Mungu (God) Anajua (He knows)

Mungu Anajua is a delightful term that Kenyans use when they don’t have an answer to something. I asked a father of six how many kids he and his wife were going to have and he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Mungu Anajua” (God knows).

So here we are, at least four-half months into the worldwide pandemic and not much progress has been made in containing the virus, curing it, opening our economy or living a normal life. Why? Because no one has answers and no one has the courage to say, “We don’t know.” Instead we have daily governor briefings to tell us the same thing they said yesterday. They spitball every day with mandates and executive orders hoping it will “flatten the curve,” but they don’t know any more today about how to solve the problem than they did sixteen weeks ago.

Follow the science, people argue, but they ignore the science because it doesn’t fit their narrative that somehow this virus is equal to the bubonic plague. Science tell us that kids rarely catch the disease and maybe they don’t even transmit it, yet we’re going to make little Johnny wear a mask to school or maybe won’t have school at all. Mungu Anajua.

Two things I have learned, maybe three, over the last four months about this pandemic journey:

1. PEOPLE ONLY LISTEN TO WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR, whether it is about the pandemic, religion (how many times have you heard someone say, “I like to think of God this way”) or politics. Though there is no scientific data that masks slow the virus (please don’t cite the CDC as they have hardly been right about anything), some masked fanatic will pepper spray a father and his son because they didn’t have a face mask on (which happened in California). Or, like me, they think this whole thing is nonsense and still won’t wear a mask no matter what the governor says. We all believe what we want to believe and ain’t nobody going to change our minds!

2. FEAR OF THE HYPOTHETICAL is what drives the behavior of many people, and for me, that is a very sad way to live. As I stated in an earlier post, I worked in a mosquito/malaria part of Kenya for fourteen years. If I lived my life on the “what if’s” I would have never traveled into the bush to establish churches. I wasn’t foolhardy. I took my weekly chloroquine tablet but still wound up in the hospital twice with malaria and dengue fever. If I lived life on the “what if’s” I would have never left Arkansas. The whole world is held hostage to the hypothetical and that is tragic.

3. MUNGU ANAJUA. In the end, the God of the universe and the sustainer of all things really knows about the virus. I don’t know, the experts in white coats have proven they don’t know. The only science I have a little faith in are those who are actually working on a vaccine. But since they still haven’t developed a vaccine for SARS who knows if they will find an effective antidote for COVID-19. Mungu Anajua. Six months to a year from now we will all look back and will have a better picture of this crazy year. Until then, I’m going to live my life according to the Book, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” and say along with my African friends, Mungu Anajua.

NOT MY FIRST LOCKDOWN RODEO

This is not the first time in my life when the government told us we were locked down and not to go out of the house.

 

It was Sunday morning August 1, 1982, and, as was our custom as a family, we loaded into our four-wheel Land Cruiser and left early to travel into the bush to preach.  (In those days I preached in three different villages each Sunday, leaving the house around 8 a.m. and getting back home before dark at 7 p.m.)  We noticed that there were a lot of army vehicles on the road, but had no clue what was going on.  When we arrived at our first village, pastor Gichuki was shocked to see us.

 

“You need to return home immediately,” he said.  “There is a military coup taking place right now.  Return to your home and lock the gate and yourself in the house.” 

 

Arriving home an hour later, I tuned into the BBC radio as the Voice of Kenya had been taken over by the rebels.  Comparatively speaking, it was a minor uprising lasting only a week, with 100 soldiers killed and 200 civilians, including non-Kenyan’s.  It was nevertheless a tense moment that could have turned ugly and I, of course, was concerned for my wife and young daughters.

 

A military coup lockdown and COVID-19 lockdown both have similar and obvious dissimilar characteristics, but it all centers around the concept of CONTROL, POWER, FORCE and LEGITIMACY, which I cover in my class in cultural anthropology.

 

Richard Newbold Adams in Energy & Structure: A Theory of Social Power provides these definitions.

 

1) CONTROL is a NON-RECIPROCAL relationship in the sense that it exists between a person and some structure or system within the society which DEMANDS compliance.  In other words, we have no choice, we must acquiesce.  Kim Jong Un, the despot of North Korea, has total control over the people in his country. They don’t have a voice; they don’t have a vote.  The IRS is another example of control.  As a citizen of the United States, I cannot negotiate how much I want to pay in taxes.   I may look for ways to reduce my taxes through deductions, but I still have to pay taxes or the government will seize what I don’t want to pay.

2) POWER is a social relationship that rests on the basis of some pattern of controls and RECIPROCITY, i.e., a person or institution may have power over an individual, but it is within the judgment of that person if they will respond to that power based on their own needs.  The outcome is not total control but perhaps enough control to determine success or failure.  The question is, how much power do they have to control?

 

The pandemic lockdown instituted around the world is, for the most part, contrived by politicians.  They have power but some of them think, or would like to think, they have control over the nation/state/city, but in reality, they only have as much control as the people allow them to have.  In the beginning of the pandemic most people were willing to stay-in-place, but over time the population began to rebel against the power of the authorities.  Even as of this writing, some politicians would like to control the behavior of the population, mandating masks and delaying school openings, limiting crowds to beaches, going to church etc., because the cases of COVID is increasing…though the fatalities of the disease continues to decrease.

 

FORCE is the exercise of control, not power.  Force does not recognize reciprocal action.  The stronger the force, the more control.

 

As the rebels of Kenya tried to force their way into power, so, too, are some protestors in this country making an attempt to force their way to power and controlling the culture of the U.S.  The coup of 1982 failed and the cultural coup we are experiencing today will also fail, but not without causing long lasting damage.

 

LEGITIMACY is something (people or institution) that people agree that it is in some manner correct, proper, or the way it should be.

 

Gaining control through force does not automatically make it legitimate.  Even though Kim Jong Un has complete control in North Korea he is not considered legitimate by the rest of the world, except by other regimes lead by tyrants.  In democratic countries legitimacy is earned through the ballot box.  Every election cycle people of the society determine who is legitimate in making policy decisions and those who are not, and their grip on authority is as certain as shifting sand.

 

In the end, the Kenya coup of 1982 was quickly put down.  The reason for the defeat?  “The coup failed because most of the soldiers did not execute their parts of the plan, as they were drinking and looting instead of going to arrest the president and his ministers.”  The streets of Nairobi 38 years ago look a lot like the 2020 streets of Minneapolis and Seattle.

 

The struggle for control and power in this world continues, but it’s a futile exercise.  The real battle is behind the scenes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).  The arch-enemy of God is presently the god of this world (1 Corinthians 4:4) and plays havoc daily.  Nevertheless, only Christ Jesus has all rule and authority and power and dominion (Ephesians 1:21). The spiritual coup d’état will one day end when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

 

The Culture of Fear and COVID-19

“Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.” Those words from actress Geena Davis in the 1986 horror film THE FLY, has been ringing in my ears since the COVID-19 task force was formed three months ago, the governors daily medical reports and the tiresome opinions and conflicting reports of pundits and epidemiologists. In previous posts I have written about cultures of Guilt and cultures of Shame. The focus today is the cultures of Fear.

Generally speaking, fear cultures are people who are animistic or spirit worshippers. Africans readily admit that their history of fear is the reason they continue to believe in witchdoctors. Because they are afraid of unseen spirits, which cause sickness, misfortune and death, they tie amulets on their arms or around their neck to ward off evil spirits and sprinkle the blood of animals around their houses for protection. In Tanzania witchdoctors still pay large sums of money for the body parts of albino children, as they feel they have particular power. Fear cultures have a marginal belief in science or medicine, they are moved by superstition and myth.

A quick overview on how people come to a belief system (philosophy, theology or worldview).

For secularists and most Western countries their confidence is in human achievement and science. Their equation for belief follows this pattern: Data + Testing = Fact or Hypothesis.

For theists (Christians, Muslims and Hindus), whose belief is in God, gods/goddesses their equation for belief is Holy Writing + Tradition = Theology.

For animists, historically illiterate with an oral tradition of storytelling, the equation for their belief system is Observation + Imagination = Myth.

Myth is not just an African animist thing, but can be found in every society, culture and people on earth. Follow the equation of animisim in Hinduism. Some guru in India declared that drinking cow urine is a cure or prophylactic for COVID-19 and so millions are trying it. Imagination, by the holy man, observation that some people recovered from the virus after drinking the urine, equals the myth that cow urine is a cure. You can apply that equation to everything from praying to Our Mother Guadalupe to repeating the ninety-nine names of Allah with the tasbih or prayer beads.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, I am not denying the reality of the virus, its contagion or its potential danger for some portion of the population. However, the novelty of the novel coronavirus around the world is the pandemic of fear which has produced an avalanche of myth associated with the virus and how to defeat disease. The most striking phenomena are people who claim to be sophisticated, intelligent and educated who, in some ways are behaving as the Pokot bush people in Kenya. They say they believe in science but ignore their own data to perpetuate their narrative of fear.

Here are some statistics to consider. I live in the state of Arkansas with a population a bit over 3 million people. As of this writing, over 242,000 have been tested for COVID-19, 94% have come back negative. There have been 224 deaths, which means 0.0075% of our population have succumbed to this virus, fewer people than we will share air with on any given day at Walmart. The average age of those reported to have died of COVID-19 is 77.21 years old, the oldest being 107 years old and the youngest reported 25. People between the ages of 1 – 39 years old have 0.02% chance of dying from this disease; those between the age of 40 – 49 are 0.04% at risk of dying to COVID and those between 50 and 59 years old is 1.3%. In most, if not all cases, the fatalities are because people already have serious health issues.

It’s truly alarming that 224 people have died due to this disease, but did you know that in my state this year twice as many people, 548, have died in car accidents. Should we shut down the highways to protect the lives of further deaths on the road? Get this…there are more people in Arkansas who have died due to falls this year, 290, than COVID. How can we mitigate people who will die due to imbalance?

In spite of these statistics, many people in the world are gripped with the fear of coronavirus, and believe that if you test positive you have less than six weeks to live. Indeed, be afraid, really afraid if you are elderly with other medical issues, or you are obese, diabetic or have some other respiratory problem. But for the average normal person COVID is not a death sentence and if you get it, statistics bear out, you will survive, as you would with the flu.

Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the emotion of fear. In his first inaugural address, in the midst of the Great Depression, he stated, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS...FEAR ITSELF — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

I’m not sure what or who is behind the motivation for fear. Someone hypothesized that after the election the virus will go away. Maybe. In most things follow the money and you will find the answer. Certainly, hospitals, medical researchers are profiting from the fear, but they are just reaping the rewards of fear, not the cause. Is this some kind of judgment from God to an ungodly and evil population? I doubt it, but He certainly can work His sovereign will in the atmosphere of fear. Since the foundational fear is death, Jesus reminds us that we are not to fear that which can kill the body but the One who can destroy the soul (Matthew 28:10), but no one thinks much of that.

How then should we handle this fear of disease? Should we wear a mask, disinfect the surfaces in our home and businesses, wipe off cooties from our mail, stand six feet apart from each other? Since science, at this point, can’t tell us what really works, we follow the equation of the animists…Imagination + Observation = Myth. In the process we are killing our economy, dividing our communities and cower in fear. Since so many have given up on common sense, maybe we should just drink cow urine.

Shame, COVID 19 and Protests

If you take my class on Christianity in the Context of Culture, you will learn there are three dominant characteristics in certain cultures: FEAR looking for PEACE, GUILT seeking FORGIVENESS and SHAME searching for restoration of HONOR.

For the most part Americans are a Guilt/Forgiveness culture. Our laws are set up in a way that an offense is generally dealt with by a fine, community service or a jail sentence. Most American Christians seek forgiveness by confessing their guilt to a priest or direct prayer to God.

In many parts of the world, where the society is held together by religion, clan or caste, Shame is the dominant emotional cultural framework. In Shame/Honor societies, mostly in countries of east and south Asia, to break a code of honor can result in excommunication from the family and even death. “Honor killings” are not uncommon if a young man/woman marry outside their group without permission. To become a follower of Christ from a Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist background is to bring dishonor to the family, village and/or tribe, punishable by losing inheritance and decried as blasphemy, another offense worthy of death.

Americans are certainly NOT a shame culture. I would go so far to say that the twenty-first American culture is actually “shameless.” Whether it’s movies, television sitcoms, foul language in public, advertisement, music or just the way Americans dress to go to Walmart, we have become a shameless brazen population.

Not only are we shamelessness we have become a “shaming” society.” Pick the topic…politics, race relations, sexual orientation, religion - the debate ends where shaming begins. The “Karen’s” (my definition - a person who feels they are entitled to point out or report another who they feel is being inappropriate based on their own standards) are everywhere on social media.

Let’s take the issue of people wearing a mask, which the medical experts can’t decide if it’s a good idea or not. There was a person on my FaceBook page who said if you don’t wear a mask you are being disrespectful and, in his words, “an idiot.” Message? Shame on you if you don’t agree with his position on mitigating the virus.

Shaming is when you call out someone for being a conservative or liberal, that you are a homophobe if you believe marriage should be only be between a man and a woman, that you are narrow minded if you believe that there is no salvation under any other name than Christ (Acts 4:12) or that you are a bigot if you don’t feel the need to apologize that you were born white and "privileged". Because we are a guilt culture, the way to make us feel guilty is shaming. I am assuming that most of the protestors in the streets last week did so with proper indignation, but many others marched because they were shamed into it by their peers and those with a political agenda. Some felt compelled to kneel before the demands of BLM protestors. Such behavior is not showing respect to the protestors but cowering and pandering engendered by ridicule.

Shaming is a form of informal control and used by preachers (if you don’t tithe, come to church, etc., you are a weak Christian), by parents (you will never amount to anything because you are lazy and stupid kid), and politicians (if you don’t stay in your house and wear a mask you may be responsible for killing grandma).

Shaming others for their behavior are the way of the proud and arrogant. The religious rulers in the days of our Lord was big on shaming. They tried to shame Him for eating with “sinners,” (Levi the tax collector - Mark 2:16), and humiliated sinners caught in sin (the woman caught in adultery brought to Jesus - John 8:1-11). The Savior, though, did not condemn, in fact He said “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

The lesson for me looking at these three characteristics of culture and Scripture is that I am guilty, but through Christ I have forgiveness (1 John 1;9). I can feel shame for my sins, but through Christ, He has raised me to a position of honor (Colossians 3:1). No longer must I fear, because of Christ I have peace that is beyond human understanding (Philippians 4:7). Through the cross man is redeemed from shaming and shamelessness.

ARE BLACK PEOPLE CURSED?

Listening to an interview on the news, a black American stated that many people in his community “feel like” they are cursed. They are routinely stopped by police, and called out by the Karen’s walking her dog, calling 911 because an African American asked her to leash her dog. The protests and riots which are nation is now engulfed is just another manifestation of a people who feel they are cursed. 

Are black people cursed? Yes. Not by God nor by Scripture but by a worldwide racist pandemic. I have travelled to over fifty countries and the things I have seen and heard, how the nations treat black people, is a testimony of the curse on blacks. In India I taught an exchange student from Kenya. Eating supper with his family I asked the question, “How do Indians treat you.” He hesitated, smiled and replied, “Not well. Of course, here at the seminary they are very kind. But whenever I go off campus the first thing Indians perceive me to be is low caste because of my dark skin. When they see my hair is different they realize that I am African and not always treated kindly.”

Without question how some people treat, what my dad use to describe as “colored people,” in this country is unforgiveable. But travel with me to Moscow and get on the metro when an African student boards and hear, as I have, the slurs that is thrown at them, which I won’t repeat in this post. Go with me to South America and witness the disdain they have for the African immigrants as being the laziest people in their country. I will not defend the bigots of our nation, but understand this is not a uniquely American problem. Indeed, Africans throughout the world are culturally cursed.

The Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon said, “Do not gaze at me because I am dark,” not because she was in the lineage of Cush but because her work in the fields made her dark. In south Asia, skin lightening cream is a major beauty product, it’s the Shulamite woman affect. In Africa they describe their own as black or brown, brown being the preferred skin tone. Families in India searching a suitable groom for their daughters will describe her as “fair.” 

I have lived most of my adult life living and working in Africa. My kids grew up in Africa and I have one daughter presently working in West Africa. We have started schools, distributed food and clothing and shared the Gospel to those we have worked with. So, for me to say the black race is cursed is not out of the mouth of a bigot, but a sad reality of culture.

You would expect me to say the following, so I will. The root of today’s chaos of burning, looting and police brutality is not social, political or economic. The curse is not really the black man, but the black heart, which resides in every man and woman. It was Jeremiah who said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The black man is cursed and every white and non-white person is cursed because of sin that resides in every heart. Christ Jesus took the curse of every race on the Cross. 

I don’t expect racism to be eradicated in my life time. I don’t ever expect Haiti to get out of poverty no matter how many more billions of dollars we thrown at them. I will not walk in solidarity to the plight of those who feel injustice. It’s a futile effort. But what I can do is, like Philip, come alongside the Ethiopian and explain the words of Jerimiah who was reading, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” When people understand this, the curse will be lifted.