Outside These Walls
Missionary to Zambia.
Tribes practice polygamy.
Leaders become Christians.
What spiritual counsel does the missionary offer about the multiple wives of Christian leaders?
How imperative is the denying or practicing of polygamy for the spiritual standing and Christian witness of these new Christians?
What impact on the faith and lives of these people will result by requiring the new Christians to choose only one of their wives and discard or divorce or deny the others?
What impact if the new Christians are encouraged to keep their wives?
Missionary chooses not to advise new Christian leaders to separate from multiple wives and choose only one because of the negative community and cultural and personal harm it will do to many people.
Missionary not popular with supporters back home for encouraging polygamy.
No longer a missionary.
True story.
I was reminded of this 1980’s situation while reading recently from the book, Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. The author, Lamin Sanneh, describes what she calls the post-Christian West. Makes sense to me. The “West” – USA, et al – is NOT a Christian society these days. She then describes the amazing spread of Christianity in other regions of the world and refers to this as post-West Christianity because the faith that is spreading doesn’t look like the usual conservative evangelical Christianity of America – often very Pentecostal, focus on personal piety and relationship with Christ, little or no emphasis on the issues that American Christians have come to see as most important – abortion, homosexuality, bias against Christians in schools and media, influencing national politics, etc.
Very thought provoking. Christianity has only “looked” as it does among us conservative evangelicals for a couple hundred years. What will Christianity look like in 100 years? Will some of the things we think are so important right now not be so important in the future? Is the West’s version of Christianity the only right one? I wonder what my missionary friend thinks?
posted by Roy B. @ 4:02 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Fascinating case study. Reminds me of Paul's willingness to become somewhat relativistic ("I've become all things to all people in order to win as many as possible to Christ").
I'm a little stuck on Christ's back-and-forth with the Pharisees on the topic of marriage, and his stern admonitions to the woman who had many husbands. Seems like that pre-dates "Westernization".
But then, I think this missionary made the right call. My gut reaction is that he focused on the highest call - that these people might know Christ, rather than the lower legalistic doctrinal points. And isn't our God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as David? The latter two who had multiple wives.
You've got me in a bit of a brain twist on this one, and I won't pretend to have the answer, though I will guess that Christ would have that tribe come as they are, and then lead them through a growth process (note, not a Westernization process) over generations to come.
so I thought some more about this last night (one of those times when random thoughts pop in your head). These thoughts aren't well developed, so sorry if I'm clogging up your blog =)
I was thinking...what about the women who are sharing a husband?
I was thinking about it in context of one of your earlier entries about Jesus bringing equality to people. So what would the definition of equality be from these womens' perspective?
Is it a Western romantic idea that they deserve a friend/provider/lover who is devoted only to them, or is that a universal?
On the topic of Christianity being on a higher plane than cultural issues, I went back to Paul again and remembered he gave advice to slaves (was it Onesimus?) to stay in place and not run away.
I wonder then, if the issue is less about us "Westernizing" Christianity, and more about us turning it into a cultural religion rather than a spiritual following of Christ. In other words the same principle could apply to any culture. We may in fact be modern day Pharisees who've focused on external issues and fit God into our own cultural norms.
The thing is, I'm not sure it matters because God finds a way to minister to His children where we are. Western, Eastern, whatever, He meets us at our place. Then asks us to seek out His ways.
Ahh... I see you've been ruminating a bit on this, Eric. And all the examples and specifics you're talking about and questions that you raise - are exactly my questions and good illustrations. I don't know where this is leading me, other than to take a very close look at everything we describe as "Christian" and consider whether it really is strictly a Biblical worldview, or if it's a cultural reflection.
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