yunghottiescientist-blog

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

Yo Ministers Got Hella Bread!

For those readers who are not aware of my childhood/upbringing, I was raised in a devout Baptist household. Every Sunday my mother would grease us from head to toe, dress us in our “Sunday’s best”, tell us “You not gon’ embarrass me in the house of the Lord”, and we embarked on our weekly journey to South Side Church of Christ. The weekly service was about the usual “you get what you give” rhetoric, with the occasional interjection which pressures members to tithe larger amounts of money “for the glory of God”. At the time I did not think much of the weekly sermons my mother was so eager to drag me too. I was a child, I did not care what the pastor was barking about, my only concern was being able to play with my cousins afterward. Although we attended a weekly Baptist service, that wasn’t enough Jesus for my mother--she had us enrolled in a contemporary, private, Christian school too. As it stood, Monday-Friday I learned about Jesus with my school peers, Saturday we cleaned the house “to honor the Lord”, and Sunday was our weekly pilgrimage to South Central Los Angeles. 

It was not until the middle of high-school (I wanna say the end of sophomore year) that my Bible teacher introduced us to the prosperity gospel. She had defined the concept as the “health and wealth gospel” which is a perversion of Jesus that claims that God rewards increases in faith with increases in health and/or wealth. Her choice of words, calling this subset of Christianity a perversion had rubbed me the wrong way, so I did some at home research....

Apparently the prosperity gospel had originated as an offshoot of Pentecostalism in post World War II America. Initially this subset of Christianity started in local congregations and in tent revivals, the movement amassed an even larger following through the use of television and radio. During the 1980s, and well afterward, the prosperity gospel became synonymous with televangelism. Interestingly enough, while not all prosperity gospel preachers are Pentecostal or charismatic (and most Pentecostal Christians are actually not associated with the prosperity gospel), the subset is still largely intertwined with revivalist and charismatic churches. 

Delving deeper into the rabbit-hole, that is the prosperity gospel--I have given a little background history which leads to the emergence of the prosperity gospel but that was fifty-years ago. I want to know who preaches the prosperity gospel now? and Why is Black America so attracted to the prosperity gospel?

In today’s modern world of televangelism, some of the best-known prosperity teachers are Creflo Dollar, T.D Jakes, and Joel Olsteen among a handful of other socialite pastors. These are some of the WEALTHIEST men that oversee various mega-church empires. For example Creflo Dollar has amassed the lowest amount of wealth, in comparison to the others mentioned. Sir Creflo is the senior pastor and founder of the famous world changers nondenominational church in Georgia; his net worth crests twenty-seven million dollars. WILD.

 In the words of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar “Prosperity Gospel is war on the [black] poor”

If the prosperity gospel is a so-called “war on the poor” then why are Black Americans so engrossed by the health and wealth sermons? I couldn’t mind much research or statistics about the subject, so I decided to opt-in for a first-person testimonial from a firm prosperity gospel believer. So I called my grandfather. To preface my grandfather was born August 6th, 1940 in Atlanta. He was raised during the apex of the Jim Crowe era, as a young Black man. To keep the conversation somewhat short, I simply asked “Why do you so firmly believe in the specific niche of charismatic Christianity?” He took the time to explain the historical time period in which he was born “I was born with nothing. No matter how hard my father and mother worked, we could never get ahead financially. Money was always tight and tensions high.” He continued onward “the only hope we had of a better future is through our faith in Jesus Christ. If he was able to free our ancestors from centuries of enslavement, then he could turn our situation around for the better. You just have to exude enough faith.” I understand the time frame in which he was born into but I still did not understand how the narrative shifted from communal benevolence to “the more you give, the more you get”, so I asked. My grandfather responded with “At one point I had nothing. Now I have some things. I may not have a lot of things but I have enough to show the Lord gratitude through tithing” he continued “...for me it is not about how much I am asked to tithe, it’s about me showing continued thanks to the Lord for taking my life from nothing to something.” I guess I get it? Maybe I cannot fully relate to my grandfather’s religious rationalizing (or others of the same generation) but I am slightly disturbed that some pastors make such outlandish tithing requests. Ultimately it shouldn’t be about how people show their thanks/acknowledgements to the Lord but more so about the fact that people are showing thanks/acknowledgements to the Lord period.

I chose this topic to focus my last blog post for a couple reasons--1) I was raised attending similar health and wealth sermons, 2) to gather more information about who are the “top dogs” of this mega-church subculture, and 3) to better understand the attraction of Black America and the prosperity gospel. Ultimately this last blog post really helped me critically think how the Black Church went from “literal rags to riches” and some of the cultural traumas/occurrences which could have been conducive to the birth of the modern Black prosperity gospel.

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

I would like to title today’s blog post: My God is Bigger Than Coronavirus. 

For and foremost--why do people think they can defy governmental shelter-in-place orders? If you wanted to know what heaven or hell is like, the quickest way to find out is to disobey quarantine regulation and hold a church service. For those readers who are not aware of this person, his name is Bishop Gerald Glenn. Bishop Glenn was the pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Virginia. 

As your all aware, since mid-March the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have flooded the public media with strict warnings to adhere to quarantine protocol. At the very minimum the quarantine protocol advised to forego any previously scheduled large gatherings, as a way to help curb unnecessary exposure to the already elusive virus. Unfortunately despite various warnings not only from the CDC but also World Health Organization, United Nations, and even our own less than satisfactory President some folks simply believe their supernatural deities are larger than a virus. What does that statement even mean? Well come to find out, it ain’t mean much obviously. According to news sources Bishop Glenn contracted the coronavirus and passed away from COVID-19 related complications. In the weeks leading up to his death, according to some church goers, the bishop had been pressuring the congregation to continue coming to services amidst social distancing protocol.

One of the reasons I chose this topic to create a blog post is because it immediately reminded me of a quote that Professor W had mentioned in class. The quote went something like “if your God only acknowledging your prayers and praise within a specific building....well then, he’s not a very powerful god”. It got me thinking why is the bishop still pressing for full service attendance amidst a global pandemic? Like yeah you may believe your god is larger than the virus but your mortal church goers are not “larger than the virus”. As a person who is seen as a mortal intermediary between them and the Lord, I personally believe that choice to pressure attendees to continue showing up was largely negligent. I feel as though his words were especially harmful because it was spoken to a largely impoverished demographic. What was to happen if church attendance continued and large swaths of the congregation contracted the virus? Did the Bishop or the Church have enough money to cover the COVID related costs? 

The last reason I chose to blog about this topic is--this is not the first short news article that I have read about various pastors pressuring church goers to continue attendance despite social distancing protocols. However on the flip side, I have not seen many “high-grossing” pastors who have donated to COVID-19 relief efforts (*Ahem Joel Olsteen, Kenneth Copeland, Pat Robertson* I’m talking about y’all). As many times a pastor has coerced a congregation into tithing with the rhetoric “you get what, you give”, you would think they would be giving more back to the communities in which they tithe. I could ramble on forever about corrupt pastors and those defying social distancing protocol but I’ll keep it short. 

In conclusion, stay y’all wondering behinds IN THE HOUSE. In addition, please wash y’all dirty hands and adhere to social distancing /shelter in place orders. Lastly, keep in mind although you may not be directly affected by COVID-19 there are many others who have been directly affected, so please have some compassion and STAY IN DA CRIB. 

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

I would like to title today’s post: Why Can’t We All Be Great Black People?

So sometime during early March I had come across a tweet on the timeline, which immediately irritated me. It was this tweet here y’all. I was so irritated by the tweet that I took a screenshot (for this sole purpose) and had to exit out the app for the remainder of the hour. It could just be me overreacting and making a tweet deeper than it really it is but it still bothers me. Since the age of slavery African Americans have been consistently ridiculed and quite frankly...shitted on for not “knowing their ancestors” or not having a “true connection” with their cultural heritage.  For those non-Black readers who don’t understand the importance of this continuous rivalry, since the dawn of slavery those Africans who were taken hostage were forcibly stripped of the culture and tradition. This direct loss of cultural heritage was only the beginning of what would be a long battle between which region(s) of Blacks is the most connected to their ancestral heritage. In the words of my Creole grandmother, “We are all the same type of Black. The only difference was the drop off destination”. Valid points were made by my grandmother because truly the only thing that could have separated me from growing up with an American lifestyle was the drop off point of my ancestors. 

On another note, this tweet really upset me because she assumes that African-Americans are incapable of spiritual discernment in regards to indigenous African religions, simply because African-Americans grew up in....America. In another tweet on the connected thread she goes further to say “...Caribbeans + Africans are more aware of the tactics or witchcraft bc we have direct roots we can trace back to which ultimately gives us understanding. So I understand, its not easy for AA to differentiate” I call bullshit. So she (a Haitian-AMERICAN) is telling other African-Americans not to dabble in African spirituality simply because we nor our parents grew up in the Caribbean or Africa? Ludicrous. This is just a glimpse of ONE of the nonsensical arguments that are generated to ridicule Black Americans. 

Another argument that is commonly used to criticize African-Americans revolves around the recently emergent social movement called “being woke”. For those readers who aren’t fully hip to the new societal jargon, woke is defined as being aware, and knowing what’s going on both in the Black community (and larger scale society). In the wake of mass records of police brutality against Black Americans starting in late 2013, Black folks began to place less and less trust and faith in the American police and justice system. Between the news accounts of random police brutality occurrences (both within and outside the prisons) and the record breaking school shootings, American society was a complete clown circus. It began in 2014 with #BlackLivesMatter as a direct result of the unjust police beating and killing of Eric Garner. The “woke” movement had began to highlight the injustices being done to fellow Black Americans, whilst the rest of the nation looked on. If other diasporan Black people would do their research the movement was NOT established to “dabble into African spirituality aka witchcraft just to appease their curiosity of who they are”.

I chose this tweet as my fourth blog post because it directly ties into a couple class sessions we had in regards to Black people and the diaspora. We even had a part of a class discussion in regards to this particular argument. It truly just hurts when I see other non-American Black or African folks thinking African-Americans are lesser than, inherently talking down on us for something that is out of our control. Furthermore it’s even more disheartening to see other non-American Black folk talking even worse about those African-Americans who are actively trying to establish a re-connection between their current lives in America and their ancestral heritage. 

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

I would like to title today’s blog post: Black Millennials and Modern Religion.

I happened to be scrolling through Twitter the other day and came across a tweet that mutual follower of mine had retweeted. The tweet was captioned “61% of Black Millennials say they pray at least daily, compared with their non-Black counterparts”. The tweet intrigued me so I did some superficial research, in which I quickly searched through the connected thread of tweets so see if anyone posted a link that could further explain the statistical assumption. After a few quick clicks and page hops, I found the link to an article which helped substantiate the claims made via Twitter. According to a study done by Pew Research, an experimental study concluded that “About six-in-ten Black Millennials (61%) say they pray at least daily, a significantly higher share than the 39% of non-Black Millennials saying this. And while 38% of Black Millennials say they attend religious services at least weekly, just a quarter (25%) of other [non-Black] Millennials do this…” On the one hand Black millennials seem to be more religious than their non-Black counterparts. On the other hand, the research suggests Black millennials are drastically less religious than older Black adults. The research article states “They [Black Millennials] are less likely than older Black adults to say they pray at least daily, that they attend religious services at least weekly, and that religion is very important to them”. Halfway through the research article, I’m even more intrigued at the statistical analysis which suggests Black millennials are trapped within the intermediary more and less religious. Why is this the case? For the following half hour I sat, eyes glued to my phone screen, wondering which situations were conducive to making a large portion of a Black generation more religiously aligned than their non-Black counterparts. Unfortunately the research article did not have any conclusions, let alone any hypothesis, as to why this is the case. On the upside, it did get me critically thinking (and attempting to apply certain concepts learned in class) about the potential scenarios which led to this reality. I chose to share this as my third blog post because before I came to university, I fit into this statistical claim. I am a Black Millennial (March 1996), I grew up adhering to traditional daily prayers, believing in both heaven and hell, and wholly being affiliated with the Christian faith. Based on personal experience (and this may not be the case for everyone) I believe that Black millennials are disproportionately more religiously because of cultural tradition. Throughout the course of my Black Religions course, we studied how religion (Christianity versus indigenous African religions) shaped slavery and the following centuries for Black Americans. Within a couple of class sessions we discussed how slaves were taken from their lands, stripped of their culture/tradition, and forcibly pushed into adhering to the Christian faith. Fast forward to the mid-twentieth century, when the abolition of slavery was barely cresting one hundred years old, the Civil Rights movement is beginning to take place. This was a time of extreme social and economic disparity with the lives of Black Americans, most of the time leaving religion as the last beacon of hope. For some Black Americans religion was the last aspect of their life in which they could find solace. Every young Black person has heard at least one story of their ancestors or super elderly relatives participating in the CR movement. In addition more often than not that same ancestor or relative is a Christian believer, in some sort of fashion. I vividly remember my grandfather telling me that for him religion played a great role in his life especially being a young Black child in 1950′s Atlanta, Georgia. He explained the racial tensions and social disparities he had to overcome in “white America”. Furthermore he explained how that without the hope in faith, that Christianity provided, he would not have made it this far in life. His exact words “Without the love of Christ, I would not have made it this far. I owe my life to Christ.” By that rationale, one could better understand why older Black generations are the forefront leader in the aforementioned research survey. I sat there in thought, how could a god that you “owe your life too” allow such a dark period to occur to a particular group of people for so long? Especially if the god allegedly loved ALL his creation? The same god who sent his son to die a physical death on the behalf of his followers? Out of respect for my grandfather, on a sensitive topic, I didn’t pry any further and took his statement for what it was. However the slave owners and later white oppressors would attribute this Black disadvantage to some sort of religious predestination. Using common rhetoric like “Blacks are savages and henceforth predestined to humanly less than their white counterparts” and so forth. So tiring.

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

(This tweet was posted as a response to the quoted article, not a link to the article itself) I would like to title today’s blog post: A Lot of Y’alls Favorite Celebrities are Anti-Feminist....And I’ll Name ‘Em. Today I will be sharing a snippet of Western feminist logic with you. I had come across an article on twitter a couple weeks ago, and I thought it shared some perspectives, that I hadn’t previously given much thought too. The article highlights the great schism between Western feminism and feminism for ALL women. To begin the article calls attention to a handful of celebrities who have proudly taken to social media and the press about “not needing feminism”. Such celebrities include Kendall Jenner, Katy Perry, and Kelly Clarkson among other starlets. The author specifically focuses on a statement given by Kendall Jenner via Instagram Live, which states “I have rights, so who needs feminism”. But who actually gives a fuck about what a celebrity has to say about feminism? I mean they are so out of touch with working-class reality anyways. However the author delves further past the superficiality of the statement and highlights the fact that this method of self-centered importance further perpetuates a classist divide within a community which was founded for ALL women (regardless of religion, race, economic background etc). So yeah Kendall Jenner, alongside various other celebrity women, may not need to directly benefit from feminism. But for her to nonchalantly say those words, both dishonors the sacrifices made by our foremothers but also largely ignores the reality that the push for womens rights are still very much in play. With that being said I believe celebs should use their massive social platforms to boost resources for their less fortunate women followers or at the very least use their platform to educate their followers about the benefits of feminism for ALL women. “They [rights] are still in play for women seeking equal pay for work, for those who want paid maternity leave, and for those who seek access to reproductive health. They are still in play for women of color and LGBT women. They are still in play for women of faith.” I chose this tweet and article because I had been raised in a Christian household for my entire childhood. I lived in the middle of an affluent suburbanite community, I even attended a private Christian school for education. If you were to examine the aspects of my life, without already knowing my racial background, you would assume that I am white (or at the very least a bougie non-black person of color). Honestly growing up, I probably would’ve taken your assumption as a compliment. Growing up surrounded by predominantly white people, you begin to adopt a secondary(white) view (which sometimes becomes the primary view) in which you identify yourself in relation to the world. Within this perspective I, a Black girl, shouldn’t be pining for equal rights for women. I should just be happy that I’ve been granted civil liberties as a Black person, right? Until college, I was just happy to have the bare minimum as far as women’s rights and wanted no parts in feminism. Upon entering into university I left feminism to my white and non-Black counterparts. They had the time and the money to bark in opposition against the patriarchy, I didn’t. When I began educating myself on intersectional and Black feminism, I began to notice an underlying rhetoric of classism and prejudice within the white feminist sector as opposed to other sectors of feminism. Furthermore I have definitely noticed the schism between Western white feminism and religion. Granted a lot of religions were birthed from patriarchal ideology however it does not mean those women who choose to adhere to these religions should be excluded from participating in feminism. Religiously empowered feminists are a marginalized community, within the larger scoping feminist community, who have inherently been treated as second class or lesser than their nonreligious counterparts. Regardless, this marginalized community is now taking steps to become more vocal regarding their religious choices and being seen as lesser than. Some women stated “We acknowledge and concern ourselves with these real world impacts of our faiths. But we also recognize our faiths’ foundational messages for what they are and the ways they’ve been misconstrued. In other words, we refuse to let our traditions be defined by sexist interpretations.” Personally, this is the true feminism. These are just some of the tenacious women who refuse to forego their religious traditions because of sexist interpretations. This takes mountains of courage. This is feminism.

[yunghottiescientist-blog]

Stumbling is not falling.

Malcolm X

I only just found this quote recently, courtesy of my Black Religions course this semester. However it shook me…like to the core. 

In lieu of recent events stemming from the global pandemic (COVID-19) life has been more than hectic, to put it lightly. I’m a double major attempting to complete my senior year at a California State University. Not only do I attend school full time but I also work full time in retail service, unfortunately. On top of that, my “safe space”..my home was shared between five other self-entitled, privileged, selfish, and messy girls. Granted the girls are sweet but they come from upper echelon families, so we cannot relate much on personal experience nor upbringing. In the beginning I didn’t mind the differences, most times overlooked the differences. I would say life prior to the pandemic was decent, satisfactory, if you will. Monday through Friday I alternated between the same two routines, which revolved around school and work. In the beginning of the semester I was content with my alternation between routines, however a month and a half into the situation my feelings began to change. Slowly but surely I became less motivated and more irritated with both my school and work life. It began with me missing one course session for one course, then slowly progressed into me skipping three or four class sessions a week alongside missing work too. The crazy part is that I felt myself slipping (stumbling) away. The slide into sadness, depression, self-pity was a gradual process for me, it did not happen all at once. However by mid-March my motivation and confidence hit an all-time low whilst my depression and self-pity sky rocketed. 

I want to say around the week of March 16th things really took a turn for the worse. Long story short, that is the day I lost my job due to COVID-19. That was just another problem added to my already “running list of problems”. At this point not only did I need to muster up the motivation and confidence to finish the midterm period but also figure out my next step in regards to finances. As I had mentioned, I am a fully self supporting student so this was the ultimate punch in the gut. I worked multiple jobs a week just to pay basic tuition and fees, JUST to have a seat in my current courses. Without my steady monthly income, I felt even more hopeless. By March 20th, I hadn’t eaten nor spoken to any friends or family for three days. I was hurting, lost, and distraught. By this time all schooling had been transferred to online/virtual settings, meaning at the bare minimum all I needed to do was click a button from bed and I would be in class. Most days I couldn’t even do that. At this point I would spend most of my days in a depressive sleep coma and my nights rushing through assignments only to lay awake at night and silently sob about my life. Fuck a stumble, I felt outright defeated to say the least. Fast forward to mid-April, I logged onto a course meeting on zoom. In today’s discussion we were analyzing quotes from Malcolm X, I didn’t think much of the assignment. When the professor pulled up a page full of quotes, that’s when I saw it. Upon reading the quote, I felt my eyes well with burning tears. Up until that point, I thought my life has been one disaster after a next for the last three months. However after reading the quote, I knew it applied to me. I came to the realization that although I may have stumbled on my path to self-proclaimed success (undergraduate graduation, graduation trips, and possible job promotion)…I have not fallen completely. Throughout the rest of the zoom meeting (and after) I sobbed silently behind the screen of my phone, only interjecting with comments when I was able to hold back the tears. 

I chose to begin my blog with this post because most of y’all either know me from school/work, where I hide under an elaborate facade of happiness and structure, or y’all don’t know me at all. In addition, I thought this post would set the tone for the flowing posts to come. Lastly, I chose to write about this specific quote because it was the glimmer of hope that my success shouldn’t be contingent upon short term losses or short-comings but rather the long term goal of being the change I want to see in the world. 

This is definitely one of those memorable experiences, I will keep with me forever alongside this quote.