My views on religion are not nearly as extreme as Bill Maher's but there are times that I feel the same amount of outrage. In Northern Uganda (I've blogged about it here) I watched an evangelical rally where the preacher told people that Jesus would cure their AIDs if they just converted. Jesus would heal malaria too. Never mind that the costs of just one of the 120 "pastors" plane tickets would have bought mosquito nets for every child in Gulu.
Here is news for the preacher, the people that he was talking to are already christian. The Catholic church has been active in Northern Uganda decades, they run hospitals there. The preachers that put on this spectacle were in town for 4 days. That is the worst sort of false piety. Flash over commitment.
-Stephen Alvarez
Stephen: Keep showing all sides of our faith. Show the bad sides.
We Christians like to keep up appearances and we tend to keep quiet when things like this pop up.
Posted by: Joseph Louthan | October 03, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Let me share a a story, in words, not pictures.
On his way back from this trip to Uganda, Stephen and I met in London and he shared these images and this story with me.
On my flight back to the US, I met a most interesting man. He seemed very American yet clearly African at the same time. We began a conversation, and he told me about AIDS education work he was doing in South Africa, and about a food delivery project in Mozambique (they has to split the rations: so many children showed up from the village). Then he explained that he has grown up in SA, and his wife was from Mozambique, and that he was working as a pastor for a church, a clearly evangelical church.
So I took a deep breath and told him Stephen's experience in Uganda, and asked him what he thought about telling people that if they converted and believed that Jesus would heal them.
He sighed. Then he said, "In the Bible, April, Jesus did many miracles. He healed the sick. He cured leprosy. And if God choses to heal someone who has Aids and perform a miracle, then I will not stand in God's way. But in the meantime there is a lot of work to be done."
It was a humbling conversation and reminder that it is not about being Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Orthodox, or Atheist or Gnostic or Agnostic, that it is about compassion and finding the work that needs to be done.
BTW the man I talked to had grown up working plantations in South Africa, had worked as a successful engineer in the US, and felt called to leave his job to do the work he is doing now. I wish him success.
Posted by: April | October 02, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Let me be very clear. I don't think that Christians "suck" I don't even think that there is anything wrong with Evangelicals. There are many many who are doing good, long term committed work. I think that I should blog about some of them in the future.
But I am not going to sit quietly when I hear such outrageous statements from supposed christians anymore.
Posted by: Stephen Alvarez | October 02, 2008 at 11:30 AM
I agree with the guy above. I'm a devout Christian, and I am humiliated when people do stuff like that.
Posted by: Peter | October 02, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Jesus will heal if they converted?
Let me go read the entire Bible and see if I can find that passage of Scripture.
*reads Bible
Shockingly enough, I couldn't find it because IT AIN"T IN THERE.
They were not preaching gospel and preaching something that is clearly not in the Bible.
I'm sorry that we Christians suck. Sorry. I'm really sorry.
Posted by: Joseph Louthan | October 02, 2008 at 09:25 AM