United Methodists in the United States are reporting their annual meetings are calmer and more joyful this year after the denomination’s top lawmaking body, the General Conference, removed the UMC’s 52-year-old policy holding “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with…
Ugandan Parliament speaker claims corruption charges are retaliation for passing anti-gay law
Is Anita Among, speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, paying a price for her role in passing the anti-gay bill in her country last year, or is she guilty of corruption? That’s the question Ugandans and people elsewhere ponder about the…
And also with the UMC: Where doctrine ends and culture begins
Not surprisingly, some actions taken by The United Methodist Church’s General Conference last week are being characterized as unbiblical by those who believe they alone hold the only correct interpretation of the Bible. We’ve heard this argument before, and it…
Benny Hinn goes to Africa, but can faith healing build roads and restore a broken economy?
Over the past two months, the Israeli American preacher Benny Hinn visited and preached in two African countries — Ghana in January and Kenya in February. His health and wealth gospel was well received in the African countries. In Nairobi,…
Africa’s Catholic bishops reject Vatican doctrine on blessing same-sex couples
A rebellion against Pope Francis is brewing in Africa. On Jan. 11, African Catholic bishops, gathered at a conference in Accra, declared the Vatican’s recent proposal to allow priests to offer non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples is contrary to their…
Diaspora communities improve lives in Africa with remittances, but sometimes that comes at great personal cost
In this season of giving, some African expatriates are weary of being asked for financial assistance from people who assume they’ve got money to spare. One such person is Asisat Oshoala, a Nigerian soccer star based in Barcelona, Spain. In…
In South Africa, a solar boom lights up forgotten rural churches
South Africa is home to Africa’s largest drive for solar and renewable energy, allowing rural churches — which were forgotten in electrification of the last two decades — to finally light up on the cheap. “It’s the first time to…
In Zambia and beyond, controversial ‘prayer consultation’ hotels drive mini real estate boom
“One-on-one” or “consultation hotels” are motels built by wealthy evangelical prophets to offer personalized “spiritual services.” And they are driving a mini real estate boom in Zambia’s biggest cities and even in neighboring countries. “To see a senior prophet, the…
Kenya’s latest cult tragedy highlights a deeper problem with religious worship in Africa
At last count, more than 400 corpses of people linked to a cult in Kenya called Good News International Church have been exhumed from where they were buried in the Shakahola forest of Kilifi County. The human remains were exhumed…