In the final moments of this project, I set on a search to find proof that churches and christians are different from the stereotype I hold. My search proved to be difficult to say the least, as I googled different phrases to find the positive contribution of the church or proof that christians by the masses live by the ideals they hang to--I was saddened that there was little to find. Either the marketing for churches and christians desperately needs to be changed...or the church and christians in America are lacking evidence of good.
But alas! Where there is a will---there is a way...and I did find an article that made me pause...made me think: "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God" written by Matthew Parris http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece
In this article, Matthew Parris, a professed atheist makes a startling confession: "Now a confirmed atheist, I have become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa, Christianity changes people hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good."
Matthew Parris makes a startling discovery on his trip to Africa....he found the one thing I believe churches and Christians in America lack--the one thing I long for: "The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiousity, an engagement with the world--a directness in dealing with others---that seemed to be missing in traditional African life....Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct man to man, without looking down or away. They had not become deferential towards strangers--in some ways less so--but more so."
HELLO PEOPLE!!! This is it!! This is why I stereotype churches and christians in America....because churches talk about this change....and do not produce it....and here it is in AFRICA!! Something is real--I want to dance inside...really? you mean REAL exists?....but it isn't churches...
Parris continues: "Christianity, post Reformation and post Luther, with its teaching of a direct personal two way link between the individual and God, and unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being....it offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates....And I am afraid that ...removing christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent of the malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete."
Somthing is real...I know I have seen it as Parris has...but as Parris reflects...it isn't found in churches. It is found among people who are changed. Those who are real--you see it in their eyes. You know you are around someone who is different from the rest, you may not be able to put your finger on why or how...but you know in your gut...the person is different from others. And this differences liberates...frees...and creates strong individuals. Something I have yet to see in church....but I know I have seen in the eyes of those on this journey with me...something I pray people see in me.
I was looking for contribution of churches and christianity that made me do a double take on my stereotype....instead I found that the contribution that matters is the one made by those who found God...not religion.
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