Dr. Andreana Prichard: Evangelism, Race and Saviourism
Description
I’m fascinated by the different ways humans express what it means to do good: why they do good, how they do good, and what their consequences of their actions are. One of most widely used mechanisms for doing good is through religion. As with everything humans do, this is interpreted in vastly different ways: all driven by a personal interpretation of what it means to be a believer in one’s chosen religion.
Evangelism and missionary work are expressions of this and each year, millions of Americans travel overseas for missions trips. Some of them head off for a short term mission, while others dedicate years of their lives to mission, fully supported by their home churches to set up home in far-off places and embed themselves and their beliefs in communities they deem in need of saving.
Race and power dynamics play a huge role in how missionary work is conducted and to help me unpack this, I invited Dr. Andreana Prichard (https://drandreanaprichard.oucreate.com/) on to the podcast. Andreana is an Associate Professor of African History at the University of Oklahoma whose work deals with the history of gender, Christianity and development in Africa and explores the history of evangelical child sponsorship initiatives in East Africa and the American Bible belt.
Andreana is listening to Serial (https://serialpodcast.org/) by NPR, the Undisclosed Podcast (https://undisclosed-podcast.com/about/), Missing and Murdered (https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/program/missing-and-murdered) by the CBC,
Andreana is reading The Searcher (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52661162-the-searcher) by Tana French, and Cribsheet (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40121328-cribsheet) by Emily Oster
We're flipping things for the final episode of season five, and host Leigh Mathews is being interviewed by the wonderful Mel Harwin who has over 15 years experience working as a leader, implementor, human designer and evaluator in the international development, social, and environmental programs...
Published 11/19/21
Ethics is a term we throw around quite often in the doing good sector. But what does it really mean? Where do ethics apply? Is it at the organisational level, the individual level, or both?In the humanitarian sector, where staff are regularly placed in situations where they are required to make...
Published 10/28/21