Contributor Carole McDonnell’s short stories and essays appear online and in print, in speculative fiction, ethnic, and Christian publications. She lives in New York with her husband, two sons, and their pets. Wind Follower, published this month by Juno Books, is Carole’s first novel. Her point of view adds plenty to our discussion, so I welcome Carole and her column Faith in Color to Allaboutrace.com.

The Internet enables people to meet a cross section of people throughout the world. As a black person and a Christian I have met many people. Unfortunately, I have met many who are very racist and very anti-Christian. In that way, the information highway is like any other highway. One never knows whom one will meet.

If you don’t believe that, go into any chat room and tell them you’re one or the other or both. It never fails. Cyber-bullying rises, showing it’s intolerant teeth. This recently happened to me after I posted an article about faith-based charities on blogcritics. Not only did I get the usual sarcastic comments, but I also got tons of enlightening email sent to my email address. One person went so far as to send my website and email addresses to his atheist friends in the Beltway Atheists. I was not only overwhelmed with cruel snide anti-Christian comments but I ended up with quite a number of people trying to enlighten me and convert me from Christianity to atheism.

The weird thing was how weirdly similar all their emails were. Whenever a white atheist hears that I’m a Christian, the first thing he brings up is Christianity and slavery. When they do this, I wonder: “What ploy do atheists use against white Christians? Does they use arguments that have nothing to do with race? And do they all go to the same school, a school which tells them that when talking to a black Christian they must always discuss slavery and race?”

This kind of communication also happens whenever I meet an atheist at a party. They also bring up slavery. Okay, I’ll accept that the first thing they notice about me is that I’m black. And because I’m black AND a writer, I suppose they think that I should behave like a true enlightened black person – one who is free from the evils of Christianity. But why this fixation on slavery? Don’t they see blacks as nothing else but a symbol of the evils of slavery? Come now, I certainly wouldn’t mind white atheists trying to destroy my faith by philosophical and existentialist arguments. When they argue religion with white folks, that’s the route they probably take, right? So why do they always use race and slavery to knock down my little tower of religion? Don’t they think I’m deep enough to discourse about Hegel, Mill, Pascal, or Nietzsche?

No, no Hegel for me. Whenever the atheist speaks to me, he either tries to shame me or to enlighten me. Or both. And the tool he uses is solely slavery. I am always bombarded with one story or another about the Western Passage, the Mason-Dixie line, and KKK lynchings. Why they think this should matter to me is beyond me. I am aware that there are those people in the world whose choice of a religion is based on what the white man did to their ancestors years ago. I am aware that the KKK was created by a Baptist minister who was bent on romanticizing “whiteness” and who stole the Flaming Cross from an old Sir Walter Scott story. I am also aware – at least my white non-church-going southern friend tells me this– that the same people who invited him to religious “camp-meetings” and revivals were also the same people who invited him to join the KKK and other white Aryan groups.

I am also aware that atheists such as Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung have done as much damage as Christians and other religions. Christianity does not proclaim mass murder or mass slavery for those who don’t believe (unlike one particular religion) but it is not immune from society either.

The history of Christianity in the west cannot be separated from the history of the west. The west was racist, elitist, imperialistic. And after Constantine co-opted Christianity – as many modern politicians also co-opt it—religion and politics, church and state could only lead to trouble. It became aligned with power and although it improved the ancient western world in many ways, much of the vices of the ancient world – the love of power, for instance—also affected the religion. As yet, we do not know what Christianity would be like in a non-western, non-racist, non-imperialistic setting. Evangelical Christianity is growing across the world, however, and the majority of modern Christians are not white.

I will not go into a long detailed explanation of why I love God, Jesus, and the Holy Bible. But I will say that the common assumption is that those who believe in Jesus are simply bowing to tradition. I will honestly say that we’re not and that God has proved himself to be living, loving, and a very present help in our troubles. And I look forward to seeing what beauties will rise from my religion when the non-western world (including the western atheists) get their chance to proclaim it.