Diversity? Look No Further than the Church

Guest Blogger: Jason Helopoulos

Some say that Sunday morning at 10 a.m. is the most segregated hour of the week. That may be the case. I don’t know. I hope it isn’t. I pray it isn’t. It surely shouldn’t be. However, what I do know with certainty is that at this same hour of the week there are more diverse people doing one united thing than at any other time. For the Christian faith is practiced by and the Church is made up of a tapestry of people, whose diversity far surpasses that of any other entity on the face of the earth.

The often repeated sentiment that Christianity is a Western religion is a falsehood. Neither is it a “white man’s religion.” This wasn’t true at its beginning, over the course of its history, nor is it true in the present. Christianity is African, South American, North American, European, Asian, and Australian. It is a faith practiced by as diverse people as American Indians, Mexicans, Spaniards, Germans, Russians, Nigerians, Japanese, Laotians, and Samoans.

A Western religion? Christianity began in the Middle East. The Church started in Jerusalem, spread up the coast to Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), and southwest across North Africa. The most important early centers of Christianity were not Paris, Chicago, London, or even Rome. They were Alexandria, Damascus, and Antioch. The early leadership of the Christian faith wasn’t milky white. It was rich with Africans and Asians. Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius, Augustine, the Cappadocian Fathers, and Cyril, among others, left a lasting imprint upon the contours of the Christian faith. The early church councils reveal the very “non-Western” ethos of early Christianity: Nicea, Chalcedon, Ephesus, and Constantinople are far from western metropolises. The Christian faith spread across Europe with great success, but it also spread to Iran and India by the end of the second century. Armenia and Georgia adopted it as the state religion in the early fourth century. The faith reached even as far as China as early as the middle of the first century and as late as the beginning of the seventh century. Christianity has always been an international faith.

What about today? The Pew Forum reports that only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). More than a third of the world’s current Christian population lives in North and South America (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one in every eight Christians is Asian (13%). Five of the top ten countries with the most Christians are either in Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) or Asia (China and the Philippines). If we take a look at the Global North versus the Global South, the Pew Forum reports that more than 1.3 billion Christians live in the Global South (61%), compared with about 860 million in the Global North (39%).

What about the future? Christianity is growing at a rapid pace in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia that far surpasses its growth in any other part of the world. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity reports that in 1910 there were 9 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa.; in 2010 they reported that there are 516 million. In Asia there were about 28 million Christians in 1910; in 2010 they reported that there are now more than 285 million. In China alone the estimates range from 90 million to 130 million Christians. If these estimates are even close to correct, then about 8% of the Chinese population is Christian. Gardam, in his book, Christians in China states, “More people go to church on Sunday in China than the whole of Europe.” There are few who would balk at the prediction that the future of Christianity will be dominated by the Global South, Africa, and Asia.

Diversity? Christians only comprise 1/3 of the world’s population today, yet the Pew Forum reports that it is the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories of the world. That is 2/3 of all the countries and territories on the globe. There is nothing on earth like the Christian Church.

Of course, it is true that Christianity thrived in the West from the 300’s to the 1900’s. Most of us are the recipients of this blessing of providence. However, this does not make it a Western religion. Nor does it make Christianity a “white man’s religion.” Christianity wasn’t monolithic or parochial at its start, it hasn’t been in its history, and it surely won’t be in the future.

Is Sunday morning at 10 a.m. the most segregated hour of the week? I don’t know. But I do know that there is no entity, no institution, no movement, and no organization that is as multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-national, or multi-linguistic as the Christian Church.  It is a tapestry of colors, dialects, and ethnicities.  And on that day when we are gathered before the throne of God no one will dare utter the ludicrous and silly idea that Christianity is a Western or “white man’s religion.” The evidence will be too great. For on that day there shall be those from every tongue, tribe, and nation worshipping with one voice, one heart, and one affection–as they bow before the Lamb upon the throne, who unites all these peoples into one.