Richard Twiss > Quotes

“The real aim of colonialism was to control the people’s wealth, what they produced, how they produced it,” Ngūgī wa Thiong’o sees the way that control was introduced and managed was to deconstruct the people’s sense of self and replace it with that of the colonizer. This would occur when a people’s perception of themselves and their world was overthrown.”
― Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way

“As a “syncretist” I have a core allegiance to Jesus as Creator that is enriched, further informed and inspired by traditional Lakota ceremonial ways and beliefs. I am able to hold the “exclusive” claims of Christ in tension with the religious claims of other Indigenous ways that I embrace, and lose nothing of my faith in Jesus in the process.”
― Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way

“I think we would be better served if we considered syncretism to be the exploration of the synthesis of faith, belief and practice in a dynamic process of blending, adding, subtracting, changing, testing and working things out. This process does not take anything away from the authority of Scripture or orthodoxy.”
― Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22). While these fruits, qualities, values or characteristics are universally true for all people, how did they find expression, uniquely, in each local culture?”
― Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way

“It seems that Western-trained theologians and the theologies rooted in them are quite concerned about protecting the Bible from a kind of imagined “Indigenous cultural invasion.” The Roman Empire had a huge military force to protect its land claims and authority from hostile enemies. The United States of America has a similar force in place and is not afraid to use it to protect its national borders and international interests.”
― Richard Twiss, Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way