Having lived in a little Tsonga village for nearly two decades, I’ve learned a thing or two about African culture. The place where I reside is semi-rural, and is thus a better representation of African culture than the westernised cities. Pit toilets are more common than flush toilets, the native language is more prevalent than English, granny-led homes are more numerous than houses with a mom and dad, and unemployment is sky-high.
One of my convictions is that feminism has devastated the African home perhaps more than any ideology—even more than the Prosperity Gospel.
The current call in African countries is for the “Decolonisation of Africa!” One African country, Zimbabwe, gained its independence from British rule on April 18, 1980. It’s neighbour, South Africa, was one of the last countries in Africa to see the end of racial segregation in what is known as apartheid, and to be declared an independent, “democratic” country.
Currently, there are 54 fully independent countries in Africa. Independence is something that many young university students long for. The dream of being able to come home without the curfew alarm going off, or being frantically called by a worried mother is what many aspire to. When we think of independence, what comes to mind is being able to stand on your own two feet. This is when boys become men.
Voices of Virtue delves into the lives of historical Christian figures, focusing on the key values that marked each of their lives and uncovering profound lessons for today.
From the purity of Augustine to the courage of John Knox, and even the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, each narrative is a powerful testament to God’s grace working through ordinary men.
Church history studies the gathering and growth of God’s people. It begins after the death of Christ and the dawn of the Spirit’s work through the New Testament church. Clement of Rome was the first apostolic father of the Church.
He was a contemporary with some of the apostles and, like most of Jesus’ disciples, he died for his faith. In present day, we revere Clement for the letter of admonition he wrote to the believers in Corinth, an epistle through which God used him to correct his beloved brothers.
Answer: Jesus rode upon a young, male donkey into Jerusalem.
Problem: One text of Scripture mentions two donkeys, whereas three other passages reference only one.
Explanation: Jesus prepares for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the fashion of Zechariah 9:9, which prophesies that the Messiah will come riding on a donkey—specifically a colt, which is a young male donkey.
Although at this time Jesus had reached the climax of his popularity, He knew the crowds were fickle. In a matter of moments they would cry “Hosanna” (save now), but within days the same crowd would roar “crucify” (kill now). Continue reading →
According to Visual Capitalist, South Africa has one of the lowest effective retirement ages in the world, defined as the average age of exit from the labour force for workers aged 40 years or more. The lowest age in the world is fifty-nine from the country of Luxembourg. South Africa is just a year older at age sixty.
Luxembourg makes sense, since it has by far the world’s highest per capita GDP at $129,000 per year. But South Africa’s per capita GDP is about one hundred spots lower at $6,000 per year. How can such an early retirement coexist with such a low GDP per capita?
Cultures vary greatly in the food, music, and fashion they enjoy. But the love of titles seems universal. South Africa is a beautiful ‘Rainbow Nation’ of cultural diversity; yet our religious landscape is littered with ministerial titles, with pastors and bishops dying by degrees and drowning in flattery. You can’t leave your home without seeing a poster advertising the next conference, featuring “Reverend Doctor Umfundisi Apostle Prophet Major 1 Moruti So-and-So”!
Raise any concern about this idolatry and you will be told, ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed. Leave our high and mighty Man of God alone!’ These arrogant, unapproachable false teachers are surrounded by their bouncers, luxury cars, jets and mansions, wearing their fancy clothes, seated at separate tables or thrones, waiting to be served, not to serve.
“Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care…” (emphasis added)
This phrase “reproductive health care” is intentionally deceptive because the actual names would be far too offensive. But we can be very sure what they mean by this diabolical term. In a crude video titled “Abortion, Un-pregnant” this term is used to describe a 15-year-old who wants to murder her and her boyfriend’s baby. She and her friends gather on a “merry-go-round” as if they were mere children to discuss how best to do this without her parents’ knowledge.
Come Ye Children is a 160-page, 23 chapter booklet published in 1897 by Charles Spurgeon. The title is taken from Psalm 34:11, “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”
In our age of infanticide and barrenness, and barrenness, where women bear children later in life or not at all, men sterilize themselves or urge the mother to murder the unborn child, Spurgeon’s affection for children is a fresh breeze across a generation of death.
We require all the teachers at our Christian school to read this little volume. Here are five reasons why.
Pastor Paseka ‘Mboro’ of South Africa continues to fill the headlines. For years he’s drawn criticism for driving luxury vehicles in a poor neighborhood, claiming bizarre healing ability or, most recently, facing assault and kidnapping charges. But his run-ins with the law are far less concerning than his aberrant theology.
In a clip from Reggie Yates entitled “Extreme South Africa: The Missionary Preacher”, Mboro insists his parishioners bring underwear to church so that he may bless their “vuvuzelas” and “biscuits”, euphemisms for the male and female reproductive organs.
Mboro uses common prosperity tactics, in this case “points of contact”, in which the congregants’ undergarments serve as the conduit through which his supposed miraculous power will flow. Is this biblical?
Storms are brewing in the African church over homosexuality. The United Methodists in Africa now welcome LGBTQ+ members, though Methodists in countries like Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe have protested. The 2025 Cape Town Pride Parade expects another big turnout, even while the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has voted against blessing same-sex couples.
“UNNATURAL” IN ROMANS 1
Romans 1:26 uses the word “unnatural” to describe romantic, same-sex attraction because this desire contradicts the original condition. “Unnatural” means contrary to the factory settings God installed at birth, such as a person’s sex.
2024 was a monumental year for different nations worldwide as citizens took to the polls, casting their votes to bring new governments into power. On the African continent, 2025 will see this critical societal practice continue as countries including Malawi, Cameroon, and Burundi bring out the ballot boxes and hold their national elections. As voting occurs, Africans must remember that there is such a sin as political idolatry. It is the sin of putting politics over God and election season is when it thrives. It is a subtle sin. It is like carbon monoxide from burnt coal in a house. While you enjoy the warmth of the charcoal, the carbon monoxide kills you without your knowledge, because it is odorless, tasteless and colorless. It is usually hard to know that you have inhaled political idolatry. Many Christians are unaware of its lethal existence. Thankfully, armed with Scripture, we can know its symptoms and treat it Biblically.
These days it is common for the grandmother to rear her grandchildren at home while the mother studies at school or works. One can find this practice worldwide, especially in African culture, where caregiving among grandparents is often a moral requirement. In 2018, it was estimated that nearly 4 million children in South Africa were living with a grandparent or an aunt.
Follow the Rules
This practice persists because the foundation is weak. Foundations are weak when we do not follow the rules. The directions call for one bag of cement and three wheelbarrows of sand and stone. However, we cut corners, using a half bag instead. We want to save money. In the beginning, all is fine. But after some months, cracks in the foundation show. Then the wall falls down.
Just a few weeks ago, 18 people were massacred in cold blood in the Eastern Cape. In all, 15 women and 3 men were senselessly slaughtered for reasons still unknown. Here in the Cape, 7 people were gunned down last week in Bishop Lavis in what looks like a gang-style murder. The day before the Bishop Lavis tragedy, 5 people were murdered in Atlantis on the west coast north of Cape Town. Sadly, those headlines have already evaporated in the minds of most due to the everyday occurrence of homicide in South Africa. Murder is so common now that most are hardened to this loss of human life.
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is a disease that destroys the body’s immune system, greatly lowering its resistance to infection. This disease is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as HIV, which is transferred in blood and sexual fluids.
While there are treatments to slow the damage of AIDS, currently there is no known cure.
According to one dictionary, the disease “first spread among gay men, intravenous drug users, and recipients of infected blood transfusions, before reaching a wider population. This tended to overshadow a greater epidemic in parts of Africa, where the transmission is mainly through heterosexual contact.”
A report by Andre Lombard on BBC Africa on the 6th of August has revealed that Lesotho, the kingdom in the sky, is home to the world’s highest suicide rate. These alarming facts confirmed by the World Health Organization, reveal that 87.5 people per 100,000 of the population take their own life every year in Lesotho, this data reveals a sharp contrast that the baSotho numbers are more than double the next country on the list, Guyana in South America, where the figure is just more than 40. It is also almost 10 times the global average, which stands at nine suicides per 100,000 people.
Social media has become so interwoven with the fabric of our modern society. Almost everyone you interact with is bound to use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, or a combination of these, with some level of frequency. You may be viewing or listening to this TARIF episode as a result of social media. In Africa, Social media users have been steadily rising in recent years, with Satista reporting that the number is over 384 million with Facebook generating most of that traffic with over 50% of the market. That number is bound to increase with each passing generation’s growing involvement in the online world. A tool like social media with such widespread reach has immense potential for good or evil.
How should Christians think concerning the use of social media?
A recent study showed that South Africa is one of only three countries in the world where religious involvement has increased in recent years, with over 85% of the country now claiming some kind of Christianity. But this raises the immediate question, “What kind of Christianity is it that is growing? What kind of gospel is being preached?” It also raises pastoral questions such as one I’m asked by young people:
“May I marry anyone who claims to be a Christian?”
The past 10 years have seen an inordinate amount of time and energy spent by the media, politicians, and educators on promoting transgenderism or Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Transgenderism is defined as “a feeling that your biological/genetic/physiological gender does not match the gender you identify with and/or perceive yourself to be.” In other words, it is wholly based on a feeling. According to Statista two per cent of South Africans identify as being transgender, gender fluid, non-binary, or asexual. All new terms in this brave new world.
Captain Charles Boycott (1832-1897) was an Irish land agent who became infamous for being ostracized by his community. In 1880, after renters had refused to pay their fees, Boycott served them eviction notices. But the community revolted, insisting Boycott’s employees quit. Blacksmiths, postal workers, farmers, and shopkeepers ignored him until he agreed to leave the country. This social excommunication nearly ruined him financially.
Soon, the term “boycott” came to mean withdrawing from commercial or social relations as a form of punishment or protest. By 1888, “boycott” was in The Oxford English Dictionary, as there was no other word in English to describe such a dispute. “Boycott” has since wormed its way into other languages, including Dutch, French, German and Russian.
Recently Nigerians considered boycotting a milk company for insensitive remarks they made about the death of Christ. Boycotting is not new to Africa. During the 1970s and 80s, countries around the world boycotted South African goods as a way to oppose apartheid. This is not only a Christian issue. Today, the Muslim association UUCSA is calling on South Africans to boycott Jewish-owned companies like Dis-Chem. The pro-Palestine organization BDS is encouraging South Africans to boycott Puma for sponsoring the Israel Football Association.
How should Christians think about boycotting immoral businesses? Is boycotting biblical? Consider the following six principles.
It has been said that the first casualty of war is truth. Many confuse the issue of cannabis (“dagga”, etc) by co-mingling two different aspects of the debate — medical versus recreational use of marijuana. In truth, while related, these are two separate ethical issues that Christians need to approach differently.
Ever since the US states of Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of dagga, there has been major pressure from the world’s media and pro-pot advocates to push for legalisation of the wizard weed for more than medicinal purposes. In part, the issue came to the fore here in South Africa when IFP MP Mario Oriano-Ambrosini, who has stage four lung cancer, told parliament he uses dagga oil for its palliative properties to help manage the ill-effects of his treatments.
South Africa legalized dagga in 2018, based on truncated logic and blatant propaganda trotted out in hubbly-bubbly fashion to portray cannabis as a Peter-Pan panacea. It’s the same old worn-out arguments that have been in vogue since the 1960s, when the culture took Timothy Leary’s advice to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” Sadly, many who took Leary’s advice failed to ever surface back to reality.
Here are three of the many flawed arguments based on smoke-screen logic that are used by the pro-pot lobby to convince the public of the benefits of recreational dagga:
Christmas is a month away, and already the range of emotions, sentiments, and opinions about celebrating Christmas are filling the conversations and plans of some Christians across Africa. A few months later, the Easter celebrations will re-ignite these discussions all over again. Then, forty days later, an Ascension Day Church service will be kept in some scattered Churches across our continent.
Today is Friday, September 29th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Tim Cantrell and presented by Yamikani Katunga.
The Bitter Truth About Test-Tube Babies
In 1978 when the first test-tube baby was born, the media announced that she let out, “a cry round the brave new world”, deliberately borrowing from Aldous Huxley’s book warning about the dehumanising dangers of technology. IVF was a method engineered in the 1970s, putting the sperm and egg in a Petri dish (“in vitro” = “in a glass”) to produce a fertilised embryo (a ‘test-tube baby’).
The world and its ways have progressed a great deal since then. It’s morals have often regressed equally so, in the opposite direction. African countries have not been spared these humanistic ideas and murderous methods as the headlines and court cases reveal, and as the insurance companies gladly cover. South Africa leads the way on the sub-continent, offering some 37 different IVF clinics countrywide. Moving a little further north one article flaunts the headline, ‘Smiles for 45 women after successful IVF at Kairuki Hospital’. But not all parties who contributed to this headline are smiling. What about the embryos that did not make the news on account of them being frozen or discarded? Let’s take a step back and consider what Scripture has to say.
The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.Today is Friday, September 1st, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga.
Why It’s Always Good to Resist Bribes
Late last year, Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera vowed to crack down on the corruption and bribery so common in his nation. Chakwera took office in 2020 after becoming the first African opposition leader to defeat an incumbent in a return of a fraudulent election.
Bribery is not uncommon in Africa, just as in many other places around the world. Billboards dot the landscape with statements like: “Give corruption a good knock. Don’t give or take bribes.” Such signboards wouldn’t be necessary if bribery weren’t an issue. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer—Africa 2019 has found that more than half of the 47,000 citizens in the 35 countries surveyed believe their nation is becoming more corrupt. And this bribery is hurting the poor.
Today is Tuesday, August 29th, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga.
Zimbabwe and the Biblical Basis for Free Elections
Recent presidential elections in Zimbabwe have once again been encumbered by accusations of blatant and gigantic fraud. The official polls have declared Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner, making him president for another five years. This will be his second term in office.
On Saturday, Zimbabwe’s Information Ministry stated the following: “The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has announced the 2023 presidential election results. His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner with 2,350,711 votes, consisting of 52.6% of the vote, followed by Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party who scored 1,906,734, which is 44% of the vote.”
First a story. Anthony Norris Groves, his wife, and children survived innumerable tragedies while living as missionaries in Bagdad, Iraq in the 1800s, including a terrible plague that killed tens of thousands and a flood that destroyed many homes and killed thousands more. They also endured the hatred of the locals. One might think that his children became embittered at their parents. Maybe they would despise the God their parents came to serve.
First a story. A recent BBC piece, which you can watch on Twitter, chronicles the Fulani people of West and North Africa and their practice of sharo, in which Fulani men gather in a sex-crazed group, competitively enduring painful floggings to win money and even village women—some earning as many as three wives.
“You will become hot among the ladies,” explained one Fulani man. Can we say some cultural practices are better than others? Has our radical egalitarianism so blinded us that we cannot criticize this cultural practice as immoral and bestial? Does Christianity change things? Conform or counter culture?
First a story. Anthony Norris Groves was one of the great missionaries in the 19th century, a gifted evangelist to the Muslims of Bagdad and father-in-law to George Müller, though he is largely forgotten today. He trained to be a dentist before he became overwhelmed with missionary zeal. Problem was, his wife didn’t want to go. Back in those days, you couldn’t try out missions for a year or two and come back if you didn’t like it. It was all or nothing. Most missionaries died early on the field.
Instead of forcing his wife Mary to go, he was patient with her. He pushed a little and she broke down. Not the time. Then she grew spiritually and the Spirit did the work. He pushed a little more, but the time did not yet come. Finally she burst into tears and committed to give all their possessions away and leave for Bagdad.
The podcast episode associated with this blog post can be found above, or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
John Paton still talked about Family Worship later in life. Looking back he said:
“None of us can remember that any day ever passed unhallowed thus; no hurry for market, no rush to business, no arrival of friends or guests, no trouble or sorrow, no joy or excitement, ever prevented at least our kneeling around the family altar, while the High Priest led our prayers to God and offered himself and his children there.” (p. 14)
Aniwa, John Paton explains how new converts were expected to perform family worship every morning and evening. Initially, the gatherings were quite awkward. John Paton writes: “Doubtless the prayers [of the natives] were often very queer, and mixed up with many remaining superstitions; but they were prayers to the great Jehovah, the compassionate Father, the Invisible One—no longer to gods of stone!” (p. 356, Auto)
You won’t like my answer. Here it is anyway. Endure hardness.
There are no shortcuts to becoming a successful missionary. There’s no quick, alternative route to imitate Barnabas, Brainerd, and Borden. Paul told Timothy: “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2Tm. 2:3). Timothy must share in the suffering of Jesus.
Just as soldiers endure rough treatment in war, so Christians must suffer as they follow their Master. Contra the Prosperity Gospel, it is “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Ac. 14:22).
Carey’s Enquiry
In William Carey’s pamphlet that launched the modern missionary movement, he hammered this point constantly. In Section 4 of his book An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, he addresses five of the most common obstacles to worldwide missions. The first was distance, the second was their savage manner of living, the third was the danger, the fourth was poverty, and the fifth was language acquisition.
Carey dismantled each argument. He showed how none of those five objections could stand up against biblical and logical scrutiny. Even an average person can learn a language in a couple years. Many of the savages are dangerous only in self-defense. It’s not nearly as difficult to travel around the world as it used to be (said Carey in 1791, pre cars and jets!). Continue reading →
You won’t like my answer. Here it is anyway. Endure hardness.