MISSIONS ROOTED IN POST- COLONIALISM
Since the modern era, the church has taken the reverse stance of the early church. Missions is seen in modern times as a movement from the civilized to the uncivilized, from the “haves to the have nots,” from the economically stable to the unstable. The enterprise of western world missions has clearly taken on an imperialistic framework for operations. Christianity itself becomes the problem as “so often Christian empires have taken over the symbol of the kingdom of God to justify the same kind of rule as that of the empires it was forged to oppose.”
It is precisely this attitude of colonialism that western missions must oppose and reject while promoting a post-colonial attitude towards other nations and people groups.
The attitude and position of colonialism is to the detriment and consequence of western missions and has hindered the gospel message. Most missions have adopted a cultural imperialistic mindset of colonialism, where the “Colonizing nations generally dominate the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the indigenous population”
Global missions must find a way to rid itself of a colonialist type mindset. They must rid the attitudes and assumptions of superiority in both morals and values and seek to learn from those abroad nationally. The tables must be turned on ideas such as one-way education, where the colonizing nation seeks to instruct or “indoctrinate” another less powerful country. Both countries must seek to learn from one another in a way that brings about change both nations.
Most people from outside the west are rejecting this trend of cultural imperialism. This is played out as Americans coming to bring their American culture, ideas, and even their religion in an attempt to colonize the other nations. America has exported in a sense the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of our culture.
Most nations are rejecting the ideas and culture of America and in turn rejecting their Christian faith as well.
The role of America in missions has drastically changed since it first began. While America was once seen as the dominant powerhouse of civilization, to which all nations wanted to become, their success story has been shattered in the area of world affairs. Instances such as Rwanda and Somalia, and not least in the Middle East to name a few have changed the world’s perceptions of America. According to a BBC pole conducted in 2007, the survey showed that “anti-Americanism is on the rise, and the more the US flexes its hard power – the more it deploys troops abroad or talks tough diplomatically – the more it seems to weaken its ability to influence the world.”
The United States’ attitude of only caring for itself and its own interests has radically changed how the world views the States.
One way this will be seen is by letting other voices come to the table of theological and ecclesiological discussions. Western thought and theology has dominated the discussion of what the church is and what they should believe. It’s not that this was a wrong approach to take, it was at least misguided and in the end incomplete. It was never intended in the mind of God that there would be one; single voice box to speak on His behalf, and it certainly wasn’t his intention that a single voice box would silence all other voices. God intended that all of His creation would declare His mission throughout the world. A community of voices is needed to accurately articulate the message of God.
The western portrait of God and theology is good, but it is incomplete. By its very nature the exclusion of other voices means that the picture is incomplete. Western church leaders and missionaries need to learn from their brothers and sisters in the Eastern Orthodox, South American, African, and the Far East traditions in order to paint a complete picture of God. If God is God of the entire world, then voices from across the globe have a vital and necessary voice to be heard. The notion of theological superiority that is prevalent throughout the West must be dismissed and an attitude of humble orthodoxy must be accepted.
