I first heard of Jeremiah Camara when he and I were invited to speak at the meeting of the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS) which was held in April of 2012. Little did I realize that he was the superb creator of Slave Sermons, a funny and thought-provoking look at how the Bible condones slavery, and how people of African descent have bought into their own biblically-sanctioned oppression.

Camara is originally from Cincinnati. He has lived in Cleveland, and he has been living in Atlanta for several years. He was once in training to be a Christian minister, and it shows. He is a highly impressive public speaker, and I have referred to him as a “reverse preacher,” because he uses a preacher’s rhetorical skill to expose problems in Christianity.

Camara is the author of two books: Holy Lockdown: Does the Church Limit Black Progress?, and The New Doubting Thomas: The Bible, Black Folks & Blind Belief. He is currently working on a documentary on Black freethought, humanism, and unbelief.

Many bleeding hearts are proud of the fact that they do not believe in self-help. They believe that the government should be entirely responsible for the welfare of its citizens. Moreover, they believe that all of the problems that people face can be laid squarely at the feet of the government.

However, refreshingly, Camara does not embrace such a view. He is firmly rooted in Afrocentric thought, though he does not promote a reactionary conception of Black nationalism. In Holy Lockdown he writes: “Although social injustices against Black people are a given, it is nonetheless incumbent upon us to be aware of the vague line in the sand that separates government accountability from self-responsibility. The bottom line is that we may not be so much victims of genocide as we are victims of suicide.”

Indeed, the author discusses many of Black people’s self-inflicted wounds, including Black-on- Black violence, the vulgarity, misogyny and degradation of hard-core rap music, neglect of Black communities, illicit drug use, etc.

Not surprisingly, Camara takes Black churches to task for obsessively focusing on the afterlife and waiting for the apocalypse and the return of Jesus. He writes: “It is…pointless…for Blacks to keep winning individual salvational [sic] battles yet keep losing societal wars.” (p. 23). Those societal wars include the war against AIDS, mass incarceration of African American males, unemployment, etc.

Most people seem to be big on the supposed importance of tradition. They claim that, because the church served Black people at times in the past, it is absolutely necessary for Black progress in the present. However, this is not necessarily true. On the contrary, Camara quotes Buddha: “To insist on a spiritual practice that served you in the past is to carry the raft on your back after you have crossed the river.” Similarly, the author quotes Albert Einstein: “We can’t solve our problems from the same level of thinking from which they originated.”

Camara uses his own analogies: “we must realize that the church was all we had. If someone gives you a shoe heel to hammer in a nail, you have to use what you have until you obtain a tool more suitable for driving in the nail. It is easy to be the lead character when you’re the only one in the movie.” (The New Doubting Thomas (p. 137)

The author has a problem with theists that insist that whenever someone dies, “it was their time to go.” He writes: “I have never accepted that it was [my friends’] time to go, basically, because many deaths are preventable.” (pp. 121-122) Many people die from drinking or eating too much, dying in car crashes as a result of not wearing safety belts, not taking their medication, failure to exercise, being murdered, etc. In these cases, the people do not die because it is their time to go.

This point reminds me of one raised by Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Dan spoke at the aforementioned PATAS conference in the Philippines. Sitting at a table with Camara, others and me, Barker noted that people thank God for giving them food that is killing them. For example, before meals, they thank God for fried chicken, ham, pig guts, bacon and other foods that cause hypertension, headaches, stomach aches, hardening of the arteries, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. Then again, perhaps the Lord simply moves in mysterious ways.

Camara has many observations that could be beneficial to Black people in general, and to Black theists in particular. It is hard to think of a better way to end this piece than by quoting Camara on how Black religion has been a liability to Black people:

If we worked on saving money as much as we do on saving souls, we would be a race of producers, instead of consumers. If we kept the dollar in the Black community as we keep the dollar in the church, we would be major economic players. If we prepared for our future on earth the way we prepare for our future in the hereafter, our children would have a legacy from which to benefit. (Holy Lockdown, pp. 154-5)