Religion Across Cultures-Reflection

Christianity in Tanzania accounts for the beliefs of approximately 1/3 of the population and is on the upswing. In PH's time here he has seen an increase from 1,900 people attending the various churches he has had his hand in planting (and by that, I really mean that he has devoted his life to seeing established) to the current 18,000+ attendees in any of the 124 churches, and they are growing all the time. PH often talks about the changes in relationships that he has seen result from such an increase, mostly the peace that has come among Maasai relationships with the farmers. It certainly is far from gone, but the Maasai are much less likely to retaliate in anger, which means a lot less people being killed over stolen cattle. They are much more likely to use peaceful means to solve the problems like a public protest or taking there issues before a government official and demanding to be protected/compensated for losses.

I have really enjoyed getting to know and understand PH's beliefs and take on Christianity, especially evangalism. I can fully appreciate his openness to differences among different Christian beliefs. He seems to really get what I feel it means to preach the Gospel of Christ, rather than 'though shall not ___'. I think it's something that I and many other Christians could use a lesson on: knowing what is worth 'preaching' and what is better left to God to deal with in the heart of each individual (I use the term preaching losely because I think that it too often is used in reference to the words we speak, rather than the actions we display). As a young person raised in a Baptist church, I came to believe that we were the only church who had any idea about what was going on (not about the Jesus thing, but about all that secondary doctrine that has been changed and modified by every church throughout history). Okay, there may have been a few other churches that had it almost right, but in my ignorance, I still thought that God liked us more because we had it alllll figured out. Ha! Fortunately I have seen through my ignorance and had my views and my opinions challenged, criticized, battered, and pretty much shattered, not about Jesus, but about everything else that we associate with Jesus: baptism by immersion or sprinkling, infant baptism or believer baptism, abortion, homosexuality, what role does Mary play anyway?, what role should women play in the church?, did God really turn water into wine or was that just grape juice??. I don't think this belief that 'we've got it all figured out' is uncommon among most churches, hence why so many different denominations continue to exist and why more and more have continued to arise. I think that's the hardest/saddest part of observing Christianity here in Tanzania. The separation among denominations still exists and it’s only going to increase as more and more churches around the world continue to work on their own to establish their own sect of Christianity. Go into any village that has a Lutheran church here, and you'll almost certainly find a Catholic and/or Assembly of God church as well; meanwhile, there are other villages who don't have a church at all. It's like a competition among churches to see who can get the most people and who can get there beliefs most widely accepted. PH said that in one village we went to, an Assembly of God church was established after the Lutheran church had already been around for a while, but the Assembly of God church decided to implement a keyboard and some other instruments to liven up the place and to attract the young people. It worked until the Assembly of God Church told them that they all would have to be re-baptized because they had been baptized in the Lutheran church by sprinkling so it didn't really count (still sounds like home). My intention is not to point out anyone denomination as being right or wrong, but that is one example of the type of situation that has occurred. Another village that already has an Assembly of God and Lutheran Church now has an enormous Catholic church being established that is so large (and unecessary in my mind, bells and all) that I’m convinced that 3 or 4 adequate churches could have been built for the same amount of money. What is it with building anyway? I thought people were the Church of Christ.

The Bible it says, "There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one BAPTISM; one God and Father of ALL, who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:4-6. I think that if water wasn't such a precious commodity around here, PH would dig a big pool and have a small tub of water in every church, under the same roof, and let people pick which method they wanted just to show that it is not the method by which you are baptized that God was trying to stress, rather it waste the meaning behind the act. It has always been my desire to see the Church united as God intended it to be (did God even intend for churches to be a word?), to be one Body of people all working for the same purpose. Shane Claiborne referenced this quote in his book the "Irresistible Revolution". It says, "We've got to unite ourselves as one body. Because Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back for a bride, not a harem."

Another interesting point that I have encountered here is all of the encounters with spirit possession. In one service, we saw 5 or 6 women possessed by spirits. Apparently it’s because they often go to the witch doctor in desperation of healing and instead are given these evil spirits. I have begun to wonder in my many encounters with this, why evil spirits are so present among Christians here and not among Christians in America (or at least no the ones I’ve met). We worship the same God and are attacked by the same Devil, so why do we not see this sort of thing in churches back home (not that I'm disappointed by it, I'm just truly curious)? Have we some how escaped this? Are we to ‘advanced’ for that sort of thing? I find it strange that all of the evil spirits I’ve ever seen have been in the last two months and confined to one continent. Are we missing some aspect of the spiritual world? And are we just as incapable of experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit as we are of these evil spirits, as both are biblical? If you have an opinion/idea, I'd love to hear it!