I’ve read numerous notes written by people professing to be clergy or devout Christians, and others written by people who are critics of Christianity. So, as a Black woman, the culture always talks about the majority co-opting our culture and distorting it. Yet when it comes to Christianity, there seems to be a broad brushstroke with no nuance. So let me say this, with my full chest:
We MUST distinguish the transformation of a culture through the gospel FROM the eradication of a culture in the name of the gospel.
Transformation of a Culture
Transformation of a culture is the work of the Holy Spirit. When a culture, that is not Christian is introduced to Christ and people accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior the people, and thus the culture, are transformed. However, cultural nuance and identity aren’t necessarily discarded. They, the people and thus the culture, are conformed into the image of Christ. That conformation does not mean that the whole culture reflects white European forms of worship and Christian identity.
Eradication of a Culture
The eradication of a culture is what colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the Crusades did. When racist Europeans encountered Africa and African kingdoms, they could not believe that the native people built civilizations and societies. During colonialism and the slave trade, the Europeans did not go to Africa to just steal bodies. They also stole intellectual capital, natural resources, and land. And then they rewrote the narrative. Why? Because they needed justification for the evil they were imposing on the native people of the second-largest continent on the planet, the only continent that spans all four hemispheres.1 They called their actions civilizing.2 However, the real barbaric people were the Europeans raping, murdering, pillaging, and bringing diseases under the auspices of civilizing barbarians. It was never civilization. It was greed and white supremacy. Meanwhile, African kingdoms were trading across continents and producing advances in medicine, mathematics, and architecture long before colonialism and the slave trade.
So What?
Why am I bringing this up? I’m discussing this because we must also say with our full chest that the words and actions of the Christian right and white evangelical Christians in support of POTUS 473 and the diabolical actions of the GOP are incongruent with the Christian gospel message in the Bible. Just because someone says they are Christian, are clergy, and are preaching in a pulpit doesn’t necessarily mean their message is Christian. Bastardizing the message of Christ to fit a political narrative is the same old move the colonialists, crusaders, and segregationists made.
The notes and articles I read on Substack, the comments I read on YouTube and various other social media platforms inform me that some people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what Christianity actually is. And part of the reason for the confusion is that the loudest mouths are not necessarily the most truthful ones. These loudmouth people who proclaim they are Christians are living lives in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. And that puts us in discernment territory.
Why am I discussing discernment? Biblical discernment is the God-given and Spirit-empowered capacity to distinguish between truth and error, right and wrong, and the will of God versus human or deceptive influences. In everyday usage, discernment encompasses critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and sharp perception, all of which are needed to disentangle the falsehoods about Christianity from the truth.
Litmus Test
Apply this litmus test to determine whether a person is a Christian by what they are saying or doing. Ask: What does the Bible actually say about their actions and words? Ask it of clergy, a group of people, an entity, the GOP, or POTUS. Scripture is clear and must always have the authoritative and final say. That’s non-negotiable.
The number one descriptor of a follower of Christ is love. And love is demonstrated by actions. Jesus is clear: the world will know we are His disciples as evidenced by:
keeping His commandments/living by His teachings (John 14:15, 8:31)
the love we have one for another (John 13:35)
spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, forbearance4, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
taking care of/how we treat the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40-45)
Jesus says “…Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do5 for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45) So anyone who is claiming they are doing and saying, enacting and enforcing anything that is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Bible, they are not acting under the direction of God. That person is not behaving like a Christian. And a Christian6 is simply a disciple of Christ.
I don’t care if they claim they are Christians, quote Scriptures, carry Bibles or wear clergy collars. When you are behaving in a manner that is antithetical to Scripture while professing to be a child of God, you are actually walking in the spirit of anti-Christ, in an apostate condition. Hebrews 10:26-31 says it plainly:
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Actions, behaviors, and the lifestyle of the individual determine if they are a child of God. Saying you are a Christian while not having the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit (demonstrating God’s love through your words, actions, and deeds) actually signifies that you are in an apostate condition, not in a Christian one. Or as Jesus says in John 8:44:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Northern and Southern, split by the equator (0° latitude). Eastern and Western, split by the Prime Meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England (0° longitude), and on the opposite side by the 180° meridian. Because those are two independent divisions, any spot on earth falls in one of four combinations: Northern-Eastern, Northern-Western, Southern-Eastern, or Southern-Western. Africa is crossed by the equator (it runs through Gabon, Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia) and by the Prime Meridian (it passes through Ghana, Algeria, and Mali, among others). So Africa has land in all four.
Africa had major, long-standing civilizations and trade networks well before European colonization: Kush and Nubia, Aksum, Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, the Swahili Coast city-states. Timbuktu’s manuscript tradition and the University of Sankore are well documented centers of scholarship in the 14th through 16th centuries. Egypt is in Africa, and Egyptian civilization developed on that continent by Black Africans. Nubia and Kush are also a part of that story, including the Kushite 25th Dynasty, which ruled Egypt.
Donald Trump
Forbearance means tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation; patience
emphasis mine
The English word Christian is from Koine Greek Χριστιανός meaning a follower of Christ. Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word and title Messiah. Etymology: Χριστιανός (Christianos) is a hybrid. It takes Χριστός (Christos) - the Anointed One, from χρίω (chriō), to anoint, the Greek rendering of מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach) in English Messiah, and adds the Latin suffix -ianus in Greek dress (-ιανός / -ianos), meaning “belonging to, partisan of, adherent of.” So Χριστιανοί (Christianoi) are “Christ’s people,” or Christ’s party or household. The Latin suffix suggests an outside, Roman-world coinage, not a term the believers coined for themselves.