Colonialism and Us

Talking to siblings at a recently
opened student hosting center.

Our sending church has been doing a lot of work on what it means to be the church in the current social reality with a history of white privilege and power benefits.  Through many meetings and workshops, it’s been stretching us to think about how the residue of colonialism is still present in our work whether we intend it to be or not.  This hits home quickly when we think about the different status and way we’re perceived walking down the street in the Sahel, versus doing the same in the US.  And looking at the much larger difference that African-American colleagues experience from the privilege and safety of being identified as a US citizen here, versus the danger or push-back they have to deal with because of the color of their skin walking down a US city street.  

A lot of the discussions hit on themes that have been brought to the forefront in the last decade by mission themed books like When Helping Hurts, and Toxic Charity.  But there are also sharper questions like, is it even right to have white people going to African countries because of the way that we’re automatically received, despite our efforts at working as equals and partners?  I’m not sure what our organization is going to be able to do with these questions, but the essence of this struggle is a very important thing for all of us to keep re-evaluating.  What is the best way to do the good that we are trying to do?  What are the barriers to this good that we are a part of intentionally or un-intentionally?

Colonialism intersects with lots of things from empire building to capitalism and monetizing people.  This also intersects with a conversation we’ve been having among some other co-workers looking at partnership on a deep level. One of our good friends argues that we shouldn’t use the language of partnership in the church, because it’s got too much of a transactional, business sense to it.  Would it be more true to who we are to refer to churches that we have a mutually encouraging relationship with as simply brothers and sisters?  That would make them sibling churches instead of partner churches.  Maybe it would help us look at each other less as projects and more as people whom we’re bound to through good and bad. 

-- El Padre