Is Christianity a Problem?

 

 

Dr Chancellor Williams an influential historian among many Africans said this about the Early Christianity brought by Western missionaries and their nations, that they “used Christianity to spread their hidden agendas of conquest and for the imposition of their Western values, ideas turning the African man into the white man’s image (Williams 1987:56).” here he said that conversion to Christ did not become central to many of these missionaries but was replaced with the conversion of the African man to European civilization. From such a quote and many others similar to it stems the claim that Christianity brought by Europeans was a white man religion, introduced to Africans through Western colonisation with the purpose of pacifying, deceiving and indoctrinating the Africans to be blind to their oppression. In the eyes of many followers of Dr Williams African Christians are either perceived as ignorant or anti African people. They are viewed as those who work against the interest of their people by their embracing of this foreign religion called Christianity. This group then sees that African’s total liberation from the Western oppression includes getting rid of all that is Christian in the continent replacing it with an African centred spirituality, to such that Dr Ray Hagin views Christianity as the “Euro-Gentile Cultural Imperialism and Supremacy.”

 

Now the question remains are all these claims about Christianity true? Is indeed Christianity the agent towards the destruction of Africans? Does Christianity indoctrinate Africans into hating their African identity and thus work against all that is African? Did or does Christianity promote the oppression of Africans? The answer to all these questions is a very big no.

 

Christianity may in some parts of the African continent introduced by western missionaries, but its first landing in the African continent was not through western missionaries. The bible records that the first non-Jewish convert to Christianity was an African who is identified as the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:27. The Holy Spirit using Philip a Jew who was not white and neither was he a European preached the saving message of Jesus Christ and this African was saved in the process. Moreover history records for us that the man went back to his home town and preached the gospel establishing a church (Manie Bosman), to which the churches in Sudan can trace their line to this African, back to the Apostles who were not Europeans and back to the Lord Jesus Christ who was also not European. David E. Wilhite (2017:364) say this that “Not only was Christianity non-western, it was also non-European. So the attempted to make Christianity a European religion is a historical fallacy.

 

Moving on we have to admit that missionaries and early white Christians did play a role in the destruction of the African countries and their people. Though not all of them were involve in this project of destruction e.g. Van der Kemp, there were also some who opposed these colonial injustices and suffered for their actions (Jeffrey Brian Peires 1975:217). But we have many of them who supported slavery, colonialism and racism to such that Alice Kinloch speaking about missionaries said that very few were good (Ngcukaitobi 2018:51). Some of these missionaries and early white Christians played a part in the destruction of African history, language and culture, three important aspects which make up a people’s identity (Diop 1978). For example the early Western “Christian” intellectuals who promoted the Bantu migration, did so in the expense of what the bible reveals about Africans, this was a colonization of history of some sort. Due to their work the Africans South of the Sahara were cut off from the privilege of tracing their origin and history from the bible, a history revealing them as being created by God descended from Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan through Adam and Noah. But they created a theory that separated them from this origin, and thus opened them up to the deception of the great lakes origin and theistic evolution which prominent African intellectuals such as Cheik Anta Diop and Moleke Kente Asante adopted in their works. But when they did try to use the bible a Hamitic or the pre-Adamic race was invoked to refer to the Africans. This is the legacy of these early Christians and their colonization of knowledge and culture in Africa.

 

Julius Cobbing in his paper on the “The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo” reveals that missionaries led invading armies, who murdered and raped many African men and women (1988:519). Backing him up on the injustice committed by these missionaries, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi in his book “The Land is ours” say that Acceptance of colonial education and Christianity implied the negation of African values, beliefs and ways of life (2018:27).” For this task to be fully completed missionaries played a very crucial role. Africans also witness missionaries working with the various European nations to conquer certain regions, thus solidify their power over those people they had conquered. Some white Christians even went to their respective governments campaigning that they should come and invade a certain territory or help one tribe in its fight with another thus steering up conflicts (Jeffrey Brian Peires 1976:145), the purpose was to save the African from his “barbarism” so they claimed. Also missionaries expected that for Africans to be fully considered Christians they had to leave their cultural practices profess faith in Christ and embrace the westerners behaviors, before the Africans do this they were not embraced as brothers by the white Christian society, and if they submitted to all of these requirements then they will be rejected by their own people (Jeffrey Brian Peires 1976:150). To the extent that in the Eastern Cape this created a division were you had people who were called “Amaqaba” and “Amaqhobhoka.” The earlier Africans were those who refused to convert to either the Christian faith, western culture or both. The latter was one who did surrender to this coercion, this sometimes was done with the help of the state through its demand that Africans had to have a Christian name before finding a job or school, and thus helping to further destroying their identity. Leonard Thompson in his book “History of South Africa” shows that in South Africa ministers did not question the illegitimate government and its unjust rule over the native people, since many of them received salaries from this oppressive state (2001:51-52). To such that Sol Platjie in his book the native life in South Africa revealing the hypocrisy of the Christian church and how they treated Africans during his time said that “Instead of making it possible for them to enjoy the blessings of an enlightened Christianity and a noble civilization, they refuse them the right to live, unless they are content to slave for farmers or descend into the bowels of the earth to delve the gold which enslaves the world, and before whose charms all freedom flies (Plaatje 1914:115).” Furthermore this hypocrisy was exposed when the Xhosa people ask a missionary about the many contradictions in their teaching and their evil motives they hide under the gospel saying "How many are these gospels that you preach? We ask that because Somerset came and said Stop doing evil', and yet he kills people every day,” leaving the Christian chief Dyani Tshatshu asking "Why do not the missionaries first go to their own countrymen and convert them first?” (Jeffrey Brian Peires 1976:148-149). This as we all see was a disgrace to the gospel of Christ. There are many of these similar stories that one could tell of western missionaries using the name of Christ to commit unspeakable atrocities and thus disgracing and betraying the gospel they claim to represent.

 

Even though this is true and cannot be denied that “Christianity” was used to oppress Africans, but the question that needs to be really asked is did the bible mandate these atrocities to be committed, even if they were done by those claiming to be Christians? Did Jesus Christ send the Europeans to help the Africans out of their savagery by invading their lands, destroying their history, language and culture and giving them the gospel when that was completed? The answer to all these question again is a thunderous NO. Why?

 

Great commission

When we read the great commission which is Jesus’s mandate to the 12 disciples and to all his disciples around the world to take the message of salvation and of the forgiveness of sins found exclusively through him, we do not find even the slightest hint that the message should be carried through the sword, deception or violence. In fact reading the early history of the church before the “conversion” of Constantine we find that Christians were the most persecuted people, this was because they were preaching the message of Christ and the forgiveness of sins found exclusively through him, this message was not tied to any ethnic national interest. Also this message was scandalous to the pagan world and the believers were persecuted for it, since they were deemed to be arrogant in a pluralistic world were salvation could be by any means, they claimed that Christ is the only savior. These believers were among the poorest, most marginalized and illiterate people of all. It is also amazing that most of the persecution of Christians by either the emperors or common people took place outside of Africa. The African continent was not the boiling point for the persecution of Christians. Moreover if one does find Christians being persecuted in African during this period there is a great probability that a foreign ruler was involved. We also find that the early disciples all except for John the revelatory died under persecution. So this thing were Christians were the ones persecuting the unbelieving world and helping in their oppression begun late after the conversion of Constantine to such that Nick Needham reveals that after this period the church which had always been persecuted became the persecutor (2017:182). Again this was not the design of Christ because he taught his gospel through peace, so were his early disciples.

 

We see that in the great commission there is no mandate for the Christians to invade nations, commit violence and support injustice. In fact what the Western missionaries did was in opposition to the scriptures and a direct assault to the holiness of the triune God. Who hates sin and does not behold wickedness (Hab 1:13), it was an assault on his holiness because it was he who made the same people who were degraded and reduced to the level of animals in his image (Gen 1:26-28), it was a rebellion against God’ sovereignty and authority because it was he who made the nations and put them in the various geographies to which they were located (Acts 17:26) therefore by invasion, colonization worse by those who claim to be his worshippers is pure transgression. The gospel was supposed to be proclaim through peaceful means and if it came to persecution Christians were the ones supposed to be persecuted as we see in the book of Acts, and not the other way around. Conversion was supposed to be through the power of the Holy Spirit convicting the heart of the sinner pointing him to what Christ had done to atone for his sins (Acts 2:37), and not through force and violence.

 

Christianity and identity

Now turning to the claim that Christianity is responsible for the destruction of the African’s identity. We see that the Christian message does not teach that the Africa by being Christian they have to lose their African identity and embrace other nations and people’s identity in this case that of the European. God saves people from their sins and not from their culture, history and language. Though by being Christian there might be some practices and attitudes one has to leave out in his/her culture such as ancestral veneration and other destructive practices. Christianity is powerful enough to redeem a people’s culture, language and history to such that they are changed and used to glorify the triune God. For example African language can be used to communicate God’s revelation, and this in turn can help with the preserving of these languages for future generations. Since currently many Africans are losing their original languages, and since Christianity has the greatest influence in this continent, it is logical that is can have the greatest influence in preserving these languages, through the Christian community by translation, teaching, preaching, proving theological and philosophical concepts to articulate doctrines.  Also some African cultural practices and religious concepts can be kept and preserved in the African Christian community. We see that when Paul went to preach the gospel among the Gentiles he did not even once impose his Jewish cultural practices or religious concepts on them, things such as circumcisions, observance of some days, refraining from eating certain food, but he adopted the message to the Gentiles own cultural and religious concept without compromising the message of the gospel (1 Cor 9:21). John Macarthur commenting on this verse says that “In other than moral matters, however, Paul identified as closely as possible with Gentile customs. He ate what they ate, went where they went, and dressed as they dressed. The purpose again was to win the Gentiles to Christ.”  We see that the bible did not mandate Jews to imposing their ethnic identity on the Gentiles, but every time the Jews choose to do that the gospel was perverted and its advancement among the gentiles was hindered (Gal 2:5). We see nowhere in the bible where Gentiles are commanded by the gospel to change their ethnic terms to refer to God, commenting on this John Macarthur reveals that both the term “theos” and “logos” were Gentile terms adopted and defined from the bibles point of view to communicate God’s revelation to the Gentiles (MacArthur 2017).For this reason the African can feel free to use his African names to refer to God, but they must be biblically defined, since we know that though the African knew who God was he did not worship him correctly (Rom 1:18-21). The African can feel free to do weddings, continue with his singing styles, with his philosophy, art, architecture, preaching style etc. As long as these do not transgress the teaching of sacred scriptures. Moreover these can be integrated to the Christians church to produce what Dr Bediako calls an African Christianity identity (Turaki 1999:51). Since we do not want to have Christian churches in Africa conformed to the image of Western churches, this only brings unnecessary conflicts, and what Dr Andrew Walls calls a “religious schizophrenia” among African Christians. The sad part is that many of the African churches throughout the continent have not been fully able to separate themselves from this European ethnocentrism, even among the African independent churches.

 

Conclusion

We do see that Eurocentric Christianity should not be used as a justification to reject and demonize biblical Christianity. Because what European scholars and missionaries did in the name of Christianity was not sanctioned by the Christ of the bible. African Christians should begin serious apologetic work to defend the integrity of the gospel from this western ethnocentrism and racism, and also from attacks coming from non-Christian African. The accomplishment of this task will remove from the mouths of Africans the view that the Christian faith is a problem, in that people will love Christ or hate Him based on the proclaimed saving message and expose the hate hidden behind the wicked actions of the Europeans who claimed to be Christians. Therefore Christianity is not a problem in Africa.

All glory and power to the triune God who redeemed us from our sins.

 

 Mzwekhaya ka Nkosithabile

 Nubian Exodus

 

Materials to read

1.      David E. Wilhite “Ancient African Christianity: An Introduction to a Unique Context and Tradition”

2.      Chancellor Williams “the destruction of black civilization”

3.      Cheik Anta Diop “Pre-colonial black Africa”

4.      Julius Cobbing “The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo”

5.   Jeffrey Brian Peires “The House of Phalo: A History of the Xhosa People in the Days of Their Independence”

6.      John Macarthur “1 Corinthians MacArthur New Testament Commentary”

7.      Between Ears “http://jlfreeman-1.blogspot.com/2015/03/ethiopian-eunuch.html”

8.      Leonard Thompson “A History of South Africa”

9.      Tembeka Ngcukatobi “The Land is our”

10.  Needham Nick “2000 years of Christ power: The age of the early church fathers”

11.  Ray Hagins “The Afrikan Village and Cultural Center”

12.  Sol Platjie “Native life in South Africa”                   

13.  Yusufu Turaki “Christianity and African Gods: A Method in Theology”