Apologetics. To the hearing of many thoughtful Christians, the word “apologetics” isn’t an unfamiliar one, most understand that it doesn’t entail the art of apologizing with skill. One would hope, at least. The phrase “urban apologetics” however, may not be as familiar, so what is it?
Urban apologetics, to put it simply, is contextualized apologetics.
The critiques of Christianity are as diverse as its critics; different people have different objections and frameworks from which they house their objections to God, the Bible and the Christian worldview. While there are regular and common discussions in mainstream Christian apologetics (i.e., creation vs. evolution, moral absolutism vs. moral relativism, theism vs. atheism, etc.) there are other objections that simply aren’t a discussion at the “mainstream table”, but which are nonetheless just as important and worthy of attention.
Urban apologetic discussions occur in places other than the halls of what is considered mainstream academia. They’re street-level, city based, “off the beaten path” objections held by individuals who, for the purpose of this article, are individuals of African descent, or black people.
Many things could be said when it comes to the historicity of the arrival of black people to the Western hemisphere. The atrocities that had to take place in order for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to be a ‘success” are INNUMERABLE. The result?
IDENTITY AND DIGNITY WERE INHUMANELY STRIPPED FROM INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE MADE IN THE ‘IMAGO DEI’, THE IMAGE OF GOD.
While it is historically true that slaveholders hijacked and misused Christianity, the charges against and objections to Christianity from this perspective have largely gone ignored in mainstream arenas. The lack of address to these charges and objections continues to lead black people away from Christianity and the God of Scripture.
Enter: Urban Apologetics.
The goal of Urban Apologetics is the restoration of identity and dignity WITH the gospel and to provide sound apologetic responses to these contextualized critiques of Christianity.
After all, the true gospel is Good News - for ALL.
THE CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY
In today’s social climate the word “conscious” has come to possess several connotations. For some it’s a triggering word that brings an emotional charge with it, to others it’s more neutral. What is meant when it’s used here?
To be conscious is to be awake and aware; aware of your surroundings and self, of who you are.
In the medical field, the ability to answer questions about one’s identity is a key component in assessing the status of consciousness. As it happens, it’s the same for the CONSCIOUS Community. Where a person lands on the range of being “conscious” is very much related to the knowledge of their identity.
Within the Community there are different ideologies such as Hebrew Israelism, Moorish Science Temple, Nation of Islam (NOI), Five Percent Nation (Nation of Gods and Earths), and Kemetic Spirituality, to name a few. These ideologies seek to answer the question: Do you know who you are? They’re ideologies based on one’s identity and produce agency in the individual.
If these ideologies were to be juxtaposed with Christianity, the most important distinguishing element is that the Christian worldview is centered on the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In other words, it’s an ideology not based on our identity; it’s based on His. Now to look more closely at one of these identity-based ideologies: Kemetic Spirituality.
WHAT IS KEMETIC SPIRITUALITY?
More and more the task of keeping up with all the ideologies in our world is becoming increasingly laborious. In a culture where “spirituality” seems to steadily become replaced with “religion”, the challenge to keep abreast of all the developments is almost impossible. So, what is Kemetic Spirituality?
The word Kemet means “black land” and Egyptologists note that it refers to the dark soil or silt that would be left behind from the flooding and then receding of the infamous Nile River every year. Egyptian culture and civilization were heavily influenced by the Nile River. Today, this “black land” is the region that we call Egypt. In effect, Kemet equals “ancient Egypt”.
Someone who holds to, or practices Kemeticism is referred to as a Kemetic or a Kemetic practitioner, where Kemeticism is the ideology. It can also be referred to as Kemetic Spirituality, Kemetic Science, Kemetic Spiritual Science, or the Kemetic tradition. Of course, these designations aren’t exhaustive.
In brief, Kemeticism encourages people of African descent to return to the ancient Egyptian way of life and religious living; where ancient Egyptian civilization is seen as an origin point. Essentially, Kemeticism is the revival or restoration of ancient Egyptian religious practices.
As a member of the Conscious Community, it possesses two similar characteristics which seem to be present amongst ALL Conscious Community ideologies in varying degrees.
There is a level of disdain for Christianity; Christianity is seen as an oppressive religion; it’s seen as the white man’s religion and one that shouldn’t be practiced by individuals who are black.
On some level, Europeans and/or European culture represents systems of oppression (i.e. the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, racism) and are seen as antagonistic.
Oddly enough, before many of these ideas became popular in the African American community they had popularity in, predominantly, European circles. 19th and 20th-century individuals like Kersey Greaves, Gerald Massey, and Alvin Boyd Kuhn unwittingly influenced the Kemetic ideology of individuals who are prominent, accepted, and well-known in the Kemetic community today such as George G.M. James, John Henrik Clarke, and Ben Jochannan (“Dr.” Ben).
An oxymoron at its finest.
WHAT DO THEY BELIEVE TODAY?
It must be stated that Kemeticism as an ideology is vast and can vary from person to person in practice. Some practitioners even delineate a distinction between the online vs. non-online Kemetic “world”.
For example, while the basis of Kemetic living for many practitioners is living in accordance with Ma’at (the Egyptian deity who personifies truth, balance, order, justice, reciprocity, righteousness, and harmony), for others the pursuit of Ma’at isn’t always the priority. This can be plainly observed in many popular online spaces.
For this reason, it’s always necessary to utilize this caveat: “some not all”. Here are a few ideas that “some, not all” hold to:
Christianity Is The White Man’s Religion
Jesus and/or Christianity Was Created At The Council Of Nicaea
The 10 Commandments Are A Copy Of The 42 Principles Of Ma’at
The Black Woman Is God And Predates Men
Christianity Was Beat Into And Given To Black People By Their Slave Masters
It would most likely take more articles to unpack the debunk these claims in full; I’ll say a few things here in response to three of them.
Christianity is The White Man’s Religion
The charge that Christianity is “the white man’s religion” would only make sense if one ignores the setting of the Hebrew Scriptures, and/or if you’re unaware of the African presence found in Scripture, the early church, and early church history.
Tradition says that [John] Mark traveled to Alexandria - that’s a city in Egypt - where he established the earliest Christian church. Some of the earliest biblical manuscripts come from Egypt.
Many influential Church Fathers were North African:
Clement of Alexandria
Origin of Alexandria
Athanasius of Alexandria
Cyprian of Carthage
Tertullian of Carthage
Augustine of Hippo
To say that Africa was excluded from the historicity of Christianity and that it’s the white man’s religion is simply erroneous.
Jesus and/or Christianity Was Created At The Council Of Nicaea
Council of Nicaea
That Jesus and/or Christianity was started at the Council of Nicaea is another regular claim levied by the Kemetic community. However, in order for it to be true, we would have to have NO mention of Christianity prior to the 4th century, which is when the Council of Nicaea took place.
When we do our research however, we find mention of Christianity, Christian doctrine, AND Christians in the 1st century (Roman Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the “Great Fire of Rome”), the 2nd century (Ignatius of Antioch was a Christian martyr sentenced to die in Rome who wrote several letters containing [Christian] doctrinal language) and the 3rd century (Roman Emperor Decius issued an edict which Christians were punished for not obliging). Again, all prior to the Council of Nicaea.
Christianity Was Beat Into And Given To Black People By Their Slave Masters
And finally, the idea that people of African descent were forced to abandon their indigenous beliefs and forced to accept Christianity by beating them is simply ahistorical.
Enslaved Africans understood that their slave masters were giving them a broken and “impostering” Christianity. How do we know this? All we have to do is listen to those that were enslaved (via slave narratives). Here’s one such narrative by Charlotte Martin who, in 1854, was born a slave in Florida:
"[The plantation owner] would not permit them to hold religious meetings or any other kinds of meetings, but they frequently met in secret to conduct religious services. When they were caught, the 'instigators'—known or suspected—were severely flogged. Charlotte recalls how her oldest brother was whipped to death for taking part in one of the religious ceremonies. This cruel act halted the secret religious services." (Library of Congress, Federal Writer’s Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 3, Florida, Anderson-Wilson (with combined interviews of others), image 169))
These aren’t the words of ancestors who were forced to embrace a God they didn’t want to or believe in. It’s the written record of ancestors who willingly loved, prayed to, and believed in a God who would deliver them.
Truth is seldom present in Kemeticism’s claims against Christianity.
To conclude I’d like to quote from an extremely resourceful book called “Street-Level Apologetics: Passion for the City, Clarity for the People”:
“INEVITABLY, Non-Christian worldviews are simply unable to stand up to the truth of reality and thus, they’re unreliable. Christianity, however, is wholly reliable because it’s foundation rests on a Person who IS Truth and Truth is knowable.”
And His Name Is Jesus.
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