Christian philosophy is the light for Kenya

Christianity in Kenya is a daily reality, as seen through this
street art. 

'Re-situating reason as the foundation of our society and engine of its aspirations must now be an urgent task of our activism' the author emphatically sums up this opprobrium against the church. Yet the author (and the paper) have colluded to ignorantly launch barbs at Christianity.
In summary, this piece tries to explain why religion (yet the author has the church specifically in his mind) and its growing role in Kenyan politics is a retrogressive idea. His idea is that reason and religion (church) can never co-exist. He goes further on a historical fishing (mis)adventure in shallow historical waters. His intention is to prove his personal notions by trying to get history to align with his fantastic ideas. Let me quote a few of his blunt sayings.
'Human beings need spiritual fulfilment. But when religion becomes a substitute for strategic action to solve our problems, then our society is in danger of regressing to a situation akin to that of the Middle Ages.' This does not make sense. From the beginning (I am Christian), ancient societies never knew a dichotomy between religion and the 'secular' world. This is a product of the 17th-18th century age of enlightenment. Philosophers, thinkers and men of reason began questioning the rationale of religion. Though it resulted in greater knowledge and refinement of religion, it also caused extremists to conjure up fantasies just for the sake of cramping up religious space. This is where the author has situated his argument, in a land called phantasmagoria, where people all their time talking endlessly about the latest ideas without coming to any meaningful conclusion.
Indeed, religion was (and is) an all-powerful balm in everyone's life, to the point that it was abused by men. This is really a problem of man and his self-serving desire to control fellow man for his own benefit. This is false (or contaminated) religion. Even the bible discerns between false and true (pure and undefiled) religion. James 1:27 declares that true religion is 'to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.' (ESV) Essentially, true religion is an issue of a beneficial relationship between one and his fellow man as well as rightness with God. Without knowing it, the writer's argument gets theological. He has just swum into the open sea. The article becomes theologically turbulent without hope of rescue. The author has no grasp of the Church and its nature. Let us throw him (and the newspaper) a lifejacket and lifeline.
He says industrial revolution and democracy are proof of human reason. Democracy itself is a confused idea. Even early philosophers saw it as more autocratic than absolute monarchies. (My opinion: Kenya and Zimbabwe in 2017 are proof that democracy is really a horror movie with an awesome trailer.) History shows us that the 14th century Church Reformation was the precursor to the Industrial Revolution. The church was able to recover and rebuild its true foundations. This allowed for critical thinking which led to innovations and discoveries that changed the world (and are still changing the world). Christian philosophy was behind this revolution. It is based on The Man Jesus Christ's innovative and true teachings that had been distorted by years of contaminated religion.
This author brings home his argument of reason over Christianity's dalliance with Kenyan politics by arguing subtly for separation of Church and state. Indeed he lampoons 'conniving clergy', exercising 'retrogressive influence on our politics and society' and an 'epidemic of preachers laying hands on politicians from both the opposition and government'. He singles out the national prayer breakfast as a hypocritical show of Church's influence. He also scoffs at the recent spate of cleansing prayers at accident blackspots arguing that reason should prove these misfortunes are a result of corruption and bad roads. As is now common, 'faith-based' miracles are labelled as conmanship. Bad leadership is also singled out as the cause of poverty and underdevelopment. He has very valid points, (of course except for the often repeated stereotypical lie about most preachers.) The general tone of the article paints the church and its beliefs as hocus pocus and spiritual twaddle. Reason then, to this author, is Kenya's salvation.
By reasoning then, I must ask Tee Ngugi, who owns The East African and what is his agenda!

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/oped/comment/The-thieving-leaders-and-a-conniving-clergy/434750-4248996-n096gr/index.html

Feminism in Kenyan Christian political theology

We began building the concept of Christian Political theology. This concept is important because it lays the foundation for born again Christians to fully engage in politics at all levels of governance. (The assumption is that Christians still are afraid in embracing politics as part of our God given divine mandate on earth. I believe this is a hangover of 'this is not our home, we are just passing by, have nothing to do with it' philosophy, which has effectively been debunked.)

We dealt with the concept of God as the source of our political opinions and man as the object of these opinions. We did say that the welfare of man and his environment is the object of this theology.

Let us go further into the concept of man and delineate the genders. It is evident we have a lot of work to do to bring in the woman fully into the political life of Kenya. Last week, Kenya got three women governors. This was a great step forward. We would like to see a situation where women engage in competitive politics as equals with men and where their chances are equal to men. (For the sake of clarity, let us make it clear man and woman are different in terms of their sexual composition and function.) KTN ran a documentary entitled 'against the grain' where women detailed the sexually explicit harassment meted against them. It is clear that though we say we want the advancement of women, in actual fact the big men are at the center of oppressing women. Millie Odhiambo Mabona's testimony at the hands of male parliamentarians attests to this. There is a lot of cataloged testimony of women who have tried to advance in politics but they have been intimidated by the androcentric nature of our politics. (Sophia Abdi Noor's win in a strongly patristic area as Ijara shows that there is still hope for more women to be elected in other competitive seats outside of the County Women Reps.)

Christian Political ideology incorporates scriptural feminist theology. We believe that man and woman were created equal and given a divine mandate over creation equally. Sexual construction in no way is a factor for preference of the male over the female.

In fact, gender difference is another reason why women ought to be fully involved in politics. Since man (as a term for both male and female) was created in God's image, the fact that God further made a distinction between the male and female proves that the two are the fullest representation of God's image. Without a woman, the world would be dystopian. A woman in her physical and psychological makeup fully represents God's image as much as a man does in his entire construction.

To discriminate a woman because of her figure and accoutrements is to malign and dishonor the image of God. (In fact, it is an attempt to attack God.) This applies to those who issue sexually suggestive threats, intimidate women by their bigger and stronger physical stature and deride women's delicate emotional nature. All forms of sexually explicit and implicit violence against women(again Millie Adhiambo Mabona serves as a sad example) is not in any way Christian Political Theology.

At this point, congratulations are in order for the three women governors (H.E Charity, H.E Laboso and H.E Waiguru), and 22 women MP's elected to the National Assembly (begining with Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona, MP elect for Suba North) as wel as the 2 senators, Isiolo's Dulla Fatuma Adan and Nakuru's Susan Wakarura Kihika.

In Christian Political Theology, women are indispensable if we are to execute God's mandate of redemption of our political culture in Kenya.

The Terrible Failure of the Secular Gospel

By Michael Brown

http://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/23142-the-terrible-failure-of-the-secular-gospel

Almost 20 years ago, the journal First Things published an article by a famous German theologian named Wolfhart Pannenberg titled "How to Think About Secularism." In the article, Pannenberg outlined the nature of secularism and how it threatened the church, also explaining how the church should not respond to the challenge.

Looking back, it's clear that many of our pastors and leaders have done the opposite of what he counseled, and we are paying the price for it today.

Pannenberg himself was orthodox in some of his beliefs and unorthodox in others, but I'm focusing here on his observations about secularism rather than his overall theology.

Tracing today's Western secularism back to the 17th century, he wrote, "A public climate of secularism undermines the confidence of Christians in the truth of what they believe."

So, it is not just a matter of Christians becoming worldly and materialistic. Instead, the secular climate undermines our confidence in the truthfulness of the gospel.

At the same time, Pannenberg writes, "In a secular milieu, even an elementary knowledge of Christianity, 'its history, teachings, sacred texts, and formative figures' [quoting Peter L. Berger] dwindles. It is no longer a matter of rejecting Christian teachings; large numbers of people have not the vaguest knowledge of what those teachings are."

This is exactly what we see today in America and Europe, where a large percentage of the population is completely ignorant of the fundamentals of the faith. Is it any wonder, then, that we find ourselves in such a moral and spiritual tailspin?

But this is only the beginning. As Pannenberg notes, "The more widespread the ignorance of Christianity, the greater the prejudice against Christianity," and when people do search for spiritual truth, they seek out alternative religions instead.

Is this not an accurate description of our nation today, with widespread ignorance of the gospel leading to an increasing hostility to the gospel, and with the assumption that true spirituality must be found in another faith (or outside of any particular faith)?

Truth itself is under attack, as Pannenberg wrote with almost prophetic accuracy: "In the view of many, including many Christians, Christian doctrines are merely opinions that may or may not be affirmed according to individual preference, or depending on whether they speak to personally felt needs. ... Missionary proclamation was once understood as bringing the truth to others, and was therefore both legitimate and extremely important. For many today, the missionary enterprise is a matter of imposing our personal preferences and culturally conditioned prejudices upon others, and is therefore not only illegitimate but morally offensive."

"How dare you impose your religion on us," shouts the world to us incessantly.

That's why the "destruction of [the very idea of truth] is key to legitimating a secularist culture, since the idea of truth touches on secularism's greatest vulnerability."

How then should we respond to the crisis of secularism? What did Pannenberg counsel? Read these words carefully, and then ask yourself if we have followed his counsel or if we have done the exact opposite:

"The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life. If members of a secularist society turn to religion at all, they do so because they are looking for something other than what that culture already provides. It is counterproductive to offer them religion in a secular mode that is carefully trimmed in order not to offend their secular sensibilities."

He has hit the bull's eye with his analysis. But there's more: "What people look for in religion is a plausible alternative, or at least a complement, to life in a secularist society. Religion that is 'more of the same' is not likely to be very interesting."

To be clear, Pannenberg stressed that he was not arguing for "dead traditionalism," noting that, "The old-fashioned ways of doing things in the churches may include elements that are insufferably boring and empty of meaning."

Rather, "Christianity proposed as an alternative or complement to life in a secularist society must be both vibrant and plausible. Above all, it must be substantively different and propose a difference in how people live."

In other words, we must show the world something radically different. We must call the lost into something radically different. We must live lives that are truly different, characterized by the radical, wonderful nature of the gospel and the radical, wonderful new life we experience in Jesus.

Unfortunately, when we try to accommodate our message and method to the secular society, and "when the offending edges are removed, people are invited to suspect that the clergy do not really believe anything so very distinctive."

Why should people listen to us if our message and lives are just like theirs? If we are just like the world, what are we calling the world to? We hurt and bleed like everyone else, and we deal with the same problems everyone deals with, but our message really does bring transformation.

That means that, "The plausible and persuasive presentation of Christian distinctives is not a matter of marketing. It is a matter of what the churches owe to people in our secularist societies: the proclamation of the risen Christ, the joyful evidence of new life in Christ, of life that overcomes death."

And while stating that, "Authentic Christian teaching appropriates all that is valid in the secularist culture," Pannenberg emphasizes that it does so while taking hold of and proclaiming the very truths that the secularist society neglects or even disdains.

Sadly, so many of our American pastors have gone in the opposite direction, and as things have declined in our churches, they have reaffirmed their error rather than corrected it.

In short, they followed a worldly philosophy of accommodation (which is very different than wise, Spirit-led, cultural sensitivity), but rather than this bringing a wave of renewal, salvation and discipleship, it brought more spiritual decline in the form of superficiality and compromise.

Then, as these leaders continued to survey the spiritual landscape, looking at the defection of so many young people from the church and the increasing hostility towards Christianity in our society, rather than recognizing that the real problem was lack of deep commitment to the radical claims of Jesus, they watered down the message even more, removing even more of the offensive edges, lowering the requirements and emphasizing what is trending more than what is truthful.

Now, the floodgates of apostasy have opened wide, and yet so many leaders still do not recognize what has happened, continuing to put the blame in the wrong place.

Yes, by all means, let us be sensitive and compassionate in our outreach to the lost, and let us with humility give ourselves to bless this dying world, living as servants rather than as those who are "holier than thou."

But let us not accommodate the gospel to secularism. Instead, let us show how totally different and other the gospel is, how dramatically transformative new life in Jesus is, and how it is absolutely worth it to know Him and follow Him to the point that we joyfully swim against the tide of a very worldly world, having exactly what this society so desperately needs.

Then, empowered by the Spirit as we proclaim the truth and live the truth, we will change the world rather than the world changing us.

This article was authored by Michael Brown on Charisma Magazine's website on 4/28/2015. You can access the full article by clicking this link http://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/23142-the-terrible-failure-of-the-secular-gospel