A disheartening attack on African Christians
SIR – It was disheartening to read (December 4) of the post on the German Church’s official website ridiculing the Church in Africa. The post attributed the growth of the Church in the “dark continent” to the people being socially dependent and having nothing else but their faith. But if one is ultimately to be saved by faith, according to the belief bequeathed to Africans by the West, then one who has only faith has everything. This is regardless of the fact that Africa also has enormous human resources (substantially depleted by the trans-atlantic slave trade) and material resources that were substantially taken away when they were asked to close their eyes in prayer to the true God. The post also attributes the growth of the African Church to low levels of education which makes people accept simple answers to difficult questions. Again, the Master of the faith bequeathed them by the West had declared that his teaching is not for the sophisticated but for “mere children”. Sophistication could lead to evolving ideologies such as Nazism and the consequent Holocaust. Africans rightly feel betrayed when the words of the true God are turned on their head by the same West that made them annihilate their traditional beliefs and values for the superior God, as they were made to believe that they were “wanderers in the wilderness unto their eternal damnation”. Yours faithfully, Fr Ugo Ikwuka CSSp St Gabriel’s, Archway, London N19
