Easter Sunday and Jesus

“Our spirituality should be a vitamin - not a drug.”

Dear friends,

Looking back into this nation's history, with little property or access to being able to feed Ourselves, due to the discriminating behaviors of  Our European American fellows, most African Americans, whether captives or freedmen were forced to look elsewhere for their salvation. For the first two hundred years, or eight generations, of our existence in North America, Africans used a theology of hope and liberation as Our strongest asset.

Unfortunately, after the Civil War, Black ministers started betraying their congregations and started to water down the sentiments of freedom on Earth for the more acceptable "white" mission that would have Black folks being more concerned with the Hereafter. Consequently, although messiah-type saviors have long been in the hearts and minds of oppressed peoples worldwide since time immemorial, it was at that point in North American history, roughly a generation or so prior to the North American Civil War, that led by Black clergy, the search for "Jesus" became the new spiritual sentiment among the African American populace. Moreover, for many African Americans, since manumission five generations ago, their religion has been no different than a narcotic. Webster's Dictionary defines the word narcotic as, "a drug that dulls the senses, relieves pain, and produces sleep." In fact, it is not uncommon to hear the refrain from some African Americans, "I'm high on Jesus."

Of course, We now know that there is little evidence to support the notion of the existence of an historical Jesus, outside of active imaginations. Moreover, a number of scholars have traced the origins of the Jesus myth to Ancient Egypt. Mythology helps people deal with uncertainty. Through it, We make Ourselves feel that we have some understanding of the world in which we live, and, consequently, some ability to control natural forces.

Dr. Charles S. Finch says about Egyptian mythology, "the powers of nature, whether animal, vegetable, or elemental, were not worshiped but provided images to fashion mental concepts and make the world comprehensible." (Journal of African Civilizations, Vol.4-No.2)

Professor John G. Jackson cites, “Two principal types as savior-gods have been recognized by hierologists - vegetation gods and astral gods...The vegetation cults were the most ancient, but they were later blended with the astral worship" (Journal, op. cit., Vol.4-No.2)

Jackson uses a passage from Dr. David Forsyth's book, Psychology and Religion, to illustrate the abovementioned vegetation theory, “Many gods besides Christ have been supposed to die, be resurrected and ascend to heaven. This idea has now been traced back to its origins among primitive people in the annual death and resurrection of crops and plant life generally. This explains the world-wide prevalence of the notion...It is from this erroneous belief of primitive tribes that Christianity today derives its belief in Christ's Death and Resurrection.”

In addition, about astral worship, Jackson says, “In primitive sacrificial rites, the victim was originally the king or chief of the tribe or clan. The prosperity of the group was supposed to have a magical relation to the health of the king; if the ruler became old and feeble, it was thought that the nation or tribe would suffer a similar decline, so the king, considered to be a god in human form, was sacrificed for the good of all, and then replaced with a younger, and more vigorous successor.... In even later days a condemned criminal replaced the royal victim. The culprit was given regal honors, for a time, then put to death. After being entombed, he was believed to rise from the dead within 3 days; the 3 days being based on the 3 day interval between the old and new moons." (Journal, Vol.4-No.2, ibid.)

Many people picture Jesus Christ as a living being, not an imitation of Egyptian mythology. However, at least some Egyptologists seem to share the view that Jesus Christ was a figure created by imaginative scholars who studied the Egyptian deity called Horus (whose story was being told centuries earlier than that of the historical Jesus.)

In fact, the renowned Gerald Massey's work, "Ancient Egypt", reveals nearly 200 "similarities", as it were. Dr. Albert Churchward, one of Massey's disciples, has extracted a few of these parallels. Among them: “Horus was with his mother, the virgin, until 12 years old...Jesus remained with his mother, the virgin, up to the age 12...From 12 to 30 years of age there is no record of the life Horus. From 12 to 30 years of age there is no record in the life of Jesus. Horus, at 30 years of age, became adult in his baptism by Anup. Jesus, at 30 years of age, was made a man of, in his baptism by John the Baptist. Horus in his baptism, made his transformation into the beloved son and only begotten of the Father, God, the Holy Spirit, that is represented by a bird. Jesus, in his baptism, is hailed from Heaven as the beloved son and only begotten of the Father, God, and the Holy Spirit, that is represented by a dove." - The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man (Journal, Vol.4-No.2, op. cit.)

If the above mentioned is true, did Jesus really exist? Dr. Charles S. Finch has an interesting perspective, “A man named Joshua Ben Pandira (Joshua means “Jesus” in Greek) did live more than a century before the gospel Jesus was supposed to have been born. He was an Essene who learned "magic and wonder-working" in Egypt, traveled through and performed wonders in Palestine, and was tried and crucified by hanging on that account by Jewish magistrates in the city of Lydda on the eve of Passover (Christian Easter). (op. cit.)

This crucifixion happened about 70 years before the historical Jesus Christ was supposed to have been born. Dr. Finch continues, “If there was an historical Jesus, he was it. There was an almost universal expectation of the appearance of a savior in the world's religions of the time and perhaps the life and work of Joshua the Essene provided the germ around which the vast savior mythology - in existence for thousands of years-coalesced (united
We know too, from the Dead Sea Scrolls and other revived documents, which Christianity evolved directly from Essenism and eventually supplanted (replaced) it entirely." (Journal, Vol.4-No.2, op. cit.)

In the overall North American experience, the notion of people appreciating African spirituality as a basis for liberation has been largely erased, although periodically there are Black clerics who continue to struggle against social injustice towards African Americans.

Additionally, "religious" thinking is so pervasive in our society that even when the idea of liberation does enter the dialogue of the Black experience, each outstanding African American leader that appears is appreciated only in the context of “Jesus” Hence, Martin Luther King and others are spoken of as "saviors", instead of individuals who have been or are merely part of a centuries-long liberation movement. Even Barack Obama, the current US president is thought of that way.

As a result, nonsensical comments are made such as, “If it wasn't for Martin Luther King, We'd still be riding the back of the bus. “Never mind!”, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois would have said. It took the sacrifices of thousands - locally - and millions of African Americans - nationally, to make the Montgomery Bus Boycott work, not the eloquence of a few charismatic leaders.

Civil rights professionals/hustlers and corporate media people alike have been pushing the same type of Jesus sentiment. Yet, perhaps, one day, all of humankind will wake up, stop the pretense called religion, and finally admit that we no longer believe in a Supreme Being or a world-ruling personality. After all, who lives their lives according to the tenets of religion? No one! Nevertheless, such a confession will introduce a new period of human liberation, which will, in turn, allow us to reach a new level of humanity and consider "higher aims."

For, as Maurice Cornforth put it so eloquently in his important work, The Open Society and The Open Philosophy, “We (humans) are deeply concerned with 'spiritual' things - and impoverish themselves if they ignore them...(But) if people's material life is impoverished, they do not get much chance to cultivate the things of the spirit-just as they do not do so either if they fail to appreciate the real character of human relations and concern themselves with nothing but their own individual material satisfactions. If only we can better inform our practice - by getting better to know ourselves, our needs, our dependencies on one another, we stand at least a chance of finding how in practice to cultivate all the higher human capacities, the things of the spirit"

Finally, at least to me, our spirituality should be a vitamin - not a drug. Peace.

G. Djata Bumpus