The total overview of Religion and Politics in Liberia. Before any discussion of the role of religious leaders as peacemakers In Liberia must first look at the role of religion in the countrys politics .From the genesis of repatriation project in the 1820s, Christianity has been, and remains a mainstay of the Liberian political landscape. Why has this been the case? First, under the project, free African-Americans, who had been subjected to vagaries of slavery in the United states, were sent to the Grain Coast (which is Liberia) by the American Colonization Society (ACS) with the financial and material support of the United States government. Both the functionaries of the ACS and the repatriated African-Americans took Christianity with them to the Grain Coast. This was done based on the belief that various African religious that were predominated in the area were intrinsically inferior, paganistic and heathenistic. Hence, one of the major purposes of the repatriation project was to Christianize the members of the Grain Coasts various traditional ethnic groups. Moreover, the activities of these Christian denominations in Liberia were not only limited to the promotion of the gospel, they also included preparation for the secular world. There was fusion between the church and the state at various levels from the colonial period in 1822 to the coup détat in 1980. At the administrative level, for example, during the early days of the Liberian colony, the government was administered by protestant ministers. Which David Barrett calls churchmen occupied legislative, executive and judicial positions. from the past and present several government officials simultaneously held political positions in the state bureaucracy and various positions in the church. Example, during the Tubman regime (1944-1971), William R. Tolbert, Jr., simultaneously served as the Vice President of Liberia and President (equivalent to a bishop) of the Liberian Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention and Pastor of the Zion Grove Baptist Church. These facts lead to how the churches had been parallel with politics and government in Liberia.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 22:28:07 +0000
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