The Challenge Of Narrow Western Christian Imagination

A few thoughts from Sri Lanka

Greetings from Sri Lanka, friends!

I just arrived here a few hours ago for Lausanne’s Freedom and Justice Network Gathering - a Global Evangelical Church gathering of theologians and church leaders wrestling with matters of justice. When I travel internationally (especially to time zones on the opposite side of the world), I usually try to get in a day or two early to fight jet lag so that I can be as present as possible on my first business day. Ten years ago, I showed up to my first day of work (with the South Asian counterpart of my current employer) in New Delhi the morning after arriving from the US - right after United Airlines lost my baggage nonetheless. I wish I could still roll that way! Oh to be young and 22 again.

As I shared on Instagram (where I do most of my long form thinking and processing these days via Reels), there are really two main types of Christianities in Western Church and Global Evangelical space right now - the colonizer’s Christianity (that underplays the cries for justice from our marginalized neighbours by weaponizing the convenient excuse of “spiritual missions work” such as evangelism and discipleship) and the Christianity of Jesus of Nazareth (that prioritizes justice for our marginalized neighbours and sees it as a crucial part of gospel proclamation).

As Shane Claiborne wisely reminded us in his recent think piece¹, we saw these two Christianities colliding when Bishop Budde gently and prophetically challenged President Trump to heed the voices of our marginalized neighbours most impacted by his policies.

Here’s my take on the whole collision (warning: I don’t mince any words):

In all candor, I am fully expecting to see a similar clash of two Christianities among the Global Evangelical Church represented here in Sri Lanka this week. We certainly saw one at Lausanne’s Fourth Congress in Seoul, South Korea a few months ago.²

To put it succinctly, I think the Global Evangelical Church finds itself facing a moment of reckoning - will it prioritize justice as integral to the Gospel (as many evangelical and Lausanne forebears such as John Stott and the Latin American Evangelical Left prophetically pushed for in the past)?³ Or will it cave to the ghost of Western Christianity’s historically narrow imagination on justice? A narrow imagination shaped by centuries of the Western Church’s participation in the sin of Western colonization.

I look forward to reporting back (hopefully, with good news because if it’s bad, it’ll probably have to be behind a paywall for paid subscribers only)! And I’m looking forward to the Global South voices within the Evangelical Church who will inspire me in unique ways all over again.

But back to Western Christianity’s narrow imagination. I’ve been doing a historical deep dive into this topic. Indian historian, Manu Pillai’s ‘Gods, Guns and Missionaries’ is challenging me in fresh ways right now. It’s blowing up the Western missionary (specifically, colonial Empire-backed Western missionary) frameworks I was conditioned with in my Indian Evangelical upbringing.

More specifically, I find myself lamenting how Western Christianity (including Evangelical theology - much of it being a product of the colonial era) has poorly shaped us to engage with our neighbours who subscribe to other faiths - specifically, the Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic faiths.

Because the brand of Christianity introduced by the colonizers arrived in a posture of militant defensiveness (instead of a posture of curiosity, humility, and love), those discipled in the colonizer’s brand of Christianity (both in the Global South as well as the West), have been conditioned to look at other religions in a combative, demonizing, and dehumanizing way instead of a Jesus-centered way that discerns how Jesus might already be revealed and at work revealing himself to these (devoutly) religious communities.

Don’t believe me? Take a moment to test yourself. Name one thing about Sikhism that reminds you of Jesus. Now do the same for Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

If you found yourself struggling to even articulate the basic religious beliefs of these faiths, might I submit to you that Western Christianity (including evangelical Christianity) has failed to prepare you well for the task of authentically and non-transactionally engaging with your Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim neighbours?

Because Western Christianity and Evangelical Christianity has conditioned us to only see the flaws of these faiths. And it’s allowed us to settle for caricaturized, straw manned versions of these faiths that look nothing like the primary source teachings of these faiths.

If I may add a level of complexity and nuance to all this (this one courtesy of Richard Rohr’s classic, ‘The Naked Now: Learning To See As The Mystics See’) - consider this for a moment:

Anyone who has visited Asian countries like Sri Lanka knows that there are always devotees filtering in and out of Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh temples throughout the day AND week. Whereas, the average Christian increasingly only attends church every other month. Could it be that these neighbours of other faiths are getting disciples in the good of their faiths more than we are as Christians? I’m inclined to say yes given the state of the justice-resistant Global Church today.

At the risk of sounding harsh (I really am on a roll today; let’s blame the jet lag and the smell of the motherland just across from me here in Sri Lanka), allow me go a step further in arguing that Western Christianity (and evangelical theology) has narrowly conditioned us to look at our neighbours of other faiths in a way that is content to present them with two choices:

Convert or be Annihilated.

Convert (more specifically, convert to our way of worshiping Jesus) or become victims of genocide.

Convert or have your entire culture erased.

Convert or be deported.

Convert or “go back to where you came from”.

Convert or go to hell.

And we end up with a faith that looks nothing like Jesus of Nazareth and more like that of the folks Jesus (metaphorically!) told to tie their necks to a millstone and collectively drown.

PS: If you want to hear me expound on how I see Jesus in much of just one of these faiths (Sikhism), you can listen to a recent interview conversation with a Canadian Pentecostal pastor friend here:

1. https://religionnews.com/2025/01/24/inauguration-week-was-a-collision-of-two-christianities/

2. https://sojo.net/articles/news/speech-justice-criticized-israel-global-evangelical-conference-apologized

3. The best book on this topic I’ve come across: https://www.pennpress.org/9780812250947/a-gospel-for-the-poor/