Coming from a largely secular world, the religiosity of Kenya can take you aback; people will, on being introduced to you, asked if you have been ‘saved’ and downtown Nairobi is a ghost town on Sunday mornings when people are in church.
When I went to the YMCA the other day, I spotted this banner for ‘Operation: Plunder Hell’ a somewhat more aggressive marketing strategy for the church than you would see back in the UK. The event promised a range of miracles: ’Lame walk, Blind see, Dumb speak, Deaf Hear, Sinners saved, Oppressed delivered and prophetic release of destinies’.
That is some miracle list! I would be happy with strained muscles healed, lisps cured, short-sightedness corrected.
There is a lot of literal belief in the Bible and in the personification of the devil, so when the banner says ‘Operation: Plunder Hell’, they don’t mean it as a euphemism. People will probably be disappointed if there isn’t actual fire and brimstone at the event.It just goes to show that church missonaries were very successful, it makes me wonder why there aren't any missonaries for atheism? Richard Dawkins doesn't count. I guess preaching the word of... ...well, nothing is never going to be as attractive as Operation: Plunder Hell.
who'd have thought Kenya had so much in common with Southern Indiana?
ReplyDeleteThis place makes me sick with it's religiosity. It is a place where people believe anything as long as they are promised that it will be a panacea to their problems. The heaven-hell axis have reaped lots from the poor (this includes pastors and witchdoctors).
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, religion is a lucrative business in Kenya with people hawking Jesus in any open space... On the other hand witchdoctors have a rich market in this place where spiritualism pervades a majority.
Apparently, majority of Kenyans believe in both.... existence of an evil force and a puritanical force that enter and exit them. As a result most Christians in this part of the world are both customers to the church-runners and the witchdoctors.
What will save this country from this religiosity? Are we escaping from ourselves-- not really being able to see ourselves as sources of our problems and successes? We want to blame some dark forces when mistakes happen in our lives, then the preachers want to convince us that any thing good that comes our way is god-given and thus we must take a tenth to them in order to please god further.this has been repeated to us since we were babies and now it has become part of us!!!