PEACE TO RED, ISAIAH, ET AL:
The bulk of your very vaild and relevant questions had been discussed in this thread:
http://www.destee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41352&page=3
However, there are some points that I felt were worthy of elaboration:
All of what you say is very true. In the South, Islam and ATR's are very scarce (which is one of my reasons for not liking the South all that much; the lack of diversity). Even with the exceptions of the "root-workers" that you speak of (they are technically ATR's as well, but with a specific difference).
ATR's (African Traditional Religions) are usually manifested in densely populated areas.
It's understandable that you would not have heard of, or be familiar with IFA or VODUN or METU NETER, if your region does not consist of the immigrants of African tribes that practice these systems, and spread them onto our (AA) communities.
And I'm not speaking of a few Africans here and there either......Not the few that might happen to go to the local university.
I'm talking about city blocks, consisting of mostly African families, African stores and shops, temples, etc. This is something that ISAIAH, the Brother Elder as well as myself can no doubt attest to.
Please don't take this as offensive, but the South is very homogenous culturally and socially. As a result, when these Groups (ATR's) do come to the area, there is very little support from a community that has never been exposed to it in the first place. It's a viscious cycle.
I can recally several occasions, where we had tried to set up festivals in this area where I live, and it got shot down on one form or another. It's usually cool when you want to do some remedial "Black Pride" stuff, but when it goes into African esoteric spirituality, the Christians (and make no mistake, The South is run by Christianity) intervene and put the brakes on it. It never fails.
People like myself usually flourish in the North, or in larger metropolitan areas, where one MUST adapt to the diversity, or die.
To the point regarding what Christianity does.......Can you give some precise examples of what you feel it does?
If the youth is pushing product on the streets, and gunning each other down, what has the Church does to prevent this? Afterall, the Church as an institution has been around far longer in this society, than any ATR.
And therein lies the difference: As the Brother Elder alluded, a person's social or otherwise external predicament does not change, until or unless their internal Selves change. This is what ATR's show us.
The majority of the crime and sin in the world, is committed by people who claim to be Christian, or at least come from a Christian background.
One cannot separate the institution from the doctrine that the institution claims to teach. And that's why most ATR's refuse to institutionalize the teachings; that's why you'll never see temples on every corner, or why you'll never see us knocking on doors handing out pamphlets.
That methodology goes against the very foundation of Esoteric Spirituality, which is always the goal.
For a greater understanding of this, I would suggest that you read METU NETER itself. But in the meantime, check out the thread that I linked above.
PEACE
The bulk of your very vaild and relevant questions had been discussed in this thread:
http://www.destee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41352&page=3
However, there are some points that I felt were worthy of elaboration:
RED said:Where I'm from though Isaiah ....the church (Christian of course) works hard to uplift the Black community and the hood....I can't speak for nobody else but in my part of the country ain't no Muslims or ATRs and if it is they ain't doing nothing in the communities where we push that drug and shoot like it's a hobby....they probably do more in the cities I don't know jes speakin on what I know.......even the rootworkers don't do nothin for them young boys and gals out there struglin.........
All of what you say is very true. In the South, Islam and ATR's are very scarce (which is one of my reasons for not liking the South all that much; the lack of diversity). Even with the exceptions of the "root-workers" that you speak of (they are technically ATR's as well, but with a specific difference).
ATR's (African Traditional Religions) are usually manifested in densely populated areas.
It's understandable that you would not have heard of, or be familiar with IFA or VODUN or METU NETER, if your region does not consist of the immigrants of African tribes that practice these systems, and spread them onto our (AA) communities.
And I'm not speaking of a few Africans here and there either......Not the few that might happen to go to the local university.
I'm talking about city blocks, consisting of mostly African families, African stores and shops, temples, etc. This is something that ISAIAH, the Brother Elder as well as myself can no doubt attest to.
Please don't take this as offensive, but the South is very homogenous culturally and socially. As a result, when these Groups (ATR's) do come to the area, there is very little support from a community that has never been exposed to it in the first place. It's a viscious cycle.
I can recally several occasions, where we had tried to set up festivals in this area where I live, and it got shot down on one form or another. It's usually cool when you want to do some remedial "Black Pride" stuff, but when it goes into African esoteric spirituality, the Christians (and make no mistake, The South is run by Christianity) intervene and put the brakes on it. It never fails.
People like myself usually flourish in the North, or in larger metropolitan areas, where one MUST adapt to the diversity, or die.
To the point regarding what Christianity does.......Can you give some precise examples of what you feel it does?
If the youth is pushing product on the streets, and gunning each other down, what has the Church does to prevent this? Afterall, the Church as an institution has been around far longer in this society, than any ATR.
And therein lies the difference: As the Brother Elder alluded, a person's social or otherwise external predicament does not change, until or unless their internal Selves change. This is what ATR's show us.
The majority of the crime and sin in the world, is committed by people who claim to be Christian, or at least come from a Christian background.
One cannot separate the institution from the doctrine that the institution claims to teach. And that's why most ATR's refuse to institutionalize the teachings; that's why you'll never see temples on every corner, or why you'll never see us knocking on doors handing out pamphlets.
That methodology goes against the very foundation of Esoteric Spirituality, which is always the goal.
For a greater understanding of this, I would suggest that you read METU NETER itself. But in the meantime, check out the thread that I linked above.
PEACE