africa
We have these neighbors who go to an evangelical church that does various mission trips to Africa. They're currently planning another one. It seems to be a trendy thing nowadays, what with all the Rick Warrens and Rob Bells and Bill Gates with so much money to throw at the problem that is the entire continent of Africa. Keith Richburg wrote a rather hopeless article on the state of the continent and its people. Zimbabwe, once the bread-basket of Africa, is now in famine. South Africa, which once had a space program, is now third world. Hopefully, China moving into the continent will restore some form of law and order.
As time goes on, one has to wonder how many of the ills of the continent can still be blamed on the white man and how many should be blamed on the people of Africa. I mean, there were plenty of Asian countries that were colonized by Europe that are doing much, much better than Africa is today. Look at China. Millions of Manchurians were killed during World War II by the Japanese and China was divided up amongst the Great Powers of the day prior. Is it the place of famine and disease that Africa is? How about Vietnam? Is it as bad as Africa even after France and the US occupied it? How about India? Is it the disaster Africa is now that the British have left? I think you get the idea.
Whether the continent is the way it is because of the genetics of the people living there or the culture of those people doesn't really change the facts. I'm not sure any amount of aid money is going to fix it, whether it comes from Christian groups, the UN, the US, or China. It doesn't seem to be doing any good and most of the money seems to be ending up in the wrong hands. As lottery winners and NBA players prove, there's nothing monetary gifts will do for these people. People who are poor are often poor because of their own habits and smarts. On a national scale, poor countries are often poor because their people, collectively, have habits and values that make them that way. I think this is much closer to the correct explanation for poverty in Africa. Tyrants rule because people there respect the Big Man who can "bend the rules" and take power for himself. Poverty is the rule because the people there have habits that make them poor.
In light of this, I think evangelical groups and governmental aid groups ought to introspect. Are they giving money to Africa to help Africans or because giving money to Africans makes us feel better about ourselves? Further, if we're that confident our aid money is well spent, why do we need to buy a plane ticket to bring it over there? Why couldn't these evangelical groups just wire the money plus the money they would have spent on the plane ticket? I think we know the answer.
PRCalDude
(h/t ColtsFan) Sex crimes are rampant in the Congo. How is the legacy of colonialism responsible for this? How can the white man fix this with charity?
PRCalDude
Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.He lived to fight another day, huh?
How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.
Yep, it sure makes whites with disposable income feel better about themselves.
I think, if we need to give money to people there, it ought to be through Voice of the Martyrs or some other tightly controlled, worthwhile means.
PRCalDude
I fixed the broken link to Richburg's article above.
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Reader Comments (8)
if you want to read a real whack a do from the federal vision crowd, read Doug Jones blog. practically a Christian Chomsky, and ignorant....he'd probably blame these sex crimes on 'intervention' by some absurd link
btw, he has a post up about how "economic sins" are worse than sexual sins...not equal but worse.
jp, could you supply a html?
You mean, D. Wilson?
Doug Jones, he is associate pastor at Wilson's church. His blog looks like a moveon.org of a different sort.
http://scribblativeagincourting.wordpress.com/
post is linked under Top Post: "Why Economic sins are weighter than Sexual Sins"
i'm interpreting "weighter' as worse than.....I will say its an interesting thought but given some of what his blog says I view him with skepticism. He called Thomas Sowell a "statist" last week over his Patriotism article
Isn't it interesting that one of the things white colonialism brought to Africa was education, industry, law and order, and even an end to much black on black slavery.
We kick the whites out and the whole region falls back into tribal conflict and anarchy.
What is up?
There is one more thing that with white colonialism, and that is Christianity and a common moral compass. When that moral compass was removed the vacuum was filled by old tribal rituals and and religions of hate such as Islam.
Pumping money into the dark continent can not solve these problems.
I don't know. I just know that the PC dogma (legacy of European colonialism) doesn't provide the answers.
Much is made of the spread of Christianity in Africa. I can't see any evidence of this. I think what is spreading is a syncretism between various tribal religions and Pentacostalism, the latter offers an appealing theology of glory rather than the theology of the cross offered by Lutheranism and Presbyterianism.
I think the money is doing a lot more harm than good, creating demographic "youth bulges" that bring many more young men in the world to fight in wars than would otherwise be there. These young men take what they want while the rest starve.