Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-11-02
THE NEGRO and Christianity
The Poor and Weak Have Little to Hope
for From Perverted and Dis
torted Christianity.
Do Those Who "Pr0fess" Religion Ever
Feel Ashamed of Its History In
the Past and Present:

Albion w. Toauyee IN Chicago Inter Ocean.
Professor Washington, of Tuskegee
College, Alabama, in a recent address,
says that the only way for the colored
people to shave the most of Jesus is to
have good bank account.
The statement seems little sirrever-
ent, and is not little ludicrous; but
Professor Washington is entirely sin
cere, and the caustic truth of his dec
laration goes a great way toward dissi-
pating the smile that comes to ones
lips as he reads. The plain English of
it is that colored man must not ex-
pect much satisfaction from Christianity
on earth unless he becomes first a sue
cessful worshiper of Mammon.
Professor Washington's theory is that
the true formula of s.pure and undefled
religion" is Praise God and make
money"
This theory is just as deluslve us any
other specific for avoiding the ills Of
harsh conditions.
The simple truth is, and it is this no
doubt which Professor Washington
really means, that Christianity is not
of any sort of value in securing justice
for the weak believer at the hands of
the rich and strong ones. The. colored
man does very well not to rely upon
such sentiment to secure him from the
white mans rapacity and injustice.
Christianity in the abstract is an eternal
unvarying truth; in the concrete it
takes on the color of the times and
peoples among whom it hourishes.
Yesterday it denied the colored mans
right to life, liberty, or happiness. 1t
took them away and gave them to the
master and calmly and undoubtingly
asked Gods blessing on the act To-
day American Christianity admits the
colored mans abstract equality of
right, but says he must not enjoy it,
because to do so would offend his white
brother, who although no longer
master has still the right to rule,
direct, and control, if not individually
at least collectively, his ''brother in
black AS in the past the white
Christian killed the colored brother,
whom he owned, without fear of the
law, being himself judge, jury and
witness, SO to-day the white man pro-
claims it to be his Christian duty to
prevent the colored man from enjoying
a greater measure of liberty than he
himself is willing to accord. He is
ready to be kind but not ready to be
Just. He is willing that the colored
man should work for the lowest rate of
wages, but not willing that he should
have the same rights and opportunities
as the white man. Yesterday the fex-
ing of Christian principle was justified
on the ground of divine ordainment-
because God had bestowed the right to
rule on the white man, and it was the
duty of the colored man to obey.
Driven from this by the bloody logic of
events. they now claim that the i'm
mutable lev of life, older and more
sacred than the gospel of Jesus of
Nazareth. is that the rich and strong
shall possess the earth, and that the
poor and weak must submit and serve.
Yesterday the irrefutab BILE proof of the
right to rule was bill of sale; to-day
it is the control of the state. AS the
Christianity of yesterday did not give
up the control of the slave until COM
PEELED by dire necessity, SO the Chris
tianity Of to-day will not yield the
right to dominate, conCrol and kill
unUll SOIlt ultlOICSCCh ttiiet
force shall compel them to acknowledge
to-day's wrongs to be just as lndefen-
sible as they now admit yesterdays to
have been.
Professor Washington is quite right
in his conclusion thatthe poor Christian
has very little chance for justice at the
hands of Christianity which has sub
stituted piety for justice and exalted
economic theory above the golden rule;
but he is wrong in thinking that the
possession of wealth will greatly change
the colored mans condition. The rich
colored man may avoid many OF the
discomforts arising FROM the injustice
which white Christianity refuses to
cure; but he Is just as far from having
a fair chance for himself and children
if worth hundreds of thousands as If
lowered only with days work. 1t is
wise indeed for the colored man to get
knowledge and cash, for they are the
two great modern elements OF power
1t is well for him to cling to his
Christianity, too, because it is the sure
foundation of equal right, and some
time or other American Christianity
will rise high enough to be just to a
colored Christian But neither wealth
Will JuoGiSC uAiOSo
Joined with the steady, persistent and
resolute demand for right. Pity may
spring from piety, but righteousness
comes only from the law. Gifts are
the evidence of piety; statutes the fruit
of just impulse. The only hope of the
colored man in the Republic is through
the law of the land and its enforce
ment. Wealth and Christianity may
strengthen him in the great struggle
for Justice, but neither nor both will
ever secure it for him or yield it to him
without a struggle
Two curious illustrations of this are
at hand: A wealthy and refined col
ored man, the head of a respecta BILE and
cultivated family, recently bought
house upon fashiona BILE street in the
city OF fBrooklyn--the" City of Churches,
as it is called. No sooner was the fact
known that he intended to live in it
than the neighborhood was in an up
roar Accomplished Christian women
demonstrated with angry tears against
the proclamation of the precincts sacred
to white society by the residence there
in of colored family who were not
menials Twelve thousand dollars was
offered him to surrender his purchase,
and he was roundly denounced because
he refused the proposition. Whether
he finally accepted better offer or not
the Bystander does not know, but he
certainly discovered new way in
which .sChristianity and a bank ac-