Christianity is Not the White Man’s Religion Pt 3

Last week I talked about the many “Christianities” of the early church. Yes there was not just one Christianity but many “Christianities” What do I mean by that? Christianity was not a monolithic whole. If you asked a Christian in the early centuries of the church what is the Christian perspective on a certain issue it would be like asking for the black perspective on a certain issue. Nuff said.

The reason why there were so many different brands of Christianity is because Christianity was not tied to a certain culture or place. The gospel traveled and it traveled well. It traveled to Syria, Mesopotamia,  and even India. It also  traveled westward to Britain, Gaul (Modern day France), and Greece. One of the places that it traveled early on was Ethiopia. No I’m not talking about the story of the Ethiopian eunuch (He actually came from Nubia. That’s another story and another post) but I’m talking about the Syrians who got shipwrecked off the coast of modern day Ethiopia which then was known as the kingdom of Axum.

Have you heard the one about the kids from Syria?

So these two kids Frumentius and Edesius got shipwrecked off the coast of modern day Ethiopia. They were treated well by the queen at the time and found some Christians there who had fled from Roman persecution. Once Frumentius came of age he went to Egypt to ask the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius if he would go and preach to the people. Joke was on that dude because they made Frumentius a bishop and sent him back. When he returned the ruler King Ezana the Great welcomed him and gave him free reign to spread the gospel. Ezana officially declared Ethiopia a Christian state in 327

Have you heard the one about the nine saints from Syria?

Some time around a.d. 490 some wandering Syrian monks arrived in Ethiopia. They began to build monasteries and organize them around the rule of St. Pachomius a pioneer in monastic living. These monks also helped in evangelizing the rest of the country side as vibrant Christianity was restricted to the trade routes and the major cities of Axum and Adulis prior to their coming.

Have you heard the one about the Ark of the Covenant?

Ethiopia  has had a Christian presence since the early days of the church. That Christianity expressed through the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is very different than what we here in the West know as Christianity. No Left Behind series or Testamints here. What you will find in Ethiopia are churches full of incense, chanting, dancing, and replicas of the Ark of the Covenant. Why? Because the mountainous highlands of Ethiopia kept it isolated from the rest of the world as a Christian island in Sub Saharan Africa. Ethiopia has also had a connection with Judaism for thousands of years. These two factors helped to shape this particular expression of the church.

So that’s just one example of Christianity that was birthed and developed outside of the Roman Empire i.e. Europe/White people. Why is that important? Not too bash white Christians or white people in general. That’s not the point. The point is Jesus is for everybody and it’s not a conspiracy to trap and enslave people of color. What we know as Christianity in the West has been portrayed as the story of Paul’s missionaries journeys to Europe, the Crusades, and white slave traders who used it to justify their evil deeds.

But what if there was more to the church than Europe? What if it was more than just a party in honor of blond haired blue eyed metrosexual who blesses the suburbs and opens his arms to home schooled children? What if Jesus was worshipped in the deserts of the Middle East and had more than a thousand year foot hold in Sub Saharan Africa? What if Jesus was for everybody? Check the record.

Stay tuned next week for Syrian Christianity (Warning: These dudes are hardcore)

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewheavens/88544244/”>aheavens</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a&gt;

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/3288274634/”>A.Davey</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>cc</a&gt;

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/mykreeve/102166813/”>MykReeve</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a&gt;