Religion

Wangari Maathai on a genuine priesthood
“What becomes clear through the Green Belt Movement seminars is that the Christian religion that the colonized people were exposed to was commercialized and trivialized. While the Christian priests may have claimed they were committed to the community they served, and while some may have actually been concerned with the indigenous culture of their community, the majority were committed rather to the colonizing power and its people, with their God and their destiny.

“A genuine priesthood stands between a community and its God, who chooses that priesthood for itself so that it can stand between it and its people to interpret the will of their God to them. A genuine priesthood nurtures the community, identifies with its aspirations and concerns, and guides it toward their God and their destiny. Such a priesthood cannot be imposed from above; it cannot exist in the absence of culture.

“A foreign priesthood cannot recognize the God of the colonized or its destiny; nor can it cannot take them toward their God and destiny. Led by a foreign priesthood, a people will perish, either because the foreign priesthood is genuinely unable to lead them or because it deliberately leads them toward the wrong God and the wrong destination. This is one of the reasons why the destruction of traditional priesthood, through the destruction of culture, becomes necessary to any colonizing power.”