Rich Bledsoe has pointed to an amazing article by Matthew Parris which appeared in the Times online for December 27, 2008.
Mr. Parris, a professing atheist and native born African, admits to being forced to acknowledge something he has resisted for a long time: Christianity makes a real difference, not only in individuals, but in whole societies. This last December, Parris returned to Africa after 45 years absence and couldn’t ignore the influence of Christian missionaries:
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
He had noticed this during his childhood:
The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.
And his return trip confirmed this. This time, however, he noted the difference between Christians and the typical African tribal beliefs. Parris observes, tribal belief “suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.”
The effects of African paganism are far-reaching:
Anxiety – fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things – strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won’t take the initiative, won’t take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.
His conclusion is stunning:
Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted. And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.
Money, power, political manipulation and coercion . . . . all are weak and impotent in comparison to the gospel. Darkness and death cannot stand when the light and life of the Triune God comes. Apart from Jesus, we are left to the “mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone, and the machete.”
St. Valentine was a martyr who was put to death for the faith in the the latter part of the 3rd century. There is some confusion about Valentine’s identity. There was a Valentine, who was a priest of Rome, and a Valentine, who was bishop of Ternia Both of whom are commemorated on February 14 (both are now generally assumed to be the same person).
