The decolonization of the European Christianity in Africa
Daniel Lusianu
Christians should stop knowing Jesus Christ according to the description of others. It is not enough to have Jesus Christ as per experience of others. Each of us has an equal opportunity to know Jesus Christ ,for it was declared , a saviour of the world will be born and He shall be called ‘Immanuel’ which is interpreted “ God with us”. God is with you and He is ever present in your life. There has been no point in the Human history that God has ever left His people. For too long in history we have been taught and told how Jesus Christs looks like. Today we have a picture of a white Jesus everywhere. Even though some may argue that having a white picture of Jesus does not matter, it is from an individual perspective I have decided to correct such ignorance.
The picture of the white Jesus has been used to perpetuate the idea that God is for the white people and not for the black nation. History has it that the ‘some’ white European colonial masters and the Christian missionaries has taught people to believe that God is closer and loves the white folks more than the black counterpart, hence it is with this idea that biblical texts were often misquoted to the blacks in order to render their obedience to their masters and continue to be oppressed as blacks. The image of the white Jesus not only remind one about the effect of colonialism in Africa, but also speaks to us about the violation of the second commandment which says that ‘’ thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in water under the earth’’. God detests the idea of people making an image of Him. So should we as He instructed us.
For many years a wrong image of who Jesus Christ (God) in the minds of many Africans remains to be obliterated through the effect of European ‘misguided’ Christian education. Today, in the Christian fraternity we have black people holding Bibles in their hands who have a wrong misconception of God and they continue to perpetuate and replicate the ideas of European ‘misguided’ Christianity in the society. Such people go about having the Bible in their hands, blending Christianity with what is coined as ‘spiritual imperialism’. Spiritual imperialism is when people use Bible texts to exploit others who seem not to have any idea about the word of God.
What can be done
Spiritual imperialism was best explained by Desmond Tutu’s quote; “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” This quote reflects the epitome of Christianity in Africa more so In Namibia today. Professed men of God are going about abusing, miss-using, exploiting the resources of those who are at the receiving end of their gospel. I say it is ‘their’ gospel because Jesus Christ whom they claim to emulate in one instance fed more than 5000 hungry people, but the men of God today are the ones being fed by more than 5000 hungry poor church members. The professed men of God are feeding and devouring on the substance of the flock. Professed men of God ‘spiritual imperialists’ of today are getting richer and the church members are getting poorer. You may ask is there a problem with church members giving their substance to men of God? There is nothing wrong with giving, but there is everything wrong when a man of God instructs church members to give all they have in order to earn salvation. ‘Salvation is for free, therefore we do not need to pay to be saved’, said Martin Luther when He broke away from Roman Catholic papacy. Roman Catholic papacy made people to pay for the sins they committed and the sins they intended to commit in Advance. The liberating knowledge that Martin Luther possessed came from the pages of the Bible. If Africans would but read their Bibles, like Martin Luther did, they will but calm their desires of doing bad things in the name of Christianity and decolonize themselves from European Christianity. It is time Africans read the Bible for themselves and echo the words of Martin Luther ‘Sola scriptura”, the Bible and the Bible alone!
* Daniel Lusianu is currently serving as a the faculty representative of Education at the University of Namibia. He believes in sensitizing the youth to make well-thought out decisions.
Christians should stop knowing Jesus Christ according to the description of others. It is not enough to have Jesus Christ as per experience of others. Each of us has an equal opportunity to know Jesus Christ ,for it was declared , a saviour of the world will be born and He shall be called ‘Immanuel’ which is interpreted “ God with us”. God is with you and He is ever present in your life. There has been no point in the Human history that God has ever left His people. For too long in history we have been taught and told how Jesus Christs looks like. Today we have a picture of a white Jesus everywhere. Even though some may argue that having a white picture of Jesus does not matter, it is from an individual perspective I have decided to correct such ignorance.
The picture of the white Jesus has been used to perpetuate the idea that God is for the white people and not for the black nation. History has it that the ‘some’ white European colonial masters and the Christian missionaries has taught people to believe that God is closer and loves the white folks more than the black counterpart, hence it is with this idea that biblical texts were often misquoted to the blacks in order to render their obedience to their masters and continue to be oppressed as blacks. The image of the white Jesus not only remind one about the effect of colonialism in Africa, but also speaks to us about the violation of the second commandment which says that ‘’ thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in water under the earth’’. God detests the idea of people making an image of Him. So should we as He instructed us.
For many years a wrong image of who Jesus Christ (God) in the minds of many Africans remains to be obliterated through the effect of European ‘misguided’ Christian education. Today, in the Christian fraternity we have black people holding Bibles in their hands who have a wrong misconception of God and they continue to perpetuate and replicate the ideas of European ‘misguided’ Christianity in the society. Such people go about having the Bible in their hands, blending Christianity with what is coined as ‘spiritual imperialism’. Spiritual imperialism is when people use Bible texts to exploit others who seem not to have any idea about the word of God.
What can be done
Spiritual imperialism was best explained by Desmond Tutu’s quote; “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” This quote reflects the epitome of Christianity in Africa more so In Namibia today. Professed men of God are going about abusing, miss-using, exploiting the resources of those who are at the receiving end of their gospel. I say it is ‘their’ gospel because Jesus Christ whom they claim to emulate in one instance fed more than 5000 hungry people, but the men of God today are the ones being fed by more than 5000 hungry poor church members. The professed men of God are feeding and devouring on the substance of the flock. Professed men of God ‘spiritual imperialists’ of today are getting richer and the church members are getting poorer. You may ask is there a problem with church members giving their substance to men of God? There is nothing wrong with giving, but there is everything wrong when a man of God instructs church members to give all they have in order to earn salvation. ‘Salvation is for free, therefore we do not need to pay to be saved’, said Martin Luther when He broke away from Roman Catholic papacy. Roman Catholic papacy made people to pay for the sins they committed and the sins they intended to commit in Advance. The liberating knowledge that Martin Luther possessed came from the pages of the Bible. If Africans would but read their Bibles, like Martin Luther did, they will but calm their desires of doing bad things in the name of Christianity and decolonize themselves from European Christianity. It is time Africans read the Bible for themselves and echo the words of Martin Luther ‘Sola scriptura”, the Bible and the Bible alone!
* Daniel Lusianu is currently serving as a the faculty representative of Education at the University of Namibia. He believes in sensitizing the youth to make well-thought out decisions.
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