Promises, Promises!
Well, here I go breaking the
promise I long ago promised I would not break! Once you’re into a
promise-breaking mode, you may as well go at it, right? And here’s one more: I will no longer pretend
I can write blogs or anything else without both making and then breaking
promises I just made. I’m simply going to make one whenever the need arises
without any guilt feeling. Making
promises is definitely an inescapable part of the human condition; breaking
promises is not far from that one!
Secular Missionaries
In the second to the last
paragraph of Post 119 I noted that Western nations export their wild
electioneering campaigns to non-Western nations. The term “export” in this
context is really a secular term for “missionizing.” Yes, Western nations and their people,
secular as they tend to be and as disapproving most of them are of
missionaries, are themselves missionaries in the sense that they seek to
convince the peoples of other regions to adopt their democratic ways of
electing their governments. Secularists are missionaries, short and simple,
though they do not recognize it and will vehemently deny it when confronted
with it. This denial is based on the fact that they are blind to their own
faith or worldview.
Secular Democratic Imposition
I have met a young lady
hardly beyond her mid-twenties, who was commissioned by the US Government to
teach democratic ways to African politicians. Though she was sweet enough, I
was shocked to think that such an inexperienced person would have the gall to
travel all over Africa to recommend, among other things, the “art” of political
campaigning. I was shocked even more by the fact that she was actually
commissioned to do so by the sophisticated US Government! What brazen
imposition! What a brazen superiority complex—a youthful American teaching
African leaders the ways of American political campaigns? Please reread some of the paragraphs of Post
119. Would you even think about
exporting those ways? And please remember, much of the same holds true for
Canada as well.
Christian Electioneering Shenanigans
Well, the West has been most
successful in their political mission to Africa. In my book Christians and Muslims: Parameters for
Living Together I describe a situation in central Nigeria where three
contenders for the position of State Governor all belonged to one and the same Christian
denomination. Officially, these
contenders were brothers in Christ. They
were all taught human relations from a Christian perspective—love, mutual
respect, dignity, speaking the truth, etc. etc., but none of this came through
in the course of their campaign. Like those in Post 119, “they fought with each
other like everyone else, berated each other, accused each other; lied to and
about each other.” It’s too bad I cannot give you more juicy details, the
reason being that the documents underlying my statements were deposited in a
Yale archive. In short, they made mince meat of everything the Bible teaches in
terms of positive human relations. And they all thought of themselves as
Christian gentlemen! (The full text of that book is available on the Islamica page
of my website < www.SocialTheology.com >, vol. 8-2, p. 144.)
I do hope the above
paragraph will not make you think me racist.
After all, I say much worse things about American politicians. I should
correct this last statement. I don’t say worse things about American
politicians so much as more grimy details.
Those documents now at Yale contain similar grimy details about these
Nigerian politicians.
The Disconnect
How is it possible that
these prominent American politicians, some of them icons of US history and at
least some of them Christians, could so defame and defile the name of their
most prominent citizens and not be called on it, at least, not enough for them
to cease the practice? And how is the
same thing possible with Nigerian Christian politicians? How could they square such behavior with the
Bible and their religion? Probably the
dominant reason is the disconnect between their official religion—Christianity—and
their actions.
Dualism
A major theme in all my writings
is “dualism,” that is, separation not of church
from state, but of religion from
state as well as religion from
politics. The way missionaries in Africa brought the Gospel has lead to
Africans disconnecting these pairs. Though many missionaries did not actively
reject ties between these two entities, their failure to encourage building
ties between religion and both state and politics led to a separation. The
result is the attitude of religion is religion; business is business; politics
is politics-- and never the twain shall meet, the “twain” being religion on the
one side and business & politics on the other.
Secular Intolerance
Of course we Canadians have
only recently suffered the same electioneering shenanigans for the same reason.
In our country secularism has achieved such a majority position that the very
idea that religion should be out there in the halls of power and in the market
place is considered plain primitive and uncivilized. A current example is the
legal battle over the proposed law school at Western Trinity University right
here in BC. It’s a pure example of
secularism’s viciousness and intolerance.
But, hey, that’s how the establishment mind operates, whether it’s Islam
or secularism—or Christian even. But
don’t let that intimidate you, for that secularism is so ignorant that it does
not know itself.
The Gospel Alternative: Love and Respect
The bottom Christian line in
all this is the plain Gospel recommendation—no, more than recommendation: demand,
prescription—that we love and respect one another, build up each
other, the very opposite of our current culture of berating and
destroying.
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