Who is to Blame?
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A God of Justice
It is within Article 2 that Walker clearly established his theology. He asks the question is not God a God of justice for all his creatures? The answer to Walker's question is clear, and formed the premise of his argument. Yes, God is a God of justice, therefore, why would a just God deny justice to millions of His creation - because of the color of their skin? To that question, the answer would again be obvious, God would not.
So, if God would not deny His creation justice how can the people achieve justice in the world? Walker argued that the road map to achieve justice could be found in an understanding of what God's Holy Word really advocated, not the ideas that Americans who professed Christianity promoted. Please remember that David Walker is a Christian. He did not question Christ; he questioned Christianity in the manner Americans practiced it that permitted them to use their interpretation/misinterpretation of the Bible to justify the enslavement of Blacks.
But, the Bible Says Slavery is Okay
Perhaps I should regress a little and talk about support for slavery found, by some, in the Bible. First, there was the story of Ham, or the Curse of Ham. Ham, the son of Noah, saw his father drunk and naked and told his brothers. His brothers refused to look at their father naked and instead covered him. The story stated that when Noah awoke from his drunken state, he cursed Ham and his people that they would be servants to their brothers (Genesis 9). The second major justi�cation comes from Ephesians where Paul wrote that slaves were to obey their earthly masters.
David Walker rejected these interpretations of the Bible, stating that the way in which religion was and is conducted by the Europeans and their descendants, one might believe it was a plan fabricated by themselves and the devil to oppress us. From his perspective that interpretation directly con�icted with the actions of Americans who travel to foreign lands to convert what they saw as heathens, for example missionaries. For Walker, this is a blatant contradiction - on one hand the obvious degradation of a people because you believe God ordained these heathens to be slaves forever; on the other hand, sending missionaries to convert heathens to your faith. Walker rejected an interpretation of Christianity that permitted the endorsement of such asinine ideas.
They are Teaching a False Doctrine
Article 3 directly challenged the preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ. In essence, Walker asked how dare a preacher of the Bible state that "slaves must be obedient to their masters - must do their duty to their masters or be whipped - the whip was made for the backs of fools, etc. Walker reminded his reader that the teachings of Jesus Christ were teachings of peace and love, not of blood and the whip. What Walker was saying is that the doctrine espoused by Americans was warped and should not be accepted by Blacks.
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He saw that religious doctrine was a huge obstacle in the path of moving the black community toward resistance. As long as Blacks thought that it was their God ordained duty to stay in slavery, then Blacks would remain complacent and satis�ed, expecting their reward for enduring suffering in the afterlife. Remember in the last Article Walker asked the question, is God a God of all creatures. Having answered the question yes, now Walker systematically lays the foundation for Blacks to reject the religion which was promoted by American preachers, not to reject Jesus Christ - big difference. Within this Article, Walker dissects the religion promoted by Americans whose goal is to keep Blacks in servitude. Walker basically stated that if God was not a God of justice for Blacks, then why should Blacks embrace Him. I keep stating this - keep in mind Walker is a Christian!! So, he was not promoting some other faith system for black Americans. Nor was he wanting Blacks to reject Christianity. He just wanted the black community to think about what they were taught, and to reject an ideology that relegated them to servitude and was used to treat them in a subservient manner.
Prophetic Wisdom?
Arguably the most biting statement Walker makes in Article 3 is rather prophetic. He predicts that the nation would have to suffer for its dishonor to God. He predicted that at some point the nation would reap what it had sown. Walker obviously saw the United States as a great nation with vast potential. However, he questions the future for a people who bought into their own lies, into their own
hype. His prediction was pointing, perhaps even prophetic I am awfully afraid that pride, prejudice, avarice and blood, will before long prove the ruin of this happy republic, or land of liberty!!!! Can anything be a greater mockery of religion than the way in which it is conducted by the Americans?
Basically, David Walker seemed to say, what a shame! What a mockery! What a joke that this nation speci�cally, or any nation in general, can profess faith in a deity that charged the people with loving their neighbor, and yet hold millions of humans in perpetual wretchedness, with no real opportunity for advancement, no real opportunity for the liberty and justice this nation proclaimed in 1776.
The Church Created by Blacks for Blacks
The African Methodist Episcopal Church grew out of the Free African Society which Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and others established in Philadelphia in 1787. When of�cials at St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church pulled Blacks off their knees while praying, Free African Society members discovered just how far American Methodists would go to enforce racial discrimination against African Americans. Hence, these African-American members of St. George's made plans to transform their mutual aid society into an African congregation. Although most wanted to af�liate with the Protestant Episcopal Church, Allen led a small group who resolved to remain Methodists. In 1794, the Bethel African
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Methodist Episcopal church was dedicated with Allen as its pastor. To establish Bethel's independence from the white Methodists, Allen, a former slave, successfully sued in Pennsylvania courts for the right of his congregation to exist as an independent institution. Because black Methodists in other middle Atlantic communities encountered racism and desired religious autonomy, Allen called them to meet in Philadelphia to form a new Wesleyan denomination, African Methodist Episcopal.
While the spread of the AME Church prior to the Civil War was mainly in the Northeast and Midwest, the most signi�cant era of denominational development occurred during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Oftentimes, with the permission of Union army of�cials, AME clergy moved into the states of the collapsing Confederacy to pull newly freed slaves into their denomination. I Seek My Brethren, the title of an often repeated sermon, became a clarion call to evangelize fellow Blacks in many parts of the South. In 1880 AME membership reached 400,000 because of its rapid spread below the Mason-Dixon line. When Bishop Henry McNeal Turner pushed African Methodism across the Atlantic into Liberia and Sierra Leone (1891) and South Africa (1896), the denomination laid claim to adherents on two continents.
While the AME Church is doctrinally Methodist, clergy, scholars, and lay persons have written important works which demonstrate the distinctive theology and praxis which have de�ned this Wesleyan body. Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett reminded the audience of the presence of Blacks in the formation of Christianity; Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner wrote in 1895 that biblical scholars wrongly portrayed the son of David as a white man; and, in the post-Civil Rights era theologians James H. Cone, Cecil W. Cone, and Jacqueline Grant, all from the AME tradition, confronted Christian churches, both black and white, on their shortcomings addressing the plight of those oppressed by racism, sexism, and economic disadvantage.
The Name
African - Within the name, the word African refers to those of African descent and heritage who organized the denomination. It does not mean that the church was founded in Africa, or that it was/is for persons of African descent only. Methodist - The church's roots are of the family of Methodist churches. Methodism provides an orderly system of rules and regulations and places emphasis on a plain and simple gospel. Episcopal - Episcopal refers to the form of government under which the church operates. The chief executive and administrative of�cers of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination are the Bishops of the church.
(Excerpt from http://www.ame-church.com/about-us/history.php by Dennis C .Dickerson, AME Church Historiographer)