Copyright by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n
A faulty perception pertaining to Christianity remains present in the West today. Many believe that the faith founded by Jesus Christ is first and foremost a white, European religion. While there might have been a time in history when this idea held some weight it was not true at the beginning of Christianity and it is certainly not true now.<\/p>\n
Christ himself was, of course, a Middle Eastern Jew and the very first converts to what was then called \u201cThe Way\u201d were either Middle Eastern Jews or Middle Eastern Gentiles. Because of the later development of Roman Catholicism many laypersons think of the center of the faith as Rome, but the city in which Christianity was founded and initially grew two millennia ago was Jerusalem, hardly a European town. It is true that Europe was one of the first areas outside of Israel to be exposed to the Gospel but early missionary journeys also embraced West Asia and North Africa. In fact the church flourished in these locales during the first few hundred years of its existence.<\/p>\n
It is\u00a0 also true that in the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam, and prior to the age of European exploration, the majority of adherents to the Christian faith were in Europe. It was during this period that white Europeans, for better or worse,\u00a0 did dominate the church. But even then pockets of Christianity existed elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n
Today \u201celsewhere\u201d is becoming the epicenter of the faith. The last half century has actually seen massive conversion growth on every continent except Europe and North America. The center of Christian gravity has shifted to what has become known as the \u201cGlobal South\u201d as hundreds of millions of people in Africa, Asia and South America have embraced the Gospel, often with the help of indigenous, not foreign, missionaries. Today the leaders of the largest segment of the Church are every color but white<\/em>. In fact, of all the continents, Europe is the least religious in a general sense and particularly in regards to Christianity (judging by church attendance). The old designation of the Christian faith as \u201cthe white man\u2019s religion\u201d, if it were ever true, is simply no longer accurate in the 21st Century.<\/p>\n The idea that Christianity is racially and geographically bound to Western Europe has been a handy weapon in the hands of those who try to tie it to the darker side of that continent\u2019s history. Those who believe that most of the world\u2019s problems stem from some kind of \u201coppression gene\u201d native to\u00a0Europeans often attempt to link that supposed gene to what is perceived to be the white man’s religion. Unfortunately for them the facts simply do not support the thesis. Christianity now, more than ever, is a truly global religion and must be reckoned with as such.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved A faulty perception pertaining to Christianity remains present in the West today. Many believe that the faith founded by Jesus Christ is first and foremost a white, European religion. While there might have been a time in history when this idea held some weight it was not true… <\/p>\n