Wednesday, September 05, 2007

before checking my ymail, i like looking at the news headlines on the main yahoo page. today, i saw something that REALLY irked me.

after centuries of being looted by european colonists, african cultural treasures are now being destroyed by radical fundamentalist christian evangelists. incredibly charismatic with their promises of heaven-sent good fortune for the impoverished faithful, the preachers not only urge the rejection of ancestral worship artifacts but often oversee the destruction of these objects and shrines as well.

presumptuousness aside, i am very much in a position to cry foul against this cultural destruction. i grew up in a fundamentalist christian church and was raised to know the ins and outs of christian doctrine. one of the things i most distinctly remember was a small bonfire of what had been mary's grottto in our garden as well as other "offensive" items such as scapulars and other religious (catholic) images. born-again christians don't believe in worshiping religious items or in labeling objects as "sacred". so the stuff is destroyed or disposed of as a way of cutting "bondage" or ties to our "pre-christian" past. and doing away with the devil's lies, or so the pastors would say.

catholics may find this appalling but it's not quite a singular experience. truth be told, i've never really been catholic so it didn't bother me so much that the grotto was on fire. looking back at that experience, i care more about what havoc the plastic content probably caused to the atmosphere.

i just feel really mad at the rabid evangelists who are destroying their own culture. i believe in religious tolerance when it's within reason, as is the case here. if not, then a whole chapter of the history of mankind has just been set to fire and there's more air pollution to reckon with.

seriously. are they gonna start burning gays next?

isea @ 12:22 PM