served our great ancestors Toussaint L’Ouverture and Dutty Bookman. Folklore says left a 2 to 6 million dollar treasure buried on some Caribbean islands, ya mon!.
So grab these books, read them to your kids and maybe one day go search for their rumored treasures (or let the youth search while you have a rum) .

Black Caesar’s Clan: A Florida Mystery

Black Caesar, Pirate (Haitian pirate) 

 

A Bit of Albert Murray

Posted from the Essential Reads tab;

Albert Murray

It is hard to think of a better person to learn about Black American culture from than Albert Murray. His obscurity is an example of how Blacks ,are interested in promoting a purely political black identity revolving around being an enraged victim, and whites, who ignore the centrality of Black culture to America culture, are disinterested in accurately and honestly looking at the complexity and nuance Black American culture. The following articles should help wet your appetite for some of his books.

Albert Murray: the Black Intellectuals’ Maverick Patriarch by Sanford Pinsker

http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1996/autumn/pinsker-albert-murray/

(Murray’s) The Omni-Americans (1970), argued that the language of social science inadequately—and insufficiently—captures the richness of the black American experience. Indeed, by concentrating on versions of black pathology and the fits of shame, self-hatred, and rage that these engender, opinion-makers such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Kenneth Clark sell black culture short. For the truth is that this vibrant, multi-faceted culture is no less complex than that of any other group.

KING OF CATS  BY HENRY LOUIS GATES

 Indeed, at the heart of Murray and Ellison’s joint enterprise was perhaps the most breathtaking act of cultural chutzpah since Columbus claimed it all for Isabella. In its bluntest form, their assertion was that the truest Americans were black Americans…

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/04/08/1996_04_08_070_TNY_CARDS_000373241#ixzz2H1PLXsZr

The African Methodist Episcopalian Church’s Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen of the African Methodist Episcopal Church 

Previously, I blogged about one of my intellectual and spiritual ancestors Henry McNeal Turner, an early and influential Bishop in the African Methodist Church. He joins four other great men as the AME Church’s Fours Horsemen. The Four Horsemen are considered pioneers of the church and were instrumental in its development. The other three horsemen include the church’s founder and first Bishop Richard Allen, the church’s fourth Bishop William Paul Quinn,  and Daniel Payne AME church’s sixth Bishop.

If you are interested in learning more about the African Methodist Episcopalian Church , check out the book, Songs of Zion.