Abstract
In contrast with their African homelands, church members described Canada as a spiritually corrupt nation, which has neglected God’s power and blessings. With this in mind, Christian mandate required congregants to positively interact with, impact, and transform the country through a reverse mission paradigm. APCC members, therefore, described themselves as immigrant missionaries, while the church produced evangelistic mass media and employed church-planting strategies. Also, though Canada’s government officially espouses multiculturalism, several church members have encountered blatant racism or implicit discrimination, especially in relation to unequal employment opportunities and workplace relationships. Nonetheless, as interviewees insisted, APCC cultivated the belief that congregants are able, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to overcome discrimination and prosper rather than to retaliate negatively against it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Adeno Addis, “Imagining the Homeland from Afar: Community and Peoplehood in the Age of the Diaspora,” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 45:963 (2012): 985.
Paul Kennedy and Victor Roudometof, “Transnationalism in a Global Age,” in Communities across Borders: New Immigrants and Transnational Cultures, ed. Paul Kennedy and Victor Roudometof (London: Routledge, 2002), 12–13.
Atsuko Matsuoka and John Sorenson, Ghosts and Shadows: Construction of Identity and Community in an African Diaspora (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 12.
Harriet A. Harris, “Mission UK: Black Pentecostals in London,” in Religious Fundamentalism in Developing Countries, ed. Santosh C. Saha and Thomas K. Carr (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001), 150.
Paul Freston, “Reverse Mission: A Discourse in Search of Reality?,” PentecoStudies, 9:2 (2010): 155.
Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 14, 206.
Frances Henry and Carol Tator, The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society (Toronto: Harcourt Brace, 2000); Puplampu and Tettey, “Ethnicity and the Identity”;
Tariq Modood, Multiculturalism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007).
Government of Canada, “Federal Government’s Response to Book IV of the Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism: Document Tabled in the House of Commons.” House of Commons Debates Sessions Paper 283–284/101B (1971): 8545,
cited in Eve Haque, Multicultumlism within a Bilingual Framework: Language, Race, and Belonging in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 223.
For more on the intricacies of racism and discrimination in Canada, see Leo Driedger and Shiva S. Halli, eds., Race and Racism: Canada’s Challenge (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000);
Charmaine Nelson and Camille Antoinette Nelson, eds., Racism, Eh?: A Critical Inter-Disciplinary Anthology of Race and Racism in Canada (Concord: Captus Press, 2004); Abdi, “Reflections on the Long”; George S. Dei, “Racism in Canadian Contexts: Exploring Public and Private Issues in the Educational System,” ibid., ed. Wisdom J. Tettey and Korbla P. Puplampu; Yesufu, “The Gender Dimensions.”
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Thomas Aechtner
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aechtner, T. (2015). Not Even a Single Enemy: Homeland, Mission, and Responses to Racism. In: Health, Wealth, and Power in an African Diaspora Church in Canada. Religion and Global Migrations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485496_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50371-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48549-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)