5th place — 2024 BIPOC essay contest: Alexander Lumala

FFRF awarded Alexander $1,500.

By Alexander Lumala

From the moment we set foot in America in 1619, Black people were (and still are) kept in line through religious manipulation. This developed as a necessity for white plantation owners. In some instances, slaves made up 60 percent of the population, as was the case in South Carolina. It was not enough to brutalize their slaves; they had to literally instill the fear of God to prevent them from rebeling.

Take Ephesians 6:5, where Paul says, “Slaves, obey your Earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” This was drilled into slaves by the people they trusted to be messengers of God, the priesthood. So even if they thought rebellion was possible, they were far too scared of eternal damnation to even attempt it. Blacks endured their brutalization for the vain promise they would be rewarded by God for their obedience to their masters when they die. Yet, in a final cruelty, many slaves were never baptized, as clergy were unsure whether it was moral to baptize a slave, just another moment when they tolerated racial inequality.

Even as slavery ended, religion still seemed to slow or even hinder progress toward racial equality. Take the civil rights movement in the 1960s, which saw a large number of clergy take part. While much can be said about the bravery of such a move, make no mistake that, at the end of the day, clergy slowed down the movement significantly. Martin Luther King Jr.’s experience with white clergy was telling. As we all know, MLK was a pastor and often appealed to the “Christian Brotherhood,” which he believed compelled all of its followers to oppose injustice. His appeals were often ignored by the white clergy, with him commenting, “I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate . . . the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice.”

When I was younger, I attended Black church, and they always had pictures of white Jesus. I’m sure many other Black people can attest to this disconnect when you posed yourself the question: Why was our savior white? This truly made me feel a certain way about my skin, and definitely led to some self-acceptance issues. Yet, I wouldn’t change this experience, as it taught me something valuable: religion is oppression.

Alexander, 18, is from Scottsdale, Ariz., and will be attending Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz, where he plans to major in computer science. He writes: “I have more than five years of experience in tech. This includes PC building, learning three coding languages (Swift, Python, Java), and founding and participating in various projects dedicated to technology. My goal is to utilize my passion for tech to address Black issues while pursuing higher education.”