The Mood of the Future: Rethinking their Religious Posture

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Liberians met somewhere in Minnesota recently to discuss what role Christianity plays in their country.

This week, I served as one of two moderators of an intellectual forum commemorating the 159th year of Liberia as an independent nation state. Liberians gathered in Minnesota to discuss ways in which they could achieve pan-ethnic unity and surmount ethnic polarization. The panelists included Liberians from varying backgrounds: ethnic, religious, age cohort, gender, political, etc. Repeatedly, the debate focused on whether or not Liberia is a Christian state. This myth, many argued have spread so widely in the Liberian society that many have shut their eye to the reality of the co-existence of other religious traditions being practiced in the land demarcated as Liberia before the settlers arrived. But it is natural that conflict and war have led us to a place that we must objectively face the reality of a pluralistic religious landscape in Liberia. Indeed, one question is important as we move forward in reconstructing a post-war nation state. Does Liberia have a national religion?

First, let me answer this question by describing what I believe is the definition of a religious state. A religious state is one where the state apparatus is avowedly controlled by leaders of a given faith group and everyone within that state is mandated to adhere to the doctrines and tenets of the faith without exception. Using this definition as the marker, Liberia does not have a national religion. It is a secular state with the trappings of the Christian faith woven into its fabric, whereby there are instances in which observers from other faith groups, other than Christians are able to notice the dominance/hegemony of Christianity in many public venues. The founders of the Liberian state were predominantly Christian, and in their governance processes, they did not distinguish the political sphere from the religious sphere. The fears being expressed by Liberians is that overall, these moments of interaction between Christianity and the state is an impetus for the stratification process and needs to be examined more in future discourses about reconstruction. [snip] The Perspective