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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 9/27/2003 8:38 AM (GMT -6) |   | God on Their Side
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: September 27, 2003
E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com
MAPUTO, Mozambique
Mention the words "evangelical missionary," and many Americans conjure up an image of redneck zealots' forcing starving children to be baptized before they get a few crusts of bread.
In reality, the wave of activity abroad by U.S. evangelicals is one of the most important — and welcome — trends in our foreign relations. I disagree strongly with most evangelical Christians, theologically and politically. But I tip my hat to them abroad.
In a house beside the filthy garbage dump here in Mozambique's capital, a 17-year-old named Sonia Angeline was giving birth in early June. She had no doctor and no midwife, and after four days in labor, she was a hairsbreadth from becoming one more Mozambican woman to die in childbirth.
"We didn't have money to pay for a taxi to go to the hospital," Ms. Angeline recalled, noting that her family savings at any moment are typically worth about 10 cents. Her mother, Isabel, says that if the baby still hadn't come after another day, well, she would have continued to wait.
Fortunately, at that moment Katrin Blackert, a 23-year-old volunteer for Iris Ministries, an American mission, dropped by as part of her regular visits to children living at the dump. Miss Blackert rushed Ms. Angeline to the hospital, paid the bill for the emergency Caesarean out of her own pocket (O.K., it was only $4), and saved the life of both mother and baby.
The help was extended solely on the basis of need, for Ms. Angeline doesn't attend church. Moreover, Ms. Angeline is living in a new home built by Catholic missionaries to replace her old thatch hut — not because she's a Catholic, but because she's needy.
Evangelical missionaries are controversial because they're very aggressive about gaining converts, so they antagonize long-established religions and create rifts in communities. Critics say they're bribing the poor with food to persuade them to change their faith.
There is some of that. Iris Ministries offers meals with its Sunday services, and that's one reason they're well attended. When local people come to seek cash for medicine or food, they usually get the handout — but only after they join in prayer.
But I'm convinced that we should all celebrate the big evangelical push into Africa because the bottom line is that it will mean more orphanages, more schools and, above all, more clinics and hospitals. Particularly when AIDS is ravaging Africa, those church hospitals are lifesavers.
"In most of Africa, these are the cornerstone of the health system," said Helene Gayle, who directs AIDS work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "In some countries, they serve more people than the government health system."
The evangelicals abroad are mostly pragmatists, not ideologues, so they should be a good influence on the Christian Right. While fundamentalists in America blindly oppose condom distribution, evangelicals in Africa see their friends dying of AIDS. They thunder against sexual immorality — but often hand out condoms.
"We don't condone adultery, but we're pragmatic enough to see the country we live in," said Steven Lazar, who runs Iris Ministries' orphanage. He notes that in nearly all of the Christian weddings he attends in Mozambique, the bride is pregnant.
One of the evangelicals' most important influences is in combating the second-class status of women and girls by evangelizing not only for God, but also for equality of the sexes.
Pentecostalists, who make up one of the fastest-growing sects, preach faith healing and raising from the dead, but they also give a substantial voice in church to ordinary village women. And that in turn empowers women in the home and community.
"In our Mozambican culture, women don't have an active voice in the family," explained Ana Zaida, who teaches Bible school. "But in Christian life, we discover that not just the husband but also the wife can have a role. . . . So the wives fight to transform their husbands."
At the end of my interview, Mr. Lazar prayed for me — and came pretty close to asking the Almighty to ensure that I wrote a nice column. The episode underscored the difference between my world and his.
Yet while it sounds strange to say so, evangelicals may be Africa's most important feminist influence today. And how can one not welcome their growing presence as Ms. Angeline tells of her rescue and cradles a lovely baby girl — not surprisingly, named Katrin.
Niebuhr thought that sustained moral energy in politics depended on religion's power to mobilize reason along with self-transcending love. The prophetic tradition, meanwhile, gave Jews and Christians some protection against the temptation to identify their social causes with God's will. Lincoln's second inaugural address expressed the prophetic insight, "The almighty has His own purposes." | | Back to Top | | |
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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 10/3/2003 7:04 AM (GMT -6) | | I think the rub is that we need to inculcate better habits of political reflection in believers and others and that it is pastors like you, Boyd, Mephi and Modes and Earp who are in positions to do this.
I'm not saying tell people what to vote for, but emphasize that time spent following politics and using one's political capital wisely, taking into account what is and isn't feasible, on issues above one's narrow self-interest is a way to glorify God.
But all such actions/determinations are fallible and should be subject to reconsideration. As should have been the case with our political strategy for abortion.
Here is the link to a "fun" link where I fend off all-sorts-of-criticism over my idea that we need to reconsider our political strategy on abortion...
http://theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=a0af3129ffacee3151767e8ad42354c7&threadid=10832 | | Back to Top | | |
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DLW
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 2457
| Posted 10/8/2003 4:44 PM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by John Earp
Me? I don't reflect on politics, ever. 
Actually, that is very good news about evangelical influence in Africa, David. A very good book that deals extensively on the positive political influence Pentecostalism has had in Latin America is Fire from Heaven by Harvey Cox, whom I believe was professor of comparative religion at Harvard. (I think he's retired now). But in any case, the chapter or two he wrote on the political influence of Pentecostals in third world nations I found to be particularly encouraging.
Yeah, didn't some jewish writer refer to Christians as the Jews of the Third World?
That's why I think reconsidering our political strategy on abortion would allow us to spend more political capital on things like ensuring freedom of religion abroad. Freedom of Religion tends to also help form groups that can promote political reforms and also improve economic development. Religious minorities that have strong trusting social networks often make reliable business-people as well.
dlw | | Back to Top | | |
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John Earp
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2002
Total Posts : 1715
| Posted 10/8/2003 6:10 PM (GMT -6) | | quote:
Originally posted by DLW
That's why I think reconsidering our political strategy on abortion
Dave, I think you must have me confused with someone else. You make it sound as if because I am 100% opposed to abortion in all cases except when absolutely necessary to save the life of the mother (that is, BOTH mother and child would definitely die if the pregnancy were carried to term), that somehow I focus 100% of my "political strategy" (if in fact it can be truly said that I have one) on abortion. I generally do vote my conscience, and do make it clear what my stance on abortion is to anyone who asks, but I just don't obsess on this issue like you appear to.
As a premillenialist, I tend to believe that before the world is fully restored to paradise, Jesus must return, though I also believe we are to be as salt and light in this age.
Gotta get to bed early tonight. Got an abortion clinic sit-in to attend tomorrow a.m. 
"The Discovery of new truth will modify old views and opinions, and there is perhaps no end to this process with finite minds in any world." Charles G. Finney, Systematic Theology.
revivaltheology.net
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 10/9/2003 3:25 AM (GMT -6) | | Krisof said (in the first post): There is some of that. Iris Ministries offers meals with its Sunday services, and that's one reason they're well attended. When local people come to seek cash for medicine or food, they usually get the handout — but only after they join in prayer.
I wonder how accurate that is. I've not heard of too many missionaries demanding someone pray with them before they feed them.
Starkman | | Back to Top | | |
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