Sub-Title: In Africa the mainline
Churches have been challenged first by the growth of independent communities
and now by new religious movements. The principal of Tangaza College in
Nairobi warns against those who purvey false dreams.
Author: Aylward Shorter
Publications:Renovacao, Panaji,
Goa
Date: May 1-31, 2001
To get a flavour of the local African
Church, the Missionaries of Africa (or White Fathers) held their plenary
council in Nairobi, instead of in Rome, this September. As part of the
experience, the members attended the Sunday worship of some of the new
religious movements. They dispersed to venues such as the "Majdmum Miracle
Centre", the "Winners' Chapel", the "Stop Suffering Church", "Jesus is
Alive Ministries", "The Achievers" and others. For many, it was a new experience.
These movements represent a new religious phenomenon in Africa, different
from the so-called African Independent Churches.
Around the time when African countries
were achieving political independence in the 1960s, a number of independent
Churches came into existence. They were part of the nationalist protest
against the colonial powers and against their mainline Christian collaborators.
Many scholars confidently predicted that these Churches would represent
the future of Christianity on the continent. However, this was not to be.
The Africanisation of the mainline Churches and their development of popular
African forms of worship stole some of the independent Churches' thunder.
Against scholarly expectation, the' mainline Churches remained in touch
with the grass roots and continued to grow.
The independent Churches, however,
continue in existence, but they belong to an older image of Africa, if
not to an older generation of Africans. They employ ethnic vernaculars.
They reinterpret ethnic traditions and they frequently possess an ethnic
type of hereditary leadership. The new religious movements, on the other
hand, are more ephemeral and more modern. They affect to despise traditional
culture. They employ evangelistic techniques and music from the American
Bible belt, and they make extensive use of the media. They use the English
language and they have charismatic leaders who are star performers.
Pentecostal Churches were established
in Kenya and other African countries almost from the inception of Pentecostalism
itself at the beginning of the twentieth century. Today, mainline Pentecostalism
is attracting converts from among young African professionals, people who
are on the threshold of the affluent consumer society, and who feel the
need of an ethical code by which to live. Pentecostal church buildings
are going up in the city suburbs. The new religious movements, however,
are more attractive to the poorer classes, those who yearn for the affluent
life style, but who cannot attain it. They are neo-Pentecostal. They cultivate
the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, healing and exorcism, but they combine
them with the so-called prosperity Gospel, the belief that God will reward
with riches those who have faith, those who obey the commandments and,
above all, those who give generously to their pastors.
The new religious movements are
heirs to the tradition of Protestant Revival, which, in East Africa, goes
back to the end of the nineteenth century, and which they tend to imitate,
if not to caricature. Salvation is linked to an instantaneous personal
conversion, not to a journey of faith within a sacramental Church. In their
preaching, biblical sound-bites are used to confirm the idea of a quick-fix
salvation, which promises success, health and prosperity in this life.
Faith in Jesus is the answer to each and every social problem, and such
problems are typically attributed to demonic agency.
A few years ago, the claim was made
in a missionary publication that thousands upon thousands of Kenyan Catholics
are joining the Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals. This may indeed be the
case, and one certainly comes across ex-Catholics who belong to the new
religious movements, but it is difficult to prove a massive defection.
There is certainly no parallel with nominally Catholic Latin American countries
for which accurate statistics exist, such as Brazil, Chile or Guatemala.
In these countries the number of Catholics is declining and the number
of Pentecostals is increasing. In African countries, such as Kenya, the
Catholic population continues to increase, as much by adult conversions
as by infant baptisms. It seems also that many of those who attend neo-Pentecostal
crusades and miracle centers are "religious tourists", moving from one
denomination to another in search of a miraculous solution to their problems.
The danger is that, when success finally eludes them, they give up the
practice of religion altogether.
New religious movements prefer to
be registered as non- governmental organisations, rather than as Churches.
This makes fundraising and money spending easier. Their registered priorities
are seldom religious, but their claim to he serving the interests of education
or medicine is belied by the fact that they do not usually run schools,
clinics or hospitals. In fact, at the level of the wider society their
influence is negligible, because their doctrines en- courage a passive
attitude to- wards social and economic development. Only faith, then say,
can solve the problems of poverty, ignorance and disease.
At the level of the family and the
neighbourhood community; however, the new religious movements have a beneficial
effect. They discourage alcoholism drug-taking, sexual promiscuity and
financial irresponsibility, all of which undermine family stability. This
stand is particularly attractive to women, who are often the victims of
such vices and who are the most vulnerable section of society. New religious
movements create possibilities for women in their organizations, while
at the same time offering them power, dignity and success. Young people,
who constitute more than half the population of African countries, are
the most frustrated. They are seeking miraculous breakthrough in their
own lives, and a sense of belonging and identity that they do not find
in the family or mainline church community. They are also attracted by
a form of worship that resembles a Gospel disco.
New religious movements make use
of disused cinemas and warehouses. They pitch tents in open spaces or hold
crusades in public parks and on empty building sites. This goes with their
ephemeral character and low overheads, hut it often involves them in disputes
with authorities and with one another. A long-running legal struggle has
been waged for most of this year between one such movement in Nairobi and
the owners of the warehouse it is using. In June, television viewers were
amazed to watch a pitched battle between the supporters of two new religious
movements over the venue of a prayer meeting in a Nairobi park. Earlier,
another new religious movement, originating in Nigeria, crossed swords
with the residents of a Nairobi estate, who accused them of noise pollution
and even of drug smuggling.
THE leaders of new religious movements
frequently claim to hear the voice of God or to be recipients of a special
revelation. Those with a Catholic background may assert that may is speaking
to them or through them. The idea of having a hotline to heaven that by-
passes ordinary church authorities can be attractive, and it plays no small
part in the transformation of such a movement into a cult, in which the
adepts surrender their minds, as well as their property, to the leader.
The germs of the terrifying cult massacre at Kanungu in Uganda in March
can be found in almost every new religious movement.
The fear among Catholics is that,
even if they do not go to such extremes, new religious movements may be
spreading such distorted understandings of faith, salvation and repentance
as to prejudice the preaching of genuine Christiallity. Bv contrast, the
Charismatic Renewal Movement offers African Catholics an experience of
Pentecostalism that is integrated within a sacramental Church and which
is compatible with Catholic teaching. Regular healing Masses take place?
and there are open- air Catholic crusades. There are also some 20 groups
of young Catholic evangelisers in Kenya, known as the Pope John Paul-II
Evangelising Teams. In the final analysis, however, there is no substitute
for ensuring a serious, Bible-based catechetical formation for children
and adults. Here also is work and relevance for the mainline Churches.