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All Rastas need to accept the emperor's own self-denial of deity, as the Twelve Tribes of Israel have done, and follow his lead to full faith in Christ alone for salvation.

Other Rastafarian attitudes and beliefs are blocking more Rastas from embracing orthodox Christianity as their own—but these too are being challenged.

Rastas object strongly to the name Jesus, preferring Yesus, Yeshua, or Kristos because the first ship commissioned to begin the British slave trade was the S.S. Jesus of Lubbock. Rastas suspect the conciliatory motives of Christian churches that historically permitted the conquest of the Americas and black slavery. Christians need to separate Yeshua from the oppression done in his name.

Christian Reggae songs like Carlene Davis and Papa San's "Wish I Knew Then (what I know now / how sweet the name of Jesus sounds)" reach out to Rastas with a new understanding of the name above all names. But caution when using the name of Jesus among Rastas is still recommended.

Rastas also need to drop their idea that the Pope is the Antichrist. The idea originated with the Pope's blessing of Mussolini's troops on their way to conquer Ethiopia, Rastafari's spiritual homeland. A sincere apology and some act of penance from the Roman Catholic Church is definitely in order.

Conservative Rastas, like the Bobo Dreads, need to reexamine their subjugation of women to the extent that menstruating women can be enclosed in-house and fed through a small aperture for a 21-day period each month. The Rasta male propensity for polygyny (serial unmarried mates) must also cease. Rastas insist that promiscuity, child abuse, and homosexuality in Christian churches must also end if Rastafarians are to take Christians seriously.

The Rastafarian use of cannabis (called ganja) is also a great barrier for Christians. Some Rastas, like the outspoken Mutabaruka in his poem "Dispel the Lie," are already critiquing this addictive blight. As Marcus Garvey campaigned against ganja and Haile Selassie outlawed its use in Ethiopia, the Church at large rejects it.

The demonic structures of "Babylon," the world's ungodly systems, are the real enemy of the Rasta camp and the church—not each other. The Rev. Clinton Chisholm, a Jamaican Christian apologist, observes:

Rather than rejecting [Rastas] as we used to … people are beginning to open up with them. I think the increasing sensitivity of the churches in general to things cultural and things ethnic could also catalyze a dialogue. They've added quite a strong corrective to the almost anti-black sentiments of some of the churches in Jamaica and in the region.

They've made us generally more culturally aware, more accepting of ourselves, more at ease with our need to be involved in the cultural expressions of the country. To their credit they've been leaders in the field. People could live with the issue of seeing Ethiopia as the new Zion. They might not agree with them, but they could live with that. But the major doctrinal barrier would be the view of Selassie as God and the view of ganja as a sacrament.

William David Spencer is author of Dread Jesus and coeditor of Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader. He teaches theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Boston campus and copastors Pilgrim Church of Beverly, Massachusetts.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also appearing on our site today:

Looking for a Dreadlocked Jesus | The author of Dread Jesus talks about the Rastafari call for respect and the many belief structures—Christian and not—inside the movement.

previous christianity today articles on Jamaica include:

The Island of Too Many Churches | Jamaica's fractured fellowship is on the mend. (Oct. 4, 1999)

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August (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47