VICE news calling African spirituality "witchcraft"

[MischievousMonkey]

It would be a deep dive that I don't want to get into completely right now cause I got other work to do, but probably the central biggest thing he did was further advance and solidify Anselm's notion of penal substitution atonement, a very limited way of viewing Jesus's death that was eventually elevated in Western theology to basically the central dogma of Christianity (and unsurprisingly even moreso in the Protestant churches than be the Catholic church itself). I don't have my relevant books here so I can't quote specifically but I (and many others) feel that Anselm/Aquinas has a very human-warped view of salvation influenced by the structures of their own feudal society, and much of it has been rejected or pushed off as overreaching by Eastern/African theologians.

In terms of logic, one of the central differences in thought between the African/Eastern churches and certain Western thinkers is the comfort level with mystery, the ability to hold multiple principles in tension or to understand that we don't know everything of the mind of God. To many Eastern theologians, a general truth stated about God can be understood to be generally true and informative even if we don't know how it applies to some exceptional case. We can believe something to be "generally true" even if there are exceptions we don't understand. But certain Western thinkers like Aquinas appear to me to treat the Bible like a scientific formula, and rather than hold multiple principles in tension or accept that some things are difficult for humans to understand compared to the all-encompassing mind of God, they have to apply human logic to break down every word and phrase and potential contradiction, which ends up getting them even further from the truth because they force the text to prove things it was never saying. For example, making up the separate, unBiblical categories of "Providential Will" and "Moral Will" to explain God's desires or creating the categories of "ceremonial law" and "moral law" to divide the Old Testament in ways it was never meant to be divided (I don't recall if Aquinas himself used those particular phrases, just using them as examples of the kind of issues that Western theology has often led to.). Because they are uncomfortable with ambiguity/mystery, because they insist on things like, "Every word of the text is infallible!" to mean that it has be to categorized and broken down in a very human manner, they end up becoming more enslaved to their own definitions of words than to the nature and character of God's own self, and create an image of God (which reached the fullest, worst form in John Calvin's Reformation Theology and modern-day followers like John Piper, Douglas Wilson, etc.) that bears no relation to the God I see when I see Jesus Christ.

Thanks a lot for the extensive answer. It's clearer for me now.

 

[Brehcepticon]

Worship the god of your oppressor, Christian brehs

 

[Thurgood Thurston III]

Also, youre Antifa calling ME stupid and impotent. Rope yourself with fishing line

 

[Thurgood Thurston III]

6 protons, 6 electrons, and 6 neutrons are the carbons that make melanin people. And they call us the "beast" in the bible

@King_Sage Also those numbers only have significance if you actually believe anything within the bible...

 

[NZA]

when westerners and the diaspora take traditional spirituality and re-contextualize it and juxtapose it with crosses and whatnot, that actually is witchcraft. ive seen black women who do that who self describe themselves as that.

 

[Thurgood Thurston III]

That's what's so crazy about it. I've literally posted the verse of them describing Jesus's appearance, which is always a dark brownish red color, but the same people keep saying, " You following da white man's religion!" Revelation literally tells us of fake Jews that would come on the scene in back to back chapters.

The oldest Christian Church is in Ethiopia. Even the Bible says Jesus spent the ages of 13 to 30 living in Ethiopia, learning from the people. When Christ followers were still just considered a cult and not a religion, those were black and brown people following his word.
.

Let's compromise.

Jesus was black.

Rest of the bible is fan fiction.

 

[Goombreh]

These chicks be worshipping the chaos gods under guise of spiritually.

 

[yung Herbie Hancock]

These women are playing with fire. It's dangerous. You don't play spiritual stuffs. I see this trend of young women, black loke white, calling themselves witches.

Vice is always on some weird shyt when it comes to Africa. I can't stand their documentaries. They Always have some voyeurism/misery porn vibe attached to them.

Bruh their documentaries relating to Africa be on some dehumanization shyt. Look at these thumbnails.

This video has 17 million views. It's one of their most viewed videos... I wonder WHY?

This one has 24 million views. It's about general butt naked...

 

[The Darkness]

Witches can practice any religion not just ATR.

 

[MBwithadream]

Be ignorant brehs. If you actually listened to what God said you would know what's not about to happen. Enjoy this little bit of time you have left atheists.

A wicked generation seek after a sign but they will be none except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

 

[havoc]

It is witchcraft.

Jesus isn't white. In fact, he's the same color as many ADOS

Jesus walked on water, calmed down a rainstorm, and arose from death. Isn't that witchcraft?

 

[Chrishaune]

Jesus walked on water, calmed down a rainstorm, and arose from death. Isn't that witchcraft?

Jesus did all of the miracles to show that He is the Son of God and all of the other gods people knew were false. Everything He did was related to a false god. He was showing He was given power over everything by the Father. Go back and look at the Greek and Roman gods of that time period.

 

[⠝⠕⠏⠑]

I honestly don’t think conversing with your ancestors and respecting them is an issue.
I do think petitioning spiritual beings can be problematic. From a spiritually pragmatic POV, do you even know who or what you talking to?
Also, as a rule of thumb I’m skeptical about deities who require sacrifices or bargains. As a Christian the sacrifice is about developing self-control and it’s not really a sacrifice at all. God literally did that heavy lifting. I will never need to spill the life force of others in the name of the divine because the focus is on me and my character.

Also I think too much reliance on this obscures the value and power of our own souls. I’ve always asked some people who I know are into these things, why they asking for favors from something that wants THEIR soul? Doesn’t that imply that you don’t really need them? If your soul is valuable enough that some uber powerful force wants to step across dimensions to haggle with you over it…I mean come on. What could you TRULY be achieving with it. I think some paths just make our ultimate destination longer.

In the end, all you truly need is yourself. I think God and all power is in us…but we forgot somehow and seek it outside of ourselves. I dunno, I’m still working through some kinks spiritually myself. Been having some pretty awesome epic dreams I’ve been piecing together.

 

[GPBear]

It is witchcraft.

Jesus isn't white. In fact, he's the same color as many ADOS

Oh so that’s witchcraft but believing you’re eating the body and drinking the blood of a dead Jewish zombie is totally okay

got it

all that turning water into wine, making fish appear out of nowhere - not sorcery or witchcraft, just good ol fashion religion

for sure

resurrecting dead people and coming back to life after three days isn’t witchcraft, it’s just standard every day messiah shyt

no doubt

talking to demons and shyt in the desert is all gucci

I’m fukkin surprised Jesus didn’t make the Statue of Liberty disappear in some Copperfield shyt

 

[GPBear]

I have mad beef too, Aquinas was a ridiculous person who based most of his shyt on pagan philosophy and completely misguided "logic" rather than any actual understanding of God. He did a lot of damage to theology with repercussions that continue today.

Aquinas, Duns Scots, William of Ockham, early medieval “doctors of divinity” were all stealing shyt directly from Islamic golden age scholars like Averroes and Avicenna that were translating Ancient Greek pagan texts - but Eurocentric Christianity that spent centuries wallowing in its own filth during the dark ages wants you to believe it’s the true path