Current Issues

[Gregory Matthews]

The following is a statement by the East Central Africa Division on a current issue vace in Africa.  As I have made previous comments on this issue, to include a statement by the  current GC President,  I cite the following statement in an effert to provide balance to the current situation.

https://spectrummagazine.org/news/2019/east-central-africa-division-issues-statement-burundi-union-mission-controversy

 

[GHansen]

Going back many years, to the time of Robert Wieland's service in Africa, there have been serious problems in Africa. More recently, sociologist Ron Lawson studied the SDA church in Africa, discovering serious issues. According to Dr. Lawson, membership in the SDA denomination required an extensive period of study, as long as two years, prior to the implementation of a "church growth" program. Under the new policy, candidates studies for a matter of weeks prior to becoming church members. Two years after a crusade which saw ~2000 people baptized, only 50 of those people could be accounted for. Lawson also cites widespread reports of sexual immorality and alcoholism [banana beer] in parts of the church.

The Rwanda genocide took place in a heavily "Christianized" country with a notable SDA presence. SDA leaders were found guilty by an international court of ~crimes against humanity. 

The actions revealed in the Spectrum article by an African "strongman" who managed to gain access to church finances can only excite the imagination of other sociopathic types. The Davenport scandal in America, which included a large number of "respectable" church leaders, while boring compared to this African brothers accomplishments, reminds us that financial corruption, with little consequence, is not strictly an African thing.