Birth of Christianity in Kenya
I have belabored for some time on the content of my post this month. I have come to settle that it has to be something about the state of church in Kenya today. This is particular so because this blog is committed to apologetics. We all know that the Christian faith in Kenya was introduced by white missionaries who not only brought Christianity but came with formal education. The growth of the church has since been rapid to the point where it is said that we’re 80% Christians as a nation. It is the latest development in the politico-economic and socio-cultural environment that raises some pertinent issues with regard to church in Kenya. For some reason a growing majority of people find it necessary to disdainfully treat the church today.
Columnists enjoy deriding the church
You read the newspapers and columnists find joy is deriding the church, Billow Kerrow said in standard on Sunday that the church leaders are now reeling in ignominy, Philliph Ochieng has made a career in attacking the church while new entrants to this gravy train of dismissing the church are the likes of Kwendo Opanga, Makau Mutua, Mukhisa Kituyi, Lukoye Atwoli and a motley of other writers. In parliament it was interesting that the voice of the clergy was dismissed during the vetting of the CJ, DCJ and DPP while the CIOC recommended issues raised by the civil society about DPP Mr. Keriako Tobiko to be further investigated.
The abortion agenda
We as a church opposed the new constitution on the basis of issues that we felt were unchristian in that document but the populace largely ignored the issues and chose to follow the secular arguments. Of interest to me is that our fears are now being confirmed daily. Sample this; we said the constitution legalizes abortion we were shouted down yet on Saturday nation 18/06/2011 page3 it is reported the government has taken a decisive step to distribute medication that can procure abortion in virtually all the parts of the country.
Terrible appointments to Head our Judiciary
Our new CJ is an atheist from his own words. Yet that is not alone he consults his ancestors who told him to wear a stud that he cannot release even if it means losing his job as a CJ. That is divination that the bible so strongly refuses yet we accepted it to go on, are we still 80% Christians? By God’s design am a Kamba and when an old man says he consults ancestors, that is a serious thing that Christianity has fought for as long as the church is alive in Kenya. What is the multiplying effect of this to this country, how many will go back to consulting their ancestors like their CJ? I personally wouldn’t raise the issue of the stud per se as my own bishop Oginde did for then I would tread a dangerous lane of even telling the ladies to remove their earrings but for heavenly sake the reasons why the stud is worn must be of concern to us. Two women appointed in the highest echelons of our reconstituted judiciary have no solid basis of a commitment to the family institution, when I do rounds in girl schools I hear them say that they don’t want to get married they just want to get a guy to impregnate them and part company after having a child, they don’t want to get married at all. Our most visible women personalities in Kenya similarly have no working marriages. Does this worry?
An open hostility to the church
I have always taken the position of the church publicly or privately sometimes even before the bishops speak but I have been told all manner of things by friends and colleagues in trying to dismiss the church. As a one who never takes it to lie low or to acquiesce in a confrontation, I have used every weapon at my disposal to justify the position of the church. From where I sit it is an open hostility to the church a brazen dismissal, I have heard someone say the church should preach and not engage in politics a most laughable statement considering the decade of nineties when the church was at the forefront of clamoring for human rights and democratic space. Yet even Nicollo Machiavelli in the Prince advises don’t joke with the church for it is a power to reckon with.
Anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity
And so what has befallen us? Is it a problem with the church? No! I refuse. The church, traditional, militant, restive, evangelistic remains as visible and as vibrant. I know this, I am part of it. What is the matter? Secularism, Yes; it is picking an accelerated pace of spreading, the devil is really aggressive in pulling people to paganism not only here in Kenya but all over the place. The first Atheist Convention just took place in Dublin Ireland; there is a re-gathering for the first time in public after many years of druids in UK, after the rapture hoax of Harold Camping, the church of atheists gathered to celebrate in derision of Christianity. But here in Kenya it has taken a dangerous dimension, this spread has entrenched itself in institutions and has fixed itself in the laws. It is part of the body politic and it has the boldness to dismiss the church. It has marketed itself as most acceptable and vilified the church. It is led by pretenders to Christianity who has no scant idea what real Christianity is. They have denied its power yet glibly call themselves Christians. Lowly, methodically, and incrementally the anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity in our society and replace it with humanist views.
A spiritual agenda
As that happens Muslims have strategically placed themselves and perpetrated every sphere of government in Kenya, in my opinion Ahmednasir Abdullilahi of JSC is a real agent of the enemy who has singularly advanced the Muslim agenda in Kenya to dangerous levels. Yet what is painful to this country yet slowly happening is the killing of her soul. It is important to recognize that those engaged in the war on Christianity, working for the dissolution of our society and breakdown of the family have a spiritual agenda. They are not merely attempting to dismantle the historic cultural values of this nation and move us toward a satanic new world order. They also want to destroy Christianity and Bible-based religion. It is a clear part of their agenda, and they have already moved a long way in that direction.
Media Blackout on anything positive about Christianity and Christians
Our mainstream news media ignores conservative and Christian news events, except when coverage makes religious leaders look "cold, intolerant and oppressive,” they will rush to report a pastor caught having impregnated a girl or something of the sort. They don’t cover the anti-Christian agenda and never report it. Of course, that is understandable when you realize they are part of the anti-Christian cabal and have agreed not to cover anything positive about Christianity. They will say that Christian clergy are anti-reform, rigid and they don’t even speak on behalf of their flock. They have called the Christian clergy as self-seekers and not flowing with the majority of Kenyans. Coverage of abortion and homosexuality are never done from the religious viewpoint. Instead, religious figures are regularly portrayed as reactionary roadblocks while their positive influences are rarely covered.
A murderer is less to be feared
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.
Necessary Madness
This will be the case but Christians in Kenya must not give up. Going forward we must purify ourselves, ask for more power from God; that power that enabled Christ to match the highest cruelty that devil can manufacture with the greatest force of moral good that he alone wields, a faith that believes that good will triumph over evil for this is the victory that overcomes the world and a hope that transcends the physical and lives for eternity. The doctrine of immortality of the soul should assure us that we can be courageous in our witnessing and resolute in our beliefs we must be of singular mind and refuse the dirtying rationalization. We ourselves have to live the faith and hope we preach that way and when we’re endued with the power from on high, things get going. Ours must then be madness, a madness that is necessary, that chooses to differ and differ severely, and that refuses to negotiate at the table of the enemy a madness that is obstinately radical, brutally honest and tenaciously dependent on the all sufficiency of our God and his promises solely. Amen.
