Posted by:
cludgie
(
)
Date: February 22, 2012 07:17PM
I only have experience in DR Congo, not in any other African country, but I have to admit that the missionaries there baptize like crazy, but you also have to remember that all you have to do is talk religion and they will want to join your church. Joseph Smith vision story? No problem--they love stories of people seeing visions. They have visions all the time. Book of Mormon? BoM is great, because you're talking essentially about magic and gold, both insanely important there. Garments? For them that make it to the temple (it's quite rare, but now the Mormons have announced a temple in Kinshasa), the idea of protective and magical underwear is great. They buy into all of it, and it's easy to convert. No one thinks they have to pay a great deal in tithing because after all, it's mostly 10% of nothing. Even those with money are asked for so much more in the other Congolese churches. The pastors rely solely on money derived from giving blessings, and actually hawk blessings at $5, $10, $20, etc., the more money bringing the greater blessing.
And no, the missionaries never inform people about the priesthood ban. No one knows about that. I doubt even the missionaries know that, since almost every last one of them is from one of the two Congos or from places like Cameroon. The only white missionaries in Congo are just six to eight old couples. They won't send white boys there because it's dangerous and icky, and the reserve that for the Africans.
(Speaking of icky, where's Ikki these days?)
It would seem that all the members believe in sorcery, too. I had to drive the RS president somewhere once, and she was talking the whole way about the problems with sorcery among the church members. The guy who did odd jobs for me and washed my car weekly also sincerely believed in sorcery, and he became the bishop of the Kasa Vubu ward. When someone needs a bit of magic done, like to help find their keys (for them with doors) or to get their bicycle returned (for them with bikes), they pay a sorcerer for a "fetish" or spell. I'm talking about church members here.
In the end, the attention span of the average Congolese is no greater than the average person anywhere. When they hear a better story they pursue a better church. I think many left for the music alone. The normal Christian church in Congo has guitars, keyboards, and professional-sounding singing groups with gaudy clothes. The Mormons use a player organ, a sort of grand-looking electronic pianola with the hymns pre-programmed. They don't get to get up and dance and blow pea whistles. Instead, they all fall asleep on the benches in the stifling heat of a closed building, their cell phones charging from whatever free outlets that they've found.
The bright side is that they dress well. Even the poorest men have slacks, a white shirt, and tie. If they clean and iron anything during the week, it's their church clothes. Like in most 3rd World countries, they feel a need to put their best foot forward when out in public. They baptize so many there, with 20-30 baptisms per month in any ward, that even with fairly low retention they always have members a-plenty. I never heard stories about putting a hold on the number baptized, though. But as I indicated above, teaching people there is like the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel. No one is well-schooled and few have access to the Internet. Few ex-Mormon resources are available in French, anyway. I'm sure that the church uses them to beef up their numbers, and they get most of their money from real estate development, anyway. So why not do what you can to convert as many Africans as you can? It gives people a false sense of real growth.
@Mia: Africa is the world's largest continent, and there are wonderful countries there where your niece would have gladly stayed, possibly not wanting to return home from. Unfortunately, there are more of the bad African countries than the good ones. I'm just saying that Africa is really diverse in the sense that Europe is diverse. You can't go to Albania, for instance, and then assume that Europe is a crappy place.