Missionaries in Northern Virginia

This article by Michael Gerson of the Washington Post highlights some very interesting developments among those in the liberal churches of America. If you recall, a Nigerian conservative archbishop of the Anglican church has installed a missionary bishop in Northern Virginia. This has not been received well by the Episcopal Church here. I found this assessment of the situation interesting.

“Some American religious conservatives have embraced ties with this emerging Christianity, including the church I attend. But there are adjustments in becoming a junior partner. The ideological package of the global south includes not only moral conservatism but also an emphasis on social justice, an openness to state intervention in markets, and a suspicion of American economic and military power. The emerging Christian majority is not the Moral Majority.

But the largest adjustments are coming on the religious left. For decades it has preached multiculturalism, but now, on further acquaintance, it doesn’t seem to like other cultures very much. Episcopal leaders complain of the threat of ‘foreign prelates,’ echoing anti-Catholic rhetoric of the 19th century. An activist at one Episcopal meeting urged the African bishops to ‘go back to the jungle where you came from.’ Not since Victorians hunted tigers on elephants has the condescension been this raw.

History is filled with uncomfortable turnabouts, and we are witnessing one of them. Serious missionary work began in Nigeria in 1842, conducted by a Church Mission Society dedicated to promoting ‘the knowledge of the Gospel among the heathen.’ In 2007, the Nigerian outreach to America officially began, on the fertile mission fields of Northern Virginia. And the natives here are restless.”