Post 188--Global Hand Washing Day

In the public washroom in my church there are several posters about hand washing on the wall. One that drew my special attention was the one giving step-by-step instructions about how to wash your hands effectively. 

              1. You turn on the tap.
              2. You hold your hands under the tap to wet them.
              3. You apply soap to your hands.
              4.  Etc., etc. 

I don't believe I need to present you with the full list of instructions. If you read this blog, I think you know how to wash your hands without written instructions on your wall. 

My initial reaction was, "My goodness, what's this world coming to?  So much education and we don't know how to wash our hands?" I couldn't believe what I read!  Do we really need that?  Apparently we do.

Different cultures have different ways of caring for their hands, their hygiene and their health. In the part of Nigeria where I spent many years, people are very particular what they do with which hand. The right hand is the social hand and the food hand, because of the unspoken things they do with their left. Before you eat, you wash your hands in a bowl of water that is passed around along with a towel, but without soap. They want to make sure their hands are clean, especially because in some ethnic cultures they eat with their hands  and often in a group from one bowl. But why no soap? Because the soap smell will affect the taste of the food. However, after the meal, a bowl of clean water is passed around along with the towel AND the soap. So, very hygienic.

In the Canadian culture that surrounds me these days, people eat some foods with their hands and some with fork or spoon.  However, many times they do not wash their hands before eating, not even before eating so-called finger foods. Those who do, do so privately, not publicly.  Probably because I lived in Nigeria so long, I tend to wash my hands before eating, but privately from a tap, not at the table. 

This issue is, of course, hygiene and health.  And that holds not only for food, but for many activities. Whenever I come home from outside, I wash my hands even if I do not intend to eat. The reason is that one picks up all kinds of dirt, both seen and unseen, that can make you ill. 

So, perhaps, those washroom posters are necessary after all, even for careless educated people. At any rate the UN and others think the world needs to have its attention drawn to the need to wash hands regularly. So they established Global Hand Washing Day. I quote the following from some websites:

The first Global Hand Washing Day was held in 2008, when over 120 million children around the world washed their hands with soap in more than 70 countries. Since 2008, community and national leaders have used Global Hand Washing Day to spread the word about hand washing, build sinks and tippy taps, and demonstrate the simplicity and value of clean hands.  Each year, over 200 million people are involved in celebrations in over 100 countries around the world. Global Hand Washing Day is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, private companies, and individuals. 

Global Handwashing Day is an annual global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an easy, effective, and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

Celebrated annually on October 15, Global Handwashing Day was founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership, and is an opportunity to design, test, and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times.

Global Handwashing Day is designed to:

• Foster and support a global and local culture of handwashing with soap
• Shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing around the world
• Raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing with soap

Well, I think you get the point. I urge you to join the event this coming Saturday and that you draw many people's attention to it.  As unlikely as I first thought it, I've become a believer and supporter. I hope the same for you--a lot cheaper than your doctor or your pharmacist. And, in case you forgot, God expects us to do all we can to protect ourselves by living responsibly. Washing our hands regularly is part of that responsible living. 

https://globalhandwashing.org/global-handwashing-day/about-ghd/

Post 187--Media SOS

Yes, I'm back.  This time I was off to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for two weeks,  where the core of my in-law family lives. Not only did I meet Fran, my wife, there at Calvin College, but so did our three kids meet their spouses there.  Educational incest, you say?  Perhaps, but it put us all on a good course, at least, economically and, to a certain degree,  worldviewishly as well. Well, whatever....  It's the place where I would like to see my cremains strewn over its pond, since that place is the navel of our small clan.  Not sure it will happen.  Okay, back to the blog business.  A short one today. A cry for help from Religion News Service under the caption "Sunday Morning Editor's Note."  Again, it's American but affects us Canadians as much as it does them.  Here's the editor's plea to all of us:

This week I’d like to ask for your help, and I promise it doesn’t involve money. I was at the Online News Association annual conference last week and one thing that was patently clear was the monopolistic power Facebook and Google now wield in the news business. They get to distribute news for free, while they have decimated ad revenues for the creators of news content. As digital media strategist Heidi N. Moore recently lamented in the Columbia Journalism Review, "Facebook and Google collect 99 percent of all digital-advertising revenue growth in the U.S., leaving only crumbs for media companies."  So here’s my ask. Don’t let Facebook and Google decide what news you get — which they do based on data you’ve most likely given them unwittingly, through your browsing history and other information they can track. Instead, be an active news reader. Put a little extra effort into getting your daily fix. Go directly to your favorite publications’ home pages. Bookmark a few of them, and when you want to know what’s happening in the world, make it a habit of checking them first. And I hope, of course, that RNS will be one of them. I promised it wouldn't cost anything, and it might just help ensure the viability of the news industry that is so essential to democracy.  I suggest you read Moore's lament mentioned above.  Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving Day. I wish you all a time brimming with gratitude for all the things God has given us here in Canada--or, at least, most of us, though perhaps a declining number?  The thing I appreciate the most is our orderly way of living. Compared to an absolute ideal, we probably have a long way to go, but in contrast to where our new neighbours, the refugees, come from, we live in heaven. Just ask them!  Have a thankful one!

Post 186--Is Polygamy Sin?

This morning I received a letter from Gani Yohanna, either a son or grandson of my former Nigerian colleague Ifraimu Gani during my Nigeria missionary years.  Among other items, he raised the above question.  

It seems like a fairly straight forward issue that requires little more than either a "yes" or a "no."  Unfortunately, it ain't quite that simple. Not only is this a matter of Bible interpretation in the context of ever-changing cultural phases of a given society, but it is also a church political matter. In my position as a respected retired long-time missionary in the Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria (CRC-N), my answer can easily cause conflict and tension in the community. The leaders can easily feel I let them down; the youth can easily use my reply to support a rebellion they may stage on the issue. So, truth, faithfulness and politics all in one go.  

I did not have much time to develop a completely reliable answer to the question. I have other things to do for the time being. So, I concocted the following answer, without being fully satisfied with it. I hope it is better than nothing or, as we say it in the Hausa language, ya fi babu.

So, here then my immediate off-the-top response to the question:

Hello Gani Yohanna

As to your question regarding polygamy, that's a big one.  Many years ago during the 

1970s, I was part of a CRCN committee that studied the issue. I suggest you check out

 the archives of your local CRCN congregation to see if they still have a copy of that 

report. If they don't, then check it out at the CRCN secretariat.  Unfortunately, I have no

copy here.  

If you are successful in obtaining a copy, I wonder if you could scan and send me a copy.

After you have read that report, ask me whatever question you have on the subject and I will try to help you.

However, off the top of my head without much time for deeper thought:

Abraham and many others in the OT practiced polygamy and none of them were condemned because of it, except kings like Solomon, who used polygamy for political purposes.  Other things in the OT were condemned as sin, but not polygamy.

Polygamy is the result of the general fall into sin during our early Genesis account. Human relationships deteriorated, including male/female relationships. However, God is realistic and seemed to have realized that something as deep as polygamy needs centuries to be corrected and so He allowed it even among His faithful ones.  He waited for further revelation to slowly erase it.  But do remember that already at the creation, we are told that both male and female were created in God's image equally. The fall broke that equality.

In the New Testament little is said about it, but the entire atmosphere is one of monogamy. It seems to be assumed by its writers.

You will find no Christian church in any part of the world that has not emerged out of Traditional Religion during the past 200 years that allows or practices polygamy. All of them agree that polygamy is not God's preferred way.

CRC-N is a new church that has emerged from Traditional Religion where polygamy was commonly practiced. The remnants of those male/female relationships are still there.  It will take many years for those relationships to be cleansed by the Gospel--a very slow process. As those relationships change, polygamy will slowly decrease, not by force or law, whether church or government, but by a change of heart, mind, values and relationships in general. The church should gently nurture that process without force but by its leaders to set examples of godly living in general and in godly male/female relationships.  These leaders and all godly Christians need to restore the equality that is inherent in both representing the image of God without distinction.

Is polygamy a sin? I think that in general cultural developments it is not necessarily a personal sin. It's the way people have been brought up. For members of churches newly emerged from Traditional Religion, where the Gospel is not yet fully understood, I would not consider it a personal sin either. However for Christians in maturing churches

who engage in it without caring about the Bible and historical church teaching, who disregard all that, I would consider it a sin, but the sin is not polygamy so much as distorted relationships that still have not been cleansed.  

Thank you for asking this important question.  Please greet Elder Ifraimu Gani and his uwargida for me. 

Post 185--Moving Forward with North Korea

                                               NORTH KOREA: TALKS THE ONLY OPTION

Elizabeth Kendal is the author of a prayer blog entitled "Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin."  It is evangelical in tone and connected in some way to the World Evangelical Fellowship, if I'm not mistaken. Her posts are usually worth the read, what with a lot of hard factual info about the situations in various countries.  This post of mine reproduces her Bulletin no. 423 of September 13, 2017.  As far as I can see, it provides the best option about moving forward with North Korea.  Probably not original, but that does not matter.  

But do remember: it is evangelical in spirit, not Reformational as this my blog is. In this case, the difference is that while the Reformational emphasis would be on justice for the entire situation, Kendal, though not omitting justice issues, emphasizes the effects of the situation on the church, as if the church were the most important agency and the rest secondary.  The Reformational will absolutely be sympathetic to the church, but consider the wider issue of justice and liberty for all as primary.  With that difference in mind,  as Canada's CBC reporters tend to say, "Have a listen."


As noted in RLPB 403 (19 April), 'North Korea will not willingly disarm, but
will retain its weapons program for the purpose of deterrence.' After all,
the regime saw what happened in 2003 to Iraq's Saddam Hussein (who did not
have a nuclear deterrent), and in 2011 to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi (who had
relinquished all his nuclear weapons). In both cases, the West facilitated
regime change, ensuring these former allies fell into the hands of their
enemies: Saddam was executed by Shi'ite forces, whilst Gaddafi was brutalised
to death by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists. Both countries were essentially
destroyed. Russian President Vladimir Putin said as much last week. While he
condemned North Korea's nuclear provocations, President Putin rejected the
idea that UN sanctions were a solution. 'Sanctions of any kind,' he said,
'are useless and ineffective in this case ... [The North Koreans] will eat
grass, but they will not abandon this [nuclear] program unless they feel
safe.'

Sanctions will not work, but neither can there be a military solution for as
the US Defense Department and everyone in the region knows, the cost to South
Korea - in lives and infrastructure - would be absolutely catastrophic.
Though war is not an option, on Sunday 10 September US Senator John McCain
called for Washington to ratchet up the pressure by stepping up its presence
in the region to 'make sure that Kim Jong-un knows that if he acts in an
aggressive fashion, the price will be extinction.' Such language would surely
cause considerable distress to millions of Christians around the world who
don't want to see North Korea's long-suffering remnant Church obliterated in
US 'fire and fury'.  

If sanctions are not the solution and war is out of the question, what are we
left with? It leaves us with the possibility of returning to six-party talks
(North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the USA). Ultimately,
what the Kim regime wants is a bi-lateral treaty with the USA: one that
recognises North Korea as a nuclear power, taking regime change off the
table. North Korea also wants to be recognised as a sovereign independent
state, taking reunification off the table (at least for the foreseeable
future). Some analysts insist the crisis (most of which is theatre and
posturing) is approaching its 'end game' and that resolution and dialogue,
not war, will be the outcome. That said, the situation remains incredibly
volatile - an angry or accidental slip could jeopardise everything.

Should a resolution be reached, South Korea, China and Russia (North Korea's
neighbours) are ready to invest in such a way as to facilitate North Korea's
economic development. This is critical, for North Korea cannot truly open up
until it has radically improved the living standards of its people. Hence the
endless balancing act: when risk is perceived to be high, repression and
belligerence are extreme; however, when risk is perceived to be low,
engagement and reform inch tentatively forward. There really is no
alternative to returning to the days of inching forward. South Korea's new
President Moon Jae-in, who has a grandmother alive in the North, is eager to
re-establish dialogue and co-operation, as are Russia, China and Japan.
However, the Kim regime will not negotiate until the US concedes that North
Korea is indeed a nuclear power (hence the endless missile tests). Even if
talks resume, treaties are signed and normalisation occurs, it will be many
years before North Korea can truly open up to the outside world without
risking collapse. What is more important though is that conditions inside
North Korea improve, including the issue of religious freedom for the
long-suffering North Korean Church in the labour camps and 'underground'.


PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO:

* preserve, protect, bless and strengthen the long-suffering North Korean
Church - both the Church in the labour camps and the Church deep
'underground'.

* intervene in the Korean crisis creatively, according to his wisdom, to
fulfil his good purposes, that ultimately North Korea's faithful remnant
Church might be liberated to worship freely, to be salt and light and yeast
in society, and to bring healing to the North.  

Post 184--Trump's Clergy Friends

The Religion News Service (RSN) has done us all a huge service by publishing an extensive report on meetings between President Trump and an assortment of what Americans tend to call “white Evangelicals.”  Here’s the bibliographics of the document: 

Adelle M. Banks, Emily McFarlan Miller , Yonat Shimron and Jerome Socolovsky, “All the president’s clergymen: A close look at Trump’s ‘unprecedented’ ties with evangelicals.” Religion News Service, September 5, 2017.

http://religionnews.com/2017/09/05/all-the-presidents-clergymen-a-close-look-at-trumps-unprecedented-ties-with-evangelicals/?utm_source=RNS+Updates&utm_campaign=8dea16e014-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5356cb657-8dea16e014-127937033

I am merely sharing the URL of these events—yes, “events,” plural—so you can read all about them. Basically, I am doing the same thing these RSN writers have done—passing on info and leave the choice as to what to do with it or how to interpret it all with you. 

I will say, however, that I do not feel these guys and gals represent me, a Reformational writer. If you want to get a feel of a writer like me, read back posts of this blog or go to my website < www.SocialTheology.com >.

I am always concerned that this blog not appear too American or deals with too many American issues. The point is, that American affairs affect Canada more that most of us like. Probably the biggest influence of these American events on us is the way we Canadians interpret them, especially the Canadian media. They are so ignorant of religion in general, it stinks. They are even more ignorant of what they regard as the Evangelical religion of the American south—and even more prejudiced against it. They pass on their wretched interpretation to us so that we react to that interpretation rather than to that community itself.  There’s a whole firewall between that community and us. Its first name is “Canadian media;” its last, “Liberal.” 

So, on the face of it, a short post. If you open up the URL above, it is pretty long.

What do you think of these meetings and the concerns broached in them? 

Post 183--The Power of Prayer

You may know that my wife and I spent 30 years in Nigeria as missionaries. If you want to know the entire story of that journey, I invite you to read our memoirs at

                < www.SocialTheology.com/boeriana >

After various introductory sections, the memoirs are the first entry: Every Square Inch: A Missionary Memoir.

You may be surprised at what became a problem to me for the first half year there. I was so amazed at Nigerian Christian prayers during church services.  Not only were there long queues of people waiting to offer a prayer, but the way they prayed just seemed unreal to me at the beginning. They were so real about, so serious, so persistent and covering many different fronts of life.  I had never heard such strong and emotional prayers.  I could not help but kind of doubt their genuineness.

Looking back on that early period—I’m talking late ‘60s, some 50 years ago!—I have come to understand that this was culture shock on my part, a spiritual culture shock. I had never heard such prayers. Of course, this was the pre-Charismatic breakthrough when really no one prayed that way in any culture I had ever experienced. 

I was a product of Western Christianity, of its Reformed branch, that was so heavily influenced by the Western worldview that is so much more influenced by Rationalism with its rational spirituality and logic, and by secularism, the major “common sense” in the West. All of that discouraged that kind of prayer outbursts.  Our  prayers were genuine all right, but so rational, reasonable and calm. And we certainly did not form queues of eager prayer warriors!

I look back on that experience with a sense of shame and embarrassment. Here I was, a Christian missionary, and I could not understand the prayer culture of our hosts, let alone appreciate it. I am happy to report that over time I not only came to understand it, but also accept it as genuine. I even began to copy that style of prayer, without pretense, but with sincerity, conviction and meaning. Nigerian Christian spirituality enriched me and I am grateful for that experience. One of the many blessings I received during my years of service there. My prayers have never been the same since, especially not my public prayers.

Today is Sept 3, 2017—21 years since I left Nigeria, physically at least. An item from Nigeria’s Premium Times appears on my screen. It is a story about Nigeria’s Super Eagles, the beloved national football team, having beaten their Cameroonian competition.  However, the report was not about the way the Eagles played, but how they prayed! Here’s the report, picture and all.

PREMIUM TIMES      Sept 3   2017

 Super Eagles defeated Cameroon by ‘prayers’ — Gov. Emmanuel

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has said that the Super Eagles’ victory on Friday against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon was a “testament” to the power of prayers.

The Eagles whipped their arch rival, the Lions 4-0, in their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

“The victory of Super Eagles today against The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon is a testament to the fact that whenever we go on our knees and seek the face of God like we did today during our fasting and prayer session, God will answer our prayer,” Mr. Emmanuel wrote on Facebook, few hours after the match.  END OF STORY.

This was not some pastor hidden in a church somewhere.  This was a politician, a State Governor, a man with much power and wealth. Most of his colleagues are very corrupt, though I hope this not to be the case here. But there this man wrote it on one of the most public and wide-spread podiums in the world without hesitation. Amazing. And then the story was spread by the news media. This was big stuff. Prayer saved the day or, at least, the big match. Never mind how they played. They won by prayer. Their strategies did not get any praise. It was prayer that did it, prayer and fasting.  You can’t get more serious!

As a semi-Nigerian who loves Nigeria and its people more than “semi”-- I am happy our team won, but those earlier questions of Nigerian Christian prayers came back to me. In a way it was a typically traditional response. When things go wrong in Nigerian life, people seldom take responsibility but blame external forces, including enemies, evil spirits, etc. But this time things went right, at least as far as Nigeria is concerned.  So it is refreshing to see the Governor giving credit for this result to God instead of boasting of the players’ prowess. I wonder about the Cameroonian reaction!  Whom did they hold responsible for their loss?

At the same time, the above picture does not make one think immediately of pious players. The front player seems almost angry, certain aggressive and determined. He’s not about to give anyone a chance!  The second player is having fun, an emotion that does not necessarily exclude spirituality. So, an ambiguous picture.

But my main hesitation is the prayer itself. It is a prayer for a battle, but not a battle for freedom or liberation. Rather a prayer for myself and my people against the interest of another group whose interest is equally valid before God. It is a prayer for my victory and their defeat.  Unless it is a case of an unjust war, Christians do not generally pray against each other but for each other. So, I find this prayer difficult to swallow.  But they did win. So, perhaps God did hear it.  But what if the Cameroonians prayed likewise?

Fortunately, this was for God to figure out, not for me. Sometimes it pays to leave things up to Him!

PS--Sorry that the picture has not appeared. I'm not a techy and don't know how to fix that.  But here's the URL. Try to access it yourself-- http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/242214-super-eagles-defeated-cameroon-prayers-gov-emmanuel.html

Post 182--Irresponsible Boaters Saddle Me with E.coli and Taxes

A Wimpy City Council Enables Irresponsible Boaters

I live in one of the most desirable places in one of the most livable places in the world, as world polsters insist. In fact, my city is often cited as the most livable of all cities.  I suspect that’s an exaggeration, gross even.  Perhaps it’s most desirable for the rich cats, like corporate CEO’s who are parachuted into the city along with their absurd salaries and perks.  It hardly can be the most desirable for the residents of Canada’s poorest postal code, the East Side of the city, popularly referred to as DTES or Down Town East Side. Neither can it be the most desirable for the mostly young people who cannot afford to get into the housing market because it has spiraled out of control and is way beyond them.  But for me and Fran, my wife, it is definitely the best of all cities in the world for a whole bunch of reasons I will not bore you with. 

The city?  If you’ve been reading my blogs, you will know it is none other than Vancouver, British Columbia, on Canada’s Pacific West Coast. We’ve lived on three continents and four countries; we’ve traveled to over 40 countries, but we for ourselves prefer Vancouver as a place to live above every other place, even those we have not visited. 

Our city location?  The West End (WE).  Where within WE?  Davie Village, the very centre of the street at Davie and Bute. The new plaza recently built amounts to our front yard and that has made it twice as pleasant as it already was, what with all the places we need to go within a few minutes walking—groceries, restaurants, dollar store, doctor, dentist, sea wall, Stanley and other nearby parks and swimming place, both in and outdoor--you name it and it’s there all within a few minutes.  Don’t even need a car to get around.  Legs and transit are all you need, thank you. If you have legs stronger than our senior ones, bikes are helpful as well.

But the place is not a paradise; it has its very serious problems and inconveniences—and some yucky places that just plain make you mad. Just four blocks down the steep hill from our rental unit there’s the Sea Wall alongside False Creek, a beautiful place to walk, saunter, sit, relax and enjoy. If you need proof of that, come and check out the crowds making use of the place on any sunny and even not-so-sunny days. 

So what’s the problem?  Crap, that’s what it is. Sorry for the coarse word, but what it describes cannot be put in polite Christian language.  You need a more acceptable word? Well, the article from I am drawing uses the term “waste.”  For me, that doesn’t do it; it’s much worse. It’s the crap that boaters dump into the waters of False Creek and has so contaminated the place that its level of E.coli is too high for safe swimming.  Fran and I cannot swim in that most beautiful and natural swimming place just down the street from us.

And that only because of egoistic and irresponsible boaters who can’t be bothered using the facilities that are in place to dump their crap.  The city has been offering two free sewage pump-out stations for people to use, but you think they care enough to take the trouble?  No, too much trouble.  Jonathan Paetkau, a company that is now providing the new additional  free pump-out service, suggests that “one of the main reasons people are not using the city pump-outs is it takes a lot of time to move your boat off the dock, take it to a pump-out , pump it out and take it back to the dock.”  However, “if there’s a way they can pump out their boats without that stress, they are happy about that.”  Another boater said, “The whole pump-out situation was too messy, too stinky and really haphazard.” So, just dump it into these pristine waters in the middle of a great city and let the community suffer from it. Who cares?

The new facility referred to consists of two pump-out boats that visit the boats and relieve them—again free of charge,  at least, to them, but I pay for it via taxes.  So, here we have another case so typical of this city. Instead of forcing responsibility on people, they find a tax-supported way of evading responsibility for eliminating the problem without forcing a change in behaviour.  Not even when His Handsomeness, the Mayor, admits publicly that these boaters “have no business pumping any of their sewage into False Creek.”  Indeed, but does the Mayor have any business charging me for the privilege of boat life that these people apparently love?  I think not.

I believe I have a better suggestion.  At the beginning of the city’s tax year, charge an annual fee to each boater, enough to cover the average annual cost of dumping and some extra to pay for this programme. When at the end of the year a boater can show receipts for having been a responsible dumper, he gets a rebate or it gets applied to the next year. No receipts, no rebate, and that annual fee will apply each time. If the fee is not paid in time, the boat gets hauled away at owner’s expense.

There may be some problems with this approach, especially legal, lawyers will see to that, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. And that’s the problem with the fathers of this most beautiful or livable of most cities: they have no will. They prefer to crawl around a problem to facing it head-on. A city run by lack of resolve. It’s costing me and in the meantime, I have to go elsewhere to swim.

The main source for this post is Wanyee Li, “Mobile pump-out service launches in False Creek.”  MetroNews, August 16, 2017, p. 4. http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2017/08/15/vancouver-launches-free-mobile-pump-out-services-for-false-creek-boaters.html.  Thank you, Li.