#SlateSpeak #DecolonizeChristianity
Last night over on Twitter, the Slate Project hosted our weekly Tweet chat, which we do every Thursday night from 9pm-10pm EST. Folks from all over the world turn toward their screens (if they aren't already looking at them) and use the digital bookmark #SlateSpeak to follow along and participate in a radical, edgy, progressive Christian conversation. It is consistently awesome. But last night it was particularly incredible. @crazypastor facilitated our conversation inspired by #DecolonizingLutheranism. This was the first topic/question:
And these were some of the responses:
In addition to some amazing naming and claiming of the work of decolonizing Christianity, there were some pretty big theological words being used. Here's a couple definitions:
Hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
Sankofa: a word in the Twi language of Ghana that translates as "Go back and get it" (san - to return; ko - to go; fa - to fetch, to seek and take) and also refers to the Asante Adinkra symbol represented either by a bird with its head turned backwards taking an egg off its back, or as a stylized heart shape.
The conversation continued about what decolonization looks like and naming the difficulties inherent in it...
Then we were asked to specifically name where we saw decolonizing work being done in our churches and faith communities...
There were some great examples. An aditional truth was stated, that there are just as many, if not more places in the church, where we are NOT seeing this work done. ..
Acknowledging that we still have such a far way to go...
We started sharing resources with one another...
And then looked specifically at our scripture stories for help...
Finally we asked each other, "What are the next steps for people of faith?"
People spoke honestly of their struggles and frustrations... and we made space for each other's tensions and discomfort.
As we do each week, we closed with prayer...
We work hard to make #SlateSpeak a place of open, honest, truth-telling conversation where we do NOT shame or blame each other, but learn from each other. Bit by bit, moment by moment, we build the church we need. #ThisIsChurch
Join us next week! 9pm EST (You can use a twitter chat tool like TweetDeck, Twubs, or TweetChat to make it easier to follow along.)
