Description: Jesus never meant to start a religion that justified stealing land and destroying creation. So how did we get here? In How Western Christianity Got It Wrong, Randy Woodley traces how empire corrupted the healing message of a brown man from Nazareth, then shows what the Jesus Way looks like when Indigenous wisdom reveals what was always there.
Brief description:
Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley is an activist, scholar, author, teacher, and wisdom keeper of mixed white and Native American heritage who speaks on justice, faith, the earth, and Indigenous realities. He is the author of numerous books, including Becoming Rooted, Journey to Eloheh, and How Western Christianity Got It Wrong. He and his wife, Edith, co-sustain Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Eloheh Farm & Seeds outside Portland, Oregon.
Review Quotes:
"Grounded and heartfelt in tone, the book is a strong voice for justice and change. Emphasizing the powers of living examples, traditional storytelling, and communities to shape the character of new generations, it asserts that Jesus never intended to start a new religion, but instead hoped to teach his followers to exemplify the heart of Judaism: to care for the poor, widows, orphans, and immigrants, and to love God above all and one's neighbor as oneself. . . . An ambitious theological treatise." --Foreword Reviews
"Randy Woodley is a trustworthy prophetic voice teaching the harmonious wisdom of Indigenous peoples and the way of Jesus. How Western Christianity Got It Wrong gives us a much-needed healing vision for the future by looking honestly at Christianity's past, problems, patterns, and possibilities." --Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation; author of The Tears of Things
"Our Chickamauga Cherokee prophet isga gua, who spoke of a need for 'universal brotherhoods-sisterhood, ' nevertheless characterized the 'white man's churches' as desolate places filled with 'spirits of blindness' lying in wait to possess the unwary. Randy Woodley stands, a courageous voice in the wilderness, calling for the casting out of these spirits of blindness and the opening of eyes to see." --uku jisquoquo asequoi (Robert Francis), First Fire Feeder / Peace Chief at the Daksi Gatiyo (Chickamauga Cherokee Ceremonial Grounds)
"Honest, vulnerable, respectful, yet fierce. Anyone drawn to this book already knows that Western Christianity got it wrong. Randy Woodley's remarkable book helps us place the reasons why. By the end, you get that following Jesus is a journey largely disconnected from just about everything in Western culture and religion. But it's not all problems. Woodley lovingly affirms what your intuition already knows: that spirituality, even for us Western humans from the Christ tradition, is intimately connected with the aliveness of all creation." --Victoria Loorz, author of Church of the Wild and coauthor of Field Guide to Church of the Wild; founder of Wild Church Network and The Center for Wild Spirituality