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In a number of ways, life “post-Tanzania” will not be the same as life “pre-Tanzania.” For one, today is my first day working from home as a freelance writer rather.� That reality is both exciting and terrifying.� How do I begin?� What if I fail, and I don’t get paid enough?� Will I be able to manage my time in a responsible way?� I am entrusting these questions — along with the innumerable others — to God, who holds my life in the palm of his hand.� He is in control.� He will be my guide and provider. Today is also the day I begin my work as the recreation coordinator at a local youth center.� Again, this both excites and terrifies me.� Will the kids like me?� Will my presence have any noticeable impact on them at all?� Will the activities I help plan connect with them in the least?� Will my lack of Spanish fluency hurt my influence in that place?� Again, these are out of my hands at this point. (except maybe the Spanish part … gotta get down to Central America for some language school!) Third, I think we both have a slightly different outlook having visited Africa.� Those who have visited Africa know that it has consistently gotten screwed in its long history - crusaders and occupiers, corrupt leadership and government handouts, damaging missions and unhelpful Non-Government Organizations, to name a few.� The continent seems to be reeling from all this, and everyone seems to be out to take care of themselves.� Who can blame them, really?� Things just don’t work as smoothly, efficiently — read: “well” — in Africa.� Forward thinking is almost non-existent, and when it is there it is almost always self-serving.� In short, it is an all-around frustrating place for a person from the West to visit, let alone live. Tanzania is the 11th poorest nation in the world.� We saw some incredible poverty.� Naked, dirty babies; crippled beggars; run-down shacks; mountains of rank garbage — the works.� How can we live the way we’ve been living with the knowledge - and the photos to prove - that this level of poverty exists?� How is sending a check to corrupt African governments actually improving the lives of the babies, the beggars, the single mothers?� (Answer: it’s not)� Are the Christian communities on the continent making any noticeable difference in addressing these issues?� From our experience and conversations with friends who live in Africa, I think the answer is again a general “no.” The first Sunday we were with our friends in Moshi, TZ, we attended a local church.� The service started off extremely refreshing — joyful, loud praise music in Swahili.� Then the American got up to speak.� He spoke of his desire for the congregation to become “less African” because the gospel erases all racial divisions.� He spoke of the financial abundance that is triggered when a person writes a check for more money than they can give and brings it to the pastor.� He spoke excitedly about a church in Zimbabwe — one of Africa’s poorest countries — that had recently built a $10 million building to house its more than 12,000 members, saying that this church’s “success” came as a result of sacrificial tithing.� He asserted that the way of Jesus was one of power … of loudly voicing one’s beliefs … of “taking nations for Christ” — by force. The whole sermon, which lasted far too long than it should have, made me extremely uncomfortable.� It was as if he was speaking an unintelligible language.� He was preaching an Americanized, charismatic prosperity message in a context that is so far from that it’s not even funny.� What if these people never leave poverty?� What if they don’t build a $10 million building or grow to 12,000 members?� Does that mean God hasn’t blessed them?� Did they not pray hard enough?� Is it OK for these sweet Tanzanians to be — get this — both “poor” and “blessed?”� I was pretty much sickened by the cultural insensitivity of this preacher and message, but luckily, I’m not sure it took.� In other words, I think he may have been just a little too “out there” to have any lasting impact on this little community of believers.� Thank God. There’s no telling the damage that the West has done on Africa with its brand of Christianity.� Our friends there say with confidence that in all their travels on the continent, they’ve never visited an authentically African church.� Why is that?� Is it because the westerners can’t keep their grubby hands off of it long enough for it to be culturally appropriate?� Is it because Africans are made to believe that the Western faith is the ONLY faith, and those who don’t accept this aren’t appointed as leaders?� Is it a fear of syncretism with the local folk beliefs?� Might many of those in the mix not know any better?� I’m not sure exactly, but I would guess it’s a combination of these and more factors. I’m thankful that our good friends in Tanzania are looking to break this trend.� More on how they are doing this in a later blog post. ——————— This is late news, of course, but many of you will be happy to know that my brother’s band, Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys, won the Sound and Jury contest and played at last weekend’s Austin City Limits music festival!� They beat out 300 bands who entered the contest and were voted on by fans and a celebrity panel of judges to earn the spot. � This was indeed an amazing honor, but these guys are good for it — they’ve worked hard in the 2 1/2 years of being a band.� Go check out these great ACL 4-minute features about HHRB leading up to the finale, and go listen to their tunes if you haven’t.� Oh, and buy their new EP — “Sing, Bird, Sing” — from their mySpace page when it’s released on September 27th.
Original content at: http://harvestboston.net/20070924/reflections-on-life/.
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Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.