Does the Bible Need to be Decolonised?

From the time the Bible was collated as a collection of sacred books in the 4th century C.E., those who claim to follow its teachings have been responsible for untold destruction, pain and devastation in the world.[1] The Christian response has usually been to argue against the genuineness of the perpetrator’s faith or the deficient exegesis of those same interpreters. However, we choose to justify these actions, the fact remains that the Bible stands at the centre of a long history of violence, subjugation, and oppression.

The 4th century C.E. “conversion”[2] and political manoeuvrings of the Roman Emperor Constantine saw the church move from the margins of society to the centre of power and wealth. In the process, the interests of the church were increasingly aligned with those of the empire. Captured by the values and adopting the tools of empire, the church began steadily amassing ever-increasing power and wealth for itself, usually at the expense of the poor and marginalised.

The following centuries saw the church consolidate its power through political manoeuvrings, coercion, violent conquest, economic injustice, and forced conversions. Greed and a lust for power were justified using the language of extending the kingdom of God. From the brutal conquest and plundering of the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors, to the bloody “liberation” of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in the 11th-13th centuries, to the slaughter of the indigenous population of North America under the guise of American “manifest destiny”;[3] to the apartheid era baptism of white supremacy and ruthless suppression of anyone deemed “non-white”. [4]

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