Africans the best Christians?!

Quoting one professor at the Christian College, an evangelist once said to me, "No one man can compete with an African when it comes to quoting scripture, but when it comes to practicing those quotes it's a totally different issue."

This made me think and as I was deeply bombarding my mind with many thoughts I came to the conclusion that the professor is somewhat in error in regards to the second half of his statement. Africans are truly the most peaceful, honest, and God fearing people on this earth; therefore does this not make us the best Christians since those characteristics are a sum of a real Christ-like person? Before I go further let us get an understanding for the word Christian: the word literally means ‘follower of Christ’.

To follow Christ is to emulate his actions and follow the instructions given to us by him. When I take a look at a predominant black church and I compare it to a predominant white church, the differences are too numerous to list. Black people can really praise God; emphasis on the word really! The way we dance, sing, jump up and down, and even clap our hands cannot be compared with. It is obvious that this kind of passion is very hard to find in other ethnical churches. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”[1] 1 Corinthians 13:13; the brotherly love displayed from one African to another is quite like no other, because we tend to believe that Africa is one big country in terms of family.

On my trip to Cincinnati, Ohio a couple of weeks ago I arrived at the conclusion that Americans are really rude and inconsiderate towards their fellow Americans and even visitors. I was counting down the days left on that trip because I had just grown sick of the attitudes I was coming across. Statistics show that 75% of American adults consider themselves Christians but this stat only makes me wonder what kind of Christians these non Africans are.

Following Christ’s instructions in Mathew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations …” Africa is quickly and powerfully turning these words into action. George Weigel stated in his article “Christianity, by the numbers”: Indeed, Christian growth in Africa is nothing short of astonishing. There were 8.7 million African Christians in 1900; there are 389 million African Christians today; and Barrett projects almost 600 million African [2]Christians by 2025 (when Europe's Christian population will have fallen to 513 million). Evidently, the Christian population is growing among Africans and following the instructions given to the world by Christ, the other nations unfortunately are falling a bit behind...some are not only falling behind but dropping down as well.

Perhaps I’m a little bias in this article but that's perfectly fine because I’m an African and also a Christian, a pretty good one if I may say. I sign off with this quote written by Sam Pascoe an American scholar (perhaps by not mentioning Africa he is indicating that Africans are the best Christians?!): Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.[3]

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[1]Zondervan Teen Study Bible: NIV

[2]Sam Pascoe, American scholar. http://www.religioustolerance.org/christ.htm

[3]George Weigel: Christianity, by the numbers. http://www.the-tidings.com/2005/0204/difference.htm