by Lisa Quintana
Doesn’t Christianity crush diversity? This is the question Rebecca McLaughlin answers so well in her book, Confronting Christianity. In it, McLaughlin explains the back story of how this perception came to exist. It started centuries ago, when Western missionaries used to try to rid certain cultures of native practices. That view was not God’s intent, but man’s misunderstanding—conflating the spreading of the gospel along with Western cultural ideals.
An example of this happened with the British imperialism of India. Imperialism is the state policy of extending power and dominion by direct territorial acquisition, or by gaining political and economic control of other territories and peoples. That did not go over so great with the Indian people.
This shows that Christianity is not a “white man’s religion,” but instead will host “… a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” who will worship Jesus together forever (Rev. 7:9).
- Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity, p. 38.
- Pew Research Center, The Global Religious Landscape, 2012.
- Council on Foreign Relations, “Christianity in China”, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/christianity-china, accessed 3-14-21.
- Pew Research Center, https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/compare/christians/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/, accessed 3-14-21.
- Ibid, “Religious Landscape Study”, 2014.
Sounds like this book goes on my list. Thank you, Lisa.
It’s one of the better books I’ve read lately on apologetics. Thanks for stopping by, Michael!
Wow Lisa, you really did your research for this, very impressive! I think you have made a great case that Christianity as a religion is not in any way opposed to diversity. Excellent apologetics. 🙂
Thanks for your comment! I really appreciate the time you took to not only read my blog post, but to comment on it, as well. That’s important to a blogger! God bless you
Thank you for this thoughtful and truthful walk through the history of Christianity! Much needed truth, seldom shared in mainstream media. I pray for more people to have eyes to see the beauty of the gospel, in which God is calling all of His image-bearers to receive our Savior and be welcomed into His kingdom family. This, we know, is indeed what heaven will look like, the beauty of all HIS diversity!
Thank you for this survey of diversity in Christianity. We can’t forgot or refute the biblical record but I’m afraid many “Christians” don’t really read the Bible so their “facts” are from whatever may be their mainstream source of information. But we can certainly be the light of reason and compassion in our circles of influence.
Very interesting and thought provoking book. Another aspect to this still excites today. When we take teams on mission trips to Africa, I find many Americans think they know more and understand more of the Gospel than those we are working with on the ground. Not only is Christianity global, those outside the US are well versed too. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Yvonne! Yes, I have heard some missionaries are actually coming to America to evangelize here in the USA. So, it doesn’t surprise me that those outside the US are well versed. Thanks for your comment!
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this information with us. Sharing the love of Christ should be our goal in every moment.
Yay, Lisa. Thank you so much for providing this information. Sound. Fair. Accurate. Great job!