Visions of Justice and Hope

A new resource from the Evangelical Alliance offers a guided journey into racial justice, experiences of racism within the church, and practical steps for fostering healing and meaningful dialogue

Called Visions of Justice and Hope, the resource is released by the EA's One People Commission (OPC) and South Asian Forum 

In a reflection entitled Mission, Colonisation and the Gospel: Jesus decolonial ethic of God’s kingdom, Baptist minister and OPC director Israel Olofinjana introduces the new resource

Important Contextual Questions

Have you ever wondered why Africans speak English, French, Portuguese and Dutch and why Latin Americans speaks Spanish and Portuguese?

We could also ask why we use the descriptions of Africans, African Caribbean and African Americans and why is it that Pakistan was partitioned from India and the intergenerational trauma from such fragmentation?

At the heart of these questions is raising awareness around the impact and legacies of slavery, colonisation and imperialism.  

Conversations around these historical injustices and how to address them have led to one of the buzz words that is currently in use today, that is the word decolonise. We now talk about decolonising the curriculum, decolonise development, decolonise education and so on.

As society continues to talk about decolonising, I have been wrestling with three key questions.

Firstly, is what is the gospel and the second, is there a contextual reading of the gospel that can help us to tackle the legacies of colonisation?

And lastly, what resource can help our churches to talk about racism in small groups and house groups?

In essence, make the race talk normal in our churches. But before exploring these questions, what does it mean for the church to address colonisation and its impact on Christian mission?


Tackling colonisation

Tackling colonisation from a Christian perspective starts with the awareness that for a long time our understanding of mission was shaped by the context of colonisation and the complicity of European missions in that process.

The consequence was that mission was colonised. Decolonising mission is therefore stripping back the layers of colonial baggage associated with mission in order to root our understanding of mission in biblical witnessing that is shaped by vulnerability. Part of this process is decentring dominant voices and centring muted voices and experiences so that mission can be reconceptualised from the margins.


Gospel

The word gospel comes to us from the Greek vocabulary.  It was used in ancient Greece to denote a religious concept of a sacrifice in a form of thanksgiving offering to the gods upon receiving good news.

This idea was taken over by the Roman imperial cult of Octavius Ceasar who was given the divine title of Augustus (Majesty) because he was seen as both man and a saviour-god. Octavius Ceasar ushered in Pax-Romana, that is, Roman peace to end wars therefore announcers, messengers and writers of the day proclaimed the good news that Caesar Augustus has ushered in a new era of peace.

It is this notion of good news about the peace achievements of Caesar Augustus that the gospel writers took and with new counter cultural meaning through the life and ministry of Jesus. The gospel therefore takes on a new meaning in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the only means of saving humanity from sin.

All the four gospel writers declare that this is indeed the good news! If the gospel has this rich counter-cultural meaning against the colonial power of Rome, what is the implication of the gospel in the light of colonial kingdoms?
 

Jesus’ ethic of God’s Kingdom

Anyone who studies the gospels carefully will realise that Jesus lived his life in a way that challenges the colonial power around him. He did this carefully and in a very clever way that was not confrontational to the gospel of Rome.

Whilst Jesus did not go about actively campaigning against Roman empire, what he did instead was to empower people around him through the character of God’s kingdom and in the process reveal the depravity of power, control, nationalism/imperialism, exploitation and division which characterises earthly colonial kingdoms.

The kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed appears to develop an anti-thesis to these chief characteristics of earthly colonial kingdoms.

Instead of power, control and exploitation exhibited for example in the reigns of  Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great or  Octavius Caesar, Jesus was born into poverty (Luke 2:21-24), he and his family were vulnerable as refugees needing protection (Matthew 2:13-15), he advocated for humility in service rather than power and control (Mark 10:35-44), he was humble riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-9),  and finally he emptied himself giving everything he had (Philippians 2:5-8).

Instead of embracing a toxic nationalism, he challenged Pharisees and Sadducees who were very nationalistic in their religious thought. Jesus challenged Jewish religious leaders’ corruption of power (Matthew 23). 

He also disappointed his followers who wanted him to be a Messiah that would set the nation of Israel free (see Luke 24: 21; Acts 1: 6-8). He declined becoming enthroned as a national prophet and king (John 6: 14-15).

Instead of embracing these various forms of national politics, he demonstrated interculturality through engaging Samaritans (John 4), told stories that made Samaritans the heroes (Luke 10: 25-37) and commanded his followers to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20).

In essence, Jesus was not imperialistic or nationalistic in that sense, but was intercultural in his thinking and engagement.

All the kingdoms in the biblical narrative were seeking to build an empire with their image imprinted on everyone like Nebuchadnezzar wanted everyone to worship his image (Daniel 3), but Jesus embraced an interculturality that sought to engage beyond his Jewishness.


Intercultural justice

From this closer look at Jesus’ ministry, we could therefore see that the chief characteristics of his decolonial ethnic are vulnerability, humility and interculturality. These are values in anti-thesis to the earthly colonial kingdom characterised by power, control, nationalism/imperialism, exploitation and division. 

How can Jesus decolonial ethic help us to decolonise mission in today’s context?  

This will mean we develop an understanding of mission that is shaped by vulnerability, humility and interculturality.

The process of humility and vulnerability in mission will include reflecting on mission history and sometimes the complicity of Christian mission in enslavement, colonisation and imperialism. One of the legacies of that complex history is racial injustice that many people of colour face in church and society in various western contexts.

This means that our mission in today’s context can no longer be dichotomise between mission and racial justice. It is therefore crucial that our understanding of mission integrates racial justice. In essence, our discipleship models must embed racial justice thinking and framework.

But how can we begin to do this well in our churches?

One of the exciting things we have been working on at the Evangelical Alliance is a small group resource called Visions of Justice and Hope.

This is an intercultural resource on intercultural justice  that can enable our churches to have meaningful and hopeful conversations on racial justice.

Intercultural justice because the resource is designed to enable conversation on racial justice not only from a black and white perspective as important as that is, but in addition,  draws attention to what does racism look like from a Chinese perspective? What does racial discrimination look like from a South Asian experience? And what will Latin Americans have to say to us around colonisation?  

The resource can be used in a leadership setting, small groups or home groups in churches.

The resource was launched at the One People Commission event on 3 December at Jesus House in London and can be downloaded here.
 

Baptist minister the Revd Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is Director of the One People Commission of the Evangelical Alliance
 
A version of this article was first published by the Evangelical Alliance 

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