Saturday, November 3, 2012

Beliefs

So far I have managed to stay away from discussions about religion and beliefs. Although religion is very important in Tanzania, it is not a topic that is being discussed as much as in Ghana. Every now and then I find myself in a conversation where people ask me which church I visit, but an answer in the lines of ‘I practise my religion but do not go to church and that is what most people in my country do’, is often enough. Yes it sometimes causes faces of unbelief or disappointment and sometimes even results in the question whether I believe that is good, but it does not result in endless conversations like it sometimes did in Ghana. Around 45% of the people in Tanzania is Christian and there are countless different church congregations that all preach from the same Bible. Another 45% of the people are Muslims and probably have a same diversity of schools and mosques. Apart from that there are different traditional beliefs and other religions like Hinduism and Sikh.

One of the huge churches in a village where people have nothing ;-(

One of the colleagues who recently joined our organisation, Johannes, is a Jehova’s witness and he practises his belief with heart, soul AND mouth. Today’s discussion started with an invitation from a befriended Priest to attend a church service on the 1st of January at 7am (My God!) in which the recently born son of a befriended couple will be baptised. Johannes thereupon asks my friend why he involves himself in baptising babies, whereas the Bible states that people should only be baptised if they are old enough to make the choice themselves. He adds that this action of the priest is WRONG! ‘Babies are also the son of God and the parents want the Child to be honoured with the blessing of the Lord’, is not the explanation Johannes wants to hear. ‘That is wrong’, again is the reaction. The priest invites Johannes to explain why, whereupon a whole teaching on bible verses, stories of apostles and other argumentations follows. ‘Even Jesus was only baptised when he was an adult, so......... ‘. ‘I studied 7 years to become a priest’, ‘that is wrong...’, and all other arguments between the two follow. After about 10 minutes listening I can no longer hold my breath. Especially the ‘that is wrong’ argument is a bit too much for me. I have followed the discussion with much interest and nobody asked for my opinion (why would they), but..... I jump in asking if I could add 4 questions to their discussion. I explain that I would love the two to give me the answers to these questions that have kept me busy thinking and weighing for many years:

1.       Is belief not about what people belief themselves and strengthens them in life?

2.       If you would compare different stories in the Bible, would you not find many contradictions?

3.       How can the Bible then be the Truth, also knowing that it was written down and translated many times by people who had their own opinions and interpretations of that Truth?

4.       And how can people then be able to say that things are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’?

What follows is silence only.
And in the mean time the Muslims and Christians in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam fight a tough battle today, Al Qaida thinks to do well ‘in name of Allah’, Protestants and Catholics fight their own fight,  and so on and so on. Who, please tell me who, can come up with the right answers and the one and only Truth?
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1 comment:

  1. MikeNovember 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM

    I am not surprised that you decided that 'this was a bit too much', Krista.
    As a follower of Jesus I often wish that followers would ponder on the application of his prayer 'That they all may be one'. Yes, there may be some differences of interpretation and practice. But it would be good (in my view) if enthusiasm for what one has learned was communicated primarily as 'Here is what has helped me, and I offer to share what I have learned with you', rather than 'You are wrong'. (Practically speaking, attack generally results in defence or counter-attack, rather than surrender).
    Regarding conflict, we must always distinguish between (1) the [Christian/Muslim/... etc] view - what would be put forward by the current leaders and the majority of followers of that religion - and (2) what is claimed by a minority to be being done in the name of [Christianity/Allah/ etc]. Religion, sadly, has sometimes been used as a tribal badge to rally support for a conflict that may be ethic/tribal but not backed by religious leaders or by the majority of followers on either side.

    Returning to the Bible - there has been considerable effort to find the earliest manuscripts and avoid translation errors, more so I expect than with any other work. It is a body of work which has had considerable influence on creating the society we have today, for example inspiring Wilberforce to oppose slavery. And there are, I would say, some absolute rights and wrongs, though of course people with different beliefs will disagree about some of them. So we don't have to abandon the idea of right and wrong. But I share your frustration at the discussion you witnessed; whatever our views on rights and wrongs, we may as well seek to understand others' views and why they have come about.

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