{"id":1540,"date":"2013-02-27T22:27:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T22:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html"},"modified":"2013-02-27T22:27:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T22:27:00","slug":"to-be-young-godless-and-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html","title":{"rendered":"To Be Young, Godless, and Black"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.\u00a0 Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.<\/span><\/div>\n
Back in late 2011, I wrote a post titled, \u201cA Conversation Long Overdue\u201d which spoke about African-American Atheists.\u00a0 This was sparked by a November 27, 2011\u00a0New York Times<\/em>discussing this group of people.\u00a0 I wrote:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
It\u2019s interesting that at this time in history with fundagelical x-tians trying to grab power in Washington, cracks in the Black church\u2019s facade (the Eddie Long scandal for example), the decline of organized religion in the West, the rise of \u201cHigher Criticism\u201d of the Bible with archaeological evidence refuting Scripture, and the advent of the Internet and social media, Black Atheists and Freethinkers are coming out into the light and making their voices heard.<\/span><\/div>\n
However, as many Black Atheists and Freethinkers state, they\u2019re still \u201ca minority within a minority\u201d. \u00a0It\u2019s still a challenge to come out with their beliefs (or lack thereof) due to the possibility of being ostracized by the community. \u00a0Also, many have close friends and family that are Theists (churchfolk for the rest of us) they\u2019re afraid of hurting with such news.<\/span><\/div>\n
Another challenge is that Fundagelical X-tianity has a such a strong grip on the Black community that any irreligious thought is anathema. \u00a0I liken it to the Catholic Church\u2019s hold on Medieval Europe (without the Inquisition). Many Blacks put the church central in their lives and have a blind devotion to it. \u00a0For many Blacks, the church is also the only place where they can find validity in a society that still has yet to fully validate them-despite the fact that early Blacks were brought to the church via slavery and were subjected to hand-picked (and misquoted) Bible verses designed to\u00a0subjugate and mollify them, many Blacks still find that validity.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest here\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.\u00a0 Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy. Back in late 2011, I wrote a post titled, \u201cA Conversation Long Overdue\u201d which spoke about African-American Atheists.\u00a0 This was sparked by a November 27, 2011\u00a0New York Timesdiscussing this group of people.\u00a0 I wrote: It\u2019s interesting that at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Be Young, Godless, and Black<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Be Young, Godless, and Black\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html\",\"name\":\"To Be Young, Godless, and Black\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Be Young, Godless, and Black\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"To Be Young, Godless, and Black","description":"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"To Be Young, Godless, and Black","og_description":"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00","author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html","name":"To Be Young, Godless, and Black","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-27T22:27:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don\u2019t go into apoplexy.Back in late 2011, I wrote a post","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/to-be-young-godless-and-black.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"To Be Young, Godless, and Black"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}