I'd been watching Anne with an E (an updated TV series of Anne of Green Gables) and something began playing with my mind. I was wondering where African Americans found their staunch Christian faith, so I did some 'Googling'. It seems that Christianity was forced on them by the slave owners, at least partly to justify their oppression!
You would think that they would resent this "white" God and the misery he this imposed on them, but instead, something amazing happened! They saw for themselves the beauty of the God portrayed in the Bible - not the one preached at them - but the one in those pages who struggled with their struggles and reached out to help lift them in their oppression. This God offered a light of hope in the darkness, and a way to live with joy when misery tried to drown them. It became a rock to which they clung, and led to a wealth of deeply spiritual songs and sermons we still draw from today.
Don't just accept any cold representation of God you've been given. Search out who he really is. He's like gold to the starving miner when you figure it out!
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