- Jan 25, 2009
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To whom it may concern,
It has been on my mind for sometime (after following many of the discussions) that there generally seems to be a great lack of theological perspective that gets brought up whenever it seems that discussion occurs. Either Catholics will be blasting Protestants for where they are lacking - or Protestants will do the same. And yet in both sides, I've seen it where it seems those whom they promote for their camp are rarely - if ever - someone from a minority group.
With Ecclesial history and development in the African American Christian experience, it is understood that US 'religious' history is a complex thing (owing to the expanse of the country geographically, the influx of discrete cultures through various means and purposes, a sense of "modernization" as an inherent cultural mode, etc.).
Truthfully, I sometimes get very discouraged - and a bit frustrated - when it seems that there are very few who have real awareness/knowledge of Ecclesial history from a perspective that is not Caucasian focused - Eurocentric dominated.....and actually considerate of the extensive ways of how things evolved around the world/globally.
Goodness, it seems very saddening that people within many seminaries will never come close to understanding perspectives of the Protestant world or the Catholic (or Orthodox) from those in what's labeled "the third world" - a convenient term that actually was used to disconnect others as actually being a part of the world considered worthy of leadership......
And thus, leaders who developed in the Asian context or the African (or West Indian ) - as well as American (from African-American to Asian-American to Hispanic-America) context or that of First Nations/Aboriginal people may have been influenced greatly by the camps people discussed in Protestant/Catholic circles - but no one really seems to think on them because they've been trained to already have the picture in their mind that they aren't worth it.
If someone's a Pentecostal Protestant, I'll often hear on people such as Charles Parham being one of the great figures within the Pentecostal movement, with his viewpoint helping to influence the Pentecostal Revival beginning in the early 20th century.....and also one that greatly influened William Seymour, yet not many wish to discuss how Parham would not even let Seymour into the classroom full of white students because Seymour was BLACK. And Seymour was NOT going to let Parham's racism stop him from receiving the insights into God's Word that Parham was given. ....and instead of walking away, he chose to listen outside of the classroom window/gain what he could. Both were Pentecostal and worked with one another - yet in the times they lived in, Charles did not like how Seymour claimed to be Pentecostal and yet advocated that blacks were just as called to being blessed as whites were (more shared here ).
But in many seminaries, that's not openly discussed.
We see how Dutch missionaries were active in trying to convert Taiwan's population to Christianity - in light of how Protestant missionaries established schools where Biblical religion and the Dutch language were taught - and by 1650, the Dutch had converted 5,900 of the island's inhabitants to Protestant Christianity.....with he same missionary efforts also undertaken in the other Dutch territories......as missionaries were sent by the Dutch East India Company in the Far East to the Malaysians in the early seventeenth
It's hard to help many realize how African Protestantism was mediated through Protestant missionaries in the context of Colonialism (with African Protestantism being its own branch in multiple levels) - meaning that of course the main/dominant leaders that get brought up as the "Founders" tend to be those who are European - and to realize that many of the groups they want to slap all together get offended due to how the Reformation and by deduction Protestantism was primarily a national, at best European movement in its stages - and one that often seemed not concerned with reflecting the culture of others it wanted to gain to its side like cards in a game....[/LEFT]
The same, of course, goes for Catholics seeing how it seems not many want to talk on the extensive ways they did the SAME things as the Protestants they try to group together when it comes to minorities having a DIFFERENT view of history in how they weren't considered. This comes to mind specifically with dynamics such as Liberation Theology - and how often I've seen it where Black Catholics have long noted that they always had a radically different understanding of Catholic Theology than other Catholics when it came to seeing solidarity with other Blacks who were Protestants...while other Catholics that were NOT Black seemed to be the main ones arguing on why Protestants and Catholics were not to work together whatsoever - and the same thing goes for Hispanics as well when it comes to Hispanic/Latino Hispanic Catholics seeing solidarity with those who are non-Catholic in the struggles they went through .....Liberation Theology uniting both groups together.
This is something I've also seen in Orthodoxy as well - as Black Orthodox have seemed far more able and willing to work with Non-Orthodox when it comes to seeing common struggles between groups. I'm reminded of Archbishop Iakovos, who offered 37 years of service which were distinguished by his leadership in furthering religious unity, revitalizing Christian worship and championing human and civil rights and choosing to work with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Often, you won't even hear about Protestant leaders from the ethnic groups conquered by European Protestants since it wasn't important to listen to them
- there was a lot of nationalism going on that prevented people from being heard.....and even others who are Black & Reformed have noted that dynamic. You won't even hear - with the Reformation in later history - of other notable leaders who paved the way, such as David George (an ex-Slave and first Protestant missionary to Africa as well as founder of the first black Baptist Church in America) Lott Carey in his establishing the first Baptist Church in West Africa and other significant Africa-American Church leaders[/LEFT]
No one wants to talk on how many Protestants in the U.S as well as other parts of the world (when the Protestant Reformation was expanding in centuries) wanted to convert blacks - but not allow them to be intergrated as equals in their churches.......No one considers what occurred last year - for when asking "Who was really the first Protestant missionary from America?", the title has traditionally been bestowed upon Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann, who left for Burma in 1812. But last year, Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic proposed that delegates to today's SBC annual meeting challenge this tradition and instead recognize George Liele, a freed slave who started a church in Jamaica 30 years before the Judsons left New England, as "America's First Missionary."
With Black and Non-Caucasian Protestants, it's truly complicated...and yet it's sadly not respected enough to have an audience for some.[/LEFT]
I pray what I've said makes sense - for it is something I've had to wonder on for a long time....and if anyone (paticularly those who themselves are minorities ) has either felt similarly or had the same thoughts, I'd love to hear.
Do you feel perspectives of those who are either Black - be it with Protestants or Catholics - have been ignored? And how to go about addressing the issue?
Shalom
It has been on my mind for sometime (after following many of the discussions) that there generally seems to be a great lack of theological perspective that gets brought up whenever it seems that discussion occurs. Either Catholics will be blasting Protestants for where they are lacking - or Protestants will do the same. And yet in both sides, I've seen it where it seems those whom they promote for their camp are rarely - if ever - someone from a minority group.
With Ecclesial history and development in the African American Christian experience, it is understood that US 'religious' history is a complex thing (owing to the expanse of the country geographically, the influx of discrete cultures through various means and purposes, a sense of "modernization" as an inherent cultural mode, etc.).
Truthfully, I sometimes get very discouraged - and a bit frustrated - when it seems that there are very few who have real awareness/knowledge of Ecclesial history from a perspective that is not Caucasian focused - Eurocentric dominated.....and actually considerate of the extensive ways of how things evolved around the world/globally.
Goodness, it seems very saddening that people within many seminaries will never come close to understanding perspectives of the Protestant world or the Catholic (or Orthodox) from those in what's labeled "the third world" - a convenient term that actually was used to disconnect others as actually being a part of the world considered worthy of leadership......
And thus, leaders who developed in the Asian context or the African (or West Indian ) - as well as American (from African-American to Asian-American to Hispanic-America) context or that of First Nations/Aboriginal people may have been influenced greatly by the camps people discussed in Protestant/Catholic circles - but no one really seems to think on them because they've been trained to already have the picture in their mind that they aren't worth it.
If someone's a Pentecostal Protestant, I'll often hear on people such as Charles Parham being one of the great figures within the Pentecostal movement, with his viewpoint helping to influence the Pentecostal Revival beginning in the early 20th century.....and also one that greatly influened William Seymour, yet not many wish to discuss how Parham would not even let Seymour into the classroom full of white students because Seymour was BLACK. And Seymour was NOT going to let Parham's racism stop him from receiving the insights into God's Word that Parham was given. ....and instead of walking away, he chose to listen outside of the classroom window/gain what he could. Both were Pentecostal and worked with one another - yet in the times they lived in, Charles did not like how Seymour claimed to be Pentecostal and yet advocated that blacks were just as called to being blessed as whites were (more shared here ).
But in many seminaries, that's not openly discussed.
It makes zero sense to me that the name of someone such as Fredrick Douglass or Harriet Tubman (known as the Moses of her people due to liberating hundreds of blacks from slavery ) or Sojourner Truth for her work in women's rights - and many others are not even brought up as prominent figures in the development of the Protestant movement......highly ironic - and to be honest, a sign of unconscious racism (which I'm not surprised by since many of the Reformers later on had slaves ) since it is a historical fact that the Protestant Reformation and the Inquisition both indirectly influenced the development of the Transatlantic Slave Trade ...in light of how in different nations, religious persecution by Catholics of Protestant sects, Protestant persecution of Catholics, and the Spanish Inquisition of Jews and other non-Christians led people to migrate to the New World to escape religious persecution and many Christians believed that the conversion of the indigenous population to Christianity was imperative ....some in Africa converting others to the beliefs of the Reformers by force and leading to situations as we see today .
We see how Dutch missionaries were active in trying to convert Taiwan's population to Christianity - in light of how Protestant missionaries established schools where Biblical religion and the Dutch language were taught - and by 1650, the Dutch had converted 5,900 of the island's inhabitants to Protestant Christianity.....with he same missionary efforts also undertaken in the other Dutch territories......as missionaries were sent by the Dutch East India Company in the Far East to the Malaysians in the early seventeenth
century (alongside Indonesia) - meaning that in the Dutch controlled territories, there was clear Protestant Christian rule, and there were efforts made to evangelize the native populations. For during the era of Protestant Reformation, in the continents of Asia and Africa, British colonial rule was not yet as extensive as that of the Dutch...nor did it do as much good in promoting the Reformed faith as the Dutch.. But in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, British rule was to prove more enduring, and its effects more extensive.
And yet we already see where the Dutch Calvinists - especially in places like South Africa - were EXTREMELY uncomfortable with racial diversity (due to the Eurocentric focus) and we know what came of that when seeing the history of treatment with blacks in South Africa.since the Dutch - like the Puritans - have seen South Africa as a promised land, a New Jerusalem... ( more here and here in The Gospel According to the Marginalized - Page 71 where the "eclectic" sources of South Africa's racial ideology are examined- "Dutch neo-Calvinism, German Romanism and other issues).
Racism and theological stances often go directly together ...It's hard to help many realize how African Protestantism was mediated through Protestant missionaries in the context of Colonialism (with African Protestantism being its own branch in multiple levels) - meaning that of course the main/dominant leaders that get brought up as the "Founders" tend to be those who are European - and to realize that many of the groups they want to slap all together get offended due to how the Reformation and by deduction Protestantism was primarily a national, at best European movement in its stages - and one that often seemed not concerned with reflecting the culture of others it wanted to gain to its side like cards in a game....[/LEFT]
The same, of course, goes for Catholics seeing how it seems not many want to talk on the extensive ways they did the SAME things as the Protestants they try to group together when it comes to minorities having a DIFFERENT view of history in how they weren't considered. This comes to mind specifically with dynamics such as Liberation Theology - and how often I've seen it where Black Catholics have long noted that they always had a radically different understanding of Catholic Theology than other Catholics when it came to seeing solidarity with other Blacks who were Protestants...while other Catholics that were NOT Black seemed to be the main ones arguing on why Protestants and Catholics were not to work together whatsoever - and the same thing goes for Hispanics as well when it comes to Hispanic/Latino Hispanic Catholics seeing solidarity with those who are non-Catholic in the struggles they went through .....Liberation Theology uniting both groups together.
This is something I've also seen in Orthodoxy as well - as Black Orthodox have seemed far more able and willing to work with Non-Orthodox when it comes to seeing common struggles between groups. I'm reminded of Archbishop Iakovos, who offered 37 years of service which were distinguished by his leadership in furthering religious unity, revitalizing Christian worship and championing human and civil rights and choosing to work with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Often, you won't even hear about Protestant leaders from the ethnic groups conquered by European Protestants since it wasn't important to listen to them
- there was a lot of nationalism going on that prevented people from being heard.....and even others who are Black & Reformed have noted that dynamic. You won't even hear - with the Reformation in later history - of other notable leaders who paved the way, such as David George (an ex-Slave and first Protestant missionary to Africa as well as founder of the first black Baptist Church in America) Lott Carey in his establishing the first Baptist Church in West Africa and other significant Africa-American Church leaders[/LEFT]No one wants to talk on how many Protestants in the U.S as well as other parts of the world (when the Protestant Reformation was expanding in centuries) wanted to convert blacks - but not allow them to be intergrated as equals in their churches.......No one considers what occurred last year - for when asking "Who was really the first Protestant missionary from America?", the title has traditionally been bestowed upon Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann, who left for Burma in 1812. But last year, Southern Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic proposed that delegates to today's SBC annual meeting challenge this tradition and instead recognize George Liele, a freed slave who started a church in Jamaica 30 years before the Judsons left New England, as "America's First Missionary."
With Black and Non-Caucasian Protestants, it's truly complicated...and yet it's sadly not respected enough to have an audience for some.[/LEFT]
I pray what I've said makes sense - for it is something I've had to wonder on for a long time....and if anyone (paticularly those who themselves are minorities ) has either felt similarly or had the same thoughts, I'd love to hear.
Do you feel perspectives of those who are either Black - be it with Protestants or Catholics - have been ignored? And how to go about addressing the issue?
Shalom
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