Dear Family and Friends,
A friend, and ITEM partner, sent me a link to a World Magazine article entitled “Two Visions for Africa.” It presented the stories of two students. One had been highly influenced by her westernized higher education. The other was from a more traditional, rooted follower of Christ. They were quite different.
Since this is a travel day, I thought I would send along the comments of the first because this highlights why we have started a youth ministry in Africa designed to start answering the questions about God, Christianity, and religion in general that have been asked by the emerging generations in the US and are just starting to be asked by the same generations in Africa.
Here are the first paragraphs from the article in the July 17, 2023 World Magazine.
I recently traveled in East Africa and in the course of my work met two female college students. These two young women provide two very different faces of the future of Africa. Indeed, they demonstrate the war that is going on for the soul of their country. Will sub-Saharan Africa remain highly religious, and highly Christian, or will the next generation of students reject religious truth and religious freedom in favor of the anti-religious ideologies of that are taking over the West?
The first young woman is studying law at a European university. She sounded like any other Western college student: She had just finished up the school year. She looked forward to a beach vacation to unwind with girlfriends before heading home for the summer. She’s an urban young woman, well-educated, and she dressed and spoke like many students I know from my home state of California.
When she asked what I did for a living, and I told her about my organization’s work championing religious freedom at home and abroad, she immediately became suspicious. She challenged my view of the religious nature of humanity and religion as a source of social flourishing, arguing that religion is typically repressive and violent. She had a deep skepticism of religion in its own right, and of religious freedom as protecting superstition, anti-science, and hierarchy.
In sum, she is one face of Africa’s rising generation of citizens. Hers is a minority viewpoint in East Africa at present, but social media, digital platforms, global travel, and secular education are all propagandizing anti-religious messages straight from San Francisco and New York.
Did you notice her concerns? They are the exact ones we face here in the US.
- Religious nature of humanity
- Religion as a source of social flourishing
- Religion is typically repressive and violent.
- (She saw) religious freedom as protecting superstition, anti-science, and hierarchy.
And did you notice what is influencing her and others like her?
- Social media
- Digital platforms
- Global travel
- Secular education
At the seminars I am involved in, I am warning participants about the negative effects of social media on youth and the anti-god, secularizing effect that public universities have on the emerging generations.
My next two stops are Kigali, Rwanda and Abuja, Nigeria. I will be meeting with our team in Kigali tomorrow, Monday, and the on Wednesday, after the shocking death of our coordinator in Nigeria, instead of meeting with our team, I will be meeting with his family.
Following those two stops this coming week, I will be involved in two seminars to continue trying to raise awareness of the negative western ideas making their way to Africa and helping participants learn how to address and answer the challenges to Christianity being offered like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this report.
PRAY:
….for my time with Nok’s family Wednesday that God will lead me on what to say and when to say nothing.
….for the preparations being made in Lagos, Nigeria and Kigali, Rwanda for the seminars coming up at the end of this week and early next week.
….for me as I prepare my presentations for the upcoming seminars. I think I am done but there are always tweaks that can be made to improve what is presented.
Thank you!
By His grace,
Steve