"Is Jesus White?""Is Jesus white?" That was the question that hit me the hardest. I had been sitting in the shade to avoid the hot African sun and was engaged with a young man in a conversation on issues of faith when he threw out this question. A couple of days later, on Sunday afternoon, I was chatting with a young Muslim man and, to my surprise, I was once again asked, "Is Jesus white?" I was quick to tell both of these men that Jesus was most definitely not a white man. I explained that he came from the Middle-East and would have looked more like the Lebanese people that come to the city of Bo than a pale European like myself.
Where did the idea of a white Jesus come from? The local Catholic church was locked so I took this photo from through the grates at the back of the church. The sanctuary is sparse by western standards but on the left is a statue of the Madonna and child and on the right is a print of the Madonna and child. Here in the heart of a rural community in Sierra Leone sits a western image of a white Jesus.
The first Christian missionaries to Sierra Leone date back to the early 1600's. You'd think that by 2018 they'd have figured out a way to make it clear that Jesus wasn't a white European. Apparently not. There's still a lot of work to do if we ever hope to accurately represent Christ in the world today. Where everyone knows you name, or do they?This morning at church I was given the Mende name, Kinnie Tikonko. Kinnie simply translates as "a man" and Tikonko is the village we are staying in. In 1995 the Massai of Kenya gave me the name "Oloodo" which means tall giraffe! I now have my given name and also two African names. Names matter, they provide us with a sense of identity. They tell people who we are. While being here in Sierra Leone I have tried to get the name of every adult I have photographed as they all have stories to tell. It's a little different with the children, they all want their photo taken so I simply oblige and move on. In one village this woman approached me as I was taking photos of the Rural Health Care Initiative Community Health Workers and asked me to take her photo. I took the photo and moved on. That moment has haunted me over the last few days. Who was she? What is her name? What story does she need to tell the world? I don't know. It struck me that I could ask to go back to her village and find her, and learn her name and story. However I have chosen not to. Why? Because this photograph will forever serve as a reminder of how important it is to learn someone's name and listen to her story. For that reason I have title this image, "Grace."
Children: Created in the image of GodIt doesn't happen often, but today words fail me. As I sit here in Sierra Leone and hear about the words spoken by the President my heart is crushed. I wept as I rode from my hotel into the village this morning and I wept tonight as I reflected on my day and the wonderful people I met. If pictures speak a a thousand words then consider this post a little over 3,000 words long. I'll let the images speak for themselves.
The Beautiful, Hard Working, Amazing People of TikonkoToday marked my first full day in the Tikonko Chiefdom, Sierra Leone. I had my own personal tour guide, Joseph, who took me to a couple of different villages today. I have to say it was quite the experience riding on the back of his motorcycle as we navigated the well rutted dirt roads of Tikonko! Our first stop was in the village of Gbalehun. It was here that I met Mamae, Masuman and Aminata.
(Aside: This is the preachy part)I believe that quite often we romanticize life in the rural villages of the developing world. When we do that it might help raise funds for the N.G.O.s that are working in those areas but the truth is that life is hard in these areas. We dare not give as charity or to justify our own exuberant lifestyles in the western world. Rather we must give because we have been blessed to have the resources to help others. We must not give out of guilt, as guilt is a poor motivator. We must not give out of pity for the people here are not to be pitied, they are a wonderful, welcoming, compassionate and caring people. Rather we must support these fine folks our of gratitude. Bono said that an accident of longitude and latitude should not determine whether someone lives or dies. He is correct in that assessment. However, it is also true that an accident of longitude and latitude should not become a reason for an exuberant lifestyle at the expense of others. (Aside over)
Peter's school has a set of latrines for the students provided by World Vision that helps the whole community in learning and developing healthy sanitation practices. Something that we, western world dwellers, take for granted but is not as clear cut in a village with no running water, sewer system or electricity.
Another program World Vision sponsors is a savings program. Each week members contribute a small amount of their earning to the program in order to develop a savings account that they can draw from when times get tough. The program is part of the investment in the economic future of the area and well being of the people. Zainaba is a member of the savings group in Gabalehun. After leaving Gabalehun we rode to the village of Kassama. A beautiful village sitting on the edge of the Kiewa river. In this village I met another member of the savings program, Hawa. She makes her living by making palm oil. It is a labor intensive process that requires roasting/burning the beans from which the oil is derived and then pounding it to pulp that is then heated and strained to separate the oil so it can be sold in the market.
BrokenI have an 18x12 print of this image in my office and have been living with it for the better part of a year. I feel it's impact every time I look at it. The original idea for this image came to me in late 2016 as I reflected on the tensions created in Shusaku Endo's novel Silence and Scorsese's movie adaptation of it, along with some of the song lyrics written by my friend Bryan Gormley. My hope was to create an image that juxtaposed the oppositional nature of the sacred and profane, saint and sinner, violence and peace.
The theology behind this image reflects the reality that we live in a broken world, that innate sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Christians refer to this brokenness as sin. The apostle Paul wrote, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst" (1 Timothy 1:15). What allows him to say this is not a false sense of humility but rather an acceptance of reality. The more Paul came to know and understand the holiness of God the more clearly he came to see the huge gulf that existed between his best and who God was and is in Jesus Christ. Tragically too many Christians today take a position in which they pretend to be "better" than other sinners and are often heard castigating people for their failures. Yet Christians, more than any other group, should be the first to declare that sin is the great leveler of all people, we are all guilty. We all have the same starting point as part of humanity, created in the image of God, but due to sin our humanity is fractured and broken. So everyone has the same need to receive forgiveness and experience the grace of God. |
