Saturday, March 26, 2016

"Africa's Time Is Now"

The bold declaration "Africa's Time Is Now" as repeated often during a March 2016 gathering of several hundred Christian mission leaders I attended in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Rather than empty bravado, this assertion of African Christianity’s kairos is an insightful recognition of the trajectory of World Christianity. It is also a clarion call to the Church in Africa to exercise leadership within the worldwide Christian movement.
   Skeptics may hear an unsupportable pep talk that cannot face the undeniable reality of Africa’s lack of economic, political, military, and cultural influence – at least in comparison to that of the world’s "genuine" power brokers. What such skeptics overlook, however, is that Africa is in fact part of the world. And despite limited senses of world history some of us have inherited, African history is as substantial and ancient as any other part of the world’s history. Also, no matter if some psychological instincts say otherwise, Africans are full members of the human race – even if the only African news some of us notice is either bad or inconsequential for financial markets, political realities, vacation destinations, military concerns, or New Year’s fireworks celebrations.
   In Christian terms, no other continent has experienced the degree of growth over the past century as has Africa. Along with what the Argentine Pope Francis demonstrates, the worldwide Anglican Communion is as representative as any ecclesiastical tradition of the global demographic shift southward that has occurred. Moreover, such demographics are bearing fruit theologically, socially, and otherwise, as the January 2016 Anglican Primates’ meeting exemplifies in its landmark Communiqué on sexuality and related matters (http://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/206035/Communiqu%C3%A9_from_the_Primates_Meeting_2016.pdf). “Africa’s Time is Now” could have well served as the subtitle of that meeting officially entitled, “Walking Together in the Service of God in the World.”
   The March gathering in Addis Ababa was for further mobilizing churches in Africa for world mission and evangelization. The meeting's spirit and consensus was that the organizational, spiritual, financial, experiential, and human resources that God has given African churches have them well on their way in playing their roles for reaching the unreached still in Africa, as well as beyond Africa. National sub-meetings for prayer, strategy, research, networking, and otherwise participating in God’s mission were filled with determination and expectation for what lies immediately ahead. African ways of prayer, worship, and cooperating with Chinese Christians, for example, are at the forefront of African Christian mission leaders’ mission plans and resource allocation.
   “Africa’s Time Is Now.” God leads and works as he will, as well according to his time schedule. May we all trust him, praise him, pray, and follow him accordingly.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

My Current Take on Donald Trump's Popularity

   I'll dare to join countless others in suggesting what underlies Trump's alarming political success.
   Donald Trump is only partly responsible for his undeniable popularity: among his followers and silent admirers, he represents the horrific, visceral conviction that “We White Americans are the greatest people (ever) on earth.” I am a White American, and over many years I have found it excruciatingly difficult to eradicate the deeply rooted instinct that we White Americans are the world’s elite people. Like it or not, for many of us Donald Trump exemplifies a certain image of an ideal human being – or at least of an American who stands for what’s right.
   Some caveats: I am definitely not a Trump supporter. He is potentially dangerous for the entire world, usually misleading in his “facts,” and self-serving. Also, by God’s grace I am a Christian with deep affinities with numerous traditions, as well as with deep appreciation for many friends of other religious traditions. Even so, over many generations there are roots that have dug their way into unseen crevices deep within White Americans such as I that resonate with Donald Trump’s bravado, foreigner-bashing, and call to “Make America great again,” i.e., go back to early-Cold War, black-and-white-TV, segregation days.
   Some are blaming President Obama for Trump’s rise in popularity. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently noted that U.S.-Americans want a clear and decisive leader following “seven years of the cool, weak and endlessly nuanced 'no drama Obama’.” Another analysis suggests that Trump fits an increased longing for authoritarianism among U.S.-Americans. Other thought-provoking analyses, including by David Brooks and his critics, look at the last 40-50 years that have created the present environment in which Mr. Trump seems to be thriving: "David Brooks Is Wrong Again -- Trump's Rise Is Not 'Anti-Politics' but the Cancer of Big Money."
   The other day a European friend wrote several of us in the United States, pleading for us to “stop this ridiculous man [who] worships himself and his billions.” Our friend also noted, “The US has many friends and admirers, but this campaign is a shame. Should Trump end up in the White House, it will be end of America.” I am in Korea much of the time these days (and thus spared from the incessant campaign rhetoric). Indeed many Koreans are also bewildered as to how someone like Donald Trump has become so popular during this presidential election.
   Analyses like those mentioned above will surely proliferate. Like others I will continue to sift through them and try to understand the incomprehensible. I will also be looking for continued evidence of that latent, visceral conviction deep within many White Americans that longs for a return to “greatness”: militarily and economically leading the world while living comfortably and undisturbed by people who are different. That is the alleged America that Donald Trump promises to resurrect, and clearly many voters want to let him try and pull it off.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

TV Panel on “Megachurches and Mission”

A one-hour "Global Talk" panel discussion (computer / mobile) with four distinguished guests from around the world, and yours truly as MC, on CGN-TV (computer / mobile) (November 2015)

“Suburban Evangelical Individualism: Syncretism, (Harvie) Conn-textualization, or Something Else?”

In this oft-cited 2005 article, I explore Harvie Conn's striking use of "syncretistic" for suburban Christians.

"The Church in Asia"

In this 2008 article, requested by the magazine Tabletalk, I survey the massive topic of Christianity in Asia.