BRIDLED: Interrogating the Influence of Christian Language on Ordinary People By Kemboi Labarakwe

Many Christians, especially in Africa do not know how to respond to contradictions that they face in their lives. They fail terribly at making observations of events unfolding right before them. What they do not understand or is contradicting they spiritualize.
African Christians are the hardest to convince that their economic struggles are related to colonialism, or geopolitics or aggressive marketing. They do not believe that something like modern day slavery exist except only slavery as a result of spiritual demonic forces whose chains can be broken through prayer and by calling the name of Jesus.
Africans Christians are not only entangled in strings or chains, they a Bridled. Usually, when a horse is bridled, it is such that its left or right turns are controlled while someone is riding on it. African Christians are controlled by a systematic narrative, a language cleverly crafted overtime, that keeps them obedient and singing about obedience, faith and hope, surrender, suffering and future glory, their shortcomings… over and over without questioning.
Their indigenous history and their own voices are intentionally undermined, and a Jewish or Christianity’s own history is deliberately elevated. While all that is happening aggressive marketing by commercial and global corporations speaking the same language of the Christian faith ride on them taking advantage of the much needed labour force to pull or push the capitalism cart.
This book tries to poke the African Christian who is busy finding their purpose or think they found their purpose in their Christian faith to wake up, to stop dreaming about a future heaven and start looking and working on the conditions on their current heaven. To stop going to the ends of the earth, evangelizing the world and return back home where they left. To stop trying to win the awards of changing the world and go back and be at home with their children, their families. It is an invitation to make observation, see how things in life are connected to one another, pause and think critically with the hope to develop or adopt a philosophy that will restore humanity to love.