Christianity in Africa - Dear White Jesus Save us?

Accra, Ghana a man prays in his car, awaiting his next passenger. I'm stumbling to re-order my Bolt as I accidentally cancel the prior one. Requesting drivers are tricky as some only want to pick you up if you're going in a certain directions.

It's him, my phone tells me the driver is one minute away. He pulls up to where I'm standing, he's playing that dreadful, whining Twi gospel music. He can barely see from his front windscreen, it's adorned with a huge yellow & blue from the Pentecost Church.

The Pentecost Church has a large following in the West African nation of Ghana and Nigeria. Oddly enough these Mega Churches are mirrors of what one would see in countries like the United States. Unlike America, what you won't see are free sports leagues for the children. Free food pantries, donations of various items for the needy.

These flashy, pompous church leaders dare speak against the sharing of husbands, unwed mother's or rampant cheating in Ghana either.

These prosperity preachers dressed in their best clothing, shout, scream and jump around. Preaching Jesus gonna make it all right!

Then there are the Prophets, they speak reading the future, seeing people being killed. They sprinkle in prophecies that God sent to them about them members. Witchcraft is always in the background, the poor pull from deep in their pockets to pay them.

Religion is taught in African Schools —

Only Christianity & Islam are taught in African schools around the continent, they don’t even teach that Jesus was a Jewish man. Nor do they teach that Jesus was Black, or that he had siblings from the union of Mary & Joseph. In many African countries people name their children biblical names, the most popular name for women is of course Mary.

There are several that are extremely popular for men examples are; John, Joseph, Abraham, Emmanuel, Paul, Jacob and even Enock. You will find many named Ebenezer, even though the name was only mentioned 3 times in the Bible meaning “stone of help."

With the example of Enock though, again how can you teach Christianity without Judaism?

There are many pockets of Africans still practicing their Traditional Religion, many times certain tribes are accused of practicing when in reality it isn’t always a tribal thing. Traditional religion means voodoo.

With this limited exposure to different religions, there are sharp lines of devision within countries & communities. This lack of variety in teaching religions as well as families practicing or forcing their children to practice either one or the other.

There is much confusion and hatred for anyone who practices outside of these two religions here is what I wrote about the mistreatment of those wearing dreadlocks that are all seen as Rastafarians click here to read!

Nigeria is said to have some 80 million Christians & 100 million Muslims, the government of Nigeria refused to vote to make gender equality a priority in the country! The number of Christians is declining yearly within the country.

Attacks have been taking place, the killing of priests and burning churches in some West African nations.

Religion As A Business/Entertainment Hour —

There is such fame associated with the reasons behind starting a church and becoming a person of God worker, what do I call them? Here in West Africa, Ghana specifically they have prophets here, every other church is run by Prophet so & so. There is so a mix of voodoo & Christianity here, to me, I’ll add “to me”, to clear things up a bit. Churches headed by Prophet so & so, are usually churches where many prophecies are predicted.

After attending a few church services here, there is a vision that Prophet gets & they then run, or dramatically slow drags their feet to grabbing a member to inform said member that they were going to get killed on this particular day. The families or friends of the person whom he just told was going to be murdered they are to come to the stage with money to place on the alter.

To Quote a Kenyan woman on Facebook: “The only mzungu I bow down to his Jesus!” Mzungu means white person, when I told her Jesus wasn’t white she blocked me the only reason I was unable to screengrab her comment.

Many Africans worship their ministers (prophets) in Ghana & parts of West Africa they call them “Daddy, Baba, Poppa"

I’ve understand this might stem from the Catholics whom call their priests father, although in West Africa many refer to everyone as a family member. Auntie, my brother or cousin, it is very difficult to differentiate from whom is someones real family.

Prior to the service some young men involved in the church practiced speaking in tongues. Yes, they practiced speaking in tongues which is something you don’t practice.

Here you can click to learn about ‘speaking in tongues." I refuse to get into it after seeing so many church services in Africa where they ‘play out’ so much that they think makes the service exciting or to fool members into believing their prophet is all knowing & all seeing.

As to help Africans part with their money there are always series of prayer events. Most lasting an entire month, for Africans that are overworked & poorly paid.

In other areas of the continent Seventh Day Adventist is a more popular practice in places like Kenya, Uganda and a few East African countries. They celebrate their sabbath on Saturday, their church leaders condemn members from practicing polygamy.

Even though it is legal in many of the countries there, elders & church leaders have spoken against members taking more than one spouse.

Someone posted the statistics for religion in countries around the world, noting that the most religious countries are usually the poorest in the world. Pretty much the same with the polygamist countries being the poorest, with the worst human rights for women & children.

There is always a link to religion, pregnancies, poverty and poor education. This is to show that around the world just not in Africa that religion is destroying prosperity and progress within these countries. Especially the US is reverting backwards because of the conservative, White, religious Republican party.

Some of the more advanced countries in the world have the highest amount of Atheists are listed here!

The countries on this list are also some of the countries doing the most business in African countries. China tops the list with the most Atheists with India coming in second.

China has invested billions of dollars (via loans) into African countries owning land on the continent. Because of defaulted loan payments, I might add. India has strong holds in East Africa as well as profiting off of flooding their products throughout Africa.

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