Quote:
Originally posted by Love_Spell_6
But to me Kwanzaa is just another distraction from the true meaning of Christmas just as Santa Clause is. My African heritage doesn't supercede the importance of the birth of my Lord and Savior, and before I try to practice a made up or pagan holiday, I need to practice what Christ said to do in his word.
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Here lies the problem. Dr. Karenga himself said in a celebratory lecture for Kwanzaa I attended in 1993 that this "made up" holiday is not to conflict with Christmas. Christmas in the truest since, the birth of Christ and all the events that lead up to his birth and after his birth are a separate entity from Kwanzaa...
Yeah, the original historical context of Kwanzaa was about "outcompeting" a racist, sexist, biased and commercialized Christmas. But I think Karenga did not realize that his development would become what it did become and what it is evolving into. Whereas, Christmas, does not evolve. The fact the Christ was born to the virgin Mary in Bethlehem--that story has never changed... So, in Karenga's book, he wrote that main tenets of Kwanzaa are not to conflict with religious belief. They are to compliment and carry out and extend one's belief...
The Nguzo Saba does dictate that. Christ's commandment to us was "Love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another". I don't think the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles) conflict with that:
7 Principles
They are to be used throughout one's life who desires to pursue that Afrikan Centered life long neglected to us by oppression and ignorance.
That fact is, should we be grateful to the "oh so holier than thou Mr. White Man" for shoving down our throats a religion used to whip, beat and oppress our forebearers with "praises be to Allah", which exiled and kidnapped our forebearers out into the wilderness of America only to feel robbed of our humanity unless we are threatened with a jail term? Do African Americans collectively have any voice that is being heard, clearly? Really?
And don't start with what Christ gives you Heaven... Because I have seen too much craziness to even have utterances to decribe my circles of Hell to anyone...