The Global Church

William Brafford found Robert Wright's article on globalized Christianity unpalatable:

Christianity, when it’s at its best, offers conversion as an invitation into a new way of living rather than a command, but I’d be a fool to deny that the Church has been just as guilty of coercion as any aggressive modern state or corporation, and guilty over a much longer period of time. The globalization that Wright describes seems to be purely benign in its tendency to gently bring people into the big economic game, but surely this is an idealized globalization, far removed from the messiness of what happens out there in the world. Suffice it to say, I’m far less optimistic about our proximity to this ideal than Wright is.