God
on Their Side
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: September 27, 2003
APUTO, Mozambique
Mention the words "evangelical missionary," and many Americans conjure
up an image of redneck zealots' forcing starving children to be
baptized before they get a few crusts of bread. In reality, the wave of
activity abroad by U.S. evangelicals is one of the most important — and
welcome — trends in our foreign relations. I disagree strongly with
most evangelical Christians, theologically and politically. But I tip
my hat to them abroad.
In a house beside the filthy garbage dump here in Mozambique's capital,
a 17-year-old named Sonia Angeline was giving birth in early June. She
had no doctor and no midwife, and after four days in labor, she was a
hairsbreadth from becoming one more Mozambican woman to die in
childbirth.
"We didn't have money to pay for a taxi to go to the hospital," Ms.
Angeline recalled, noting that her family savings at any moment are
typically worth about 10 cents. Her mother, Isabel, says that if the
baby still hadn't come after another day, well, she would have
continued to wait.
Fortunately, at that moment Katrin Blackert, a 23-year-old volunteer
for Iris Ministries, an American mission, dropped by as part of her
regular visits to children living at the dump. Miss Blackert rushed Ms.
Angeline to the hospital, paid the bill for the emergency Caesarean out
of her own pocket (O.K., it was only $4), and saved the life of both
mother and baby.
The help was extended solely on the basis of need, for Ms. Angeline
doesn't attend church. Moreover, Ms. Angeline is living in a new home
built by Catholic missionaries to replace her old thatch hut — not
because she's a Catholic, but because she's needy.
Evangelical missionaries are controversial because they're very
aggressive about gaining converts, so they antagonize long-established
religions and create rifts in communities. Critics say they're bribing
the poor with food to persuade them to change their faith. There is
some of that. Iris Ministries offers meals with its Sunday services,
and that's one reason they're well attended. When local people come to
seek cash for medicine or food, they usually get the handout — but only
after they join in prayer.
But I'm convinced that we should all celebrate the big evangelical push
into Africa because the bottom line is that it will mean more
orphanages, more schools and, above all, more clinics and hospitals.
Particularly when AIDS is ravaging Africa, those church hospitals are
lifesavers.
"In most of Africa, these are the cornerstone of the health system,"
said Helene Gayle, who directs AIDS work for the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. "In some countries, they serve more people than the
government health system."
The evangelicals abroad are mostly pragmatists, not ideologues, so they
should be a good influence on the Christian Right. While
fundamentalists in America blindly oppose condom distribution,
evangelicals in Africa see their friends dying of AIDS. They thunder
against sexual immorality — but often hand out condoms.
"We don't condone adultery, but we're pragmatic enough to see the
country we live in," said Steven Lazar, who runs Iris Ministries'
orphanage. He notes that in nearly all of the Christian weddings he
attends in Mozambique, the bride is pregnant.
One of the evangelicals' most important influences is in combating the
second-class status of women and girls by evangelizing not only for
God, but also for equality of the sexes.
Pentecostalists, who make up one of the fastest-growing sects, preach
faith healing and raising from the dead, but they also give a
substantial voice in church to ordinary village women. And that in turn
empowers women in the home and community.
"In our Mozambican culture, women don't have an active voice in the
family," explained Ana Zaida, who teaches Bible school. "But in
Christian life, we discover that not just the husband but also the wife
can have a role. . . . So the wives fight to transform their husbands."
At the end of my interview, Mr. Lazar prayed for me — and came pretty
close to asking the Almighty to ensure that I wrote a nice column. The
episode underscored the difference between my world and his.
Yet while it sounds strange to say so, evangelicals may be Africa's
most important feminist influence today. And how can one not welcome
their growing presence as Ms. Angeline tells of her rescue and cradles
a lovely baby girl — not surprisingly, named Katrin.
source: www.nytimes.com/2003/09/27/opinion/27KRIS.html
