Faith Without Self-Erasure: How to Be a Christian and Still Loving Your African Culture
YOU CAN BE A CHRISTIAN AND LOVE YOUR CULTURE: FAITH WITHOUT SELF-ERASURE The Gospel did not come to delete us. There is a wound many African Christians carry silently. It is the wound of being told that to love Jesus, you must first hate yourself. That to be saved, you must become a stranger in your father’s house. That to follow Christ, you must abandon your language, change your name, despise your elders, and treat every thread of your tradition as demonic. The result was a deep fracture in our communities. Society was split into two camps: the church people, and the village people. As if the Kingdom of God had no room for drums, proverbs, titles, or festivals. As if salvation required cultural suicide. But that was never the message of Jesus. The Gospel did not come to Africa to erase Africans. It came to redeem them. The Incarnation itself proves this: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” John 1:14. God did not ask humanity to become angels before He c...