Blog Against All the -Isms Day

"Stained glass" in the Montreal metro

Chris Clarke, the instigator, has compiled a list of the Blogs Against Racism that appeared last week and also written a good post about some of the less favorable comments on the idea. One of my personal favorites was written by qB, about an experience she had in Africa. If you haven't read it, you're in for a surprise.

Africa was in the news again (thanks,  Richard) with this report from the Daily Sun (Nigeria) on the first annual meeting of Changing Attitudes Nigeria, a newly-formed group of gay and lesbian Anglicans who have shown tremendous courage in coming out in a country, and a religious climate, where homosexuality is absolutely taboo. Once again, as many of the Blog Against Racism posts indicated, it is one thing to sit here and commend these people for their courage and quite another to actually be them, and I am certainly not going to congratulate myself for noticing them and blogging about it. We can keep them in our thoughts and prayers, and better yet, do what they would probably want us to do: speak out in our own societies against oppression of all kinds, and show direct love and friendship to everyone.

Mac-Iyalla started his address by expressing surprise at the number of those who responded to the clarion call to attend the meeting. He claimed that he had budgeted for just 120 people. But from Daily Sun’s estimation, those who attended the meeting were about a thousand.

Mac-Iyalla went further to say that if he had caved in to pressures from some members to hold the meeting at the night, he was sure that the attendance would have been more than a thousand.
And true to his words, during the dinner party which came up in the night after the Saturday meeting, those in attendance were well over a thousand.

He disclosed during the meeting that he refused to concede to the pressure to hold the meeting at night because they are not "the people of the dark," adding that (Nigerian) Archbishop Akinola was not a better Christian than any of them.

The Daily Sun has a detailed personal interview with Mr. Mac-Iyalla here.

A number of messages of good will had been sent from people across the word, including a message from Bishop Gene Robinson, quoted at the end of the first article mentioned above. Meanwhile, South Africa has passed a same-sex marriage law. Archbishop Akinola must be seething with indignation and disgust.

At the cathedral here yesterday, the Dean preached a very courageous sermon about Advent and the historical meaning of Jesus' ministry. It was also one of the most progressive sermons, theologically, that I have ever heard. He did not mince words, and stated emphatically that when the Gospel is twisted by fundamentalists to oppress and exclude anyone on the basis of their race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation it is not only historically mistaken, it is evil. I don't use that word often, but I agree with the Dean on this point: the use of religion, especially Christianity, to justify oppression, violence, and killing is a wrong as wrong gets, and we must say so loudly and publically.

I am outraged when I hear Western apologists whimpering that we must "look at what the Holy Spirit is doing in Africa", citing the numbers of converts and church growth. My answer is that what is growing there is not Christianity as I know and practice it, and that the growth is based on false promises, cultural manipulation, and lies about the most basic concepts contained in the teachings. The Dean's word encapsulates that very well.

Comments

[Tom Montag]

You know, if Christians were Christian, I might still be one. As it is, I have to content myself with being a Sermon-on-the-Mount-Zen-Pantheist. It works for me, and I feel closer my fellow man than I ever did in church.