Is Christianity really a white man's religion?
This question is imperative in a time like this. Christianity is seriously under attack from enemies within and without. People of African origin are called to return to their roots to worship their ancestors and practice African Traditional Religion. According to the proponents of this ideology, white supremacy and Christianity are intertwined and should be discarded by black people.
Is this really the truth or is this a mere assumption?
I wouldn't have been bothered had I not seen the effect of this false concept in my immediate community. There is a resurgence of paganism in Igbo land, which is the southeastern part of Nigeria. When we were growing up in the early '80s you could hardly identify any shrine within our communities. These days, young men and women are ritualists and native doctors with many people patronizing them. Their argument is that they are rediscovering their identities and returning to their roots since Christianity is synonymous with white supremacy.
Their arguments could be logical to some extent due to the attitudes of some whites who falsely claim to be Christians. These so-called Christians have allowed racism to becloud their Christian virtues and blind them from seeing the universality of Christianity. However, this is not a good reason to conclude that Christianity is a white’s man religion.
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The history of oppression, Jesus’ white image, Satan’s black image, and the apathy of the present-day Church to racial justice are some of the reasons they usually give for why they perceive Christianity as a white man's religion. All the reasons that they put forward are purely their perceptions of the attitude of men. If the colonial masters had the chains of slavery in one hand and the Bible in the other hand, how was that the fault of Christianity?
I strongly believe that no one who has encountered Christ could discriminate against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin. It is very important to note that it is the Bible that defines what Christianity is — not the people who claim the name of Christ and yet show no fruit of true conversion.
Even though our skin color and languages may be different, our souls are in need of the same glorious Savior. The theology that promotes the supremacy of one race over the other is from the pit of Hell and has nothing to do with Christ. The cross of Christ has broken the barrier between whites and blacks and every other ethnicity. What God has put together, let no racist put asunder.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:13-16).
It is blasphemous for any Christian to mention that Christianity is a religion of the white man. Any professing Christian who embraces racism is mocking the finished work of Christ on the cross. In Christ there is no difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. If that is true, it is true of all races and ethnicities. Let us be careful about what we say or do in the name of Christ.
Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has neither preached nor heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery Of The Cross Revealed.
