Ethiopian Christianity, Pope Francis, and The Place for Africans in European Christianity
Is There a Place for Africans in European Christianity?
This essay examines whether African Christians!
Drawing on TV encounters with Pope Francis,
and a growing awareness of Ethiopian Orthodoxy.
It confronts spiritual envy, historical erasure,
and the search for an ancient, unnegotiated Christ.
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A Growing Unease
The more I think about this, the more I am scared of where the conclusions might lead.
Lately, I have been bombarded with posts about Ethiopian Christianity.
And I keep saying to myself, hmm.
Pope Francis, My First Pope
I love Pope Leo.
I absolutely, absolutely adored Pope Francis.
I can almost say this with certainty: I know what it must have felt like to live in the time of Jesus, because I lived in the time of Pope Francis.
He was my first pope in every meaningful sense.
Before him, there were popes I knew about. After him, there will be popes I recognize. But Francis made me decide I could become Catholic.
Why?
Because I thought, whatever faith produces a man like that, that must be the faith.
A Disquieting Contrast
Pope Benedict XVI, on the other hand, never sat well with me. Within weeks, perhaps a month, of becoming pope, he resurrected something that happened more than 500 years ago: Muslims overrunning parts of Europe. The world erupted. He had to visit Lebanon or Jordan to smooth things over.
He was German. That was it.
I already knew that history. What disturbed me was the timing.
The world needed soothing words, not historical provocation.
Did he, shortly after, remind us of the Catholic Church’s role in the slave trade?
Of course not.
Francis and the Scandal of Simplicity
Francis was different. Radically so.
He gave us a pope with African and Creole heritage, not as tokenism, but as incarnation. He was a genius and a spiritual giant, deeply misunderstood.
When what you say is brutally simple, yet capable of shattering the walls we have built around our hearts, misunderstanding is almost guaranteed.
I feel a little pity for certain cardinals who kick against Francis. They should be careful. They should examine themselves.
Scripture warns us about kicking against the pricks.
Nothing exposes envy like proximity to gifts we do not possess, especially spiritual gifts.
There is no end to envy of that kind.
Envy, Authority, and God Uninvited
The Pharisees will be remembered, for as long as history is written, for their spiritual envy of God Himself. Of course, they will never accept that Jesus is God in any form.
I understand that.
You see, sending a Savior who called sinners to repentance meant something profound. The boundaries of “a kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation” in Exodus 19:6 were no longer being guarded. They were being extended.
The calling was not withdrawn from Israel, but widened to draw more people in. And this was unacceptable to them.
They had not asked God for this.
Nor had they given their permission.
How different is this from those who literally weed immigrants from their midst, not because the blessings of living in a democratic nation, guarded by precepts of compassion, liberty, and dignity, have been withdrawn, but because they have been extended?
How different?
Like the Pharisees of old, God apparently needs their permission to draw people to a place where, free from war, pestilence, and the dearth of opportunity, they may, as Maslow described, lift their attention beyond mere physiological survival.
How different?
But I digress.
Turning Toward Ethiopia
Where was I?
Ah. Ethiopian Christianity.
The more I think about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the more I want to run from it. Not because it is frightening, but because it feels complete. Ancient. Unnegotiated. Untouched by modern vanity.
And I have often wondered whether there is truly a place for Africans in European Christianity. Francis made me believe there might be. Or perhaps that there already was, and we simply forgot.
The Pentecostal Collapse
What is obvious to me now is this: Pentecostalism has failed.
No other expression of Christianity has been so casually anti-Jesus. None more conceited. None more self-righteous. None more reckless with heresy.
They jump from heresy to recanting heresy into new heresies without missing a beat, with confidence, even elegance.
When they are wrong, they are loudly wrong, and yet convinced they are right.
You cannot argue with them.
And when they are right, everyone else is wrong, even those who preserved, at great cost, the traditions they now loudly appropriate.
It is mind-boggling.
The Question That Won’t Let Go
Where was I?
Ah yes. Ethiopian Christianity.
Could Jesus be waiting for us there?
For you?
For me?
For us, lovers of Christ, tired of spectacle, noise, and counterfeit authority?
For Africans?
I am scared of thinking what I am thinking.
Hmm.
Case not rested.
Don Kenobi
#MyFrancisEssays
#OldManInTheMolue
posted by #Dk @ 6:20 PM
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