Week 6 – Monday

I feel today’s class was a great response to what I had been hearing as feedback from others as to how they wanted to see how the imperialism, colonialism, and postcolonialism we’d been studying were dealing with the “Church in Mission” aspect of our class. On a different note, I also enjoyed the thought that came to mind of the true marriage of God and the Church in mission: God and the Church work together as a team in partnership, while God is the loving leader, the church joins His lead–wherever He goes we will follow. How much more difficult is marriage when both people try to lead and then clash, rather than one person leading and submitting to the other? Thus, I feel that God (Christ) and the Church’s marriage is the perfect model for what a God-ordained marriage should look like (as you can probably tell, I’m not a die-hard feminist).

Week 5 – Response to Joel Greenwich’s comments on Lazarus’ “Afropop”…

I agree that we should “[n]ever underestimate the power of music.” Music has so many functions and capabilities of reaching people that is either not allowed or not possible in other vehicles of communication. I also appreciated your connection with the mbira’s role in Zimbabwe and the bossa nova in Brazil. I did not realize that the bossa nova was used as a political statement against the dictatorship, nor did I realize that the bossa nova genre/music language is as recent as the 1960s. I truly enjoy the bossa nova style of music, partially because my brother took private trap set lessons in which he became very fluent in many drumming languages, one of which was the bossa nova. J

Week 5 – Sheroes and Villians – Amina Mama

Mama’s article was very hard for me to read as she was very descriptive of the types of torture/abuse that women underwent/go in other countries. I was angry/appalled at most of what I read in that no one should be treated so grotesquely—even our mortal enemies—as raping, Hottentot’s genital dissection, and every other evil carried out on the women. One question I have: How would a missionary address such evil practices without coming across as being ethnocentric or colonialist in nature?

Week 5 – “Unsystematic Fingers at the Conditions of the Times”: “Afropop” and the Paradoxes of Imperialism” – Neil Lazarus

I found Lazarus’ article extremely intriguing for me as I am called to be a contextualized musicianary. Lazarus helped me realize that what I am listening to as “world music” is actually probably not the authentic African (or any, for that matter) style of today but rather what the recording companies have imposed on their artists to receive better profits, etc. I truly want to listen to “Afropop” now in order to better understand the culture and hear the songs of contrast from Graceland so I know what to stay away from when dealing with other music cultures.

Week 5 – African Identities – Kwame Anthony Appiah

Before studying at Fuller, I thought of Africa as one country/identity. I now realize that Africa—a complete continent—has numerous cultures within and that by labeling anyone as “African” is misleading, uneducated, and can be somewhat “disabling” (Castle, 225) and limiting to that person (as any label of race/ethnicity can be). We must be careful not to hinder others with our worldview’s biases.

Week 5 – Desiring War: Apocalypse, Commodity Fetish, and the End of History – Erin Runions

I found this article difficult to read as I have been a faithful supporter of President George W. Bush; however, after reading Runions article (even though I have my reserves), I now see a problem with the statements that President Bush has made of “History” and “Freedom.” I agree with Runions’ claim of “the beginning of a new imperialist history” in the Bush administration (Sugirtharajah, 124), which may have come about by our country’s extreme nationalism and somewhat racist view of being the ultimate best realization in the “evolution” scale.

Week 5 – Roman Imperialism and Early Christian Scribality – Werner H. Kelber

Kelber’s main emphasis of this article is the fact that much of Christian scribality was in response to Roman imperialism and finding their own identity because the early Christians were the marginalized, subaltern group.

I have known that the early Christians were marginalized, but this article put my views in better perspective by Kelber’s exegesis of the Gospels and differences in their historical views of shaping their identity. I especially was intrigued by the symbolism in Jesus casting out the demon “Legion”—implying the Roman rule—in Garasene (Sugirtharajah, 99).

Week 5 – Mission of the Church – Fuellenbach

I agree with Fuellenbach that “[w]e must embrace all cultures” (Fuellenbach, 222); however, I wouldn’t go to the extremity of claiming that “[the benefits of salvation] do not extend to Christians alone; they reach out to all human being whose salvation is ultimately guaranteed through the death and resurrection of Christ.” (Fuellenbach, 217) I felt as though this view of salvation takes Jesus out of being “the Way, Truth, and the Life (no one comes to the Father except through me).” (John 14:6) I do not like the “universalistic” belief that everyone gets to God in their own means, such as Karl Rahner’s concept of “anonymous Christians.” Maybe I’m too close-minded, but I believe that our faith in Jesus is what distinguishes us from other religions and should not be thrown away in essence.

Week 5 – Wednesday

I was shocked at my self-revelation during the learning task of how much I truly have been affected by racism–through family and being in a ”mixed” dating relationship–and also how it had affected others within our class: both on personal and non-personal levels. I was appalled at Jennifer’s restaurant story of not being able to be seated or have her order taken because she was with her brother Michael, a Korean. I pray that God will continue to alleviate our world of negative racism and that people of today and of the future will appreciate our differences and love each other by open-mindedly learning from one another’s strengths and our own weaknesses.   

Week 5 – Monday

As usual, I enjoyed our conversation in class. I was especially intrigued was the debate over teaching English as a part of mission work being imperialistic or not. I personally, like Jesse, try to learn others’ languages as a means of connection as I feel it brightens others’ days when I know—at least a few words in—their language.

Dr. Bolger correctly stated that the problem with colonial/imperial discourses were their intent to harm and/or shape the people’s identity and that one needs to go case-by-case to evaluate whether English is being taught as “the superior culture” approach or as a way of dialogue.