History of Liberia

The Republic of Liberia is black Africa’s oldest independent nation with its independence declared on 26^th July 1847. Unlike the rest of Africa, Liberia was never colonized. Liberia is located south of the Sahara, on the west coast of Africa between latitude 4 degree 20’ N and 8 degree 30’ N. It is bordered on the northwest by Sierra Leone, north by Guinea, east by La Cote d’Ivoire, south and southwest by the Atlantic Ocean.

Liberia is a small country with an estimated population of 3.5 million. It is made up of 95% natives, 2.3% of peoples of American decent and the remaining 2.7% are Lebanese, Indians and other African nationals residing and working in Liberia.

Liberia has sixteen major ethnic groups divided into three language families. The Mande make up 47.2% of the population, the Kru make up 41.3%, and the West Atlantic make up 7.9% of the population. Recent religious statistics shows that 48.4% of the population is traditionalists, 38.3% is Christian, and 13.0% is Muslim. Since its existence, Liberia, then called the Coast of Grain, has been a land of rich cultures and traditions. Before the advent of Christianity in the 19th century, Liberia was a land of strongly entrenched and institutionalized secret societies involving almost every people group. While the culture and tradition of the Liberian people were the connecting link enabling them to maintain their common identity and life, there were (and still are) elements, which impede their socio-economic development and keep them in spiritual darkness.

Liberia’s Christian Foundation

Liberia is one nation in Africa that can be said to be a Christian nation, even though our current constitution (revised in 1985) declares Liberia a secular state. There are several reasons for this assertion:

The Birth of the Nation: Unlike other countries in Africa, the nation Liberia was born within the Church, thus making it a Christian nation. The eleven men, who signed its declaration of independence in the Providence Baptist Church in 1847 thus making it a sovereign state, were all men of the Church.

Monrovia (formerly, Christopolis): Because of her Christian heritage, following her independence, the capital city of Liberia was first called Christopolis, meaning “the city of Christ.” That name was later changed to Monrovia in honor of America’s 5th president, James Monroe, whom, it is said liquidated a certain debt, which was owed by the Liberian Government to the United States. And as a way of honoring him, some unspiritual-minded leaders of this nation sold our birthright by changing the name of our capital city from Christopolis to Monrovia, meaning, “village of Monroe.”

National Day of Fast and Prayer: Unlike other countries in Africa, Liberia celebrates a national holiday called “Fast and Prayer Day.” This holiday is intended as a day set aside to mobilize national prayer for the spiritual cleansing and healing of the nation (2 Chronicles 7:14). This national day was birthed out of a political crisis between Liberia and the British colonial parents of Sierra Leone in the mid 1800s. In this conflict Liberia, along with its political leadership, was delivered only by the power of prayer. Since that time this national Fast and Prayer Day has been observed.

Christian Symbols: The contents of our National Anthem, our National Flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the first Constitution of Liberia (1847-1985) all point to the fact that our forefathers had assumed Liberia to be a Christian nation.

Objective of the Liberian Council of Churches (LCC): Recently, the formation of the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) in 1981 as the voice of the Church in Liberia on socio-economic, political and religious issues was a further manifestation of the leading role the Church has played and continues to play in providing leadership for the nation.

Past and Present Heads of State: Almost all of its 22 presidents, interim presidents and transitional chairman have been leaders from the Church, some of which were even ordained clergy persons.

The Christian Church in Liberia Today

With such an undisputed Christian heritage, one would expect that Liberia would be in the vanguard of spearheading indigenous missions into the rest of Africa and the world. One would further expect that all of Liberia’s people groups would by now be adequately evangelized and made disciples of Christ with functioning, multiplying congregations who are capable of reproducing themselves in a cross-cultural society. But, sadly, this is not the case. Liberia still lags far behind in mission endeavors, and many of its unreached people groups stand vulnerable to the rapidly and silent invading forces of Islam and other religious groups, which are scrambling for a place in Liberia.

There is not yet a reliable national research statistic on the Church in Liberia to help determine the extent of the harvest field and harvest force in the country. It is not that the Church, combining its effort, expertise and resources does not have the capability to carry out such a research, but rather that there is something terribly wrong with its missions vision.

According to Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandrigk’s research statistics on Liberia in its 21^st Century edition of Operation World, 38.33% of Liberians are Christian, with an annual growth rate of +8.6%; Muslims are 13% with an annual growth rate +11.3%; while the traditional ethnic groups are 48.37 percent with an annual growth rate of 7.8%.

These statistics reveals the following alarming facts:

Over 60% of the Liberia’s population is still unreached, and waiting to be evangelized and made disciples by Bible-believing Christian churches established amongst them.

Islam is growing at a faster rate in Liberia than Christianity. And if the Church continues to ignore her responsibility to do missions, most of this large unreached population will be claimed by Islam and other religious groups and taken into a Christ-less eternity.

The Church in Liberia has not yet prioritized indigenous mission work. The concentration of the Church is primarily in the cities, while the larger population in the interior of Liberia remains unreached or without the teaching of sound Biblical Christianity.

This statistic further suggests that the traditional people and their medium of communication (languages/dialects) are still largely ignored by the Church or that the Gospel has not yet begun to be proclaimed with cultural relevance to make sense to the rural people and, hence, encourage their acceptance of it.

The Cultural understanding of any people group is the most significant and effective means of reaching them with the Gospel. As Richard W. Bowe points out, “Any proclamation which does not take seriously man in his environment is not true proclamation. The Gospel may be said to have been truly preached only if it has been made challengingly relevant to the people in their situation.” All of these realities point to the wrong beginning of the Church in Liberia.

The Advent of Christianity in Liberia

The advent of Christianity in Liberia is inseparable from the arrival of ex-slaves from South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia to Liberia. Following their emancipation, the American Colonization Society (ACS) assisted in their voluntary relocation to Africa. Some of them were Churchmen who looked forward to making their newfound home a Christian community. As Joseph C. Wold records, “In 1820 the Baptist Church, Methodist and Protestant Missionary society were organized on board the Ship Elizabeth,” which brought the first settlers to Liberia.

Relationship Between Settlers and Natives: A Poor Beginning

With regards to evangelization, the Gospel had a very poor beginning among the natives. That is, the initial Christians who brought the Gospel to Liberia did everything but proclaim Christ to the natives. For a very long time these pioneer missionaries restricted themselves along the coast, and remained socially, politically, religiously and culturally isolated from the natives. They referred to themselves as Americo-Liberians, meaning Africans with the prejudices and predilection for the bias and aspiration of white men, and would have nothing to do with the natives.

According to Wold, “(Christianity) became one of the marks of being an Americo-Liberian which distinguished them from the tribal people. To them it was incredible that an uncivilized tribesman, who could not even speak English might become a Christian.”

The settlers’, including the Christians, only attempt to relate to the natives was not to proclaim the Gospel but, rather, to exercise political control over them. That attempt often resulted in warfare. A patriotic Liberian, E. Wilmot Blyden, lamenting the socio-economic, political and religious disparity between the settlers and natives pointed out, “A group of returned exile-refugees from the house of bondage (USA) settled along a few hundred miles of the Coast of their father land, attempting to rule millions of people, their own kith and kin, on a foreign system in which they themselves have been imperfectly trained while knowing very little of the facts for the history (and culture) of the people they assume to rule…and taking for granted that the religious and social theories they have brought from across the sea must be adapted to all the needs to their un-expatriated brethren.”

Peter Falk also observed that the separation of the settlers from the indigenous population “caused a political and social difficulty and even obstructed the evangelization of the indigenous population.”

Wold, here, provides, in summary, reasons why the Gospel initially failed to make any positive impact on the indigenous people, thereby laying a foundation of superficial Christianity in Liberia for many decades.

“First the wars between the pagan tribes and settlers kept the former geographical isolated from the Christians. Second, the tribesmen never considered Christianity a real possibility for themselves because it was identified with a foreign culture. And third, unfortunately, the moral laxness and social injustice of the settlers in their relation with the tribes did not commend Christianity as a way of life.”

With such a very poor beginning, the indigenous people perceived a negative impression of the Gospel, not as a message of liberation, but one that enslaves. Hence, superficial Christianity became a way of life of the people for more than a century. Even today Christianity in some major cities of Liberia still bears the brunt of a Christianity that has “a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:5).

Later, when they attempted to reach the natives with the Gospel, the settlers brought along with them Freemasonry and, when mixed with traditional secret societies, became a pervasive influence against the Church. As a result, traces of syncretism are still prevalent in some Churches in Liberia today.

The western cultural lifestyle of the settlers greatly influenced the kind of Christianity and political system they introduced in Liberia. Instead of emphasizing repentance of sin and conversion through faith in Jesus Christ as basis for salvation, they had emphasized the “sitting on a mourner’s bench” until one can have some ecstatic experience and the bearing a western name at baptism as basic qualifications for becoming Christian. This practice was largely responsible for the kind of superficial Christianity that characterize the Church and several of its leaders in Liberia, until about three and a half decades ago.

Because these settlers were, for more than a century at the helm of political affairs, heads of the Church and simultaneously engulfed in the Masonic and other forms of secret societies, the Church became a toothless bull and voiceless against the social, economic and political ills that oppressed and marginalized the natives. Since many top Church leaders were deeply rooted in secret societies, the Church tolerated the practices to the extent that they comingled with worship services in certain mainline Churches. For example, the Grand Master of the Masonic Craft at the time of the first military coup in 1980, which ousted the Tolbert-led Government, was also National Chairman of the one system ruling political party (True Whig Party) and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Liberia. The 18^th President of Liberia, a lay preacher of the United Methodist Church was also Grand Zoe (Chief Priest) of all secret societies in Liberia until his demise in July 1971. His successor, also a Baptist minister, was declared Grand Zoe upon his ascendancy to the nation’s Presidency. He further legalized the Poro (for men) and Sande (for women) societies and created a department for its practice at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

While the 14 years of senseless and devastating Liberian civil war, which claimed more than 250,000 precious lives can never be justified, it is important to note that the unhealthy silence of the Church to the resulting immorality, corruption, oppression and marginalization of the ordinary people contributed to paving the way for the anger, hurt, bitterness and retaliation which was expressed by the warm embrace of the ordinary people to the 1980 military coup and the 1989 popular rebellion. Because the Church failed to be “salt and light” in Liberia when darkness was covering the people and because the Church compromised the integrity of the Gospel by refusal to advocate for righteousness in the land, Liberia is today degenerated and classed among the poorest of the poor nations of the world.

Yet, there is still hope for Liberia; because God has promised that “If my people… pray…I will heal their land (II Chron. 7:14).

Our Challenges

These developments have left the nation and its people, and hence the Church, with numerous challenges with which to deal in post-war Liberia.

Among these challenges are the following:

The need for God-fearing, honest, credible and accountable leaders in both the Church and society that will uphold the rule of law and restore the lost image of the nation.
The challenge of rampant corruption that has invaded every sector of the Liberian society due to the high rate of poverty and joblessness.
The high illiteracy rate coupled with an inadequate educational system – currently no public school system.
The need for sound theological education that will promote the propagation of biblical Christianity in the nation.
The need for viable indigenous missions like Vision Liberia 2027 in partnership with others such as CAPRO, EMS, CMA, and GEF that will train and equip godly men and women for the task for evangelizing the rest of Liberia and contribute toward global missions initiatives.
The need for research in missions in order to have a genuine picture of the state of the Church in Liberia.
The need to strengthen partnership and networking among Churches and para-Church organizations for the mission mobilization of the Church in Liberia.
The need for mainline Churches in Liberia to see scriptural reason to abolish and dissolve the so-called Inter-religious Council of Liberia or discontinue its involvement therein. The continued existence of this organization, which constitutes some leading traditional Churches and some sects of Islam in Liberia, has more damaging effect to the integrity of the Gospel and the role of Christianity in this nation then it could ever benefit Christianity.

Conclusion

Our nation has great Christian heritage laid down by our forefathers, who today form a part of the cloud of witnesses that are watching to see how well we will build upon those foundations. Even though these foundations have been polluted along the way, which has adversely affected life and growth of the Church, yet there is still hope for the spiritual cleansing and healing of the Land if we will sincerely repent and take seriously our responsibility to do missions.