Leading Racial Reconciliation: Understanding the Role of Africans in the Bible

Leading Racial Reconciliation: Understanding the Role of Africans in the Bible

Siobhan Danielle Spruill | 2019

Abstract

This study examined if there were any biblical justifications for the lack of diversity in Christian organizations in America. Moreover, this study reviewed the type of jobs, functions, duties, and roles people of African descent held in the Holy Bible. This study of racial reconciliation in Christian organizations in the United States of America draws from the literature on racially and culturally based organizational theories like microaggression, critical race theory, cultural deficiency theory, and upper echelon theory. Research contained in this study followed the exegetical methodologies outlined in social–cultural texture analysis and ideological texture analysis. The data from this study were interpreted for principles connected to reconciliation around culture and race in America and organizations. This study revealed five themes to help understand the role, job, duties, and functions of people with African heritage throughout the Old and New Testament. The results of this study demonstrate that current-day believers of the Bible may have a misunderstanding of the presence of Africa and Africans in the Bible, which may be a contributing reason to why there is an absence of people of African descent in leadership roles in Christian, for-profit organizations. The five themes summarize the findings of the sociorhetorical analysis and function as the guideline for future research about other cultures documented in the Holy Bible.