Offsite Post: ‘Europe, Africa, and Christianity’

 

Realists are helpful folks, helping us to avoid disastrous courses as it regards war in the Ukraine, responses to crime, etc.  Mr. Tom Shackleford is one of those men.  But in speaking recently about black Africans and Christianity, he jumped from helpful realism to unhelpful speculation:  ‘It’s my personal spiritual suspicion that Christianity doesn’t apply to blacks, although I wouldn’t purport to be a theologian. I have no clue how anyone can observe their behavior and think there’s a copy of the Ten Commandments taped inside their skulls whereas most of this guidance comes naturally to the vast majority of us.’

This is mighty interesting.  For when one takes a look around the globe, it is actually black (sub-Saharan) Africa, and not white Europe, where Christianity is growing the most rapidly.  Pew Research reports,

 

If demography is destiny, then Christianity’s future lies in Africa. By 2060, a plurality of Christians – more than four-in-ten – will call sub-Saharan Africa home, up from 26% in 2015, according to a new analysis of demographic data by Pew Research Center. At the same time, the share of Christians living in many other regions – notably Europe – is projected to decline.

It is not simply numbers, either.  These Africans are also amongst the most dedicated Christians in the world:  ‘Christians in Africa and Latin America tend to pray more frequently, attend religious services more regularly and consider religion more important in their lives than Christians elsewhere in the world, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.’

Mr. Shackleford’s statement is also puzzling in light of Southern history itself, in which much effort before the War was expended by those of European descent to preach to, baptize, marry as husband and wife, and pray and worship with their African slaves.  Sometimes they also went to the trouble of building churches for them.

Then there is the South Carolina poet William Grayson, who gave voice to the view that God providentially allowed slavery to arise in the South so that her slaves would be introduced to Christianity, and, when they had matured sufficiently, some of the Dixian Africans would take Christianity back to Africa herself as missionaries (‘The Hireling and the Slave’, p. 74).

Christianity is as applicable to black Africans as it is to white Europeans.  If that is difficult for some to accept, it is because they have lost sight of how depraved Europeans were before they were enlightened with and transformed by the Holy Gospel.  For example,

 . . .

The rest is at https://identitydixie.com/2023/08/25/europe-africa-and-christianity/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!