Portraits of Global Christianity
Dr. Gina Zurlo invited a few colleagues to contribute to Portraits of Global Christianity, a Festschrift for Dr. Todd M. Johnson who is Professor of Mission and Global Christianity and Co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Below is a short segment of my chapter for this book.
Decolonizing White Christianity
As a Korean American theologian, I am usually skeptical of White American scholars and professors who are engaged in the study of World Christianity and missiology in part due to what happened to Asian culture and history when White missionaries came to convert us. White missionaries came to different parts of Asia and told Asians that our culture and religions were evil and should be subordinate to the Western world and White Christianity. When White American missionaries went to Korea, they built Western homes, ate Western foods, and used Western appliances; they built their own communities and lived better than most Koreans, leading many Koreans to desire life like the Americans. As a result, some Koreans were drawn to Christianity for materialistic, and not only for spiritual, gains.
White supremacy spreads the message of the inferiority of non-White cultures and religions. White missionaries told Asians that our ancestor worship, festivals, and holidays were not acceptable and should be eliminated. Such efforts did not just end in Asia, but affected Asian immigrants all over the world, where they took the teaching of White missionaries to their new homes. For example, many Asian immigrants in North America practiced and worshipped the way missionaries taught them, and as a result held deep within them biases against their own culture. My own immigrant parents were affected, told by missionaries that Jesus and God were White. Asians were taught to remove anything Asian from their lives to advance in society, including relinquishing their own culture, religion, and practices for the sake of believing in the superiority of White Christianity. In many cases, after the work of White missionaries, many Asians have perceived scholars researching World Christianity like another imperial tool to colonize the world under the banner of White supremacy.
This mode of thinking is so far from Todd’s scholarship, writing, and practice. Reviewing Todd’s scholarly work and collaborating with him on Christianity in North America has made me realize the depth, compassion, empathy, and understanding that he has for World Christianity. Many White male scholars will examine global Christianity through the lens of colonialism, Westernization, and imperialism. This view only leads to destruction and devastation of communities outside of the West. However, Todd’s experience living in Singapore and Thailand has helped him bring a different understanding to global Christianity that isn’t blurred by White Western perspectives. Rather than operating from White imperialism, Todd has a keen understanding of non-White cultures, religions, and contexts and particularly welcomes Asian heritages and histories. He is sensitive to the issues pertaining to regions and countries around the world and has a lens to appropriately critique the influence of White superiority in Christianity. He is fully aware of the problems caused by White Christians around the globe, and actively seeks to uplift marginalized voices and make them more prominent. He works to decolonize the harmful ways that White Christianity has influenced World Christianity and teaches others to do the same. (for more of my chapter, please read the book).
There was a wonderful celebration of Dr. Johnson’s scholarship where Portraits of a Global Christianity was presented to him as a surprise gift.
I am thrilled to announce that Drs. Todd Johnson, Kenneth Ross and I are co-editors of Christianity in North America (Volume 7 of the Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity). It will be released June 2023 and it is available for pre-order.
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