Christianity has deep, indigenous roots in Africa—long before it became associated with the West. From Alexandria to Axum, from Augustine of Hippo to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Africans were among the earliest theologians, missionaries, and defenders of the Christian faith. Yet today, many African Christians find themselves practicing a version of Christianity shaped by Western colonialism rather than African spiritual and cultural identity.
In May 2024, the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the United States passed a vote allowing openly practicing homosexual clergy. Many African delegates, known for their opposition to this decision, were unable to attend the vote due to late visa applications—an issue African clergy had warned the organizing committee about. Following this exclusion, the entire UMC in Ivory Coast—nearly one million members—announced its departure from the denomination. Other branches across Africa are now considering similar exits, but financial dependence on the U.S.-based church structure remains a significant barrier.
This moment is part of a broader reckoning. African Christianity is increasingly recognizing the need to reclaim its independence—not just institutionally, but theologically and spiritually. For centuries, colonial missionaries imposed a version of Christianity aligned with European norms and power structures. Indigenous beliefs were demonized, local languages suppressed, and African agency denied. What followed was a Westernized Christianity that emphasized foreign values such as individualism, prosperity theology, and cultural dependency.
Yet Africa has always had its own forms of Christian expression. The Ethiopian Church resisted Jesuit attempts to impose Catholic orthodoxy in the 16th century. The Kimbanguist movement in the Congo and the Shembe Church in South Africa fused Christian theology with African liberation and cultural traditions. Thinkers like John Mbiti and Kwame Bediako laid the foundation for an African theology rooted in the continent’s own lived realities.
Today, the call is to move toward an authentically African Christianity—one that integrates faith with local values, community structures, and moral frameworks. It must reject imported doctrines that undermine the social fabric and political agency of African societies. It must also engage the pressing issues of the continent—poverty, injustice, corruption, and cultural erasure—with a theology that empowers, not pacifies.
The gospel in Africa is not something new. It was born here, shaped here, and must now be re-rooted here. What African Christianity needs is not permission from the West—but a recovery of its own voice.
Full article: blackagendareport.com/how-western-ch…
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