You Make The Call: What To Do About FGM?

Thirty-five years ago I began my work among the Pokot people of Kenya.  A semi-nomadic tribe, the Pokot practice initiation rites for both and girls.  For the boys, circumcision is the first of two initiation rites into manhood.  Unlike other tribes in the country, Pokot males do not perform this ritual every year but once every decade (give or take a year or so) and therefore the age of the boys for circumcision range between ten and twenty years old.  This group is identified throughout their lives as an age-set, which would include a specific name identification (equivalent to baby-boomers or millennial’s).

For Pokot girls, their initiation into adulthood is called lapan.  For those outside of Pokot this ritual is called FGM (female genital mutilation, or female circumcision).  The average age of girls who take lapan is around fourteen years.  After the procedure they are in seclusion for a month and under the care of older women.  During this time of healing the girls are instructed in the ways of proper behavior as a wife.  After the healing period the girls are then eligible for marriage.  There is usually a joint celebration at the home of relatives, a coming out party, so to speak, where gifts are brought to the parents and prospective grooms attend to inspect this year’s crop of eligible brides. (below is picture of my daughter Becky with Pokot lapan girls).

When I was a resident working in Pokot my approach to FGM was latent, meaning I was not a social activist.  As a student of anthropology I first wanted to know the meaning of lapan.  As I tell my students, before you condemn people on what they do, you should know why they do it.   I also did a great deal of field research how Pokot girls felt about this ritual as well as the Christian community.  My conclusion was that, though a disgusting and potentially life-threatening procedure, lapan is a non-salvation issue.  Working with unreached people with the Gospel, it is my opinion that every issue, no matter how repulsive it may be, is not the main thing Christians are to do.  Challenging behavior rather than confronting people with the Gospel may, in some cases, cause more harm than good.

I have been criticized because of my non-engagement in social issues.  Though I am quick to point out that I am opposed to FGM practices and talk at length with parents about its harm, it is not a cause I feel I need to champion.  I have in the past, and believe today that it is the responsibility of the local church, not a foreigner or foreign organization that should lead the charge on social issues.  The government of Kenya has made FGM illegal and it is a dying practice in Pokot, though held out by a few and vehemently defended among the Masai.

On my most recent trip to Pokot I met a local Pokot Christian who has started an organization called Exodus Rescue Education Centre.  The five targeted groups for rescue are (1) FGM (2) early forced marriage (3) cattle rustling (4) children from poor families and (5) orphans.  They now have ninety-five kids in this program, five which I interviewed (left to right).

Cheroto (15) ran away from her home because her parents wanted her to marry.  She said she didn’t want to be married to an old man but wanted to go to school.

Kamarinyang’s mom died and she was living with her grandmother.  She left her grandmother because she was insisting her granddaughter take lapan and marry. 

Celestine (16) was the third wife and has a child.  She was willing to run away and leave her child because, as she told me, “I was treated as a slave and abused.”

Loremoi (back row) was a cattle rustler, which is the main occupation for Pokot boys who don’t go to school.  He told me that he regrets those days as he was involved in killing people in cattle raids.  He wants to go college one day.

Mnangai left his grandparents applied to Exodus because they were too poor to help him go to school.

I am inclined to help this social project, but I still have questions.  What is your opinion?  This is one of those case studies where I challenge missionaries…You Make The Call.

Lesson 6: Social Work...Helping the Poor

Perhaps the most popular project for churches and individuals in missions is social work.  These acts of goodness come in the form of feeding programs, orphanages, medical work, agricultural projects and a whole host of niche projects such as rescuing women from the sex trade, outreach to AIDS victims and seasonal projects for earthquake victims, tsunami’s and hurricane relief.

One of the great challenges of career missionaries is to balance the need to help those who are poor and desperate and making sure that the Gospel is not lost in the process.  As I stated earlier, missions is an emotional issue and it is sometimes exploited with pictures of suffering and starving children. 

Working in the semi-nomadic region of Kenya the people we worked with (Pokot and Turkana) were always on the verge of disaster.  Depending on their cattle and goats for their livelihood, if there were a drought year people suffered hunger and disease.   The Turkana have a saying, “The stomach has no ears,” which translates…”If I am hungry I cannot listen to anything.”  To turn a blind eye to the suffering of the people and just preach to them would be of no benefit and would indeed be against the very gospel we proclaim – “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be that person?” (1 John 3:17).

On the other side of the issue, Jesus was well aware that many came to him, not to receive salvation but not healing.  “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs” (John 6:26 NLT).  “Rice Christians” have been a concern for career missionaries for centuries.  The tension continues between wanting to help people in desperate situations yet at the same time not using food, clothing, medical assistance, care for widows or children as a tool to draw people to church or baptism.

The role of the local church mission team is to be (1) educated on missionary social work and (2) discerning as the team becomes more knowledgeable of missionary social work.  Your missions team should function very much like a charitable foundation that gives millions of dollars to good causes.  When a foundation receives a request for funds they put the effort, or do-diligence, to make sure the funds are used efficiently and those who receive money have a track record of integrity.  Charitable foundations do not grant monies based on emotion.

Missionary social work is attractive because Christian people, for the most part, are compassionate and caring people.  Who isn’t inspired with a Mother Teresa helping the poorest of the poor, or who is not willing to fill a shoebox full of toys for needy kids all over the world?  But social work also is trendy and, in some cases, often abused.  Orphanage ministries in Africa and India can be legitimate, or it can be just a source of foreign revenue for the national organization.  It is the task of the mission team to do do-diligence to make sure they are legitimate.  Feeding the poor is noble, but does our charity help or hurt (recommended reading, “When Helping Hurts”  by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert)? 

Social work is, in some ways, the easiest work of missions.  Starting a school for children, a work program for widows, digging wells (all good stuff) is more rewarding than trying to establish a church among the Hindus or Muslims.  During the severe drought in northern Kenya and Ethiopia one missionary related to me that he could raise thousands of dollars to feed the starving but no one was interested in helping him finish the church building.

In discerning need, it is important that the mission team find balance.  There is certainly are worthy social work that must be done to demonstrate the love of Christ.  At the same time there are 3.6 billion people in this world who have never met a Christian.  In every missionary endeavor the prevailing goal should be, how do we reach those have not yet heard of His grace?