By Dr Charles Leyman Kachitsa
Respect is the acknowledgement that another has feelings that just like our own the desire is for positive ones only. In fact it is an acknowledgement of the human aspect in the other person. It goes beyond empathy as it surpasses putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes. It goes beyond in that respect means adoration, human adoration of the other person and the position that they hold to you or others.
People who disrespect others, are construed to be those who have disregard feelings of others. They normally behave in a selfish manner no matter the impact it brings to the feelings of others, especially negative feelings.
On the other hand, there is a distinctive difference between fearing someone and respecting them. With fear there is not necessarily rational reasoning to adoring the other. Quite often it is driven by focus on physical human attributes.
The quotes this week are taken from a book that re-exams old practices by putting them under the microscope to gauge them against the morality they advocate to represent. I am sure that the few selected quotations listed below from this book will enlighten you to one or two life lessons. Read and enjoy:
DECOLONIZING MISSION by Harvey C. Kwiyani
“…. in imagining a postcolonial missiology, I am keen to explore the decolonizing of mission itself (and missiology). A decolonized mission/ missiology is only possible if we begin to listen to the voices of the non-Western others just as much as we listen to Westerners as we engage in mission. Of course, the process of decolonization is always about power dynamics. Mission, as we stand today in the twenty-first century, is still a very white field even though an overwhelming majority of Christians (and pretty soon, missionaries) are anything but white. While these events continue to unfold, and non-Western Christianity continue to explode, there is still an unjustifiable theological/ missiological hegemony by the West over the world. The global context of the twenty-first century requires us to think afresh about God’s mission in the world – what is it and how to participate in it.”
“…… the entire Western missionary enterprise, right from when it started in the fifteenth century, was founded upon the belief that Europeans had the right to the world. They could dominate, civilize and Christinize the world by any means necessary. To dismiss all the historical evidence for this Critical Race Theory is what an unsettled white man like Sugden (and the black and brown friends who want to sustain and uphold white domination in mission and in the world in general will do………. “
“Colonialism is founded on a premise that God has given some people rights over other peoples’ lives, land and property. Of course, colonialism goes totally against a belief that all humans are imago Dei, made in the image of God. When we begin to behave as if some of us are first-class humans and others are second-class, colonialism is inevitable. Yet there is no such a thing as a second-class image of God. If any humans are made in the image of God, we are all made in the same image – equal in our humanity before God. ……..”
“Decolonizing mission is about the system, its historical grounding, theological foundations, as well as its social location. When Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Go and make disciples among the nations’ he was speaking to a group of Galilean fishermen and their fellow lower-class followers. They lived in a colonized land that would be crashed by the Roman Empire barely four decades later. They had no means and, most probably, no need to colonize the nations for Christ. This book calls all followers of Jesus to imagine themselves as those colonized Galileans, with everything going against them, yet taking the gospel to the nations. What would this look like today? Many things. Most pertinent for me is the possibility of a missionary movement running on the power of the Holy Spirit and not that of the empire. It is my hope that as you read this book, you will notice that the history of mission since the fifteenth century has been shaped mainly by European expansionism – in many cases this makes mission and colonialism seem as if they are the same thing. Again I hear many young Africans say, ‘Colonialism and mission are two sides of the same coin – and that coin is Western imperialism…..”
