Posted 457 days ago

Learning to See Through the Eyes of the "Other"

by Tom Sine, Mustard Seed Associates

Reading the Bible With the Damned by Bob Ekblad was the book that began my journey of learning to see God and the world through the eyes of the “other.” In it, Ekblad told the story of leading Bible studies with prisoners at Skagit County Jail, most of who were from Hispanic backgrounds. There, he learned to see the Bible from the viewpoint of the powerless instead of the powerful. Since then, several other books have forced me as an older white guy to see life, faith, and scripture from other viewpoints. Eliacín, a member of the MSA team and the Mustard Seed House community, is also helpful in pointing out my cultural blind spots.

One of the most provocative books rocking my boat is Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology by R. S. Sugirtharajah, a professor of biblical hermeneutics at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He describes himself as a voice of “official marginality” as well as “an official for vast continents of people and cultures.” ¹

Sugirtharajah reminds the reader that early Christian faith spread to Asia and Africa as well as Europe, but many Western Christians don’t recognize indigenous faith expressions. Instead, during European expansion, Western missionaries often sanctioned the brutal process of colonization, domination, and exploitation of indigenous peoples while seeking to evangelizing them. This Eurocentric approach created a very Eurocentric theology that still dominates the global church today.

This month, Christine and I will speak at the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies (NAIITS) Symposium in British Columbia in Canada. The more I prepare to present a paper, the more I am overwhelmed by the impact of European colonization on North American native peoples. We systematically stole their land, destroyed their culture, and committed wholesale genocide against people who initially welcomed us as guests. Native peoples often joke that they should have had much stricter immigration policies.

An important book I am using to prepare for this presentation is One Church Many Tribes by Richard Twiss. Twiss, a Native American Christian leader, states,

It may be difficult to hear or accept, but I believe that because of clashing cultural worldviews, the Anglo expression of Christ and his kingdom has said to the Native expressions of Christ and his kingdom, “I have no need of you. I don’t need your customs, your arts, your society, your language, concepts or perspectives.” . . . Then to add injury to insult, the Euro-Americans have said to the Natives, “But you need us. You need our theology, our leadership, our traditions, our economic resources, our education . . . ultimately our civilization.” ²

A more recent book, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity by Soong-Chan Rah, describes the growth and influence of churches in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He too expresses his frustrations with the marginalization of voices from these cultures:

We face a challenging reality. We live under the reality of the oppression of the Western, white captivity of the church. We may claim that our version of evangelicalism is culture-free, that we are merely trying to be cultural relevant, or that we are trying to maintain the church’s tradition, and thereby ultimately reject the claim of cultural captivity. But the reality of the situation is that Western, white culture dominates American culture and, in turn, dominates American evangelicalism.³

Are we willing to listen to the voices of those who feel marginalized in the church?

Mark Brett, an Old Testament scholar, wrote Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire, another important book on this topic. Brett begins by unpacking how biblical passages about evicting and killing Canaanites in Deuteronomy and Joshua were used by colonialists in both America and South Africa to justify dispossessing and killing indigenous people. Native Christians struggle with these interpretations that discredit indigenous culture and their inherent spirituality: “The Choctaw theologian Steve Charleston has observed that every Indigenous nation has a unique covenant with the Creator.” ⁴ If we started with this assumption that God had a covenantal relationship with indigenous peoples, how would it change the way we read scripture?

Brett points out that other Old Testament passages are in tension with those used to justify domination. The prophets speak strongly against oppressing those at the margins and shedding innocent blood. Further Isaiah offers an imaginative vision of a future not exclusively for the Jews, but for all peoples and nations who will come home to a shalom-restored future where justice comes for all.

Brett also reminds us that in the New Testament, Jesus sides with the marginalized while challenging the views of powerful leaders in both Judaism and the Roman Empire. He concludes by urging communities of faith today to reflect a biblical prophetic vision by expanding hospitality and challenging the powers of domination and exploitation in our times.

In 1981, I wrote in The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, “If we Americans had to pay anything like a fair market value” for all the resources we appropriated from Native Americans or African slaves, “we would not be enjoying the affluent lifestyles we have come to expect as our birthright.” ⁵ While white people are not responsible for their ancestors’ actions, they have certainly benefitted from them. Whether we recognize it or not, there is a long-standing legacy of white privilege and white power in America. This is a sensitive topic for everyone, whether you come from the dominant culture or from the margins of society and church.

As I wrote in the March issue of the Seed Sampler, I urge readers to wake up to the reality that the US will be the first multicultural Western nation by 2040. As we race into a new majority future, the dominant culture can no longer afford the luxury of ignoring voices from the margins. They have much to share and rich gifts to give the family of Jesus in all nations. I recommend these books to you as a beginning place to begin the journey of learning to see with new eyes.

I would love your response to these quick comments on these books. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and I will respond as best I can. Don’t hold back. You can also check out my blog by clicking here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes

1. R. S. Sugirtharajah, Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology (Chalice Press, 2003), 73.

2. Richard Twiss, One Church Many Tribes: Following Jesus the Way God Made You (Regal Books, 2000), 57-58.

3. Soong-Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVP Books, 2009), 200.

4. Mark Brett, Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008), 60.

5. Tom Sine, The Mustard Seed Conspiracy (Thomas Nelson, 1981), 30.

Add your comment