Thread by @lisasharper

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch Hey, @playwrightwoman. Thanks for reading and thanks for the tag. I read the threads. Here’s the point I tried to make, albeit I could have made it better: Christianity as we have come to understand it has absolutely been centered in Europe. 1/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch The European story has become THE story of Christianity. European arguments, ideas, hang-ups, decisions, failures, skin pigments and accents have dominated our Western imagination of Jesus, Moses, David, Mary, Paul, Genesis, the cross, the resurrection and every thing. 2/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch What is the impact of taking a religion born in the context of the oppressed and colonized and reinterpreting it from the social location of empire? The religion of the oppressed becomes transformed into a tool of oppression. 3/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch In the hands of European empire, Christianity becomes a means of control, conquest, exploitation, slavery and war—all in the quest to dominate the world. BUT JESUS WAS A BROWN, INDIGENOUS COLONIZED person. 4/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch His people had been conquered by empires and enslaved several times. And 4 years before Jesus was born there was an attempted insurrection against Roman rule and occupation. A Roman General crucified 500 people per day throughout Northern Galilee. Blood stained the earth. 5/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch Jesus was a brown, indigenous, colonized man. His words and meaning have been interpreted for most of the world through the lens of empire’s committed to conquest. We have ALL been oppressed by this distorted Christianity. 6/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch It is no wonder that the majority of ALL white Christians in US voted for Trump in 2016. They are the product of the Christianity of conquest that has NOTHING to do with the brown, indigenous, colonized Jesus. 7/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch And it is no wonder that in this era of revelation we are beginning to #see White Christianity for what it is—a weapon wielded to protect white patriarchy. As a result, it beats down, pushes out, or nullifies the voices of all who question—all who resist. 8/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch But White Christianity has NOTHING to do with brown, indigenous, colonized Jesus—who was killed by the only European in the entire Bible—equivocating Pilate. 9/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch I believe this is why the Black Church is among most devout in our nation, according to a 2016 Pew Center poll. From the beginning we could see, connect with, and organize according to what we learned from Colonized Jesus, who lived on the underside of Roman human hierarchy. 10/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch We have also experienced the power of our faith in colonized Jesus to save us from the oppression of White “Christianity” (aka Slaveholder Religion). 11/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch That same power has been experienced by other colonized people around the world.

It has also been experienced by the oldest churches in the world—most located in Africa! 12/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch So, my point is not that anyone SHOULD be Christian. My point is that White Christianity is NOT Christianity. We’ve been played. 13/

@playwrightwoman @jamieleefinch Finally, white ex-Christians might find the healing they seek from the trauma of white Christianity (white patriarchy) in the arms of Black church mothers and in the struggle with Black and brown followers of the brown, indigenous colonized Jesus. 14/14