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Pastor Richard Twiss on Christian Unity
This is a video of pastor and speaker, Richard Twiss, of the Wiconi.org. It is an organization that seeks to support First Nations People who worship the Jesus Way, thus fostering an Indigenous cultural expression in their style of worship and understanding of the gospel. I transcribed some of what he had to say and I wanted your opinions. How has this philosphy on faith and culture influenced the African American church?
Twiss at Anderson University and the Mennonite Church of Canada, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClY7RoHsTKY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycTvKpKO0M0&NR=1
""...but there were approx. 20 million Native people here in th U.S.. But 400 years later, in the 1800's, there were only 230,000 Native people left. So from 20 million to 200,000 in 400 years is one of the greatest examples of ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide in the history of the world. So right here in the United States, all of that took place. So for our people, christianity has not been good news. So the way the gospel came to our people is you're sinners, you're involved in paganism and witchcraft and you worship demons and your drums are of the devil. Your dances are of the devil, so when you become a christian, you should cut your hair, learn the piano, learn the guitar, stop your dancing so you could be good christians And along with that, learn our language and etc., etc. So christianity has never been good news. So, it's sort of out of that context that I came to faith. And so for me, it's been a journey of what does it mean to be fully cultural and fully christian. Or in my instance, what does it mean to be fully Lakota and fully christian..."
"...and our cultures are like sunglasses, they are lenses that we put on and we view the world. We have white lenses, black lenses, chinese lenses,...all kinds of lenses. Now the beauty of, say, a telescope, is that it enables you to see. The problem is it prevents you from seeing
everything. So then, the only way to see more than what we can is by borrowing other peoples'
telescopes and looking at the world the way they perceive the world. NOw what if we did that
theologically.. What if we did it missiologically? That maybe the bible isn't everything that we
thought it would be because we are so bound by a certain cultural bias, even the fact that we
speak the English language. That binds us to a limited possibility about how fully we can
understand G-d..."
"...so because of their narrowmindedness culturally, they couldn't recognize the fact that G-d was doing an amazing new ....the problem was that their way of thinking about culture and
diversity was still bound up in their Jewish ethnocentrism which blinded them to the fact that G-d
was doing a new thing among the gentiles. So for all intensive purporses, they were Jesus-
loving, spiritually empowered, mature, absolutely dedicated born-again bigots, for Jesus.
Because their world view was too small. And I think many of us have had too small of a world
view..."
This is a video of pastor and speaker, Richard Twiss, of the Wiconi.org. It is an organization that seeks to support First Nations People who worship the Jesus Way, thus fostering an Indigenous cultural expression in their style of worship and understanding of the gospel. I transcribed some of what he had to say and I wanted your opinions. How has this philosphy on faith and culture influenced the African American church?
Twiss at Anderson University and the Mennonite Church of Canada, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClY7RoHsTKY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycTvKpKO0M0&NR=1
""...but there were approx. 20 million Native people here in th U.S.. But 400 years later, in the 1800's, there were only 230,000 Native people left. So from 20 million to 200,000 in 400 years is one of the greatest examples of ethnic cleansing or cultural genocide in the history of the world. So right here in the United States, all of that took place. So for our people, christianity has not been good news. So the way the gospel came to our people is you're sinners, you're involved in paganism and witchcraft and you worship demons and your drums are of the devil. Your dances are of the devil, so when you become a christian, you should cut your hair, learn the piano, learn the guitar, stop your dancing so you could be good christians And along with that, learn our language and etc., etc. So christianity has never been good news. So, it's sort of out of that context that I came to faith. And so for me, it's been a journey of what does it mean to be fully cultural and fully christian. Or in my instance, what does it mean to be fully Lakota and fully christian..."
"...and our cultures are like sunglasses, they are lenses that we put on and we view the world. We have white lenses, black lenses, chinese lenses,...all kinds of lenses. Now the beauty of, say, a telescope, is that it enables you to see. The problem is it prevents you from seeing
everything. So then, the only way to see more than what we can is by borrowing other peoples'
telescopes and looking at the world the way they perceive the world. NOw what if we did that
theologically.. What if we did it missiologically? That maybe the bible isn't everything that we
thought it would be because we are so bound by a certain cultural bias, even the fact that we
speak the English language. That binds us to a limited possibility about how fully we can
understand G-d..."
"...so because of their narrowmindedness culturally, they couldn't recognize the fact that G-d was doing an amazing new ....the problem was that their way of thinking about culture and
diversity was still bound up in their Jewish ethnocentrism which blinded them to the fact that G-d
was doing a new thing among the gentiles. So for all intensive purporses, they were Jesus-
loving, spiritually empowered, mature, absolutely dedicated born-again bigots, for Jesus.
Because their world view was too small. And I think many of us have had too small of a world
view..."
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