‘New empire’ challenges Christians, Reformed churches told 

by Noel Bruyns
Ecumenical News International

ACCRA, Ghana — Churches and other organizations need to consider the vast implications of the U.S.-led “new empire” closely linked to neo-liberal globalization, delegates at a world Protestant gathering in Ghana have been told. 

      “We are facing a crisis in Christianity today brought on by what more and more people are interpreting to be the twin challenges of globalization and empire,” said Philip Wickeri, professor of evangelism and mission at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, CA. 

      “The United States is the centre of empire, its financial organizer, political arbiter and military enforcer,” Wickeri, who spent 23 years in China where he was ordained, told participants on Aug. 4 at the 24th general council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. 

      The Christian vision for the world contrasted with the vision of globalization and empire, he said, noting that, “At many points in our history, the church has been challenged to reinterpret God’s mission in new and creative ways.” 

      Empire was now having an impact on Christianity, Wickeri said. A few theologians and churches in the United States had begun to criticize a new “theology of empire,” which connects U.S. foreign policy to a religiously inspired “mission” being promoted worldwide. 

      “Churches in many parts of the world, including the executive committee of the World Alliance, have challenged this assertion,” Wickeri said. 

      But many others had not clearly distinguished between the vision of global mission and the vision of globalization and empire. “Mission has often been understood and practiced in domineering ways, so that in many contexts Christian mission is perceived as the religious face of Western colonial domination yesterday, or of globalization and empire today,” Wickeri noted. 

      Mission had also often emphasized an overly spiritualized salvation to the neglect of other threats to the lives of poor and marginalized people, he said. 

      “We have not adequately committed ourselves to mission as healing in the face of the AIDS pandemic; as peacemaking in confronting the ‘war on terrorism’; as development in a world of worsening poverty; as restoring creation in a world of environmental degradation,” Wickeri said. 

      He told the 400 delegates at the meeting in the Ghanaian capital, “Our task here in Accra is how the renewal of mission might be worked out in our new situation.” 

      WARC links about 75 million Christians in more than 200 Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed and United churches around the world. The general council ends on Aug. 12. 

       Stories from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches about the 24th general council may be found on the WARC Web site: www.warc.ch/24gc