Traversing Local-Global Religious Terrain: a Case of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star

Abstract

The term “transnational” is appropriate to describe the globalized Brotherhood of the Cross and Star movement, and as such the term transnational will be used interchangeably for BCS tendencies towards traversing local-global terrain in this research paper. In the past, it has been falsely claimed that African Christianity was founded by and for Africans. African Christianity experts today refute this idea because the faith has spread successfully over the globe. This opinion also applies to BCS, an organization that has gained widespread acceptance globally. It achieves this by developing itself as a global organization, employing cutting-edge information technology, transferring missions and miracles, evangelizing abroad, and visiting foreign communities with the leader of the BCS. Thus, the paper takes into account BCS tendencies toward globalization and further presents BCS as a worldwide movement. This paper critically used of qualitative method, involving historical, and theoretical, methods. Data was sourced mostly from library materials, oral interviews, participant and personal observations, as well as the internet and views of renowned scholars in religion, African Independent Church Movement, African Christianity in the Diaspora, and sociology of religion. This research concludes that a religion, as it moves to aa foreign territory, becomes an umbrella for cultural identity, a means of connecting to the home country for immigrant members and it additionally serves as a medium of survival for indigenous members.

Keywords

• brotherhood of the cross and star
• christianity
• africa
• faith
• globalisation