“Christianity is colonial!” I’m sure we’ve all heard variations on that theme. It’s a useful way to demoralise and demonise Christians in both the minority ‘western’ world and the majority world.
In our current historical moment, the nations in Europe and North America as well as Australia and New Zealand are reckoning with the consequences of 400 years of international influence – of ‘colonising’ the rest of the world. This colonialism, so it is said, was advanced through the following mutually reinforcing attitudes.
- Europeans – ‘white’ people – are naturally and essentially racist.
- That racism is demonstrated in how they used their technological developments to invade and rule over – to ‘colonise’ – non-‘white’ people. During the 17th-19th centuries, developments in maritime technology enabled long-distance seafaring, which enabled European nations to ‘discover’ new countries, populated by strange new peoples. Advanced weapons like muskets and canons allowed them to subjugate the ‘natives’ of these lands.
- That technological superiority become equated with a cultural and therefore racial superiority. Europeans assumed that their God had given them this ability to ‘discover’ and rule over these lands – to ‘colonise’ them. They therefore assumed that their God had also given them, as part of that rule, the right to exploit the ‘natives,’ their lands, and the resources of their lands, for the benefit of the colonial powers.
According to this ‘Christianity is colonial’ narrative, Christianity is the ‘white,’ ‘western’ religion which permitted all the above. Therefore, the Christian God is himself a racist colonialist who deserves, not to be worshiped, but to be denounced.
This association of Christianity with colonialism is so out of step with reality as to be literally ridiculous. It deserves to be laughed at, to be ridiculed.
- Jesus is not a ‘white’ European. He’s Jewish. Middle Eastern. You don’t have to be Christian to accept that. You don’t even have to be religious. Famous atheists like Richard Dawkins[1] and Bart Ehrmann[2]accept that he existed as a Jewish man who claimed to speak for God.
- During the time of his earthly ministry, Israel was not an imperial power. It was under the power of the Roman empire. Jesus was one of those oppressed natives who were being exploited by the colonialists. That’s why everyone was so upset when he welcomed the Jewish men who were collecting taxes on behalf of the Roman overlords (Matt 9:10-17; Mark 2:15-22; Luke 5:29-39; 19:1-10;), and why the Pharisees tried to trap him with the question about paying taxes to Caesar (Matt 22:15–22; Mark 12:13–17; Luke 20:20–26).
- Jesus constantly warned people against pride and status. He was always telling people that those who are highly valued, who are ‘first’ in this world, are the least in God’s eyes, and that God values those who are, according to this world ‘losers’ (Matt 13:30; 20:16; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30). Luke 16:15: “What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”
- And Jesus incarnated this value inversion in his death and resurrection. His own people handed him over to be executed by the imperial colonialists. You can’t be a bigger loser than that. “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24). He now possesses all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18) and is the one who will judge the world (Acts 17:31). You can’t get more powerful than that.
- And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus doesn’t use his almighty resurrected power to oppress, to ‘colonise,’ but to save – to forgive rebels and restore them to himself.
If all that wasn’t enough to thoroughly debunk the ‘Christianity is colonial’ thesis, let me give you another one. The claim that Christianity is colonial is itself racist because it denies non-white, majority-world Christians the right to be Christians legitimately.
I was born in Sri Lanka. I studied at a boys-only Christian school which had been founded by Anglican Church missionaries in 1851.[3] On Sundays, my parents and I attended a Methodist church founded by Methodist missionaries in 1866.[4] In both places, I was taught the gospel, the Bible, and the Christian faith by Sri Lankan Christians. There was not one ‘white’ missionary among them.
My father grew up in the same Anglican school that I attended. My mother studied at the Methodist girl’s school associated with the Methodist church we went to. My parents are the last generation to have been taught by missionaries. They have recounted to me their fond memories of being taught by British missionaries when they were children during the 1960s.
But that was only during their childhood. As adults, my parents were ministered to by Sri Lankans. One of them was Ajith Fernando of Youth For Christ, who is now an internationally recognised majority-world Christian leader and author.[5]
One of my Sunday School leaders was a young man named Ivor Poobalan.[6] He is now principal of Colombo Theological Seminary in Sri Lanka.[7] That college prepares Sri Lankans for cutting-edge, native-language evangelism and ministry in Sri Lanka. Ivor was one of the authors of the theological introduction to the Lausanne Movement’s 2024 State Of The Great Commission Report.[8]
When I was in high school, my parents and I migrated to Australia. I am now a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. I had the privilege of being the annual moderator (‘chairman’) of the New South Wales Presbyterian Church for 2018-19.[9] I currently have the privilege of being convener (again, chairman – we Presbyterians have unusual titles for our church leadership roles…) of the Australian Presbyterian Church’s international ecumenical committee. Basically, I’m the church’s minister for foreign affairs.
I have no doubt that the ‘western’ missionaries to Sri Lanka brought cultural presuppositions with them. We all do. But the fact is, they also created the conditions for ‘native’ Sri Lankan Christians to rise up and take places of local, national, and international leadership. And now we’re blessing the world.
If Christianity is essentially ‘western,’ then by being Christian, I, my parents, and all the above Christian leaders have renounced our right to be Sri Lankan. Even though we are ethnically Sri Lankan. When I visited Sri Lanka some years back, a chatty taxi driver asked my name. When I told him Weerakoon, he exclaimed “suthu Sinhala namak, ne, mahathya!” – “that’s a good Sinhala name, sir!”
I refuse to renounce my ethnicity. I did not become a Christian in Australia. My parents and I, the leaders I mentioned above, and all the other Christians whose faith has been formed and shaped by ethnic Sri Lankans, are products of Sri Lankan Christianity. The Australian church has recognised us, embraced us, invested in us, and honoured us with positions of leadership.
Any non-Christian who lectures us about Christianity being ‘white,’ ‘western’ ‘colonialism’ is being racist against me, my parents, and my people. And expressing contempt towards the generous, multi-ethnically hospitable Australian church.
We all carry cultural presumptions which bias our perspectives and create blind spots we’re not aware of. That’s why we need each other. The Lausanne Movement’s Seoul convention recently celebrated 50 years of the global church on mission together.[10] The Gospel Coalition has 20 websites, most of them in languages other than English.
But the idea that missionaries – ‘western’ or any other – are nothing but colonialists is a lie of the devil. He has to spread that lie because the truth will kill him – the truth that thoughtful missionaries who pay attention to serving the people they’re trying to reach have the multi-generational impact of raising up Christian leaders who are able and willing to challenge all people, of every tribe and nation, to follow the one true God: Jesus Christ.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5EjA-JNiVk
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Did-Jesus-Exist-Historical-Argument/dp/0062206443/ref=as_li_ss_tl
[3] https://stcmountcomp1.wordpress.com/s-thomas-college-a-history/
[4] https://members.tripod.com/~methodist_college/history.html
[5] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/ajith-fernando/
[6] https://lausanne.org/leader/ivor-gerard-poobalan
[8] https://lausanne.org/report/the-great-commission-a-theological-basis
[9] https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/kamal-weerakoon-steps-up/
