The problems in Africa cannot be solved with aid money alone, but Africans need to know God, contends an atheist journalist and former politician.
Religion offers change to the hearts and minds of people – something aid cannot do, argues Matthew Parris, a former conservative British member of parliament, in a column for U.K.-based The Times.
“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,” writes Parris, who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but now lives in England. “These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do.”
He went on to say, “In Africa, Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.”
His seeming epiphany of the positive effects of Christianity on Africa came after a trip to Malawi before Christmas. There, he met with a small British charity that works to install pumps on wells in rural villages to keep the water sealed and clean.
Although the charity, Pump Aid, is secular, he noticed that the most impressive staff members were privately “strong” Christians. While he recalls how none of the charity team members spoke about religion, he says he saw one studying a devotional textbook in the car and another leaving for church at dawn on a Sunday.
“It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work were unconnected with personal faith,” Parris admits. “Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were … influenced by a conception of man’s place in the Universe that Christianity has taught.”
Meeting the Christians working with Pump Aid also triggered his memories of missionaries and Christians he met as a boy growing up in Africa.
He recalls how the African converts to Christianity that he met as a boy “were always different.” Their new religion did not confine them, but seemed to liberate and relax them, Parris says.
“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,” he recalls. “They stood tall.”
Christianity, he adds, also helps Africans break free from the communal and superstitious mindset that suppresses individuality. Parris criticizes the “rural-traditional mindset” for feeding into the “‘big man’ and gangster politics” in African cities that teach “exaggerated respect” for a “swaggering leader” that has no room for opposition.
But Christianity – post-Reformation and post-Luther – teaches a “direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God” that eliminates mediation by the group or any other human being, Parris notes. It offers a framework of social life for those who want to “cast off a crushing tribal groupthink.”
“That is why and how it liberates,” Parris states.
He concludes by arguing that for Africa to be competitive with other global leaders in the 21st century, it must not only think that materials or knowledge is all it needs for development and change.
“A whole belief system must first be supplanted,” the atheist journalist contends.
He warns that 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.”
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"no i'm not. i can read. i'm just a regular freak."
Oh, jester...you're so modest.... I think you take freak to a WHOLE new level!!! :D
The African continuent have always embraced the understanding of God, the first concept of a monotheistic understanding of God came from Egypt. The Ethioptian Eunioch took the Gospel which Philip preach to him bach to Africa in the book of Acts. The problem lies in two situations, Europeans playing on the colonial mentiality of the Africans(which they created and cultivated throughpast exploitation) and the Africans need to find unity andlove for each other despite the foreign culture residue left after colonialism was shaken off in the 1950's, and return to God according to their true natural understanding of the Bible.
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Mr Parris focuses only on liberating Africans and probably doesn't see where God fits into the picture, say, in Europe as there is no need for liberation there, at least in his mind. Extracts from his article:
"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....
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates...."
On the other hand, he is admitting that the head knowledge he has picked up in Africa is now working on his heart:
"It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
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..."
I admire his intellectual honesty. Pray for Matthew Parris to find and publish more truths.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
The subject heading of this article, and some of the content, seem to contradict.
How can an atheist recommend God?
He can if his original atheist thinking is being challenged by a truth that he has been trying to deny for many years.
There is a great deal of insight from Mr. Parris' originally published article that did not make into this article.
Forgivensinner
Exactly, HAWK, shouldn't the African government be held responsible for the condition of its country?!
Depends upon the level of authority of any particular government and the worldview of that government.
believer wrote: "Africa is not a country it is a continent!"
Opps, my bad, I knew this.
tliml, plus there are white africans since african is not a race or a nationality.
tliml, Africa is not a country it is a continent! And there are many wealthy and affluential people living in countries in Africa. Plus, what would you suggest be done to make people living in African countries equal?
HAWK wrote: "Answer - corrupt governments"
Exactly, HAWK, shouldn't the African government be held responsible for the condition of its country?!
tliml
If Africans were equal to everyone else...
1. how come their country [continent?] is starving? Answer - corrupt governments, ungodly imperialism, non-Christian worldviews battling each other, illiteracy
2. experiencing large outbreaks of deadly sexually-transmitted diseases? Answer - Africans are suffering large deadly outbreaks of disease, but they are not sexually transmitted as the media has lied to us. The African variety of AIDS is not the same as the gay variety of AIDS we experience in the "developed" world. The diseases are encouraged by the answer to 1. above. The stupidity of the developed world baning DDT, for instance, has caused tens of thousands if not more needless death and misery.
3. sectarian violence? Answer - Cosmic battles between religious worldviews, really no different than we experience in our "developed" world
4. and slavery within its borders? Answer -
Cosmic battles between religious worldviews.
Where they suffer physical slavery the majority in the 'developed' world suffer slavery to sin and to coercion of government. But then, the atheist countries of the 'developed' world do practice physical slavery as found in concentration camps and gulags, prostitution rings in Eastern Europe and the far East, etc.
Answer this: What worldview(s) are making others slaves?
Matthew Parris is a very good journalist, I enjoy reading his twice weekly colums in The Times (London)he's very insightful. i'd like to reccommend his book "The Great Unfrocked:Two Thousand Years Of Church Scandel" its very amusing, there have been some very odd vicars etc...
Steve
Shooter,
Consider that Africa is an awesome sized continent with hundreds of ethnic groups, cultures, languages. Even in Asia a 100 years is a short time to garner 100% success. Progress yes, but if you think about it ...
We been at it in North America for a while too, and, there's tons of work left to do.
That's really interesting. God's work is so amazing that it will wrench a testimony from the staunchest nonbelievers. That's how people become a Christian, I guess - when they see the love of God and the freedom inside of the Word.
I think discipleship is lacking throughout the world. I am all for the humanitarian efforts of Christian and secular groups alike, but those who are starving in this world need the bread of life. They need to hear God's word and apply it to their daily lives.
(Matthew 4:4)Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We have been sending missionaries to Africa for 100 years. Was not the gospel in Africa before it came to America? Can it be that we have only made dependents and not disciples?
"You're an illiterate freak'
no i'm not. i can read. i'm just a regular freak.
Jester-
You're an illiterate freak, cappuccino? Huh? Nice to see how your mind works.
"most atheists would agree all religions are insane."
wow, prosccince, did you think that up all by your lonesome? could that be why they're atheist? i bet you studied hard to come up with that one
and tliml,
LAY OFF THE CAPPUCCINO! sheesh. it's like the enegizer bunny on steroids!
If Africans were equal to everyone else, how come their country is starving, experiencing large outbreaks of deadly sexually-transmitted diseases, sectarian violence, and slavery within its borders? University studies have shown that the cerebral cortex in Africans is smaller than that of whites. I'm not drawing ANY CONCLUSIONS! I'm simply stating SCIENTIFIC FACTS! If you start whining about facts you are the most ignorant people in the world. I never made ANY CONCLUSIONS! So nobody say "I can't believe you think that..." or "So you think that means..." I only presented you with BARE FACTS. NO RACISM HERE. Unless of course PRINCETON UNIVERSITY is racist.
prosciencezz wrote "...the vast majority of atheists would like to see the eradication of religious insanity...By the way, how many people were murdered for god today? I'm sick of religious violence and it's never going to end until every preacher, every priest, every rabbi, and every cleric drops dead."
----
Hey Pro,
Haven't talked with you for a while. I see you're still in your loving mood.-) So what are you so angry about, really? You sound like the Apostle Paul before he got converted. Forget about the priests, clerics, etc. Look to Jesus because He is the Savior, He is the One who loves you so much that He died and rose from the dead just for you. I know it's painful for you to read of a fellow atheist admitting the need of Christianity, so you call him a fake. Don't despair - Judas was a fake also. But you don't have to be a fake. Come to Jesus so he can remove all your anger and bitterness, filling your heart with peace. Christ cares so much about you and is waiting for you to come in simple faith and repentance.
Blessings!
i hope that poorscience isn't a scientist. i have a real precarious respect for scientists. and the ones i know would kick his behind for such....um....moronic evaluation.
lets see....africa....third world country...half of the continent starving....half with aids...and the other half involved in local wars.
sweden...a first world country with no major problems.
i don't think you're going to find ANY people offering aid there. duh! but if it will make your little heart feel better i could send a nurse there to check on things. make sure everyone is ok. she could take some lolipops for all the "starving" kids there.
i just cant believe you've got the word "science" in your name. that's like Bin Laden loggin in under the name "goodchristianman"
O wow. A racist, huh? Some people will stop at nothing (including their own lack of intelligence) when it comes to assuming things when people don't agree with them.
How many people were murdered for God today? Probably about 100th of how many were murdered for atheism.
"The problems in Africa cannot be solved with aid money alone, but Africans need to know God, contends an atheist journalist and former politician."
Would this fake atheist say the same thing about Sweden? No, he wouldn't, because he's obviously a racist. He certainly doesn't speak for the more than one billion atheists of the world. The vast majority of atheists would like to see the complete eradication of religious insanity from the world, and most atheists would agree all religions are insane.
By the way, how many people were murdered for god today? I'm sick of religious violence and it's never going to end until every preacher, every priest, every rabbi, and every cleric drops dead.
What a striking contrast to Dawkins + Hitchens! They are so blinded by their hatred of Christianity that they see none of its positive effects on the world, even likening it to child abuse. Enter a rational atheist who does not agree with its premise (God exists + His Son is Jesus the Savior) but is honest enough to admit the good Christians do + the positive effects Christianity can have on a continent.
If he is so impressed with Christianity, why isn't he a Christian? To me, it seems as odd as if Bin Laden sang the praises of Christianity and democracy. Something doesn't set right.