Throughout The Church and Prejudice by Frederick Douglass, Frederick shows how the white people of the 19th century were prejudiced against the black people of America. He also spoke on how religion effected their prejudice. One Idea that Frederick Douglass brought up that I found interesting was the idea that white people discriminate against the slaves and black people around them for not knowing much, and yet the reason they do not know anything is because white people did not allow black people to have schools, or a proper education. Frederick Douglass also brought up the idea of how, the southern Preachers taught that white people were the thinkers of the societies, while the black people were the workers. The Preachers taught it that the slaves were to be thought as lucky to just have to do the work, and not have to deal with all of the thinking that white people had to do.
Frederick Douglass also spoke on the idea that white people like black people as long as they stay within their place. The place that was forced on the black people by white people.
Frederick Douglass talks about in his essay how these people allowed black people into their religious groups but often were still prejudiced against them within the group, as well as making the slaves stay within their place and only be workers, the White men also did not want to go to heaven if black people went to heaven.
This idea was especially surprising to me. If you allowed black people into the Methodist church but expected them not to got to heaven. White people allowed black people to celebrate god, but in the end expected god to not reward the black people the way god would reward his/her white followers.
Frederick Douglass throughout his piece showed how their was a lot of prejudice from white people towards black people during the nineteenth century, and a lot of it was supported by religion or at least religious leaders.
Do you think all the Christians follow what Bible told them to do, or do they make true statements in Jesus name? A lot of people think that the Christians are true believers, but not all of the Christians are true believers because they are not following what God told them to do. I used to believe that all Christians are true believers, but I realized that not all the Christians are true believers because they were still learning about God, and they don’t know God that much, and they stated false experiences and false claims. Frederick Douglass was a slave, but he became one of the greatest American anti-slavery and civil rights leaders of nineteenth century. He was very against the slavery, and everyone agreed with him because they knew that discrimination and slavery weren’t right things to do. The discrimination of black people also existed in the church and some people are refusing to go to heaven because the black people also can go to heaven. I think they were thinking that white people and black people have different level, and slaves can’t go to heaven. However, we are all equal in God’s hand. Black people also can do the things that white people do because they are same people, and they have same level under God. In the Bible, God said every people who created by God’s hand are all equal. Lies and violence are unchangeable for anywhere and anytime. Many Christians stating the false experiences and false claims which are lies. Also, terrible abusing towards black people were still continuing during that time. Not all people think or agree with my claim because they think differently. A lot of people might think black people always should be slave, but they could be very wise thinkers instead of slave like Frederick. In conclusion, the quality of this story in his speech was really bad, but it was giving us very important message that not all Christians people are true believers, and they have good prejudice.
ReplyDeleteSPOILER ALERT
ReplyDeleteIn the speech ‘Frederick Douglass: The Church and Prejudice’ Frederick Douglass, who is giving speech talks about problems in church. Frederick Douglass believed destiny of the slaves and masters are already chosen. During the speech Frederick Douglass bring up great topics and problems to talk about, but I believe the speech he gave was not so successful. Frederick Douglass’s speech sounded hopeless and he was not able to understand why God told slaves to obey their master. However problems that he bring up like racism in church are still going on and he was successful about bringing up the problems and make people think again about their life living as Christian. Speech ‘Frederick Douglass: The Church and Prejudice’ made people think again about their life as Christian and how churches should change their attitude, but still quality of the speech was poor and hopeless.
Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery in February 14, 1818, Cordova, delivered this speech at the Plymouth Church Anti-Slavery Society, December 23, 1841. During the speech Frederick Douglass mention lots of problems in churches by sharing his experiences in church. In the church he went, he experienced lots of fake Christians and their wrong belief. People in the church disrespect him through false prophet and verbal abuse. Frederick Douglass got abused by people leaving the church during the communion, and through one man’s false testimony about who he experienced the heaven but he didn’t see any black people. These problems that Frederick Douglass experienced are real social problems in churches. However not all the churches are like the church he went. Also rasim problem back in Frederick Douglass time was very common and I believe he could have pick different experience than the experience he had in church. While I read I was not able to truly understand why he had to made these clams, because he only share the bad part of the churches. His speech made me feel like all the churches are like the church he went. If Frederick Douglass was very concerned about the problems he experienced, he should have also share how he think people should fix these problems, and show the example of how it should originally look like.
Speech that Frederick Douglass gave was low quality speech that was hopeless and made lots of prejudice. He was not able to break the prejudice that he experience but just complain about it. Also he was not able to understand true meaning of bible verses he read and it influenced lots of people. As a reader I was able to understand his broken heart and how he was abused. However speech he gave would make people feel more miserable and depressed. Because he made his speech miserable it does not follow the belief he has and it made this speech, low quality speech. As a person who is effective to other people Frederick Douglass should have give hopeful speech to people, but he was not able to give but make the miserable. Lots of his arguments were wrong and he had wrong understanding of what he believe. I strongly suggest reader to don’t follow the idea Frederick Douglass have in this speech and have faith that our God never let us down. God who died for our sin did not told us to be miserable, but he told us to have faith and ask everything in his name and he will give it to you.