Stop abusive religious beliefs from killing black women

Stop abusive religious beliefs from killing black women

I woke up this morning to a headline on my Facebook newsfeed that says a policeman and a friend on the force murdered a 24-year-old woman because she was not submissive enough.

I am so outraged to see this headline because of a senseless murder but also because I know the language is one that is born out of Christian doctrines.

As a black man, I am outraged by this senseless murder of a beautiful black woman. Where do you think the idea of "Submit" came from? RELIGION! {“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)} When you mix low self-image, with an overblown power hungry ego fueled by a religious belief that he has the right to a submissive woman the groundwork for murder was laid a long time ago.

I could say he was mentally ill, but he had a buddy that HELPED! They both were sick with the idea based in hyper masculinity. Fuckin' ridiculous!

In our black community, the treatment of women in the church is reprehensible! In the church, men have used and abused the psyche of women for many years.

The three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have long been anti-woman, anti-self-determination for women and oppressive. I can also throw in the eastern religions as well of Hinduism and Buddhism.

This was never the case in the pre-dynastic Egyptian spiritual system. The physical representation of the feminine aspect of creation was ALWAYS respected. You can know how the ancients thought based on their myths because they give you insight into how they view themselves and their world.

The beauty of a black woman

The Creation Myths

In Christianity, you have the creation of Adam and then later Eve is taken from his rib. This creation story is the basis of why women have been looked on as subservient in all three Abrahamic religions. Eve, is the only unnatural birth, meaning not born from a woman, in the entire bible!

The truth is Adam and Eve is a misrepresentation of ancient Kemetic numerology teaching deep metaphysical concepts.

Eve (the woman) was also blamed for the downfall of man by bringing the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil to Adam.

According to Christianity women from the outset are put in a role of the spoiler of mankind.

If you look at the bible stories that include women, they are basically at two extremes. Women are either a virgin or a whore.

Because of the bible women have been judged as fit to be a man’s wife based on the newness of her vagina (the number of sex partners). In other words, if she is a virgin she is a prize. If not a virgin she is worthless or just not wifey material.

These are all standards put forth by men and have shaped western society and relationships for centuries. Women have gotten the short end of the stick. It has had a negative effect on men as well but that is another article.

The Christian myths and teachings developed over thousands of years. But they moved far from the origin of the original teachings.

The religion of Christianity has the foundation of its teachings from ancient Egypt. However, through misunderstandings and misinterpretations by the Greeks and then later the Romans, many of the ancient spiritual ideas were changed and became part of the Christian dogma.

In ancient Kemet (pre-dynastic Egypt), the myth starts out with Atum (through the change in language it became Adam in Christianity). Atum was androgynous, meaning it wasn’t male nor female but the potential of the creator to be either.

Atum then through its power of creativity simultaneously spat out Shu and Tefnut. In ancient Africa, nothing could be created without the masculine and feminine energy. But, don’t confuse sex with gender. (Learn more on the gender principle here.)

Atum was born from the feminine principle. In ancient Africa everything was born from the “great mother.” You will see this idea repeated all throughout its myths and even in the way it structured its society.

Women in ancient Africa were not hindered by their sex in society in any way. One of the greatest pharaohs was a woman (Hatshepsut). It was a matriarchal society. The point being women were valued equally.

All of this started to change when the Greeks and Romans interpreted the ancient ideas from a patriarchal perspective.

Negative Self-image

The African diaspora as a people is dealing with negative self-images and low-self-esteem from a society of systematic racism that has a foundation in religion. Bible scriptures have been used for centuries to justify racism.

Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

It has also been used for centuries to justify the degradation of women. It's time for it to stop!

Low self-esteem men will use scripture to justify their own bullshit. In the black community, we know this beautiful black woman is not the only casualty of the idea of a woman needing to be submissive.

Ephesians 5:22-24

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

As a people when will we start to question the ideas of religion that have ravaged the lives of black women?

Men made ALL the rules. Women have submitted to these rules at their own psychological and physical detriment.

Women you can’t let men decide your worth based on the newness of your vagina or your ability to submit to his lack of self-esteem. Low self-esteem runs deep in the black male community for many reasons. But, religion and church is one of the few places black men have felt they have had power over anything. That power has been abused regularly.

Brothers, we have got to stop basing our manhood on ideas that oppress self-expression, sexuality, and independence of women.

As Black men, we cannot cry out about the abuse of the police and turn our eyes away from the abuse of women in our own communities. They are both born from the same energy of fear and anger.

The fear and anger are connected by feelings of powerlessness. Many whites feel they are losing power and control to POC. The police shootings are  a symptom of the feelings of powerlessness and an attempt to maintain control.

The Abuse and murder of Joyce Quaweay is born from the same feelings of powerlessness by her boyfriend and an attempt to maintain his control over her. His self-esteem could not accept a free and independent woman, just like the self-esteem of a racist white person can't accept the idea of POC being free and independent of their power structure.

The ancient Africans would see them as symbols of the same energy. They understood that when you can recognize the root cause of an effect you can then heal it or change it.

In this case, two effects (murder) symbolize the same root cause. Feelings of fear and powerlessness.

As men when we change what's inside of us we can change the effects that are feedback in our lives. That's the ancient African way.

I have a daughter her age

This beautiful black sister, Joyce Quaweay paid the ultimate price. This sickness of religion that affects the minds of men will change when they know women are no longer bound by the beliefs of men.

My daughter is her age. As a father, I have taught my daughter to not accept the religious ideas. She is a beautiful healthy young woman that I’m so proud of.

I can only imagine the grief and rage that the father of Joyce Quaweay is going through today.

Religion in the form of a low-self-image, egotistical male murdered his child. This has got to stop!

The bible has some powerful teachings that are obscured through literalism. You cannot truly understand the bible unless you have the foundation of original teachings. Those teachings are in ancient Africa.  A woman submitting to a man was not one of those ancient African teachings.

We need a new paradigm of relating. In ancient Africa, we had a beautiful framework that sustained a civilization for thousands of years. We have to move away from the dogma of religion or it will destroy our communities from the inside out.

Namaste (the divine in me, recognizes the divine in you)

Reginald Khu-Ahkaru

[badgeos_evidence]