Christianity and Politics in Doe's Liberia (Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion)

This study examines the role of Christianity in Liberia under the corrupt regime of Samuel K. Doe (1980-90). Paul Giffor...

Author: Paul Gifford

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This study examines the role of Christianity in Liberia under the corrupt regime of Samuel K. Doe (1980-90). Paul Gifford shows that, in general, Liberian Christianity - far from being a force for justice and human advancement - diverted attention from the cause of Liberia's ills, left change to God's miraculous intervention, encouraged obedience and acceptance of the status quo, and thus served to entrench Doe's power. This Christianity, devised in the USA and promoted largely by American missionaries, thus had the effect of furthering the regional economic and political objectives of the US government, which was committed to supporting Doe.

CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS IN DOE'S LIBERIA

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION General Editors: D U N C A N F O R R E S T E R aftdfALiSTAiR K E E Editorial Board: JOSE MIGUEZ BONINO, REBEGGA S. G H O P P , JOHN DE GRUGHY, GRAHAM HOWES, YEOW CHOO LAK, DAVID MCLELLAN, KENNETH MEDHURST, RAYMOND PLANT, CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND, ELISABETH SCHUSSLER-FIORENZA, CHARLES VILLA-VIGENCIO , HADDON WILLMER

Religion increasingly is seen as a renewed force, and is recognised as an important factor in the modern world in all aspects of life - cultural, economic, and political. It is no longer a matter of surprise to find religious factors at work in areas and situations of political tension. However, our information about these situations has tended to come from two main sources. The news-gathering agencies are well-placed to convey information, but are hampered by the fact that their representatives are not equipped to provide analysis of the religious forces involved. Alternatively, the movements generate their own accounts, which understandably seem less than objective to outside observers. There is no lack of information or factual material, but a real need for sound academic analysis. 'Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion' will meet this need. It will give an objective, balanced, and programmatic coverage to issues which - while of wide potential interest - have been largely neglected by analytical investigation, apart from the appearance of sporadic individual studies. Intended to enable debate to proceed at a higher level, the series should lead to a new phase in our understanding of the relationship between ideology and religion.

CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS IN DOE'S LIBERIA PAUL GIFFORD

(CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1993 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1993 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Gifford, Paul, 1944Christianity and politics in Doe's Liberia / Paul Gifford. p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in ideology and religion) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 52142029 6 1. Christianity - Liberia. 2. Church and state - Liberia History - 20th century. 3. Christianity and politics - History - 20th century. I. Title. II. Series. BR1463.L7G 1993 261.7'096662'90948-dc20 92-15834 CIP ISBN 0 52142029 6 hardback ISBN 0 521 52010 X paperback

The human condition in today's Africa is characterised, on the one hand, by the imperialism of the developed countries and the cultural and technological domination of the West, and on the other hand, by injustice and oppression, in all of its various forms... ultimately, the denial to millions, individually and collectively, of their basic human freedoms, at the hands of bureaucracies that are rotten to the core... The cry of the African - of the African human being ought to move the churches to question themselves as to what they are, what they are saying, and what they are doing in Africa. Jean-Marc Ela, Cameroon

Contents

General editors' preface List of abbreviations Map

page xi xiii xvii

Introduction

i

1

The historical context

9

2

The mainline churches

47

3

The evangelical churches

98

4

The faith gospel of health and wealth

146

5

The independent churches

190

6

The geopolitical context

231

7

Conclusion

286

Select bibliography Index

318 343

IX

General editors' preface

Only twenty years ago it was widely assumed that religion had lost its previous place in western culture and that this pattern would spread throughout the world. Since then religion has become a renewed force, recognised as an important factor in the modern world in all aspects of life, cultural, economic and political. This is true not only of the Third World, but also in Europe East and West, and in North America. It is no longer a surprise to find a religious factor at work in areas of political tension. Religion and ideology form a mixture which can be of interest to the observer, but in practice dangerous and explosive. Our information about such matters comes for the most part from three types of sources. The first is the media which understandably tend to concentrate on newsworthy events, without taking the time to deal with the underlying issues of which they are but symptoms. The second source comprises studies by social scientists who often adopt a functionalist and reductionist view of the faith and beliefs which motivate those directly involved in such situations. Finally, there are the statements and writings of those committed to the religious or ideological movements themselves. We seldom lack information, but there is a need - often an urgent need - for sound objective analyses which can make use of the best contemporary approaches to both politics and religion. ' Cambridge Studies in Ideology and Religion' is designed to meet this need. The subject matter is global and this will be reflected in the choice both of topics and of authors. The initial volumes will be concerned primarily with movements involving the Christian XI

xii

General editors' preface

religion, but as the series becomes established movements involving other world religions will be subjected to the same objective critical analysis. In all cases it is our intention that an accurate and sensitive account of religion should be informed by an objective and sophisticated application of perspectives from the social sciences. This volume makes a significant contribution to the series with a study of the place of religion in Liberia under President Doe. It is a careful empirical study of the situation within that country, but its conclusions are surprising and contradict many unexamined assumptions which are made about modern African states. At a specific level it therefore challenges not only the approaches towards Liberia of the World Council of Churches and missionary societies, but also British and American foreign policies in that area. At a more general level it contributes to a cumulative body of empirical studies from which a more comprehensive theory of politics and religion in the modern world can emerge. This series will include further studies of this kind from around the world. DUNCAN FORRESTER AND ALISTAIR KEE

New College, University of Edinburgh

Abbreviations

AACC ABC AC AS ACF AEAM AECAWA AEL AIC AICA AM A AME AME £ion ASA BMA CEFL CEM CHAL CIA CLC CJVEC CRML CSM CUC DSCPC ECOM

All Africa Conference of Churches African Bible College(s) Association of Concerned Africa Scholars African Christian Fellowship Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa Association of Evangelicals of Liberia African Independent Church Association of Independent Churches of Africa African Muslims Agency African Methodist Episcopal {Church) African Methodist Episcopal £ion (Church) African Studies Association Bassa Ministers' Association Christian Education Foundation of Liberia Christian Extension Ministries Christian Health Association of Liberia (US) Central Intelligence Agency Christian Literature Crusade Christian Nationals' Evangelism Commission Christian Reformed Mission of Liberia Church of Sweden Mission Cuttington University College Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church Elections Commission

Xlll

xiv EDICESA EEC ELBC ELCM ELTV ELWA FABC FAO FGBMFI FHTJC GA TT GCC GCML GRBC GST IAP ICCO ILO I MET IMF IN A IRD ITCABIC JFK JOCV JRA JTSA LAMCO LAP LBMEC LCA LCC LCL LEC LEF

Abbreviations Ecumenical Documentation and Information Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa European Economic Community Liberian state radio Catholic radio station {Monrovia) Liberian state television SIM's radio station [Monrovia) Fellowship of Autonomous Baptist Churches (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade Grace Community Church (Campus Crusade's) Great Commission Movement of Liberia General Association of Regular Baptist Churches Gbarnga School of Theology Islam in Africa Project Interchurch Coordination Committeefor Development International Labour Organisation International Military Education and Training International Monetary Fund Interim National Assembly Institute on Religion and Democracy (RC) Interterritorial Catholic Bishops' Conference John Fitzgerald Kennedy Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer Journal of Religion in Africa Journal of Theology for Southern Africa Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company Liberian Action Party Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention Liberian Christian Assemblies Liberian Council of Churches Lutheran Church in Liberia Liberian Electricity Corporation Liberian Evangelical Fellowship

Abbreviations LIC LPP LPRC LSJ LUP LWC MARC MBTC MFT MOJA NACLA NCC NDPL NFEC NGO NT NTM NYR OAU OPEC OPEX ORU OT PAA PAW PPP PRC PTL RC REAL RENAMO SBC SCCJC SDA SECOM SIL SIM SMA

xv

Low Intensity Conflict Liberian People's Party Liberian Petroleum Refining Company Liberian Studies Journal Liberia Unification Party Little White Chapel Missions Advanced Research Centre Monrovia Bible Training Centre Mission for Today (Church) Movement for Justice in Africa North American Congress on Latin America National Council of Churches (USA) National Democratic Party of Liberia National Force for the Eradication of Corruption Non-governmental Organisation New Testament New Tribes Mission New York Review (of Books) Organisation of African Unity Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (US-Liberia) Operational Experts (Project) Oral Roberts University Old Testament Pentecostal Assemblies of Africa Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Progressive People's Party People's Redemption Council Praise the Lord, or People That Love Roman Catholic Rural Evangelism Association of Liberia Mozambican National Resistance Southern Baptist Convention Soul-Cleansing Clinic of Jesus Christ Seventh-Day Adventist Special Elections Commission Summer Institute of Linguistics Sudan Interior Mission (RC) Society of African Missions

XVI

TEE TILL TRANSCEA TWP ULIC ULMSA UMC UNDP UNESCO UNITA UP UPC UPP USAID USIA VOA WAATI WCC WEC WEF WWM

Abbreviations Theological Education by Extension The Institute of Liberian Languages Transcontinental Evangelistic Association {of Liberia) True Whig Party United Liberia Inland Church University of Liberia Muslim Students* Association United Methodist Church United Nations Development Programme United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation National Union for the Total Independence of Angola Unity Party United Pentecostal Church United People's Party United States Agency for International Development United States Information Agency Voice of America {radio) West African Association of Theological Institutions World Council of Churches Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade World Evangelical Fellowship World Wide Missions

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Introduction

In early 1988, when I was teaching in the Religious Studies Department of the University of Zimbabwe, I was offered the opportunity to study developments in some independent churches in Liberia. In the following months I read all I could on Liberia, and I eventually arrived in mid-1988 to begin the task. Of the next sixteen months, I spent the greater part in Liberia. My original project, for various reasons, fell through after a few months, and gradually my research evolved into the wider study presented here. Much of the material I had gathered in the course of that original project is included here, in a reworked form, in the section on independent churches.1 I came to Liberia with a particular perspective. For several years I had been interested in the phenomenon within Latin American Christianity which goes by the name of liberation theology. The term is used here in a general way to refer to theology that tries to relate Christianity to the social structures and systems in which Christians find themselves. I had lived in Southern Africa for some years and become interested in such theological developments there. The foundation document of this theology in South Africa is the Kairos Document, in which several South African theologians sought to distance themselves from a state theology which supported government policies, and from a church theology that merely turned in on itself, and to elaborate a prophetic theology which addressed the social evils 1

And see Paul Gifford, 'Liberia's Never-Die Christians', Journal of Modern African Studies, 30, 2 (1992), pp. 349-58. I

2

Introduction

in which they lived.2 Statements issuing from the South African Council of Churches, the South African Catholic Bishops5 Conference, and from Johannesburg's Institute for Contextual Theology, all manifested similar thinking, as did statements and writings of individual Christians, of whom Desmond Tutu, Denis Hurley, Alan Boesak and Beyers Naude were just the best known. This contextualised theology inevitably encroaches on the domain of sociology, for this theology admits that Christianity is a force in the socio-political realm, and tries to make its socio-political involvement as rational and as conscious as possible. It tries to ensure that its inevitable social involvement is a force for justice within public structures. Even in Zimbabwe there was some interest in this kind of theology. I had attempted to analyse this contextualised approach in the statements of Zimbabwe's first President, Rev. Canaan Banana, an unashamed proponent of this theology.3 As will become obvious from every page which follows, my sympathies lie with this general approach. I thus came to Liberia interested to discover how Christians related to the particular issues of their own society; I wanted to learn what role Christianity played in the socio-political system of Liberia. Students of third-world Christianity have long found Africa a fruitful field of research, because of the thousands of traditional African Independent Churches. These churches have given rise to a whole body of literature, some of which we will refer to below. However, it is one of the contentions of this book that the accepted picture of African Independent Churches has been rendered obsolete by the world-wide Pentecostal explosion of the 1980s. The impact of this explosion has not been widely studied in Africa. There have recently been two extended treatments of this phenomenon in Latin America: David Martin's Tongues of Fire: the Explosion of Protestantism in Latin

America (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1990) and David StolPs Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth 2

3

The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis

in South Africa, Braamfontein, the Kairos Theologians, 1985. Paul Gifford, 'The Role of the President: the Theology of Canaan S. Banana', in G. F. Hallencreutz and A. Moyo (eds.), Church and State in Zimbabwe 1965-1985 (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1988), pp. 411-40.

Introduction

3

(Berkeley, California University Press, 1990). StolPs study is based on considerable fieldwork; Martin's is more an overview of the relevant literature. Although the field work for this study was completed before these books appeared, the writing up has been done with these studies in mind. I have constantly asked myself to what extent this study bears out the findings of these two books. The answer will become clearer in the conclusion, but here I can note two important points of difference. Both Stoll and Martin emphasise the ' spontaneity' of this Christian revival; I would want to balance this by drawing attention to the extent to which this revival is controlled, funded and orchestrated from the USA. Also, both Stoll and Martin are generally positive about the social effects of this Christianity; I would argue that Liberia provides a particular instance in which this Christianity was at least a contributing factor in the oppression, impoverishment and destruction of an entire country. This study is partly theological and partly sociological. It is theological in that it is primarily concerned with what was said, written, preached and taught. (This gives it a slightly different focus from both Stoll's and Martin's work.) It is sociological in that it tries to analyse this message in terms of its sources, its cultural matrix, its agents (and their motivation and selfunderstanding), its mode of diffusion, its social role, and its political and economic effects. It is thus a case study of the socio-political role of Christianity in a modern African country. The study is restricted to Liberia, admittedly a very small country. (This constitutes the major difference from Stoll's and Martin's work: Stoll surveyed an entire hemisphere; Martin ranged even wider, covering literature from all round the world.) This narrow focus however, brings some advantages. In larger countries or regions the mission churches, or the traditional evangelical churches, or the new pentecostal churches, would constitute a separate study in themselves. Liberia was sufficiently small to enable all the branches of Christianity to be covered in a single study. Here I have been able to relate the new pentecostal explosion to the various

4

Introduction

sectors of Christianity already existing in Liberia. I have attempted - I hope without oversimplification - to describe all these sectors, their differences and similarities, the dynamics of their interrelations, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and their likely developments. A word is required on the method adopted in compiling this case study. First, to establish the various kinds of theology offered in Liberia, I attended as many different Sunday services as possible. Sometimes it was possible to attend five different services on a Sunday, beginning at 6 am and ending about 9 pm. Besides Sunday services, Monrovia offered on week nights an almost continual series of crusades, Bible studies or prayer meetings. Besides participating in these meetings, to build up a picture of local theology, I spent a good deal of time listening to Christian radio and watching Christian television programmes. I have drawn on these programmes to build up a picture of the Christianity preached to and absorbed by Liberians. For the same purpose I collected all the literature I could; newsletters, tracts, magazines. I also bought Christian books available in bookshops, and as many newspapers as possible, for in Liberia the Christian content of national papers was often considerable. I also interviewed as many Liberians as possible - especially church leaders, pastors, missionaries, church workers, members. Many of these interviews were arranged; by the nature of things, far more were unscheduled. I simply moved around churches, hoping to find a pastor or church worker nearby. When in Monrovia I spent most of my time lodging at the Lutheran, Methodist or Mid-Baptist guest houses. These were always well patronised by church workers from the interior, missionaries in transit, or aid volunteers. All these people provided a wealth of information. Also, there were one or two restaurants in Monrovia where visiting missionaries would eat; I became quite shameless in foisting myself on likely missionaries over meals. Almost without exception they seemed genuinely interested in a study of Liberian Christianity, and were invariably very forthcoming with their impressions and experiences, even when they disagreed radically with my perspective.

Introduction

5

I also travelled widely in the interior and along the coast; on many of these trips I stayed with pastors or missionaries. Again, I am particularly grateful for all that they shared. The more academic elements in this study were elaborated outside Liberia, mainly at the universities of Leeds and Uppsala. I left Liberia in October 1989, two months before the outbreak of the civil war which was to bring complete destruction to Doe's Liberia. Since then I have been engaged in projects researching developments in African Christianity, first for the Ecumenical Documentation and Information Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa (EDICESA), based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and then for the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), in Nairobi, Kenya. The EDICESA project took me to all the countries whose Christian Councils operate EDICESA (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa). The AACC project took me across the entire continent - even to Liberia again. On these visits to other African countries, I was grateful for the insights I had gained through more prolonged research in Liberia. Conversely, although these projects considerably delayed the completion of this study, they have given me a wider context in which to set this study of Liberia, and have retrospectively sharpened my perception of some of the things I experienced there. In light of this wider exposure, I am confident that in many respects (to be elaborated in the conclusion) this study of the function of Christianity in Liberia sheds light on developments on the continent generally. There is one problem that the reader should be aware of from the outset. This book contains several statistics and dates. Statistics for African Christianity are notoriously unreliable. Many African Churches have no records at all. Often their statistics are not calculated to provide information, but for purposes (like obtaining financial assistance) which encourage considerable exaggeration. Wherever possible I have tried to confirm figures from other sources; where this was not possible I have at least satisfied myself that the figures were reasonable. A reader familiar with Liberia, or with African Christianity

6

Introduction

in general, may be surprised that Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912), perhaps Liberia's most illustrious son, hardly features in this study. Blyden, born in the West Indies, spent much of his life in Liberia where in 1880 he became the president of Liberia College (later the University of Liberia). An ordained Presbyterian minister, he wrote prolifically on issues that have great relevance for this study. However, his significance for Doe's Liberia, or for modern Liberian Christianity, was nil. Not a single person with whom I discussed Christianity in Liberia brought up the name of Blyden. A few claimed, when asked, that they had read something of Blyden; some knew his name but had not read anything written by him; most, including a large number of missionaries, had no knowledge of him at all. This corroborates one of the main conclusions of this study, that the issues that interested Blyden (Africanness, a religion for Africans, the strengths of Islam) were not part of the agenda of modern Liberian Christianity; in fact, they were totally inimical to that agenda.4 This study follows what is intended to be a logical sequence. Chapter 1 gives a brief history of Liberia and then a more detailed description of the social, political and economic state of the country under Doe. The next four chapters discuss the four branches of Christianity in Liberia. Chapter 2 studies the mainline or historical or mission churches, gives a very short history of each and outlines their function singly and together during the ten years of Doe's rule. This chapter focusses especially on the Catholic contribution, for this was so much more obvious than that of the other churches. Chapter 3 studies the evangelical churches, primarily those which made up the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia, but also others preaching a theology with similar effects. This chapter analyses this evangelical theology under six headings. 4

For Blyden see E. W. Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1967, original 1888. Blyden is discussed in the chapter 'E. W. Blyden's Legacy and Questions' in V. Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge, London, James Currey, 1988 and see Hollis R. Lynch, Edward Wilmot Blyden: Pan-Negro Patriot i8j2-igi2, London and

NY, Oxford University Press, 1967.

Introduction

7

Chapter 4 discusses a new arrival on the Liberian scene, the faith gospel of health and wealth and deals with the American roots of this form of Christianity, its arrival in Africa, and then the form it took in Liberia. It analyses sermons, crusades and literature that promoted it, and explains the wide diffusion of this faith gospel. Chapter 5 discusses the independent churches, arguing that clear typologies for African Independent Churches are no longer possible, after the advent of independent charismatic churches and ministries from America. This chapter argues that many of these independent churches were increasingly adopting the American Christianity discussed in the two previous chapters; they were influenced theologically by Bible colleges, pastors' workshops, correspondence courses and crusades promoting this Christianity. Chapter 6 attempts something different. It argues that Liberia was effectively an American colony. It attempts to show that the Christianity spread in Liberia as 'biblical' or 'nondenominational' or simply 'Christian' was not some transcultural, timeless distillate from the scriptures. Its particular form could only be explained by American history, culture and preoccupations; this is argued in reference to dispensationalism, reconstructionism and Zionism, all characteristics of an American Christianity elaborated in response to particular American concerns. Thus this chapter suggests that this Christianity served as one more way of promoting American interests in Liberia. The conclusion attempts to account for the explosion of Christianity in Liberia; argues that Liberian Christianity served essentially (if unconsciously) to divert attention from the social situation and to leave Doe unchallenged in his mismanagement and corruption; and attempts to relate developments in Liberia to Africa as a whole. Countless people helped towards this book. I am profoundly grateful to the bishops, pastors, missionaries, church workers and assorted Liberians who so readily gave me their time, answered my questions, shared their experiences, and provided information. In particular I thank those who disputed my

8

Introduction

suggestions and theories, and who even now would probably reject the whole argument of this book. For particular assistance of various kinds I thank Dr Haddon Willmer, Rev. Hartwig Liebich, Rev. Jose Belo Chipenda, Julia Kemp, Faye Sheehy Hannah, Lorrie Geddis, Dr A. Chennells, Veronique Wakerley, Dr Walter Cason, Rev. John Boonstra, Harold Miller, Dr Georg Retzlaff, Arthur Nat Yaskey, Cheryll Stringer, and the members of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, the University of Leeds, and the members of the Department of Theology, the University of Uppsala.

CHAPTER I


Liberia is a small country of 43,000 square miles (111,369 sq. km.) situated at the south-western point of West Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone to the north-west, the Ivory Coast to the east, and Guinea to the north. Its 2*5 million inhabitants are made up of sixteen principal tribes and a small group descended from repatriate American slaves or from slaves freed from slave-ships captured on the high seas. The first slaves were brought to Liberia in 1822, as part of a scheme of the American Colonisation Society. The number of repatriate slaves was never large. There were about 12,000 colonists between 1822 and 1861, when the American Civil War effectively stopped colonisation. Of these, 4,500 were freeborn (all the first five presidents had been born in freedom) and about 7,000 born in slavery. As well there were about 5,700 Africans freed from their transport ships and resettled in Liberia - i n one 18-month period in 1860-1 more than 4,000 of these ' Congoes' were settled along the coast.1 Colonisation was never pursued very vigorously, for there was controversy about the whole idea from the beginning. Many saw the scheme as simply a way for America to free itself of the problem of black freedmen, and those advocating abolition saw colonisation as a prop for the institution of slavery.2 In the early days disease took 1

2

Bell I. Wiley (ed.), Slaves No More: Letters From Liberia 1833-1869 (Lexington KY,

University Press of Kentucky, 1980), pp. 1, 331 and 308. See Sarah J. B. Hale, Liberia, or Mr Peyton's Experiment, NY, Harper Bros., 1853, republished Upper Saddle River NJ, Gregg Press, 1968. Hale (now most famous for her rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb') argues that the Negro cannot cope with US society, so the slavery problem should be solved by returning slaves to Liberia. The letters (pp. 247-80) from Liberians praising their new land have been heavily

io

Christianity and politics in Doe's Liberia

a tremendous toll of the repatriates, and the colonists were largely left to their own meagre resources. The American Colonisation Society created small settlements of repatriates all along the coast, and in 1847 these settlements joined to declare themselves a republic. In 1857 the settlements of the Maryland Colonisation Society at the eastern end of present-day Liberia joined them. At first the country was run by a small group of mulattoes or octoroons among the settlers, but in 1870 the dark-skinned repatriates took control. For the next n o years control lay with the True Whig Party (TWP) and Liberia was de facto a oneparty state. Over this period the polity evolved from a 'repatriate democracy' (a democracy among the settlers, but with no participation from the tribes of the hinterland), through a ' repatriate oligarchy' (when the settlers were paramount in a polity slowly assimilating some members of the tribes) to a 'patronage party state' (in which there was more indigenous involvement) after the Second World War. 3 But under the True Whig Party it was always a small clique of repatriates, never more than 3—5 per cent of the entire population, who dominated everything for their own benefit. The original repatriates had little education or governing experience, and they brought back to Africa the only society they knew, the plantation. 4 Trapped with this model they turned to politics as a diversion and left work to the native underclass whom they exploited harshly. The local tribes often revolted, and such revolts were put down with some ferocity. The pawning of children and government forced labour were common,5 and so open that in 1929 the

3

4

5

doctored to present only an encouraging picture; pp. 280-304 are pure propaganda for colonisation. For this colonising versus abolition debate, see Peter Williams 'To the Citizens of New York' (originally published in New York Spectator, 1834) in Milton C. Sernett (ed.), Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness (Durham NC, Duke University Press, 1985), pp. 196-202, and Henry McNeal Turner, 'Emigration to Africa', ibid., pp. 260-5. Elton Dunn and Byron Tarr, Liberia: A National Polity in Transition (London and Metuchen NJ, Scarecrow Press, 1988), p. 196. Martin Ford, review of Bitter Canaan (see note 6 below), LSJ 14, 1 (1989), p. 133. And for an interesting comparison with Haiti, see Amy Wilentz, The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier (NY, Simon and Schuster, 1989), esp. pp. 207-9. G. E. Saigbe Boley, Liberia: The Rise and Fall ofthe First Republic (London, Macmillan, 1983), pp. 42-4 and 47-54. Monday P. Akpan, 'The Role of the Military in the


11

League of Nations sent a commission to investigate reports of slave trading on the part of Liberian officials. Officials used to round up youths in the interior and ship them to the plantations on the Spanish island of Fernando Po (now part of Equatorial Guinea) in a practice hardly distinguishable from slavery. A damning report published these abuses to the world in 1931, and recommended that Liberia be stripped of its independence and placed under League of Nations mandate.6 President King was forced to resign, as was his Vice-President Allen Yancy who, along with Postmaster General Samuel Ross, was a ringleader in recruitment. There is some validity in the claim that it was very selective to single out Liberia for such crimes after all, the labour was transported in German and British ships to work in a Spanish colony. It is true also that scapegoating Liberia was possible only because of its political insignificance - the US State Department which instigated the report deliberately avoided annoying Spain in the inquiry.7 However, the episode highlights the attitude of the ruling Americo-Liberians to the local tribes. Politics within this settler oligarchy was extremely corrupt. Incumbent presidents used every resource to stay in power. In the 1927 presidential elections which returned the President

6

7

History of Liberia', in R. Kappel, W. Korte, R. F. Mascher (eds) Liberia: Underdevelopment and Political Rule in a Peripheral Society (Hamburg, Institut fur AfrikaKunde, 1986), esp. pp. 131-6. League of Nations, Report of the International Commission of Enquiry into the Existence of Slavery and Forced Labour in the Republic of Liberia, Washington, US Government, 1931. One of the three members of this commission wrote his reflections on the commission's task: Charles S. Johnson, Bitter Canaan: The Story of the Negro Republic, New Brunswick NJ, Transaction Books, 1987. See Martin Ford's Review in LSJ 14, 1 (1989), pp. 111-15. See also Boley, Liberia, pp. 45-60; John Walter Cason, The Growth of Christianity in the Liberian Environment (Columbia Univ., Unpublished PhD thesis, 1962), pp. 308-16; Sanford J. Ungar, Africa: the People and Politics of An Emerging Continent (NY, Simon and Schuster, rev. edn 1986), p. 93; Graham Greene, when he made his journey on foot through Liberia in 1935, was welcomed in the hinterland ' because I was a white, because they hoped all the time that a white nation would take the country over' {Journey Without Maps, NY, Viking 1961 -original 1936, p. 128, and see also p. 209). See the claim that the entire investigation was an imperialist plot against Liberia's sovereignty, Ernest J. Yancy (a descendant of Vice President Yancy?), Liberia-a Nineteenth-Twentieth Century Miracle (Israel, Nateev Publishing House, 1971), pp. 264-89.

12


King who subsequently had to resign over the Fernando Po report, King was credited with 243,000 votes, and his opponent 9,000, when the total electorate comprised no more than 15,000. In other words, the winner's majority was 17 times greater than the number of possible voters. This election won the title, in the Guinness Book of Records, of the ' most bent' election of all time.8 Financial affairs were conducted in a similar fashion.9 There was a budget, but it was never adhered to. There was no system of accountability for public funds. A huge part of national revenue was always spent paying interest on previous loans. The coming of Firestone in 1926 began a new era in Liberia's economy. Firestone, as part of a US attempt to break the British monopoly on rubber in Malaya, was granted a lease of a million acres for 99 years at six cents an acre, and at Harbel it established the world's largest rubber plantation. For decades Firestone, either singly or jointly with the US government, controlled the destiny of Liberia.10 As part of Firestone's original agreement, a specially established Firestone subsidiary lent the Liberian government a huge sum — again, to pay the interest on previous loans - at the then substantial interest rate of 7 per cent. Firestone subsidiaries spread throughout the economy. In 1951 Firestone's after-tax profit was still three times the total income of the Liberian government. Even in the 1960s Liberia was often called the Firestone Republic. After Firestone came several multinational companies, tempted by what Liberia called its ' Open-door' policy, led by iron-ore mining companies from America, Germany, Sweden. Throughout the 1950s Liberia's growth rate was higher than that of any other country except Japan - between 1952 and 1957 it was about 15 per cent a year. But the growth benefited a small number of foreign firms 8 9

Guinness Book of Records iggo (London, Guinness Publishing Co., 1989), p. 200. George W. Brown, The Economic History of Liberia (Washington, Associated Publishers, 1941), p. 62. See Fred van der Kraaij, The Open Door Policy of Liberia: An Economic History of Modern Liberia^ Bremen, Ubersee-Museum, 1983; Fred van der Kraaij, 'The Open Door Policy: Past, Present and Perspectives of the Liberian Concept of Foreign Investment', in Kappel et al., Liberia, pp. 150-90. J. Pal Chaudhuri reviews van der Kraaij's Open Door Policy in Liberia Forum 2/2 (1986), pp. 110-13. 10 Van der Kraaij, 'Open Door Policy', p. 155. See all pp. 150-90.


13

whose profits were largely repatriated. It is estimated that between 1926 and 1977 Firestone made a total profit of between US$410 and S415 million, though the Liberian government received only Si 10 million. So, nearly three out of every four dollars that Firestone made in Liberia were transferred to the United States. Between 1962 and 1973 the American-controlled National Iron Ore Company shipped nearly $300 million worth of ore out of the country; the Liberian share over a 16-year period around this time was $2*5 million. In theory, the Liberian government had 50 per cent ownership of the companies. In practice, the government's share was 50 per cent of what the investors decided to term net profit. The companies always made sure that the amount shown as net profit was kept to the minimum - by giving special salaries and benefits to expatriate employees, by allocating depreciation allowances, and by making all transactions at artificial prices with specially created subsidiaries which thus made the big profits. As a result, very little benefit came to Liberia from this theoretical boom. AH the concessions operated completely independently of the national economy. They did, however, bring about great social changes. For example, Firestone's labour requirements demanded that subsistence farmers be 'induced' to join Firestone's work force, and Liberia, from being self-sufficient in food production up to the mid-1950s, by the 1980s depended on grain shipments, principally of rice, for more than half its supplies.11 What enabled the concessions to operate like this was not just the inexperience of the Liberian authorities. The multinationals bought off important people in Liberia's ruling elite, who in return for personal gain protected the companies' favourable terms. The revenues which should have flowed to the government treasury flowed instead to influential individuals, like President Tubman, Emmett Harmon, or Richard Henries.12 11

12

Patrick L. N. Seyon, 'Liberia's Second Republic', LSJ 12, 2 (1987), p. 178; Arthur S. Banks (ed.), Political Handbook of the World (NY, GSA Publication, 1987), p. 345. Emmett Harmon (1913-) was executive secretary of the Joint Liberian-US Commission for Economic Development (1952-70), and 'effectively in charge of the economic development program of the government' in 1950s and 1960s. He lists his directorships as Salala Rubber Co, Amsterdam, a Getty Oil subsidiary; Deutsche Liberian Mining Co. (DELIMO), Dusseldorf. He is legal advisor to Bong Mining

14

Christianity and politics in Doe's. Liberia

Such advocates-ensured that government's controls were kept to a minimum. And, of course, since these individuals made up the government anyway, they were responsible for disposing of the little that stayed in Liberia as well. They spent little on any planned expansion of the country's productive base, or on development of infrastructure. As late as the 1960s the country had only 10 miles of paved road. The government simply dispensed patronage to the increasing numbers of its own elite. A team of US and British experts which studied the economy in the early 1960s-and succinctly entitled their report Growth Without Development - could barely contain their outrage over the country's political, economic and social system.13 This 'Open-door' policy is associated with the presidency (1944—71) of William V. S. Tubman. Tubman was widely known in the West. He spoke of pan-Africanism, was one of the founders of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, and spoke against South African policies of discrimination. At home, he advocated a ' unification policy' designed to bring the tribal people of the interior into the running of the country. He in no way completed this unification, but introduced some longoverdue measures to this end. Under Tubman, the patronage party state reached its limit. All government workers were required to contribute one month's salary to the TWP annually. Under Tubman, the cult of the presidency reached its peak. He subverted every institution of society to enhancing it.14 Real opponents were victimised and destroyed (he may have abolished the death sentence, but opponents were banished to

13

14

Co., Monrovia. Richard Abrom Henries (i908-1980), Speaker of the House 1952-80, and legal counsel for leading foreign concessions including the Firestone Plantations Company. Henries was executed with twelve others, 22 April 1980. See D. El wood Dunn and Svend E. Holsoe Historical Dictionary of Liberia (London and Metuchen NJ, Scarecrow Press, 1985), adloc. Robert W. Clower et al., Growth Without Development: An Economic Survey of Liberia, Evanston IL, Northwestern Univ. Press, 1966. 'The principal obstacles to economic and social development are deleterious government practices carried over from the traditional settler society of pre-World War II Liberia' (p. 284). Their conclusion: ' Liberia is thoroughly backward - politically, socially, economically' (p. 4). George Klay Kieh Jr, 'Guru, Visionary and Superchief: An Analysis of the Impact of the Cult of the Presidency on the Development of Democracy in Liberia', LiberiaForum, 4/6 (1988), pp. 8-19. See also Tuan Wreh, The Love of Liberty... The Rule of President William V. S. Tubman in Liberia, London, C. Hurst & Co., 1976.


15

Belle Yala correction centre where a good many were simply 'corrected out of existence'15), and at election times token opponents were produced to disguise the reality of a one-party state. He had a presidential yacht whose budget was greater than that for the country's justice system, and at one stage the appropriation for ceremonial bands surpassed the expenditure on public health.16 Tubman died in office on 23 July 1971 and was succeeded by his Vice-President William Tolbert. Tolbert realised the need for change. He reduced Liberia's dependence on the United States. He introduced an element of informality, and reduced the political constraints of his predecessor. In these conditions appeared the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), a grassroots movement for social and economic involvement which applied itself to all questions ofjustice in Liberia, and which by 1979 was starting to think in terms of forming a political party. The Progressive People's Party (PPP - a descendant of the Progressive Alliance of Liberians) was established as a political party from the outset, and its constituency was the dissatisfied and unemployed lower classes.17 In response to such pressures, Tolbert introduced an anticorruption commission, but his own family were the prime offenders.18 His brother Stephen, till his death in 1976, was both 15

16

17

18

J. Gus Liebenow, Liberia: The Quest for Democracy (Bloomington IN, University of Indiana Press, 1987), p. 189; Wreh, Love of Liberty, pp. 85-6. Ungar, Africa, p. 94; Wreh, Love of Liberty, p. 61. In i960 TB infected 60-70 per cent of population over 30 years of age; only 15 per cent of school-age children were in school; the incidence of malaria was close to 100 per cent. See Wiley, Slaves No More, p. 339. In i960 adult literacy was estimated at 9 per cent, in 1975 at 10 per cent (David Barrett (ed.), World Christian Encyclopedia (Nairobi, Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 455. For MOJA, see Togba-Nah Tipoteh, Democracy: the Call of the Liberian People: the Struggle for Economic Progress and Social Justice in Liberia during the igjos, Monrovia, the Susukuu Corporation, 1982; Nya Kwiawon Taryor Sr (ed.), Justice, Justice. A Cry of My People. The Struggle for Economic Progress and Social Justice in Liberia, Chicago, Strugglers' Community Press, 1985; Amos Sawyer, Effective Immediately: Dictatorship in Liberia ig8o-86: A Personal Perspective (Bremen, Liberia Working Group, 1987), pp. 16-17. For the Executive Order establishing the National Force for the Eradication of Corruption (NFEC), see Boley, Liberia, pp. 157-8. NFEC examined 123 cases of corruption in its first year; the chief executive 'disposed of a mere seven of them. See NFEC, First Annual Report to the President of the Republic of Liberia Covering the Period Nov. I 975 t° Nov. igj6 (Monrovia, NFEC, 1977). For graphs and charts which attempt to

16


Minister of Finance and Liberia's principal businessman, owner of the Montserrado group of companies. Another brother, in 1980 president pro tempore of the Liberian Senate, had immense assets. One of Tolbert's daughters, an Assistant Minister of Education, controlled all text book sales in Liberia. Tolbert's son Adolphus ('A.B.') Tolbert was involved in all sorts of rackets. One involved the sale of Liberian diplomatic passports, which would enable the possessor to travel anywhere without having luggage searched. For those for whom this was important, it was well worthwhile to pay the Tolberts (not the Liberian state) to become a Liberian honorary consul. In 1979 Tolbert, as chairman for that year, was to host the annual conference of the OAU. He spent Si00 million in constructing a conference centre, and not long after announced that the price of rice would have to be raised. (It was not lost on the population that the Tolbert family, as the country's biggest rice producers, would derive most benefit from such an increase.) This was the final straw and, on 14 April 1979, riots broke out, with widespread looting. Tolbert assumed emergency powers, put down the riots with great force, and postponed municipal elections. When Gabriel Baccus Matthews, the leader of the PPP, called for a general strike the following March, Tolbert had the PPP leaders arrested on the grounds that they were plotting an armed insurrection. In the early hours of 12 April 1980, two days before the trial was to begin, a group of 17 enlisted men overthrew the government, killing Tolbert and 27 others. Exactly what was planned, and what happened that night, has never been divulged. One account has it that Doe himself hid outside in the garden while others disembowelled Tolbert inside.19 However, Doe, as the highest ranking among the seventeen soldiers, was declared the Chairman of the People's

19

give some idea of the nepotism and corruption of Tolbert, see Boley, Africa, pp. 90-100; Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, pp. 108-9; Tipoteh, Democracy, p. 133. Gunter Schroeder and Werner Korte, ' Samuel K. Doe, the People's Redemption Council and Power. Preliminary Remarks on the Anatomy and Social Psychology of a coup d'etat', Liberia-Forum, 2/3 (1986), p. 19. However, Doe's obituary in the Independent (12 Sept. 1990, p. 14) claimed that it was Doe himself who had killed Tolbert.


17

Redemption Council (PRC) which took over the government. A cabinet was formed which included prominent members of MOJA and PPP, and even some who had been in previous administrations but who had established their revolutionary credentials by openly opposing some government policy. The various groups formed an uneasy alliance: the illiterate soldiers of the PRC who had the real power; the new wave of MOJA and PPP which had not had time to work out policies on many of the key issues confronting the government; the professionals and technocrats from the old regime; and the fortune seekers, confidence men and bounty hunters who inveigled themselves into positions of power.20 Splits were obvious from the outset; many of the civilians pleaded for days - and unsuccessfully with the soldiers to stop the public execution of 13 former government officials on a Monrovia beach on 22 April.21 Gradually the civilians left the cabinet, or fled into exile. Some of the soldiers did not get a chance to leave; by August 1981 Doe had begun discovering attempted coups against him, which would lead to the execution of alleged plotters either with or without a form of trial. Initially the 1980 coup was immensely popular. The news was greeted with dancing in the streets, especially by the tribal people who hailed the coup as their vindication after 158 years of settler domination. Doe announced that he had not assumed power to repeat the oppression of the past, and indicated that he would soon return the country to civilian rule.22 Even the indiscipline of the soldiers was tolerated for a time. However it was not long before the true nature of the regime became apparent. The economy collapsed. It is estimated that at least 20 21

Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p p . 1 6 - 1 8 ; U n g a r , Africa, p p . 103-5. U n g a r , Africa, p p . 103-4. F o r a n eyewitness account of the s u m m a r y trials a n d executions, see David Lamb, The Africans: Encounters from the Sudan to the Cape

22

(London, Methuen, rev. edn, 1985), pp. 128-32. Photographs of the executions are printed in American Photographer (Feb. 1989), pp. 56-7. Note that Liebenow writes of the international outcry over the public executions:' To put this in perspective, only the televising of the event is novel in the Liberian scene' (Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p. 190). Speech o n 14 A p r . 1980, reported in Co-Co-Leo-Coo, vol. 2 no. 1 ( J u n e 1987), q u o t e d in S. Kpanbayeazee Daworko II, Corruption in Liberia - A Critical Analysis, private

manuscript.

18


$30 million (a quarter of the entire currency base) left the country after the coup, either with Americo-Liberians escaping or with the Lebanese who controlled most of Liberia's retail trade. 23 Rubber and iron prices were low, too, as was investor confidence in Liberia after the coup. To compound this, Doe increased soldiers' salaries by 200 per cent, which he simply could not pay. His political ambitions gradually emerged, too. The first exercise in returning the country to civilian rule was the writing of a new constitution. This was entrusted to a Constitution Commission, headed by Dr Amos Sawyer, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Liberia. To delay having to act on their product, and to modify provisions which he did not like, Doe created a more pliant Constitutional Advisory Assembly to review the work24 — and to incorporate his desired modifications. The 'improved' constitution was duly approved by referendum on 3 July 1984. By 1983 and 1984 Doe had lost all popular support. The general feeling was that the system was unchanged (c Same taxi, different driver') and, if anything, controlled by someone even more corrupt and inept than previous rulers. A crisis occurred in mid-1984 when Doe ostensibly set in motion the return to civilian rule. He lifted the ban on political activity, and promulgated the new constitution. He immediately announced his intention to be a presidential candidate, and founded his own party, the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL). He dissolved the PRC, but immediately replaced it with an Interim National Assembly (INA) with himself as president. Obviously, he intended going into the election with all the advantages of an incumbent president.25 A few days later he ante-dated a new decree of the defunct PRC (decree 88A) 23 24

25

U n g a r , Africa, p . 108. T h e most co-operative m e m b e r s of this Advisory Assembly were to become key people in Doe's 'civilian g o v e r n m e n t ' after his i n a u g u r a t i o n (Sawyer, Effective Immediately, pp. 2 4 - 5 ) . The 1985 electoral campaign and elections are well described in Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, pp. 280-96; Byron Tarr, 'Founding the Liberian Action Party', LSJ, 15, 1 (1990), pp. 13-47; Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, A Promise Betrayed: A Report on Human Rights (New York, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, 1986), pp. 107-20; 'Democracy Doe-style', Africa Report (July-Aug. 1985), pp. 62-4; Sawyer, Effective Immediately, pp. 18—31.


19

which made it a 'felony of the First Degree' to accuse any member of the INA of any crime when one intends ' to injure the official... in his reputation... to create disharmony, spread rumours, lies and disinformation... to cause civil strife or confusions'.26 By this means he was making any criticism of him in the electoral campaign a criminal offence. Doe had also decreed that anyone in government employ intending to organise a political party had to leave government service. In July Amos Sawyer gave a press conference in which he asked Doe and his government colleagues in Doe's own NDPL to obey his own ruling. Doe was on medical leave in Germany at the time, but he immediately returned home and ordered the arrest of Sawyer, one other university lecturer, and two former members of the PRC, who were all allegedly attempting a plot against Doe. All who knew Sawyer knew the charges to be ludicrous. The University Senate wrote to Doe asking for Sawyer's release, and students staged a protest march. Doe summoned the first meeting of the INA, raged about the students and university administrators, then broke off to give the order: 'Mr Minister of Defence, Mr Army Chief of Staff, I want the students at the University Campus to disperse without delay, now! And you will move or remove.'27 The riot troops rushed to the university-just across the road - and what happened then may never be known. The university was cordoned off for five days, and no one allowed to inspect the scene. Those who happened to be at the university that day tell of indiscriminate shooting of fleeing students, beatings, rape and looting. The Minister of Health later admitted that seventyfour persons had been treated in hospital but denied any killings. The university administrators were all dismissed. The ensuing election campaign was something of a charade, on various scores. Doe and his NDPL had all the advantages of incumbency. On 1 August Doe gave all cabinet officials and deputy and assistant ministers one week to resign if they intended to participate in creating competing political parties; only those who identified with his policies could remain in his 26

Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, pp. i IO-I i. See Daily Observer, 14 Aug. 1984, p. 4, for an 2? editorial against the decree. Daily Observer, 23 Aug. 1984, p. 1.

20


government. The courts and Doe's executive branch removed from government jobs all candidates of other parties; no NDPL candidate, however, was compelled to resign. A week before the 1985 election Doe told all government workers that they would have to prove that they had been NDPL members if they were to retain their posts after the election: 'The real meaning of democracy is to give jobs to someone who can promote you.' Doe also used his control of the public purse to his advantage. He suddenly gave teachers their back pay, and he used government funds for scholarships for students at the university, and to give Si00,000 to needy students. None of this was political, he claimed. He used the government's monopoly in awarding contracts to win support from the business community. And, of course, his appointees controlled the state-run media and determined all news. The Doe regime continued to resort to decree 88A; anything they considered unfair political comment could lead to extended detention without charges; before the election, the Liberian People's Party (LPP) deputy chairman spent a year in gaol on this score. Doe also determined the composition of the Special Elections Commission (SECOM), the organisation set up to vet the parties which would be allowed to take part in the elections. Controlling SECOM was a great boon: SECOM demanded $150,000 surety of any group seeking to register as a bona fide political party. Of course, Doe's NDPL could find this money immediately from government funds; it was considerably more difficult for most others. And, of course, no group of citizens could legally act as a party or solicit funds until officially recognised by SECOM; this made many people reluctant to contribute until a party was officially registered. SECOM was also able to harass opposition parties over any legal obstacle they cared to devise. SECOM cleared Doe's NDPL on everything immediately; others had considerable time consumed by frivolous charges brought by NDPL adherents. Sawyer (LPP, the party of MOJA) and Kesselly of the Unity Party (UP) were sidelined over alleged financial irregularities which only months later were found to be groundless. The UP had to wait eight months before it received official clearance


21

from SECOM; the Liberian Action Party (LAP) was not cleared till the eve of the election. Up till six weeks before the election, only one party besides Doe's NDPL had been permitted to register. Doe also worked on opposition leaders. The subtle way was to buy them off. One who looked set to become the Secretary General of the United People's Party (UPP) suddenly had all his substantial debts paid, whereupon he switched to the NDPL, and was named director general of the civil service agencies, controlling government patronage. Opposition leaders who could not be seduced were harassed. An attempt was made to burn Sawyer's home down, and he and Baccus Matthews (UPP) were involved in a series of strange car accidents. After an alleged 1985 assassination attempt against Doe, Matthews, Kesselly (UP) and two leaders of LAP were detained for a week and had property destroyed. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, an organiser of LAP, in July 1985 made a speech in the USA in which she referred to 'idiots' in the Liberian government, and on her return was charged with sedition, convicted by a secret military tribunal, and sentenced to ten years' hard labour. Only international pressure, and suspension of US aid, had her granted 'clemency'. 28 Doe's most outrageous and shameless move was the INA's gratuitous declaration that the two leaders with the greatest following, Sawyer and Matthews, were ineligible to take part in the election at all because of' strange and foreign ideologies against our most tested and matured of life (sic)' and 'espousal of and involvement in ideologies foreign to Liberia' respectively.29 There was nothing in the new constitution which could support such a ban. There were, besides, numerous instances of harassment of opposition figures by police, soldiers and Doe-appointed officials. The youth wing of the NDPL, a group of about 9,000 unemployed urban youth, was particularly prone to this. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the local County Superintendent also had to give permission to campaign. As a result 28

Johnson-Sirleaf s case is treated in Fund for Free Expression, Best Friends: Violations of Human Rights in Liberia, America's Closest Ally in Africa (New York, Fund for Free

Expression, 1986), pp. 32-4.

29

Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p. 288.

22


public facilities were usually reserved for NDPL use only, and permission refused to local branches of opposition parties, even to meet on private property. On election day, 15 October 1985, there was a massive turnout - maybe 800,000 of the 900,000 registered to vote. Voters queued for hours, and polling hours had to be extended from 6 pm till 11 pm. Four parties contested the election: Doe's NDPL, LAP, UP and Kpolleh's Liberia Unification Party (LUP). There were irregularities, particularly involving the military, and these were reported by foreign observers;30 but in general the mood was one of joy, almost elation. Exit polls taken outside voting stations showed that LAP with its presidential candidate Jackson Doe (no relation) was forging ahead in nearly all counties. The BBC that night carried a report claiming that LAP would have a landslide 60 per cent over all other parties together. The next day LAP increased the figure to 70 per cent. A member of SECOM circulated several tallies signed by party representatives who had witnessed the ballot counting, and they confirmed LAP's lead. (The SECOM member was quickly arrested and charged with sedition.) However, the Doe faction had gone so far that they could not give up now; there was too much at stake. Harmon, the chairman of SECOM, halted the count in the early hours of 16 October, and (against the rules the commission itself had previously drawn up) ordered all ballot boxes to be brought to the government's Unity Conference Centre on the outskirts of Monrovia. (To move the boxes to Monrovia entailed entrusting them to Doe's County Superintendents. There were soon reports - and photos in local papers - of heaps of burned ballots outside Monrovia.) Harmon also announced - another departure from SECOM's own rules - that the ballots were to be counted by an ad hoc 'non-partisan and broadly representative' committee, which he proceeded to name. The committee included two senior aides to Doe, and wives and relatives of cabinet ministers and of members of the IN A who had openly supported Doe and 30

See Washington Post, 16 Oct. 1985, pp. A25 and 30; ibid., 17 Oct. 1985, p. A36; ibid., 18 Oct. 1985, p. A23;ibid., 23 Oct. 1985, pp. Ai and 18; ibid., 28 Oct. 19855 pp. A17 and 20.


23

the NDPL. Of the fifty committee members twenty were from Doe's county of Grand Gedeh, nineteen of whom were Krahn, Doe's own tribe. While the new counting was proceeding, the Justice Minister threatened to prosecute anyone who commented on the slow count; 31 Doe issued orders that soldiers should arrest and flog anyone found insulting him or predicting that the opposition had won the elections.32 When the 'official' results were announced on 29 October, Doe was credited with 50*9 per cent in the four-way race for the presidency, a result, claimed SECOM Chairman Harmon, ' directed by the hand of God'. 33 The gloom that descended on Liberia that day 'can only be compared to the national gloom and stupefaction that hit the United States the day JFK was assassinated'.34 The elections were barely over, the opposition parties were still protesting, when on 12 November 1985 there was a coup attempted by Thomas Quiwonkpa, one of Doe's companions in the 1980 coup against Tolbert. As one of the original PRC members, he had been a popular figure, continuing to live with fellow soldiers rather than adopt the luxury of power, and, through his constant harangues against corruption and insistence on speedy return to civilian rule, he had made himself popular with civilians as well. He was commanding General of the Armed Forces when, in November 1983, his popularity led to his dismissal by Doe. He had then fled to the United States where he spent over a year in a community college in Baltimore. In the early morning of 12 November 1985 he announced over Liberia's national ratio that Doe had been toppled. There was unrestrained jubilation and dancing in the streets, and almost a carnival atmosphere. But the coup leaders did not go for the jugular and attack the executive mansion itself, nor did they 31 32 33

34

Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p . 296. Ibid., a n d Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p . 30. Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p . 296. Doe's N D P L was also said to have won 22 of the 26 Senate seats, a n d 51 of the 64 seats in the House of Representatives. I t can be noted that Harmon's father Lafayette Harmon had been the election commissioner in 1927 when President King 'won' the most fraudulent election in history (Tarr, 'Founding', p. 14). ' Proposed testimony' of F r J a m e s Hickey S M A before U S Congressional C o m mittees, personal manuscript. T h e comparison was first m a d e b y Blaine H a r d e n of the Washington Post o n BBC's Focus on Africa; Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p . 118.

24


take control over the total communication system. Later in the day Doe came on the radio to announce that he was still in charge. The coup lost its momentum then, and the first Infantry Battalion, led by Doe's cousin, arrived from Camp Schieffelin outside Monrovia to stamp out the last traces of revolt. Unfortunately for many, the dancing in the streets earlier in the day had been recorded on video. Now reprisals began against those who had previously been rejoicing. The News Editor of the government radio station who had unfortunately been at the station during Quiwonkpa's initial broadcast of the coup, was taken to the executive mansion and bayonetted to death. 35 For days there were reports of killings at the executive mansion, and of truckloads of bodies being buried at night. Soldiers suffered as well, particularly those who had been promoted by Quiwonkpa. There were reprisals in Doe's own county of Grand Gedeh, and in Nimba County where support for Jackson Doe and Quiwonkpa was strongest.36 Also, because Quiwonkpa had indicated that he was not interested in power for himself but in turning over the government to the political opposition, Doe rounded up all the leadership of the opposition parties; some were still in detention months later. Doe also banned organisations of teachers, journalists and students who had opposed him in the past. There was never any inquiry into the excesses of the reprisals after the abortive coup. The Vice-President and the Minister ofjustice denied that the government had anything to answer for. Doe had nothing but praise for the ' security forces who stood firmly in defence of the nation on that fateful day of November 12, 1985'. 37 The unfortunate result of this failed coup was that it dissipated the protest over the stolen election and thus entrenched Doe more firmly.38 This was the situation in Liberia when the Second Republic was launched on 6 January 1986 with the inauguration of 35 36

37 38

Amnesty International release of 31 March 1988, in Liberia-Forum, 4/6 (1988), p. 94. L a w y e r s ' , Promise Betrayed, p p . 6 3 - 7 9 . F o r t h e role in these reprisals of the m i n i n g c o m p a n y L a m c o , see ibid., p . 6 3 a n d Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p . 12. L a w y e r s ' , Promise Betrayed, p . 77. Alan Rake, 'Last Trumpet for Democracy', New African (Jan. 1986), pp. 25-6. See Edward Lama Wonkeryor, 'General Thomas Quiwonkpa and his Quest for Democracy in Liberia: Personal Reminiscences', LSJ, 11, 1 (1986), pp. 35-41.


25

President Samuel K. Doe. However, the return to civilian rule was a fiction. The Second Republic was simply the perpetuation of the old PRC in a new guise; the president was the former master sergeant, but in a three-piece suit rather than battle fatigues. More importantly, the Second Republic was just the First Republic renamed. Doe himself claimed that his regime constituted a new social order, and that his only opponents were those with vested interests in the old order who wanted to turn the clock back.39 But in reality nothing had changed since the Tubman/Tolbert days, except that in many respects the regime was more blatant in its abuses and more inept. Many claim that it was Doe who himself put the clock back, by destroying all those forces, developing through the 1970s, that could have brought about genuine change. By the time of the elections scheduled for 1983 these forces might have been sufficiently organised to transform Liberian society with genuine democracy and accountability and participation and planned development.40 Unfortunately Doe's 1980 coup and what followed destroyed all those developing forces so one will never know. Doe's regime continued to make a mockery of the independence of the legislature and the judiciary. This independence was spelt out in both the old and the new constitutions. In the First Republic this was honoured more in the breach than in the observance. This was the case under Doe. It was rare for the legislature to show any independence. Representatives may have aggressively questioned people submitted to them for appointment as ambassadors, but when Doe asked them to change the constitution to allow a president to serve more than two terms, they dutifully obeyed - and with no publicity.41 Doe 39

40

41

E.g. Daily Observer, 6 Nov. 1989, p . 9. This claim is m a d e by Wilton S a n k a w u l o , What My Country Needs today: A Personal View (Monrovia, Dosan's Publishers, 1989), p . 8. This is hardly correct; Tolbert's people were returning to power very shortly after the 1980 coup (Chaudhuri, 'Liberia', pp. 58-9). 'Most (of the 36 civilians Doe appointed to the 58 member INA) were former stalwarts of the True Whig Party' (Europa Tear Book ig88: A World Survey, II (London, Europa Publications Ltd, 1988), p. 1698). See Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p . 17; D u n n a n d T a r r , Liberia, p . 197; T o g b a - N a h Tipoteh, 'Introduction' to Taryor, Justice, pp. xix-xxii; Tarr, 'Founding', p. 42. The initial announcement indicated that the amendment would take effect immediately (Liberian Post, 1 July 1988, p. 3). Reaction was swift. LAP described it

26


seemed to defend this lack of independence; the director of his cabinet wrote: 'The American constitution provides three equal and separate branches of government. Each one is not supposed to exercise the power reserved for the others. This is completely un-African. Africans believe in togetherness.'42 Whether 'togetherness' is the right word to describe what existed in Doe's Liberia is a moot point. The judiciary likewise had no independence. Again this was not new: 'Liberia's judiciary has had a reputation for corruption and subservience to political interests dating back at least to the beginning of this century.' 43 The Ministry ofJustice merited little respect. Doe's first Minister of Justice, Chea Cheapoo, in full view of TV cameras, told the staff of the Daily Observer that the next time they carried a story about him he would hound them from door to door and shoot them dead; and Doe's last Minister ofJustice continually expressed views which would probably have had him barred from practising law in most countries. 'Due process is foreign to Africa' he stated, acquiescing in the extra-judicial arrests, torture and murders which theoretically he was appointed to prevent.44 A classic illustration of the judiciary's subservience to the government's will occurred in 1986, when the three opposition parties decided to form a Grand Coalition to negotiate with Doe. Doe would not tolerate this, and the Supreme Court (three of the five Justices of the Supreme Court were prominent

43

44

as ' another example in the continuation of promises betrayed by the 1980 coup makers' (Daily Observer, 4 July 1988, p. 1). The next day the legislature 'explained' that their amendment would simply lead to a referendum on the subject in the future. Public discussion on this topic then seemed to cease. See Lawrence B. Breitborde,' Four Political Themes in Monrovia, Summer 1988', in AC AS Bulletin 25 42 (Fall 1988), p. 16. Sankawulo, What My Country, p. 5. Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p . 125; also Kieh, ' G u r u ' , p p . 16-17. For examples, see W r e h , Love of Liberty. K e n n e t h Best, ' M y Fight for Press F r e e d o m ' , Mew African, A u g . 1991, p . 22. Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p . 79. (For other equally revealing p r o n o u n c e m e n t s of Jenkins Scott's understanding of his role, see ibid., pp. 77-9, 130-7, 139-42, 145-6, 152.) Scott (along with the Finance Minister Emmanuel Shaw) evidently had personal financial interest in the Liberian National Petroleum Company (LNPC), to which the government was indebted to the tune of $27 million in July 1990 (West Africa, 27 May-2 June 1991, p. 864). This was arguably against ch. XI article 90 of the Liberian constitution which ruled against conflict of interest.


27

partisans of Doe's NDPL) ruled this unconstitutional. In this, 6 the Supreme Court was simply performing the government's bidding'. 45 Fr James Hickey, an American priest deported from Liberia on 10 April 1987, in his testimony to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee gave a good account of Liberian justice in action. He was never told what offence he had committed. His archbishop could not leave him alone after his arrest in case he 'disappeared'. Justice Minister Jenkins Scott ' seemingly found himself in the difficult position of putting the best legal face on what he knew was a precipitous arbitrary decision taken [by Doe] without any reference to constitutionality, law, international agreements and human rights'. And finally Scott descended to the ridiculous in trying to badger the Catholic Church into paying for the deportee's air ticket.46 Jenkins Scott was also responsible for Liberia's gaols, where conditions were truly appalling.47 Jenkins Scott defended these.48 In 1989 there was a case of a defendant so affected with leprosy that he was not allowed into court; instead he was kept in an overcrowded gaol with all the other prisoners where he died.49 Many of those in gaol were never charged with any offence.50 The right to freedom of speech was guaranteed by the constitution. Again, this was not honoured in the First Republic; it was not during Doe's time in power. The security apparatus Tubman erected continued to exist. Newspapers were threatened and closed at will. The Daily Observer, Sun Times and Footprints Today were each closed for periods totalling several years. Closures were ordered for different reasons: once because a story about local teachers' demands was given greater prominence than the visit of an Israeli dignitary; another time 45

46 47

48

49 50

L a w y e r s ' , Promise Betrayed, p . 134. See whole discussion p p . 125-37, a n d for a n o t h e r case of trampling on the constitution, see pp. 135-8. Hickey, 'Proposed Testimony'. F o r accounts of Liberia's horrific prison conditions, see Daily Observer, 21 J u l y 1989, p. 3 ; 21 Aug. 1989, p . 8 ; 28 Aug. 1989, p . 3 ; 12 Sept. 1989, p . 6 ; News, 3 M a y 1989, p. 16; Daily Observer, 11 J u l y 1989, p . 1; ioAug. 1989, p . 4 ; 21 J u l y 1989, p . 3. See Daily Observer, 25 April 1989, p . 7 for Scott's bland reply to Archbishop Michael Francis w h o h a d called o n the government to abolish its ' s u b h u m a n ' prisons. Daily Observer, 30 J u n e 1989, p . 8. See editorial in Daily Observer, 22 J u n e 1989, p . 4.

28


because a photograph showed the state of Liberia's roads. The Daily Observer had its electricity disconnected because it carried a photograph of Doe performing a public function and one of a convicted murderer on the same page. The electricity was reconnected only when state visits of Ceaucescu of Romania and Babangida of Nigeria approached, and Doe needed an independent newspaper to salute them.51 The BBC's Focus on Africa programme was banned from local stations, because its pieces on Liberia were, not unnaturally, rather unflattering. The Catholic radio station ELCM was closed indefinitely in June 1989, ostensibly because it claimed that there had been deaths in a crowd accident at a Malawi-Liberia soccer match.52 Academic freedom suffered badly. After Doe sent the troops onto the campus in July 1984, the entire administration and senior faculty were dismissed: ' Reappointments have been on the basis of being pro-government.' 53 In 1989 a lecturer at the University expressed the view that a one-party state was in 51

52

53

Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p. 145. See also Best, 'My Fight', pp. 22-3; Jeff Mbure, 'The Trials and Tribulations of an African Journalist', African Christian, 30 June i99i,pp. 4-5. T h e bans o n Sun Times, Footprints Today a n d E L C M were lifted o n 21 M a r c h 1990, in h o n o u r of Namibia's independence. Some of the Press, particularly the Daily Observer, could be very courageous; e.g. a n editorial stated, ' C o n t e m p o r a r i l y we a r e a nation bankrupt in leadership' (4 Sept. 1989, p. 4). And another editorial, after an announcement that 55 opposition members had crossed over to Doe's NDPL, speculated that Liberia was 'treading the path of a de facto one party state' {Daily Observer, 26 Sept. 1989, p. 4). Sometimes it could be more subtle, e.g. on a racket uncovered in the Finance Ministry: 'Someone is trying to make this government look bad' (Daily Observer, 17 Aug. 1989, p. 4). The government continually tried to manipulate the media. A 'Communications Policy and Regulations Commission' was established in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for this purpose, and Doe signed the act of establishment into law. The Press Union refused to associate with it on the grounds that it was against the provisions safeguarding freedom of speech in the constitution (Daily Observer, 4 Sept. 1989, p. 1). The Herald attacked the commission as being 'in flagrant violation of the Liberian Constitution' (7-13 Sept. 1989, p. 5). There were frequent announcements of more direct means of intimidation; journalists were beaten up by police (News, 2 June 1989, p. 6); the offices of the Daily Observer were again burnt down 'by men wearing soldiers' uniforms' on the night of 18 Mar. 1990 (BBC, Focus on Africa, 19 Mar. 1990). For an account of government infringement of freedom of the press, see Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, pp. 143-54; Fund For Free Expression, Best Friends, pp. 35-42. Patrick L. N . Seyon, formerly University of Liberia Vice-President for Administration, in Testimony to U S House of Representatives Subcommittee o n Africa, 7 M a r c h 1 9 8 5 , ' T h e T h r e a t to Democracy in Liberia: T e s t i m o n y ' , Liberia-Forum, 1 / 1 (1985), p . 83.


29

accord with African culture. Some days later another lecturer challenged this. The second lecturer was within a few days dismissed on the grounds that his political activities were incompatible with his academic duties.54 Doe continued to eliminate opponents. On 16 March 1988 fourteen people were arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Doe. During interrogation, one of the leaders, R. Kaipaye, fell to his death from the sixth floor of the executive mansion; his interrogators insisted that he jumped. 55 The other alleged leader was G. Kpolleh, leader of the Liberia Unification Party in the 1985 election. Although he had originally been thought a lightweight figure put up by Doe to give the semblance of a genuine contest, Kpolleh had become very independent and outspoken. His outspokenness had reportedly annoyed Doe intensely at the time of the Grand Coalition, after which time Doe had moved to silence him. The trial which began on 9 August 1988 was rather irregular.56 There were reports of money being passed around the jury; several jurors were reported seeking jobs at the Ministry of Justice afterwards; and witnesses claimed that Justice Minister Jenkins ('Due Process is Foreign to Africa') Scott had personally supervised intimidation, torture and fabrication of evidence.57 One witness claimed that Scott had tried to induce him to implicate two other government ministers.58 The jury, not surprisingly, found Kpolleh and the other alleged conspirators guilty. They were sentenced to ten years in prison. Between the arrest and trial of these alleged conspirators, more opponents were eliminated. On 14 July 1988 a handful of men allegedly entered Liberia from the north to overthrow the government. The leader was said to be Nicholas Podier, one of the original seventeen of the 1980 coup, who had risen from the rank of corporal to Brigadier General eleven days afterwards. Podier was said to have been killed in a skirmish not far from the border, and photographs were displayed in the local papers of 54 56 57

55 Daily Observer, 8 J u l y 1988, p . 8. Daily Observer, 8 J u l y 1988, p . 6. Daily Observer, 9 A u g . 1988, p . 1. Liberia Update, 10 Sept. 1989; Scott was also said to have stated that Liberia should 58 not expect democracy for 30 years. Daily Observer, 8 Sept. 1988, p. 3.

30


his lifeless body. Podier's death meant that now eight of the original seventeen had been killed. Also, in the aftermath of this 'coup', two other members of the original PRC who had later been forced into private life were arrested. These were Larry Borteh and Jerry Friday. Borteh's home was looted, and members of his family were raped by the army.59 An English reporter, interviewing Doe shortly after on the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, suggested bluntly to Doe that there had been no coup attempt at all, but that Podier had been lured back from exile with a promise of safe conduct, and then simply shot at the airport on arrival. Doe denied this.60 Two Americans supposedly involved in this plot were later released, and no trial was ever conducted. Mid-1989 saw the downfall of Gray D. Allison, Minister of Defence and one of the three or four really powerful politicians in Doe's regime. In March the body of a patrolman was found on a railway line not far from Monrovia. The head was found a few metres from the body, and at first it appeared that the patrolman had been involved in a train accident. However, closer inspection revealed that the heart had been extracted. It was apparent that the patrolman had been involved in a ritual murder, and his body arranged to disguise this fact. Ritual murders are killings in which parts of the victim are taken for purposes of magic; particularly at times of elections these murders become common, as people seek positions of power. In June, Allison and his wife and eight accomplices were arrested for the murder. (Two of the ten defendants died in prison as a result of lack of medical attention after severe beatings.) In September Allison's trial began. It was to be a military court martial. The significance of a military trial, not lost on the public, was that if the verdict was guilty, the only possible sentence was death. An editorial in the Daily Observer called for an open trial,61 but the trial was held in camera, with selected video footage screened over the state TV. The papers reported 59

60 61

Daily Observer, 15 July 1988, p. 4; 4 Aug. 1988, p. 1 where the names are given as Borteh and Jorwley. Interview reported in Herald, 4 - 1 0 A u g . 1988, p . 12. Daily Observer, 17 J u l y 1989, p . 4.


31

TV testimony of the previous evening, and printed official news releases. Witnesses came forward to explain that Allison resorted to this ritual murder to overthrow Doe and make himself President. This testimony had the effect of complicating things so that it was not really clear whether Allison was being tried for murder or treason. Witnesses also insisted that Allison personally supervised the killing, even overseeing draining of the blood into a bucket. Allison denied the whole charge, calling it a police plot. He drew attention to the illegalities of the procedure against him. His defence lawyers complained that they could not consult with witnesses. Allison was duly convicted. While still denying everything, he called on President Doe to save his life. After the trial his lawyers issued a statement objecting to the conduct of the court martial, citing its 'wanton disregard for the administration of transparent justice and the tenets of neutral justice', a statement which they were ordered to retract and for which they were charged with contempt.62 Amnesty International (whom ironically Allison had ridiculed in his days of power) announced that the trial was not free and fair, a charge which the Information Minister denied.63 In recent years there has been a change in repressive regimes all around the world. Prolonged detention of dissenters has tended to expose dictators to widespread international criticism. The same results can be achieved by intermittent periods of 62 63

Daily Observer, 8 S e p t . 1989, p . 1; 5 S e p t . 1988, p . 1; 21 S e p t . 1989, p . 1. Daily Observer, 28 A u g . 1989, p . 1. F o r v a r i o u s aspects of this case see Daily Observer, 8 June 1989, p. 1; News, 5 June 1989, p. 1; Daily Observer, 8 Aug. 1989, p. 5; 9 Aug. 1989, p. 6; 20 July 1989, pp. 1 and 10; 24 July 1989, p. 1; 14 Aug. 1989, p. 1. About the time of Allison's trial, ritual killings seemed to reach epidemic proportions: see Daily Observer, 22 Aug. 1989, p. 1 (for Bong County); 18 July 1989, p. 3 (for Margibi County); 16 Aug. 1989, p. 8 (for Nimba County); 30 Aug. 1989, p. 1; 1 Sept. 1989, p. 1 (for Bong County, where the County Superintendent himself was arrested for ritual murder); 8 May 1989, p. 11 (for Monrovia itself). See also News, 29 May 1989, p. 4; 25 July 1989, p. 16; Daily Observer, 8 Aug. 1989, p. 8; News, 12 July 1989, p. 1. For accounts of ritual murders, see Daily Observer, 16 June 1988, p. 8; 22 June 1988, p. 8; 18 July 1988, p. 8. In recent years there have been two celebrated cases in Harper. In 1977, 10 were convicted and hanged, including a county representative, a county superintendent, an assistant county school supervisor, see Daily Observer, 9 May 1988, p. 1. In 1988, 6 were found guilty, including the local head of the ruling NDPL, a former judge, a county chief prosecutor and a Methodist minister, see Daily Observer, 17 Feb. 1988, p. 8; 25 Mar. 1988, p. 9; 28 Mar. 1988, p. 4; 7 Apr. 1988, pp. 1 and 10; 22 Apr. 1988, pp. 1 and 6; 9 May 1988, p. 1; 16 May 1988, p. 1.

32


arrest, suffocating security surveillance, intimidation, subtle economic victimisation, restricted internal movement, threats about the ' full force of the law' and occasional displays of the arbitrary use of power.64 Thus statements like, 'There were no known political prisoners in Liberia in 1988',65 must be seen against the background of this more subtle form of repression — a form which was pervasive in Doe's Liberia. There has been a similar change in tolerating opposition parties; many dictators have learnt that openly opting for a one-party state just closes up many avenues of aid. The same results can be achieved by tolerating opposition parties, but ensuring through occasional arrests, intimidation, restrictions and harassment that they can never mount a real threat. Liberia was not in law a one-party state; but Doe ensured by every means at his disposal that in fact it was. The parties of the 1986 Grand Coalition (LAP, UP and UPP) announced in 1989 that they would meet to discuss the political situation. The new Elections Commission (ECOM) quickly announced that such a meeting would be against the constitution. Editorials in the Daily Observer and the Herald criticised ECOM for being out of order,66 and the opposition parties announced that they would defy the Commission. Visiting US Congressman Mervyn Dymally had recently said, on 26 May, that Washington was watching Liberia, and freedom of assembly was one of the conditions for US aid. Doe defused this potentially embarrassing situation by overruling ECOM; he expressed his commitment to free speech and to freedom of association, but went on to say that he would not allow any political activity to become uncontrollable.67 The three parties met on 31 May—1 June, and (while denying that they intended uniting) issued a very full statement on the 64

65

66 67

Amos Sawyer, 'Commentary on the US State Department's Report on Human Rights in Liberia', Liberia Forum 4/6 (1988), p. 77; Hickey, 'Proposed Testimony'. U S Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for ig88: Report Submitted to the Committee on Foreign Relations US Senate and Committee on Foreign Affairs US House of Representatives by the Department of State Feb. ig8g (Washington, Dept of State, 1989), p. 180. Daily Observer, 31 M a y 1989, p . 4 ; Herald, 1-7 J u n e 1989, p . 5. Daily Observer, 31 M a y 1989, p . 1; News, 31 M a y 1989, p . 1.


33

Liberian situation. They claimed that the 'government was losing control of the nation's economy'; they listed the lack of planning, random extra-budgetary expenses,' the lack of will to pursue a systematic accountability of funds'; and they proposed solutions.68 They criticised the infringements of the freedom of the press, the abuse of the state-owned media, the existence of decrees and laws against the constitution, and the elections commission and election law; and again proposed solutions. In discussing this episode, West Africa commented that Doe's policy was obviously to entrench the NDPL as the ruling party within a de facto one-party state. He would entrench the NDPL, not by eliminating legal opposition which would probably have dire consequences for American aid, but by reducing its effectiveness. He would do this by harassment by ECOM, by continually changing the ground rules, and by a skilful use of the NDPL's monopoly of state patronage. 69 This use of state patronage was obvious at all times. In September 1989 a NDPL official claimed that in Grand Kru County alone 55 members of opposition parties had recently joined them.70 Shortly afterwards another NDPL official had to call on members to stop forcing opposition members to join. 71 It has already been noted that, contrary to initial appearances and Doe's explicit pronouncements, the dominance of the Americo-Liberians was not seriously upset by Doe's accession to power. However, there was in one regard a considerable change, because to the ruling elite was added a militarised Krahn segment. The Krahn domination was obvious - all the major military posts were held by Krahns - and resented. Several observers were aware of the reprisals that this would inevitably bring against the Krahn when Doe was finally deposed. Western 68 69

71

Daily Observer; 5 J u n e 1989, p p . 4 - 1 0 . Obinna Anyadike, 'Into the Breach', West Africa, 10-16 July 1989, pp. 1128-9. See also Eddie Momoh 'Hanging on to a Revolution', West Africa, 5-11 Sept. 1988, pp. 70 1608-9. Daily Observer, 21 Sept. 1989, p. 1. Daily Observer, 28 Sept. 1989, p. 8. In October 1989 there were reports of members of opposition parties being pressurised to resign from their party and to join Doe's NDPL; the Ministry of Education in River Cess County was said to be making membership of NDPL a prerequisite for a teaching position there. The UP and UPP denounced this abuse (Daily Observer, 13 Oct. 1989, p. 1; Herald, 5—11 Oct. 1989, P.

1).

34


diplomatic observers were reported as saying: 'The general feeling now is that if there is another coup, the Krahn will be totally wiped out'; and one scholar wrote: ' If they allow this man [Doe] to be killed, it will be recorded in history that there once was a tribe called Krahn in Liberia.'72 In all this greed, mismanagement, and singleminded pursuit of power, the economy disintegrated.73 Liberia's GDP declined by an average of about 2*8 per cent annually in 1980-5, and continued to decline. Liberia's total external debt doubled between 1983 and 1987, when it was estimated at $1,400 million; debt servicing accounted for 15*9 per cent of that year's budget expenditure. By mid-1985 Liberia was seriously in arrears in repayments both to the World Bank and the IMF. Both stopped assistance to Liberia in early 1986, though US aid helped pay some arrears and the World Bank resumed financial assistance in August 1986; in November 1987 it again announced it was suspending operations in Liberia. In February 1988 the IMF closed its mission in Liberia, claiming that the government had not seriously attempted to reform the economy.74 The US Brooke Amendment decrees that any country that falls a year behind on interest payments cannot continue to receive American aid. Liberia's year's grace was due to expire in 72

73 74

Cited in Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 200. The same views are expressed in Lawyer's, Promise Betrayed, pp. 5 and 21-5. It may be noted that until Doe occasioned it after 1985, tribalism was not a feature of Liberian society. See Tarr, 'Founding', p. 44; Africa Watch, 'Liberia: Flight from Terror', p. 161; Africa Watch, Liberia: A Human Rights Disaster, 26 Oct. 1990, pp. 2-3; Zinnah Tamia Porte, 'The Deaths of Simple Men', Guardian (24 Sept. 1990), p. 3. Blaine Harden writes: 'Before Doe, Liberia was one of the few African countries without serious tribal hostility' {Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent, London, Harper Collins, 1991, p. 239). See Europa Tear Book 1988, p p . 1699-70. A two-man IMF team visited Liberia in September 1989; they announced that Liberia would have to pay $4-5 million a month on the more than $350 million the country owed and adopt a Structural Adjustment Programme before the IMF would open a line of credit {Herald, 15-20 Sept. 1989, p. 1). In November Doe announced that rice would go up 50 per cent (from $23*5 to $35), the customs service would be privatised, and that there would be changes in foreign-exchange regulations, import duties and other taxes. In December 1989 the IMF announced that it would resume relations with Liberia and promised to help the country design a comprehensive Structural Adjustment Programme (Harare Herald, 23 Nov. 1989, p. 4; ibid., 16 Dec. 1989, p. 7).


35

May 1989. To meet its interest repayment, Doe announced on 12 April 1989 a 'national rally' to pay the United States.75 This consisted of a country-wide 'voluntary collection'. It was launched with great fanfare, and Lebanese businessmen, government departments, and individuals all contributed.76 Inland, as numerous pastors attested, the 'voluntary' nature of the contributions could be questioned; in some areas of Grand Bassa County the levy was $2 a hut, and the collection was still being taken up two months after June when it was announced that the $9 million required had been paid. How much had been collected was not disclosed, but it is not completely irrelevant to note that Emmett Harmon who, as chairman of SECOM, had stolen the election for Doe, was placed in charge of this fund drive. A voluntary collection is hardly the way to pay off national debt, but Liberia's budget was largely a fictional device anyway. To try to bring some discipline into budgetary affairs seventeen American operational experts (the OPEX team) were attached in early 1988 to various government finance departments.77 At the outset, this was taken to signify some determination to improve matters; the US State Department noted that' Government's request for American financial experts to improve and manage government finances' was evidence of 'growing appreciation of the need for fiscal discipline'.78 But though some successes were noted, the team simply left at the end of their first year. Nothing official was ever said, but the final report of the OPEX team graphically describes the situation. It begins, 'The third quarter of 1988 has seen extensive deterioration in the 75

76

77 78

About the same time, West Germany stopped its loans because of Liberia's failure to repay {Daily Observer, 26 April 1989, p. 12). Doe took this idea of a rally from the 'Rally Time' Tolbert introduced in April 1972 to fund national development. See Boley, Liberia, pp. 82-5; Wilton Sankawulo, Tolbert of Liberia (London, Ardon Press, 1979), PP- 120-3. It is worth recording that Doe, like Tolbert before him, sold Liberian diplomatic passports to 'honorary consuls' round the world. As part of the rally, they were all summoned to a meeting in Monrovia in May 1989, after which an Association of Liberian Consuls was formed and each member agreed to give $1,000 to the fund to repay Liberia's debt to the USA (Daily Observer, 31 May 1989, p. 8). Newsweek, 16 N o v . 1987, p . 8 1 . U S D e p a r t m e n t of S t a t e , Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p . 153.

36


fiscal situation of the government of Liberia.' It enumerates ' misguided [government] decisions as well as violations of the basic OPEX agreement', concluding that 'the lack of concrete progress in these areas has called into question the rationale for continuing the project'. The report cites several instances of the Liberian government's 'refusal to impose fiscal discipline'. It notes: 'Massive extra-budgetary expenditures continue to be the undoing of all fiscal discipline. They have increased to the level of $70 million for the year, or 30 per cent of the total budget.' It concludes: 'The budgetary allotment process has been made meaningless', and 'the government will not be able to meet the minimum needs of the country in 1989 \ 7 9 The extra-budgetary expenditures came from logging concessions and fuel revenues. These revenues did not go to the national budget; they (40 per cent of government revenue) went to Doe's private funds, to be dispensed as he saw fit.80 The president's dispensing money to his own worthy causes was not new to Liberia, but Doe took Tubman's 'personal patronage state' to undreamt of limits. For example, Doe gave $10,000 to Liberia's national football team for a replay against Ghana and, when Liberia won, distributed $187,000 among the players and officials.81 Considerations of financial returns seemed to determine even foreign policy. On 2 October 1989, Doe announced that Liberia was resuming ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan), which had been broken off in 1977, even though this meant that the People's Republic of China (Beijing) immediately cut diplomatic links, expelled the 38 Liberian students studying in China, ceased maintaining the sports complex it had built in Monrovia, and stopped construction of the uncompleted Ministry of Health building. Some speculation arose that 79

80 81

' Liberia Economic Stabilisation Project: OPEX Quarterly Report, Third Quarter, 1988, submitted by Louis Berger International, Arthur Young and Company, Robert R. Nathan Associates, The Aries Group, October 25 1988', confidential manuscript. See also James Brooke, 'Mission to Liberia Evidently Fails', NT Times (5 Dec. 1988), p. D6; and Frank B. Kimble, 'The United States-Liberia Operational Experts Project', LSJ, 15, 1 (1990), pp. 1-12. Newsweek, 13 Feb. 1989, p . 39. Daily Observer, 11 Aug. 1988, p . 7; 29 Aug. 1988, p . 6.


37

American pressure had brought about this shift in foreign policy, but it appears that this was not so. The reason was simply that Taiwan had offered Liberia $212 million in aid.82 Such aid, of course, was not closely accounted for. A 1987 audit by the US General Accounting Office revealed that in Doe's six years millions of dollars of US aid had been diverted to government officials. $16*5 million of commodity assistance support was not accounted for between 1983 and 1985; Si2 million in economic support funds earmarked for development were used to purchase offshore oil instead; in 1986 alone $1*7 million was irregularly withdrawn from the food-assistance programme; there were 'difficulties in accounting for' over $50 million in counterpart funds.83 Such a system of unaccountability (' planned disorganisation' it was often called) was very acceptable to government officials because they could use it to enrich themselves with little chance of being discovered. When discovery was likely (for example, just before the IMF came to inspect records) ministries were severely gutted by fire, destroying all relevant records. The US OPEX team were forced out because they tried to introduce some order into finances. This seems to have been the reason why a German consultancy team, Hamburg Port Consulting, contracted to bring some order into the running of Liberia's National Port Authority, suffered the same fate as OPEX. In July 1989 the chairman of the German team was dismissed, and his whole team resigned in support. His attempts to introduce a system had angered so many of those who benefited from the previous disorder that they aborted the scheme.84 Every week newspapers carried stories of misappropriation of funds. It seemed the normal procedure for prominent figures like ambassadors. Robert Tubman, Liberian ambassador in Brussels, was allegedly involved in a misappropriation of 82

83

84

Daily Observer, 13 O c t . 1989, p . 3 ; News, 25 O c t . 1989, p . 1; Daily Observer, 25 O c t . 1989, p. 4 ; 11 Dec. 1989, p . 13. See 'US General Accounting Office to Honourable Edward M. Kennedy, US Senate, February 13, 1987', reprinted in Liberia-Forum, 3/4 (1987), pp. 72-74; Africa Events, April 1987, p. 20; Newsweek, 16 Nov. 1987, p. 81; Daily Observer, 21 July 1989, p. 1; 25 July 1989, p. 1. Daily Observer, 21 J u l y 1989, p . 1; 25 J u l y 1989, p . 1.

38


$5 million.85 The ambassador to France could not account for $271,000.86 The Ambassador to Cameroon was allegedly involved in defrauding Liberia's most famous soccer star out of a $30,000 transfer fee.87 Every week newspapers reported cases of corruption in government ministries and agencies. Doe dismissed 200 employees of the Ministry of Finance after the discovery of a cheques fraud.88 The Assistant Minister of Rural Development was allegedly involved in selling ministry equipment.89 The Ministry of Public Works allegedly sold equipment, and then had to rent it from a construction company headed by. an official in the same ministry.90 The Liberian Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) admitted to a $96,000 theft, and dismissed two officials.91 Twelve officials of the Liberian Electricity Corporation (LEC) were involved in a $7 million fuel-oil scandal.92 Telecom officials were charged with a $78,000 theft in September 1987.93 In August 1989 an official of the Forestry Development Authority was dismissed for a passport racket.94 In June 1989 five employees of Robertsfield International Airport were dismissed for customs fraud.95 In September 1989 three regional heads of the development agency Partnership for Productivity were dismissed for misappropriating $54,000.96 The same month officials at the University of Liberia were involved in a $160,000 scandal.97 In November 1989 it was disclosed that over 1,000 students at the University were involved, along with employees in the accounts depart85 87 88

90 91

92

93

95

97

86 Daily Observer, 2 J u n e 1988, p . 5. Daily Observer, 25 A p r i l 1989, p . 1. News, 10 May 1989, p. 1. Daily Observer, 16 M a r . 1988, p . 1. M o r e w e r e fired l a t e r ; see Daily Observer, 7 S e p t . 89 1989, p. 1. Daily Observer, 13 July 1989, p. 1. Herald, 2 0 - 2 6 J u l y 1989, p . 1. Daily Observer, 25 A p r i l 1989, p . i,NewLiberian, 21 A p r i l 1989, p . 2. A n o t h e r $40,000 s c a n d a l a t L P R C w a s r e p o r t e d i n Daily Observer, 24 O c t . 1989, p . 1. Daily Observer, 25 M a r . 1988, p . 1. See a n o t h e r L E C s c a n d a l i n Daily Observer, 11 J u l y 1988, p. 1. Daily Observer, 29 J u l y 1988, p . 1. Newsweek r e p o r t s t h a t i n a six m o n t h p e r i o d i n 1987 more than a million phone calls were made to Lebanon and India, yet only 27 minutes were charged for. The employees of Telecom pocketed millions of dollars in 94 News, 22 Aug. 1989, p. 4. bribes (Newsweek, 16 Nov. 1987, p. 81). Daily Observer, 1 June 1989, p. 8; for another $45,000 mail theft at Robertsfield, see 96 Daily Observer, 8 Sept. 1989, p. 8. Daily Observer, 8 Nov. 1989, p. 1. Daily Observer, 4 Sept. 1989, p. 1.


39

ment, in a registration swindle which defrauded the university of thousands of dollars.98 A Daily Observer editorial called corruption ' a serious cancer eating into the vital organs of the system'.99 Money had to be paid to lower officials to see more important people. Money had to be paid to have forms processed. Lebanese businessmen claimed that it was possible to be visited four or five times in a single day by various officials of the Ministry of Commerce, each of them demanding money in return for leaving the business operating. (The Minister of Commerce was an AME clergyman, Rev. Wisseh McClain.) Immigration functionaries required a bribe before they would stamp a passport. As a former finance minister said: ' Things have reached a sad state when you have to bribe someone before you are allowed to pay your taxes'.100 School inspectors could threaten to close a school unless they were paid a bribe. Soldiers and police on duty at roadblocks required bribes to let travellers through. (A taxi travelling the 40 miles between Yekepa and Ganta with fares of about $13 would pay about $2 (15 per cent) in bribes.) Roadblocks became so lucrative that after nightfall soldiers displaying personal initiative could set up their own private and supplementary roadblocks. Expatriates were liable to harassment over alleged breaking of petty traffic regulations, on the grounds that most would offer a few dollars just to avoid further bother. However, as an imaginative counter to this, for a few dollars a gentleman in the bar at Hotel Africa would provide an official letter testifying that the bearer was an important visitor to Liberia making a considerable contribution to the country's development, and was on no account to be bothered by the police: this letter came with the official seal of the Office of Joint Security. Most of Liberia's chronic and serious food and fuel shortages seemed to be due to corruption. Rice shipments from the US brought in sufficient grain. But whereas in 1989 a bag of rice 98

100

Daily Observer, 7 Nov. 1989, p. 1; 10 Nov. 1989, p. 1; 6 Dec. 1989, p. 4511 Dec. 1989, p. 4. " Daily Observer, 8 June 1989, p. 4. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, at African Studies Association annual meeting, Atlanta GA, 3 Nov. 1989.

4-O

Christianity

and politics in Doe's

Liberia

cost $23 in Liberia, the same bag could be sold in neighbouring countries for $40-65 - at black-market rates a markup of about 500 per cent. Consequently, many merchants and government officials hoarded rice and sold it abroad. 101 In Greenville, where a bag of rice sold at $28.50 (the additional $5.50 was to cover transport costs), the superintendent of Sinoe County would take part of the shipment before arrival, to sell at his own outlets for anything between $35 and $45. Exactly the same procedure was followed in the case of fuel oil. In Greenville the supply of electricity was very erratic throughout the 1980s. The electricity was generated by fuel generators, and the fuel was trucked overland from Monrovia. However, officials would intercept tankers bringing fuel, and dispose of the stolen fuel through their own channels. In 1987—8, an estimated 100,000 gallons were unaccounted for; between January and April 1989 an estimated 40,000 gallons went missing. The fuel was sold on the thriving local black market. It was not only government officials that abused their position. The cancer spread to other organizations. For example, in May 1989 it was announced that $53,000 was unaccounted for in the Transport Union.102 The Liberian Marketing Association, the organisation of market women, collected $2 from each of its 25,000 members to contribute to Doe's drive to pay the US debt; however, its president gave only $7,000 to the fund drive.103 In 1989, the Austrian Red Cross pulled out of the blood bank scheme it had set up only five months before, amidst allegations that Liberian Red Cross officials were selling blood.104 Where corruption at the top was so shameless, there was no discouragement at lower levels. A public example of corruption occurred on the occasion of Doe's birthday in 1989. Doe had revived a practice of Tubman, whereby a particular county was given the honour of hosting the president's birthday celebrations. These celebrations were prepared over some years, during which funds were collected to 101

102 104

Daily Observer, 23 May 1989, p. 1; 15 July 1988, p. 1; 12 May 1989, p. 9; 31 Aug. 1989, p. 8; News, 6 June 1989, p. 7; 8 Sept. 1989, p. 6. 103 Daily Observer, 12 M a y 1989, p . 12. Daily Observer, 11 Sept. 1989, p . 8. News, 10 M a y 1989, p . 7 ; New Liberian, 21 Apr. 1989, p . 3 ; Daily Observer, 5 Sept., 1989, p. 8.


41

build or repair public amenities like a hospital, roads, or a school. It was said that funds were donated voluntarily, but government employees had their salary docked automatically. (For example, Sinoe County was to host Doe's birthday in 1991; in the previous two years, all government employees in Sinoe were to lose three months' salary to this fund.105) In 1989 Maryland County hosted the festivities, with the fund-raising under the direction of Maryland Senator H. Manston. S3 million was collected, but only a 20-room motel (costing $900,000) and a duplex on the campus of the local technical college were built. On the weekend of the birthday, hundreds of important people arrived, but there were no decorations, no flags, no pictures and no souvenirs. There was not even a cake. The visitors had to sleep in cars, or up to ten in a room. Doe was so disgusted that he did not even stay for the dinner on the Saturday evening. The local students were appalled, and mobilised, setting up roadblocks to find Manston. They wrecked the motel, and looted warehouses where Manston and the committee had goods stored away. Riot police had to be flown in from Monrovia, who tear-gassed the students and arrested the student leaders for vandalism and looting. Doe, however, was sympathetic to the students' case, and ordered the release of those arrested. However, no moves were taken against Manston. It seemed understood (by the powerful) that such occasions were a legitimate opportunity for the big men of an area to enrich themselves.106 By 1989 preparations were under way for the birthday celebrations of 1991, to be held in Sinoe County. Already, the powerful from Sinoe were jockeying for the honour of chairing the committee (and thus having first use of the funds). Knowing the Superintendent's habits in distributing rice and fuel, many people were in no mind to let him take the position, and petitions were directed to the President. 105

106

I n a similar scheme, Bomi C o u n t y was to host the 143rd I n d e p e n d e n c e D a y in 1990; in fundraising for this, every citizen n o t employed b y t h e government would (voluntarily) give $ 2 5 , every self-employed person would give $30, a n d every government employee would give (i.e. have deducted) o n e m o n t h ' s salary [Daily Observer, 7 Sept. 1989, p . 4 ) . Daily Observer, 5 M a y 1989, p . 1; 8 M a y 1989, p p . 1 a n d 10; 12 M a y 1989, p . 10; News, 9 M a y 1989, p . 1.

42


Eventually the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs intervened to appoint a County Senator chairman of the Birthday Committee. But the Superintendent's followers objected so strongly that Doe simply 'withdrew his approval' for Sinoe County to host the birthday.107 Of course, the general deterioration affected everyone. The infrastructure crumbled. Roads in the interior were impassable during the rains, and even roads in parts of Monrovia became impassable.108 Public buildings fell into disrepair. In Greenville, the building holding convicted criminals 'collapsed while prisoners were asleep. The inmates were transferred to another building, but that building also collapsed, fortunately with no human casualties'. The prisoners were transferred to a police building, b u t ' the building housing the police and immigration detachment is in a deplorable condition, making containment of prisoners very difficult'. As a result, the prisoners broke out on 19 August 1989. The commander of the Greenville police elaborated that ' it is impossible for him to work when it rains due to the leakage in the roof'.109 Education regressed in all sorts of ways. A World Bank study in 1988 noted that between 1982 and 1986 public primary school enrolment dropped 27 per cent, from 109,681 to 80,048 students. The total percentage of expenditure spent on education in 1980 and 1983 was 24*3 per cent and 13*2 per cent respectively - a 45 per cent decrease in the government's commitment to education.110 The government did not pay its subsidy to private schools; one school reported in 1989 that its annual state subsidy of $20,000 (out of a total budget of $93,000) had not been paid since 1985. m In practical terms this meant that teachers were sometimes not paid for months on end; they did not attend school and, of necessity, went to work their land. Books were scarce. The exam system was riddled with corruption. A missionary who taught in a Liberian school till 1976 and then after a break returned to the same school in the mid-1980s, claimed that while he was away 107 108 109 110

Daily Observer, 20 O c t . 1989, p . 1; 23 O c t . 1989, p . 1; 11 D ec . 1989, p . 1. Daily Observer, 3 0 A u g . 1989, p . 1; 5 Sept. 1989, p . 8. Daily Observer, 31 A u g . 1989, p . 8. MelvinJ. Mason, 'Liberian Education: Towards the 21st Century', Daily Observer, m 25 July 1989, p. 5. Daily Observer, 7 June 1989, p. 7.


43

the standard regressed by two years; what earlier students had known at the end of the 8th grade, in the mid-1980s they knew at the end of the 10th.112 The state of the health service became critical. In many regions of the public health sector, there were no drugs at all between 1982 and 1985. Leprosy was on the increase - 482 new cases were reported in 1988 — and the TB programme simply collapsed.113 Monrovia's JFK teaching hospital, built by the USA in 1965, became a national disgrace. The annual budget was originally Si2 million but, between 1983 and 1989, as public monies were misappropriated and directed elsewhere, it received only $6*2 million.114 In mid-1989, the medical director published a very courageous and illuminating account of the state of this hospital. She began by explaining how she had hesitated to write about it, not least because of fear of what might happen to her. She outlined the complete lack of basic equipment, which meant that the investigations which were routinely performed ten years before were not done at all in 1989. She noted that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had been forced to withdraw their accreditation in 1986, and the West African College of Physicians withdrew theirs in 1989. She insisted that the Liberian government, despite its public pronouncements, was committed to health in name only. She illustrated this by referring to the multi-million dollar Ministry of Health building being constructed next to the TB centre which was an 'embarrassment'. 'This type of commitment is like a man who drives his unschooled and undernourished children around in a Mercedes Benz declaring that the money spent to buy the car is evidence of his love for them.' She explained that the hospital administrators could not obtain any funds from the Ministry of Finance. They could sit in the Ministry of Finance all day only to be told there was no money, yet' the same ministry that has no cash when vouchers 112

114

See also Mary Antoinette Brown Sherman, 'The Crisis in Liberian Education', AC AS Bulletin 25 (Fall 1988), pp. 12-15. Sherman is a former President of the 113 University of Liberia. Daily Observer, 31 May 1989, p. 3. Daily Observer, 31 Jan. 1989, p. 1. By 1989 the government was $500,000 in arrears with subsidies due to the Curran (Lutheran) Hospital in Lofa County (News, 27 Apr. 1989, p. 8).

44


are presented by JFK, finds cash when vouchers are presented by a Lebanese vendor. One does not need the wisdom of Solomon to know why.' She was fiercely critical of the hospital's administration and their 'distorted sense of priority'. When doctors asked the administration to cover bloodstained mattresses, 'instead $28,000 was used to award a contract to an outside firm to paint the maternity centre. The centre has several painters in its employ who are paid regularly.' Similarly, ' Although there is no paper in the centre and we have to write on patients' notes, on scraps of paper, or on the reverse side of used paper, administration decided to invest thousands of dollars in computers. Apparently administration did not do its homework. I understand they were the wrong type! They are gathering dust.' The administration spent Si00,000 on four new cars, and two of those who were given cars already had cars less than two years old. The director of the hospital was expecting a Mercedes, in a hospital which lacked blood-pressure machines except in the operating room. The hospital was grossly overstaffed - there were 28 cleaners in the maternity section alone — yet patients had to find their own bandages, sutures and intravenous fluids. She was equally critical of many of the doctors, who diverted patients to their own private clinics on the pretext that JFK did not have the drugs or equipment to treat them. In their private clinics the doctors could charge their own fees. She was just as critical of the Liberian public who tolerated this scandalous state of affairs.115 In all this corruption, mismanagement and chaos, why did the Liberian economy not completely collapse? There are several reasons. First, US aid was substantial, more per capita than was given to any other African country. Secondly, in the 115

Patricia A. Divine, 'JFK Medical Centre: A National Tragedy: An Insider's Viewpoint', Daily Observer, 12 June 1989, pp. 6 and 7; see positive reaction to this article in Daily Observer, 14 June 1989, p. 4; 5 July 1989, pp. 4 and 8. An even more scathing story on JFK was carried by the Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 1989, pp. 1, 8 and 10. In this article, it is claimed that the mortality rate of mothers giving birth at JFK was five times worse than Liberia's rate in general; that a West African accreditation panel visiting JFK not long before had found that not a single toilet in the vast five-story building was operating; and that according to one financial report, over 18 months in 1987-8, the centre spent $511,000 on drugs and X-rays and laboratory supplies, and fully $1*07 million on telephone calls.


45

1980s there was a marked increase in the price of both rubber and iron ore. Thirdly, and probably even more important, was the new reality in international finance, the billions of drug dollars requiring laundering. For tainted money seeking a haven, a country like Liberia was ideal. It had no currency restrictions, and the US dollar was its official currency. Above all, provided the necessary officials were squared, no questions would be asked. This laundering undoubtedly explains the appearance of so many new banks in Liberia. As a former Finance Minister put it: 'When eleven banks open in such depressed conditions, you have to ask what is going on, who is fooling whom?' 116 In November 1989 a Monrovia newspaper announced that an unnamed Liberian bank had been discovered attempting to launder $2 million in London. The next month, at the opening of Monrovia's twelfth bank, a deputy governor of the National Bank of Liberia dignified the rumours circulating in the city by expressing confidence that Liberia's banks would not launder dirty money. Soon afterwards the Minister of Information called for a probe into the nation's banks.117 There was certainly a change in the kind of multinational operating in Liberia. Many of the established multinationals seemed to tire of dealing with armed hustlers who had no interest in keeping their word or honouring contracts; for example, one of the major Western oil companies simply stopped exploration, paid a fine of several million dollars for breaking their contract and left. In their place came the highrisk speculators, the third-world (especially Korean) bountyhunters and the launderers of drug money. It appears that many of the new logging concessions were part of this phenomenon. Since logging was part of the economy reserved for Doe and his cronies, anyone prepared to pay the required sweetener could obtain a logging concession. No matter how tainted the money invested, profits earned became legitimate 116

117

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, at African Studies Association annual meeting, Atlanta GA, 3 Nov. 1989. News, 10 Nov. 1989, p. 1; 8 Dec. 1989, p. 6; Daily Observer, 8 Dec. 1989, p. 1; and editorials in Mews, 10 Nov. 1989, p. 4; Mews, 8 Dec. 1989, p. 4; Daily Observer, 6 Dec. 1989, p. 4. For a list of banks operating in Liberia in 1990, see LSJ, 15, 1 (1990), pp. 140-1. The BCCI opened in Liberia in 1974.

46


dollars which could be transferred anywhere in the world. This new reality in international finance seems to have sealed the fate of the giant mining concern at Yekepa, the Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO). Lamco's contract was due to run out in July 1989, when the reserves at Yekepa were exhausted. Across the border in Guinea there are rich reserves, and Lamco wished to renew their contract and enter an agreement with the Guinean authorities to exploit their iron. The Liberian government, however, wanted to bring in new partners who would prove to be more amenable, so they effectively eased out Lamco. Doe signed an agreement with new partners on 5 October 1989, and the new Liberia Mining Company resumed mining operations in December.118 The foregoing pages give a picture of Liberia at the end of 1989 when, after a decade of Doe, Charles Taylor launched the invasion which was to lead to the devastation of the country, and to the death of Doe himself on 10 September 1990. It is not claimed here that all Liberians are like Doe and his cronies. On the contrary, countless Liberians (including most of those with higher education) left the country precisely because they wanted no part in the country as it was then run. 119 Nor is it claimed that Doe's Liberia was unique, or the most oppressive or corrupt country in the world. On the contrary, there are many countries very similar, several in Africa. But it is necessary to have some idea of the political and social situation in Doe's Liberia to understand what follows. For this was the context in which the Christian churches operated. What was their function in that society? 118

119

Daily Observer, 15 Sept. 1989, p. 1; 6 Oct. 1989, p. 1; 5 Dec. 1989, p. 6. Lamco's history and performance can be followed in Liberian Iron Ore Limited (LIO) Annual Report, available from LIO, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Seyon, 'Liberia's Second Republic', p. 183; Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p. 17; Sherman, 'Crisis', p. 15; Breitborde, 'Four Political Themes', p. 20.

CHAPTER 2


Before considering the mainline or historical churches, a word must be said about American slave Christianity which is the matrix of a large part of Liberian Christianity. Of the slaves transported to the United States, initially very few converted to Christianity. For one thing, many slave owners refused to allow their slaves to be evangelised, fearing the impact on them of Christian emphases like compassion or freedom. Many slave owners who exposed their slaves to Christianity made sure that the kind of Christianity they were exposed to emphasised service, obedience and submission.1 The missionaries who promoted the idea of Christianity for slaves had a strong element of self-interest; they argued that slaves who were Christians would work harder, be more respectful and content than those without Christianity.2 Many slaves understood full well the reasons why whites urged Christianity on them, and rejected it accordingly.3 However, in the early nineteenth century, there was a tremendous increase in the number of slaves accepting Christianity. This Christianity had obvious African roots; all commentators note its large element of voodoo or conjure, which was the great rival to evangelical Protestantism among the slaves. Numerous accounts relate the importance of the conjuror, 1

2

3

Kenneth M. Stampp, 'To Make them Stand in Fear', in Hart M. Nelson, Raytha L. Yokley, Anne K. Nelson, The Black Church in America (NY, Basic Books, 1971), pp. 54-62; John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (NY, Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 62-3. Erskine Clarke, WrestlwH Jacob: A Portrait of Religion in the Old South (Atlanta, John Knox Press, 1979), esp. pp. 26-7, 64—6, 104-7, Blassingame, Slave Community, p. 63.

47

48


particularly his supposed ability to wrest from the slave owner reduction of work or mitigation of punishment; sometimes his esteem among fellow slaves lay in his ability to have himself excused from all work. Witnesses attest to the influence of the conjuror, not only over other slaves but over many poorer whites as well.4 African roots were also evident in the dance, swaying, and 'the shout'. This Christianity placed its emphasis on worship rather than doctrine. In fact, in both black and white Christianity, it was the readiness of Baptists and Methodists to dispense with a lengthy theological training for their pastors that ensured that these two denominations outstripped all others at this time; 5 nearly all black slaves converted to Christianity became Methodists or Baptists. Because so many of these converts were illiterate (in many places it was illegal to educate slaves, though this provision was often disregarded) this 'biblical' Christianity was mediated through song and story rather than the biblical text itself. The ' spiritual' thus became a key expression of and vehicle for this Christianity. The influences contributing to the distinctive phenomenon of the spiritual are debated, but its dominant motifs are the sadness and harshness of the slave's life from which relief will be found hereafter. Spirituals show clearly enough the adaptive character of slave Christianity - that is, its function of reconciling slaves to their intolerable suffering - though this is quite compatible with the claim that there were different levels on which at least some spirituals functioned; there seem to be cases in which concepts like freedom were referred to this life, and deliverance was understood to be from slavery. Analysis of the spirituals makes it undeniable that the major social function of this Christianity was to reconcile slaves to the hardship and 4

For conjure, see Blassingame, Slave Community, pp. 45—9: Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South (NY, O U P , 1978), pp.

5

275—88; Gayraud S. Wilmore, Black Religion and Black Radicalism (Garden City NY, Doubleday, 1972), pp. 22-34; Henry Bibb, 'Conjuration and Witchcraft', in Sernett (ed.), Afro-American Religious History, pp. 76-80: Henry Mitchell, Black Belief: Folk Beliefs of Blacks in America and West Africa, NY, Harper and Row, 1975J. Gordon Melton, An Encyclopedia of American Religions (Detroit, Gate Research Inc, 3rd edn 1989), pp. xxxiv-v.


49

harshness of their lives, and to console them with the prospect of relief in the next life.6 However, if the primary effect of this Christianity was to give courage to endure, it is equally true that these slave churches were the only places in which slaves could order their own lives, organise, and exercise leadership. In this sense, these churches played an enabling role. This explains how from the beginning - frequently right up to the present day - the black church in the American South has been far more than a purely religious organisation; in some cases the church's religious role has not been its most obvious feature at all. This explains, too, why pastors of these churches have so frequently been much more than pastors. Those with leadership skills developed in a church have gone on to exercise leadership in civic or political areas.7 This is the matrix out of which Liberia's original Christianity came. Large numbers of the repatriates were Christians - the proportion of church adherents among them was about 14-20 per cent, or three times that of the American population generally in 1776.8 It is noteworthy, too, how often those original repatriates gave as one of their main reasons for returning to Africa their desire - almost mission - to convert 6

For the debate on Negro Spirituals, see Blassingame, Slave Community, pp. 68-75; Raboteau, Slave Religion, 239—66; Milton G. Sernett, Black Religion and American Evangelicalism, White Protestants, Plantation Missions and the Flowering of Negro Christianity

1787-1865 (Metuchen NJ, The Scarecrow Press, 1978), pp. 105-9; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 'Slave Songs and Spirituals', in Sernett (ed.), Afro-American Religious History, pp. 110-31. For a discussion on the nature of slave religion, particularly its socio-political function, see Blassingame, Slave Community, pp. 62—3, 75; William Wells Brown, 'Black Religion in the Post-Reconstruction South', in Sernett (ed.), Afro-American Religious History, pp. 239—43; Gary T. Marx, 'Religion: Opiate or Inspiration of Civil Rights Militancy?' in Nelson et al. (eds.), Black Church, pp. 150-60; Mechal Sobel, TrabelvrC On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith,

7

Westport CN, Greenwood Press, 1979; Wilmore, Black Religion; W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk {NT, Signet Classic, 1969 - original 1903), esp. pp. 210—25; James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, NY, Lippincott, 1970. W. E. B. Du Bois, 'The Function of the Negro Church', in Nelson et al. (eds.), Black Church, pp. 77-81; Gunnar Myrdal, 'The Negro Church in the Negro Community', in Nelson et al. (eds.), Black Church, pp. 82—90; Carter G. Woodson, The History of the Negro Church (Washington DC, Associated Publishers, 1972original 1921), esp. ch. X I ; James W. St G. Walker, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783-1870 (London, Longman, 1976),

pp. 198-9.

8

Cason, Growth, p. 180.

50


the heathen.9 In the letters written back to the USA by those early repatriates, perhaps the most recurring theme is the consolation of religion; Christianity is the motive for resignation in their hardships and their consolation when confronted with the deaths of family members.10 This is natural enough, since they had taken back with them the slave Christianity they had known. The origin in slave religion explains the emphasis on experience, conversion, revivals and the lack of social concern that came to characterise Liberian Christianity. This is also the explanation of the frequency with which religious leaders progressed to or doubled as political leaders. The large number of pastors who worked for the government conveys the impression that the church and state were one. There was, 9

See Alexander Crummell, 'The Regeneration of Africa', in Sernett (ed.) AfroAmerican Religious History, pp. 253—9. Grummell spent 1853-73 m Liberia. This was a recurring theme of the inaugural addresses of Liberia's first President, J. J. Roberts. In his address of 3 January 1858 he said that in the hands of Americo-Liberians lay 'the redemption of Africa from the deep degradation, superstition and idolatry in which she has so long been involved... I have the highest reason to believe that it was one of the great objects of the Almighty in establishing these colonies that they might be the means of introducing civilisation and religion among the barbarous nations of this continent' (in A. Doris Banks Henries, The Life of Joseph Jenkins Roberts and his Inaugural Addresses (London, Macmillan, 1964), p. 117). On 3 December 1861 he declared,' I verily believe - indeed I have not the slightest doubt - that, under God, Liberia is the chosen instrument of working out this problem [the capacity of the Africans for self government] and of restoring to Africa a government, a name, and the blessings of civilisation and Christianity' (ibid., p. 123). On 1 January 1872 he stated,' It is to me also clear that in establishing Liberia God designed to make of her an instrument for good in imparting to Africa the inestimable blessings of a Christian civilisation' (ibid., p. 127). On 5 January 1874 he spoke of Christianity raising this 'benighted people' from 'the depths of heathenish darkness' (ibid., p. 153). The inaugural addresses of Liberia's presidents are found in Joseph Guannu (ed.), The Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of Liberia: from Joseph Jenkins Roberts to William

10

Richard Tolbertjr, 1848-1976, NY, Exposition Press, 1980. Retzlaff has analysed these addresses, and notes that the notion of evangelising the tribes of the interior had disappeared by the mid-1940s (Georg Retzlaff, 'Presidential Theology: The Use of Religious Language and Imagery in the Inaugural Addresses of Liberian Presidents from 1848 to 1976', unpublished paper, 1986). This idea of returning to Christianise Africa became such a part of the Liberian consciousness that Fr Tikpor, the administrator of Monrovia's Catholic cathedral (and himself not an AmericoLiberian but a Bassa) could deplore ritualistic killings in these terms: 'Our forefathers did not come here solely because of the "Love of Liberty", but rather to be a light to those who were spiritually blind.' They came, 'to be a light to warring tribes who hunted human heads and made human sacrifices in order to gain positions of prominence over other tribes' (News, 12 July 1989, p. 2). Wiley (ed.), Slaves No More, p. 10.


51

though, one crucial change in this Christianity as it moved from America to Liberia. Whereas in America Christianity had given identity and courage to endure under oppression, in the Liberian context it gave the small settlements of repatriates an identity distinct from that of the tribal people inland and contributed to the feelings of superiority that led to their oppression of the inland tribes.11 Before discussing Liberia's mainline Christianity in general, a word is necessary about the individual denominations.12 The oldest denomination in Liberia is the Baptist, for the original colonists included even Baptist pastors.13 Thereafter Baptist missionaries came from several different American conventions, and different families of Baptists grew up in the country. By far Liberia's biggest Baptist grouping was the Liberia Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention (LBMEC). Although Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) missionaries left Liberia in 1875, they returned in i960 and became effectively part of LBMEC (although some operated with other Baptist groupings as well, such as the approximately thirty churches founded by Jamaican D. R. Horton of the Liberia Baptist Native Direct Conference in Grand Bassa County, and the scattered rural congregations of Eliza Davis George). President Tolbert was president of the LBMEC for the fifteen years before his death; indeed it was because he had attended a late meeting of the LBMEC that he was staying in the executive mansion the night 11

12

Thomas G. Hendrix, 'A Half Century of Americo-Liberian Christianity, with Special Focus on Methodism, 1822-1872', paper presented at the African Studies Association meeting, Atlanta, Nov. 2-5, 1989. For the mainline churches in general, see Cason, Growth',]. Walter Cason,'The Role of Christian Missions in the Making of Modern Liberia', paper delivered at African Studies Association meeting, Atlanta, 2—5 Nov. 1989; Nya Kwiawon Taryor, 'Religions in Modern Liberia', Liberia-Forum, 5/8 (1989), pp. 3—17 Barrett (ed.), World Christian Encyclopedia pp. 455—8; Joseph Conrad Wold, Godfs Impatience in

13

Liberia, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1968; O. U. Kalu (ed.), The History of Christianity in West Africa, London, Longman, 1980; Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1983. For the Baptist Church, see also Bradley Davis Brown Sr, The Contextualisation of Baptist Theological Education in Liberia (DMin Thesis, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1979), esp. pp. 33-9; Baker J. Cauthen et al., Advance: A History ofSouthern Baptist Foreign Missions (Nashville TN, Broadman Press, 1970), esp. pp. 136-42, 169-72; Lorry Lutz, Born to Lose, Bound to Win: The Amazing Journey of Mother Eliza

George, Irvine CA, Harvest House, 1980.

52


he was killed. In this 1980 coup the LBMEC lost most of its files, deeds, records and bank statements; the vaults were emptied although the locks were not broken. Because many Baptists were among those associated with the Tolbert regime, exiles fleeing the Doe regime included many Baptists. However, between 1985 and 1988 the LBMEC grew from 47 to n o churches. The Baptists in Liberia always had fewer institutions than other denominations. The Liberian Methodist Church is reckoned to have begun in 1823.14 It w a s always numerous, though never particularly marked by such normal Methodist characteristics as itinerant ministry, a powerful episcopacy (or' general superintendency'), and emphasis on personal holiness and sanctification. It also had more than its share of recurrent problems. Problems with groups outside the church included those with local tribes and those with the colonisation society over finance and customs dues. Internal problems included lack of financial accountability, lack of discipline, and inadequate ministerial training. Other problems arose from ministers' seeking other employment, frequently with the government, or from their attempting to serve both church and state simultaneously. These problems frequently caused dissatisfaction among US parent bodies. Leadership was originally exercised through various systems of non-resident bishops. It took more than a century before a system of strong local leadership evolved. The first Liberian bishop elected by Liberians was S. Trowen Nagbe in the mid1960s when the Liberian church became a Central Conference. In 1980 the Liberian conference was joined with the Sierra Leone Conference to become the new West African Central Conference. President Tubman was a Methodist whose patronage was very important in the evolution of the modern Liberian Methodist Church. The Protestant Episcopal Church began among the Grebo in Cape Palmas in 1836.15 It was not strong among the colonists, 14

15

For the Methodist Church, see also Isaac H. Bivens,' Liberia -Journey to Selfhood', The Interpreter (Feb. 1983), pp. 17-20; Malik Reeves, 'To Africa's Golden Strand', The Interpreter (Feb. 1983), pp. 20-3. For the Episcopal Church, see also D. Elwood Dunn, A History of the Episcopal Church in Liberia 1821-1980, London and Metuchen NJ, Scarecrow Press, 1992; Adam


53

but grew quickly in size and influence. Its fourth (and first black) bishop, Bishop Ferguson, led the church for 31 years after his consecration in 1885. Internally, he provided great administrative stability. He also spoke out on public issues such as electoral abuses. At the time of his death in 1916 many considered the Episcopal the country's most influential denomination.16 In contrast to the Baptists and Methodists, the Episcopalians always placed great importance on a properly trained clergy, adequately provided for. Thus the vast majority of them were full-time ministers; Ferguson would discharge ministers who in working for the government let their ministerial work suffer. The Liberian Episcopal Church was long an extraprovincial missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church in the USA; only in 1975 did it join the Anglican Province of West Africa, comprising Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Guinea and Senegal. In the late 1980s the Bishop of Liberia was also Archbishop of West Africa. He had a suffragan bishop living in Gbarnga. The Holy Cross order in Bolahun had exercised considerable influence in the north-west of the country, though the Liberian Episcopal Church had in 1989 almost no foreign missionaries. The Presbyterian Church began in 1833, but always remained very small.17 When the Presbytery of West Africa was formed, it was originally attached to the Synod of Philadelphia. Sickness and death among missionaries to Liberia discouraged US aid, and the parent synod moved its attention to a mission established in Cameroon in 1849. Thus the Liberian church was effectively autonomous after 1868. In 1925 the Presbytery in Liberia petitioned the General Assembly in the USA to reestablish its mission, but the assembly declined on the grounds Dunbar McCoy, Holy Cross: A Century of Anglican Monasticism, Wilton CT, 16

17

Morehouse-Barlow, 198 7. Fraenkel noted in the 1960s that the Episcopal Church, though poorly attended, 'is the favoured church of the elite' (Merran Fraenkel, Tribe and Class in Monrovia, London, Oxford University Press, 1964, pp. 159-61). For the Presbyterian Church, see Thomas D. Campbell, One Family Under God: A Story of Cumberland Presbyterians in Black and White (Memphis T N , Board of Christian

Education of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1982), esp. pp. 180-6; Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ig88 Yearbook of the General Assembly, Cumberland

Presbyterian Church, Memphis TN, Presbyterian Centre, 1988.

54


that the work in Cameroon was more fruitful. In 1928 the Synod of Philadelphia took action to sever organic links, and all formal ties were severed in 1931, when Liberian Presbyterians were expected to merge into other denominations. However, the Liberian church refused to be dissolved and struggled on alone. Later the Liberian Presbytery sought a link with the Second (Black) Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the USA. Although there were connections for eleven years beginning in 1949, this arrangement never functioned well. The Liberian Presbytery finally prevailed on the Board of Missions of the (First) Cumberland Presbyterian Church to recommend to the 1980 General Assembly that Liberia be invited to join the Cumberland Presbyterian Church as a 'provisional Presbytery'. (It later achieved full membership.) In 1981 the Cumberland Board of Missions announced special projects in Liberia; these comprised mainly scholarships. The 1979 report of the Mission Board noted that the Liberian church had the marks of a 'class church'. This agrees with Cason's observation that in 1961 'the Monrovia congregation is led by several prominent citizens of the city, whose primary training, interest and income is related to legislative or administrative positions in the government'. 18 The Moderator in 1989 had been the Liberian Presbytery's first full-time minister. Lutherans first came to Liberia in i860.19 They had had no previous experience with blacks either in the USA or in Africa. They thus worked with the local people rather than the Americo-Liberian colonists. In time their work spread along the St Paul River, creating a Lutheran strip right through the centre of the country. Their work was thus almost exclusively with the Loma and Kpelle tribes. The Lutherans always showed special sensitivity to local culture and customs, and in 1927 their 18 19

Cason, Growth, p. 408. For the Lutheran Church, see also Roland J. Payne, 'The Meaning of Founder's Day'; Henry Q. Taylor, ' History of the Lutheran Church in Liberia'; both addresses given at Founder's Day celebrations, 29 April-i May 1983. Also Sumoward Harris, 'The Evangelist's Approach of the LCL, Past, Present and Future', and Roland Payne, 'Background'. All are found in the record of Consultative Meeting between Overseas Partners, Monrovia, 3-6 Jan. 1983, available in CSM archives, Uppsala, A64 1983.


55

Mission Conference went so far as to declare: ' African customs and traditions are to remain undisturbed as far as they are consistent with a Christian life.520 This sensitivity led them in 1951 to adopt a quite radical policy towards polygamy; although no Christian could contract a further marriage, polygamists who wished to become Christians were not to be denied baptism.21 This respect for local cultures also explains the Lutheran commitment to local languages. In 1950 evangelists had to spend three months each year teaching literacy, and literacy later became a prerequisite for baptism. The Lutheran literacy work among the Loma and Kpelle developed into the government literacy programme in 1952. Because authority was so firmly in the hands of missionaries - mainly American - and because the church was not greatly represented among the Americo-Liberians, the Lutherans were spared many of the disciplinary and financial problems of the Baptists and Methodists. Nor were the Lutherans in any way tainted by the League of Nations' disclosures about forced labour. In 1947 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liberia was established, and by 1965 the Lutheran mission had ceased to exist as a separate entity and the denomination's name was changed to the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL). The number of foreign missionaries in the LCL was in the late 1980s falling rapidly. There remained some Lutheran missions which were not part of LCL, and the Institute of Liberian Languages (TILL), which had been active in translating scriptures into local languages since 1969, was largely (though not exclusively) made up of Lutherans of the Missouri Synod.22 The Catholic Church is the late-comer among Liberia's mainline denominations.23 It had three abortive attempts to establish itself before it finally took root. The first was in Cape Palmas between 1842 and 1844. This venture involved fourteen 20 22

23

21 Gason, Growth, p . 375. W o l d , God's Impatience, p p . 175-82. F o r T I L L , see Mirror, 25 M a y 1989, p . 7 ; Daily Observer, 10 J u l y 1989, p . 4 ; Daily Observer, 5 J u l y 1989, p . 4. F o r C a t h o l i c C h u r c h , see L i b e r i a n C a t h o l i c C h u r c h , The Catholic Educational Bulletin : 80 Years in Liberia (Monrovia, Catholic Church, 1986), esp. pp. 11-14; Edmund M.

Hogan, Catholic Missionaries and Liberia: A Study of Christian Enterprise in West Africa,

1842-igjo, Cork, Cork University Press, 1981.

56


men, but lack of money and leadership led to failure. In a second attempt, Holy Spirit Fathers settled in Monrovia in 1884. They met considerable resistance, not to say antipathy, partly because of their strident denunciations of Protestantism and free-masonry, and their mission collapsed in 1887. In a third venture, the Montfort Fathers tried to establish a school in Monrovia in 1903. For reasons of health, and because of the strength of the anti-Catholic feeling, they left in 1905. 1906 saw the arrival of missionaries of the Society of African Missions; these were to stay, though not without struggle. (The future President, Arthur Barclay, was the lawyer they employed to fight attempts to oust them.) In the 1930s, when the Fernando Po revelations brought international opprobrium on Liberia and many governments withdrew recognition, the Vatican expressed support by strengthening diplomatic relations. This gesture was greatly appreciated by the Liberian government, and anti-Catholic feeling gave way to a very positive regard.24 The Catholic Church was most obviously a mission church. Although at the end of the 1980s all three bishops were Liberians, there were only a handful of Liberian priests and nuns among nearly 30 religious orders made up almost exclusively of expatriates. The Catholic Church was also tremendously institutionalised; besides their numerous schools, clinics and hospitals, by the late 1980s they were attempting to establish a polytechnic in Monrovia with schools of business, nursing, teacher training, agriculture and trade technology. The Catholic Church in Liberia was linked to the Catholic Churches in the Gambia and Sierra Leone in a body called the Interterritorial Catholic Bishops' Conference (ITCABIC). It was also a member of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA). Archbishop Michael Francis of Monrovia was elected President of AECAWA in 1989The actual numbers in these denominations were hard to assess. Statistics for anything were difficult to find in Liberia, 24

See Wold, God's Impatience, p. 111; Gason says that the papal Charge d'Affaires in Liberia, Fr Collins, actually put before the League of Nations a report clearing the Liberian government ('Role of Christian Missions', p. 5).


57

and many were no more than guesses. The churches had additional problems. Difficulties arose because membership figures were compiled on different criteria; for example, some churches practised infant baptism, others did not. Some difficulties were practical, such as the disappearance of so many Baptist records at the time of the 1980 coup. Others stemmed from the purposes for which the statistics were compiled. Some denominations which depended on US mission boards had more chance of increased support if they could show considerable increase over the previous year. This led to an overestimate. Some denominations (possibly the same as those just mentioned) taxed local congregations according to the number of members, which could lead local pastors to underestimate. Nevertheless, there seems some agreement on the relative size of these denominations. The official Methodist total in 1989 was 67,109 and the Baptists were roughly similar. The number of Catholics was about 75,000, Lutherans numbered about 30,000, Episcopalians about 20,000 and Presbyterians totalled about 3,000.25 All these denominations (except the Presbyterians) claimed to be growing substantially. Throughout the 1980s all ceased to be excessively focussed on the coast and directed considerable effort into the interior. At the same time, although to different degrees, all tended to redress their preoccupation with institutions like schools and clinics, and to place more emphasis on direct evangelisation. When one examines the role of these churches in the history of Liberia, a clear picture emerges. Christianity was part of the structures of dominance. Professing Christianity was like speaking formal English - it identified one as belonging to the dominant class. Alongside the True Whig Party and Freemasonry, Christianity was the third pillar on which the whole oppressive structure was built. Liebenow writes that under the First Republic, the church was an appendage of the TWP. 26 He also defined the Masonic Order as 'the semireligious, semipolitical guardian of Whig privilege'.27 Exactly the same could 25

For statistics (sometimes widely divergent) for the mainline churches, see Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 458; Europa Year Book ig88, pp. 1707-8; Cason, Growth, 26 27 p. 4 7 1 . Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p . 222. Ibid., p . 202.

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be said of Liberia's traditional Christianity.28 This was perfectly clear at the time of the 1980 coup: Tolbert, the President of the country, was also Chairman of the Baptist Convention; Warner, his Vice-President, was the presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church; and Reginald Townsend, the National Chairman of the TWP, was the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church. So these three pillars of the establishment, these three at the very centre of Whig privilege, were also the heads of Liberia's three oldest churches. They were also among the hardliners, determined not to give an inch, resolved to maintain their position whatever the cost.29 Christianity's function of legitimating political power is evident in the official biography of Tolbert, written not long before he died in the 1980 coup. Biblical imagery is used to depict Tolbert as someone called to his position by God. As a youth Tolbert heard ' a voice calling to him one morning while 28

29

Cason, ' R o l e of Christian Missions', p p . I O - I I ; H o g a n , Catholic Missionaries•, p p . 9-10. 'Belief in the Christian faith, membership of the Masonic Lodge, and AmericoLiberian background were the prerequisites for admission into the oligarchy' (Chaudhuri, 'Liberia', p. 47). Also: 'The professing of Christianity, the wearing of Western-style dress, and the use of the English language, were the main cultural features differentiating the Americo-Liberian community from the surrounding tribespeople, and became the three chief characteristics of the Americo-Liberian way of life' (Fraenkel, Tribe and Class, p. 158). Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, pp. 78-80. Townsend was also the Grand Master of the Masonic Order. It is not claimed here that traditional Christianity and the state have always been identified in every respect. There was at times considerable tension between the ruling Americo-Liberian elite, and those churches which had missions among the tribes inland. The Grebo resistance of 1873-6, which the government insisted was inspired by the Episcopal Church, was a watershed. After this, the government was very wary of some missions. The Americo-Liberians feared that educated tribesmen would challenge their privilege; that disaffected tribesmen would support the claims of Britain and France in border disputes; and that missionaries would publicise inhuman treatment of tribesmen. (As in fact happened; the League of Nations inquiry into slavery began with a confidential report of a missionary to the head of the Episcopal Church in the USA.) Only after the interior was pacified were missionaries allowed to travel freely in the interior. After this, however, all sources of friction were removed, and Liberia's political elite quickly ensured that church activities served their political ascendency and privilege. See Yekutiel Gershoni, 'The Paradox of Church-State Relations in Liberia, 1847-1930', LSJ, 10, 1 (1982-3), pp. 67-82; Monday B. Abasiattai, 'Church and State in Liberia, 182 2-1943', Liberia-Forum, 4/7 (1988), pp. 51-71; Korte is critical of Gershoni in Werner Korte, 'Churches and Politics in Liberia, 1970-1985', LiberiaForum 4/7 (1988), pp. 72-87. See also Jane J. Martin, 'Samuel W. Seton, Liberian Citizen', LSJ, 12, 2 (1987), pp. 99-116.


59

he was still in bed. He went to his mother's room, knocked at the door and asked, "Mama, did you call me?" "Nobody called you, my dear," she replied, "Go back to bed."' After this incident had been repeated twice, however, Mrs Tolbert became convinced that it really was God calling to her son and she told him, 'Since you have come again and said that you heard a voice, we have to pray about it.' No one in Liberia's biblical culture could fail to see that this is an extended reworking of the call of Samuel, the greatest and wisest of the judges, to lead the Israelites (1 Sam 3).30 The biography uses Christian symbols to show his closeness to and dependence on God at every turn. When he heard of Tubman's death, Tolbert went to his Baptist Church: CA profoundly religious man, Dr Tolbert lay prostrate in the church before the altar and committed himself and Liberia to God's guidance and protection, and prayed for strength to sustain him at this difficult time in the history of the country.' 31 Again, at his inauguration on 3 January 1972, he 'once again showed a spirit of humility and total reliance on God by lying prostrate on the dais and offering prayers'. 32 The book quotes his sermons.'Too often', he once asserted, 'we have isolated Christianity into one area of our lives and operated on different principles in the area of economics, politics and social life. Christianity must not remain outside; it must be a part of every area of life.'33 This was spoken by the one presiding over the whole system of privilege, corruption and nepotism. Christianity here was reduced to a means of legitimating power, in the same way as Marcos used 30

31 33

Sankawulo, Tolbert, p. 54. See entire chapter, 'The Church leader', pp. 65-78, esp. the comparison between Tolbert and Martin Luther King, pp. 76-7. 32 Ibid.,p.95. Ibid., p. n o . Ibid., p. 71. In his inaugural message after his election as 11 th President of the Baptist World Alliance at Miami Beach, Florida, 30 June 1965, he stated,' I cannot and will never subscribe to anything that infringes upon man's fundamental freedom and human rights sacredly granted him by our great and beneficent Creator... I am wholly dedicated to the proposition that all men are entitled to the enjoyment of freedom, liberty and justice and when these God-given rights are denied him such an act by anyone constitutes an affront to God', in Robert A. Smith, His Challenge is Mankind: A Political Portrait of William R. Tolbert (Monrovia, Providence Publications, 1972), pp. 142-4. See the whole address, pp. 238-49, and ch. 7, entitled 'Tolbert in the Service of God and Humanity', pp. 79-103.

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Catholicism in the Philippines, and the Afrikaners in South Africa have used the Dutch Reformed faith. In the years immediately preceding the 1980 coup some mainline church leaders wanted to dissociate themselves from this debasement of Christianity.34 In 1974 churches had led the opposition to a law - subsequently vetoed - which would have legalised gambling.35 After experiencing this opposition, Tolbert (claiming that God had told him to do so in a dream) chose Methodist Bishop Bennie Warner, a leader of the opposition movement, to be his Vice-President. Thus Warner changed sides.36 However, other church leaders became more vocal in denouncing the regime's graft, corruption, and abuse of human rights. Their criticism was given some edge by the fact that Tolbert (and now Warner), presiding over the whole system, claimed to be Christian leaders too.37 Some churchmen cooperated with MOJA in its campaigns ;38 some sat on government committees trying to introduce change ;39 some denounced abuses in sermons.40 Church leaders used their position to protect the people. On the day of the fateful rice riots (14 April, 1979), Archbishop George Browne of the Episcopal Church mediated to avoid bloodshed.41 After the riots most of the wanted men turned themselves in to religious leaders who then pleaded with the authorities that no torture be administered.42 After Doe's 1980 coup,' reminiscent of crises during the Whig era, a national week of prayer had been called for, jointly by the 34

36

38 39

40

42

Korte correctly stresses that it was only at this time that Afro-Liberians (as distinct from Americo-Liberians) were coming to positions of leadership in their churches 35 Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, pp. 73-5. ('Churches', pp. 75-9). Warner 'lost his prophetic vision and became a pimp and a prostitute of the Gospel' 37 (Taryor, Justice, p. 209). Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p . 14. D u n n a n d T a r r , Liberia, p . 73. On 29 October 1979 Tolbert summoned a meeting 'to discuss matters of state'. Present were six senior government and TWP officials, opposition spokesmen Tipoteh, Sawyer, Mayson and Matthews, and churchmen Bishops Payne, Browne, Francis, Alfred G. Reeves, Archbishop Yekongba, and Revs. E. Tormu Reeves and Advertus A. Hoff (Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 236). Kulah's Easter sermon in 1979 dealt with those in prison and oppressed by poverty and hunger; see Cason, 'Role of Christian Missions', p. 18. Taryor mentions David S. Doe, George D. Browne, E. Tormu Reeves as speaking out when other church 41 Tipoteh, Democracy, p. 84. leaders were coopted (Justice, pp. 219-20). Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p . 14.


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clergy and by the political leadership5.43 Church leaders were appalled by the bloodshed, the looting and the lawlessness that followed the coup. They spoke up for human rights - not least because most of those initially imprisoned were important members of the mainline churches. In their newfound freedom after the coup, they formed the Liberian Council of Churches (LCC) and spoke out, either individually or through the LCC. 44 On the first anniversary of the coup, with Doe and the other PRC members on the platform behind him, Methodist Bishop Arthur Kulah delivered a sermon entitled, 'Go Forward or Forward March'. In the course of the sermon he stated that Liberians were looking ahead or in front of us and what do we see? We see the Armed Forces of Liberia; we see men and women in arms, with weapons, marching up and down the streets of our towns and cities. We hear and see some soldiers harassing and intimidating innocent, harmless, helpless people. In front of us, we see some soldiers who have no respect for the poor, the rich, the educated, and the elderly. Master Sergeant, we, like the children of Israel, are afraid. Some of the rich who got their property through honest, hard labor are afraid that their homes will be taken from them without explanation or just compensation. The educated people are afraid that some PRC members are sacking well-educated people and replacing them with either half- or semi-educated people. To be educated in our country is now like committing a crime. It is true that the gun can win a war, but it cannot build a nation. It takes talented, dedicated and welleducated people to plan and develop a country... The weapons that were meant to protect the Liberian people, the weapons that were meant to deliver the Liberian people, the weapons that were used to liberate and free the Liberian masses must never be used to enslave and destroy the Liberian people. [Let us hope] that our popular revolution headed by Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe will never get to a place where the masses will regret that it ever took place.45 Doe reacted angrily, telling the clergy a week later to ' preach about Christ and lead their flocks to the throne of grace rather 43 44

45

Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p . 188. Ibid., p . 2 2 8 - 3 0 . K o r t e views the establishing of the L C C as essentially a political act

('Churches', pp. 80-1). Daily Observer, 15 April 1981, p p . 4 a n d 8 ; Daily Observer, 20 April 1981, p . 7; Daily Observer, 24 April 1981, p . 7.

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than engage in politics5. However, Kulah's sermon was a significant milestone in the political independence of the mainline churches. Church leaders denounced PRC decree 88A (dated 21 July 1984) which limited political discussion. An LCC statement signed by the heads of the Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Baptist Churches stated that Decree 88A 'can easily be used to plunge the nation into a reign of terror, a strategy used by past administrations'. The leaders protested that members of the INA were identifying themselves with political parties. They objected to the use of public radio announcements and newspaper reports to notify individuals that they were wanted by security forces, with no further explanation:' This trend has the tendency to create fear, distrust and confusion among the citizenry'. They affirmed that the church was 'the voice and conscience of our people'. They continued: ' None of us is able to assess the damage that can come from constant intimidation and an atmosphere of tension which is so prevalent in Liberia now.' They called on the government to take measures to reduce the escalating tension in the country by redressing the damage already done, and then returning to the pure rule of law. They called on Doe to stop arbitrary arrests, mysterious disappearances and extra-judicial trials. This statement was read the following Sunday in services and over the radio.46 Church leaders also spoke against the assault on the University in August 1984, and frequently and publicly criticised the infringement of human rights, the arbitrary arrests and the abuses in the long run-up to the 1985 elections. Archbishop Browne spoke for all others in June 1985 when he declared ' politics cannot be divorced from the church'. Lutheran Bishop Ronald Diggs, after the 1985 elections, rejected Doe's call for political neutrality on the part of clerics, saying that religious leaders must speak out on all that concerns 46

See Daily Observer, 27 Aug. 1984, pp. 1 and 10. Doe complained that mimeographed copies of the letter to him were already in circulation before he received the letter; he claimed to have first heard of it over the radio (Daily Observer, 31 Aug. 1984, p. 7). Jenkins Scott, Minister ofJustice, rejected the LCC position (Daily Observer, 28 Aug. 1984, p. 1).


63

man. 47 Archbishop Browne, preaching the sermon at Doe's inauguration on 5 January 1986, with Doe and all other government leaders present, spoke on 'Our responsibility for the future life and character of Liberia'. He said: On April 12, 1980, we were told that a temporary change from civilian rule was necessary in order to correct the social evils of our country. Those evils were described as: rampant corruption, abuse of power by officials of government, denial of basic human rights, nepotism, and the inability of the government to manage the economy... After getting over the initial shock of the April 12 Revolution, the Liberian people looked forward to a society whose political and social life would correct these evils. Instead, for over five years, a number of incidents and situations have occurred which caused the Government and the people - both citizens and residents - to react in varying degrees. To name a few of these incidents: the Nimba Raid and the Luo Confession, the publication of numerous anonymous leaflets, the University of Liberia incident of August 22, 1984, the Flanzamaton Affair, and the Quiwonkpa invasion. These have tended to divide us as a people even more; and, of course, have adversely affected the economy. The absence of commissions of investigation or inquiry to assess the root causes of the issues underlying our basic problems has not helped the situation at all... We still have not corrected the evils of which we accused the former civilian government. Archbishop Browne went on to recommend three steps to national reconciliation and unity: to admit to excessive use of force; to forgive; and to promise that the past would not be repeated. He called on the government to introduce a free system of government based on law and justice, to be bound by the law itself, and to operate with self-restraint and honour. The message was as unmistakable as it was courageous.48 47 48

F o r the foregoing, see L i e b e n o w , Liberia: Quest, p . 230. The 'Nimba Raid' was a 1983 Krahn-dominated government attack on Gio and Mano opponents in Nimba County. An anonymous anti-government leaflet REACT circulated for several months in 1984. The government announced the arrest of four 'authors', among them the Acting President of the Liberian National Students Union, on 5 December 1984 (Daily Observer, 6 Dec. 1984, p. 1). Lieutenant Colonel Moses Flanzamaton, deputy commander of Doe's personal guard, led a machinegun ambush on Doe's jeep. Doe was not injured, but Flanzamaton was captured and linked others with his assassination attempt. Flanzamaton, who was executed within a week of the attack, was also a CIA agent, but it appears his was a private rather

64


However, the scene was already changing. There was open hostility between Doe's government and the LCC by the end of 1984. In January 1985, in a speech at a dinner for the diplomatic corps, Doe warned the clergy not to use the pulpit to make ' anti-government statements' or to engage in acts that would create conflict and confusion in society. Doe claimed that although clergymen had the right to join political parties of their choice, the separation of church and state must be upheld. He warned that any religious leader indulging in acts that would create conflict and confusion in society would face the full consequences of the law.49 In 1985 Doe withdrew duty-free privileges from a number of denominations - including the Methodists - and reduced their educational subsidies. When, after the elections in October 1985, there seemed a real prospect of a breakdown in order, the churches changed their position somewhat, and urged acceptance of the election results. They turned to mediating between Doe and the newly formed ' grand coalition' of opposition leaders.50 (In the particularly bitter argument over whether the opposition members elected to the House and Senate should take their seats or boycott the assembly, Archbishop Browne urged opposition members to take their seats.) Doe's suggested date for the talks - Good Friday - was a calculated affront to the churches, though Doe did attend the first meeting at Archbishop Francis' house on 5 May 1986. It was immediately clear, however, that he had no intention of conceding anything; he did not attend the LCCsponsored second (and final) meeting between NDPL officials and the grand coalition, and in fact began a systematic harassment of opposition leaders that made reconciliation impossible. He told the LCC on 25 June that its proposed agenda for future discussions was biased and thus its role as mediator was no longer required.51

49

50

51

than a CIA-sponsored plot. See Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, ig8i-ig8y (London, Simon and Schuster, 1987), p. 311. Africa Report, J u l y - A u g u s t 1985, p . 64. F o r more o n the churches' causing disunity, see Sankawulo, What My Country Needs, p p . 7—8, a n d 10. Liebenow (Liberia: Quest, p . 299) calls this a 'volte face' o n the p a r t of church leaders. K o r t e seems to agree ( ' C h u r c h e s ' , p p . 82—3). Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p p . 299—314.


65

If the churches had moved from a policy of openly speaking for justice to one of mediation, Doe's rejection of this latter role saw the churches move to a third policy, that of rapprochement with the government to secure their evangelical and social activities, and of providing solace to the politically afflicted.52 The churches were still feared - the Sunday in August 1989 after Gray Allison was convicted, when Archbishop Browne was scheduled to deliver a sermon in a Monrovia parish which would be broadcast, the state radio technicians 'brought the wrong equipment' so the sermon could not be broadcast53 - but the churches' voice came to be heard much less than it had been in the years 1980-5. There were several reasons for this change. The first was financial pressure. All these churches had major commitments, for which they heavily depended on overseas money. The Methodists, Episcopalians and Baptists received most of their money from the American branches of their denominations.54 The Methodist Church in America had considerable internal strife all through the 1980s on the supposedly 'leftward drift' of its funding. David Jessup, one of the founders of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), began the onslaught with a report in 1980 attacking United Methodist agencies for allegedly funding 'groups supporting the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the governments of Cuba and Vietnam, the proSoviet totalitarian movements of Latin America, Asia and Africa, and several violence-prone fringe groups in this country.' IRD's views on United Methodist social involvement were diffused to tens of millions in the January 1983 Readers Digest and a subsequent CBS-TV 60 Minutest The resulting furore 52 53 54

55

Sawyer, Effective Immediately, pp. 14—15. P a r t of the sermon is found in Daily Observer, 28 Aug. 1989, p . 1. The problems of a dependent church were admitted in Liberia: see Bishop Kulah's closing sermon at 156th Session of UMC, entitled 'The Problems of a Begging Church' {Circuit Rider 7/2 June—July 1989, p. 12). However, few practical steps to change the situation seemed to flow from this admission. (Exactly the same problems had been elaborated in a speech of 50 years previously; see George Best, 'The Future of Christianity in Liberia', Daily Observer, 10 Nov. 1989, p. 4; the speech was originally given Christmas Day 1929). Steve Askin,' Institute says it reveals threat - others say it is threat - to US Church', National Catholic Reporter, 4 Feb. 1983, p. 7; Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (London, Pluto Press, 1989), pp. 148—50.

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put the Methodist funding boards on the defensive, and made them less assertive in socio-political issues. About the same time the Southern Baptist Convention underwent a transition in the same direction, though the SBC was never socially radical to begin with. The 1980s saw a bitter struggle between the moderates and fundamentalists to control the SBC, and the fundamentalist wing eventually triumphed.56 This wing has a particular terror of radical influences, and its Mission Board is very opposed to funding anything that could be considered remotely of the left. The Liberian Episcopal Church experienced similar constraints. The church was to become financially independent of its parent in 1992; financial independence would require that the US church establish a fund of $2*5 million. This demanded sensitivity and correctness on the part of the Liberia recipient church. The pressure on these churches was not only external, however. In the Episcopal plan just referred to, the $2*5 million pledged by the American church was dependent on the Liberian church's finding $500,000 before 1992. When this endowment plan was launched in 1982, it was thought that the Liberian branch would have to raise only $300,000, and a plan was instituted to meet this goal. In 1988, however, the American church clarified its commitment, and this revised plan required $500,000 from the Liberians. Thus the Liberian Episcopalians had to find another $200,000 in a mere five years. So the Liberian Episcopal Church at the end of the 1980s had two fundraising programmes, the original to raise $300,000, and a supplementary to raise $200,000. In a letter clarifying the new situation in 1988, Archbishop Browne concluded his appeal, 'The very survival of the Church after 1992 depends on our raising this additional $200,000 \ 5 7 The people on whom the church depended to find this money tended to be those in government, or linked to it. Such people did not look favourably on challenges to the social order from which they benefited. And this was not the Episcopal Church's only financial commitment, 56

Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the

Southern Baptist Convention, New Brunswick and London, Rutgers University Press, 57 1990. Letter dated 20 May 1988.


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by any means. The church was responsible for Cuttington University College (CUC), which required a regular injection of funds. As part of a fund drive, CUC gave Doe an honorary D.Litt. in March 1989. Although Doe did not bother to attend the ceremony during which the degree was conferred, he did send Si0,000 as a contribution to the fund drive.58 The government later gave Si million to CUC. Such contributions would not have been forthcoming if the church was thought to be challenging the government.59 The Baptist and Methodist churches had essentially the same problem. Most wealthy and influential Liberians belonged to these churches. Methodist pastors in particular would speak of the inverse relation between their financial security and criticism of the government.60 There were many less subtle ways of keeping the church leaders in line. They were harassed by warnings and threats. 61 Their own informants in the security services warned them of plots to involve them in car accidents, or to plant arms or drugs in their cars which could then be discovered at road blocks. Probably even more effective in keeping them in line were threats against members of their families. There were also 58

59

60

61

Daily Observer, 6 M a r c h 1989, p . 1. I n a speech read o n his behalf, D o e discussed t h e state of higher education in Africa. A t the 66th diocesan convention Archbishop Browne a n n o u n c e d that the governm e n t owed t h e church half a million dollars in r e n t a l ; the sum was expected to rise to $652,150 by the e n d of April. Archbishop Browne also announced that Episcopalian"clergy a n d office staff h a d suffered a reduction in salary of 10 per cent (Mirror, 3 Feb. 1989, p . 1). Financial considerations lessened the independence of all churches in a n o t h e r way, as was evident in the Liberian practice o f honouring' individuals as father or mother of the year. This practice had in many cases degenerated into a way of raising funds, by honouring the rich and powerful purely for what they would contribute. For example, the Army Chief of Staff was honoured as father of the year in an Assemblies of God church in Monrovia, at a ceremony laying the foundation for a $350,000 church (News, 30 June 1989, p. 6); Jenkins Scott, Minister of Justice, was named father of the year by the AME Zion Church (Daily Observer, 14 June 1989, p. 4); even Gray Allison, minister responsible for security and later (rightly or wrongly) convicted of ritual murder received this honour (Daily Observer, 21 Aug. 1989, p. 6). The Catholic Knights of St John honoured the President of the University of Liberia (News, 22 Aug. 1989, p. 3); he had previously been dismissed from Cuttington University College for misappropriating funds. The abuses of this practice were so great that many churches had to issue directives to stop this honouring merely for money (e.g. Daily Observer, 11 Aug. 1989). Such threatening letters are referred to in Daily Observer, 7 June 1988, p. 1. At least one was written on Defence Ministry notepaper (Daily Observer, 8 June 1988, p. 6).

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widely believed rumours that the government possessed information about some leaders which would cause considerable embarrassment were it to become public; thus some were thought to be intimidated into silence.62 The United Methodist Church (UMC) provides an example of a church tamed by the government. After the coup, as was mentioned above, the UMC bishop was quite outspoken in protesting against injustice; his outspokenness caused all financial privileges to be withdrawn from the Methodist Church.63 However, there were some skeletons in the Methodist cupboard. First, the accounts of the Methodist Church were a matter of public comment. Liberia's artificial exchange rates gave considerable opportunity for creative accounting. In theory, the US dollar had parity with the Liberian dollar. (The US dollar is the official Liberian currency.) In reality, a US dollar in 1989 bought 2*5 Liberian dollars on the black market. So a grant of, say, Si million from the USA for a particular project would bring - if changed on the black market - not only the one million Liberian dollars for the project in question, but another $1*5 million Liberian dollars for other purposes. And the American donors need never suspect anything, if left in their belief that the US dollar was equal to the Liberian dollar. In the public debate on UMC finances, many conceded that the extra funds thus generated need not have gone into the personal account of any individual; they probably went towards the running expenses of the church. Nevertheless, they were not given for running expenses. This procedure was probably known to donors, but foreign mission boards (sensitive to charges of paternalism and racism) were reluctant to make an issue out of it, and foreign missionaries felt that they could not protest if they wanted to have their terms extended. The Methodist Church had other financial problems too. Sometimes employees were not paid for some months on end, as was the case in mid-1989.64 And accountability was not always insisted 62

63 64

Before his fall, Defence Minister Allison h a d held u p a file before the T V cameras a n d said ' W e h a v e a file o n all of y o u ' [Daily Observer; 21 A u g . 1989, p . 6 ) . Daily Star, 28 O c t . 1985, p . 1. In June 1989 teachers at UMC High School in Gbarnga went on strike for salary arrears of $32,000 (Daily Observer, 8 June 1989, p. 7).


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on: in the most public case of all, the bishop's brother was removed under a cloud from the headship of a major UMC school, but only to reappear immediately as principal of another. 65 Besides the financial matters, the Methodist Church was racked with a problem concerning leadership. In 1984 the UMC voted to change from an episcopacy for a period of 6 years, to one for life. The current bishop interpreted that to mean that he was henceforth bishop for life. Another sector of the church, calling themselves 'Concerned Methodists', interpreted that to mean that the next bishop, elected after this bishop's term had expired, would hold office for life.66 It appears that, from the minutes taken down at the synod, it is not perfectly clear what exactly they did debate and decide. The effects of this division were considerable. The Concerned Methodists had at least one church where the bishop's writ did not run. In a pastoral letter of 25 January 1989 the bishop expelled the leader of the Concerned Methodists for ' undermining the ministry of the bishop, for causing chaos and division in the church, and for disobedience to the order and discipline of the U M C In the same letter the bishop banned him from communion. In banning communion the bishop went beyond his authority, which further complicated matters because many who supported the bishop on the leadership issue could not support him on this. The bishop eventually reversed his decision on the communion issue in a letter of 12 June 1989.67 Far from being appeased, however, the Concerned Methodists then took out full-page advertisements in the Daily Observer in which they publicly aired all the financial and leadership problems of the UMC. In their first full-page 'Open Letter to Dr Arthur F. Kulah', they concluded by calling on the bishop to ask God to 'forgive you for putting your self-interest above the interest of the U M C ; to call a conference to select a new bishop; to give all pastors insurance and pension ('which you have fought against 65 67

66 Ibid. Daily Observer, 14 Aug. 1984, p. 3. For the bishop's letters, see Circuit Rider, 7/2 June-July 1989. For other comment on the case, see Daily Observer, 30 May 1988, pp. 1 and 6; Daily Observer, 14 June 1988, pp. 1 and 3; Daily Observer, 23 May 1989, p. 8.

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for the last five years'); to rectify mismanagement of UMC property; to take a stand against black-market currency deals; and (in reference to ' all the suffering of our rural pastors') to see ' that these servants of God share some of the Church's income that is now denied them'. 68 A month later, another full-page 'Open letter to all Ordained Ministers', claimed that the UMC was now a 'laughing stock' in the country, and called for ministers to reject the bishop's ' dictatorial and iron rule \ 6 9 Two weeks later, in another full-page 'Open Letter to Dr Arthur Kulah', the Concerned Methodists stated: 'You are a seasoned autocratic and tyrannical dictator whose game does not have any rules.' The letter identified what for them were the two central issues: first, 'Your episcopacy ended on June 6, 1988', and second, ' Gross economic mis-management... has wrecked the viability of the church.' 70 There is no doubt that all this adverse publicity hurt the Methodist Church greatly, and damaged the moral standing of all the mainline churches. The more such accusations were levelled at the churches, the less moral authority the churches had with which to criticise the government for corruption, economic mismanagement, nepotism, abuse of power, and determination to hold onto power indefinitely. For this precise reason, many claimed that these troubles in the Methodist Church were deliberately fomented by government security services to neutralise the churches. In August 1988 a young Methodist pastor claimed he was kidnapped, but luckily was able to flee in his underclothes and, after hiding with a friend for two days, returned to his parish.71 Initial speculation held that the security forces were involved, even though the government denied knowing anything about the kidnapping. 72 (Considerable publicity was at the time given to threats made against clergymen who criticised the government.73) The LCC met to discuss the matter, but before they could conduct their own 68 70 71 72 73

Daily Daily Daily Daily Daily

Observer, Observer, Observer, Observer, Observer,

69 23 J u n e 1989, p . 7. Daily Observer, 14 J u l y 1989, p . 12. 28 J u l y 1989, p . 5. 6 J u n e 1988, p p . 1 a n d 6. 8 J u n e 1988, p p . 1 a n d 3 . 7 J u n e 1988, p . 8 ; Daily Observer, 8 J u n e 1988, p . 6.


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investigation, the Methodist bishop and the pastor involved had an all-day meeting with the heads ofJoint Security, after which the bishop and the pastor held a press conference to exonerate the government.74 Shortly afterwards a Joint Security report, read out by the Minister of Justice, claimed that the whole matter was an internal Methodist issue, and that the pastor was a double agent, trying to side with both Methodist factions, and speculated that the whole abduction was a hoax.75 What actually happened was never discovered, and the pastor was immediately given leave and sent to the USA. Problems like these effectively removed the UMC from acting as conscience of the nation. Moreover, these problems developed at the same time as the UMC bishop took his turn as the President of the LCC. Thus the LCC effectively ceased to exist, as the bishop's other preoccupations left him with little time to give to the LCC. However, two religious leaders refused to be silenced. The Rev. Walter Richards, like many Baptist pastors in Liberia, was a part-time pastor. From 1978 to 1980 he was an Assistant Minister of Education; from 1980 to 1982 he was a Deputy Minister of Education. From IQ8^ to 1088 he was the President of the LBMEC, and in 1989 was Vice-President of the LCC. He frequently and quite fearlessly challenged authorities about abuses and infringement of human rights. When Gray Allison appeared on TV brandishing a folder and claiming to have information on churchmen, Richards immediately called his bluff and invited him to publicise whatever he knew about him. Nothing more was said. Richards' denunciations frequently made headlines in the papers, but the Baptist polity of local autonomy for each church meant that his immediate impact was restricted only to the two churches Richards himself pastored. The other.exception was Archbishop Michael Francis, the Catholic Archbishop of Monrovia, who either singly or in conjunction with the two other Catholic bishops, continued to 74 75

Daily Observer-, 15 J u n e 1988, p p . 1 a n d 3 . Daily Observer, 23 J u n e 1988, p p . 1 a n d 6.

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offer a sustained and wide-ranging critique of Liberia's sociopolitical order. There were several reasons why he should be more free to speak. The Catholic Church was less compromised than others by the past; historically, it was never considered to be part of the system. And Archbishop Francis was not compromised personally; even under Tolbert he publicly denounced abuses. It was also obvious that the security services had no secrets with which to scare him into silence. Also, the Catholic financial system made the Catholic Church less prone to financial irregularities than some other churches. Many of the other churches were funded by mission boards which had a long involvement with their Liberian branch, and were loath to probe too closely into how funds were spent, out of sensitivity to accusations of racism, paternalism or neo-colonialism. The Catholic Church's vast array of institutions is not financed by a board in Rome; funds come from wherever the local bishop can find them, in Liberia's case predominantly from giant German agencies which would simply cease contributing if previous grants were not scrupulously accounted for. And the Catholic church's composition made it less susceptible to another pressure; it did not include in its membership the affluent government people who could silence an outspoken leader by threatening to withdraw their support.76 Another factor in the Catholic freedom to speak out was the nature of Catholic episcopal authority. Archbishop Francis was not elected for a few years, did not have to seek reelection, and normally could never be unseated; he was there till he died or his resignation was accepted in Rome. Another practical but very significant consideration is that having no wife or children to be threatened, he was less susceptible than other leaders to threats of violence. Also, as a regular participant in international meetings of bishops, in the most international church 76

Remarkably, the Catholic church exerted very little pressure on its members for funds. For example, on the feast of the Catholic Cathedral in Monrovia (4 June 1989), the dean in his sermon mentioned that his friend the dean of a neighbouring cathedral (Episcopal?) had raised $7000 on its patronal feast; he made this statement, not as an obvious preamble to asking the crowded cathedral to surpass that figure, but merely to introduce a personal reminiscence.


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of all, he must have learned at first hand of the socio-political influence the Catholic Church exerts in places like Poland, Latin America and even the USA. The Catholic Church in Liberia developed a machinery for public comment on national issues, the Lenten or Advent pastoral letter. These deserve a more extended treatment. Archbishop Francis frequently dealt with corruption, writing four pastoral letters on the subject in eleven years. His first letter was written in 1977, just a year after being named bishop. He called corruption a problem' discussed by everyone'. He treated all aspects: spiritual, economic, social, political and personal. He treated its causes and suggested answers to the problem. 'It is not too late to arrest this ugly trend of corruption in our country. We are proud to call ourselves Christians, but can we honestly do so if corrupt practices are the normal things in our lives?' In Lent 1980 he returned to the subject, calling it a problem which 'is destroying us as a people...a problem that has permeated all ranks and sectors of our society, a problem that very few can say they have not been touched by'. Since he had written about it in 1977, he said, 'Instead of things getting better, they are getting worse. Corruption is everywhere.' In his 1982 Lenten letter, he stated that since his letter in 1977,' the evil has continued like a cancerous growth to devour the whole fabric of our society'. Since he had written in 1980, ' the problem is still with us and instead of being solved, instead of this cancerous growth being excised from our society, it continues to grow and have very damaging effects on our country. It continues to permeate all sectors of our society; it is openly condoned, engaged in and accepted as a way of life. We must eradicate this evil. We must come to grips with this problem. We must wipe it out of our society if this country is to be a place of justice, equality, peace, joy, happiness, and one full of golden opportunities for all.' He went on to give examples, adding to those he had discussed in previous letters. Under the heading of social corruption, he added 'unjust imprisonment, detention without charge or trial, inhuman and degrading prison conditions'. Under professional corruption, he added:

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'We find this in officials of government who use their positions to use public moneys for themselves either directly or indirectly. We find this in the employment of inefficient persons just because of family connections, because they are from the same tribe, are girlfriends etc' Under personal corruption, he added 'the all-pervasive sexual immorality of our country'. In July 1987 he was joined by the other two Catholic bishops in a joint letter on corruption. They began: 'Aware of our Christian responsibility as Christian leaders in our respective local churches, and as citizens of our beloved country Liberia, we are addressing this pastoral letter to you [Catholics] in particular, and to all men and women of good will in Liberia in general.' They continued: 'This problem is a national cancer. [We address it] because of our love for Liberia.' In discussing spiritual corruption, they added that this was evident 'when preachers of God's word live immoral lives, committing the very same sins they condemn and exhort others to do away with. It also occurs when they preach false teachings and practices; when they use the Bible and the pulpit to justify and support some of the evils of today.' Under social corruption, they gave as ' clear examples' the ' denial of freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, violation of the Constitution, denial of fundamental human rights by the powers that be; imprisonment without charge and/or trial; perversion of the legal system; the enacting of laws that are immoral and are not for the common good, but the selfish good of powerful individuals in society; the use of one's position to defraud the state of money, using illegally public funds for personal needs, construction of houses, buying of cars etc; manipulation of the press, radio and television.' Under economic corruption, they wrote: ' We find [this] also in a system which allows persons to survive on petty corruption while a just wage is denied or delayed... [also] in delayed payment of salaries.' They found professional corruption also ' in the manipulation of aid and funds where personal interests come before those of the ordinary people or the state in general'. Finally, judicial 'corruption is found in a legal system in which justice is not the order of the day but bribery, fear and miscarriage of justice. When a judicial


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system, instead of rendering justice, either directly or indirectly, condones or metes out judgements that are violations of the fundamental and constitutional rights of the people, this is judicial corruption... When due process of law is not the norm, but rather the exception.' The Catholic bishops had spoken out before Doe's 1980 coup. In Lent 1978 they published a letter entitled 'Social Justice'. They defined the biblical notion: 'Justice is not almsgiving; it is not charity; it is rendering to each and every person his/her due.' They gave several examples of injustice. They asked: 'How many run up huge debts and never pay them? It is a national disease.' They insisted that elected individuals must be made accountable, and the group must make them accountable. It was not sufficient to disagree privately with decisions that affect society - each person ' must not fail to say and do things which we know clearly are our duty'. They discussed property, strikes (whose causes often ' are clear to all, namely insufficient pay and poor living conditions. Very often strike action is the last resort to attain such basic human rights'), employment and politics ('When appointments, contracts or other favours are made to depend on "pull", political influence or "direct contact", justice is violated and politics itself is debased'). In December 1979 - thus after the Rice Riots, yet before the 1980 coup - the bishops published A Challenge for the Eighties: The Future of Liberian Society. Section one dealt with principles concerning the individual and the state in modern society. It insisted that authorities are servants, to provide for the common good. The state receives its legitimacy from the people. The bishops outlined the duties of the state and those of individuals. Section two dealt with the Liberian reality, and listed lessons to be learned from the riots of the previous April: forces of law and order must be controlled; the inequalities of Liberian society must be confronted; the control of the Liberian economy by foreigners must be addressed; the constitutional right to assemble must be permitted. Section three dealt with the sociocultural situation. In education, illiteracy was high, and the number of those not attending school was increasing. In health, 65 per cent were not covered by health services. The bishops

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suggested concrete proposals, for example, a mobile system of health care, and sewers for parts of Monrovia. In the area of politics, the bishops noted the excessive power of the executive, which had absorbed the legislative and judicial powers, and the consequent evils of patronage, sycophancy and lack of accountability. Again, they made practical suggestions, like decentralisation and promotion on merit in the civil service. They also professed a scepticism for absolute remedies. The bishops concluded with an insistence that changes were necessary, and appealed for social responsibility. The document was offered ' as our considered opinion as citizens of this country and as a contribution to the present national debate... confident that all people of goodwill throughout the land will listen to our appeal and suggestions'. The letter cited as authorities not only the Bible and church documents, but the UN charter and the constitution of Liberia. Only four months after the coup, the Catholic bishops released a pastoral letter on 'The Liberian situation'. They stated clearly that the church must be political: 'The church exercises a political role in its promotion of the kingdom of God among men, without usurping the role of the state or without favouring any particular political system or party.' They discussed basic principles. They listed rights which the state exists to protect and promote: the right to housing, sufficient health care, rest and leisure; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; the right to manifest one's religion either individually, or in a community, in public or private; the right to choose a state in life; the right to property and work, to adequate working conditions and a just wage; the right of assembly and association; the right to freedom of movement, to internal and external migration; the right to political participation and the right to participate in the free choice of the political system of the people to which one belongs. They insisted that 'violence has no place in a just government. Violence destroys the very fabric of society, foments hatred and brings about hostility where there should be love.' In analysing the Liberian situation they generously hailed the ' positive aspects' of the new order.


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We are heartened by many of the indications of policy of the new regime - the wider involvement of people in government; the concern to improve the income and living standards of the less privileged; the honest, practical and pragmatic facing-up to the economic problems; the efforts outlined and being attempted to extend and improve education and health facilities throughout the whole country; the clemency and fairness exhibited in the release of some of those who had been detained. But they also listed what they called 'negative aspects'. But there has been violence, which can never be condoned. There continues to be some ill-treatment and harassment of people by soldiers; other lesser forms of indiscipline by the soldiers promote an atmosphere of insecurity and unrest. Unjust and undignified treatment of suspects, at the time of their arrest, detention and imprisonment, continues now, even as it was, before the coup. It is to be hoped that the humiliation of suspects, even of convicted persons and especially in public display, will have no place in the New Liberia. The sacredness of the law and the respect due to a human being demand an end to such procedures. They noted 'the danger of the "now it is our time" attitude which brings with it the possibilities of tribalism and sectionalism ... We should all be prepared to give the new government the needed support and cooperation to bring about the necessary changes, essential to building the New Liberia. The revolution will have changed nothing if it is merely a changeabout of persons in the roles of the "haves" and "have-nots" with the overhanging prospect of continuing strife and a succession of coups.' They called for an end to the insincerity and sycophancy that marked the old regime. They appealed to all citizens of Liberia to work hard and fulfil their duties, to seek reconciliation and to renounce hatred. They finally appealed to the government with practical advice: to restore confidence, to grant a general amnesty to prisoners, to lift the curfew immediately, to return the military to barracks, to set dates for the reinstatement of civilian government and for a general election, to establish a committee to prepare a constitution, to convoke a general assembly, and to communicate news truthfully.

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Just fourteen months after the coup, the bishops produced perhaps their most impressive comment on the social situation in Liberia, a 40-page document entitled 'Justice in the new Liberia'. The bishops insisted that the church 'has a proper and specific responsibility which includes denouncing injustice courageously everywhere and every time it occurs'. It protects the marginalised: ' The church defends the poor, the afflicted and the handicapped and asserts their rights even when society rejects them, treats them as unproductive, too costly and expendable.' The first sections of the document were fairly theoretical, but chapter 5 dealt concretely with the rights of the state, chapter 6 with church and state, and chapter 7 with work (the right to it, and the rights of unions and the right to strike). Chapter 8 dealt with property and agriculture, and outlined the African attitude to land; it concluded,' It must be clearly stated that in the area of economics the development of the agricultural sector has absolute priority.' Chapter 9 covered other human rights - for example, the right to respect, to a good name, to family security, to political participation. 'The new Liberia must not only guarantee these and other attendant rights in its constitution, it must devise legislation and structures that will effectively accomplish them, making them obvious realities of our way of life.' Chapter 10 described the freedom of the press, including the corresponding right of the people 'not to be propagandised'. Chapter n dealt with education and forthrightly exposed the failures of the current system. In their conclusion, the bishops noted: ' We have outlined a doctrine of Christian socialization.' The most profound part of this impressive document was chapter 4 which dealt with the lights and shadows of African culture. First the bishops discussed community, which they termed a very strong feature of African life. In a community, goods are for all, not for exclusive ownership; production is achieved by cooperation; and society is characterised by generosity, hospitality, responsibility for others, and strong extended family ties. But the shadow side of this is that promoting the group can lead to the neglect of the individual; individual rights can be denied, personal initiative can be


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inhibited, and the individualist can be considered a threat and even accused of witchcraft. Secondly the bishops discussed traditional African justice. In criminal justice reconciliation is the aim, not retribution; hence the importance of airing the issue fully, of compensation, and of feasting when harmony is restored. The reverse side of this is that the element of evil comes to be identified with being caught; personal honesty can cease to be a human ideal and thus bribery and corruption can be considered as trivial. Thirdly the bishops discussed the structuring of traditional African society. Traditionally, respect for hierarchical status and rank has ensured social stability. The other side here is that individual merit and industry are frequently ignored. The idea of the 'big man' and his entitlement to everything emerges. Wages are based on paper qualifications or on who one is; actual work done is irrelevant. Big men ignore or delay paying bills - that is how they prove they are big men — and in such a society it can be considered quite acceptable to defer paying the less important. The fourth area the bishops discussed is the extended family. The mutual help of the extended family is greatly to be prized. But its shadow side is nepotism, unfair appointments, tribalism, a parasitic mentality in some group members and a crushing burden on successful individuals who are often forced, in meeting the demands made on them, to misappropriate funds not their own. African cultural values are inherently good but require critical analysis to ensure that in their modern application they do not do harm. The publication of such a considered analysis of society was a rare event in Doe's Liberia. (Most modern studies of Liberia, for obvious reasons, were not available within the country; a good many of those people capable of doing them were in exile.) This document was recognised as a major contribution, and despite its obvious Catholic provenance, was immediately printed in full in three successive editions of the Daily Observer.11 77

Daily Observer, 8 June 1981, pp. 6, 9, 11; Daily Observer, 9 June, 1981, pp. 5, 9, 10; Daily Observer, 10 June 1981, pp. 6 and 9. On the occasion of the 25th jubilee of his ordination, the Daily Observer published an editorial praising Archbishop Francis; the same issue called him an 'advocate of social justice' (Daily Observer, 9 Aug. 1988, pp. 4 and 6).

8o


In Advent 1982 the bishops issued a 38-page statement on 'Marriage and Family Life'. This outlined Catholic teaching on marriage, opposed polygamy, and deplored the current state of family life in Liberia: We are in an unhealthy condition. There is an extensive breakdown in morality in the areas of sex, marriage and family life. Very unwholesome patterns are emerging and we seem to be becoming completely unconcerned about lapsing into utter degeneracy... The upheaval in our traditional culture is bringing in its train our own Liberian version of moral collapse... We are fast becoming a society grounded on lust, hostility, hatred, jealousy, selfishness, exploitation and all kinds of corruption.

At Pentecost in 1984 the bishops issued a pastoral letter on abortion. This was more than just a condemnation of abortion. It included a section outlining how abortion is opposed to the basic values of Liberian culture, and went to the root causes of the practice the deplorable social and economic conditions of our country; poor economic circumstances of many people; widespread unemployment; crowding into cities; the unprotected and unsupervised girl away from home — working or schooling; the schoolgirl selling her body to earn her school fees; the pregnant schoolgirl who will abort — otherwise she will have to leave school. We appeal [for cooperation] to help remedy these degrading social conditions. In Advent 1984, to prepare for the elections of the following year, the bishops issued a letter on 'Politics in Liberia5. This insisted, 'We are political beings by nature.' It detailed the moral duties of the state, to seek the 'common good'. 'We insist that there be no more bloody revolutions in Liberia. What we pray for and what we want is a stable government that will promote the common good of the common man and woman, and that is dedicated to establishing peace and harmony based on justice.' Then it outlined the duties of citizens: to work for the country (especially in agriculture and local industry); to obey the civil authority; to vote (and here was discussed the duty of the media to be objective); to seek public office; to pray for


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leaders. Citizens also have rights, including the right to free speech, and here the bishops called for the withdrawal of Decree 88A. The bishops then called for the renunciation of tribalism and bribery: 'These vices are endemic to many parts of Africa. Liberia is no exception.' After the election, even after the breakdown of the LCC's efforts, spearheaded by Archbishop Francis, to mediate between political parties, the bishops (now three, after the creation of the new diocese of Gbarnga) issued a pastoral letter on ' Christian Reconciliation5 which was relevant, both scriptural and contextualised, and very eirenic. As reconciliation is of the essence of Christianity, it called for national reconciliation in Liberia. This would involve righting wrongs, going back to basics, making amends, compromising, adhering to the constitution, removing fear and intimidation, forgetting personal likes and dislikes, stopping rumours and gossiping. It linked Liberia's problems to ' the prevailing dissatisfaction among our people. It is only the blind and deaf who do not experience this national dissatisfaction.' The bishops went on to most sincerely recommend the following as a prelude to and means of National Reconciliation: i. That leaders of all political parties put aside their individual differences, meet without pre-conditions at a suitable place and dialogue about the divisive issues in our country. They should find the root causes, propose genuine solutions and work together to effect those solutions; 2. That such a meeting be attended only by leaders of the various political parties, behind closed doors, to create an atmosphere of freedom wherein all can express their candid views; 3. That such a meeting be held as soon as conveniently possible to curtail or abolish the spirit of apathy, pessimism, bitterness that is gnawing at the national spirit, and in place of these create a spirit of oneness and unity of purpose. They called on all to resolve this 'political impasse'. In Lent 1989 Archbishop Francis issued a pastoral letter on 'The Human Person', which was a plea for some humanity in Liberia's prisons. Here, really for the first time, entered a more accusatory tone. All the previous letters were remarkably eirenic and conciliatory; they analysed the situation rather than accused individuals. But this letter suggests that Archbishop

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Francis had finally lost patience with the regime. He began with a significant statement of principle: ' To rediscover... the inviolable dignity of every human person makes up the central and unifying task... which the church [is] called to render to the human family.' He continued: There is no doubt that in Liberia we violate with impunity the fundamental rights of our people by detaining them in centers like Belle Yala Maximum Prison, the Post Stockade, and other prisons. Here we de-humanise our brothers... [They are] treated as animals, living in sub-human conditions. And added to this inhumane condition which is a violation of the fundamental rights of our brothers is the fact that there are men in Belle Yala who have not been charged and consequently brought to trial. What blatant violation of the fundamental rights of these people... Many [released from the Post Stockade] were not even charged... How many are there for months and even years without charge and no one says anything... We were one of the original signatories of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 11, 1948. Alas we have violated this Declaration from the time we signed it and of course before. The violation of the . human rights of our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated in these inhumane and dehumanizing detention centres cries to God for vengeance. A very disturbing phenomenon in our country is that we are found guilty when we are accused, and treated inhumanely. How many times have we seen persons brutalized by soldiers, police and other security officers? Why? Why? we ask. If someone has committed a crime the law is there. He is innocent as long as he has not been proven guilty. How many times many innocent people are arrested, brutalized, imprisoned without charge and after some time granted clemency? All these injustices cry to God for vengeance. We call on the authorities of our country to abolish immediately Belle Yala, the Post Stockade and humanize the prison conditions of our country. We call on the authorities to respect the fundamental human rights of our brothers and sisters and not to imprison them without charge or contrary to the law.78 78

Justice Minister Jenkins Scott replied rather lamely to Archbishop Francis: 'Have I ever asked Bishop Francis to close down his schools for deficiency or his church for corruption? Then why should he ask me to close down my prisons?' {Daily Observer\ 25 April 1989, p. 7). But in the same reply he admitted that $900,000 was needed to improve prisons and to remedy the lack of courts; he called on the church to collect money to improve prison conditions. The National Catholic Secretariat replied to Scott, pointing out the inadequacy of his response (Daily Observer, 8 May 1989, p. 4).


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These letters were of an impressive quality — in the Liberian context, remarkably impressive - but it is difficult to assess their effect. Certainly they were widely diffused; on the designated Sunday, a pastoral letter was read out or distributed at every mass in the diocese, or (when all three bishops signed it) in the entire country. They were usually featured prominently in the press. Some of the wider possible impact was diminished because the letters were very Catholic in form, liberally quoting Popes and Councils as authorities. Many who would be quite open to the points being made would have found the appeal to these authorities strange. In Liberia, where a fundamentalist Christian discourse was part of the national consciousness, nothing seemed to win acceptance without a biblical reference. (Conversely, as we shall see, anything could be accepted if some biblical reference was adduced in its support.) Nevertheless, the letters undoubtedly had the very real value that they brought crucial social issues into open debate, denounced abuses and suggested alternatives. However, it must immediately be said that these letters do not indicate a liberation theology in any Latin American sense. They were not the fruit of any grassroots consultation. Each was very much a one-man statement. For this reason the letters were frequently seen - even by Catholics - as part of a personal power struggle ('African polities') between Doe and Archbishop Francis. That they appeared in this light was due to the nature of the Liberian Catholic Church. The Bishops were Liberian, but most of the clergy and all but five nuns were expatriates. Knowing full well that if these missionaries spoke out or encouraged others to speak out they would be deported on the next plane, Archbishop Francis told them to keep silent and to leave public comment to him, who as a Liberian could not be deported. Even the Justice and Peace Commissions which every Catholic diocese is supposed to have, existed only on paper. And the Association of Major Religious Superiors, which in the Philippines and some Latin American countries is such a powerful voice, hardly functioned. The policy of leaving political involvement to the bishops did ensure that Catholic institutions continued functioning, but it meant that the

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grassroots conscientisation and empowerment, which are such key elements in Latin American liberation theology, received little emphasis. Doe's struggle with the Catholic Church reached something of a climax in June 1989 after a football game in Monrovia between Malawi and Liberia. At the game, part of a stand collapsed and panic ensued. The Catholic radio station ELCM reported on its news that evening that deaths had occurred. The next day the government closed the station indefinitely. Government statements disagreed as to whether the news broadcast had spoken of one, several, or hundreds of deaths, but Information Minister Emmanuel Bowier said (in an interview during which he had a Bible opened on his desk) that the 'lies' showed 'disrespect to the government'; 79 Postal Affairs Minister Dukuly said that the announcement showed an ' uncooperative and unfriendly disposition towards the government' ;80 Doe himself said that ELCM had engaged in 'political sabotage' by its negative reporting of events in the country.81 The news announcement was obviously just a pretext to close the station. Clearly there had been at least one death — even the government publication New Liberian said so. All sorts of other media had spoken of'deaths' and had not been closed down.82 ELCM said that on two separate occasions in the recent past the government had tried to close the station down; just a few months previously Information Minister Bowier had threatened closure for reporting that security personnel had been seen carrying goods from a burnt store.83 Archbishop Francis in a sermon announced: 'ELCM was closed simply because it speaks nothing but the truth; gives both sides to every story... and brings to light what is hidden.'84 The Unity Party, in its condemnation of the closure, agreed with Archbishop Francis; it said ELCM was 'the most objective radio station 79 81 82

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80 Daily Observer, 20 June 1989, pp. 1 and 6. Ibid. Daily Observer, 23 J u n e 1989, p p . 1 a n d 9. ELCM listed by name other publications and doctors who reported at least one death {Daily Observer, 15 June 1989, pp. 1 and 6; Herald, 15-21 June 1989, pp. 1 and 83 10). Daily Observer, 15 June 1989, pp. 1 and 6. Daily Observer, 19 June 1989, pp. 1 and 10.


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when it comes to reporting events in the country... No doubt this is what frightened the Information Ministry.' 85 In the same speech in which Doe accused ELCM of'political sabotage', he gave indications of the wider picture. According to the Daily Observer, Doe 'warned prelates against acting contrary to the government's interest or engaging in activities not compatible with their status. The government could not tolerate any organization or union using its offices to "promote violence"... Dr Doe noted that if some religious leaders were patriotic, Quiwonkpa's 1985 abortive invasion could have been " avoided ". He alleged that after the 1983 Nimba raid, a bishop [not named] kept the late Thomas Quiwonkpa, former Commander General, for six months and allowed him to leave the country secretly.' (Doe was here referring to the widely held belief that after Quiwonkpa's fall from grace it was Archbishop Francis who had hidden him and smuggled him out of the country.)86 The Daily Observer went on:' Dr Doe warned church leaders to desist from using their pulpits as a forum to castigate government... [ELCM] had engaged in "political sabotage" by its negative reporting of events in the country, instead of airing religious programs for which it was licensed.'87 West Africa went so far as to report rumours that Doe was scared that Archbishop Francis might seek to remove him the way the Catholic Church was influential in removing Marcos in the Philippines.88 ELCM was obviously closed because of its perceived political opposition, not because of an isolated news broadcast. 85

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87 88

Ibid. T h e Press U n i o n of Liberia also deplored t h e ' unconstitutional' closure (Daily Observer, 19 J u n e 1989, p . 12), as did L A P (Daily Observer, 21 J u n e 1989, p . 9). T h e r e is n o d o u b t t h a t the Catholic Herald tried to give opposition viewpoints publicity; see e.g. t h e letter of the U n i o n of Liberian Associations in t h e Americas (Herald, 28 Sept.~4 Oct. 1989, p . 1) a n d a report of a BBC interview with Doe in which Doe was asked whether Podier's invasion was a real invasion o r whether Podier h a d simply been killed a t the airport (Herald, 4 - 1 0 Aug. 1988, p . 11). In fact it was Fr Robert Tikpor who hid Quiwonkpa and his wife, at the priest's house on Ashmun St. After six months of hiding, Fr Tikpor drove the Quiwonkpas - disguised as a priest and a nun - to Sierra Leone. From there they travelled to the USA, where they were housed and provided for by SMA priests. (Interview with Fr Thomas Hayden, 22 Nov. 1991.) Daily Observer, 23 J u n e 1989, p p . 1 a n d 9. West Africa, 6-12 Nov. 1989, p . 1848.

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As we have seen, the mainline churches became less outspoken after the mid-1980s. Only the Catholic Church involved itself in social and political affairs in any systematic way. Only Archbishop Francis and Rev. Richards pronounced forcefully on matters of public concern.89 The same retreat from public involvement was obvious in the case of the LCC. One reason for the retreat has already been mentioned; the president of the LCC since 1988, the Methodist bishop, was too busy with the troubles in his own church to devote much time to the LCC. But the commitment of all the mainline churches to the LCC was always weak. They seemed to have no interest in making the organisation an important national force. Some churches had not paid their dues for years, which indicates the priority they gave it. The LCC was established with six standing committees. Some (like the evangelism committee which arranged dialogues with Muslims in March 1988) achieved some results, but seemed to be in abeyance by 1989. Others, like the theological education committee, seem never to have met. The LCC constitution stated that the executive committee ('comprised of all heads of member churches, officers of the council, committee chairpersons, two lay persons and one clergy from each member church, all former heads of churches') would meet twice a year 89

There were exceptions. Archbishop Browne in his Palm Sunday sermon of 12 April 1987, on the seventh anniversary of the coup that brought Doe to power, said ' Liberia is a sick society and... the only remedy for Liberia is the Church of God.' He listed the country's ills, and said: ' The misuse of public office and the lack of accountability for public funds have for a long time been a national sport, and things seem to be getting worse every day.' The sermon, however, dissociated Doe from all these ills; referring to Doe's directive to the Chief Justice to reform the judiciary, Archbishop Browne said, 'This move indicates the president's desire to ensure a system of government based on law and order.' In Archbishop Browne's 'Message from the Bishop' in the Episcopal church magazine, he outlined for people their civil liberties {Trinity Tidings, 6/2 May-Aug. 1989, p. 7). In his sermon at St Thomas' Church on 20 August 1989, just two days after the conviction of Gray Allison, Archbishop Browne made a two-sentence allusion to the trial, wondering why the trial never referred to those who actually performed the murder, and admitting confusion as to whether the trial was for ritual murder or treason. See Daily Observer, 28 August 1989, p. 1. Also, a Lutheran pastor in Zorzor, Lofa Country, in a sermon attacked local officials for corruption (News, 6 June 1989, p. 8), and Fr Wilmot Merchant, a young Episcopal pastor in Sinkor, Monrovia, in a sermon attacked abuses in Liberian society, making an.unflattering comparison between Liberia and South Africa (Daily Observer, 17 Aug. 1988, p. 3).


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but special meetings could be called by the president. These meetings were usually called at major crises, and the LCC's statements were usually reactions to these events, as was the case with the LCC's denunciations of ritual killings after the trial of Gray Allison. The Daily Observer described this denunciation as the 'outcome of embarrassment caused the church by the recurrent involvement in ritual killing of those who profess to be Christians'.90 Of the heads of these churches that made up the executive committee, at least one was prominent on government committees. Of the two associate members of the LCC, Bishop Dixon of the Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church had been a chairman of the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia which in its constitution banned any involvement in politics, and the Apostle of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) was insistent that they never become involved in politics. Neither was a force for more active confrontation with socio-political realities. It has to be said, too, that if in Monrovia the LCC effectively ceased to function, outside Monrovia it never functioned at all. Even in places like Yekepa and Greenville where meetings between pastors of different denominations used to be fairly common, the practice had become quite intermittent by the late 1980s.91 A good indication of where these mainline churches were going, and of how they understood themselves, is provided by their seminaries. The Baptist seminary was a few miles outside Monrovia. The Catholic seminary, the Gbarnga School of Theology (run jointly by the Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians), and the Episcopal Cuttington University College, were all in or near Gbarnga, 120 miles inland. All four institutions were degree-conferring, all four had a teaching staff comprising mainly expatriates, and the Catholic, Baptist and Lutheran—Methodist—Episcopal institutes were roughly the same size, each having 50-80 students. The Baptist seminary was founded in 1976, 12 miles outside Monrovia on a 150-acre campus overlooking the Atlantic 90

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Daily Observer, 28 Sept. 1989, p . 1. F o r other coverage of the L C G statement, see Herald 28 S e p t - 4 Oct. 1989, p . 1; News, 28 Sept. 1989, p . 8. The mainline churches displayed little interest in one another. The (Lutheran) Bishop's Letter, for example, made at the most five passing references to the LCC or ecumenical affairs between 1985 and 1990.

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Ocean. The land was given by Tolbert when he was both President of the country and president of the LBMEC. The seminary was owned and operated by the LBMEC, and supported by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Of the funding, 65 per cent was from the SBC, and in 1989 of the 9 full-time teachers, 7 were Americans. None of the Southern Baptists was fundamentalist or dispensationalist. Of the 83 students, the majority were from Liberia, and the majority were Baptists, although there were a few Methodists, Presbyterians, some from the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, even some Pentecostals. There were two fouryear degree courses; a B.Th. and a Bachelor of Religious Education for those who would teach as well as perform strictly ministerial duties. In the curriculum there was a course on contemporary theology, but the emphasis was on Barth, Bonhoeffer, Tillich and the Niebuhrs; the library had five or six books on liberation theology, but they did not feature on this course. The Catholic seminary in Gbarnga catered for Sierra Leone and the Gambia as well as Liberia; in 1988-9 of the 70 students, 48 were from Sierra Leone, 5 from the Gambia, and 17 from Liberia. The seminary was founded in March 1974, and granted the B.D. degree of the Urban University, Rome. 92 In 1988-9 it was staffed entirely by expatriates, nearly all of them Europeans. In 1988-9 there was an elective on liberation theology, chosen by 7 or 8 students from the three senior years; the course dealt not only with Latin American liberation theology, but also with South African theology. The library contained many of the important works of liberation theology, but the fact that the course was merely an elective indicates that it was not given a high priority.93 There were major staff changes in September 1989, when four of the faculty left; their replacements included 92

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F o r details, see Aniello Salicone, ' A Brief History of St Paul's S e m i n a r y ' , The Messenger, 1989, p p . 4 - 1 1 . (The Messenger is available from P O Box 7, 3000 G b a r n g a City, Liberia). F a t o r m a A . C o m b a y , ' C h u r c h a n d Polities', in The Messenger, 1989, p p . 5 9 - 6 2 , argues the distinction between clergy and laity, and insists that it is the laity who must be involved in political issues. For the flaws in this understanding, see Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation (London, SCM, rev. edn 1988), pp. 39-46.


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(for the first time) two former students, one a Liberian. The incoming rector had studied grassroots communities in Brazil, and had previously been responsible for lay empowering programmes in Sierra Leone.94 CUC in 1989 had 14 students in the theology faculty, 11 of them candidates for the ministry. The faculty was hard-pressed for staff, and had to utilise the strengths of those it had, but in the late 1980s there was no one knowledgeable in the field of liberation theology. The library had no books on the subject, and recent graduates admitted that they finished their course knowing nothing about it. The Gbarnga School of Theology (GST) in 1989 had about 50 students, of whom about ten were Lutherans. 95 (One student was from the Church of the Lord (Aladura), on a scholarship provided by the Church of Sweden.) The faculty was predominantly Methodist, and predominantly expatriate, although the president and dean were Liberians. Before 1980 a Methodist lecturer, influential in MOJA, used to teach liberation theology, but by all accounts Bishop Warner, then the Vice-President of the country, eased him out of the institute and had his books removed.96 Between 1986 and 1988 the syllabus listed electives on third-world theologies and theologies of liberation, but the courses were never taught. In 1989 the president taught an elective course on third-world theologies to eight students. The 1988 student magazine carried an excellent article on liberation theology by the dean. The article distinguished different 94

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See his article o n the need to speak u p a n d act for justice: J . M c H u g h , ' W h y does our Bishop talk so m u c h a b o u t C o r r u p t i o n ? ' , Sierra Leone Catholic Magazine ( A p r i l - M a y 1989), PP- 2 - 3 . For history of G S T , see Daniel Brewer, 'Historical Significance of G S T ' , Theolog, 2, 1988; See also Daniel Brewer, 'Proposal for Development 1 9 8 4 - 8 8 ' , dated 4 J u n e 1983, in record of Consultative Meeting between overseas Partners a n d L C L , 3 - 6 Jan. 1983, available in CSM archives, Uppsala, A64 1983. The GST tells its own story in Gbarnga School of Theology 25th Anniversary Catalog, igjg-ig84 and GST Souvenir Program and History, the 25th Anniversary Exercises 24-j Nov. 1084. See also ' GST is 30

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Years Old', in Circuit Rider, 7/3, Dec. 1989-Jan. 1990, pp. 1 and 11-12. The editorial in this edition of Circuit Rider is explicit about GST's inadequacies and ' stagnation' (ibid., p. 4). See T a r y o r , Justice, esp. ' T h e Challenge of the Poor to the African C h u r c h ' , p p . 227-42, which expounds liberation theology, though in general terms without particular reference to Liberia.

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theological methodologies and drew attention to the ideologies that underlie any form of theology; it was very positive towards liberation theology, although it discussed weaknesses of this approach. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the article, however, is its studious avoidance of even implying that such an approach might have application to Liberia. And, of course, the fact that such a basic article appeared in the magazine indicates that it is not a key element of the curriculum.97 Again, for what it discloses of the churches' self-understanding, it is revealing to consider the ways these institutions approached African theology, or the issue of inculturation. In this matter, the Catholics were the most disappointing because elsewhere they have achieved so much. Catholicism in Liberia, of course, did not have the resources, either human or financial, of the church in, say, Zaire, but there was little evidence of serious effort. Catholic attempts at inculturation consisted in translating essentially European hymns into local languages.98 Services at the seminary (as in the country generally) were very European.99 The Baptist seminary, too, gave inculturation a very low priority. The first principal completed a D.Min. thesis on 97

98

99

Jefferson Labala, 'A Glimpse of Liberation Theology', Theolog, II (1988), pp. 4 and 14 and 20-1. See, for example, The Catholic Hymnal: Diocese of Cape Palmas, Harper, Diocese of Cape Palmas with the help of Institute of Peter Claver, Rome, 1986. Of the 48 Fanti hymns most seem original, but of the 53 Grebo and 24 Kru hymns, almost all are translations of traditional European favourites. T h e parish h y m n book of Yekepa, for example, has seven settings for the c o m m o n parts of the mass; they are labelled ' A m e r i c a n ' , ' S w e d i s h ' , ' I s r a e l i ' , 'Pilgrims', ' C a r i b b e a n ' , ' E n g l i s h ' , ' H o p w o o d ' . F o r the celebration of the silver jubilee of the ordination of Archbishop Francis in M o n r o v i a C a t h e d r a l (7 Aug. 1988), there were some pieces from the Missa L u b a (Zaire), b u t most of the music was Latin plainsong or Bach or H a n d e l . F o r the closing of the ' M a r i a n y e a r ' (14 Aug. 1988) the music consisted of standard European hymns and Bach. For the Cathedral's patronal feast (4 June 1989), the music consisted almost exclusively of Latin and European polyphony, ending with an organ voluntary (Purcell). It could be noted that the Fifth Triennial General Assembly of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA), held at Kumasi, Ghana, 20-7 August 1989 (at which Archbishop Francis was elected President of the Association), considerable discussion was given to the need for inculturation. The final statement declared, ' Inculturation must result in the enrichment of our cultures by Christianity and the enrichment of Christianity by our cultures.' The assembly resolved to establish National Episcopal Commissions of Inculturation (Herald, 31 Aug.~4 Sept. 1989, pp. 6 and 7).


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contextualising theological education in Liberia, but the thesis only serves to emphasise the limited nature of the attempt. He tried to give a Liberian perspective on six elements of theological education — planning, administration, curriculum, instruction, field education and placement of graduates. But the key issue of inculturation - the content - is never mentioned; the interaction of Christianity with Liberian thought forms, or with reality experienced in Liberia, was not considered.100 Only the GST gave the impression that this issue was taken seriously. The College magazine regularly contained articles with titles like 'Hidden Treasure in African Calabash', or 'The Religious Life of the Kpelles'. Such articles could be very sympathetic to zoes, the tribal religious authorities, who could even be said to have access to the secret knowledge of the tribe or universe. One article wrote of the 'external deposit' of theology, namely the religious beliefs and practices of traditional societies. The same article even advocated carrying out field work with zoes. Another article looked at the issue of polygamy, and concluded that the discussion was not yet resolved. In another, two Liberians on the faculty, the principal and the dean, debated the relation between Christ's sacrifice and sacrifice in African traditional religion. In all these there was evident a sympathy with African culture and religion which was not often found in Liberia.101 All lecturers and church leaders readily admitted the need for inculturation or for making Liberian Christianity ' truly African'. Lutheran Bishop Diggs publicly called for 'the translating of essential Christianity into African categories and thought forms'. This went far beyond a drums versus organ debate, or the areas dealt with by the former principal of the Baptist seminary. In the same talk Bishop Diggs mentioned factors which prevent inculturation from taking place — among them the brain drain from Africa of trained personnel, and the ' financial imperialism' that ensures that the West keeps control of theological education. This latter point is important. Whether 100 101

Brown, Contextualisation, esp. chs. 4 a n d 5. F o r all the articles referred to here, see Theolog, 1988 (the student mimeographed publication of G S T ) .

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or not it was the result of a conscious Western design, the fact is that all these institutions were staffed overwhelmingly by expatriates - at the GST all the Lutheran lecturers were expatriates. In the same speech Bishop Diggs urged that inculturation be given a high priority. All other mainline church leaders shared this sentiment, but there was little evidence that they had taken the practical steps which would make the commitment effective.102 Moreover, there seemed to be little contact between the mainline seminaries and little cooperation in common endeavours. The three institutions in Gbarnga were placed there to benefit from proximity to one another. Even 10 years before there was some cooperation and sharing, but by 1989 there was virtually none. In the late 1970s there existed a Liberian Association of Theological Students (LATS), to which students of the mainline seminaries belonged, but in the 1980s it fell into abeyance. The faculties of these institutions also had a trade association, the local branch of the West African Association of Theological Institutions (WAATI), but this too ceased to be operative.103 All this confirms the impression that the mainline churches gave very low priority to cooperation, both in general and in this particular matter of theological resource sharing. To many of these issues we shall return, but at this stage we can summarise our conclusions. After the 1980 coup, mainline church leaders spoke out publicly on social and political issues. However, as time went on, for a variety of reasons, they spoke out less and less, with the obvious exceptions of Rev. Walter Richards and Archbishop Francis. But even in these instances it 102

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Bishop Diggs gave the speech to the Advisory Committee on Theological Education in Africa of the Lutheran World Federation, at Harare, Zimbabwe, on 14 Feb. 1989. Extracts from the speech are found in Daily Observer, 6 March 1989, p. 7. As already mentioned the same sentiments - the need for financial self-sufficiency and a genuine African Christianity - are found in a remarkable speech delivered in 1929 by George Best: 'The Future of Christianity in Liberia', reprinted 50 years later in Daily Observer, 10 Nov. 1989, pp. 4 and 9; Edward Wilmot Blyden, of course, often wrote on the need for African Christianity. Little was achieved by these early calls for Africanisation. T h e lack of interest in such cooperation is seen n o t only in Liberia. T h e W A A T I meeting for all West Africa, d u e to b e held in Liberia in August 1989, was simply cancelled, a n d with such inefficiency that participants arrived from Sierra Leone and G h a n a only to find t h e meeting would n o t take place.


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was decidedly not the Baptist and Catholic churches that were involved; it was the leaders as individuals. It is not claimed here that the mainline churches restricted themselves to the realm of the sacred or that they were not involved in social and development projects. On the contrary, their social involvement was enormous. The Catholic church, for example, operated 50 projects funded by one German agency alone.104 Catholic projects ranged from St Joseph's Hospital in Monrovia, which treated twice the number of patients that the government's JFK hospital treated, to an emerging polytechnic with five constituent colleges, to primary health-care schemes and an entire school system. Nor were these mainline institutions run for their own denominations alone. The Catholic school system, for instance, in 1988 catered for 15,000 students of whom 60 per cent were Protestant, 25 per cent Catholic, 2 per cent Muslim and 13 per cent traditional believers.105 And although it has been stressed above that ecumenical cooperation received a very low priority in the mainline churches, the one impressive exception was the Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL) which served and coordinated the work of all Christian medical projects in the country. CHAL, founded in 1975, effectively became (although its officials took great care never to suggest this) a parallel ministry of health, providing for its own hospitals, clinics and primary-health projects what the government ministry so obviously failed to provide the state equivalents.106 104

105 106

For the social involvement of the Catholic Church, see ' The Catholic Church and Socio-Economic Development in Liberia', Herald, 15-20 Dec. 1989, pp. 6, 8 and 11. See also an article on Archbishop Francis' personal involvement, ' A Man of Ideas and Progress', Herald, 4-10 Aug. 1988, pp. 7-10; for the achievements of the Catholic hospital over 25 years, see Herald, 1-7 Sept. 1988, pp. 5-8. ITCABIC Newsletter, 5 / 1 1 , 1988, p p . 6 - 7 . CHAL's history, aims, activities and accomplishments are well set out in a 'Presentation' prepared for the National Health Planning Conference of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Robertsfield Hotel, 2—7 July 1989 (available from CHAL, Box 1046, Monrovia). See also Linnie Kesselly, 'Two Year Brief Update', in Stewards of God's Grace: LCL Fifth Biennial Convention, £orzor, ig-24 April

ig88, pp. 200-3 (available in CSM archives, Uppsala, A64, 1988). See also Michael Francis,' Christians, Community and Health', address delivered at CHAL meeting, 28 July 1983, in CHAL News, 6/1, March 1983, pp. 5-7. CHAL conducted 'Health and Church' workshops for church leaders and health workers in outlying areas; e.g. a workshop in Lofa County, 4-6 May 1988, dealt with AIDS, ear trouble,

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But all this social involvement was of a traditional kind, and did not include the kind of involvement that has come to characterise the church in Latin America. There, involvement has reached a further level, that of analysis of political systems and structures. This will be discussed further below, but we can note that this analysis accompanies radical new understandings of church and world and the relation between them. In this understanding the church is no longer the place to which God's activity is restricted, or the place to which one must return to encounter God. God is there in the world wherever there are human needs being met. The church is no longer the enclave of the saved, but is a sign to the world. The church is not an end in itself but a servant of the world. The world is no longer the realm from which believers must be removed; the world is the realm with which Christians must be engaged. In this understanding the church takes on the role of champion of the oppressed, the voice of the voiceless, the conscience of the nation.107 There was little trace of this kind of Christianity in Doe's Liberia, and little attempt to promote it. There was little interest in social analysis of the particular reality of Liberia. (Of course it is the social analysis that leads to the accusation ' Marxist' being levelled against the Latin American Christians; significantly while the Liberian government could accuse some churchmen of almost everything imaginable, they did not accuse them of Marxism'.) Because there was no social analysis, the Christianity being spread in Liberia could be equally relevant (or equally irrelevant) in rural Sweden, England's

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anaemia, malaria, toilet construction, well construction, and problem solving. Another in Lofa County, 9-11 May 1989, covered blood pressure, pneumonia, tetanus, eye-infections and filaria. The churches also formed a Church Related Educational Development Organisation (CREDO), to do for their educational institutions what CHAL did for their medical institutions. In mid-1989 CREDO had nine organisational members - all the LCC churches except the Presbyterians, plus the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Foya Free Pentecostals, the Assemblies of God and the United Pentecostal Church. CREDO's functions included bulk procurement of textbooks and other educational materials, coordination of support efforts in education, sponsorship of conferences and seminars for the purpose of fostering exchange of ideas relating to educational development. CREDO in no way matched the effectiveness of CHAL. For a brief discussion of this, see Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, pp. 29-46.


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Home Counties or up-state New York. The possibility that the particular circumstances of Liberia might require something special was not seriously entertained. For example, reading successive numbers of the (Lutheran) Bishop's Letter, one finds hardly a single reference to Liberia's socio-political situation. Nor was this situation alluded to in the reports of the Lutheran biennial conventions, or in the material prepared for meetings with overseas partners.108 One meets only issues of concern to the church (and to the Lutheran Church — not to the wider ecumenical body). The focus is on growth, the training of pastors, and the church's institutions. Yet reading between the lines, one is confronted with the Liberian reality at every turn. The church had to close schools. The only Lutheran secondary school was in such desperate straits that the teachers were paid no salary at all in 1985, because the government subsidy was not forthcoming and because the economic situation in the country had so deteriorated that parents could not afford to enrol children.109 The hospitals were in an equally desperate plight. Curran Lutheran Hospital at Zorzor was supposed to receive 33 per cent of its budget from the government. In 1983 it received 26 per cent, in 1984 26 per cent, in 1985 19 per cent, in 1986 16 per cent, in 1987 and 1988 nil. The hospital experienced a 66 per cent drop in patients, again partly due to their inability to pay.110 The economic situation in the country was affecting Lutherans in every way. The reaction was not to look into the structures in the country, but to increase all efforts to preserve 108

109

110

N o t e : ' I t is n o secret - these times a r e difficult for everyone, b u t p u t G o d first a n d all will b e well' {Bishop's Letter, 3 / 1 , p . 20). T h e bishop's report to t h e biennial convention m a d e n o reference to t h e socio-political situation: Living under the Authority of Jesus: Fourth Biennial Convention of LCL, 2j June—2 July 1986, Tekepa, appendix A, pp. 12-25. There is hardly a single allusion to this in the entire 190 pages. There is even the comment: 'The year 1985 as a whole in the Republic of Liberia is a year we can look back on with pride and thank God for his sustaining grace' (p. 125). See material prepared for Partners in Mission Consultation, Monrovia, 7-8 April 1986, appendix G, and for Partners in Mission Consultation, Suakoko, 27-8 April, 1987, appendix C, in CSM archives, Uppsala, A64 1986 and 1987 respectively. Stewards of God's Grace: LCL Fifth Biennial Convention, Zorzor, 19-24 April 1988, p. 57. See also reports for Curran Lutheran and Phebe Hospitals, esp. pp. 151-9; and Partners in Mission Consultation, Suakoko, 27-8 April 1987, appendix D (available CSM archives, Uppsala, A64 1987). See also Minutes of Board of Medical Works of LCL, first meeting, 9 Mar. 1985, in CSM archives, Uppsala, A64 1985.

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the institutions. The churches seemed trapped in the agenda traditionally set them. Addressing that, they gave little attention to what might have been more basic needs. The mainline churches did an enormous amount for the total development of the people in Liberia, but the greatest single obstacle to this development (namely, the totally corrupt political system) they left severely alone. To some degree this was a conscious choice; an obvious concern with the political reality would have endangered the smooth running of their institutions. But to a much greater degree, they simply did not consider sociopolitical analysis and education as part of Christianity. This situation surely explains why many scholars who discuss Liberia seem, when commenting on the role of the mainline churches, at something of a loss when they try to pinpoint that role. All are aware of the contribution of the churches to general development. They are also aware that some church leaders have spoken out against injustice. But even those who see the churches among the major forces for the transformation of Liberian society, seem to have no idea how the churches would exert this influence. Thus Seyon, enumerating all the elements that could influence Liberia's social and economic future, lists c the military, ethnicity, political parties, organised labour, student activism and the intelligentsia and the Christian churches'. All the others are discussed in detail. There is just one throwaway sentence on the churches: ' The Liberian Council of Churches, which recently played the mediating role of arranging a meeting between the Doe regime and the grand coalition of the opposition parties, has maintained a very strong position on separation of church and state, has spoken out strongly against violation and abuse of human rights, and come under the wrath of the Doe regime.'111 Similarly, Dunn and Tarr cite 'portions of the church' among the 'socio-political forces' which will determine the future of Liberia, but they make no effort to elaborate how that force might operate.112 It is significant that the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights in their discussion of Liberia have no expectations of the churches 111 112

Seyon, 'Liberia's Second Republic', pp. 63 and 171. Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, pp. 123 and 200.


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as champions of human rights; apart from three passing allusions to religious or church leaders they give no prominence to the churches at all. Liebenow does not expect the churches to make any special contribution to Liberian society. Sawyer writes that the worst feature of Doe's government was not the abuse of human rights nor the destruction of the economy but the demolition of 'every major institution of national life'. He continues: ' There is not a single institution of Liberian society, traditional or non-traditional, which the military has not destroyed or seriously demeaned.3113 This was true of the mainline churches. They were part of the political system under Tubman and Tolbert. In the early years of the 1980s they found a certain independence, but in the latter half of the decade they retreated, if not to their earlier position, to a position of non-involvement. Sawyer well argues that the greatest need in African societies is for viable institutions which can protect individuals from the arbitrary power concentrated in a single leader.114 It was the churches' refusal to consider their role in these terms, and to make the contribution they could, that constitutes their greatest failure. In the light of the above, it is somewhat ironical that these mainline churches were denounced as political interferers by the government, and were dismissed as 'merely political' churches by the churches we will consider below. In spite of the efforts of two individual mainline churchmen to challenge political abuse, the mainline churches were not political at all. 113 114

Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p. 35. See also Tarr, 'Founding', pp. 42-5. Sawyer, Effective Immediately, pp. 35-37.

CHAPTER 3


ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS OF LIBERIA

The term evangelical is so broad and encompasses so many differing groups that often its use clarifies very little. However, as we shall see, this was not the case in Liberia. In Liberia there was a specific theology which could be called evangelical, it was simply demarcated, and so widely accepted that it could be called simply 'Liberian theology'. Our concern here is not so much to evaluate the theology in itself as to demonstrate its socio-political effect. We will mention the major bodies which promoted this theology, and then discuss the theology under six convenient headings. The Association of Evangelicals of Liberia (AEL) began life as the Liberian Evangelical Fellowship (LEF) in 1964. It was set up by and consisted of missionaries for the most part and after the 1980 coup, a good many of these missionaries left the country. Moreover, in 1980 the LEF president was Bishop Dixon of the Christ Pentecostal Church who, in the early 1980s, had problems in his own church, so the LEF effectively died in 1981. Only in 1988 did Dixon convene a meeting, to address two issues: the 'Muslim threat', after it was perceived that the Muslim director of Liberian broadcasting was set on replacing Christian with Muslim broadcasts, and the growing tension between government and the church. At this meeting it was decided to revive the LEF, and after some other meetings, a general assembly took place on 2 December 1988, where the name was changed to AEL, two new members admitted, the new constitution was adopted and office bearers elected. Rev. J. 98


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Dugbe of the Assemblies of God was elected President, Bishop Marwieh of The Association of Independent Churches of Africa (AICA) was elected Vice-President, and Rev. Gonwo Dahnweih, a United Liberia Inland Church (ULIC) pastor and travelling secretary of Scripture Union, was elected a full-time General Secretary, a post which he took up in March 1989. The new constitution set out an evangelical statement of faith, in which was stated: 'We believe in the separation of church and state, recognizing our responsibilities towards earthly governments, Romans 13, 1-7, Lk 20, 21-25.' The constitution stated that membership was open to any Christian group or individual ' who without reservation subscribes to the statement of faith and who accepts the constitution of the association, but who is not a member of the World Council of Churches, its affiliates or their member groups'. The General Secretary made it quite clear that the opposition to WCC churches was based on their political stance.' The LCC preaches politics from the pulpit. It accuses the government of this and that. Then the government attacks the church. Our way would be different. We would meet with government for dialogue... Our preaching is biblical.'1 The AEL constitution gave as its first objective to realise evangelical identity 'with like-minded believers in Liberia, in Africa through the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (AEAM), and the world through the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF)'. This link with the AEAM helps clarify further the socio-political position of the AEL, the issue dealt with in this chapter. The AEAM was established in 1966, and its first African General Secretary (from 1973 to 1975) was Byang Kato. Kato was a product of the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), who studied at an SIM Bible School in Nigeria, the London Bible College, and then completed a doctorate at Dallas Theological Seminary. Kato's successor described Kato's emphasis as twofold: 'the trustworthiness of the Word of God against all theological 1

Interview. 9 May 1989. The constitution is available from AEL, PO Box 2656, Monrovia. Interestingly, the AEL's President and Vice-President, both from Sinoe, tried to 'mediate' in the dispute about the composition of Sinoe's Birthday '91 committee (see above, pp. 41-2). But when the dispute became more heated ('became political') both withdrew.

ioo


liberalism and the proper contextualization of theology in an African setting without adulterating the Gospel'.2 Kato's overriding principle was that the Bible must judge everything, but it is evident from his books that he simply equated the Bible with the idea of the Bible taught at Dallas Theological Seminary.3 It was from that standpoint that he judged the WCC's attempt to address the socio-political world as a perverse denial of the Bible;4 from that standpoint he judged any African contextualisation as a betrayal ;5 from that standpoint he argued from Romans 13,7 that 'Christians should be the most loyal citizens'.6 This kind of evangelical theology, its origins and its sociopolitical effects, will occupy the rest of this chapter, but before going further it is necessary to give a brief historical description of the bodies that made up the AEL. The most prominent member of the AEL was Bishop Marwieh's AICA. Despite its name, this was more a single denomination than an association. In 1989 the denomination had about eighty churches (down from its peak of 120, after four splits), in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Ghana. It also had five full-time missionaries in 1989.7 2

3

4

5

6 7

Tokunboh Adeyemo, General Secretary of AEAM, in his Foreword to Sophie de la Haye, Byang Kato: Ambassador for Christ (Achimota, Ghana, African Christian Press, 1986), p. 12. Kato was also secretary of the Executive Committee of the World Evangelical Fellowship and chairman of its Theological Commission (ibid., p. 81). For the statement and application of this principle, see B. H. Kato, African Cultural Revolution and the Christian Faith (Jos, Nigeria, Challenge Publications, 1976), pp. 28, 31, 35, 48, 49, 56. See also Byang H. Kato, Biblical Christianity in Africa, Achimota, Ghana, African Christian Press, 1985. At the time of his death he was preoccupied with the WCC Fifth Assembly in Nairobi in 1975; his biographer notes that 'in most of the discussions... the Lord Jesus Christ had been "left out in the cold'" (de la Haye, Byang Kato, pp. 88-9). Kato's books contain many dismissive references to WCC Christianity, e.g. 'the section of Christianity that has encouraged the secularisation of Christianity is Ecumenicism' (African Cultural Revolution, p. 40). See the title 'African Theology: Described and Rejected' for ch. 5 of Byang H. Kato, Theological Pitfalls in Africa, Kisumu, Kenya, Evangel, 1975. Kato, African Cultural Revolution, p. 20. Bishop Marwieh was born in 1928, the son of a cannibal. In his youth he experienced government forced labour, tribal wars and government reprisals. He came under the sway of Mother Eliza Davis George, herself the daughter of slaves, who came as a Baptist missionary to Liberia in 1913. Marwieh finished his secondary education in Monrovia (under Baptist auspices), then from 1954 studied at UC Berkeley, Simpson Bible College (Holiness) and Golden Gate Theological Seminary (Southern


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Another prominent member was Bishop Dixon's Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church (DSCPC). We will treat this church in more detail in the following two chapters. The Assemblies of God began their mission on Christmas Day 1908 among the Grebo of Grand Gedeh County, although they subsequently spread throughout the country. There was a big increase in the late 1980s, and the General Superintendent estimated the membership at 15,000 at the end of the decade. Between 1987 and 1989 twelve new churches were established in Monrovia alone. This increase is not unrelated to the Jimmy Swaggart Crusade of 13-15 November 1987,8 and the accompanying church-planting ministry of the American Ben Tipton; in 1989 five of Monrovia's new churches were meeting in tents

8

Baptist) in San Francisco. The summer vacations he spent with the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of Oklahoma. He returned to Liberia in i960, and taught at the Baptist Ricks Institute. In 1965 he resigned to return to the interior. (The details of Marwieh's earlier life are found in Lutz, Born to Lose, and Augustus Marwieh, 'Augustus B. Marwieh', in Irving Stone (ed.), There Was Light: Autobiography of a University: i868-ig68 (Garden City NY, Doubleday, 1970), pp. 121-35). Besides the AICA, Bishop Marwieh was also head of the Ministry of Hope. The Ministry of Hope began in 1983 as a TV ministry, funded by California's Robert Schuller. It later grew to include teaching, hospital and prison ministries, a training school (People's Institute of Personal Evangelism), and church planting. This latter activity commenced in November 1986 as a wholistic programme involving church planting and technical training at village level (concentrating on agriculture); hence the churches were known as REAL (Rural Evangelism Association of Liberia) churches. By 1989 25 churches and 6 schools had been established. Marwieh had a former missionary trying to raise funds in the USA for these REAL churches. Bishop Marwieh symbolised Liberian evangelical Christianity. He disclaimed all involvement in politics. He was very negative towards African culture ('incredible superstitions of witchcraft and of idols', and 'witchcraft, black magic and necromancy'; see 'Augustus B. Marwieh', pp. 130-1 and 134 respectively). He was solely interested in evangelism, and for this task accepted assistance wherever he could find it. Through the Christian Nationals' Evangelism Commission (CNEC) he received assistance from the extremely conservative Paul Smith's People's Church in Toronto (see Melton, Encyclopedia, n. 656); from the New Age-influenced Robert Schuller (ibid., p. xliv); from Los Gatos Christian Church; from the First Baptist Church of Atlanta. He was spokesman for the group bringing California's Grace Community Church to Liberia; he was president of the group bringing in the Mennonites, and brought in students from Loren Cunningham's Youth With A Mission (Daily Observer, 17 June 1988, p. 4). He was the main figure behind Billy Graham's TV crusade and evangelism seminar. All effort went to evangelism; little to evaluating the kind of Christianity introduced. Swaggart claimed an attendance of 157,000 for the crusade, 75,000 for the Sunday service alone, and claimed that '37,000 came forward for salvation' (The Evangelist, Oct/Nov 1988, 9/6, cover).

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provided by Tipton. The Assemblies in Liberia ran 45 schools and some clinics, but their stress was definitely on evangelism. A Liberian General Superintendent took charge in 1984, and the denomination was largely independent financially, except for its Bible College, which was still funded from overseas and totally staffed by expatriates of the Assemblies of God Mission Fellowship (two Canadians and six Americans). The college, just outside Monrovia, offered a four-year accredited BTh course, and in 1989 had 64 students, about half of whom were Assemblies of God students and half from independent Pentecostal churches. The Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) was founded in 1893. It is not a church and its 80 missionaries to Liberia came from many churches (mainly Baptist, Presbyterian, and Evangelical Free Churches) and from many countries (though the biggest single group comprised Americans). Liberia was the headquarters for West Africa, an area comprising Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Cote dTvoire. The SIM missionaries were involved in Christian publishing and in church planting (in at least seven areas), and operated a hospital, a theological correspondence course, a school for missionary children, and a Saturday afternoon discipleship training course in a poorer part of Monrovia. SIM also ran an International Church at their headquarters outside Monrovia. On a Sunday the church would cater for about 550 at its three services, largely expatriates and missionaries. Its statement of belief included phrases like 'verbal inspiration', 'inerrant' and 'total depravity'. 9 But SIM was best known for Radio ELWA.10 ELWA began 9 10

SIM statement of faith available from ELWA, PO Box 192, Monrovia. ELWA, and the World Radio Missionary Fellowship of Miami, Florida (which operates HCJB in Quito, Ecuador), the Far East Broadcasting Company of La Mirada, California, and Trans World Radio of Chatham, New Jersey (operating from Monte Carlo, Bonaire, Cyprus, Swaziland, Guam and Sri Lanka) make up the 'big four' of evangelical broadcasting. In 1985 they joined forces for mission research, centralised now in Pasadena, Southern California, for developing (before the year 2000) programming in every one of the world's 276 languages spoken by a million people or more. This will mean that they reach 97 per cent of the world's population. Between them, they already broadcast in 167 of these languages. See Larry Jones, 'Survey of Religious Media 1989', paper delivered at CIIR/Christian Aid 'Faith and Development' Conference in London 26-7 October 1989. (See also Decision (May 1989) p. 20, where it is stated that the four have programmes in only


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broadcasting in 1954. By 1989 it had five transmitters, and broadcast in about 40 languages across West Africa. Within Liberia itself ELWA broadcast in English and the 14 Liberian languages. The effectiveness of these programmes was debated; there were no statistics available to assess the listening public.11 Apart from public service announcements and news bulletins, all programmes were religious; even the request programmes featured only Christian music. Apart from a little locally produced material, the majority of the English-language programmes were the US staples.12 (However, SIM is nonpentecostal, and would not broadcast pentecostal programmes over ELWA). Their programmes may have sounded identical to a casual listener, but there were differences. The Christian Reformed Back to God Hour was conservative, but a very sophisticated example of traditional evangelicalism. Other programmes like Billy Graham's Hour of Decision, Stephen Olford's Encounter, Howard Jones' Hour of Freedom and Harold Sala's Guidelines were fundamentalist in their use of scripture, but this did not excessively affect the moral exhortation which was the point of them all. There were also programmes 115 of the 276 languages, and says each needs to increase by four languages each year if the target is to be reached by the year 2000.) For evangelical broadcasting, see Hugo Assmann, La Iglesia Electronicay su impacta en America Latina, San Jose, Costa Rica, Dei, 1987; Peter and Pam Cousins, The Power of the Air:

The Advancement and Future of Missionary Radio, London, Hodder and

Stoughton, 1978; Paul E. Freed, Towers to Eternity, Waco TX, Word Books, 1968; Ben Armstrong, The Electronic Church, Nashville and New York, Nelson, 1979; J. Harold Ellis, Models of Religious Broadcasting, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1974; Peter Elvy, Buying Time: The Foundations of the Electronic Church, Great Wakering, Essex,

11

12

McCrimmon, 1986. For ELWA specifically, see Cousins, Power, pp. 24-6; Armstrong, Electronic Church, pp. 78—80; Reg Kennedy, The Wold Senders: A Personal Assessment of the Work of the Major Protestant Evangelical Missionary Radio Stations, unpublished MS, undated. A USIA survey in Nigeria in 1973 showed ELWA's audience to be 4*1 per cent, compared to the BBC's 229 per cent, Radio Ghana's 13-3 per cent and VOA's 3*8 per cent (VOA report No. E4-74, 5 March 1974). Kennedy writes, 'In terms of oral impact, one must question ELWA's policy of broadcasting in so many languages with only four transmitters at its disposal. As a result, some groups are given only 15 minutes per week, on a continent not renowned for its subservience to the clock' (Word Senders, p. 33). Kennedy's conclusion to the whole study is,' Despite true vision and mighty faith, the "harvest of souls" is but a fantasy' (ibid., p. vii). A comparison with the English shortwave programme of Trans World Radio in Swaziland suggests that many of the same programmes are broadcast all round the world.

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presenting Christian examples for emulation, programmes like Unshackled and Stories of Great Christians.1* ELWA also

broadcast daily programmes which set out specifically to expound the Bible. Two were American staples, Gil Rugh's Sound Words and Vernon McGee's Through the Bible Radio, and

one was a Liberian programme produced by US Presbyterian missionaries from their African Bible College (ABC) in Yekepa, northern Liberia.14 All these programmes of 'biblical exposition' were pure US fundamentalism.15 ELWA's Christianity perfectly illustrates the Christianity under discussion in this chapter. (It was perhaps partly through ELWA's influence that this Christianity was so widely accepted as simply 'Christianity'.) In this chapter we will take examples from ELWA programmes to illustrate Liberia's evangelical Christianity. Both SIM and its International Church were members of the AEL. 13

These 'Stories of Great Christians' (produced by the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago) can be seen as promoting a particularly American Christianity. The story of businessman John Wanamaker was told in May 1989 with the title 'John Wanamaker, Pioneer Merchant'. R. G. LeTourneau was the subject in September 1989; his story was entitled 'Mover of Men and Mountains', and taught lessons like 'To raise their earning power, people must be taught' (22 Sept.). Also serialised on this programme (Aug.-Sept. 1989) was James C. Hefley's By Life or By Death (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1969), the story of evangelical missionaries - mainly Wycliffe Bible Translators - in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The principal attitude of these missionaries to the war was that it provided ' tremendous opportunities for the gospel' (5 Sept.), and the serial included lines like 'The US Marines! Thank God for America' (1 Sept.). The Wycliffe Bible Translators' enthusiasm for the Vietnam War is chronicled in David Stoll, Fishers of Men or Founders of Empire? The Wycliffe

14

15

Bible Translators in Latin America (London, Zed Press, 1982), pp. 86-92. For the Wycliffe Bible Translators (or the Summer Institute of Linguistics), see also Soren Hvalkof and Peter Aaby, Is God an American? An Anthropological Perspective on the Missionary Work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, London, Survival International, 1981. James and Marti Hefley have written another book, The Secret File on John Birch (Wheaton IL, Tyndale House, 1980), which its introduction describes as 'The biography of a Christian missionary and US intelligence agent'. Sound Words available from PO Box 5949, Lincoln NE 68505, USA; Through the Bible Radio from PO Box 7100, Pasadena CA 91109, USA; and Bible College by Radio from African Bible College, Yekepa, Liberia. Ian Hay, General Director of SIM, claimed, 'Mission strategists believe that ELWA's success comes from its indigenous nature. It is essentially an African voice' (cited in Armstrong, Electronic Church, p. 79). It is this claim that is denied here; ELWA is essentially an American voice, even if it is broadcast by Africans in African languages.


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The Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade (WEC) was founded by C. T. Studd who was a famous England cricketer (he played in the original 1882 Ashes Test) before becoming a missionary to China, India and, in his mid-5os, to Central Africa. In 1987 WEC had 1,311 members, 14 as missionaries to Liberia (down from nearly 40 in the mid-1970s), stationed in the centre of the country, from the coast to the Nimba mountains. They were involved in Bible translation, education, evangelism and church planting, leadership training, medical and youth work, and in mission to the Muslim Mandingos. Nearly all were noncharismatic. They also ran a Bible College in Grand Bassa County, training pastors who came from a more limited educational background. The related national church body was the United Liberia Inland Church (ULIC). In 1987 it numbered approximately 15,000 affiliated members (about 7,800 adult members) in 39 congregations, with 36 nationals working alongside the 14 WEC missionaries. The ULIC churches were known for their strict discipline. WEC also gave rise to the Christian Literature Crusade (CLC), which ran the best-stocked Christian bookshop in Monrovia. This sold material in local languages, but mainly imported evangelical classics, from Moody and Madame Guyon and Andrew Murray, through John Stott and C. S. Lewis, to Josh McDowell, Tim LaHaye and John Wimber. Many of their books were polemic, not only against the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists, but also against the WCC and the Catholic Church. WEC, ULIC, and CLC were all members of the AEL.16 The Christian Reformed Church is the smaller of the two 16

Norman Grubb, C. T. Studd, Cricketer and Pioneer, Cambridge, Lutterworth, 1982 (orig. 1933); Norman Grubb, Leap of Faith: the Story of Christian Literature Crusade,

Fort Washington PA, CLC, 1962; 'Banjo Bwana', BBC Radio 4, 18 Feb 1989; Praying Always 1988-89, WEC handbook published by WEC International, Bulstrode, Oxford Rd, Gerrards Cross, Bucks SL9 8SZ, England. WEC also produces a newsletter Youth from Box 1707, Fort Washington PA 19034, USA (formerly published from Bahn, Liberia), which deals with conversions (even raisings from the dead), spiritual warfare, Bible exposition and exploits like smuggling Bibles. The CLC bookshop stocked the virulent Chick pamphlets (see below, p. 269 n. 105), and Sword of the Lord Publications like G. Arthur Weniger's Modernism of the National Council of Churches as shown by the San Francisco General Assembly (Murfreesboro

TN, Sword of the Lord, n.d.) which, in a typical attack, describes the NCC's fifth

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Dutch Reformed Churches in North America. Christian Reformed Missionaries were invited to Liberia in the mid-1970s, to adopt a local church. Quite by chance, the very day their representative went to visit the church, another US mission body was also visiting it with an eye to adopting it. This taught the Christian Reformed authorities that their presence was not essential in that capacity but, after consulting a Mennonite authority on independent churches,17 they began in 1981 a mission to Bassa independent churches. They assisted two groupings of independent churches. First, the Bassa Ministers' Association (BMA), a body of about 25 churches, which existed primarily to resolve disputes among members. Second, the Christian Education Foundation of Liberia (CEFL), set up in 1968 with the goals of promoting evangelism and fostering unity among independents. By the late 1980s the CEFL had three ministries: a Christian High School in Buchanan (which the Christian Churches of America assisted); the launching, with the assistance of ICCO and Radio Netherlands, of a private Christian radio station, which was about to go on the air just as the civil war broke out; and a Christian correspondence course, which by 1989 had about 800 graduates. The Christian Reformed Mission of Liberia (CRML) assisted in producing much of this correspondence.material locally. The CEFL had its greatest strength in the mid-1970s, when it comprised 15 churches; by 1989 it comprised only 7. The main reason for this decline was the disappointment of some (especially smaller) churches at the material returns, in the form of scholarships and project funding, from their annual $200 membership fee. Among all the mission groups in Liberia, the CRML stood out for their readiness to leave their own doctrine and polity aside, and render disinterested service where they were asked. Although not a healing church, they respected the healing churches; they respected polygamous churches; and they made

17

general assembly as ' the largest collection of heretics, modernists, pinks, scoffers, higher critics, false prophets, and religious subversives in the triennium' (p. 3). David Shank, 'An Approach to understanding "Mission" to "Independent Christianity" among the Bassa people in Liberia, West Africa,' Mimeo, 1981. Some of Shank's thinking can be found in his ' Mission Relations with the Independent Churches in Africa', Missiology: An International Review, 13 (1985), pp. 23-44.


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no effort to direct the recipients of their scholarships to their own schools. The highly professional CRML missionaries, in numerous studies, also compiled a considerable data bank of Bassa history and customs.18 Both the CRML and the CEFL were members of the AEL. The World Wide Missions Church (WWMC) was established in Liberia in 1961, after three Bassa people, dissatisfied with what they considered the paternalism of the Baptist MidMission, broke away and made contact with World Wide Missions of Pasadena, California; they asked for assistance to evangelise, to educate and ' to heal the needy people of Liberia'. One of the three was more interested in education, and gradually moved out into this field; the second left the WWMC in 1982-4 over an administrative dispute. In 1989 only one of the three, Abba Karnga, remained; he was head of the church, by then numbering about 500 members in Buchanan. The church had also established over 60 local churches throughout the country. Karnga had been instrumental in setting up both the Christian Education Foundation of Liberia, of which he was executive secretary, and the Bassa Ministers' Association. He thus worked very closely with the Christian Reformed missionaries, but remained an extremely independent influence: he wrote a defence of polygamy (entitled ' Not by Monogamy but " by Grace are Ye Saved "') and changed his church's policy to one of accepting the custom, and spoke positively of local secret societies.19 18

Mark Scheffers, 'Schism in the Bassa Independent Churches of Liberia', in David A. Shank (ed.), Ministry of Missions to African Independent Churches Elkhart IN,

Mennonite Board of Missions, 1987), pp. 62-95; Perry Tinklenberg, 'Christian Extension Ministries of the Christian Education Foundation of Liberia', in Shank (ed.), Ministry of Missions, pp. 96-112. See also Larry Venderaa, The Bassa of Liberia : A Study of Culture, Historical Development, and Indigenisation of the Gospel (1982); Perry Tinklenberg, The Indigenisation Principle in the'Christian Reformed Church: A Case Study of its Development and Relationship in the Bassa Church (1981); Mark SchefFers, Power as a Dominant Feature of the Religious Expression of Bassa Independent Churches (1988); Donald Slager, The Cultural School of the Bassa People in Liberia (1987); Donald Slager, The Funeral of Old Lady Sei (1987); Donald Slager, An Accurate Picture of the Esther K Miller Memorial Church, World Wide Missions of Liberia, Buchanan, Liberia (1989). All these 19

studies are unpublished, and were done as part of their postgraduate research. Karnga's paper ' Not by Monogamy but " by Grace are Ye Saved " ' was originally delivered 24 Oct. 1987 to TEE Conference of Christian Extension Ministries (of CEFL). Karnga has written three small books which are a mine of information about

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The Carver Mission was established for black Americans in the 1950s when it was difficult for them to join other missions. They are baptistic, although several are Brethren. Their beliefs include the authority, inerrancy and verbal plenary inspiration Bassa customs and history: Abba: God's Warrior in Liberia and My People the Bassa Tribe, and African Reaction to Change in African Cultures (from a Christian Viewpoint), all three

available from World Wide Missions, Pasadena, published 1974, 1975 and 1976 respectively. Karnga was International Vice-President and head of WWM activities in Africa, responsible for work in Kenya, Malawi, Cameroon, Nigeria and Zaire. Abba Karnga was the exception to almost everything written in this chapter. He always spoke out fearlessly on public issues. In a sermon in the Baptist Church, Buchanan, just after the 1980 coup he criticised the Baptist Church for being too closely linked with the government. In 1988 at a public meeting in Buchanan he spoke in support of opposition politician Baccus Matthews' statement against corruption. On 23 April 1989, at an ecumenical service in Buchanan's Apostolic Faith Church, he delivered a forthright sermon entitled 'Things Catch My Heart' on the text Acts 7, 22-5. In describing Moses' coming to the aid of the people, Karnga explained t h a t ' a tyrant is a ruler who uses his power very cruelly... [and] puts the wrong people in authority in his government'. His sermon presented a history of the Bassa people, in six stages. The first was 'a government of humanism' till 1821. The second was the stage of the colonial government (1822-40). The third was that of the republican government (1847-1980) which Karnga denounced as an oligarchy 'to dominate' and 'to dehumanise their own native people'. The fourth stage was that of the military government (1980-5), when 'a young military genius S. K. Doe appeared on the scene [and] the native people could not control their joy'. But it was a 'pepper-sweet coup'; it was 'fast and hot... full of joy followed by sorrow later'. The fifth stage was that of the second republic (1986 and after). Karnga elaborated abuses in full: the irregularities of the elections; financial problems, 'due to the debt inherited from the former government coupled with the mismanagement of funds in the new government'; the setting up of the party above the state; tribalism practised by the government; the reintroduction of discredited TWP officials. Then Karnga focused on abuses in Grand Bassa County: sycophancy; unauthorised taxes which are never used for their specified purposes; the neglect of the infrastructure; that ' diseases rage unchecked'; the arrogance of local authorities; the neglect of those outside the party; and abuse of power. In his conclusion, reverting to the story of Moses, Karnga called on God ' to infuse us again with pride and dignity [so that we will not again allows ourselves] to be misused by a handful of cruel people for selfish advantage'. Although many of his people cautioned him against making such public statements, on the grounds that if he was eliminated they would be without a leader, Karnga saw it as his duty to speak out on political issues (and admired the WCC for this, admitting he was a 'lone voice among evangelicals'). In 1989 he said, 'South Africa is better than here now' (interview, 22 May 1989). Karnga, after urging President Doe to intervene in Grand Bassa County 'to prevent the people remaining toys of their leaders', was arrested on 4 December 1989 on a charge of' contumely' on the orders of Grand Bassa senator Charles Williams, who predictably said 'Rev. Karnga was not a reverend but instead a politician.' A public outcry had Karnga released later that day (Daily Observer, 5 Dec. 1989, p. 1; News, 5 Dec. 1989, p. 1; Daily Observer, 6 Dec. 1989, p. 1; Daily Observer, 7 Dec. 1989, p. 4).


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of Scripture, and most are dispensationalist. Their mission in Liberia was established in 1956 to work with national churches. They ran a secondary school just outside Monrovia for 500 students, but their main ministry was to train ministers. For this they ran a Bible College and a Bible Institute (the difference lay in their entry requirements) on the same site. Both training institutions operated three nights a week, so this training was very attractive to those who had to work during the day. In 1989 the two programmes had a total of 65 students, comprising Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Independents and even Pentecostals (although the mission itself was not Pentecostal). On the staff there were two Americans in the College, another two in the Institute, and they made use of other available teachers, including some from SIM. Nearly all their graduates were in ministry, most in the denominations from which they came, but there were about 15 independent churches loosely linked to the mission. The Open Bible Standard Church was a mission church, founded by missionaries from the American mid-West, who arrived in Liberia in 1947 and left in 1981 after the coup. By 1989 it had about 20 local churches, mainly Bassa, and a membership of about 800. Its Bible school reopened in 1984 in Buchanan, and between 1984 and 1989 it trained about 30 pastors or evangelists: these were mainly Open Bible members, but some were Methodists, Baptists and members of smaller independent churches. The church was known for its strict discipline, and this led to a split in 1987. The church still had American ties - in early 1989 it held a revival with two visiting evangelists from Alabama - but financial support was limited to constructing new churches in villages. The Liberia Free Pentecostal Church was an offshoot of the Swedish Free Pentecostal Mission which came to Liberia in 1946 and began work around Careysburg. Members later moved into the interior, and subsequent migration from the interior to the city brought the church to Monrovia. In the early 1970s the missionaries appointed, despite protests from the nationals, a former Baptist pastor to pastor a Monrovia church. All through the 1970s friction increased, with the nationals in

11 o


the church demanding partnership with missionaries and better educational opportunities, and in 1980 occurred a split. Twenty-two churches broke away to form the Liberia Free Pentecostal Church with its own convention and board. A few churches remained independent as Swedish Free Pentecostal churches. The Swedish Mission and the LFPC had a messy lawsuit over harassment in 1980, and in 1989 another over ownership of church buildings was pending. The Bible Society considered itself the arm of the churches in Bible translation and distribution, and was not a church in itself. In the late 1980s it raised locally between $US 25,000 and 50,000 annually for its work. Scripture Union began as a Bible-reading movement in Britain in 1876. Its headquarters are still in Britain, with African headquarters in Nairobi. It began in Liberia in 1964, and by 1989 had six full-time workers. It distributed Bible study material, but its main activity was establishing Bible study groups in schools. These groups met weekly during recess or after school. In Monrovia such groups existed in about 20 high schools, with an average of about 25 students in each group. Scripture Union worked in 5 of Liberia's 13 counties. In the late 1980s it suffered from financial problems and lack of senior staff. The Bible study material was prepared by Africans and distributed from Nairobi. Scripture Union is not Pentecostal, but its material is not opposed to Pentecostalism. Although its roots are in Britain, the Liberian office had strong American links; three of its six workers were ABC graduates, and the director had studied in Wheaton College, Illinois.20 The Great Commission Movement of Liberia (GCML) was an autonomous Liberian branch of Campus Crusade. It was established in Liberia in 1974 by expatriates, but the last expatriate left in 1986. In 1989 there were six on the staff, two graduates of ABC, one of the Baptist Theological Seminary, and two had received Campus Crusade training while students at the University of Liberia. All had received the four-month required training in Nigeria. The Liberian office was under the 20

The study material Daily Guide and Daily Power are available from Scripture Union, PO Box 1212, Monrovia.


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West African anglophone headquarters in Jos, Nigeria, and all workers had to find their own funding. The GCML's main ministry was training Christian groups. Their greatest effort was directed to the university, where they showed the Campus Crusade 'Jesus' film, and ran small Bible studies; 18 students in 1989 were receiving special training, after which, in typical Campus Crusade cell strategy, each would begin a cell of his or her own. There was also a summer ministry, for which all the 18 would, in small groups, work with churches during their vacation. The GCML also ran training workshops for churches, and helped them in church planting. The GCML was nonPentecostal and non-denominational, and worked with Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal and ULIC Churches. They used the standard Campus Crusade material devised at headquarters in California (e.g., Nine Transferable Concepts, Ten Basic Steps to Christian Maturity, New Life 2000) and did not lack

supplies.21 The Child Evangelism Fellowship is an international organisation, employing about 1,500 full-time workers in over 85 countries, which exists to teach children and to train Sunday School teachers. In October 1989 the Liberian branch held a Child Evangelism Awareness Month, to pray for spiritual needs of children, in which over fifty denominations and religious groups participated.22 These were the bodies which made up the AEL. It is to be noted that it included both non-Pentecostals and Pentecostals in perfect amity. Even some groups that in the USA might have reservations about associating with Pentecostals, did so willingly in Liberia; even SIM, which would not broadcast for 'faith healing groups' over ELWA, joined with the Assemblies of God in running West Africa Christian High School, because (as a 21

22

Campus Crusade material is available from PO Box 1576, San Bernardino CA 92402, USA. For the socio-political effect of Campus Crusade, in Latin American and southern Africa particularly, see Paul Gifford. The New Crusaders: Christianity and the Mew Right in Southern Africa (London, Pluto, 1991), pp. 50-3. Daily Observer, 22 Sept. 1989, p. 4. The director 'said that many children have fallen prey to man's greatest foe, Satan...The use of dangerous drugs, watching unwholesome movies, early sex, the absence of parents from home, and the lack of parental guidance, are some of the strategies that Satan uses on children' (ibid.).

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former ELWA director put it) the Assemblies in Liberia are 'very restrained'. All these groups, Pentecostal and nonPentecostal, promoted an evangelical theology: after Adam's sin all were totally lost in sin; Jesus died on the cross to remove this burden of sin; by faith in his substitutionary atonement we are saved; those who accept Jesus as their personal saviour will spend eternity in heaven; those who do not will spend eternity in hell. Since for most of these groups the standard form of meeting was the revival, these points were repeated in every public sermon. All of these groups (with the exception of the CRML missionaries) were completely fundamentalist in their approach to scripture. All (with the exception of Abba Karnga of WWM) ostensibly eschewed politics, and denounced as perverters of the gospel those who mentioned political issues. However, although they supposedly prescinded from politics, their Liberian evangelical gospel played an important role in the Liberian political scene. Before dealing with that, it is necessary to mention some of the bodies that, although not members of the AEL, promoted the same socio-political message. The most obvious of such groups was the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International (FGBMFI), which was founded in 1953 in California by Demos Shakarian. It has since grown to number 2,700 chapters in 83 countries, and involves an estimated 700,000 people each month. It is Pentecostal, and aims to bring businessmen to Christ. The fellowship began in Monrovia in 1985, and its main activity was a monthly breakfast (or dinner) in a local hotel where a guest speaker (a visiting celebrity, whenever possible) gave his testimony. There were, besides, activities like prayer or Bible study five days a week in the fellowship's Monrovia headquarters. The theology was solidly evangelical of the type under discussion here, and the fellowship played a large part in spreading the acceptance of this theology as Christian theology, because the meetings attracted Christians even from mainline denominations.23 23

For Shakarian's story, see D. Shakarian, as told to J. and E. Sherrill, The Happiest People on Earth: the Long-awaited Personal Story of Demos Shakarian, Old Tappan NJ,

Spire Books, 1975. For the socio-political role of FGBMFI around the world, see


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There were numerous other churches preaching exactly the same message,24 but there were some whose theology was the same, or (which is our concern) exerted the same socio-political effect, but which were more separatist, and refused to associate even with the AEL. The Mid-Liberia Baptist Mission was an offshoot of the Baptist Mid-Missions in the USA, which is not a convention like the SBC, but purely a mission agency. The Liberian MidMission was supported by American fundamentalist and separatist Baptist churches. The mission came to Liberia in 1938 and in 1989 had about 30 missionaries in the country. The churches they had planted were all autonomous, but the missionaries helped them establish a General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GRBC). However, this association began to turn itself into a kind of convention, with a leadership with real power, so the missionaries broke off fellowship with the GRBC in 1980, and in 1982 helped set up a Fellowship of Autonomous Baptist Churches (FABC) for the churches which had not joined the GRBC 'convention' - a little over half the total. In July 1989 a committee had successfully drawn up proposals to reunite these two factions, and the agreement was in the process of being ratified by all the individual churches when the civil war broke out. By 1989 there were about 200 Mid-Baptist churches in the country, about 50 of them around Tapeta, and their increase had been substantial; for example, in Monrovia, from only two or three churches in 1980, there were nearly 20 by the end of the decade. The Mid-Baptists were separatist and would not associate with ' neo-evangelicals' like Billy Graham who is prepared to appear on the same platform as members of mainline churches. In Liberia, the Mid-Baptists ran a Bible school (with two-year and four-year evening

24

Gifford, New Crusaders, pp. 56-9. FGBMFFs magazine Voice is available from Costa Mesa CA, USA. Among other churches promoting this evangelical theology could be listed: Pillar of Fire Church, US-based (3455 West 83rd Avenue, Westminster CO 80030, USA), but the Liberian Church in River Cess was a split away from the Evangelical Congregational Church; the Wesleyan Church, which began in Liberia in 1979 and had in 1989 about 12 churches in the country, mostly in Sinoe County; it was served by white American and Canadian missionaries.

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courses), staffed entirely by American missionaries, exclusively for members of their own churches; even members of LBMEC churches were excluded. In 1989 there were 40 students. The Mid-Liberia Baptists even considered ELWA to have become soft on separatism because ELWA would not denounce other Christian groups by name, and they therefore established their own radio station in Tapeta, which came on the air just at the end of 1989. An even more separatist group - it would be difficult to be more so - was the New Tribes Mission (NTM). The NTM began in Liberia in 1980, and slowly built up to about 30 missionaries, but they place such stress on learning the local language before attempting to plant a church that by 1989 they had hardly begun their church planting.25 25

The New Tribes Mission has 2,500 missionaries around the world and is in four West African countries - Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal. In Liberia NTM had 35 missionaries, all of whom, except for a couple in Monrovia, were in the south-eastern part, among the Grebo, Krahn and Kru tribes. Their beliefs include 'word by word inspiration', the ' imminent... pretribulation and pre-millennial return' of Jesus, and they are extremely exclusivist: 'We are not ecumenical, charismatic or neoevangelical'. They also believe 'in the fall of man, resulting in his complete and universal separation from God and his need of salvation'; those who die unsaved go to 'unending punishment'. This last belief leads them to the position that nothing matters besides bringing unsaved tribes to accept Jesus. Norman Lewis has shown that they are prepared to destroy whole cultures in pursuit of this goal. His book, The Missionaries (London, Seeker and Warburg, 1988), is a savage indictment of the activities of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL - also known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators) and the NTM, but he does claim that SIL are much better educated and appear liberal beside the NTM (p. 129). He claims the NTM have kidnapped Indians (p. 127), sold them for forced labour on farms (p. 177), have been involved in industrial espionage (p. 202) and are linked with US embassies (p. 205). He paints a frightening picture of their idea of salvation (p. 217) and their mission strategies (pp. 231-2) -even their concept of God: 'The deity of the old London Missionary Society might well have been a pre-Victorian mill-owner with an interest in the slave trade; here [in the NTM] we have a small-town American politician of ultra right-wing persuasion, who can be flattered, cajoled, bargained with occasionally even deceived' (p. 130). The NTM have received very adverse publicity in Britain, where they have their European headquarters. Because of the publicity surrounding their activities in Latin America they have been investigated by the all-party Parliamentary Human Rights Committee; Lord Avebury, the Committee's chairman, called the NTM 'fanatics', 'outrageous', and 'out of the Middle Ages' {Face the Facts, BBC Radio 4, 15 Feb. 1989). The head of the Anglican South America Society said of the NTM that 'they can't distinguish the American way of life from New Testament Christianity' [Face the Facts). On this radio programme, a NTM missionary said of


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An example of a separatist para-church group was Awana Youth Association. Awana began in Chicago in the 1950s, 'to work with children' in games and Bible Study, and by the 1980s had its material published in 40 languages. The movement was operative in Liberia all through the 1980s, but only in 1989 was an American appointed a full-time worker; he expected to raise the number of churches involved from 21 to 33 by the end of 1989. The Awana doctrinal statement is so restrictive that cooperation is withheld not only from any church affiliated to the WCC or NCC, but from any church linked to groups affiliated to the WCC or NCC. This policy effectively meant that in Liberia Awana could work only with Mid-Liberia Baptists, SIM and the New Tribes Mission.26 We are not concerned with these groups' theology as such, merely with the socio-political effects of their theology. From this perspective, the differences between these groups (pentecostal or non-pentecostal, exclusivist or neo-evangelical) become very minor. The pertinent theological elements can be conveniently discussed under the following headings. the Bolivian Indians, 'They are not much different from wild animals'. This same negative attitude to man without Christ, and their opposition to any form of Christianity that takes a more optimistic view of human nature, was found among the Liberian missionaries:' What will free these people from the fear and bondage of their animistic beliefs ? Churches are scattered throughout this country. Signs, names of places, and vehicles proclaim the name of God. People freely give God credit for bringing them to this day. Yet, their hearts are held in bondage by the beliefs passed down to them from generation to generation' (Linda Stucky, 'Don't Come Back', West African Witness, Nov. 1988, p. 21). N T M publications West African Witness,

26

Under the Sun, and Brown Gold are all available from NTM, 1000 East First St, Stanford FL 32771, USA. For more details on NTM, see Norman Lewis, 'A Harvest of Souls', Independent Magazine, 1 Apr. 1989, pp. 20-8; 'The Hunting Ground', ITV First Tuesday programme, screened 5 Sept. 1989. Awana (the name is derived from the first letter of key words in 2 Tim 2, 15) declares in its statement of belief: 'The Bible is the Word of God. We CANNOT accept the misleading statement, "the Bible contains the Word of God"'. The ministry is dispensationalist, speaks of human "depraved nature", teaches that "Once saved we cannot be lost", and repudiates Pentecostal doctrines: "The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a second work of grace, nor is it manifested by unusual signs such as speaking in tongues".' The doctrine of separation extends to Pentecostals as well as WCC Christians. The Awana doctrinal statement is available from AWANA Clubs International, 1 Node Rd, Streamwood IL 60107, USA.

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Christianity and politics in Doe's Liberia SPIRITUAL WARFARE

This Christianity places great emphasis on evil spirits. A favourite text is ' Our struggle is not against earthly powers, but against the principalities in heavenly places' (Eph 6, 12). The modern US charismatic brand of Christianity is of course particularly insistent on this. In the next chapter we will discuss at some length the visit to Liberia of evangelist Lester Sumrall of South Bend, Indiana. Among the publications he brought with him to Liberia were: 101 Questions and Answers on Demon Power; Alien Entities - Beings from Beyond; Supernatural Principalities and Powers; Demons, the Answer Book; Bitten by Devils; Unprovoked Murder — Insanity or Demon Possession ? (in which he

argues that people like the Yorkshire Ripper and Jim Jones were possessed by devils); and Three Habitations of Devils (in which he argues that 'Communist Russia' was a nation dominated by an evil spirit, and cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York are inhabited by demons of (respectively) divorce, homosexuality and low churchgoing).27 A visiting American speaking at a charismatic convention in mid-1989 explained a vision he had in the Spirit. He was taken up to be shown 'what is controlling four states'. There were three demons. The first was a 'Ruler Demon', the prince of the occult, which 'gets power through charters on earth'. The second demon was the ' Prince of Religion' who works in men who try to get positions for lust and power. The third demon was the 'Warrior Prince', whose 'job is to create strife in churches'. The speaker urged his listeners to get rid of these princes, so that 'God's glory would fall'. This vision is interesting for what it reveals of what the speaker thought is wrong with the world, but for our purposes it is more interesting for what it reveals about the alleged causes of these evils and their remedies.28 The Monrovia Bible Training Centre (MBTC) offered an entire course entitled 'Demonology'. This course quite naturally explained all kinds of evils as caused by demons. It not only held demons responsible for individual sins like fornication, 27 28

Sumrall's books are available from PO Box 12, South Bend IN 46624, USA. Jeff Tadlock, 1 June 1989, repeated 3 June 1989, at Jesus Festival '89.


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adultery, jealousy, hatred and lying, and for conditions like homosexuality and for mental states like fear and worry; it also taught that demons are responsible for poverty and sickness.29 Where poverty and sickness are attributed to evil spirits, there is of course no need to find economic or political causes for them, and the remedy becomes prayer, not social analysis or political activity. It is not only the problems of individuals that were attributed to demons. They cause a nation's problems too. A Ghanaian evangelist speaking to a packed Centennial Pavilion explained that, 'there are demons in the heavens. There is a Prince of Liberia... It is the work of demons, not men; men may be instruments. We do not war against men - our enemies are not earthly powers...Don't shout political slogans; leave that to [inaudible]. You will have to tell the Demon of Liberia that enough is enough. You will have to tell the social, economic and political forces that enough is enough... Fast and pray and lead the life that God wants you to lead and light will begin to shine.'30 The message was clear that social, economic and political problems are really spiritual problems caused by demons; and such problems will be solved by prayer, fasting and moral lives. The pastor of Bethel World Outreach, speaking at a Methodist revival, devoted his entire sermon to demons. He explained that evil spirits were organised to destroy the family, the church, the nation. Quoting Daniel 10, 13 to show that there was an evil spirit over Persia, he said, ' Satan sets demons on each area: Maryland County, Grand Gedeh County, Monrovia, various streets. It doesn't stop there - over churches, " We are not wrestling with flesh and blood "... When you take spiritual warfare seriously, the church can be transformed, the city can be transformed, Liberia can be transformed. People think their enemy is human beings - they spend their energy at human beings, but their enemy is the devil. The devil makes you believe that your problem is caused by Mr So and So; he doesn't want you to know that it comes from him.' 31 29 31

30 Class of 29 April 1989. 2 June 1989, at Jesus Festival '89. At S. Trowen Nagbe UMC Church, 25 Aug. 1988.

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At the crusade that launched the Potter's House in August 1988, the visiting American evangelist at different times stated: ' Our problems stem from the enemy... Sickness is from the devil. The devil has no right to put cancer on us, to break up families, to hook children on drugs... Homosexuals, rapists and child-molesters are not sick, they have a demon...' At times he addressed himself to 'The Spirit of TB', 'The Spirit of brain tumour',' The Spirit of cancer', and, on more than one occasion, felt it necessary to explain, in the light of his insistence that all sickness was demonic, that ' I am not against doctors'. This way of thinking was taken to its logical conclusion at one FGBMFI breakfast where the speaker, an assistant at a Methodist Church, explained that every city has an evil spirit. Monrovia had such a spirit. This was a time of rice shortages; Monrovia's particular spirit was a 'Spirit of shortages'. He urged his listeners to pray incessantly to exorcise this demon, so that rice would become plentiful again.32 It is not our task here to assess this demonology theologically. These examples are cited to show the socio-political effect of such a belief. Chief among the reasons for Liberia's rice shortages was the corruption of politicians who would take the available rice and sell it on their own account - even in Sierra Leone, for hard currency. Such immediate reasons were completely obscured by the persistent attribution of all such problems to demons. BIBLICAL FATALISM

This Christianity places great stress on biblical prophecy, with particular emphasis on the apocalyptic material of Daniel, Revelation, and Ezekiel. This leads its proponents to see disasters as predicted by God. 32

At Ducor Hotel Monrovia, 3 Sept. 1988. The speaker spoke also of demons of bankruptcies and financial pressure. The speaker studied at the Christian Missionary Foundation, Ibadan, Nigeria, was a member of the first executive of the Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers, attended Copeland's seminar in Britain May 1988, and lectured at MBTC. It could be noted that President Tolbert described the 1979 rice riots as an 'act of evil spirits' (Amos J. Beyan, 'American Colonisation Society and the SocioReligious Characterisation of Liberia: A Historical Survey 1822-1900', LSJ, 10, 2 (1984-5), p. 7).


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As an example of this consider the sermon delivered on 20 August 1989 by the pastor of the Liberian Christian Assemblies (LCA) church in Greenville. His text was Revelation 6, 1-8, which tells of the four horsemen given authority over a quarter of the earth, 'to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague and by wild beasts' (Rev 6, 8). 'This is happening today,' the pastor said. He said that Satan does not want people to understand these things, but he would explain all. He explained that the prophecy about war was being fulfilled, because the Americans and Russians had enough atomic and chemical weapons to destroy the whole world:' Of course there's going to be universal war.' He then linked the prophecy of famine with the current shortages in Liberia. 'This is real in our own day...Don't complain about today. [President] Tolbert was killed because rice reached $21 or $25 a bag. Now it is $45. This is just the beginning. A piece of bread is going to cost $20. A big famine is coming... This is only the beginning... there will be no food and no wine. There is going to come a big famine.' Then he explained the prophecy about plague. 'The Ministry of Health [in its preventive medicine schemes] claims it will have the whole land covered by the year 2000. I don't believe it — more diseases are coming, new diseases like AIDS.' He then explained the prophecy of the wild beasts, saying that 'in the interior Death will give wild animals power to devour.' (Wttile talking of the interior, he drew attention to the rain that had fallen in the previous few days and remarked: 'We are happy today. But they are cutting down the forests, soon there will be no rain.') Because things were going to become so much worse, 'Praise God [now] when you eat that rice. Be grateful. Liberia is a paradise... You are not starving. The time is coming when Death and Hell [will] have power to bring famine and diseases... God is warning you. Get yourself ready: "I'm coming like a thief in the night. When you see these signs you know the time is near." If you put your trust in the Lamb, you shall reign.' It is not our concern to evaluate this use of the Bible; what concerns us is the socio-political effect of this theology. Again, the effect is to break the link between the scarcity and sickness

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in the country and the rampant corruption and mismanagement. According to this thinking, rice was not scarce because county politicians were taking it and selling it in their own shops at vastly inflated prices; rice was scarce because such was God's plan. Since it was God's plan, nothing could be done about it. In fact, the preacher insisted, the situation was going to worsen. Similarly, the appalling state of health in the country was not to be deplored and rectified; it was to be accepted as divinely foretold. Even greater calamities were said to be in store. Christians were to give thanks that the situation was no worse. The Christian's role in these circumstances was merely to trust in Jesus so that his return would find the Christian ready.33

THE

WORLD

In this Christianity the world is evil. Since the world is opposed to God, the Christian has no other task than to turn his back on it, flee it, keep unspotted from it. The church is an alternative society. The church, made up of born-again believers, is the place to control, order, and to call home. This is where God is to be found, where God acts. As an ELWA programme put it, ' Church is where God gets things done in the world.'34 Thus the church and the world are correlatives. The church is God's domain, the world the domain of Satan. As another ELWA programme put it: ' There is no middle ground - no neutral ground. I am either the enemy of the world or the enemy of God... I have a real question about those who claim a relationship with God and are so friendly with the world... The friends of the world are the enemies of God... The world still 33

34

F o r o t h e r examples of this biblical fatalism, see a letter in t h e Daily Observer d e a l i n g with erosion in Grand Bassa County; the author cited Mk 13, 8, claiming: 'Jesus said it. It must happen' (31 Aug. 1988, p. 4); and Mother Roberts of the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ: ' We are living in the last days because all around us we see change and decay' (Daily Observer, 2 June 1989, p. 3); another correspondent wrote about the conflict within the UMC, 'Let God determine the direction of the church if Bishop Kulah is not leading it in the right direction' (Daily Observer, 21 Aug. 1989, p. 4). The Potter's House circulated a tract on 'The Rapture', citing Mt 24,6-12 and 2 Tim 3,1-5 showing that wars and famine have all been foretold. 27 Aug. 1989.


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hates Jesus Christ. That's the reason I have a problem with positiveness today. The biblical message is negative.'35 This negative evaluation was often reinforced by the idea that the world is passing away anyway. ' The Church is waiting to be taken out of the world', said Vernon McGee.36 Again he said, although this world may not offer much hope of a better tomorrow, 'The believer can take much hope from the next event on God's programme' (viz, the rapture). 37 So nothing worldly matters. The Christian has only one duty, to prepare for the next world; ' The evangelist has advised Christians throughout the country to be mindful of the second coming of Christ and to lead clean lives that will ensure them of a place in God's kingdom.'38 The Potter's House first crusade was insistent on this: ' We're living in the last days... This generation is what Jesus is talking about.' The preacher drew the logical conclusion:' The world is going to get worse because of sin. The church is going to get better, more miracles... When the world is going under, we're going over. I'm not too concerned about the cities of the world - I'm a spiritual nomad, a pilgrim.' The Potter's House distributed literature emphasising ' the short time that remains before Jesus returns'. This church even circulated a comic tract which actually sneered at social involvement, which it viewed not merely as superfluous but as inimical to a godly life; it presents Satan saying,' Hello, my name is Satan. My mission for you is to keep you as far away from the truth as possible. By any means, I'll get you to dedicate your life to all kinds of enlightened causes. I must keep you away from God's true and original purpose, and that's to become his child.' Likewise another tract entitled 'Abuse' dismissed 'programs [as] just a bandaid on this gaping wound on humanity'. This was the incessant message of this Christianity: 'Remember you are not interested in wordly things - your mind is on heavenly things.'39 As Pastor Roberts of the Faith Healing 35 36 37 38 39

Gil R u g h , Sound Words, 4 Sept. 1989. Through the Bible Radio, 21 Sept. 1989. Through the Bible Radio, 28 Sept. 1989. S D A evangelist in Footprints Today, 27 N o v . 1987, p . 3. Bethel Half Hour, ELTV, 7 May 1989.

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Temple of Jesus Christ (FHTJC) put it, 'The ungodly forget this is not our home; we are just passing through.' 40 Or as an ELWA programme succinctly put it: 'All this superficial preaching around today saying get with it; God is saying to us "Get out of it'". 4 1 An American woman opening the AME Monrovia Crusade in July 1989 well illustrated this attitude. She said: ' Look not at things that are visible, but set your mind on invisible things. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Word of God is fixed. If you remember only one thing from me, seek the eternal things of God; hold to his word, it's eternal.' She told a story about a beautiful organ in a church. The church was burnt down and the organ was destroyed. Someone lamented the loss. The reply was:' That organ - it was going to burn anyway' (that is, in the conflagration at the end of the world). The preacher drew the lesson for her Liberian listeners: 'The house you want but can't have — don't worry about it, it's going to burn anyway. The clothes you want but can't have - don't worry about them, they're going to burn anyway. The skin shoes you want but can't have — don't worry about them, they're going to burn anway. The taxi you want, to earn some money - don't worry about it, it's going to burn anyway... Take your stand on higher ground. I give you the only thing-Jesus.' 42 For most of her listeners, however, and for most of the people of Liberia, a home, clothes and a means of livelihood were really pressing concerns - made more urgent daily by the country's deteriorating social conditions. The socio-political effect of her insistence that to worry about such things indicates an unChristian attitude was to divert attention from these conditions and from the economic mismanagement causing them. As a final example of this theology consider the Source of Light Correspondence Course devised in Madison, Georgia, 40 42

41 ELBC, 10 Sept 1989. Stephen Olford, Calvary Church Hour, 23 July 1989. Woman from Network Ministries International, PO Box 1213, Browns Mills NJ 08015, USA, at Monrovia Crusade of Little White Chapel and Soul Cleansing Clinic, 14 July 1989. Also a speaker at UMC church Gardnersville: 'All material things in this world such as fabulous houses, cars, clothes etc are nothing but vanity' (News, 20 July 1989, p. 2).


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and widely followed in Liberia. The total course involves between 75 and 100 individual booklets. Consider Course III lesson 13, entitled 'Love not the World'. The World is 'Satan's world system'; 'Satan's world system includes commerce, politics, religion, education, entertainment, world kingdoms, world organisation; and many other things... Though the Lord Jesus has delivered us from Satan's world system... he has left us in the world that we might take the gospel to the unsaved ... Satan hates us and tries to destroy us... Satan tries to make us conform to the world. He wants us to think as the people of the world think, to seek after the same things they seek after, and to do the same things they do... First, God wants us to see that the World System is controlled by Satan... [Thus] to be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God... Second, God wants us to see that the world system has no future... [for] Satan's world system will be replaced by the kingdom of God's Son... [So] turn your back on the world and the things of this world... [This means that] anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must as a Christian turn from it. Satan wants us to live for the things of this world, but this world is not our home. Heaven is our home.' The lesson ends with a prayer: ' Father... may your love so fill my heart that the things of this world will hold no attraction for me. May I set my affection on things above and not on the things on the earth.' 43 The socio-political effect of this Christianity is obvious. The areas of commerce, politics and education (to name just the most obvious) were deteriorating daily in Liberia. Christians were urged not to concern themselves with these matters; quite 43

Available from Source of Light Ministries, Madison GA 30650-9399, USA. In Liberia in mid-1989, 300 active students were enrolled at the central office, and the number was increasing. As well, Mid-Baptist, Southern Baptist, ULIC and SIM evangelists and pastors collected bulk material and conducted associate schools. Four American students of Toccoa Falls College came to Liberia on 14 May 1989 to work with Source of Light Ministries for two months. They worked as Bible teachers in schools, and hoped to reach a total of 4,800 students over the two months, enrolling many in the Source of Light Correspondence course as a follow-up (Daily Observer, 12 May 1989, p. 9).

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the contrary, to concern oneself with them was to fall under the influence of Satan. In this form of Christianity, the Christian has no obligation to the world (the nation, or society generally) except to bring more people out of it and into the church effectively, to turn more people away from a concern with deteriorating social conditions. THE HUMAN PERSON

This Christianity is dualist, and one of the most deep-seated dualisms is that between the body and soul. An ELWA sermon on 2 Cor 4-5 illustrates this well. Commenting on 2 Cor 5,1, the preacher stated that 'the body is a tent, fragile, impermanent'. ' If our afflictions become too much and we die, we live in [heaven].' He went on to quote from a poem by a Fred Knowles:' This body is not my house/This body is not I'. Then he quoted a reply given by John Quincy Adams when asked about his health: 'John Quincy Adams is quite well, but the house I live in is tottering.' He insisted that to be at home in the body is to be away from our real home: ' We are spiritual beings living in a body.'44 Another aspect of this anthropology is to stress the total depravity of human nature. The words 'total depravity' featured in ELWA's doctrinal statement. Gil Rugh on ELWA talked of a 'filthy vile wretch like you and me'. 45 Again he said that man must realise that he is ' a vile, corrupt, filthy sinner on his way to hell',46 and Vernon McGee called the statement, 'Thou worm, Jacob' (Is 41, 14), a 'wonderful verse', stressing that that is the value we have, and that is the way we must think of ourselves.47 All the study material of the Transcea church was emblazoned with the heading: ' Motto: Everything is wrong until God puts it right.' In a study guide entitled ' Sanctification Keeping the Blessing', two of the ways listed of losing sanctification are: 'By self-management - taking our affairs 44

A Dr Campbell of Dallas TX, a graduate of Wheaton College, on Calvary Church 45 Hour, 16 July 1989. Sound Words, 3 May 1989.

46

Sound Words, 4 Sept. 1989.

47

Through the Bible Radio, 25 July 1989.


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into our own hands', and 'By self-confidence — leaning on acquired strength'. Fred Lucas, the American AME pastor preaching a revival in Monrovia, claimed,' Don't ask what justice is; you don't deserve justice.' The following night he repeated: 'We are sinners. We don't deserve justice... we can't ask for justice... If we asked for justice, we would be executed tonight. We are not asking for justice, we're asking for mercy.'48 In this understanding, it is very difficult to speak in terms of human rights or the inviolable dignity of the individual. Such questions simply cannot arise. And if this is the way Christians are valued, it is obvious that no value at all attaches to human beings outside Christ. As a preacher at a Methodist revival put i t : ' God is not the Father of all beings on earth; only those born of the Holy Spirit. If you're not born-again, you are not a child of God.'49 In this dualistic theology someone not a child of God must be a child of Satan. This anthropology is also very individualistic. Everything is personal. There is no idea of society. The only entity bigger than the individual is the family or the church. All sin is a matter of private morality. The sins constantly cited were sexual sins, lying, thieving, hatred, jealousy and so on. On rare occasions preachers mentioned 'corruption' in their sermons.50 But these instances were not exceptions to their basically private understanding of morality. In fact, they corroborate the point being made here because corruption was not mentioned to draw attention to a social ill that should be eliminated. That is beyond the thinking of this Christianity. The only lesson to be drawn from it was: ' Don't you do that in your life.' It is obvious that this Christianity does not focus attention on social ills, abuses of human rights or affronts to human dignity. Nor does it lead to a sense of human responsibility in relation to the surrounding world. It provides no incentive to take charge of one's own life, to use one's own natural faculties, energies and gifts to control one's own existence. It fosters no self-respect, no 48 49 50

19 Sept. 1989 and 20 Sept. 1989. 'Revival ' 8 8 ' , a t S T r o w e n N a g b e U M C Church, Sinkor, 26 Aug. 1988. E.g. Nii Amoo-Darko of G h a n a at Jesus Festival '89, 2 J u n e 1989, applied Ezek 22, 23-31 to Liberia.

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spirit of self-reliance, self-determination and autonomy. It does nothing to encourage cooperative ventures or projects of mutual empowering. Quite the contrary. PATIENCE IN AFFLICTION

On Sunday 3 September 1989 a small group of mainly young people gathered at the Lighthouse Full Gospel Church. 51 Their service took the following form. First of all hymns, including: All right, All right, Jesus is going to make it all right. I've gotjoy in my heart, Jesus makes everything right... that's why Tm happy tonight. He's got the whole world in his hand.

Then nine of the fourteen gave a brief testimony, of only a few sentences. These are significant. The first said, ' I ' m happy tonight. I'm not found in a disco. I'm found in the house of God. We have to be on fire for God.' The second said: 'When we die we have a reward in heaven. Christian friends, don't give up... Each time we come here we have a blessing, and we shall have a reward.' The third said, 'We shall wear a crown, in the new Jerusalem. Instant death is a possibility. Thank God we are here tonight.' The fourth said, 'I'm glad to be in the service of God. Some are lying in bed now. But it's a pleasure to be in the house of Lord, safe, sound and giving praises to the Lord.' The fifth began with a song, ' You can make it... All the trials you are going through, God will show you just what to do.' Then he quoted,' He who trusts in God will be like Mount Zion' (Ps 125, 1). He continued, ' When things get tough, I get up and read Ps 125. I know in Jesus' name I'm going to make it. Believe it, that is our hope. The Lord is able to take me through — he's a mighty, good God'. The sixth also began with a song: 'It's not an easy road, we're travelling to heaven. No, No, it's not an easy road but Jesus walks beside me and brightens the journey and lightens the heavy load.' He then quoted J o b : ' I will wait till the change comes' (Job 14, 14). 'That's the theme of my testimony. So many trials, and so many more to come. I'm going to wait till 51

For the peculiar history of this church, see Fraenkel, Tribe and Class, pp. 167-9.


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he brings in the change... "Be still and know that he is God'" (Ps 46, 10). The seventh, a girl, simply sang a song: 'Since Jesus touched me, O the joy that fills my soul... He made me whole'. The eighth said: 'The Christian race is not about strength, it's about patience and wisdom. Everything happens for a reason, it leads to wisdom... I want to thank Jesus for his mercy and power.' The ninth and final speaker, an adult woman, simply recited the 23rd psalm: 'The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want...He blesses me'. The service continued with some hymns and a sermon on the ' cleansing by blood' theme, advocating repentance in the face of possible death or imminent rapture. It is remarkable that every single one of these testimonies, and nearly all of the hymns, expressed and fostered acceptance and resignation, admitted that life was hard but understood this hardship as willed by God, and looked to heaven for a reward for patiently enduring this suffering. What is even more remarkable is that there was no other view expressed. Almost all were young men, aged between 18 and 25. A few were still at junior high school; at least one had been forced to leave school because he could not pay the fees; most were unemployed, some eking out a precarious existence hustling in the market. These were the urban underclass, whose discontent and dissatisfaction might have been thought to offer a real threat to Doe's government. But, on the contrary, Doe had nothing to fear from any of these, and at least one of the reasons why they constituted no threat was their understanding of Christianity. OBEDIENCE

One of the most obvious characteristics of this Christianity is its stress on obedience. One of its favourite texts is, 'All authority is from God and must be obeyed' (Rom 13, 1). This attitude is well expressed in the 'General Policy Statement' of the Church of God of Prophecy: ' The Church is committed to the sole purpose of preaching and publishing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and does not involve itself in politics or with political parties of any kind. Its members are admonished to be

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law-abiding, honest citizens of their respective countries and are taught to hold government agencies and officials in high esteem according to the biblical principle of Romans 13.'52 This attitude pervaded Liberia's evangelical Christianity.53 It was not new. Doe, like Tolbert and Tubman before him, received unhesitating support, merely because he was president. The MBTC taught in its course on obedience that obedience is owed to authority in the home, the church and the state. c We must be subject to every authority... pay bills, taxes... If you do not obey political rulers, you are disobeying God.554 The speaker (a Canadian) at the commencement exercises at ABC at Yekepa, speaking on ' How can we discover God's Plan in our lives?', concluded: 'The only thing you need is to obey your leaders and be willing to work harder.' 55 The obedience was often related specifically to Doe. Pastor Mai Roberts, of the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ, referring to Israel's disobedience (Num 16, 1-50) when 14,700 people died because they challenged God, said: 'So we must examine ourselves to see whether we are challenging God and challenging those whom he has chosen to be leaders over us...Bless the leaders you have appointed to lead us.'56 At the 1989 Tabborrar ceremony of the Church of the Lord (Aladura), 52

53

54 55

56

World Mission Department, Church of God of Prophecy, PO Box 3000, Cleveland TN 37320-3000, USA, or PO Box 348, Monrovia. H e r e we are dealing with the effects of a theology. W e leave aside instances in which churchmen actively promoted Doe's cause in the political arena; e.g. Bishop Alfred Reeves of the United Church of God in Christ, Inc., in January 1986 participated in a delegation to Washington to improve the image of the Liberian government {News, 15 Aug. 1989, p. 3; Cason, 'Role of Christian Missions', p. 6). Class 23 Sept. 1989. News, 4 July 1989, p. 3. 'Ghanaian ambassador Urges Christians to Obey State Laws' was a headline in Herald, 11-17 May 1989, p. 3. The ambassador, quoting Romans 13, said, 'As Christians we owe it our duty to obey God, state laws, and church rules and regulations with respect, fear, and sincerity of heart.' For Christianity used to inculcate discipline, see Daily Observer, 17 June 1988, p. 4; Daily Observer, 23 June 1988, p. 3; Daily Observer, 8 Sept. 1989, p. 3. E L B C , 27 A u g . 1989. T h e newspaper account of this sermon (Daily Observer, 28 Aug. 1989) reported her as saying,' This [end time] is no time to challenge God; this is no time to challenge the leaders appointed by God.'Jimmy Swaggart used the same text at Assemblies of God Bible College commencement exercises: 'Narrating the story of the rebellion of Korah in Num 16, in which a plague was brought down on the children of Israel because they murmured against Moses and Aaron, he likened it to our contemporary situation' (Footprints Today, 13 Nov. 1987, p. 3).


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the following prayer was made:' God, you raise up and you cast down. At the appointed time you raised [Doe] to this position. Bless him and destroy his enemies one by one... Bless him and destroy all his enemies one by one.' Shortly afterwards, the officiant prayed, 'Pray for all his cabinet ministers. You appointed them to their position. Destroy all those of Satanic intent.' (The ceremony was held only four days after Gray Allison, former Defence Minister, was convicted of ritual murder, allegedly with the aim of supplanting Doe. These 'unpolitical' prayers were judged to be perfectly compatible with the observation, made just a few minutes later, that ' the church must not be political— it must be a source of unity \)bl A report of an address by the Overseer of the Mission for Today Holy Church said that the Overseer had described Doe as a 'type of Moses - deliverer of the Israelites from Egypt, the land of bondage, the land of forced labour and the land of human indignities. [He] said that President Doe had been a God-given leader for his country... [and] appealed to citizens ofjarboeville City... to close ranks more than ever before in the support of the ruling government of the President, Dr Samuel Kanyon Doe.'58 Christian support for Doe had no limits. In May 1989 a freak storm blew the roof off the AME Church's Monrovia College. Doe sent army engineers to replace the roof and, on 7 June 1989, visited the school to be thanked for his generosity. The AME Bishop, an American, in a fulsome tribute, hailed Doe as a role model for all Africa. He said he had just submitted an article he had written on Doe to Jet and Ebony. He said they were not gathered there to express thanks for the roof, but ' to honour a man'. Doe, said the Bishop, had shown he 'values education above power and money'. The Bishop finished by expressing the hope that when Doe looked around the country of Liberia, he would see his life replicated a million times. Doe, in reply, took the opportunity to taunt the opposition: ' If God wants to give you power, he'll give it to you (loud cheering). Look at me. 57 58

M o n r o v i a , 22 Aug. 1989. Daily Observer, 2 A u g . 1988, p . 5. T h e report also mentioned t h a t t h e preacher 'expressed fervent hope that they would soon get a road through the area', so the praise may not have been entirely disinterested.

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Ten years ago I was not even a lieutenant, just a mastersergeant. But God said " G o " , and I went... I want to assure you that I can protect this country' (wild cheering). A ' special report prepared by the executive mansion' broadcast this ceremony and the speeches. It well illustrates how the churches gave support to Doe, and how Doe utilised such support to his best advantage. 59 Although this stress on authority fits well with aspects of African traditional society, it should not be thought that this emphasis is solely African. Visiting preachers vied with one another to meet government officials. Sumrall several times in his talks stressed that he had seen the Vice-President who told him how he had been miraculously cured when young; Sumrall reported many of the 'fine things' the Vice-President had told him. He told, to wild applause, how the Vice-President had 'prayed the sinner's prayer' with him.60 Obviously, for Sumrall, this meant the Vice-President had done all that was required of him. There was no idea here that government officials could be answerable to their people; no understanding that governments exist to secure the rights of their subjects. For this kind of Christianity, the government has just one task, and that is to 59

60

Broadcast on ELBC 8 June 1989; part of Doe's speech attacking opposition leaders was published in Daily Observer, 9 June 1989, pp. 1 and 10. Only a week before, the AME Bishop had publicly denounced apartheid in his ' From Pentecost to Soweto' Crusade, 30 May 1989, at the Centennial Pavilion, where the programme had included quotations from Boesak and the South African Crisis Coordination Committee. He had issued a press release decrying the South African situation (Daily Observer, 12 May 1989, p. 9). In his crusade sermon the Bishop stated: 'Some Christians don't believe in miracles. Look no further than the African continent for proof that miracles occur. 35 years ago only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa knew what freedom tasted like - Ethiopia and Liberia. In 35 years 41 African nations have marched from bondage to freedom... But Mother Africa has her big toe still in bondage, held by a demon called apartheid. Apartheid... denies inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' This analysis displays a purely emotive use of the word 'freedom', and a marked blindness to the reality of Liberia. At Jesus Festival '89, 2 J u n e 1989. Similarly, the pastor of the Potter's House, in a report on Liberia, wrote that he and the preacher of their first outdoor crusade had had ' the privilege of meeting with and praying for the Vice-President of Liberia'. In the denomination's American magazine, this was plucked out to be the heading of the whole article; obviously it was regarded as the most significant event in the report (The Trumpet, Jan. 1989, pp. 19-20). Obviously, Vice-President Moniba, a regular attender at St Stephen's Episcopal Church, Sinkor, had, as one of his functions, to pray with visiting evangelists.


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provide religious freedom, to allow evangelisation.61 A government that does this is a 'good government', one that does not is a 'bad government'. Partly, of course, this reflects the political attitude prevalent through the 1980s, the desire to curtail the powers of government, to 'get the government off the people's back'. Sumrall reflected this view. 'It's not the business of the government to feed the people; it's the business of the churches... God hates poor churches. Pay tithes and the church can feed everyone.'62 By reducing 'freedom' to mean 'religious freedom', these evangelicals could refer to Liberia as 'this free country'. Sumrall solemnly preached: 'This nation was born and conceived in liberty; we want it to remain that way.' 63 The following day in another sermon, he referred to the fact that he was preaching in the Centennial Pavilion, where 'every president in this nation' had been inaugurated. 'You wouldn't get three nations on earth where we could do this — there's a lot of freedom here. You and I as God's children can come and praise God here. We ought to thank the government for this honour. It is an honour.'64 Robert Coleman of Billy Graham's Mission World likewise spoke of Liberia as 'this land of liberty'. 65 Another member of Billy Graham's team, in the closing remarks of their conference, described Liberia as: ' Not only the first free country in Africa, but also in the forefront of spiritual freedom.'66 In the circumstances of Liberia under Doe, this claim was rather hollow. The freedom of the press, of the courts, the freedom of speech, the freedom to associate, these things were trampled on daily. But in this Christianity, none of these is even an issue for discussion. The only freedom that 61

62

63

64 65

66

For the importance of religious freedom in American Christianity, see Melton, Encyclopedia, pp. xxi, xxxi, xli. Jesus Festival ' 8 9 , 2 J u n e 1989. This is a n illustration of the influence of 'reconstructionism' in charismatic t h o u g h t ; see below, p p . 252-7. Jesus Festival ' 8 9 , 1 J u n e 1989. A local church leader elsewhere praised the government for religious freedom {Daily Observer, 31 J a n . 1989, p . 3). T h e President of ABC, Yekepa, actually referred to this 'free country where the government even encourages you to study the Bible' {Bible College By Radio, E L W A , 8 Sept. 1989). 2 June 1989. 31 Aug. 1989, a t M o n r o v i a Area Christian Leadership Conference o n Evangelism; see immediately below. R o b e r t Williams, 31 A u g . 1989. This claim was m a d e just t w o months after the Catholic radio station was closed indefinitely.

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matters is the freedom to evangelise. Where this is granted, nothing more need be said. The socio-political effect of this teaching is obvious, and it can easily be seen why governments like Doe's give these Christians complete freedom to evangelise. BILLY GRAHAM

In illustrating this evangelical 'political theology', we have cited many foreign influences — missionaries, visiting evangelists, American broadcasts on ELWA. Even many of the Liberian pastors cited appear, on investigation, less local than may at first have been presumed. For example, Bishop Marwieh, the President of AEL who embodied this evangelical movement, apart from his study in San Francisco, attended the following Western conferences: the First World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin in 1966; the West African Congress on Evangelism in 1968; the International Congress on World Evangelism in Lausanne in 1974; the Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelism in Pattaya (Thailand) in 1980; Billy Graham's International Conference of Itinerant Evangelists in 1983; and the Lausanne Convention in Manila in 1989. Obviously this evangelicalism received reinforcement from, if did not originate in, the USA. To the significance of this we will return in chapter 6. Here we merely draw attention to the close affinity between this 'Liberian Christianity' and that of Billy Graham and his Lausanne Movement.67 In mid-1989 Billy Graham held a crusade in London, and three evenings of this crusade (29 June—1 July) were beamed to Africa.68 Liberia was one of the two African countries - the other being South Africa - to receive the transmission live from London via satellite. (The other 30 participating African countries received videos of the revival meetings which were screened later over national television.) In Liberia the AEL organised the TV crusade, which was funded by Billy Graham's 67

68

For an assessment of the Lausanne Movement, its origins and relationships with other bodies, see Stoll, Is Latin America? pp. 72-3; 133-4. 400,000 people attended London's 13 meetings, and live TV linkings to churches around Britain brought the crusade to 800,000 more. Mission World estimated that they reached 30 million people in Africa (The Times, 10 July 1989, p. 5).


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Mission World. Two members went to Zimbabwe to learn about organising it. On their return, they called two meetings of local churches to prepare for it; 27 persons attended, from Lutheran, Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist and AICA churches, and Bethel World Outreach, the PTL Club, the MBTC. (At the second meeting the chairman was asked, 'Are you inviting the LCC?' He replied,' I have written to the heads of denominations, Leave it at that.') Another day was spent training counsellors. On the three evenings of the satellite transmission, TV sets were placed in churches, and a normal revival took place in each church, except that the sermon was delivered by Billy Graham via ELTV. The broadcast ended with his altar call, after which the local counsellors in each church provided the necessary follow-up.69 Billy Graham's Christianity exemplifies so many of the points made above. His sermon on 29 June (on the text Mk 8, 34) he entitled: 'The Importance of the Soul'. This sermon was completely dualist. We are made up of body and soul and what matters is the soul: 'The body is the house, the soul is the tenant.' He told a story about a juggler risking a precious diamond by juggling with it, and claimed that we are taking a similar risk when we delay giving our souls to Jesus. After enumerating the glories of the soul, he casually dismissed the body: '[But] the body is matter' and, by implication, rather unimportant. This was considered a perfectly relevant message for Africa, where in 1989 only 45 per cent of people had access to health services; where only 37 per cent had access to safe water; where daily calorie intake averaged 91 per cent of minimum requirements; where 10 per cent of infants were born malnourished with birth weights below 2*5 kg; where 60 million children under five were chronically malnourished; where Vitamin A deficiency affected an estimated 30 million people, resulting in blindness or death for hundreds of thousands annually; where 150 million people suffered from iodine 69

Mission World also took four Liberians, two Kpelles and two Gios, to Hollywood to translate the three sermons into their languages, so that later videos of these three meetings could be shown to rural people. For all the details of the Billy Graham TV crusade in Liberia, see Mews, 28 June 1989, p. 3.

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deficiency, leading to cretinism in several million. We have described the state of the Liberian health services above. In Liberia, as in most of Africa, it could be said that the body merits not less but far more attention than it receives.70 Consider how Billy Graham refers to material goods. The danger with material goods is that they can distract us from the real task of getting to heaven. He told the story of a young clergyman being rebuffed by a belligerently irreligious farmer. The farmer told the clergyman: 'Look in that direction. See all those fields? I own them. Look in that direction. See all those cattle? I own them. Look in that direction. See all those oil wells? I own them.' The pastor had his wits about him and pointed upwards and said, ' Look in that direction. How much do you own up there?' Christianity, for Billy Graham, is an investment in heaven which you collect when you die. Again, there was no incongruity seen in broadcasting this message to Africa, where real incomes fell by 20 per cent in the 1980s, where by 1989 more than 50 per cent lived in absolute poverty, and where the UNDP predicted that by 1995 nearly 400 million would be living in extreme poverty. For Billy Graham, material goods have no bearing on the essential matter which is to make that investment 'up there'. 71 Moreover, for Billy Graham everything is personal. Salvation is a question of a personal decision or commitment. Conscience 70

71

F o r Africa's plight, see U N D P ' s 1990 Human Development Report a n d 16th F A O regional conference for Africa, held in Morocco 1990; both were discussed in Harare's Herald, 24 May 1990, p. 6 and 10 July 1990 p. 4 respectively. Billy Graham has no understanding of contextualising the gospel in the situation of a particular country. During Mission '89 he actually stated, 'Some years ago I preached in Africa, in a jungle area, to new Christians... I preached the same sermon at Cambridge University... No matter what the cultural background, man.is the same' (screened on Zimbabwe's ZTV 14 July 1989. The Mission '89 programmes beamed direct to Liberia were not the same ones made available later on video to other African countries. It mattered little - none of the Mission '89 sermons had any particular reference to Africa). This was the thinking of Liberia's AEL. Reference was made above (n. 5) to AEAM's General Secretary's chapter heading, 'African Theology: Described and Rejected'; Billy Graham wrote the foreword to this book. He told the story of the farmer on 29 June 1989. He is clear that there is nothing wrong with riches: 'Nowhere does the Bible say that having money is sinful. It's our attitude to money [that is sinful]'. However, 'you can't take it with you. I've never seen a trailer with the dead person's goods following the hearse in a funeral... People often ask, " How much did he leave? " The answer is, " He left it all", (30 June 1989).


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relates to personal sins like bitterness or hatred or fornication. In a typical Billy Graham list, to sin is,' to lie, drink, cheat on wife, to disobey parents'. On 1 July the sermon text was Romans 1, 28-32, and he expounded the story of Manasseh,' the wickedest man in the history of the world'. The sins dealt with included adultery, anger, hatred, covetousness, illicit sex, drunkenness, drugs, violence, murder, betrayal. The moral life is a personal struggle in which we respond to either God or Satan. Billy Graham goes beyond the personal only to the home or the family. There is no reference to society at all. There is no understanding of oppressive systems, or unjust structures, like Doe's Liberia. He has no understanding of the man-made systems that control the international world.72 Once, after !

Billy Graham can elaborate on the world's social evils at great length, but not as a preparation for confronting those evils at root. The real reason is to reinforce his dispensationalist idea that the end is nigh. He can even claim that these evils are part of the divine plan. ' The disparity between starvation and riches side by side in the world today will be dwarfed in comparison to that which has been predicted for the future. There is an incomparably blacker day coming... The Scriptures teach that famine and pestilence will continue and intensify until Christ comes back as Prince of Peace and world Ruler. As bad as things are now, the most fearful days of famine the world has ever seen lie ahead, according to the Scriptures' (Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Waco TX, Word Books, 1983, pp. 165-6). The only causes he enumerates for famine are: inadequate distribution, and 'dishonesty among some international relief organisations, indifference of certain governments to the plight of their own people, cheapness with which life is regarded in parts of the world and the terrible fraud in many nations' (Ibid.; compare these causes, which lay the blame squarely on the hungry nations, with those dealt with by Susan George in How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons

for World Hunger, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1976). And Billy Graham has only one remedy: Americans, 'probably the most generous people in the world', should not become 'cynical because of fraud and corruption in administration of aid', but continue to give (ibid.). In his commentary on the affirmations made by participants at the International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam, July 1983, he admits that 'social concern' (e.g. on matters of race) was not always so characteristic of his crusades. But even in urging social concern, he shows no understanding of structures. He admits reluctantly that sometimes ' we must take stands on issues that may be interpreted as political, socialistic, or capitalistic', unaware that his whole career, most notably through the cold war and the Vietnam war, has been extremely political (Billy Graham, A Biblical Standard for Evangelists, Minneapolis, World Wide Publications, 1984, pp. 119-20). During London's Mission '89 he could occasionally make statements like: 'Those who ignore the sufferings of their fellow human beings are sinners. Those who ignore the poor and homeless in this city of London, in Bangladesh... We must also take reponsibility for those suffering injustice because of their race or ethnic background'

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cataloguing the world's ills, he asked, 'Who is going to solve the problems of this world? The brightest men and women are working on solutions to our problems and don't find them. But some day we are going to have a new world!' 73 The claim, however, that experts cannot find at least partial solutions is untrue. There are several plans, for instance, which would tackle world hunger and the third-world debt issue. If implemented they could go some way to addressing these problems.74 But the solutions would entail controlling Western agribusiness and the international banking system, over and above any particular individual's change of heart. The plans have not been implemented, not because they do not exist, but because they are powerfully resisted by those vested interests. More important, however, are the implications of the last sentence. Even if the most brilliant men and women came up with something, it would still be of no great moment. The real thing is the world to come. People who suffer now should not worry. Even if you lead a subhuman existence today, 'Jesus gives hope for tomorrow. There's going to be a glorious tomorrow for those who have trusted him'. 'You may have all sorts of problems in this life, but there's hope beyond this life when you come to Christ. There's a certainty that you are going to spend eternity with him.' 75 The point here is not to deny that there is hope beyond this life; the criticism is that this message studiously avoids the issue of hope in this life. For Billy Graham the problem is the

73 74

(quoted in the Independent, 10 July 1989, p. 7), but even here the Christian's task is to help relieve their sufferings, not analyse why they are suffering. Much was made during London's Mission '89, especially during the collection each evening, of the crusade's goal of helping London's poor. Charity organisers who house London's homeless later described themselves as 'bitter' that after all this publicity they finally received £35,000, the biggest cheque being £7,000 and some organisations receiving as little as £500. The £35,000 was one tenth (a tithe) of the £350,000 profit from Mission '89, after paying expenses of £1.5 million. Charity organisations noted that the contribution to London's poor amounted to 9 pence per head from the total audience of half a million {Observer, 22 Oct. 1989, p. 4). 23 June 1989. A m o n g Christian statements o n the d e b t crisis, see Christian Aid, Banking on the Poor: The Ethics of Third World Debt, London, Christian Aid, 1988; External 'Dolares\ Eternal 'Dolores': Christian Reflections on the Debt Crisis: Pro Mundi Vita Studies, Jan. 1988

75

(available from Pro Mundi Vita, 7 rue de la Science, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium). 28 June 1989.


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meaninglessness of Western affluence. He claims it is difficult to live as a Christian because of Western secularised society. For millions in Africa it is difficult to live at all because self-styled Christian leaders like Doe preside over systems that exploit, dehumanise and kill. Billy Graham's message to Africa merely diverted attention from the social evils crying out for a remedy, and deterred Christians from committing themselves to finding solutions. And it is not true to say that this is a slightly deficient gospel that can be supplemented at a later stage with social responsibility and the critical dimensions of faith; this form of evangelicalism of itself cuts at the root of social criticism as it cuts at the root of rational faith. It has been noted that Liberian evangelical Christianity not only left the system unchallenged but also went out of its way to praise government officials. Billy Graham likewise has always praised the powerful. This perhaps reached its limit when after his 1985 crusade in Romania, the official Romanian Press agency Agerpress quoted him as saying that the Romanian leadership of President Ceaucescu had ' completely solved' the issue of ethnic minorities in Romania and that 'full and genuine freedom' was permitted to every religious community there. In May 1989, three Hungarian Protestant clerics threatened a boycott of Billy Graham's forthcoming crusade in Hungary unless he 'reassessed' his praise of Romania and expressed solidarity with the persecuted ethnic minorities and religious communities of Romania, in particular the Magyar minorities of Transylvania. One of the pastors said: 'What is most striking to us is that in Romania, and in the past in the Soviet Union — in dictatorships generally — he has always cooperated with those in power and with their church attendants.' The praise of Ceaucescu is particularly grotesque because throughout the 1980s, long before his overthrow in December 1989, Ceaucescu's Romania was a byword for poverty, mismanagement, bureaucratic surveillance, institutionalised sycophancy and megalomania.76 76

Tablet 6 May 1989, p. 530. The Tablet noted that a former US ambassador to Bucharest subsequently wrote of the distress he felt at Billy Graham's stance, which had ' gone beyond all reasonable levels' in his praise for the Ceaucescu regime and

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A few months after the satellite revival, a three-man team from Billy Graham's Mission World came to conduct a 'Monrovia Area Christian Leadership Conference on Evangelism', 28-31 August 1989. The conference consisted of plenary sessions, seminars, and practical workshops on technical aspects of evangelism; the handbook given to participants contained sections on how to run a film/video ministry, and how to conduct a church or community mission.77 Mission World brought delegates from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda and Madagascar also, who could return to prepare similar conferences in their own countries. The 381 Liberian participants came from all the mainline and numerous evangelical and independent churches, and from as far afield as Nimba County.78 The Conference was hosted by the AEL, but the teachers were drawn from a wider, circle, including the President of the Baptist Theological Seminary, and even the Methodist Bishop led prayers. The theology taught, however, was of the kind discussed here, although the inclusion of many charismatic church leaders meant that a good deal of the theology to be discussed in the next chapter was evident, too. Thus the characteristic emphases of the conference were: the infallible and all-sufficient Bible; the power of faith; fear of the Muslim threat; personal (especially sexual and financial) morality; ecclesiocentrism; the imminent return of Jesus; spiritual warfare; miraculous intervention; reward in the next life; and the religious freedom of Liberia. The combination of traditional fundamentalist with charismatic speakers occasionally led to incongruities. For example, the charismatic Anglican Ugandan who spoke one evening expected God miraculously to

77

78

had done considerable harm to all Romanian citizens, the Hungarian minority in particular. Also distributed t o p a r t i c i p a n t s was Billy G r a h a m ' s A Biblical Standard for Evangelists: and Robert E. Coleman's The Master Plan ofEvangelism, Old Tappan NJ, Fleming H. Revell, 1963, was also available. Coleman himself was one of the three-man team. Among the independent churches present were: Army of the Bible Church; Acts of the Apostles Bible Church; AICA; Church of God; Burning Bush Tabernacle; Star Bethel Church; First Cornerstone Church; Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church; First Church of Love and Faith; Holy Church ofJerusalem; Holy Church of Christ; Transcea; Independent Pentecostal Church; Bethel; Philadelphia; Hope Tabernacle.


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cure Uganda's inflation, and told of instances in which angels with flaming swords protected evangelists. This contrasted with the emphasis on suffering displayed by one of the American team who, in his closing prayer, stated that if that week had been typical about 400 Christians would have lost their lives for Jesus. The balance was thus far more towards the Pentecostal than is normally associated with Billy Graham but, as we shall see, this only served to accentuate the socio-political effects we are discussing in this chapter. The theology of the conference had no context, and ignored and trivialised the social conditions of Liberia.79 79

Mention must, however, be made of Abba Karnga, again a notable exception. He spoke in the sixth and final plenary session on 'Reaching out to the World's Need'. In this talk, he spoke of the need for Christian Unity, in which mainline and independent churches would be partners rather than ' fight among ourselves just to maintain the doctrines of mainline or African Independent Churches'. He described Jesus' task today as 'social compassion and world evangelisation'. He discussed the differences between the state and the church, in the course of which he stated that, 'Governments of all nations have the priority to meet the needs of the social compassion of their citizens.' He said that Christ could be proclaimed in Liberia only ' by creating a new missiology';' by meeting the need of social compassion beginning in our own country Liberia'. Jesus had driven 'extortioners out of the temple with a whip... and called Herod a fox'; this showed ' keen political awareness in addition to being a fearless exercise of the freedom of speech'. Karnga continued, 'Jesus judged authorities on the way they treated the needy people... So far as Jesus was concerned, no government could be called a good government which did not have the interest of those categories of people at heart... When needs go unmet, then we have failed to take the whole Gospel out to the whole world.' Karnga then moved to the question of context, claiming that 'Evangelism has never been conducted in the appropriate context of the Liberian people.' He spoke of the differences in Western and African views of God, the spirit world, and sin; outlining the difference between Calvinist and Armenian, he said,' We can hardly take sides in this European conflict [because] we are in a different cultural context... Our moral world is different from the code of ethics of Western society.' Even the Western idea of conversion, particularly in a crusade, was not applicable to Liberia, where dialogue was necessary. Karnga concluded by calling on African religious leaders to take the risk of attempting a radical rethinking. Karnga's views were so foreign to the gathering - both to the Americans and to the Liberians - that they evoked no response at all. Karnga voiced these sentiments publicly throughout the 1980s. As well as the books and articles noted in note 19, above, we can note: 'A Christian's Mandate on Health', delivered to CHAL board, 24 Jan. 1986; 'Stewardship is an Office of a Steward', delivered at PAA Church Seminar, 8-13 Aug 1988; 'Church Growth Problems in Bassaland, Liberia', delivered in Nairobi, Kenya, to the Organisation of African Instituted Churches, 12 Sept. 1988; 'The Lord's Warrior - Christian Character', delivered to the CEM TEE annual conference, 27-30 Oct. 1988. Karnga's uniqueness lay in three areas. First, though at times fundamentalist in his use of Scripture, he openly admitted the role of experience in articulating theology.

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The Billy Graham satellite crusade from London, and his Mission World evangelism conference in Monrovia, both reinforced Liberia's evangelical Christianity.

LIBERIAN CHRISTIANITY

This evangelical Christianity, because it is so uncritical and totally unrelated to social conditions, enables Christian phrases and symbols to legitimate all kinds of dubious social realities. It perpetuated the ideological use of Christianity so prevalent throughout Liberia's history. Most obviously, the frequently heard phrase ' Liberia is a Christian country' had little meaning and served merely to legitimate the status quo. Doe himself frequently used Christianity to endorse his regime. He could say in an interview, ' God is the one who chose me to be here. God knows I can better help the people.'80 Doe could write in his BA thesis: 'This [Doe's] historic revolution was designed by God He was really knowledgeable about local culture, and argued from Bassa proverbs at every turn. He quoted Blyden (which is another sign of uniqueness among Liberia's modern churchmen), 'Every race...has a soul, and the soul of the race finds expression in its institutions, and to kill those institutions is to kill the soul' (African Reaction, p. 40). Understanding culture as a totality, he could appreciate the function of polygamy. He obviously approved of African marriage, cultural schools and traditional medicine, which at times brought him close to an uncritical acceptance of realities like female circumcision (ibid., p. 18-20), the traditional role of women (ibid., p. 25-31) and some abuses of witchcraft (ibid., pp. 48-57), but his key point was to build on such realities rather than destroy them (ibid., pp. 21-35). He quite readily called polygamy 'primitive' ('Not by Monogamy', p. 10). Secondly, his feel for culture led him to see the arrogance behind the claim that 'Western Christianity' is 'Christianity pure and simple' (ibid., p. 16). He could even imply that if polygamy had been Western, scriptural reasons would have easily been found to justify the practice. This understanding led him to be very critical of the missionary churches in the past, and in their modern practice (e.g. the farce of rectifying traditional marriages, 'Not by Monogamy', p. 10). He could value traditional Bassa religious concepts ('Church Growth', pp. 7-9). Thirdly, he understood how Christianity could be used for political and economic purposes. The Americo-Liberians used Christianity this way ('Church Growth', pp. 9-10). And: 'The smart Bassa man can easily detect that the chief motive of ' civilised' religion is to civilise the Bassa man halfway so that he, the Bassa man, will accept values that the "white" man strongly prizes, and reject his own values that he highly prizes. Thus, when the Bassa man is altogether disorganised from his previous status, he will become a better servant to his master, the white man' (African Reaction, p. 67). In all three points Karnga was unique, and so out of step with 80 Liberian evangelicals, that his effect was minimal. Ungar, Africa, p. 120.


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(how can 17 men overthrow a hegemony which dominated the nation for more than a century?) to help restore the rights of all our citizens and to ensure their participation in the nationbuilding process.'81 Speaking to the students of Monrovia College and West Africa's AME Bishop, Doe explained (to sustained cheering) that all power comes from God: 'You can't fight for power. If God wants to give it to you, it is easy... [When God was] ready for me, he said " g o " and I went.' Doe also claimed to know that God would never choose the leaders of UPP, LAP and UP to be President.82 This usage was frequent in official statements; his 1989 Independence Day decree called on Liberians 'to give thanks and praises to God and make intercession for his continuing mercies and beneficence'.83 Others used this language of Doe. On Independence Day and other important occasions, government bodies and private firms took out full- or half-page advertisements in national papers expressing sentiments like: 'May the Almighty God continue to shower his richest blessings on our leader and the nation.'84 On the anniversary of Doe's savage suppression of the abortive Quiwonkpa coup of November 1985, the Liberian Electricity Corporation took out a half-page advertisement congratulating him: ' May God continue to guide our dynamic leaders and save the state.' 85 On his 39th birthday and the occasion of his university graduation, the same groups took out advertisements praising him, usually concluding with the words,' May the Almighty God continue to shower his blessings upon him \ 8 6 The usage was found in Liberia generally. We have noted above how Emmett Harmon, chairman of SECOM, after 81 82 84

85

86

'A Survey of Liberia-US Relations', News, 10 Aug. 1989, p. 4. 83 Daily Observer, 9 J u n e 1989, p p . 1 a n d 10. News, 25 J u l y 1989, p . 15. Daily Observer, 31 July 1989, p. 6; Daily Observer, 24 July 1989, p. 11; Daily Observer, 25 July 1988, p. 6; The National Port Authority expressed it: 'We fervently pray that the Almighty will shower his blessings upon our young and dynamic leader and bring peace and prosperity to the Liberian people' (Daily Observer, 23 Aug. 1989, p. 7). Footprints Today 13 N o v 1987, p . 9 ; o n the same d a y the Telecommunications Corporation a n d the National Housing Authority expressed the same sentiments in full-page advertisements. Several pages in Daily Observer, 1 M a y 1989; News, 3 M a y 1989; News, 4 M a y 1989; Daily Observer, 5 May 1989; Daily Observer, 8 May 1989. In Daily Observer of 4 May 1989 even the Indian community prayed: 'May God Almighty continue to shower his choicest blessings upon him' (p. 8).

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stealing the 1985 election for Doe, described the result as 'ordained by God'. 87 Similarly, Emmanuel Shaw, after returning from the political wilderness to become Finance Minister, attributed his recall to 'divine providence and the benevolence of our forgiving leader, Dr Samuel Kanyon Doe'. 88 And the chairman of ECOM in 1989 stated: 'I know that God has something for me to render to this country'. 89 This ideological use of Christianity to cloak the social reality was of a piece with Liberia's evangelical Christianity, and certainly drew no protests from evangelical Christians. This evangelical Christianity spiritualised everything. Christianity had to do with the spiritual life of the individual, or as one ELWA programme expressed it, ' Religion, the real thing, is a personal relationship with God and as private as anything can possibly be.'90 This Christianity turned its back on any social awareness, insisted on a complete separation between Christianity and politics, and purportedly left politics aside. It is not true, however, that this made it a non-political Christianity. Quite the contrary, it was very political indeed. It was a solid vote for the status quo, an unfailing support for the beneficiaries of the system.91 Consciously to leave the social system unchallenged was completely political, and this was the stance Doe wanted the churches to adopt. Doe wanted all the churches to preach personal piety, resignation, obedience, 87 89

91

88 Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, p. 296. News, 12 July 1989, p. 14. Daily Observer, 19 June 1989, p. 12. A letter (Daily Observer, 5 Sept. 1988, p. 4) on Liberia's soccer victory over Ghana, claimed 'Jesus has entered the sports scene of Liberia.' It can be noted that when Prince Johnson tortured and killed Doe in September 1990, pictures of Christ adorned the room; his soldiers wore T shirts stating that their mission was in the name o f Prince and God' (Guardian, 3 Oct, 1990, p. 5) and Johnson relaxed by leading his soldiers in hymns (Time, 29 Oct. 1990, 90 p. 19). Vernon McGee, Through the Bible Radio, 5 Sept. 1989. Both elements - the claim to be non-political, and the insistence on leaving things exactly as they are - were illustrated on the same day by Stephen Olford speaking on ELWA. Preaching on Acts 16, 9—15, he told the story of Lydia, and went on to draw as his message, 'We are not interested in politics -just in doing what Paul did that day he changed Lydia's life.' Yet earlier that morning, he had been preaching on another programme. In the course of a standard evangelical sermon on obedience ('Trust and obey for there is no other way to happiness'), he stated, 'All this superficial preaching around today is saying "get with it"; [but] God is saying to us "Get out of i t " ' (Encounter and Calvary Church Hour respectively, 23 July 1989).


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peace, and avoidance of politics. A Ministry of Information Press Release of 15 September 1987 claimed: 'In Africa today Liberia has an enviable record of stability, civil liberties as well as freedom of press, speech and religion. Indeed Liberians are proud that Dr Samuel K. Doe emerged as President after a vigorous nationwide campaign, a national election based on universal suffrage, the adoption of a constitution based on a multi-party system, and a democratic government with three separate branches.' The release went on to appeal 'to religious bodies and others to continue to promote unity and peace in Liberia for the development and prosperity of the nation and its people'. 92 The picture of Liberia painted by the Ministry of Information was, of course, a travesty; but Doe wanted Liberians to eschew political involvement,93 and wanted to coopt the churches in bringing this situation about. One of Doe's contentions was that the mainline churches, in their tentative political involvements, were forsaking their truly religious role and creating confusion in the country.94 Often the evangelical churches would echo Doe in this, in coded attacks on the mainline churches. Under the headline, 'Leave Politics with Politicians - Church Leaders Urged', the Daily Observer reported an African Bible College student telling 'church leaders to perform their spiritual duties and leave politics with politicians.' He reminded 'spiritual leaders who are out to politicise religious affairs that the passages in the Bible are mainly intended to win souls, saying that the passages are not intended to create confusion, disorder and destabilisation'.95 Under a headline:' Religious Leaders advised to Shun Politics', the Herald reported a spokesman for the Mt Calvary United Holy Church telling church leaders ' to stop using the pulpit to express their political views and instead strive to win more souls to Christ'. 96 Another Daily Observer story headlined 'Preach the Gospel, not Politics' reported the pastor of Grace Baptist 92 93

94

95

Footprints Today, 16 Sept. 1987, p . 3. A few weeks later D o e urged Liberians ' not to waste time on politics, b u t r a t h e r focus on t h e development of the c o u n t r y ' (Footprints Today, 8 O c t . 1987, p . 1). He accused the Catholic Church's ELCM of wanting to ' create chaos or confusion in the country' (Daily Observer; 23 June 1989, p. 1). 96 Daily Observer, 7 Sept. 1989, p . 8. Herald, 2 3 - 9 Nov. 1989, p . 9.

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Church, Barnersville, preaching the same message.97 Bishop Marwieh of AICA at an ordination ceremony was reported to have ' urged Christian leaders to do away with discriminating acts and politicking. He admonished them to get on their feet for the total evangelisation of Liberia.'98 The founder of the African Christian Fellowship in Liberia 'called on Christians in the country to put aside their differences [politics] and embrace the Lord as their personal saviour'.99 The illustrations used here to build up a picture of Liberia's evangelical Christianity have not been chosen selectively; if we leave aside Abba Karnga, there were simply no illustrations of a different evangelicalism that could have been chosen. In the USA there are many kinds of evangelicalism, some of them extremely socially aware and politically involved; Jim Wallis and Sojourners, or Ronald Sider's Evangelicals for Social Action, are simply the best known among a great variety.100 In South Africa, too, the groups responsible for Evangelical Witness in South 97

This pastor gave a perfect example of Marx's opiate Christianity: 'The Gospel preacher, like Jesus, tells the poor about hope and treasures that are beyond earthly riches. The poor with this hope remains calmly content within any tumultuous society. The preacher urges the literally poor to trust God and work industriously while on earth. The true preacher does not tell the poor to support chaos in the nation. The true solution for literal poverty is the peace that Christ gives. This is the Gospel' (Daily Observer, 12 Aug. 1988, pp. 4 and 8). 98 Herald, 2 2 - 8 N o v . 1989, p . 9. 99 The Rev. Ernie Brown of the Massilliou(?) Baptist Fellowship Mission Agency (USA), the main speaker at this week-long convention, spread the same message: ' The time has come for Liberians to put aside everything and seek God's blessings for peace and unity in the nation. The American preacher stated that the responsibility of Christians was to go out and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ' (Daily Observer, 21 April 1988, p. 3). 100 F o r t h e varieties of evangelicals, see R i c h a r d J o h n N e u h a u s (ed.), The Bible, Politics and Democracy ( G r a n d R a p i d s , E e r d m a n s , 1987), e s p . p p . 1 0 3 - 3 0 ; 1 3 1 - 6 6 ; a n d R i c h a r d J o h n N e u h a u s a n d M i c h a e l C r o m a r t i e (eds.), Piety and Politics: Evangelicals and Fundamentalists Confront the World ( W a s h i n g t o n D C , Ethics a n d Public Policy Centre, 1987), pp. 143-60; 187-202. See also, Richard Quebedeaux, The Young Evangelicals, New York, Harper and Row, 1974; Richard Quebedeaux, The Worldly Evangelicals, New York, Harper and Row, 1978; Carl F. H. Henry, 'Revolt on Evangelical Frontiers', Christianity Today, 26 Apr. 1974, pp. 6-10; Jim Wallis, 'Revolt on Evangelical Frontiers: a Response', Christianity Today, 21 June 1974, pp. 18-22; for socially involved evangelicalism, see Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion, Tring, Herts, Lion Publishing, 2nd edn 1986; John Howard Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel, South Bend IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 1984. Evangelicals for Social Action are found at Lancaster and City Aves, Philadelphia PA 19151, USA.


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Africa and Relevant Pentecostal Witness show that evangelicalism

and social commitment are perfectly compatible; there is a similar diversity within evangelicals in Latin America.101 But in Liberia, a kind of evangelicalism which was socially and politically aware, or thought that Liberian Christianity should have some reference to Liberia, was simply lacking. Liberia's evangelical Christianity served to divert attention from the social system which so dehumanised Liberians. This Christianity left Doe totally unchallenged in his greed, criminal negligence and mismanagement. It ignored injustice, paid no attention to abuses, and undermined any commitment to transform society. Moreover it openly denounced as a perversion any form of Christianity that tried to address Liberia's iniquitous social system. Nor were there any signs of a development towards a more socially responsible evangelicalism. Quite the contrary; in Liberia the trend was in the other direction, towards a more unaware and uncommitted evangelicalism. We shall discuss the subtle transformation of Liberia's evangelicalism in the following chapter. 101

Concerned Evangelicals, Evangelical Witness in South Africa: A Critique of Evangelical Theology and Practice by Evangelicals Themselves, Dobsonville RSA, Concerned Evangelicals, 1986; Relevant Pentecostal Witness, available PO Box 45244, Chatsglen 4012, RSA, 1989. See also David Walker, '"Radical Evangelicalism": An expression of Evangelical Social Concern Relevant to South Africa', Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, March 1990, pp. 39-46. For the variety in Latin America, see Stoll, Is Latin America ?

CHAPTER 4


In recent years a new kind of Christianity has arisen, called the faith movement, or the faith formula movement, or the health/wealth gospel or the gospel of prosperity. Its origins are linked with Kenneth Hagin of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who claims to have had, while diagnosed as terminally ill in 1934, two revelations about Mk 11, 2^ ('Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be taken up and cast into the sea", and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you'). The first, in January 1934, he later summed up, 'Here is the principle of faith, believe in your heart, say it with your mouth, and "he shall have whatsoever he saith'V Eight months later Hagin received the second part of the revelation. 'I was looking at my body and testing my heartbeat to see if I had been healed. But then I saw that the verse says that you have to believe when you pray. The having comes after the believing. I had been reversing it. I was trying to have first and then believe? So he started to thank God for his healing despite the fact that he was still seemingly paralysed. This was the turning point and soon he was cured of his terminal illness.1 Hagin became a Baptist preacher, then an Assemblies of God pastor, then an independent revivalist in the circles of independent healing evangelists like William Branham, Oral 1

D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern

Faith Movement (Peabody MS, Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), p. 59. The following biographical details are taken from this book.

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Roberts, A. A. Allen, Jack Coe, T. L. Osborn and Gordon Lindsay. But it was only later as a teaching prophet that his ministry really flourished. He founded Rhema Bible Training Centre in 1974 where he taught his faith gospel of health, wealth and success; no believer should be ill, no one should die of sickness, and anyone who drives a mere Chevrolet rather than a luxury car has not understood the gospel. Hagin says of God, ' He wants His children to eat the best, He wants them to wear the best clothing. He wants them to drive the best cars, and He wants them to have the best of everything.'2 He has claimed at least eight personal visitations from Jesus, has argued with Jesus for hours, and been to hell four times. He says everything he teaches is from God, and has claimed that God has struck dead people who do not heed his (Hagin's) teaching. In 1979, with like-minded evangelists like his son Kenneth Hagin Jr, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, John Osteen and Jerry Savelle, he established the International Convention of Faith Churches and Ministers.3 This has effectively made the movement into a denomination — certainly it is far more like a denomination than many bodies that go under that label - and through his graduates his doctrines have spread widely. This faith gospel could be considered the second major denomination (after the discipling or shepherding movement) among independent charismatics. By 1988, Hagin's ministry employed 229 people, owned real estate of £20 million, and had a mailing list of 200,000 who received 4 million letters in 1986. He has sold 33 million copies of his 126 books and pamphlets, which include titles like Godliness is Profitable, Obedience in Finances, How to Write your own Ticket with God, You can have what you say, Redeemed from Poverty, Sickness and Death, and How God taught me about Prosperity} 2

3

4

See ibid., p. 175. Another exponent of this prosperity gospel, Fred Price, says, 'If the Mafia can ride around in Lincoln Continental town cars, why can't King's Kids? [Even more] King's Kids ought to ride in Rolls Royces' (ibid.). Headquarters at 4500 S. Garnett, Exchange Tower, Suite 910, Tulsa OK 74146, USA. See Melton, Encyclopedia, pp. 377-8. All available from Kenneth Hagin Ministries, PO Box 50126, Tulsa OK 74150, USA. For sustained critique of the faith message, see besides McGonnell (note 1 above) also Michael Horton (ed.), The Agony of Deceit, Chicago, Moody Press, 1990; and J. N. Horn, From Rags to Riches: An Analysis of the Faith Movement and its Relation to the Classical Pentecostal Movement, Pretoria, U N I S A , 1989.

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However, all has not been plain sailing. In 1979 occurred a crisis in this faith movement. Many charismatics came to reject this health/wealth/success teaching as perverse. They included a group of professors at Oral Roberts University, and even Jimmy Swaggart, previously sympathetic, called it heretical.5 Unfortunate publicity was given to scores of deaths which had occurred to adherents who preferred to rely on faith rather than to consult a doctor or take medicine. One church alone had an estimated 90 preventable deaths, and in 1984 the pastor himself died - amid great publicity - a victim of his own preaching. However, this split started to mend about 1983-4. Another crisis occurred in 1988 with the publication of a book which seems to prove that Hagin's doctrines are not his at all, but were stolen from a certain E. W. Kenyon, an individualistic preacher who in Boston in the 1890s picked up the key ideas from contemporary movements like New Thought, Christian Science, the Unity School of Christianity, and Science of the Mind. This book, through extensive quotations in parallel columns, irrefutably proves that Hagin plagiarised Kenyon. It also shows that Hagin plagiarised J. A. Macmillan's The Authority of the Believer - or this seems a more likely explanation than Hagin's defence that the same Spirit was revealing in both cases.6 However, Hagin's ministry carries on unimpaired, and he retains his status as father of the movement which seems to be taking over the entire charismatic sector. If Hagin is the father of the movement, even more famous is his anointed successor, Kenneth Copeland.7 Copeland, of Fort Worth, Texas, who began his ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts, has taken this gospel all round the world, in seminars, in his magazine Voice of Victory, and in numerous publications and cassettes with titles like The Winning Attitude, Giving and Receiving, Prosperity Promises, The Laws of Prosperity, Tithing and Tithe, The Law of Increase, The Laws of Prosperity - God's Will, 5

7

In Swaggart's God's Formula for Success (Baton Rouge, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, 1982), p. 19, he expressly warns against the prosperity preachers, whose motivation 6 is 'perverted and misdirected'. See note i above. See Time (12 Feb. 1986), p. 69, which deals with this prosperity cult and names Copeland but not Hagin.


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God's Why, God's Way, and Prosperity, the Choice is Tours.8 In

Reinhard Bonnke's 1986 Fire Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, which drew 4,000 evangelists from 41 African countries, one of the key seminars (it was given the main hall of the Harare Conference Centre) was Copeland's ' Evangelism and Prosperity'. This is a good example of the faith gospel, and merits a brief exposition for it was one of the major channels through which this teaching came to Africa.9 Copeland's key point was that prosperity of all kinds is the right of every Christian. God wants a Christian to be wealthy. True Christianity necessarily means wealth: it inevitably brings wealth. Conversely, poverty indicates personal sin, or at least a deficient faith or inadequate understanding. Copeland built on certain biblical texts. Among the most important were chapters 28—30 of Deuteronomy. In these chapters God is presented as offering Israel a choice: ' If you obey the voice of the Lord our God... all these blessings shall come upon you' (Dt 28, if). The blessings are then spelt out: material prosperity, success, abundance of every kind (Dt 28, 3-13). On the other hand, ' If you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God... all these curses shall come upon you' (Dt 28, 15). These curses comprise every kind of sickness, loss and deprivation (Dt 28, 16-68). So it is as simple as that. God gives his people a choice, and he wants them to choose to follow him so that they may prosper: ' Do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all that you do' (Dt 29, 9). The fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel was equally crucial for Copeland. This chapter contains three separate parables involving 'sowing'. It also contains Christ's statement, 'The measure you give will be the measure you get' (Mk 4, 24), 8

9

Copeland's books are all available from Kenneth Gopeland Ministries, Forth Worth TX 76192. His wife Gloria preaches the same views - see her God's Will is Prosperity (Fort Worth, Kenneth Gopeland Ministries, 1978). Both preach prosperity incessantly in Voice of Victory, see esp. 16/9, p. 8; 17/1, pp. 8-9; 17/2, p. 15; 17/5, p. 4; 17/7, p. 14; 17/'11, passim. The ' Fire Conference' was convened by Reinhard Bonnke's ' Christ for All Nations', in Harare, 21-7 April, 1986. Kenneth Copeland's seminar 'Evangelism and Prosperity' is found on three cassettes with that title, available from ' Christ for All Nations', PO Box UA520, Harare, Zimbabwe. Quotations attributed to Copeland are to be found on these cassettes.

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which Copeland links with the reference to the 30-, 60-, and 100-fold harvest (Mk 4, 20) to interpret the three parables. The parables are understood to teach what Copeland called God's 'law of sowing', or 'law of increase' or 'law of prospering'. The law is that if you sow (and to the extent that you sow), you are certain to reap. And Copeland took another verse from this chapter, ' Do you not understand this parable ? How then will you understand all the parables?' (Mk 4, 13), to mean that one who understands this parable has understood all the parables, in fact all the teaching of Jesus. So this 'law of prospering' is of crucial importance. In the area of material wealth, therefore, if you sow, you will reap; if you sow abundantly, you will reap abundantly. On the other hand, if you selfishly keep riches for your own comfort, you cannot reap; if you have only a little and cling to that little, you will remain in your poverty. According to Copeland, you sow by giving to the Lord or (effectively the same thing) by giving to the work of evangelism. Here he quoted Christ's words: 'There is no one who has left house... or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time' (Mk 10, 2gf).10 Copeland could be quite mathematical in calculating the returns. In a lengthy exposition he linked this text with the idea of the unity of Christians to argue that one can engineer a return even greater than a hundredfold; if ten Christians, each contributing Si00, club together to give Si,000, each 'actually has the right to believe God for a hundredfold of S1,000 — are we not one?' But, more frequently, he used Paul's words,' God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory' (Phil 4, 19), to show that returns will be paid according to the limitless abundance of God, beyond all human calculation. Copeland also used the words attributed to God by Malachi, ' Bring the full tithe into the storehouse... put me to the test... if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down 10

Gopeland's wife has written as commentary on this verse: 'You give $i for the Gospel's sake and $100 belongs to you. You give $10 and receive $1000. Give $1000 and receive $100,000. I know that you can multiply, but I want you to see [it] in black and white... Give one airplane and receive one hundred times the value of the airplane. Give one car and the return would furnish you with a lifetime of cars. In short, Mk 10, 30 is a very good deal' (Gloria Copeland, God's Will is Prosperityp, p. 48).


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for you an overflowing blessing' (Mai 3, 10), but not so much to prove the abundance of the expected returns as to show that God wants to be taken seriously in this matter of material wealth. Copeland stressed that this is the only place in the Bible where God asks to be put to the test. Copeland insisted that there is nothing self-seeking in giving in order to receive even more. Even God gave in order to receive:' He gave his only Son' (Jn 3,16)' in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren' (Rom 8, 29). Everything depends upon your motivation, on why you want more. If your motive is your own comfort it is reprehensible, but not if your motive is further evangelism. In the course of the seminar it became clear that personal testimony or stories were even more important in presenting the key ideas than biblical exposition.11 Copeland's own personal testimony was the main vehicle. He recounted how he began to prosper. After ' believing in the Lord' for twelve years, he came home one day in his pick-up truck to find two Mercedes cars in his drive, one valued (then) at $48,000 and the other at $57,000. He told how in the course of his ministry he has given away two to three hundred watches ('to preachers walking around without a watch') and now he possesses a $5,000 gold Rolex. He has over the years given away 14 cars, 5 trucks and 7 aeroplanes. Now (and consequently) he has a staff of 200, is on 200 TV stations, 400 radio stations, and ministers all over the world. Copeland gave other examples besides himself. One example was R. G. LeTourneau who, though a man of no formal education, designed earth-moving machines that made him a fortune. It was God, said Copeland, who revealed those designs to him in his sleep: ' He had more patents than any other single 11

Gopeland cites biblical texts continuously, but the texts he regards as crucial and sets out in his Prosperity Promises are (in his order) Ps 35, 27; Gen 13, 2-17; Gen 14, 22f; Gen i7ff; Gen 26, i2ff; Gen 30, 43; Gen 39, 2f; Ex 3, 71*; Dt 8, 18; Dt 28, 11; Is 1, 19; Josh 1, 8; Dt 29, 9; Is 55, 11; Ps 37, 25f; Prov 10, 22; Prov 22, 7; Prov 19, 17; Lk 12, 21; Prov 28, 13; Ps 1, 3; Prov 13, 22; Heb 11,6; Mk 4, 19; Lk 6, 38; 2 Cor 9, 6; Prov 3, 9f; Mai 3, ioff; Heb 7, 8; 2 Cor 9, 8-11; Eccles 11, 1; 3 John 2; Mt 6, 25-33; l C ° r 13, 3; Rom 13, 171*; 1 Tim 6, 176°; Mt 6, 196°; Lk 16, ioff; Phil 4, 19; Mk 10, 291*; Mk 4, 23-29; 2 Chr 26, 5; 2 Chr 31, 21; 2 Kings 18, 7; Is 48, 156°; Dt 30, i§f; 2 Cor 8, 9; Dt 28, if; Gal 3, 131*; Eph 4, 28; Lk 7, 23; Hag 2, 7-9; Mk 4, 20-25; Josh 1, 5.

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man in US history by having a pad next to his bed and [inverting the principle of tithing] giving God's word 90 per cent while he kept 10 per cent.' Because he gave so much to God ['supporting ministries all over the world'], he earned so much that 'he was never able to keep up with it; he always had so much money he didn't have any place to put it all'. 12 Copeland often emphasised that prosperity is not something American. People prosper, not because they are American, but because they follow biblical principles. At some length he told the story of Paul Yonggi Cho, founder of the Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea. He founded his church in the city rubbish dump, but refused to receive US money and sent out missionaries instead. 'Now they are placing millions of dollars into missionaries all over the earth', and Cho has the biggest church in the world, with over 500,000 members.13 This can happen to Africans, too, insisted Copeland. He cited the example of Benson Idahosa of Nigeria. One of Copeland's friends once came to preach for Idahosa, who ' picked him up at the airport in a Mercedes limousine, just like a prophet of God ought to go'. The next day, however, Idahosa called for his guest at his hotel in an old VW Beetle; at the Lord's bidding, he 12

13

LeTourneau's story is found in his autobiography Mover of Men and Mountains (Chicago, Moody Press, new edn 1972). LeTourneau had close connections with Liberia. In 1952 he leased half a million acres fronting Baffu Bay, extending inland along the Sangwin River to the foothills, in an attempt to establish an evangelistic and commercial enterprise there. The commercial enterprise was abandoned in 1966; higher than foreseen costs made it uneconomic. The 30 churches founded through the project became part of Bishop Marwieh's AICA (Lutz, Born to Lose, pp. 154-5). LeTourneau saw his commercial-evangelistic enterprise as a' vaccination against communism' (Mover, p. 250). See also A. W. Lorimer, God Runs My Business: The Story ofR. G. LeTourneau, London, Fleming Revell, 1941. LeTourneau's son Roy is prominent today in Latin America's evangelical revival, offering a financial advisory service ' for a mere 20 per cent of a participating congregation's annual income (until such time as Jesus Christ appeared again on earth)', Los Angeles Weekly, 12-18 August 1988, p. 6. Paul Yonggi Cho propounds his prosperity gospel in his The Fourth Dimension 1: The Key to Putting your Faith to Work for a Successful Life, South Plainfield NJ, Bridge Publishing, 1983; The Fourth Dimension 11: More Secretsfor a Successful Faith Life, South Plainfield NJ, Bridge Publishing, 1983; Our God is Good: Spiritual Blessings in Christ, Basingstoke, Hants, Marshall Pickering, 1988. He also is the subject of two adulatory biographies which make much of this element of success: Neil L. Kennedy, Dream Tour Way to Success, South Plainfield NJ, Logos International, 1981, and Colin Whittaker, Korea Miracle, Eastbourne, Kingsway Publications, 1988.


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had given away his Mercedes the night before. Two days later, Idahosa returned from church to find 'a green Mercedes limousine in his driveway', donated by a woman who three years before had been a 'totally impoverished widow', but who had (thanks to the evangelist's teaching) 'prospered through the work of God' and become ' a wealthy woman in a povertystricken land'. And Copeland emphasised that had the Mercedes dealer not been remiss, Idahosa would have received his new Mercedes at the same time as he gave away his old one.14 Copeland gave biblical examples, too. Because he believed in the Lord, Abraham prospered greatly - so much so that ' the government had to ask him to leave' (Gen 12, igf; 13, 2-6). Copeland stressed that it is because they operate on biblical principles that the Jews have always prospered 'in every generation, in every political system, in every location on earth... Everybody's afraid of the Jews. Why? They get all the money.' But Christians should do far better: 'The simple laws that the Jewish people have operated under are very, very limited and very, very basic compared to what we have in the New Testament.' The other biblical illustration Copeland discussed at length was the story of Elijah, especially his taking the last handful of meal from the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17, 9-16). Copeland used the story to answer two questions concerning an evangelist and material wealth: ' Should the ministry take from the poor?' and 'Should widows be supported by the church?' He answered the first affirmatively; even poor widows should not be deprived of the opportunity to prosper through associating themselves financially with evangelism. He answered the second in this way: ' The church should support the widow, but not forever. She should begin immediately to sow the seed...and begin to help sustain the church.' 14

Idahosa is founder and head of Nigeria's Church of God Mission International, and founder of the Miracle Centre in Benin City. He has founded over 1,000 churches in Nigeria. His teaching can be found in his Power for Your £ero Hour, Crowborough, Highland Books, 1986; I Choose to Change, Crowborough, Highland Books, 1987. He is discussed in P. Gifford, '"Africa Shall be Saved": An Appraisal of Reinhard Bonnke's pan-African Crusade', Journal of Religion in Africa, 17 (1987), pp. 63-92 (esp. pp. 85-6).

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From all the above, Copeland's central point is unmistakable: a true Christian who gives to evangelism will flourish financially. He made this perfectly clear at the end of his first session when he had his audience standing and shouting with him,' I'm not a poor man any more!' He continued, "My days of not having enough are over... God just gave me the keys to heaven's bank... My father is chairman of the board! Allelulia!' In 1987 four Americans established Living Water Teaching in Monrovia. Living Water Teaching is a ministry founded by Jim Zirkle in 1979, with US headquarters just outside Tulsa, and international headquarters in Guatemala, and has missions in El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Liberia, West Germany and Japan. Living Water Teaching actually includes prosperity in its 'Tenets of Faith'. The twelth of its 15 tenets states: 'God intends for his body to walk in total prosperity; spiritual (Jn 3, 3-11; 2 Cor 5, 17-21; Rom 10, 9-10), mental (2 Tim 1, 7; Rom 12, 2; Is 26, 3), physical (Is 53, 4-5; Mt 8, 17; 1 Pet 2, 24), financial (3 Jn 1-2; Mai 3, 10-11; Lk 6, 38; 2 Cor 9, 6-10; Dt 28, 1-14), social (Prov 3, 4).' 15 The four who brought this ministry to Liberia were all recent graduates of Kenneth Hagin's Rhema Bible Training Centre. They were also linked with Kenneth Copeland who provided their van. In September 1987 they opened the Monrovia Bible Training Centre (MBTC). This training centre functioned each Saturday, from 9 am to 4 pm, in a rented public secondary school. In the morning there were two hour-long lectures and an hour's worship; lunch was then provided; two more hour lectures followed in the afternoon. The year consisted of four terms of eight weeks, and the cycle of courses changed each term. For each course, set books and course outlines were distributed. Each course had an exam (26 true/false questions). Students successfully completing a year were given a certificate, students who successfully completed the two-year course were given a diploma, at a graduation ceremony at Monrovia's Centennial Pavilion which in many ways eclipsed the grad15

See magazine Living Water Teaching, available from PO Box 3040, Broken Arrow OK 74013, USA.


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uation ceremony of the University of Liberia. The total cost for a student was in 1989 $56 a year. The school was operated very efficiently - procedures were spelled out and insisted on. Its first fully operational year was 1988-9; when it opened for the 1989-90 year, the number of students enrolled had reached 828. It is significant to compare this figure with the combined total attending all the other schools in the Monrovia area. The Church of God Bible College had 22 students; the Seventh-Day Adventists had 4 Liberian students; the Mid-Baptists had 40; the Carver Institute and College had together 65; the Episcopal and Methodist evening schools had about 20 each; the Assemblies of God Bible College had 64; SIM's weekly school at Point Four had about 20; Bishop Marwieh's school of Personal Evangelism had about 20; the Baptist seminary had 82; the United Pentecostal Church's Maranatha Bible College had about 40. Thus within the space of about three years, the MBTC had increased to train more than twice the number attending all the other schools put together. Even more significant is a denominational breakdown of MBTC's 828 students. They came from 183 denominations. These included all the historical denominations, Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, UMC, and established bodies like the Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA), AME, Wesleyan. More importantly, they included scores of African Independent Churches, older ones like the Church of the Lord (Aladura) and newer ones like Bethel, Philadelphia, the Refuge Temple, the Four Square Gospel Church, the Salvation Church, Baffu Bay Pentecostal Church, the Trump of God International Church, Transcea and countless others. The 828 students included 75 pastors, most of whom were from small independent churches. Such pastors were keenly aware of their lack of theological education, and this Saturday school which provided books was very attractive. Some churches used the MBTC as training for at least some of their pastors; besides numerous independent churches, the AME Church followed this policy. Nor did the influence of the MBTC cease outside Monrovia. In September 1988 similar schools opened in Kakata and

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Gbarnga, with 18 and 31 students respectively. Staff and students of the MBTC conducted these schools one day each week, travelling from Monrovia by van. Then, in September 1989, a further 9 schools were opened around the country, and operated in the same way. So, by 1989, every major centre in the country except for those in the two south-eastern counties had a Bible school of this type. This is where the MBTC was poised to exert its greatest influence, moulding the evangelists and pastors of the churches of the interior. About 30 pastors attended these extension Bible training centres. Total enrolment of students in all 12 schools for 1989-90 was 1,153. The theology of MBTC and its subsidiaries was the pure 'faith theology' of Hagin and Copeland. The set books distributed in the fourth term of 1988-9 were Copeland's Sensitivity of Heart, the Force of Righteousness, The Decision is Yours, You are Healed', Kenneth Hagin's The Believer's Authority, and

Courage, by Ed Louis Cole, another prosperity proponent. The books distributed for the first term of 1989-90 were Copeland's Our Covenant Making God, and A Ceremony of Marriage', Hagin's Understanding how to fight the good Fight of Faith, New Thresholds of Faith, and Don't blame God; Ed Louis Cole's The Potential Principle: Living Life to its Maximum; and Billy Joe Daugherty's

The New Life.16 In the first year at all twelve schools there were courses on Faith, Obedience, Blood Covenant, Healing, Authority, Demonology, Christian Stewardship. Of these, the course on Stewardship was pure prosperity. ' God is wanting to prosper you' was the message. If you are sowing your ' seed faith' by tithing, you can expect miraculous success in any undertaking which is not against God's will:' If it can be accomplished without God's help, it's too small'. The first-year course on Faith taught that Christianity is about victory. 'The only language God understands is the language of victory'. The teacher insisted that faith includes 'the necessity of believing you have already acquired'. And you must act on your belief;' You will not be healed until you believe 16

Ed Louis Cole's publications are available from PO Box 610588, Dallas TX 75261, USA. Billy Joe Daugherty's publications are available from Victory Christian Centre, PO Box 470016, Tulsa OK 74147, USA.


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in your heart and act on it'. You can test whether you really believe; for example, 'Are you still taking your medicine?' If you are, this 'shows you are not believing God'. 'Remember faith has nothing to do with your senses... If you are going to be moved by the circumstances of life, you'll never walk in faith'. The teacher told a story about his former pastor, who had to find $200 for his tuition. He prayed in faith, ' Lord, I need $200. I'm praying for that money to come to me before registration day. Right now I call that $200 mine. I thank you for it.' He claimed it as his own; he did not pray for it again. 'It is not proper for you to ask God more than once for one thing. That's improper. That's doubt.' The money had not come by registration day. He was tempted to doubt, but did not succumb, and took his place in the line to register, acting as though he had it. He had moved right to the front of the line, when a businessman came up and told him that the Lord had sent him to pay the tuition. (By this time the class was cheering wildly.) ' That pastor had pressure on him... [but] the assurance in his heart was bigger than that. The same faith you have about heaven, about Jesus, will work for finances, material things, a job...The law of faith is bigger than the law of gas shortages ... rice shortages... unemployment. The law of faith is bigger than the law of supply and demand.' Such faith glorifies God, when 'you're not moved by what you see [or] feel, but by the Word of God.' Later the same day the same teacher taught the second-year class on Faith. He began by saying, ' Unbelief is a sin... You have to treat it like a rattlesnake... Doubt and unbelief are worse than adultery, fornication, stealing and thieving.' He told a story of Kenneth Hagin praying for a man with a bad back. After praying, Hagin said, 'Now see if you can touch your toes.' The man could not. Hagin tried again, four times. Then Jesus appeared to Hagin; 'Jesus looked into Brother Hagin's eyes. Brother Hagin said he had never seen Jesus look like this. Then Brother Hagin remembered that he'd said, "Now see if you can touch your toes'". That little 'if had betrayed an element of unbelief. The fifth time he said simply, 'Touch your toes', and success was immediate. (Loud cheering.) ' That's how deceptive

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unbelief can be.' The teacher then dealt with ways in which faith can be deficient, mainly when words and actions do not agree. Again he said, in the context of healing, 'Let me ask you, are you still taking your medicine ? If so, you believe that you are healed, but you are not living on that conviction... As long as you are fretting you are not confessing.' He continued, 'Faith is acting on God's word... Some of you wear glasses. Since the age of 13 I've been near-sighted. I thought that's normal; I can live with that. But if God can open the eyes of the blind, he can fix my hazy vision... If you have glasses maybe you should exercise you faith in that area. It's not a sin to wear glasses. Br Hagin has glasses. But he's 72. I'm not old. Lately, God has been challenging me in this area. I accept the challenge: "God you are the same God, it's not a big thing to you."' (Loud cheering.) But, again, he stressed that when you take off your glasses, it is not enough to say 'I'll see if I can see...That's not faith... In all this, you've got to look at [healing] as a past thing that God has already given... When you ask "when is healing going to come?", you're in doubt.' The same day the director taught a class on leadership; for this course the required reading was Joshua 1-14 and Ed Louis Cole's The Potential Principle. He began by warning against resisting instruction, when ' a servant of God is really passing down a vision for [from?] God and you're sitting there judging, saying, " I don't agree with this ".' Referring to Ex 16, 16-35, n e said, 'God went so far as to kill a whole lot of people like that,' and quoted 'Rebellion is as witchcraft and stubbornness is as idolatry' (1 Sam 15, 23). He later said that the whole of the following week's lesson would be about this; 'If God hasn't given you a vision, you have to look up to someone who has.' 17 He stressed that leadership consists of listening to God's word. There must be something different about a Christian leader; he or she must show godliness. If he or she does, God will bring forth fruit, and the leader will grow 'in favour with God and men' (Lk 2, 49). He illustrated this from his own life: he said he was continually amazed at the favour of God evident in his own 17

For the importance of obedience in this fundamentalist Christianity, see above, pp. 127-32.


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life. In Monrovia he had a 16-room house, with 4 bathrooms and it cost him a dollar a month in rent. God had blessed its owner, who therefore wanted to have the house used for God's purposes. He had given it to the director at this nominal rent, four years in advance for $48. Similarly, the director said, his Peugeot 505 had been given to him free. (Cheering.) Likewise io,ooolbs of equipment were at that moment being shipped to him; donors in the USA had given it free, it had been transported to Baltimore free, and the shipping company was forwarding it free. He told how he had long wanted to set up a lending library in Liberia for the Bible Training Centres. One day, attending a conference in the USA a few months previously, he had been approached by the president of a lending library who asked if he could give seven lending libraries - all free. (Cheering.) While on the same visit, he had met the vice-president of a Bible Society and explained his ministry in schools in Liberia; as a result, this vice-president would arrange a mass distribution of Bibles to all Junior Highs and Universities in Liberia. 'God will move on our behalf if we stay in his will.' The director went on to explain how he coped with rice shortages. He had been initially worried how he would find enough rice for the school's Saturday meal. Then he said, 'I'm not going to be in fear like the world... I've got favour with God and men. I'm going to pray.' Afterwards he went down to a local rice store, and there and then concluded an agreement for two bags every Saturday and twenty immediately. To loud cheering, he declared, 'God made a way.' Similarly with fuel shortages. The world panics, and 'I was doing the same thing.' Then he remembered, 'I've got favour with God and with men, I prayed, I talked to my Holy Father.' In prayer he was led to a particular gas station, explained that he was the director of a Christian ministry, and would like to do all his business there. The owner proved to have links with the Liberian Petroleum Refining Company, and promised to set aside fuel for him, 'so even if there's a shortage, you'll still have plenty'. Again to loud cheering, he concluded, ' It's better than having my own gas station — I don't have to pay rent, storage,

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electricity. Amen! God is with us. Stay in tune spiritually with God, learn how to get hooked up with God in spiritual things, and we'll get the fruit'. This is the theology that was rinding its way into 183 different denominations. The 75 pastors took it back to their congregations. For example, the founder of the Immanuel Pentecostal Church, Paynesville, who (along with his co-pastor) received all his theological education at MBTC, preached on 26 May 1989 on Genesis 1, 26:' Take dominion'. The message was prosperity through faith; and faith must be unwavering: ' As one of my teachers said, "God won't trust with $10,000 anyone who is scared of $1,000".' The preacher went on to health: 'Doctors just experiment on the human body. They kill you and get away with it. I know a healer called Jesus — "By his stripes you are [already] healed".' At the end of the sermon he introduced the offering: 'So begin to give with the little you have.' This message spread even more widely. Liberian law makes provision for the Bible to be taught in public schools; often this was not done, because there was no one to teach it. (The mainline and evangelical churches gave this little priority.) The MBTC proposed to the Ministry of Education that their students and graduates do this teaching; the Ministry agreed, on the grounds that the MBTC was non-denominational. So 110 MBTC students and graduates every week taught the Bible to 21,000 pupils.18 In 1988 the director brought 115,000 publications from the USA as support literature. In two years, he claimed, Living Water Teaching had distributed 60,000 tracts, 2,000 gospel portions, 20,000 elementary level children's magazines and booklets, 25,000 junior and senior high books, and more than 7,000 teaching books.19 These publications for schools all expounded the faith gospel, and included Billy Joe Daugherty's This New Life, and Honeycomb, the Family Magazine

from Willie George Ministries, of which the whole of Vol 7 No. 8 is concerned with believing God and banishing sickness, which comes from Satan. 20 At the MBTC graduation ceremony 18 20

19 See Living Water Teaching, 10/9 p. 8. Ibid. Available from Billy Joe Daugherty's Victory Christian Centre, PO Box 470016, Tulsa OK 74147, and from Willie George Ministries, PO Box 639, Broken Arrow OK 74013, respectively.


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on 31 May 1989, the director of religious instruction in the public school system spoke and thanked the MBTC for its contribution; in the course of his remarks he urged the Liberian Council of Churches to 'forget about politics and raise money for [MBTC] to spread the gospel throughout Liberia'. Moreover, the staff of MBTC were invited to speak at various churches around the country. The series of talks given to launch the Lutheran Good Samaritan organisation in May 1989 were all given by the MBTC team. And they preached on Sundays at various churches. Consider the following sermon delivered by one of the MBTC team on 11 June 1989 at the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ. This church had a character all of its own, because founded by a Catholic woman, Mother Wilhelmina Dukuly, in 1971. Its Catholic origins were particularly evident. The altar was the focal point; it was made of transparent bricks with a blue light shining inside. It was covered with embroidered altar cloths, and had traditional motifs IHS and XP and ' Holy Holy' engraved on it. At the base were engraved the words 'Altar of Love'. It was surrounded by altar rails and gates. On the altar was an elaborate tabernacle where the sacrament was reserved; a red sanctuary lamp indicated this. Communion services were held every first and third Sunday. On the altar were brass candles and vases, and a big brass crucifix stood above the tabernacle. Over the whole altar hung a large canopy. The ministers within the sanctuary, who wore albs and stoles and no shoes, at various times during the ceremony turned to face the altar. Just outside the sanctuary rails were two vats labelled 'consecrated water'. The sermons, which were broadcast each Sunday afternoon on ELBC, were very evangelical. The prayers were baptistic. Baptism was by immersion in a pool at the back of the church. Above the sanctuary was a big sign reading, 'Jesus heals, Jesus loves you, Jesus saves'. There was a twice life-size painting of Jesus on the back wall, surrounded by prints of his healing miracles. The wall was labelled 'The Healing Wall', and in front of it (another Catholic touch) stood a tray of electric candles lit by inserting coins. The hymn book contained most Protestant favourites. The carpets and decor, and the Western

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band, indicated that the congregation was more affluent than the average. To this rather distinctive independent church, the MBTC preacher introduced this faith gospel of health and wealth. Preaching on Daniel 3, 1—7, he proclaimed, ' If you are going to worry and fret that there is a gas shortage, if you are going to concern yourself and fret that there is a rice shortage, and worry how you are going to feed your children, you have bowed down to Satan...Doesn't God say, in Ps 37 v 25, that " I have never seen a righteous man forsaken or his children begging bread"? And doesn't God say in Philippians 4, 19 that God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory?... My hope is not in the president, not in this world. The world system will change, economic structure will change, the political system will change, but thy word never changes.' He continued to explain the importance of exercising one's faith. 'If you believe in gas shortages, a gas shortage is what you'll get. If you believe in rice shortages, a rice shortage is what you'll get... Believe in what you say when you say it. Liberia will be what you say. If you say Liberia is poor, nothing works, that's what you'll get. What you say is what you'll get. You can have what you say. If you say, " I'm poor, sick, stupid ", that's what you'll be. That's what you're saying.' He went on to deal with unemployment. ' I'll tell you how to get a job. How many of you are unemployed ? Stand up.' (About fifteen or twenty stood, at which he indicated the pastor and said, ' She must be teaching you something, because usually most of the church stands up.') He continued, 'Unemployment in the country should not affect a Christian. If there's only one job left in the country, a Christian should get it. A Christian should not be unemployed... God wants no unemployed Christians. Thessalonians says if you don't work, you don't eat. If you're eating and not working you're stealing and robbing — no thieves and robbers are going to heaven. God says "I've never seen a righteous man forsaken or his children begging bread" (Ps 37, 25). Is God a liar?' He then told the story of how he was unemployed when he became a Christian eight years earlier. But he made a 9 to 5 job out of seeking work; because of this, ' on the third day I got a phone call, from [a]


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bank. I was prepared to be a floor sweeper, toilet cleaner, waiter, but I got a collar and tie job in the vault, counting millions of dollars (cheering) because they know I am a Christian, born again, and they could trust me not to steal. I got the best job going in that city at that time. Some of the graduates got the toilet cleaner's, the floor sweeper's jobs, or even didn't get a job.' Then, commenting on Dan 3, 8—18 and the lesson of refusing to bow to false images, he said, ' If you are seeing things getting worse in your life, you are hearing the wrong music, bowing down to the wrong image.' His surprise that so few unemployed stood up when invited indicated that he preached this message in many places. It should be noted also that in introducing the preacher, the Pastor said that four of the congregation had graduated that year from the MBTC; she wanted more to attend the school, 'even if we have to establish scholarships for them'. The MBTC team exerted their influence not just individually. The MBTC was institutionally linked with other organisations. Thefirstwas Bethel World Outreach Centre, which was one of the fastest-growing churches in the country. In fact, Bethel World Outreach was best considered the Living Water Teaching Church in Liberia. Living Water International Missiongram, a newsletter from US headquarters, stated simply of Liberia: 'Attendance in our local church has grown to over 1000 on Sunday mornings, necessitating two services.'21 The Bethel pastor had his office with the MBTC office, and he taught the 'Stewardship' course at MBTC. This pastor was Liberian, but spent ten years studying at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He too preached the faith-formula gospel. His sermon on 27 August 1989 was entitled 'How to live beyond your means'. He outlined the problem: 'You may only get $25 a month. Your needs are greater than $25, so you need to live beyond the $25 you get. God is able to cause your money to grow. I speak from experience.' He explained how he spent 10 years in the USA; because he was there as a student, possible employment was limited. He was married, completed a master's 21

Missiongram, 10/2, May 1989. (Available from address in note 15 above.)

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degree, a doctorate, his wife completed a master's degree, all on an income of $200 a month. His rent was $235 a month, and utilities were above that. ' I paid the bills, had food, at one time two cars - that's living beyond your means.' God did this for him because he was not covetous, and he lived by faith. ' If you have enough faith to be born again you have enough faith to live beyond your means and have financial miracles... We need to use faith to stretch our income. God is able.' He claimed that all the biblical verses dealing with prosperity are just as trustworthy as texts that deal with other issues. 'If John 3, 16 [' God gave his son'] is true, the rest of the prophecies are true; if these other prophecies are not true, Jn 3, 16 is not true either. Jesus said to Peter, " Cast your nets " (Lk 5, 4) and the result was a net-breaking, boat-sinking load offish.. .Jesus had no problem blessing Peter's business, because Peter had given to Jesus first.' He recounted the miracle of the 5,000, and stressed the twelve basketfuls left over. 'Who do you think got the twelve baskets ?... The little boy, because he first gave to Jesus. God blesses his people richly.' Some may say Jesus was poor, 'only in the sense that he didn't own a property, estate, inheritance, a board...Jesus lived beyond his means. He learnt to trust his father - he saw God supply his needs. He had twelve working for him full time. They had families. Levi left his job. Who had to pay their salary?... That's living beyond your means.' Jesus must have had a bank account, for he had a treasurer. 'God blessed Jesus so he had more than he needed. We are told Judas used to steal. If you have only one dollar, it is obvious if someone takes it...When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the soldiers gambled; do you think they gambled for rags? Jesus was wearing the best.' When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he rode a donkey. ' The donkey was the cadillac of his day. And it was a new one, not a used car... Jesus put the kingdom of God first and saw God supply his needs beyond natural income. Jesus believed God, and put the Word of God to work... [He] didn't rely on material resources.' Quoting 'I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health as your soul' (3 Jn 2), he stated, ' God wants you to prosper. He wants you to be able to care for your family, to meet your legitimate desires, desires of


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the heart that are not incompatible with God's will.' Then he explained that 'It is more blessed to give than to receive' (Acts 20, 35). God wants a believer ' to be in a position where you can give... Prosperity is not so you can become a storehouse. God wants you to have your needs met, and where you can to give generously to the work of God.' Then he explained that success is different for all — there is no one rule that covers everyone. ' If you pay $30 for rent, don't pray now for $ 1000... Generally God works through a process. Determine what success is for you at this time, taking into account God's law of growth and development... God can give you success in your present situation.' For his part the believer must consecrate himself to God. 'It's not an accident that God paid my way through school, I'd given my life to Jesus as a child... God will bless only what belongs to him.' The believer must also exercise faith. ' God has no favourites. He wants you to have food as much as I. Do you think God takes pleasure in the fact that I am going to eat tonight and you're not? Do you think God takes pleasure that I can pay the rent and you can't?' The next thing is to give. 'You've got to give. If not money, time...as a seed... Let it become a life-style... Don't let anyone tell you that you are too poor to give. It is a good thing to give what you are in need of. If you need clothes, well, give away some clothes.' He illustrated this by recounting how in 1979 he came home to Liberia from America to raise money for a car. He returned with the money, but God told him to get a car for his pastor. ' I gave and planted some seed. It took a year, but I got a car worth four times [the pastor's one]. That's 400 per cent return on investment in one year.' He concluded, 'God is able to stretch your income; give first, generously and in faith. The psalm says, "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it" (Ps 81, 10). Most of your mouths are shut. Keep expecting miracles every day... Lord, stretch my income, enlarge my bounds, increase my resources. I believe you are able. I trust you. It will surely come to pass.' It can be added that in the testimony preceding the sermon a woman explained how she asked God 'to stretch my salary'. She prayed and believed the Lord, and recounted how God stretched her salary by getting her a job with the US

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Educational and Cultural Foundation. To the cheering congregation she gave the advice: 'Be faithful in tithing and service. Don't give up. You are just on the brink of a miracle. Don't be discouraged.' The MBTC had institutional links, too, with the Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers; the director of MBTC was the driving force behind setting up the Fellowship. This Fellowship had as it aims: 1. To provide an opportunity for denominational Full Gospel ministers to meet and interact with independent Full Gospel ministers. 2. To sponsor an annual Camp meeting/Convention that will bring together Full Gospel Churches and Christians for several days of spiritual retreat and revival. 3. To promote unity and strength for the purpose of winning Liberia, deterring the spread of false religions and cults in this nation.22 In establishing the Fellowship, great effort was made to include as many influential churchmen as possible. At the ceremony marking the formation of the Fellowship, the AME bishop preached and the superintendent of the Assemblies of God inducted the office bearers. Among the five office bearers were the director of MBTC and the pastor of Bethel (as well as an assistant at a UMC church who had attended Copeland's seminars in Britain). The fellowship's first convention, a four-day 'Jesus Festival', was held soon afterwards in Monrovia's most impressive auditorium on 1—3 June 1989. It involved five preaching/ worship sessions each day, and the speakers were four Liberians, two visiting Ghanaians and four visiting Americans.23 The differences between these speakers are most significant for the topic under discussion here. The message of the four Liberians (two women from Bethel and two Assemblies of God pastors) 22

23

Letter dated 27 April 1989 and signed by Bethel pastor inviting people to launching ceremony on 5 May 1989 at Philadelphia Church, Monrovia. All talks available on cassettes from Living Water Teaching, PO Box 5317, Monrovia.


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comprised personal testimony and exhortation to holiness; some could be quite down to earth, even humorous, about sins to be avoided. The two Ghanaians provided a change of key; considerable stress on the power of faith and consequent miraculous interventions. One even claimed to have stopped the rain that particular evening, and to have restored his own son to life. Both made the point that Ghana was four or five years ahead of Liberia in the matter of'revival'. With three of the four Americans, however, the message reached a different plane altogether; for them, everything was reduced to faith. One, a student from Oral Roberts university, in Liberia for a three-week internship, spoke on ' the proper attitude to giving'. The message was simply ' the more you give to God, the more he will give back to you'. The second speaker was Lester Sumrall, in Liberia for the graduation ceremony of MBTC. One of his talks on 'living militantly' included a long section on 'giving militantly'. This included a story of how, while building his new church with a revolving central platform enabling him to see all his congregation of 3,500, an African missionary came seeking money to buy a truck. Sumrall gave $40,000.' I didn't have that money in the bank; we stopped the building and gave it to the missionary. The devil said, "You are a fool".' But two or three months later a doctor called; he had intended to distribute a considerable sum of money to many evangelists. But God had spoken to him and told him, 'You must give all to Sumrall'. So he gave Sumrall a cheque for $150,000. (Loud cheering.) Sumrall added that the Lord appeared to him and said, 'If you hadn't given that $40,000 to the missionary, I wouldn't have given you that $150,000. If you plant a handful, you will reap a bucketful. If you plant a bucketful, you will reap a wagonload. If you plant a wagon-load, you will reap a barnful.' Sumrall insisted that he always gives militantly. 'The government doesn't like my giving 50 per cent to God. If the whole church were like that, what would happen?' Sumrall explained how he returned to the USA after having been a missionary in the Philippines, leaving behind 'the largest church in South East Asia'. He had nothing; he had given everything away. But God gave him a church, then a TV station. Just two months

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previously he had been given another TV station on Hawaii, for a mere $8,500. 'If I put my stations on the market today, they would be worth Si00 million minimum. [Yet] I came home without $10 in my pocket.' He had left his car, furniture, even knives and forks in the Philippines for the next pastor. 'You say " I wouldn't do that." God wouldn't give you TV stations either. You can't outgive God... If it hurts you to give, it's because you don't have faith'. 24 The third American, Pastor Huffman from New Life Victory Centre in Huntingdon, West Virginia, who was in Liberia specifically for the Jesus festival, gave three talks, one on love, and two totally on prosperity. In one, entitled 'Faith', he explained how he was born poor, in West Virginia, and had gone without shoes. Everyone around had stayed poor. But God spoke to him, 'If you'll follow me, walk in my Word, I'll make you rich.' His other talk, entitled 'Fight a good fight of Faith', was almost a classic expression of this faith theology. Every believer is to be a winner; 'No believer was created to be a failure. Don't just walk through life just taking whatever comes along; put your faith out there and use it to move the mountains out of your way.' He stressed that Jesus has already achieved everything; all that believers must do is claim their rights. He insisted that the King James version had mistranslated Jn 14, 14 with 'If you ask anything in my name I will do it'. This should read 'If you demand your rights in my name I'll see that they come to pass.' Again,' The inheritance of God is yours and mine today and we can partake of it.. .Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law, [viz] from spiritual darkness and death, from sickness and disease, poverty, lack and want, from oppression, depression, sickness in mind and soul...so that we could be happy, blessed, healthy, and walk in eternal life here on earth and then just step right on over when we get finished and walk in the presence of God.' We are not saved just to go to heaven; 24

Yet Sumrall was quoted in a Monrovia newspaper as saying: ' We told God we love Africa and that's why my wife and I flew thousands of miles to come and preach God's message to brothers and sisters on this part of the globe, despite the thousands of dollars we might lose'' {News, 6 June 1989, p. 6).


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' you got saved... so you could walk in success and be victorious here on this earth'. Huffman said he has been accused of preaching that believers will never die: 'If you're not sick, how are you going to die?' He rejected this criticism: 'That's not what I preach... I preach you don't have to die of sickness. You can walk in faith, just like Enoch who pleased God and was no more. He just stepped out of this world and stepped right on over into heaven. Alleluia... You can use your faith, walk in success, partake of the blessings of God, and when you get finished, just lay yourself back and kick your feet back and say "Jesus, here I come", and jump out of that body and go to be with God.' He then used the creation story of Genesis 1 to prove that God created through speaking, 'Let there be...' It is sometimes said that' You are what you eat.'' No,' said Huffman. 'You are what you speak.' He retold the story of David and Goliath to make this point. David was offered blessings to kill Goliath, even the king's daughter. Before advancing against Goliath, 'David spoke his faith. All he had to do then was act out his words.' Christians must be like this. 'We refuse to talk failure, because all we are gonna know is success.' He gave an illustration from his own life. He was driving from Tulsa to West Virginia to see his brother run in an athletic meeting. About half way there, around midnight, the clutch gave out. This required staying the night in a motel, where the devil tried to convince him that he would have to stay the whole weekend, for it was Friday. But he fought the devil with the Word of God. The next day, though the clutch was ruined and there were no spare parts in that town, God told him to fill the clutch up with oil, and just drive home with faith. He drove for eight hours, saw his brother run, then took the car to the garage where immediately on arrival all the oil flowed out of the clutch. 'God had sealed the back end of my engine up and let me drive 1,000 miles. Why? Because the Word of God works!' He told another equally detailed story about fixing an electric fan by touching it in Jesus' name. He urged his audience to talk God's language, Bible language. 'Bible language is that of faith, victory, health and success... You've been saying how hard it is; that's what you're gonna get... Instead of talking impossibility, start talking

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possibility. If you're talking sickness and defeat, you're gonna walk in sickness and defeat. If you're talking poverty, lack and want, you're gonna walk in poverty, lack and want... I just keep on talking, saying, speaking, confessing, believing and doing, and God just keeps on blessing... Begin to use your faith for souls, for health, to pay your bills and to meet your needs and for God to bless you. Begin to use your faith for your family, and God will confirm his word with signs and wonders following.' Someone who attended all sessions of the Jesus Festival would go away thinking that this faith theology of prosperity and health was the essence of Christianity. But a closer analysis would reveal that it was only the American and Ghanaian speakers who had dealt with it. What the Jesus Festival revealed was an American transformation of Liberian Christianity along the lines of this modern Faith Movement. If the MBTC can be called the main conduit of this faith gospel into Liberia, it was by no means the only one. Other Americans came for crusades that conveyed the same message. The Voice of Pentecost Crusade, held at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium just outside Monrovia on 17-20 August 1989 was a good example. The crusade was held under the auspices of Liberia's United Pentecostal Church (UPC), but in reality was the initiative of the Voice of Pentecost Church, Ocean Avenue, San Francisco; they flew in a team of 58 people, covered all expenses and were responsible for all the advertising, including the banners across the streets with the legend in the top left corner, 'God will stop the Rain'. (It was the height of the rainy season. Although it did rain during the crusade, some say there was less than would be normal.) This crusade, attended, the organisers claim, by about 7,000 each night, expounded thorough-going prosperity. This is strikingly clear from the cassette given free to every person who attended the crusade, a cassette labelled: "Getting Started; for New Christians.'25 It purports to be a 60-minute exposition of the essence of Christianity. The talk is divided into seven sections; repentance, experience 25

Available from Pastor Richard Gazowsky, Voice of Pentecost Church, 1970 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco CA 94127, USA.


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baptisms, the laying on of hands, the importance* of faith, sowing and reaping, Bible study, and fellowship and church life. The fourth and fifth sections are specifically on prosperity, but it is noteworthy just how the prosperity motif features in the other sections as well. The opening words of the cassette are, 'I would like first to tell you that Jesus wants you to be successful. He wants you to reach the greatest success that you could ever have in life.' Then the preacher mentions the Bible, not only a book for salvation, but 'for you to live a successful and very prosperous good life'. The seven sections are separated by the choir singing a refrain of 'All things are possible because I believe in you.' On the subject of the laying on of hands, he deals with healing. God wishes to heal all people who are sick. The speaker tells his new converts to pray over the sick; if they don't recover, 'Call stronger Christians'. (Note the implication that any persistence of sickness can only be due to deficiency of faith.) For the speaker, faith has to do with miracles; of healing first, but secondly he notes that faith ' works for believing God for a new house'. Patience may be needed;' wait until God gives you that miracle, but never, never doubt... No matter what your problem, Jesus desires to work a miracle. You may be sick unto death, but Jesus will work a miracle and heal you. Jesus will work a miracle in any part of your life that you ask him to.' He urges listeners to gather around the cassette player. Then he prays for miracles, first healing, then for the ' miracle they need for money or food', and thirdly for family members to be brought back together. Sowing and Reaping is said to be a principle taught all through the Bible. He uses 2 Cor 9, 6 to prove that if you bountifully sow 'finances to the Christian church you attend, you will reap bountifully'. He illustrates this from his own life. When he was a young man he gave a few dollars to the church - a large amount for him then. ' I got my first job just a week after I gave that offering', a job in an ice-cream store, where he even got to eat some of the ice-cream. 'God blessed me because I sowed.' If you plant corn you will get corn, if you plant rice you will get rice, and 'If you plant financial seed or money you

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will end up receiving a financial blessing.' Give tithes to the local church, but give other offerings as well 'that the Lord might bless you'. This law of sowing works in every field.' If you want promotion, sow into your boss' life; he will give you the promotion you are desiring.' He insists,' God wishes to bless you in your life so that your family has plenty of food to eat, and you have clothes to wear, and God wishes to bless you bountifully, and if you'd only understand that with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.' He talks from experience: 'God has greatly blessed my life.' Then he prays for listeners that they may plant seed: ' If we give this monetary money to the local Christian church, if we plant into our work and give food to him [sic], if we give good to the government, if we give good to families and neighbours and plant seed in their lives... bring forth much fruit'. Even in his short treatment of the Bible, this perspective is evident. He tells the story of David and Goliath as a lesson in overcoming problems and receiving miracles. The book of Revelation tells us heaven is a most beautiful city with streets of gold, walls of diamonds and gates of pearls. He stresses the importance of prayer by telling how once he failed to heal a cripple because he had been neglecting prayer. (Again, there is only one explanation for persistence in sickness, and that is some spiritual deficiency.) His final words are, 'Now that you are a new Christian, let's go on and be successful.' This attitude to Christianity - Christianity as wealth, health and success - was everywhere in Liberia by the late 1980s. The crusade staged jointly by the Little White Chapel (LWC) and the Soul Cleansing Clinic of Jesus Christ (SCCJC), 14-16 July 1989, and preached by three Americans of Network Ministries International of New Jersey, was billed on its posters as offering 'Stability, Prosperity, Safety'. The Deeper Life Crusade, 20-23 December 1988, proclaimed on all its publicity:' Special offers: Healing: Deliverance from evil spirits, bad luck, fear and worry: transformation of souls: signs and wonders, prosperity for all.' This teaching entered the Church of Christ Bible School, Paynesville, with its visiting teachers from Oral Roberts University. The crusade that launched the Potter's House in


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Liberia taught it, even if the preacher thought he was presenting a modified version: ' The confession of our mouths has great bearing on our life and destiny. This is controversial... I am not talking about talking a car into existence. I'm talking about getting biblical promises. Bible prosperity is food on table, clothes on your back, divine promises and a little extra.' The preacher also stated: 'We claim our inheritance... I'm talking about taking back what belongs to you - healing, salvation, baptism of the Holy Spirit, financial blessing. If someone is converted, God reaches through his heart to his pocket book; he'll change your pocket book, he'll change economies.' As we shall see in more detail in the next chapter, Bishop Dixon's Christ Pentecostal Church in 1986 came to be affiliated to Don Stewart of Phoenix, Arizona, becoming the Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church. Don Stewart is the successor of A. A. Allen, probably the first to characterise God as a rich God who wants to give wealth to his followers, and the first to teach that those who want to share in this prosperity must contribute to 'the servant of the Lord', that is, to the preacher himself. When Don Stewart took over the ministry after Allen died in 1970, he developed this prosperity preaching into a successful fund-raising scheme.26 In mid-1989 a member of Don Stewart's staff was in Liberia conducting a revival for Bishop Dixon.27 It is significant that when the 16-man Liberian delegation returned home from Don Stewart's International Miracle Harvest Convention in Phoenix in October 1989, Bishop Dixon called the convention ' successful, rewarding and uplifting as a result of the discussion of Biblical Economies'; biblical economics is another name for the faith gospel.28 26

27

For Allen's and Stewart's contribution to the development of the prosperity gospel, see Horn, Rags to Riches, pp. 35-6. At the same time, Stewart was in London conducting a ' School of Success', teaching how to live 'in victory and success'. The advertising posters listed one of the speakers, Mike Murdoch, as travelling and speaking to more than 7,500 audiences in 34 countries. He ' receives more than 1,500 invitations each year to speak in churches, colleges and business corporations... Is the author of best seller The Winner's Handbook, and his new book entitled Dream Seeds. Is a composer of more than 1,500 songs such as " I am Blessed", "God's not through Blessing You" [and] "Walking on the Edge of a Miracle" ... Is the host of his own weekly television program called 28 "The Way of the Winner".' Herald, 23-9 Nov. 1989, p. 9.

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Above, we described Bethel World Outreach as one of the fastest growing churches in Liberia. Probably the only church to surpass Bethel was Transcea, which in late 1989 drew 1,600 people to its four Sunday morning services and was growing by about fifty new members every Sunday. If Bethel was quintessentially a faith gospel church, Transcea stood for a more complex message. Transcea's founder had received no formal theological training, and drew from a wide range of sources in his preaching. But among the most obvious sources was the faith movement. A publicity brochure published in February 1989 entitled ' Miracles and Healings' concluded: ' The Lord wants you to have holiness in your spirit, happiness in your soul, and health in your body. God wants to supply your every need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God wants to do and give far more than you can ever ask or think... Do not suffer because of unbelief, sin or ignorance... God wants his best for you in Christ Jesus.' A flier printed in September 1989 to promote a new weekly 'miracle healing and revival service' read: ' Come and freely receive sound Bible teaching, miracle, healing, revival, happiness in your soul, break throughs, deliverance from demons, prosperity, signs and wonders and right decisions in your life.'29 29

Transcea (Transcontinental Evangelistic Association) was founded by a 21 -year-old Ghanaian in 1982. The church was in a poorer part of Monrovia, and catered for a poorer class than Bethel. It was not a tribal church, nor did it attract AmericoLiberians. Being Ghanaian, the founder spoke in English, and those not proficient in English sat in groups outside the windows where sermons were translated into Gio, Bassa, Loma and Kpelle. The sermons constituted the main part of the services, and lasted up to 80 minutes at each of the four Sunday morning services. The appeal of this church was linked to the founder's total authority. His office, every weekday except Wednesday," was a clinic from 7 am to 3 pm. Hundreds came every day; at any one time 15 would be waiting outside, about 1 o inside. Each one, on reaching the head of the queue, went first to see the founder, who listened and diagnosed the problem. Then, according to the diagnosis, the patient was passed on to one of the three full-time or six part-time assistants, to be prayed over, exorcised, healed or counselled. There was no issue with which this church could not deal. The founder had something of a conversion in 1987 away from the charismatic movement. Privately he would refer to it as ' pure salesmanship' and talk of' all the rubbish I learnt from that lot' (interview, 7 Sept. 1989). As a result he even banned speaking in tongues in his church, and resisted all attempts to draw him into charismatic fellowships. Despite his disclaimer, however, he remained greatly influenced by the faith movement, as the above extracts illustrate. For a fuller discussion, see Paul Gifford, 'Bethel and Transcea, Liberia's fastest-growing Churches: a Comparison',


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The Keith Hershey Celebration of Victory TV programme, screened in Liberia every Saturday evening, was another source of the doctrine. Gifts or donations are 'seed'. 'If you are expecting a miracle, you'll get one... If I'm set back financially, I'll claw back seven times what the devil has stolen from me.' If you praise the Lord, success will come, 'no matter what the doctors declare, the economy dictates, the political circumstances are'. Keith Hershey visited Liberia in June 1989, after a crusade in Nigeria. On 7 June his local representative arranged an evening when his supporters could meet him. About 60 attended. Hershey showed a video and then spoke, ' I know what it's like to start without a dime... I'm so rich today I don't know how to tell you... Now finances have been released ...Jesus wasn't a poor preacher. Jesus had many women with him and material possessions. Jesus had rich people supporting him... I've not come to ask for any money - I've never asked for money — but I'm robbing people if I don't teach them how to give to the gospel [and thereby become rich themselves].' Despite this disclaimer, asking for money was exactly what he did. He said he was looking for 120 partners in Liberia to give a monthly sum, and for 12 ' Corporate Raiders' or businessmen who raid the kingdom of darkness by sponsoring his TV programme in a country - their names and businesses appear in advertisements at the end of the programme. In his closing prayer he prayed that ' the spirit of poverty be broken' and 'finances be released'. Again, among the 60 who came to meet Hershey were independents (from the Little White Chapel to Bethel), Assemblies of God ministers, and mainline Christians (from Lutherans to Episcopalians).30 30

in Paul Gifford (ed.), New Dimensions in African Christianity (Nairobi, AACC, 1992), PP- 33-54Hershey's Mutual Faith Ministries International came to Liberia in February 1988. It conducted crusades throughout the country, sometimes in conjunction with Living Water Teaching or the MBTC. Hershey's ministry had established two churches in the Firestone area ' because there was no Bible Teaching Church in the area'. Three Christian leaders were given scholarships to one of the extension schools of the MBTC. Hershey's local representatives also distributed Hershey's correspondence Bible studies - by April 1989 40 individuals had graduated from this course in Liberia. (See Hershey's Good Faith Report, April 1989, available from Mutual Faith Ministries International, PO Box 3788, Granada Hills CA 91344, USA, or Box 4825, Monrovia.)

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All these manifestations of the gospel of prosperity might be traced back to the same source, the charismatic kind of Christianity so well exemplified by Hagin and Copeland. But the United States has other sources of it too. Mormonism has always included a considerable element of this; as a Mormon missionary to Liberia put it, ' I tell them, if they pay their tithes and make offerings, God will open his heavens on them.' Also this emphasis is increasingly found in Baptist circles. Dr W. Criswell, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been pastor since the 1940s of the First Baptist Church, Dallas. With 26,000 members this is the largest church in the largest Protestant denomination in the USA. (Criswell has the distinction of collecting, in October 1985, $1.85 million in one Sunday offering - said to be the largest offering ever taken on one day.31) Criswell has said, 'The man who is a Christian has a tendency to prosper.' His Bible Class teaches this: 'With God on your side, you will have good success.' The head of the Bible School has his own management and training corporation, and attributes all his worldly success to Jesus. 'No question of it. From a financial point of view, when you team up with God, when you're in his will, when you keep his word in you and live in his word, then you can ask what you will.'32 SIM in Liberia did not subscribe to this gospel. Some of their ELWA programmes opposed it directly. Gil Rugh's Sound Words called it 'wrong theology', claiming its exponents are descendants of Bildad (Job 8). 33 But the director of the African Bible College, of the Presbyterian Church of America, said over ELWA, ' When I was a businessman, when I became a Christian, profits automatically went up, because God was controlling [my business].' Again, in discussing the widow's giving of the little she had to Elijah (1 Kings 17, 15), he said, 'God honours that kind of faith... No way a person can outgive God.'34 A United 31

32

33

34

See Grace Halsell Prophesy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War

(Westport CN, Lawrence Hill, 1986), p. 14. Anthony Thomas' Central Television (in association with WGBH) programme, Thy Will Be Done, screened on British I T V View Point 87. Gil R u g h , Sound Words, E L W A , 17 J u l y 1989. O n his p r o g r a m m e of 25 M a y 1988 Rugh stated that 'the doctrine of prosperity and health is demonic'. Bible College by Radio, E L W A , 9 J u n e 1989 a n d 27 Sept. 1989 respectively.


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Liberia Inland Church minister and General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia, speaking on ELWA's Talking with the Pastor about tithing, gave a modified version: 'God will bless us if we give', he said, quoting 'give and it shall be given unto you' (Lk 6, 38).35 ELWA, in advertising the July 1989 visit of the Liberation Singers, a group of seven from several different African countries, gave considerable publicity to one of their songs: I am like a tree, planted by the streams of water Ready to bring forth my fruit in its season. My leaves will never fade nor wither And everything I do shall prosper... Because I walk in God's delight... happiness and prosperity is mine, Everything I do shall prosper, everything I say shall prosper, everyone I touch shall prosper.36 There was another source of this gospel of prosperity in Liberia; the black churches of the United States. The visting AME preacher at a Monrovia AME revival was introduced in the following way in a handout entitled ' Meet the Preacher': ' Over 2000 new members have joined Bridge [St AME Church, Brooklyn] since Dr Lucas became their pastor. They have gone from $261,000 to over Si.2 million annual budget within the past years under this anointed gifted young man's leadership. Bridge St now has the fastest growing credit union in the USA. They have completed a $750,000 church expansion project, bought every piece of land and house available in sight around their church. They are going to break new ground this year to build a $5.8 million complex which includes a school K-8th grade, senior complex and centre etc' Although he did not preach prosperity directly, it surfaced occasionally. For example in a sermon on the text 'Teach me to pray' (Lk 11, 1), he proclaimed:' One came forward and made a request. He didn't 35 36

Talking With the Pastor, E L W A , 4 J u n e 1989. The Liberation Singers, from Youth for Christ International, 6890 South Tuczon Way Suite 205, Englewood GO 80112, USA. The second and third verses were simply repeated with the pronouns changed to 'you' and 'we' respectively. The Liberation Singers sang at the International Church of Monrovia, SIM's largely expatriate congregation, on ELWA compound, on Sun. 16 July 1989.

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ask for a Mercedes Benz, a BMW, he didn't ask for a new house, he didn't ask for a college education, he didn't ask for a trip to America-he asked "Teach us to pray". If you learn how to pray, he will give you a BMW...he will give you a new house... he will give you a college degree, he will give you a trip to America... He will give you all the blessings of heaven.'37 We have presented so many examples of this prosperity gospel to show its rapid spread in Liberia.38 It represented an important development, almost a paradigm shift. It was noted above that it was possible to observe the shift occurring at the Jesus Festival. Sometimes one could observe the phenomenon in a single service. At a Wesleyan service on 16 July 1989, this was the hymn before the sermon: Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder Why it should be thus all the day long, While there are others living about us Never molested though in the wrong. {Chorus) Farther along we'll know all about it, Farther along we'll understand why. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. We'll understand it all by and by. When death has come and taken our loved ones It leaves our home so lonely and drear. Then do we wonder why others prosper Living so wicked year after year. Faithful til death, said our loving master, A few more days to labour and wait. Toils of the road will then seem as nothing As we sweep through the beautiful gate. 37

38

Dr Fred J. Lucas Jr, of Bridge St AME Church Brooklyn, NY, preaching at 'Fire This Time Revival' at Eliza Turner AME Church Monrovia, 18 Sept. 1989. At another AME revival, ' Sons and Daughters of Pentecost,' held at the Centennial Pavilion 29 May 1989, again not directly on prosperity, a Ghanaian introducing proceedings, said, 'God's will for you is to live in abundance. Who is the richest man in the whole world ? Jesus... Let us trust Jesus and he is able to give us all our needs.' A visiting evangelist positively to repudiate the prosperity gospel was a certain Dr Marty Drake, of Walled Lake, Michigan, who visited Liberia in July 1989. His visit was something of an administrative disaster; he drew 12 people to his revival in Camphor Methodist Church, Claratown, Monrovia, on 23 July, and many of his other advertised appearances had to be cancelled. He did little to stop the spread of the prosperity gospel.


i79

The sermon which followed immediately after was on the topic, 'In this book you will prosper and you will have good success.' Here the two paradigms were sharply juxtaposed. In the hymn was found the traditional view of Pentecostalism (and so many other forms of Christianity): it is the wicked who prosper, it is devout Christians who are tried, bereft, lonely and burdened, but those Christians who persevere will receive a glorious reward in the next life. In the sermon it was the Christian who prospers, the unbeliever who is sick, poor and unemployed.39 Crucial in effecting this paradigm shift in Liberia was the MBTC. It was helped in this role because so many accepted at face value the incessant claim to be 'non-denominational'. At the beginning of the 1989-90 academic year, the director stated, 'The day of the church fighting each other is over. (Cheering.)... We don't serve different churches here — there is one church, the church of God.' The claim to be non-denominational saw them appointed to all sorts of committees; for example, the national committee on evangelism set up 'to evangelise Liberia' after the seminar conducted by Billy Graham's team. The director of the MBTC was made chairman, the pastor of Bethel a committee member. But this claim to be non-denominational is somewhat tendentious. A good deal of time was spent attacking mainline denominations. The MBTC director, giving his testimony at an FGBMFI meeting in Monrovia on 6 May 1989, said that he was brought up a Methodist; his family were 'church people, not Christians'. Another of the team, in a class on 23 September 1989, explained, ' Most churches on street corners with big steeples, Jesus left them a long time ago. I was in a traditional church [Catholic, in his case] for 22 years. That church would have taken me right to hell if God didn't rescue me.' Moreover, the leading exponents of this 'faith confession doctrine' or 'faith formula theology' have in fact made themselves into a denomination, 39

Hymn Farther Along by W. B. Stevens, All American Church Hymnal (Nashville T N ,

Benson Publishing Go, n.d.), p. 230. This preacher, when asked what books he used in preparing his sermons, replied that he owned only two books, a Bible and a book by Kenneth Copeland.

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the International Conference of Faith Churches and Ministries, as noted above. Also, the key figures in this movement, Hagin, Sumrall, Copeland, Hinn, Price, Savelle, Avanzini, Bonnke, South Africa's McCauley, Nigeria's Idahosa, Sweden's Ekman, Nilsson and Alam, certainly function as leaders of a denomination, sharing pulpits, speaking at one another's conventions, ratifying one another's prophecies, and circulating one another's publications and videos. Similarly, the MBTC made much of being 'biblical'. On the opening day of the 1989-90 year, the director stated, 'We do not teach denominational doctrines here; we teach the Word of God.' And at the previous year's graduation, his final charge was, 'Preach the Word, not religious tradition.' As we have seen, the claim to be simply ' biblical' requires careful scrutiny. Normally it masks an attempt to construct a theory out of a few texts, which is then fathered on 'the Bible'. Because of a fundamentalist understanding of the Bible, there is no way to control the doctrines supposedly derived from it. For example, Copeland makes much of Deuteronomy 28-30 which link virtue and prosperity on the one hand, and sin and disaster on the other. In the history of Israel such thinking was part of an attempt to explain how disaster had come upon the nation. This explanation had the merit of avoiding the conclusion that disaster had occurred through God's weakness or lack of concern, by attributing it to Israel's own faithlessness. This 'solution' was part of the whole debate on the question of retribution, a debate found throughout the Old Testament Wisdom books. The book of Job was probably written to oppose the simplistic thinking found in Deuteronomy. There is another related claim that is frequently made for this Christianity; that it transcends culture. At the opening day of the 1989-90 year, much was made of the fact that the teachers (and students) of the MBTC came from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, USA and Liberia, which was taken to show that it transcended national boundaries. But this claim needs scrutiny, too. This faith formula theology is incomprehensible apart from


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its American origins.40 In the form in which Hagin, Copeland and Sumrall present it, the doctrine began with the American televangelists. Copeland has admitted that only after committing himself to a TV series with no apparent capital did he come to understand 'biblical prosperity' properly.41 The financial requirements of these media evangelists are astronomical.42 The promise of great material returns for contributions towards evangelism has proved to be particularly successful in encouraging followers to meet these expenses. Giving to the Lord effectively means giving to the projects of particular evangelists. In one session in Harare Copeland twice mentioned his own ministry as 'a clearing house' to which money might be given. Bakker, Falwell, Swaggart, Robertson have turned TV into a two-way medium. The message goes out and pledges flow in. 'If TV made media evangelism possible, the telephone and computer made it profitable and powerful.'43 This message of'seed faith' or the 'law of giving' has developed as one of the chief means of keeping those pledges flowing in. This function of the doctrine was discernible in Liberia, too. The day of the Bethel sermon discussed above, the offering was delayed until after the sermon, and prefaced with the words: 'Give in a different way today. Let it become a way of life.' At the Jesus Festival, the MBTC director, in introducing an offering, told the congregation that Lester Sumrall had once 40 41

42

43

See Melton, Encyclopedia, p . xliv. See The Laws of Prosperity, p p . 74-6. H a g i n claims he properly understood prosperity in J a n u a r y 1950. See K e n n e t h E. Hagin, How God Taught Me About Prosperity (Tulsa O K , K e n n e t h H a g i n Ministries, 1985), p . 15. T h e Copelands admit being influenced by Hagin, a n d started to think in terms of prosperity in 1967-8. See Gloria Copeland, God's Will is Prosperity, p p . 3 2 - 3 , a n d K e n n e t h Copeland, The Laws of Prosperity, p. 9. I n 1987 Swaggart received contributions of $500,000 a day, yet he needed $350,000 a day just to remain solvent (see Los Angeles Times, 14 M a r . 1988, Part 1, p p . 1 a n d 16-17). For the expenses of the media evangelists, see Newsweek, 6 April 1987, pp. 3 2 - 3 ; Time, 6 April 1987, p . 51. Some even claimed (initially) that the entire Bakker scandal was a pretext to enable Falwell to take over his rival's T V group, because of rising costs a n d a shrinking m a r k e t ; see Newsweek, 6 April 1987, p p . 2 8 - 3 4 ; The Economist, 28 M a r . 1987, p p . 4 1 - 4 2 ; Newsweek, 1 J u n e 1987, pp. 5 0 - 5 1 ; Newsweek, 8 J u n e 1987, p . 45. For Falwell's costs, see Frances FitzGerald, Cities on a Hill: A Journey through Contemporary American Culture (London, Picador, 1987), p p . 150-6. A n t h o n y T h o m a s o n Central Television's Thy Kingdom Come. See note 32 above.

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preached at another's church, and was given only $250 for it. Yet, when that pastor came back to preach at Sumrall's church, Sumrall gave him $28,000. Soon afterwards Sumrall needed space for offices and towers for his radio station in Hawaii. While he was looking at a skyscraper, a man came up to him and offered to give him the roof if he bought a whole floor. That deal saved Sumrall $15 million. The moral was 'You cannot outgive God...God is bigger than money.' The director then asked the congregation to step forth in faith in giving: 'It could be a step of faith to give Si, Si 00 or Si 000.' There is a simple reason for the rise of the gospel of prosperity in its more general form: it meets an important need for so many Americans. This explains why variants of the belief arose independently among Mormons, Baptists and charismatics. An example from last century provides a certain parallel. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was the philosopher who justified the social ascent of the privileged classes. It was he, not Darwin, who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest', and in reference to economic and social life, not the animal world. His ideas were much more influential in America than Britain,44 because never before in any country had so many been so rich or enjoyed their wealth so much. 'In consequence of Spencer no-one needed to feel the slightest guilt over this good fortune. It was the inevitable result of natural strength, inherent capacity to adapt... The ideas also protected wealth. No one, and especially no government, could touch it or the methods by which it was acquired or was being enlarged. To do so would interfere with the desperately essential process by which the race was being improved. It might seem a problem for the rich that so many were so poor...But Herbert Spencer took care of this embarrassment as well. To help the poor, either by private or public aid, also interfered disastrously with the improvement of the race.' 45 44

'Between them, D a r w i n a n d Spencer exercised such sovereignty over America as George I I I h a d never enjoyed', H . S. G o m m a g e r The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character since the 1880s (New Haven CT, Yale University

45

Press, 1950), p . 8 7 . J o h n K e n n e t h G a l b r a i t h , The Age of Uncertainty ( L o n d o n , B B C / A n d r e Deutsch, 1977), pp. 44-5.


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All these ideas are important. Spencer's ideas had a tremendous vogue in America, because they fitted so perfectly with the needs of the time; they answered almost miraculously the needs of the American wealthy classes.46 John D. Rockefeller declared in a Sunday school address: ' The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest... The American Beauty rose can be produced in the splendour and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.'47 And Andrew Carnegie, a complete Spencerian, could state: 'We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment; the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few; and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential to the future progress of the race.' 48 Wealth is nothing to be guilty about. To quote Rockefeller again, ' I believe the power to make money is a gift of God. It is my duty to make money and still more money, and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.'49 These Spencerian views also ruled out any government intervention or regulation, and again this harmonised perfectly with the American faith in the free individual, free from all forms of government intervention.50 William Graham Sumner of Yale, America's most influential social Darwinist, defined socialism as ' any device whose aim is to save individuals from any of the difficulties or hardships of the struggle for existence and the competition of life, by the intervention of the state'. He was not unaware of the hardships of the poor, but this was simply the price they had to pay for the evolution of the human race. ' The law of the survival for the fittest was not made by 46 47

48

50

C o m m a g e r , American Mind, p . 90. Cited in Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought 1850-1915 (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945), p. 31. Cited in Paul F. Boiler Jr, American Thought in Transition: The Impact of Evolutionary Naturalism, 1865-1900 (Chicago, Rand McNally, 1969), p. 55. 49 Ibid., p. 56. Ibid., pp. 49-51, and Commager, American Mind, pp. 89, 200-2.

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man and cannot be abrogated by man. We can only, by interfering with it, produce the survival of the unfittest... A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be. Nature is working away at him to get him out of the way.'51 By and large, the churches adopted a Spencerian theology in harmony with these ideas. Churches were supremely indifferent to the plight of the poor, and church leaders looked with favour, even enthusiasm, on the American system of acquisition and enjoyment and pronounced it socially and morally above reproach. Famous Spencerian churchmen like Henry Ward Beecher and De Witt Talmage actually expressed disdain for the working classes.52 Episcopal Bishop William Lawrence stated, 'It is only to the man of morality that wealth comes... Godliness is in league with riches.'53 The most notorious exponent of these views was Russell H. Conwell, from 1879 pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia. His 'Acres of Diamonds' sermon was delivered over 5,000 times. In this he declared, 'Never in the history of the world did a poor man without capital have such an opportunity to get rich quickly and honestly as he does now in our city... I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich... To make money honestly is to preach the gospel... The number of poor who are to be sympathised with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins, thus to help him when God would still continue a just punishment, is to do wrong, no doubt about it, and we do that more than we help those who are deserving. While we should sympathize with God's poor — that is, those who cannot help themselves — let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings, or by the shortcomings of someone else. It is all wrong to be poor anyhow.'54 This Christianity was soon to be supplanted by the social 51 52 53 54

See Boiler, American Thought, p p . 5 6 - 9 . F o r H e n r y W a r d Beecher, see G a l b r a i t h , Age of Uncertainty, p p . 4 9 - 5 0 . Boiler, American Thought, p . 118. See p p . 117-19. Russell H . Conwell, 'Acres of D i a m o n d s ' , in R o b e r t L. F e r m (ed.), Issues in American Protestantism: A Documentary History from the Puritans to the Present (Garden City NY,

Doubleday, 1969), pp. 235-42. Quotations are from pp. 236-9.


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gospel with its emphasis on social reform.55 As we shall see, fundamentalist Christianity was to a large degree to be shaped by its rejection of the social gospel. However, it is not claimed here that this Spencerian gospel of the turn of the century is the same as the gospel of prosperity we have seen so pervasive today. It is not, as a casual reading of those earlier sermons will show. In the 'Acres of Diamonds' sermon, for example, the theme is 'wealth to the man of morality', but one gets rich by looking round for needs and providing for them — in other words, by initiative and enterprise. The stress is not, as in the modern gospel of prosperity, on God's supernatural provision. The older gospel was not nearly as theological; it did not claim that Jesus saved us from the burden of the law which included poverty. Nor did the older gospel stress that we use our wealth for the evangelisation of others; in today's gospel of prosperity, this is both the reason why we have been given wealth, and also the formula for amassing more. And the older gospel gave no emphasis to tithing: in the modern form, this is almost the central point56 and we have argued here that this indicates its origins, for it was devised in its present form to meet the expenses of the media evangelists. The two gospels of wealth are not the same, but they have in common the fact that they were both devised to meet particular needs of American society. The gospel of prosperity plays a definite social role for American Christians today.57 The media have shown Americans the incredible deprivation of so much of the world. There 55 56

57

Boiler, American Thought, p p . 119-22. The Copelands insist tithing is the key to prosperity. Gloria Copeland writes, 'Tithing is absolutely the base. It is the only sure foundation for financial success' {Voice of Victory, 17/11), p. 12. See also 17/1 pp. 8-9. T h i s gospel is a p p e a r i n g n o w in Britain too. C o p e l a n d ' s Voice of Victory goes to 12,254 homes in the United Kingdom, according to his Summer 1989 newsletter. Many churches are coming to be characterised by this teaching, for example the Family Church, Brackness, one of 60 New Frontiers International Churches {Independent, 11 July 1989, p. 3). But the climate in Britain is still very different from that in the United States, as was evident from the reaction when John Patten, a Minister of State at the Home Office, called on the churches to develop a ' theology of success' {Independent, 14 Feb. 1989, p. 8). The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the gospel of success as 'one of the worst heresies of the 20th century' {Guardian, 22 Feb. 1989, p. 3). The Baptist Times featured a headline 'Outrage at call for "Success Theology"' {Baptist Times, 23 Feb. 1989, p. 20). See the discussion in Tablet, 4 Mar. 1989, pp. 264-5.

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are many, including some influential Christians, who claim that there is something wrong with the world's economic system and call for some radical restructuring. The gospel of prosperity meets this challenge. No one need feel guilty about wealth. Not only is it God's will for Christians to prosper; the poor, if they are evangelised properly, can also prosper. The task of a true Christian, then, is to provide money to promote this evangelism - nothing more radical than that. Those who do not respond to this evangelism are responsible for their own continued deprivation. In parts of Africa, this prosperity message functions in exactly the same way. Among the whites of South Africa it has a wide following. It is promoted in many white churches in South Africa, nowhere more so than in the flourishing Rhema Bible Churches founded in South Africa by Ray McCauley who also studied under Kenneth Hagin in Tulsa, Oklahoma.58 Among these whites, the gospel of prosperity plays an important sociopolitical role. Any form of Christianity that insists that their disproportionate wealth is nothing to be guilty about but, on the contrary, is the sign of a true Christian, provides considerable comfort - and some reassurance, in the face of the very real threat of losing that wealth. The gospel of prosperity assures them that wealth is their due and has nothing to do with the unjust structures with which Tutu, Hurley, Boesak and Naude are continually confronting their churches. Again we see how the gospel of prosperity acts as a foil to any form of liberation theology. The reason for black Africa's receptive response to the faith gospel is different. It was always recognised that the appeal of Jim and Tammy Bakker with their Rolls, 50-foot walk-in closets, gold-plated bathroom fixtures and air-conditioned dogkennels, lay in their embodying the wealth so many humbler 58

For Rhema's Christianity, its emphasis on prosperity, and its socio-political role, see T. Verryn, Rich Christian, Poor Christian: An Appraisal of Rhema Teachings (Pretoria,

Ecumenical Research Unit, 1983); The Ecumenical Research Unit, Throw Yourself Down: A Consideration of the Main Teachings of the Prosperity Cults (Pretoria, The Unit, n.d.); E. S. Morran and L. Schlemmer, Faith for the Fearful? An Investigation into New

Churches in the Greater Durban Area (Durban, University of Natal, Centre for Applied Social Sciences, 1984), pp. 5-17; P. Gifford, The New Crusaders, esp. pp. 38-40, 70-3.


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viewers aspired to.59 Similarly, Copeland's $5,000 watch and his stories about those Mercedes cars (given their function in Africa as status symbols) evoke a very natural reaction among many of Africa's poor. But there is one factor which has increased black Africa's receptivity to this gospel of prosperity. As Daneel has written: 'According to traditional concepts of Africa, wealth and success are naturally signs of the blessing of God (or of the ancestors).'60 This has often been given as one of the reasons for the appeal of Africa's independent churches; whereas Western churches traditionally tended to restrict salvation to the things of the next world, independent churches to a far greater degree have included in the concept of salvation realities of everyday life like health, fertility, success and material goods. Africa has no tradition of asceticism. Africa's new Christians come to the Copelands, Ray McCauley, Kenneth Hagin and others from a tradition completely different from that influenced by the desert fathers, monasticism and Francis of Assisi. Also, one cannot underestimate the significance of the fact that it is affluent whites who preach this message. One tragic effect of a regime like Doe's is that it destroys any self-esteem or self-respect in the local people. In parts of Liberia the hopelessness and despair were almost palpable. Anyone could see that nothing worked; things that used to function were just disintegrating; infrastructure was deteriorating; education simply regressed. Locals could see that those responsible for this situation, those guilty of the mismanagement and misappropriation, were their own people. Conversely, the vast majority of those things run with any efficiency and honesty were administered by missionaries, or officials of USAID, the EEC or the Peace Corps, most of whom were white. It was not just that whites were regarded as technologically more educated, they were often seen to possess some moral superiority. It was at first disconcerting for a foreigner to be told, 'You can be trusted, you are white.' Many searching not just for money but for some self59 60

Time, 8 June 1987, pp. 52-5. Inus Daneel, Quest for Belonging: Introduction to a Study of African Independent Churches (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1987), p. 46.

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esteem or pride looked for the secret of the whites. And a subtext of this entire faith preaching is, 'You can become like me if you do what I did.' As said above, for all the ostensible reliance on biblical texts, the real vehicle of this teaching is personal testimony. A prerequisite for the uncritical acceptance of the gospel of prosperity is the fundamentalist understanding of the Bible so rife in Liberia. Where the Bible effectively functions as a charm or talisman, any text can be taken out of context and used to prove anything. Thus a text like' I have never seen the righteous begging bread' (Ps 37, 25) becomes the simple truth. There is no way to question it. Any attempt to evaluate it theologically is ruled out. To assess it in the light of experience or common sense or scientific reason is regarded as a denial of faith. The only tools that could examine such a doctrine have been ruled out from the beginning. Thus, in many circles, if one wants to be considered a Christian, one must accept it. What concerns us here is the socio-political effect of this doctrine. In as much as it distracts attention from any economic system and merely fosters the intention to be among those who prosper within it, the gospel of prosperity is no challenge to any system. Copeland's Harare seminar showed this clearly. Socioeconomic analysis meant nothing to him. He stated that all the world's money is under Satan's control, but must be put to the Lord's work; however, as long as someone is contributing to evangelism, 'frankly, I don't care where he gets the money'. Copeland reinforced this by claiming that Zacchaeus (Lk 19, 1-10) 'was head of the mob, head of all the gambling and prostitution, an underworld character', and Jesus took his money. The money Copeland spoke of was always for revival, to send missionaries, to support ministries, to save souls, for evangelism - never for development or social restructuring. Political systems, asserted Copeland, do not matter; God's laws of prosperity ' work under any system of government'. Copeland quoted 'All authority is from God' (Rom 13, 1) to inculcate obedience to civil authority. The only impact of Christians on governments that he envisaged was that which comes from


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prospering to such a degree that the whole society shares in the prosperity; then all in authority would c begin to recognize that that congregation of [Christian] people over there is the source of our prosperity'. Copeland expressly stated, 'I do not have any political views. My political views are not worth five cents.'61 The faith formula gospel which was swiftly transforming Liberian Christianity, played a very significant role in Liberia. It left completely unchallenged the iniquitous social and political system. Sickness, poverty, hunger were not political issues — according to this gospel, there were no political issues. Hunger and poverty had nothing to do with mismanagement, corruption and the incompetence of the government. Lack of money was not an issue, because a Christian should live beyond his means. If things were getting worse, one had obviously bowed to Satan. Sickness had nothing to do with lack of drugs or absence of sewers. To resort to medicine displayed a lack of faith. The opinions of doctors - as also economic forecasts and the 'law of supply and demand' - did not apply to Christians. Circumstances of life were of no importance - in fact to pay attention to these was to slip into unbelief. To be moved by what one saw and felt was to bow to Satan. The state of the nation, the plight of others, were of no importance. Unbelievers would naturally be in want; God can bless only what belongs to him. Everything was a matter of personal faith. Any problem could be overcome by belief. An all-powerful God controlled everything; he would intervene with a miracle when appropriate. 61

Copeland's disclaimer that he has no political views is not entirely true. He has appeared (along with Ray McCauley of Rhema) on a video promoting South Africa. See Sara Diamond, 'Shepherding', Covert Action Information Bulletin (Spring 1987), pp. 24-5.

CHAPTER 5


The Episcopal cathedral occupies a commanding site on the hill on the main street of Monrovia. It is probably the biggest church building in the country, elaborately furnished, with the organ donated by the Firestone family. Services were in English. The cathedral attracted about 200 worshippers to its main Sunday service.1 Just 500 yards away, on a much less impressive site, met the Transcontinental Evangelistic Association Church (Transcea). This was founded in 1982, 142 years after the Episcopal Church came to Liberia. It had no buildings of its own, and rented schoolrooms each Sunday. Yet 1,600 people attended the Sunday morning services. Services were conducted in English, and groups outside the windows had the sermon translated into four local languages. One might conclude from this that the independent sector was the sector with the vitality. Generally speaking, there was a clear distinction between the mainline churches and the independent. The mainline (often called in Liberia the ' civilised') churches did cater for the more powerful and affluent. This was strikingly evident at times. All churches in Liberia used the rally as a method of fund-raising. The Episcopal Cathedral's rally on 3 September 1989 to raise funds for a new floor brought in $27,000 in thirty minutes. Rallies in some independent churches took several hours and raised only a few dollars, most of it in small coins. Also, the mainline churches had clear Western links. These were most 1

On 27 August 1989 67 persons attended the 7.30 am service, 186 attended the 10 am service, and 21 the service at 5 pm - a total of 274.

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obvious at worship. The Episcopal and Methodist churches had their book of common prayer and service book and hymn books from overseas. It was possible to go to both Episcopal and Methodist services and sing no hymn composed in this century. The most extreme example of this was the Sunday service celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ordination of Archbishop Michael Francis. The choirs sang Palestrina, Bach, Handel. Organising the ceremony were the Knights of Marshall and Knights of St John, wearing cockaded hats and swords, both orders modelled on orders of European chivalry.2 But, if these mainline (' civilised') churches were home to the' civilised' people, it would be a mistake to consider them as exclusively for 'civilised' people. Their appeal went far beyond that. At the same ceremony for Archbishop Francis, the vast majority were poorer people, from every tribal grouping. The appeal to such people was obvious. The Catholic Church, for example, with its highly rated school system, offered a great deal to the poor. (One frequently heard the complaint, 'The Catholics have taken over this country with their school system'.) This is an important consideration. For all the examples like Transcea that could be quoted, it may be that in the late 1980s the Catholic Church was growing faster than them all: the Catholics in mid-1989 had 9 parishes in Monrovia, expected to have 3 more by the end of the year, and were planning for 40 by the year 2000.3 It gives the completely wrong impression to say that the poor people were flocking to independent churches at the expense of the mainline churches. Obviously, however, what drew the poorer people to the Catholic Church was not what drew them to Transcea. However, if there was an obvious distinction between the independent and the mainline churches, by the late 1980s it was no longer possible to distinguish between independent churches in the traditional way. In the 1950s and 1960s there appeared a 2

3

The Episcopal church, too, had its order of chivalry. These orders fitted well with the Liberian penchant for ceremonial (particularly under Tubman). Interview with Archbishop Francis, 5 June 1989. The Herald (4-10 Aug. 1988, p. 1) noted the claim of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples that 3,554,000 Africans had become Catholics in the previous year - almost 10,000 a day.

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tremendous outflow of literature on the independent churches, usually employing a typology based on Sundkler's.4 In the 1980s this was still being used, but by then it was completely inadequate, for another phenomenon had appeared which completely altered the situation. This is best illustrated by reference to Latin America. In Guatemala in 1957, less than 2 per cent of the country was Protestant. In 1988 over one third of the people were Protestant, with approximately 10,000 Protestant churches divided among nearly 300 different denominations, some 200 of which called themselves 'independent'. Among the Aquacatecos, there were 4 small Protestant churches in the late 1960s, 15 in 1980, and 160 by 1988. In Totonicapan there were less than 100 in 1980; in 1988 there were over 270. This proliferation was evident everywhere. In the department of Alta Verapaz there were, by 1988, 500 Protestant churches; in the department of Huechuelange there were 700. Most of these were tiny sects numbering no more than a dozen people, meeting in houses or storefronts. Most were led by pastors whose only training was their alleged divine revelation.5 Exactly the same phenomenon swept West Africa in the 1980s. Churches proliferated until governments proposed regulating this development.6 But what complicated the African 4

B. G. M. Sundkler, Bantu Prophets in South Africa, London, Lutterworth, 1948; H. W. Turner, African Independent Church, vol. 1 History of An African Independent Church: the Church of the Lord (Aladura); vol. 2. African Independent Church: the Life and Faith of the

Church of the Lord {Aladura), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1967. J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura: a Religious Movement among the Toruba, London, Oxford University Press, 1968; David B. Barrett, Schism and Renewal in Africa: an Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious

Movements, Nairobi and London, Oxford University Press, 1968; F. B. Welbourn and B. A. Ogot, A Place to Feel at Home: A Study of Two Independent Churches in Western

Kenya, London, Oxford University Press, 1966; C. G. Baeta, Prophetism in Ghana, London, SCM, 1962; J. B. Webster, The African Churches Among the Toruba i888-ig22, 5

6

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984. Virginia Garrard Burnett, ' Mid Trial and Tribulation: Protestantism in Modern Guatemala', paper delivered at CIIR/Christian Aid 'Faith and Development' Conference, London, 26-7 October 1989. Deputy Minister Paul Allen Wie (responsible for research and information services at Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism) called for the creation of a bureau of religious affairs in the government of Liberia ' in view of the proliferation of religious organizations in the country today... to ensure that such organizations operate in keeping with their declared intent and the laws of the Republic', Daily Observer, 27 July 1988, p. 2.


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picture was that Africa already had numerous independent churches. Barrett estimated that there were 6,000 in 1967.7 By the end of the 1980s there were countless more, but some were of the older kind, some were part of this new movement, and many which may have begun as the older type were by then entirely of the newer. Others still were at some point in this transition. In Liberia in the late 1980s it was still possible to find pure examples at either extreme. There were undoubtedly independent churches of the kind that Sundkler and Barrett discussed - for example, at Camp 4 just outside Yekepa in the Nimba highlands, the El Shaddai church pastored by Bishop Manuel, a Ghanaian who came to Liberia in 1975 as a teacher, and began the church in 1978. It had, by 1989, three branches in Liberia. The Camp 4 branch was a healing church; people came to be cured, and there was provision for them to stay as long as they wished. At any one time there could be twelve people living there. An evil spirit was thought to cause all illnesses, and the pastor's relation to the spirit could cure them. Similarly, the Church of the 12 Apostles in Greenville, Sinoe County, founded by a Ghanaian - in fact a wholly Ghanaian Church for the Fanti fishermen of the area. It was a healing church, at which people from all churches stayed as long as they needed to. Prayer and holy water were the methods of healing. Prayer was conducted from a ' mercy ground', a concrete platform 5 metres square, and 2 feet high, which functioned (adherents said) 'like a telephone'. At the other end of the spectrum, there were clear examples of modern independent churches which had arisen as a result of US influence. For example, an unemployed Liberian saw Jim Bakker's PTL programme on Liberian TV, and wrote asking to This was not only a Liberian phenomenon. In Ghana it was estimated that by the beginning of 1989 there were about 600 Gospel/Pentecostal churches: see Ben Ephson, 'Spiritual Onslaught', West Africa, 17-23 April 1989, pp. 584-5. This proliferation led to government restrictions (Tablet, 24 June 1989, p. 740). For the same phenomenon in Nigeria, and similar government alarm, see Bola Olowo,' God or Mammon?', West Africa, 13-19 Aug. 1990, pp. 2274-5. 7

Barrett, Schism and Renewal in Africa: An Analysis of Six Thousand Contemporary Religious Movements.

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be made Bakker's Liberian representative. Bakker replied affirmatively, and the Liberian began a church called the PTL Heritage Church which in 1989 numbered about 100, of whom 35-50 would attend on a Sunday. The local representatives of Keith Hershey's ' Voice of Victory' ministry, after crusades in the hinterland, normally directed their converts to local churches. However, when they considered that (in their words) there were ' no biblical churches' in the area, they were forced to found churches of their own.8 Likewise, two students at the MBTC, one from the Greater Refuge Temple, one from the Messiah Church, used to meet and evangelise after their services on a Sunday. Almost as a practical exercise, to put into practice what they learned at MBTC, they founded just outside Monrovia, over the St Paul River, the Christ Evangelical Church which in 1989 had about 50 members. These churches were obviously thoroughly American in their origin and were examples of the new phenomenon. When one left the two extremes, however, it was often not at all clear how one could categorise these churches. Invariably they were fundamentalist in their approach to the Bible. But some combined this with very Catholic characteristics that their founders retained from a previous existence. We have noted this above in the case of one of Liberia's best-known independent churches, the Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ. Even the El Shaddai Church which we have just mentioned as an example of an old-style African Independent church (in the sense that it owed nothing to the more recent American-based movement) provided a unique blend of Catholic influence. Inside the church an enormous rosary hung across the sanctuary; a picture of the Sacred Heart stood on the centre of the altar; also on the altar were statues of the Virgin Mary, St Anthony and St Clare, with candles burning before them. A detailed timetable hung on the wall, with the day divided into work, study and prayer - and the hours of prayer (usually comprising decades of 8

Interview with 'Voice of Victory' team, 26 May 1989. Similarly, the founder of the Army of God Bible Church, an evangelist who ' could not trust other churches' to disciple his converts properly, claimed he was forced to found his own church (Interview, 19 Sept. 1989).


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the rosary and psalms) were arranged like a monastic horarium. On Thursday evenings there were devotions to St Anthony. What made typologising this church even more difficult is that it was only the three Liberian (not the Ghanaian) branches of the El Shaddai Church which had these Catholic touches, because the founder of the Liberian branches was formerly a Catholic. The El Shaddai Church elsewhere in West Africa does not manifest these characteristics.9 The same kind of diversity was found in Bishop Marwieh's AICA, which was effectively a denomination made up of former Baptist churches, Pentecostal churches, and 'Jesus-only' apostolics.10 Even the term Pentecostal often confused the picture. There were independent churches that called themselves Pentecostal which not only did not speak in tongues, but positively rejected the practice as unbiblical.11 It was the same with healing. Some were healing churches, some (particularly the newer kind) invariably had healing within the ceremony. Some said prayers for the sick. But there were churches with Pentecostal in their title which were distinguished neither by healing nor by tongues. All that the word necessarily meant was 'using local instruments'. But instruments or music did not provide a means of classification either. Many churches used modern Western instruments (like the electric guitar amplified on a sound system), others used drums and sasa. Some had printed their own hymn books. Some had choirs, but there were some in 9

10

11

The SCCJC was another church where Catholic devotional art was prominent crucifixes, guardian angels, prints of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour adorned the altar. The dress of the LWC was blue because Mary is said to have appeared to the foundress. The Gates of Heaven Midday Prayer Chapel also displayed Catholic devotional art prominently. Interview with Bishop Marwieh, 2 Sept. 1988. There was in Liberia a further question of what exactly constitutes a church. Liberian Christianity was characterised by midday prayer bands, many of which evolve into churches (e.g. the Gates of Heaven Midday prayer Chapel, founded by Mother Rachel C. Brown, which was by the late 1980s a fully-fledged church). Even the SCCJC, though it had services on Sundays, in fact had no register. Most people who attended the prayer services on Friday nights belonged to other churches which they attended on Sundays. E.g. the Spirit-Fill Interdenominational Chapel (interview with founder 26 Aug. 1989); Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) Inc. (interview with foundress, 2 Sept. 1989)-

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which all the singing was congregational. If singing can be roughly divided into local music, black American (spiritual and soul), traditional Western hymns and Californian charismatic pop of the 1960s, none of these categories could automatically be correlated to any particular type of independent church. Similarly, there were degrees of dancing. Some permitted a frenzied whirling which induced a trance and eventually collapse; in these churches normally other members encircled the dancer to prevent serious harm. The more modern charismatic type would frown on this, but could even be livelier in worship, with congas round the church and dancing of a consciously controlled kind. There were some old-style independent churches which did not indulge in dancing of any kind. There were similar differences between churches in the stress put on uniforms. Some, like the Church of the Lord (Aladura) and its off-shoots, could place tremendous emphasis on uniforms.12 But so did the LWC and the SCCJC which were churches of a very different stamp. It would be true, however, to say that the more modern churches tended to give less importance to uniforms. It seems that there was possible every kind of permutation and combination of characteristics. The position taken here is that there is no longer any sense in trying to typologise, for the new wave of the US-inspired charismatic movement confused the scene beyond recognition. It may have been true that the more remote a church was, the more likely it was of the old style, but even this rule was not infallible. (See the example of the Hershey churches mentioned above.) For our purposes here it is not necessary to pursue this issue further, for our concern is with the overall trend, which (as we will argue) was for all these churches to become assimilated to the US type.13 12

13

See E. O. A. Adejobi, Order of Church Official Robes for the Minsters and Members as decided by the Convocation of the Prelates, Clergy and Senior Ministers on 20-2J March ig8$ at

Ogere Remo, available from Church of the Lord (Aladura) churches. Adrian Hastings noted this tendency in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s: see his 'The Gospel and African Culture', African Catholicism: Essays in Discovery (London, SCM, !989)> PP- 32-3-


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FISSION DYNAMICS

The same scholars who proposed typologies for independent churches also attempted to explain the causes of their splintering or their 'fission dynamics'. For our purposes there is no need to review this general literature. 14 Mark Scheffers, in an article entitled 'Schism in the Bassa Independent Churches of Liberia', 15 discusses the contemporary scene under four headings: leadership, financial irregularity, church discipline, and reaction to missionary controls. He gives a good picture of how these factors operate, particularly the conflicts that arise over different conceptions of leadership, with the younger group pushing aside the older. Similarly, the understanding of a church as the private property of the founder or leader leads to an inability to distinguish between the leader's funds and the church's funds. However, three points should be made in this context of fission. First, much of the discussion of fission dynamics seems unaware of the history of similar churches outside Africa. A comparison, for example, with a related church in the USA might show that the same fission is observable there, and for the very same causes - questions of leadership, financial irregularities, discipline (especially over sexual matters), racism and (very occasionally) doctrine. The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW), the earliest and one of the biggest American black 'Jesus-only' Pentecostal churches, has a history in America very similar to the history of its Liberian branch. This 14

See the literature in note 4 above, and particularly M. L. Daneel, Old and New in Southern Shona Independent Churches: Volume III, Leadership and Fission Dynamics, Gweru,

15

Mambo Press, 1988. Much of the literature is summarised in Daneel, Quest for Belonging, pp. 68-101. In David A. Shank (ed.), Ministry of Missions to African Independent Churches, pp. 62-95. Scheffers gives an account of the 'Holy Ghost Movement' which caused the proliferation in the 1950s, and discusses the efforts of the Bassa Ministers' Association to prevent further splits. Perry Tinklenberg, in the same volume, draws attention to the social fact that typical Bassa villages number only about 20 huts, which predispose churches to split rather than grow big ('The Christian Extension Ministries of the Christian Educational Foundation of Liberia', p. 100). Karnga frequently distinguished between the splits in the 1950s (for cultural reasons) and those in the 1980s (for reasons of greed or poor leadership); see Abba Karnga, 'The Lord's Warrior', pp. 3-5.

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suggests that the fission dynamics cannot be explained too specifically in reference to conditions in Africa, for the dynamics seem fairly similar in the USA as well. Nor can this be seen too exclusively as a black issue: if the PAW is predominantly a black church, white Trinitarian Holiness Pentecostals in the USA have a remarkably similar history. It may be that fission has as much to do with the nature of certain strains of Christianity as with geography (see Appendix, p. 225). Secondly, as in the case of typology, the entire debate about fission dynamics has been changed by the world-wide Pentecostal explosion of the 1980s. In this new scene, the establishing of a new church by a member or members of an already existing one need not be seen as a split at all. In the past, the establishing of a new church usually indicated (at least to Western observers) some dissatisfaction with the old. It usually caused strained relations. Now this need not be the case at all. At work is a new ecclesiology, derived more from Pentecostalism than the traditional mainline churches. According to this ecclesiology, the true church is made up of all born-again believers, and has nothing to do with these organised bodies traditionally called churches. To start a new cell of born-again believers is not seen as severing communion with any church, but as a step towards fulfilling the great commission, an act of great virtue, and regarded as such even by those with whom one used to worship. From this perspective, the concept of'split' is not very helpful.16 Third, and most important for our purposes, the paradigmatic treatments offissiondynamics in AICs were written in the 1960s or early 1970s, the optimistic years immediately after African political independence. While these theories may still have validity, by the 1980s the African context had changed beyond recognition. The optimism has evaporated, as African 16

See David Stoll, 'A Protestant Reformation in Latin America?', Christian Century, 17 Jan. 1990, pp. 46-7. The Founder of Liberia's Immanuel Pentecostal Church simply began a church in another part of town because he had to wait a long time to preach in the Greater Refuge Temple (interview with founder 26 May 1989). Organisations like the Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers embodied this new ecclesiology.


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economies have collapsed.17 Thus the biggest single factor in the proliferation of churches has become economic, as Liberia under Doe well illustrates. Put simply, as Liberia's economy disintegrated, job opportunities evaporated.18 For people with drive, ambition and leadership skills, one opening remained, however: to pastor a church. If one could open a school as well,19 there was even more opportunity. Thus many of the proliferating churches in Liberia in the late 1980s existed because this was one way in which talented people with leadership skills could earn a livelihood in totally depressed conditions.20 This economic collapse is crucial, for it not only explains the mushrooming of independent churches; it also explains the most significant phenomenon in the independent sector, namely, their increasing dependence on US churches. As the economy collapsed, Liberian churches were reduced to a state of penury. It was not uncommon to come across even large churches with not a single employed member.21 All independent churches knew that the Lutherans and Methodists had 'overseas boards' which funded them and enabled them to run the schools and clinics which gave them importance and their pastors such status. In their penury, pastors and churches were 17

Adrian Hastings writes of an ' almost millennial sense of renewal in much of Africa in the early 1960s' ('The Post-Conciliar Catholic Church in Eastern Africa', in African Catholicism, p. 126). The rest of the essay (pp. 122-37) describes the difference by the late 1980s. For the significance of this retreat from optimism, see also his 'The Gospel and African Culture', African Catholicism, pp. 29-31; and the same author's

A History ofAfrican Christianity 1950-1975 (Cambridge, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979), 18

19

20

21

pp. 132 and 139-40. This is something much more than the * cultural demoralisation' cited as a reason for proliferating churches (see, e.g., Slager, 'Accurate Picture', referred to on p. 208 n. 35, below). Money to survive had to be obtained somewhere; the Mormon Bishop claimed that in one week he counted up the sums for which he had been asked at his door; the total was $27,000. In 1989 the 121 pupils of Greenville's Faith in Christ Church school paid $6 for kindergarten and $10 for elementary school per semester; at Greenville's DSCPC school the 300 children paid $2.50 per semester. Olowo writes about Nigeria:' In these hard times when inflation and unemployment stare Nigerians in the face, churches appear to have become one way to seek riches' ('God or Mammon?', p. 2274). E.g. the Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) Inc. (interview with foundress, 2 Sept. 1989); the Mount Calvary Holy Pentecostal Church, Greenville, had two (out of 150) members employed (interview with pastor 17 Aug. 1989).

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reduced to writing off to US churches in an effort to establish links with them - which most often meant offering to become the Liberian branch of the American church. Liberian pastors would listen to ELWA for addresses of ministries. They would copy addresses from the backs of magazines and tracts. The more literate would borrow from missionaries, or consult, at the United States Information Service, reference books like Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions. They could write nu-

merous letters. Bishop Teah of Calvary Redemption Pentecostal Church wrote 52 letters and received 37 replies, of which 18 were positive. Of the 18 churches which he could have joined, he chose the Church of God of the Mountain Assembly.22 There was nothing secret about this general scramble for US affiliation; it was simply regarded as a necessity of life. The greatest instance of successful affiliation with a US group was undoubtedly Bishop Dixon's DSCPC. Bishop Dixon began his ministry in the PAW, under Bishop Peter Warkie, the denomination's first Liberian Bishop. According to Bishop Dixon, Warkie wanted to nationalise everything and keep the Americans out. In the ensuing struggle, Warkie was defrocked but he apologised and was reinstated. However, the Americans used this opportunity to split the denomination, with Warkie Bishop of Episcopal District 35 (including Monrovia, Margibi, Maryland and River Cess Counties) and Dixon Bishop of Episcopal District 41 (Monrovia, Sinoe County). Dixon claimed that the American parent body gave little help ($250 a month only, which could not even pay his pastors), and would not contribute to buildings yet they retained full control, so in 22

Interview, 6 Sept. 1989. Leaders of Independent Pentecostal Church of Christ (Inc.). Mount Calvary Holy Pentecostal Church, Pentecostal Assemblies of Africa, Trump of God International Church, Eliza Henries Memorial Chapel, St Paul Pentecostal Church of Christ, Bible Faith Christian Church, the Heavenly Church, all admitted they were seeking affiliation with an American Church. Bishop Caulae, of the Faith in Christ Church explained (interview, 26 Aug. 1989) how he prayed for a Mission Board:' God, you called me. I have no clothes, no food. I'm suffering. Find me a good board'. He affiliated in 1989 to the Apostolic Holiness Churches Inc, of Tucker, Georgia. Some of these affiliations made sense. E.g. Liberia's Salvation Army was established in i960, but not as part of the international movement. In the late 1980s, after continual requests, the head office finally agreed to take the church into the official Salvation Army, and sent a Canadian couple as missionaries.


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1984 he took his 31 churches and 35 preaching posts from the PAW.23 At about this time Liberia experienced a severe recession, which saw many of his church members made redundant, and Dixon's building programmes had to be suspended. Dixon claimed that he wrote to many churches looking for affiliation. He received six replies, but on checking their doctrinal statements he found that five were not orthodox. He therefore did not pursue them, but chose the only orthodox candidate,24 Don Stewart Ministries of Phoenix Arizona. Dixon travelled to the USA in 1986, and negotiations were completed by March 1987, when Dixon's 33-congregation Christ Pentecostal Church became the DSCPC. Don Stewart took over the ministry of A. A. Allen of Miracle Valley, Arizona, when Allen died in 1970. By 1989 Don Stewart had about 1,000 churches worldwide, known as Miracle Life Fellowship International. (Three or four hundred of them are in the Philippines where they are known as Miracle Revival Inc.) Probably more important than the churches, however, are the associated ministries: Mission of Hope (health centres), Feed My People (food distribution), and Children's Hope (schools). His fundraising magazine bears the heading, 'The Most Effective Evangelical Relief Operation in the World', and by 1989 his ministry was operating in twenty-five countries.25 Don Stewart was certainly effective in Liberia. Feed My People began in Liberia on 17 February 1988. In September 1988 the newspapers published photos of a truck unloading powdered milk worth $17,250, and stated that the ministry was catering for 8,000 children at 4 centres in Monrovia.26 Don Stewart gave over $1 million of seeds to assist in Doe's Green 23

24

25

T h e actual d a t e of secession is (as here) frequently very difficult to establish, for the secession is often not m a d e final until the new adopting body has committed itself to financial support. Bishop Dixon's, as a PAW offshoot, should have been a 'Jesus-only' church, and therefore joining with Don Stewart should have required theological adjustment. Dixon claimed it affected only the method of baptising (interview, 8 Sept. 1988). In practice, such changes seem to create little problem. Developments c a n b e followed in Feed My People, available from P O Box 2980, 26 Phoenix A Z 85062. Daily Observer, 19 Sept. 1988, p . 3.

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Revolution.27 In August 1989 the ministry reconditioned a road in New Kru Town at a cost of $3,000; the road had almost become impassable in the rains. The newspaper account said the church would soon tackle the suburb's problem of erosion along the beach, and had 2,700 pupils in its schools around the country.28 The 16-member Liberian delegation that returned from an international convention in Phoenix in October 1989 announced that it had received a $470,000 gift of textbooks.29 The dynamics of such a US link were made evident when Don Stewart visited Liberia for the first time in May 1989, after a whirlwind tour of Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia. He was met at the airport by a rapturous crowd, and photographs of the welcome were published in the Daily Observer. On the Sunday a special service was held at Dixon's biggest church. A banner across the street proclaimed: ' The People of Liberia welcome Apostle Don Stewart Home'. He was driven to the church by Dixon in a new car, and the church which, even a few months before, drew only 50 people was now packed by 500-700, organised by ushers with 2-way radios. Choirs from other churches sang, and the press and local dignitaries, some in formal dress and black tie, attended. Don Stewart was feted, and clothed paramount chief of Monrovia. Don Stewart, obviously impressed, delivered the sermon. His text was Is 43, 18-19: 'Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.'30 He preached: 'God is doing a new thing in Liberia. God is able to provide the finances you need, the miracle you need. This is God's time for Liberia. I have a dream for DSCPC in Liberia. Every church in the country will become a healing centre for God. Every church in the country will have a Children's Hope school... a clinic... selfhelp programmes... You and I together can alleviate hunger in 27 28 29 30

Stated in Daily Observer, n M a y 1989, p . 3. Daily Observer, 25 Aug. 1989, p . 8 a n d ELWA News, 27 A u g . 1989. Herald, 2 3 - 9 Nov. 1989, p . 9. The other readings were Elijah's miraculous breaking of the drought (1 Kings 18, 41-46) and the miraculous feeding of the five thousand (Mt 14, 13-21).


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this country, heal the sick and set the oppressed free. The DSCPC in Liberia will rise up in faith. God will enable us to feed every hungry child in the country... to educate every child that needs education. The church will rise up in Liberia and take this nation for Jesus Christ. [Then, inverting Winston Churchill] You do the job, I'll give you the tools. We together will march across the land till every child is fed, till every sick person is healed.' Then came promises to various groups: to the women, ' I have a dream... that you will have a new place to live'; to the men, ' I have a dream that you will have good jobs (cheering)... that you will be able to provide for your family. Your children [will be able] to go on to college, becoming doctors, lawyers, nurses, business people. I will stand with you to fulfil that dream.' So, on Dixon's side, the visit brought enormous publicity and public promises of virtually unlimited assistance.31 But Don Stewart benefited too. There were three others in his party. One was the editor of his fund-raising magazine, the two others (not members of his church) were professional film-makers. Dixon had acquired governmental permits for them to photograph in the most squalid areas of Monrovia, which they did. Feed My People magazine is noted for its photos of distended stomachs and emaciated limbs.32 Thus the link has the result that Don Stewart can more effectively raise funds back in the USA. For our purposes, however, the most significant thing about Don Stewart's takeover of the Liberian church was the effect on the theology of the local church, as we discussed above in chapter 4. 31

32

For the publicity and the trumpeting of the promises, see Daily Observer, 8 May 1989, p. 3 (and photo); Daily Observer, 11 May 1989, p. 3 (and photo); Daily Observer, 4 May 1989, p. 16; News, 10 May 1989, pp. 3 and 8. As a result of Dixon's status, other churches wanted to ally themselves with him. Two churches in Cape Mount County approached Bishop Dixon in 1988; Dixon sent a delegation to inspect the churches, and these churches joined DSCPC at the 1988 convention. In mid-1989 the founder of Monrovia's Christian Revival Fellowship, a Ghanaian lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Liberia with a doctorate from New Zealand, having read about Dixon in the newspapers, began negotiations to form some link with Dixon so that he could receive assistance from Don Stewart ministries while maintaining some independence. The Don Stewart link undoubtedly brought Dixon influence and importance. Interestingly, one of the first things D o n Stewart sent was a c a m e r a ; a n d in mid-1989 a Liberian m e m b e r of the church was in the interior m a k i n g a video for D o n Stewart.

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But it has to be said that this is a very rare success story.33 More often than not, the attempt to merge led to frustration and bitterness. Most often the Liberian churches did not receive all they expected to; they discovered that their boards did not enable them to run institutions like the Methodists, Lutherans or Catholics — in fact did not enable them to do much at all. On their side, the Americans often came to feel that they had been used. The result was usually unpleasantness all round. As an example of the normal development, consider the example of the Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, Inc. This church was founded by a Kru woman, Elizabeth Ford, in January 1981. She had already founded several churches in Grand Bassa and Kru Counties as a missionary from the Church of Christ Holiness but, because she was only a missionary, called in the bishop to admit her churches. The bishop duly came, but became involved with a woman in one of the Kru churches. Their attempts to discipline the bishop failed, since he refused to accept punishment from the church. Elizabeth Ford's Kru branches therefore did not want to stay with him, so she withdrew them as an independent church called Christian Nation Church to symbolise that tribal barriers were abolished in it. The church existed under this name from 1981 to 1985, with her husband as its bishop. With the economic deterioration — everyone in her church was unemployed — she established a link with the Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, New Jersey, headed by Bishop R. C. Williams. He came to Liberia in 1985, and agreed to the amalgamation, and asked her to change the name to that of the US parent, which was done. However, the expected assistance proved to be very disappointing. One of the requests from the Liberian side was for $6,000 to buy a van. The church in the USA kept wanting more details; then they wanted Mrs Ford to go to America to receive 33

Other churches expressing satisfaction with their new US sponsorship included the National Bible Way Churches of Liberia which received $14,000 from their American visitors at the 1988 convention (the church was pledged $100,000 over the decade, see Daily Observer, 29 Oct. 1981, p. 3); and the Faith in Christ Church Inc., whose delegates returned from the 1989 convention of their US parent with promises of $4,000 for pastors and school teachers, $7,000 to finish the church, and 9 scholarships.


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the money. By the time all these preliminaries had been attended to, the price had gone up - she said to $15,000, her husband said to $10,095. At any rate, they gave the money to a dealer, who thereupon kept it. The Fords were accused of 'eating' (misappropriating) it. They managed to convince the US board that they had not, and instituted legal steps to reclaim the money. However, the US parent made it quite clear that they did not intend sending more, so if a van could not be purchased for $6,000 the money was to be returned. In a letter dated 1 August 1989 Bishop Williams took the opportunity to state that his commitment to Liberia (since it had been called into question) was as great as ever. He expressed his pleasure that the money for the van had been accounted for; gave the all-clear for the Liberian branch to go ahead with surveying 200 acres in Sinoe County; and gave $400 to buy a half-acre plot in Greenville, and allocated $700 for teachers in the church schools for the year 1990. The Fords, however, considered this (particularly the school allocation) to be woefully inadequate. As a result they were particularly disillusioned with their US adopting parent ('They are black churches - it is not their fault'). Mrs Ford attended the church's US convention in August 1989, and returned with the addresses of other churches, and began actively looking for another adopting church.34 Typically, this dissatisfaction was by 1989 becoming the greatest single reason for splits within churches. When, inevitably, the money diminished or fell below expectations, the local pastor was accused either of' eating' it, or of losing his ability to attract funding. In either case, the situation was ripe for a group to secede from the church to join another US parent, or (sometimes) for the pastor to initiate such secession, only to have a group in the church stay loyal to the original parent. Consider the various accounts of the origin of Liberia's First Church of Love and Faith. According to one of its pastors, an 34

Interview with foundress, 2 Sept. 1989. Churches expressing dissatisfaction with their American link included St Peter's United Church of the Lord, Soul Winning Independent Church of Christ, Spirit-Fill Interdenominational Chapel, Heavenly Church.

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Assemblies of God church in Monrovia consisted mainly of Kru and Grebo. When the Grebo leader died in 1969, his assistant, a Kru, took over the leadership. This caused the Grebo to establish their own prayer band within the church. Inevitably this became, in 1970, a church called the United Christian Assembly, which attracted non-Grebo groups in the interior and became a denomination in fellowship with the Liberian Christian Assemblies. In 1973 Bishop D. L. Williams of New Jersey's (later Brooklyn's) Mission for Today (MFT) Church visited Liberia, seeking a Liberian branch. (All accounts agree that in this case the initiative for the merger came from the US parent.) The United Christian Assembly became Liberia's Mission for Today Church and, about 1975, the US parent built its imposing church in New Kru Town. Money was sent to the head of the local church, and, in 1981, Bishop Williams came to the convention and made enquiries about $11,000 he had sent. Initially the church supported the local leader, but, in 1985 when he was in the USA, the church found that only $200 remained from $6,000 given to purchase a vehicle. When the local leader returned the church tried to reason with him, but he paid no heed, so in 1987 8 of the 11 MFT churches seceded. About this time one of those leading the secession made contact with Chicago's First Church of Love and Faith; he therefore constituted the eight seceding churches (with a membership of about 1,000) as Liberia's First Church of Love and Faith, supported by its Chicago parent, with himself as presiding bishop. The Bishop of the Mission For Today Church gives an interesting variant of this split. According to him the story begins with LCA youths who demanded a secondary school, which the LCA missionaries refused to provide. This group became so troublesome that they were put out of the LCA fellowship. The group, now the United Christian Assembly, merged with Bishop Williams' MFT Church in 1973, but Williams made promises he never kept. He did not provide the money for the local church, but sent $10,000 for the school - the only money he ever sent. When the Liberian bishop went to the USA in 1984, hoping to study there for four years, he told


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Williams that he was being accused of ' eating' money, and called on Williams to tell the Liberian people that no money had been sent, or he (the Liberian bishop) could not return. He did return, but only because his wife told him that those whom he had left in charge were trying to gain possession of the title deeds to take over the church. On his return in October 1985 he could do nothing, as the majority had made up their minds to establish a new church, and after two year's fighting the eight village churches (in Grand Gedeh, Sinoe and Maryland Counties) seceded, leaving him with only three. The Liberian bishop had realised in 1984 that Williams' was only a new church, and was too small to fulfil the promises he had made. The rump of the MFT Church held a conference in July 1989, and drew up a document to take to the US parent in October. This document, dated 22 July 1989, listed the promises the US parent had made over the years and never kept. These included consignments of used clothes, an orphanage, scholarships for pastors' children, a chain saw, a mimeograph machine, a bus to go to conferences, an exchange of personnel, the draining of a swamp behind the Monrovia headquarters, housing for teachers at the elementary school and, in general, matching dollar-fordollar the funds raised in Liberia. It then listed needs and requests - including the completion of Monrovia and Greenville churches, an annual exchange of conferences, a stipend for the bishop, an operational budget for the church, missionaries, and a handbook of discipline. The document ended with the moving plea: ' If there is any difficulty or hindrance in the implementing of these proposals, the church would kindly solicit your permission to seek friends and brothers in Christ, though we are with you.' In other words, the church would reluctantly have to join another US church. In this way unfulfilled expectations led to numerous schisms.35 35

Interview with Bishop of MFT Church, 6 Sept. 1989, and officials of First Church of Love and Faith, 28 Aug. 1989. This case illustrates three features recurring in investigation into independent churches. First, there was no agreement on the nature of the original split, whether it was tribal or on the grounds of education; perhaps it was experienced differently by different people. Secondly, it was impossible to resolve the dispute about misappropriating funds; since no records are kept, it is

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Much of what has been described here as the fission dynamics of African independency is illustrated by Monrovia's PTL Heritage Church. A young Episcopalian found himself completely without resources. ' I wanted to go to school,' he explained. CI asked the bishop to give me a job. He said, " I have no help to give you". They promise to help you, but they fail. That's against my faith.'36 At that time Jim Bakker's PTL programme was being screened on ELTV, so the young Episcopalian wrote to Bakker, persevered, and eventually in December 1985 he was told he could be Liberia's PTL representative. The PTL sent books, record albums (to sell), one consignment of used clothes and medical kits, but no money. Soon afterwards Bakker's PTL empire collapsed and sources dried up altogether. The pastor organised crusades, Prayer Day gatherings and a Christian Christmas Fellowship in Monrovia's city hall. His church was struggling (he claimed over 100 belonged) and he ran a school (for '125 children') in one of the poorest areas of Monrovia. He wrote to all sorts of Christian groups, any whose address he could find, and even went to the Mormons and completed their entire study course.37 Besides, he had a Bassa branch in

36

37

impossible to resolve the issue one way or the other. Thirdly, it is frequently difficult to get those involved to agree on what came first, the secession or the finding of another US parent. Another such case is well documented in Donald Slager, ' An Accurate Picture of the Esther K. Miller Memorial Church, World Wide Missions of Liberia, Buchanan, Liberia', paper written as part of' Foundations of Church Growth' Course, Fuller Theological Seminary, i June 1989. The WWM of Liberia (in 1989 numbering 60 churches and 4,500 members) began because the Mid-Liberia Baptist Mission cut off funds in 1957, and World Wide Missions International (of Pasadena, California) offered support in 1961. Then in 1981-3, many young people of the Buchanan congregation left the church because they believed that they were missing out on scholarships and funds; they founded their own church, the Christian Church, which even the Esther K. Miller pastor in 1984 joined (among its founders had been some of his own children). Then again in 1985 World Wide Missions in Pasadena cut its support by over 60 per cent: ' This cutback has discouraged some people about the future of the church,' and some of the church's groups ceased to function. This paper well shows the role of US funding in church splits (and also incidentally, the difficulty in acquiring accurate statistics for churches). Interview with founder, 27 Aug. 1989. The PTL Heritage Church, P.O. Box 4429 Monrovia, had its act of incorporation dated 22 Sept. 1988. Interview with Mormon President, 29 May 1989. (The President also stated that, for the same reasons, a group offivepastors, including the prophet, of the Shiloh Church of Christ had joined the Mormons.) Among other groups that the PTL founder


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Buchanan, pastored by a former Methodist. On 9 August 1989 the Bassa group wrote to its Monrovia parent, describing its desperate plight and asking for $5,000 to build a school.38 Given the desperate circumstances of the Monrovia body, they were in no position to send anything to Buchanan. The situation was ripe for a split. This phenomenon of US dependency among AICs is so widespread that many ministries now deal explicitly with this matter in material they send to Africa. Thus Melody Green's ' Last Days Ministries' includes a letter in communications to Africa, stating: 'We are sorry, but Last Days Ministries is not equipped to provide Bibles, clothes, or anything not listed in our catalogue, including financial assistance, airplane tickets and finding you a job in the US.' 39 Liberia was worse than most in this regard. Thus, even the Far Eastern Religion Eckankar which began in Liberia in 1980, in its promotional literature felt that it had to have a section, 'What Eckankar is not and does not do'. It was stated here that Eckankar 'is not a philanthropic organization. For this reason if you wish to join Eckankar with the hope of getting a scholarship or financial assistance from Eckankar, you would be disappointed. Eck-

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39

contacted for sponsorship were MAP International, World Vision International, Florida's World Opportunity, the Bible Society in England, Good News Publishers, London's Trinitarian Bible Society, and London's Young Searchers' League. ' The people in this area are very poor. They have no school, clinic, church building nor roads, the old, sick and disabled people need to be helped very much. They need food, clothes and medical care. We are praying to God to send hands from somewhere to help us to do this great work for him - bringing prosperity to the people by his power. We are praying and striving to build church edifice, schools, clinic and a refuge home. The refuge home will be for the disabled people. We are intending to make large farms to help to feed the people. We need a power saw to cut down the trees in the farm. Please get these items upon our request by the power of God so that this work can go on successfully. Our PTL members conduct weekly meetings and Bible studies. We ask you Bro. Dennis W. Tarweh to help us or find a way whereby we may receive help by the mercy of God. We are appealing to the PTL through you, Bro. Tarweh, to assist us in every way for the love of God to do this great work. You may begin by giving us a large quantity of drugs for the poor suffering, sick people, and some money to build a school for the less fortunate children. We need the amount of Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00) for the school. We will very highly appreciate any amount you will help us with.' Last Days Ministries, P O Box 40, Lindale T X 75771.

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ankar is not an organization which grants loans to its members. It is not an organisation which helps people to secure visas from Embassies for foreign travel... The local Eckankar Centre does not offer salaried jobs.' 40 It was only after clarifying these points that its organisers felt that they could positively describe what the religion is.

THE AMERIGANISATION OF AIGS

We have seen that independent churches were proliferating in Liberia during the 1980s. But this should not be taken to indicate that there was emerging a great variety within Liberian Christianity. Quite the contrary, all factors were combining to homogenise Liberian Christianity along American lines. Individual churches were attempting wherever possible to link themselves with American churches. This in itself led to Americanisation of the church — one of the first things, for example, asked for and provided was invariably Sunday school material and printed literature. But in this section we are more concerned with a more thoroughgoing takeover of the broad independent sector by means of the four educational instruments of Bible College, correspondence course, pastors' workshop and crusade. We will consider these four in turn. The most obvious example in the first category was the African Bible College (ABC) in Yekepa, Nimba County, founded in 1976 by a US Presbyterian couple who had already worked for seven years for Bishop Marwieh at an institution in the interior of Sinoe County. In July 1975 30 acres of land were given to them by Lamco, and they opened their doors in March 1978 with 22 students. The directors made great claims for ABC, stressing the word 'excellence', and claiming to cater for the c cream of the crop' in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Ghana as well as Liberia. However a sharp attack was made on the ABC 40

Eckankar, PO Box 3954, Monrovia. By 1989 the movement had about 30 adherents in Monrovia, about 8 in Buchanan, and hoped to open a group in Ganta (interview with official, 23 Aug. 1989). For Eckankar, see Melton, Encyclopedia, pp. 899-900.


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by an educationalist, Romeo E. Phillips, in the Liberia Studies Journal. The basis of his attack was its claim that its BA programme was 'parallel to that given by any liberal arts college'.41 In rejecting this claim out of hand (he writes that the college was ' void of any courses found in a liberal arts college '42) he was certainly correct. The courses on 'Literature', as explained in the ABC catalogue, dealt with 'the range and variety of Christian literature'. 43 There was a course listed as 'Political Science', but the catalogue adds that in this 'systems are evaluated as to whether they can stand in times of change and crisis'.44 (Phillips just says of this that 'the social science courses are not legitimate'.45 ) There was a course on 'World Religions' which extended to a ' theological evaluation of the major teachings of these world religions',46 yet the tendentious exposition of Islam at the Mission World seminar to be analysed in chapter 6 below was given by an ABC graduate. There was a course on 'African cultural anthropology', with 'special emphasis on intercultural communication of the gospel',47 but the ABC idea of culture was that of Kato, and Phillips notes that, in the ABC view, the Africanisation of Christianity is equated with syncretism and secularisation.48 Phillips is correct in saying that the ABC was an example of an extremely narrow US Bible College. It was an extreme example of the narrow theology outlined above in chapter 3, 41 42

43 45 47 48

ABC brochure. R o m e o E. Phillips, 'African Bible College in Yekepa, N i m b a C o u n t y : Friend o r F o e ? ' LSJ, 14, 2 (1989), p p . 130—9. T h e article was given as a p a p e r a t the 21st a n n u a l conference of the Liberian Studies Association (referred to in Daily Observer, 27 April 1989, p . 3). This quotation is from p . 131 of the article. 44 ABC Catalog, p . 37, italics added. Ibid., p . 38. 46 Phillips, 'African Bible College', p . 137. ABC Catalog, p . 39. Ibid., p . 34. Phillips, 'African Bible College', p p . 133-4. T h o u g h h e praises the physical setting, Phillips is strongly critical of everything else a t ABC. H e writes: ' I t is reported that there are chimpanzees and dogs trained to attack individuals who "are not faculty members" who would enter the grounds of the campus after dark' (p. 134). In his overall assessment, 'A parallel with the intentions of African Bible College may be drawn with the motives of those individuals who established schools in the south for African Americans at the conclusion of the Civil War' (p. 138), and, 'It is inexplicable why the office of the Ministry of Education permits this institution to exist' (ibid.). For Kato's idea of culture, see above, p. 100.

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and its radio programme Bible College by Radio manifested its fundamentalism,49 dispensationalism, Zionism, exclusivism and its stress on obedience. It had no social awareness at all. 'Why Liberia?', the catalogue asks, and answers: 'Because Liberia has long been a friend to true Christianity.'50 Their rejection of African culture went hand in hand with a complete acceptance of American culture. Their' spirit environment' was, as much as they could make it, an American environment. Their advisory board was totally American (including Bill Bright, the President of Campus Crusade) with a conservative Presbyterian bias. All their listed visiting speakers were North American.51 ABC played a considerable role in the homogenisation of independent Christianity. Of its fifteen teachers, fourteen were missionaries.52 Its brochure says that 'graduates of ABC are eagerly snatched up by missions, churches and Christian organisations where they are placed in key positions of leadership. Indeed, the graduates of ABC are becoming the swelling force behind a tide of Africa turning towards Christ.' There is truth in this claim. A list of the graduates' ministries up till the end of 1988 (so covering the graduates of its first 7 years) lists 103 names; 31 were involved in teaching or education and 21 were pastors, but 10 had various positions in ELWA, 5 were in Child Evangelism Fellowship, 2 were in the Great Commission Movement of Liberia, 2 in Scripture Union, and one was General Secretary of the AEL. 53 Moreover, in 1989, there 49

50

Its statement of faith describes the Bible as 'verbally inspired a n d without e r r o r ' {ABC Catalog, p. 9). Ibid., p . 12. I n the late 1980s the A B C opened a sister Bible college in Malawi, u n d e r the direction of the president's son. T h e president said that M a l a w i was chosen because of its 'political stability' (interview, 15 M a y 1989). This further illustrates the lack of social awareness, for Banda's M a l a w i is in m a n y respects little better t h a n Doe's Liberia. See Africa Watch, Where Silence Rules: the Suppression of Dissent in

51

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53

Malawi, NY, Africa Watch, 1990. ABC Catalog, pp. 42-5. Melton says of the Presbyterian Church in America,' It is very conservative in its theological approach, a major point of difference between it and the larger Presbyterian Church (USA)' [Encyclopedia, p. 285). T h e president's wife said of this almost exclusively missionary staff: ' Some would disagree (with this policy) but the Africans appreciate it' (interview, 15 May 1989). Five were back working at ABC, eight were doing graduate studies, one was working for the Ministry of Education, several were employed in the field of communications, one was chaplain to the armed forces, and one was a professional football player.


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were 97 students enrolled, representing, of the mainline churches, the Presbyterian, UMC, Baptist, Episcopal and Lutheran; of the strictly evangelical churches, the Wesleyan, Independent Baptist, ULIC, and the International Church of Monrovia (SIM); of the established Pentecostal churches, the Assemblies of God, Free Pentecostal, and LCA; and of the independents, the DSCPC, Open Bible Church, Church of God, Christians in Action Church, Holy Church of Christ, AICA, Christ Apostolic Church, United Holy Church, and Basic Evangelical Church.54 Other Bible Colleges functioned in exactly the same way. We have already discussed the Monrovia Bible College and Institute, run by the Carver Institute, with assistance from SIM and even the Southern Baptists at the Baptist Seminary. The 65 students came from all kinds of independent churches, including the Church of the Lord (Aladura). The Assemblies of God ran a Bible College just outside Monrovia. This was taught exclusively by US and Canadian missionaries, who jealously retained control of the institute. About half the students were from small (mainly) Pentecostal churches.55 The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) began in Liberia in 1974 and conducted a full-time residential Bible College at Paynesville. In 1989 one of its three teachers was from ORU. 56 In 1989 the college had twenty-two students, from independent 54

55

56

Of course, these were all more established independent churches; although the fees of $300 a year were heavily subsidised by US agencies {ABC Catalog, p. 24), they were beyond the resources of most independent churches. Among them was the son of the founder of a healing Holy Ghost Church outside Buchanan, attending on a CRML scholarship. The CRML did not seek to influence where the recipients of their scholarships chose to study, but one sensed that in this case at least, some felt disappointment. As one said, 'The father was a genuine African Christian. The son is just a fundamentalist American'. In a somewhat similar case, the son (and possible successor) of the founder of Paradise Temple (founded 1982) attended the Assemblies of God college in 1989. The college had close links with ORU, Tulsa. In 1988 7 ORU students visited this college as part of an internship, and in 1989 another 7 came for several weeks of internship, which comprised crusades, street preaching etc.; one of these preached prosperity at the Jesus Festival '89, as outlined above. On 19-20 May 1989 the ORU interns held two days of 'Ministerial Enrichment' lectures on stewardship, discipleship, Christian ethics and pastoral care at the college.

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Christianity and politics in Doe*s Liberia

churches like Philadelphia, Burning Bush Tabernacle, Four Square Gospel Church, and the Refuge Temple.57 The United Pentecostal Church ran Maranatha Bible School in Monrovia, which was also controlled by missionaries. In 1989 it had about 30 students, also largely from independent churches.58 Besides these functioning institutions, other proposed institutions were witness to the same inexorable trend of dependence on the West. Bishop Warkie's National United Christian Ministers' Alliance of Liberia, which in 1989 numbered 14 (mainly Kru) participating churches, attempted to establish their own training institute for pastors. They entered an agreement with Grace Community Church of Nomrora City, California, to provide the teaching. Nothing came of this venture, but Bishop Warkie in 1989 was still hopeful that such a degree-conferring institute could begin soon, with Carver Institute helping to provide the teaching.59 Similarly, the founder of the African Christian Fellowship announced in September 1989 that the World Baptist Fellowship would soon construct a Si.5 million Christian College in Liberia which would offer a 4-year degree programme. The announcement said that the college was the result of his constant visits to the USA seeking assistance.60 At about the same time, it was announced that the Full Gospel Church of the USA 57

58

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The founder of the Trump of God International Church had also attended this college. I n 1986, t h e school h a d 18 students by day, 8 b y night (interview with missionary teacher, 28 Aug. 1989). I n the agreement with the G C C , the Liberians were to provide the buildings, the G C C was to provide the teaching. A 7-page agreement was d r a w n u p , a missionary c a m e to work with the Liberian churches in 1986, b u t the Americans considered that the Liberians m a d e no effort to fulfil their p a r t of the bargain. T h e missionary ceased working for the ministers' alliance, although he stayed in Liberia working for the SIM. Bishop Warkie, in an interview 7 June 1989, claimed that the alliance would soon institute programmes to raise money, and would soon lay foundations on 2 acres in Gardnersville. See Daily Observer, 27 Aug. 1984, for Bishop Marwieh's announcement of the agreement. Daily Observer, 15 Sept. 1989, p . 3. This A C F was founded in 1986 (Daily Observer, 10 Nov. 1989, p . 12). M e l t o n (Encyclopedia, p . 469) describes the World Baptist Fellowship as 'extremely conservative-fundamentalist'. See above, p . 144.


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would soon build a Bible College for Liberia's Holy Church of God, Inc. 61 Similarly, Bishop Marwieh called a special meeting with visiting Mennonite missionaries in April 1988. As a result of this, the United Christian Fellowship of Liberia was established, to institute a training programme for a group of independent churches, numbering between 14 and 30. Mennonite missionaries were to provide the teaching. This programme had not had time to take shape before the civil war broke out.62 As well as these institutes, established or planned, some parttime institutes served the same function. Beginning in September 1988, SIM ran a Disciple Training Course on Saturday afternoons in the Point Four area of Monrovia. In mid-1989 this course had about 20 students each Saturday, including many pastors from small local churches like the 50-member Sapospeaking Trinity Evangelical Church, and the 500-member Soul-Winning Independent Church of Christ, a 1974 breakaway from the PAW.63 Bishop Marwieh's People's Institute of Personal Evangelism operated as an evening school in a Monrovia church, with two courses each evening, in 1989 taught mainly by a CNEC missionary couple from Singapore. Most of the students were members of independent churches.64 61 62

63

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Daily Observer, 4 Aug. 1989, p . 3. T h e churches participating in this scheme were listed (in Oct. 1989) a s : 1. W . A. Mission C h u r c h ; 2. Liberia Free Pentecostal C h u r c h ; 3. Association of I n d e p e n d e n t Churches of Africa; 4. Christ Assembly C h u r c h ; 5. Bassa Evangelical C h u r c h of Christ; 6. C h u r c h of God, I n c . ; 7. Bethel World Evangelical C h u r c h ; 8. Daniel U n i t e d C h u r c h of G o d ; 9. Baffu Bay Pentecostal C h u r c h ; 10. N e w T e s t a m e n t Christian C h u r c h ; 11. World W i d e Mission C h u r c h ; 12. O p e n Bible C h u r c h ; 13. T h e All Christian Y o u t h O r g a n i s a t i o n ; 14. Christ Apostolic C h u r c h ; 15. Bassa Prayer Band Evangelistic Crusade of Liberia; 16. Living W a t e r Baptist C h u r c h 517. Central Church ofJesus Christ; 18. God in Christ Church; 19. Church of the Holy Ghost. See below, p. 227. This course was taught by a South Korean missionary with SIM, who had formerly taught at the SIM Bible School in Kolahun. In 1986 about 70 attended; in 1988 about 40 graduated; in April 1989 only 5 attended. The decline was due mainly to competition for part-time students, especially from the much more professional MBTC. Many of Bishop Warkie's Kruspeaking alliance (to which Bishop Marwieh belonged) had attended this People's Institute. In the same building, and at the same time as the evangelism school met, a 'Christian Academy of Music', also founded by Bishop Marwieh and linked to the Royal Schools of Music in London, conducted classes.

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The best illustration of this phenomenon is provided by the MBTC which we discussed above as the main conduit for the prosperity gospel into Liberia. In the 1989-90 year, the Monrovia school enrolled 828 students from 183 different churches; thus from an enormous number of independent churches.65 In September 1989 it operated 11 other Bible schools throughout the country as well, bringing the total student number to 1,153. These numbers included 75 pastors in Monrovia, and another 30 at the other schools; moreover, the school took special care of these pastors. The director 'has been meeting weekly with the pastors attending MBTC to distribute materials to help build their churches and to inform them of resources available to them. One such program we're able to offer is training for their children's ministers. [The Director] is encouraging them to unity and many have become a part of the Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers.'66 The influence of the MBTC on independent churches, not just in Monrovia but throughout the country, was thus becoming incalculable. The point being argued here is that these institutions played a large part in determining the character and aims of Liberian Christianity, particularly through determining the character and aims of an enormous number of independent churches. There were important differences in the theology taught at 65

A m o n g the independent churches represented at M B T C in 1988-9 were: African Christian Fellowship, Aphemi Bible Church, Barnersville Christian Assembly, Bethel Full Gospel Church, Bethel T e m p l e Holy Church of Christ, Bible Believing Church, Baffu Bay Church, Bryant's Bible U n i o n C o m m u n i t y Church, Christ Evangelical Church, Christ Salvation a n d Miracle Church, Christ T e m p l e Prayer Band, Christian Revival Fellowship, Church of the Lord (Aladura), Church of Salvation, Church of T r u t h , Congregation of God, Crusaders of Christ, E m m a n u e l Church, Faith Healing Brotherhood, Faith in Christ Church, First Church of Love and Faith, G a r d e n of Prayer Church, Haggai Temple, Holy Temple, Holy Chapel, Holy T e m p l e of God in Christ, H o p e Tabernacle, I m m a n u e l Pentecostal Church, Independent Church ofJesus Christ, Independent Pentecostal Church, Liberia Free Pentecostal Church, Lighthouse Full Gospel Church, Logan T o w n Christian Church, Messiah Temple, Monrovia Evangelical Church, N e w K r u T o w n Independent Church, New Creation Pentecostal Church, New Testament Christian Church, Prayer Centre Church, Rescue T e m p l e Church, Revival T e m p l e Church, Salvation Church of the Lord, Salvation Church, Shiloh United Church, St Peter's United Church of the Lord, T r u m p of God International Church, United Christian

66

Living Water Teaching Liberia Newsletter, vol. 5, issue 12, Dec. 1989.

Church and Victory Temple Church.


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these institutes — between ABC, for instance, and MBTC — but for our purposes their interests were the same. None of these institutes placed the slightest interest on African culture, social conditions or on political awareness. Thus they played the significant role of diverting African churches from such concerns. The correspondence courses available functioned in exactly the same way. Many of the institutes discussed above offered a correspondence course as well. SIM's course was taken by 60-65 m ^Sg- 67 Hershey's Voice of Victory Ministry offered a correspondence course which had 50 students in 1989; the staff of four hoped to have 60 enrolled by the end of the year. The Source of Light course whose theology we have discussed above began in 1982 and by 1989 had 300 active students, with numbers increasing; as well, SIM, Mid-Baptist, Southern Baptist missionaries and ULIC pastors took materials in bulk and distributed them. The ABC's Bible College by Radio could be followed as a correspondence course; some pastors claimed this certificate was all they had. 68 The UPC's Maranatha Bible Institute offered two correspondence courses: the 7-lesson 'Discover Wonderful Truths' Course, and the 16-book Alpha Bible Correspondence Course; the lessons of both courses were marked and diplomas awarded. 69 As well, the Bible Correspondence Mission Inc. offered a fundamentalist course from the porch of the public library on Ashmun St.70 Several students of the MBTC who hoped to start their own ministries used to write to the New Tribes Mission in Britain or the USA for their 67

68

69

70

B a r r e t t ' s World Christian Encyclopedia (p. 458) claims t h a t (in the early 1980s?) E L W A had 7,089 active students in English courses alone. This figure seems far too high. The numbers in 1989 were down from their peak, partly because SIM handed over their Bassa courses to the CRML in Buchanan. Barrett (ibid.) also claims that the International Correspondence Institute (Chausee de Waterloo 45, 1640 RhodeSaint-Genese, Brussels) had 1,312 enrolments. This ICI is millenarian, and although its literature was sometimes seen in Liberia, I was not able to discover the number of those taking this course in the late 1980s. E.g. the pastor of Greenville's C h u r c h of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) Inc., interviewed 2 Sept. 1989. These are U P C publications, produced by overseas Ministries Publications, 8855 D u n n R d , Hazelwood M S 63042. Postal address: P O Box 4692, Monrovia.

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elementary Bible course; this had the attraction that multiple copies could be obtained free.71 All these courses shared a complete disregard for Liberia's social conditions. The same process of theological dependence was furthered by workshops for pastors. We have already described the theology of the Billy Graham Mission World Evangelism seminar in September 1989; this was attended by scores of pastors of independent churches.72 Maple Springs Baptist Church conducted a similar week's seminar, entitled ' Liberia for Christ: An Evangelical Crusade for Saving the Lost, Equipping the Saints, for pastors, ministers and selected lay persons'.73 We have already discussed in detail the Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers which organised the Jesus Festival '89; this association also spread the faith message through services or days of retreat for pastors (e.g. 30 May and 31 December 1989). The FGBMFI promoted the same kind of Christianity at its two conventions.74 The dynamics of this way of influencing independent churches is best seen in reference to the Potter's House, a church which began in Liberia on Sunday 14 August 1988 and which preached the same faith message as the MBTC, although with more apocalypticism. The Potter's House conducted its first outdoor crusade, with 5 visiting Americans, in November 1988. The crusade took place in the evenings; during the day, the same visiting Americans conducted a workshop for pastors: '200 delegates attended our first Pastors' Conference'. A few months later, concurrent with another crusade conducted by another four Americans, they ran another pastors' seminar attended by 110 church leaders.75 71

72

73 74 75

Interview with MBTC student, 5 June 1989. Bible course and newsletter Soon available from NTM, 1000 East First St, Sanford FL 32771. Among the independent churches present were: Army of the Bible Church; Acts of the Apostles Bible Church; AICA; Church of God; Burning Bush Tabernacle; Star Bethel Church; First Cornerstone Church; Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church; First Church of Love and Faith; Holy Church of Jerusalem; Holy Church of Christ; Transcea; Independent Pentecostal Church; Bethel World Outreach; Philadelphia Church and Hope Tabernacle. Maple Springs Baptist Church, 4131 Beit Rd, Capital Heights MD 20743. First held at Hotel Africa, 15-17 Oct. 1987, second Oct. 1989. See the descriptions in the Potter's House magazine The Trumpet, Jan 1989, pp. 19-20. This edition is entitled 'This is Africa's Hour', and includes articles on


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By all these means - Bible Colleges, correspondence courses, pastors' seminars - African independent churches have been increasingly influenced in the direction of standardised US evangelical Christianity. The point being made here is illustrated succinctly in Bishop Marwieh's reply when asked how unity was achieved in his church which comprised Baptists, Pentecostals and 'Jesus-only' apostolics: 'Cassettes and books from the USA and Canada, and conferences, standardise the doctrine.'76 These influences affected not only the smaller, less-established, independent churches. They affected one of West Africa's biggest, the Church of the Lord (Aladura). This church was founded in Liberia in 1947, and by 1989 had 126 branches and about 10,000 followers. It had fifteen churches in Monrovia alone.77 The Aladura church is often regarded as particularly African and there are notable African qualities evident. Most obvious is its stress on prophecy, especially the prophecies made at the feast of Tabborrar. 78 It is also characterised by its grades of ministers, and their special uniforms.79 Even in its worship there are distinctive African touches, like the salt, sugar and honey (signifying preservation, sweetness of life and wisdom

77

78

79

Uganda, Liberia and Kenya. The editorial speaks of the ' move of God in Africa during this past year' (p. 2). In the report on Kenya, it is said that during one single crusade, ' U p to 400 native pastors attended our seminars' (p. 21). The Trumpet is available from 937 Ruth St, Prescott, Arizona 86301. The importance of focusing on pastors is widely realised. Don Stewart Ministries in England targets the pastors of independent (mainly immigrant) churches ' to provide the things they can't provide for themselves, like teaching' (interview with office director, 23 June 1989). Reinhard Bonnke too adopts this strategy; in his Jos (Nigeria) crusade, 7-12 Nov. 1989, he conducted three such pastors' conferences;' Pastors are the key to the future 76 situation' (Revival Report, 1/90E, p. 11). Interview, 2 Sept. 1988. F o r history of the c h u r c h in Liberia, see T u r n e r , History of an African Independent Church: vol. 1, pp. 133-57; Sanneh, West African Christianity, pp. 202-4. Best seen in t h e book of prophecies p r o d u c e d for the following year b y t h e P r i m a t e at each Tabborrar feast. The prophecies cover each month of the year, then address particular groups, then are related to Aladura members, then civil leaders, then Nigeria, then many individual countries of the world, and then 86 different kinds of workers (from architects to sailors, from yam sellers to nightwatchmen). These annual booklets are available from Aladura headquarters at PO Box 308, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. See t h e Order of Church Official Robes, decided b y t h e 1985 C o n v o c a t i o n , a n d t h e Primate's Prelates, Clergies, Male and Female Ministers Elevation Chart and Form (1977),

available from the headquarters.

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respectively) used at the ceremony to name a baby, and the 'sacramental' sharing of peanuts, coconut, sugar cane and banana by the congregation at the same ceremony, and the sevenfold jumping, clapping and pressing forehead to the ground at time of prayer. Despite its spread across West Africa, it has experienced considerable disparagement — even contempt -from the mainline and evangelical churches,80 which obviously distresses the Aladura leadership. The most moving part of the Primate's 1987 prophecies was the extended call for understanding on the part of'orthodox' church ministers.81 In Liberia, the Church of the Lord (Aladura) applied for associate member status of the LCC, and after an investigation was admitted. However, in Liberia in the 1980s the influences on the Church of the Lord (Aladura) were of the kind we are discussing here. T h e Living Water Teaching Liberia Newsletter tells how

the Aladura apostle, 'having 300 [sic] churches under his authority in Liberia... heard of MBTC, the Lord moved him to attend and he humbly obeyed. Ten of his pastors are attending along with him. In the past, Christians have found fault with this denomination for their doctrinal error, which has included the sacrifice of animals in some of their churches. [The Apostle has told the MBTC director] that the teaching he has received has impacted his life. He has invited our MBTC teachers to be the main speakers at the national convention of his denomination to be held here in February.' 82 Though the Church of the Lord (Aladura), like many African independent churches, has always placed great emphasis on the relevance of Christianity for practical living, their spirituality is better expressed in one of their favourite hymns: 'Though we pass through tribulation, All will be well... We expect a bright tomorrow, All will be well. 80 81

82

I n Liberia E L W A would n o t broadcast their notices. Divine Revelations from the Holy Mount of Tabborrar for the Year ig8y (available from headquarters), pp. 16-18. In this context, see the Primate's words: 'The popular opinion is that the average Aladura is semi-illiterate, jobless and drop-outs', in the preface to the Ministers and Laities Guide Book, igj8, p. 5. Living Water Teaching Liberia Newsletter, vol. 5, issue 12, Dec. 1989.


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Faith can sing through days of sorrow, All, all is well...' 83 America's faith movement is a new thing for them.84 What Bible colleges, correspondence courses and workshops achieve for pastors and office holders, crusades achieve for ordinary church members. Crusades were almost continuous in Doe's Liberia. Among the major ones were Mission Monrovia in 1984, conducted by African Enterprise of South Africa, at the invitation of both Bishop Marwieh and Archbishop Browne, and organised by the LCC. The team included American speakers and was held at venues all around the city. In August 1987 a team of 40 from Paul B. Smith's Toronto People's Church conducted a week-long ' Liberia for Christ' crusade at Monrovia's Centennial Pavilion.85 Perhaps the biggest of all was the Jimmy Swaggart crusade at the S. K. Doe Sports Stadium 13-15 November 1987 which was sponsored by the Assemblies of God. Likewise groups of American Baptists came after 1985 to conduct lengthy crusades, like that from 1 January to 5 February 1989. Many other substantial crusades we have discussed above: the combined LWC and SCCJC crusade; the AME 'Power of Pentecost is For You' Crusade of May 1989; the AME 'Fire This Time Revival' of September 1989.86 It 83

84

85

86

No 240 of Aladura hymn book, sung at 40th anniversary celebration of the founding of the church in Liberia, 26 April 1987, and at the Tabborrar ceremony, 22 Aug. 1989, and commonly at Sunday services. As another channel of American influence on Liberia's Church of the Lord (Aladura), Liberia's Apostle was appointed to the board of the House of Refuge, Minneapolis, a position that takes him to America several times a year and enables him to send students to Minneapolis for a free education (interview with Apostle, 24 July 1989). Paul Smith's People's Church is characterised by its conservative evangelicalism, especially its opposition to biblical criticism; it has chosen ' to support independent mission groups over denominational ones because of their freedom from modern biblical theories' (Melton, Encyclopedia, p. 498). Among those who offered themselves as counsellors for this crusade were members of the following independent churches: Bethel, Christ Temple, Salvation Church, Christ Apostolic Church, FHTJC, Victory Temple, Church of Salvation, Gates of Heaven Midday Prayer Chapel, Greater Refuge Temple, St Peter's United Church of the Lord, Transcea, Living Water Church, Grace Temple, Macedonia Church and African Glory Church. Of course, smaller crusades were a permanent feature of Liberian life, as is evident from the posters displayed in public places. In this study we have drawn on many of them. The Deeper Life Ministry held an 8-day revival in August 1987 (for those 'who desire healing and miracles and those suffering from nightmares, evil powers, bad luck among others', Footprints Today, 11 Aug. 1987, p. 3). The street preaching Full

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should be noted that the speakers for these were all from the USA. It should also be noted that many of these major crusades were conducted entirely on American initiative. The Billy Graham satellite crusade discussed above was one such. The Voice of Pentecost crusade we used in discussing the gospel of prosperity was a US venture. A week-long crusade in Gbarnga in March 1989 was conducted by an organisation called World Wide Harvest, established in Seattle, Washington, precisely for evangelising West Africa: its directors chose Liberia to be their base for the whole region, and Gbarnga was their first crusade.87 Again, the Potter's House provides a good example of the importance placed on crusades. In its first six months of existence, between August 1988 and March 1989, the Potter's House conducted no less than six major crusades, all preached by overseas preachers, sometimes in teams of four or five, and to crowds allegedly reaching 25,000 in number. At the same time as the main crusade in Monrovia, other members of the team would conduct smaller crusades inland.88 Only the advent of the rainy season brought about a lull. These innumerable crusades always drew a large following.89

87

88 89

Gospel Evangelistic Association celebrated their 4th anniversary in September 1989 with a 4-day crusade. In July 1989 there was a week's revival at the university, at 10 am each day. The St Paul Pentecostal Church of Christ in New Kru Town held a 3-day revival in August 1989. The Youth Evangelism Crusade conducted a weeklong crusade in the New Kru Town Town Hall in July 1989. The Christian Revival Fellowship conducted a 3-day revival at the University in May 1989. The organisation had a permanent representative in Monrovia (PO Box 1908, Monrovia), organising the outreach to Liberia and beyond: Liberia was chosen as the base, ' because of its religious freedom' (interview with representative, 3 June 1989). Another such ministry is ' Ray Johnson's Missions to Africa', which conducted a 'When Women Pray' Prayer Conference, comprising 'Precepts and Demonstration Seminars, Anointing Service and Rally', 14-20 May 1989, at Philadelphia (independent) and S. Trowen Nagbe (UMC) churches in Monrovia. Trumpet, Jan 1989, pp. 19-20. M e n t i o n here should also be m a d e of S D A seminars a n d crusades. I n 1988 a n d 1989, four times each year, a standard month-long Revelation seminar was held in Monrovia which attracted about 60 people each time. A Daniel crusade was held in a similar way; one of these for 23 Sept.-2i Oct. 1989 was advertised on posters thus: 'Breath of Life Crusade and Daniel Seminar: Bible Preaching, Inspirational Songs, Soul-Satisfying Seminar, open Bible Study, Free Medical Consultations'. A further attraction of these was the folders and printed material given out. These were always well advertised (e.g. Footprints Today, 20 Nov. 1987, p. 6), and although they did not attract non-SDA pastors, they attracted members of other churches who had little idea they are being offered anything different from the ' biblical' Christianity offered


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Of course, one need not too quickly advance religious reasons for their popularity. There was very little available by way of entertainment in Monrovia — in provincial towns like Greenville or Buchanan even less — and what there was was well beyond the pocket of most Liberians. The choirs with the Voice of Pentecost crusade, for example, were superb - a key part in any explanation of the huge crowds every evening.90 But even local choirs could be spectacular, providing participation and competition as well. At many of these crusades, the participation was complete - dancing, congas round the building, singing. At the LWC and SCCJC crusade it was actually announced at one point, 'This is our disco for Jesus.' 91 The crusade of itself functions as an instrument of adaptive Christianity. By its very nature it fosters the kind of Christianity discussed above under the heading evangelical. Since its aim is to induce listeners to choose against their previous life and for a new life, each sermon must emphasise man's sinfulness, depravity and hopelessness, and (by contrast) God's omnipotence and transcendence; each revival must contrast two worlds, one of sin, vanity, meaninglessness and despair, the other ofjoy and perfection. Reasons must be heaped up to encourage listeners to renounce this world and focus on the next. Because of the time factor, there is little opportunity to treat of much else; these points are rehearsed again and again. Moreover, in accumulating reasons to make the proper decision, the crusade even relishes a little social deprivation and despair. The crusade mentality does not fit easily with a concern for social improvement. As the assistant pastor of the Potter's House explained, when asked to account for the increase in Christi-

' 90 91

in other evangelical churches. Every year in Monrovia the SDAs ran an 8-week crusade, with an estimated 1,500 attending each night, from which in 1989 the church gained 200 new members (in 1983 the number of new members was 600). They held a 6-week similar crusade in Buchanan each year, which attracted about 900 people each night (interview with SDA president, 31 May 1989). These crusades drew other Christians (even RCs) in a manner not possible in the West. The ' Wings over Jordan' Choir, and ' Richard and the Redeemed'; there were 58 in the party altogether. Fraenkel quotes an advertisement for a service:' Come and enjoy yourself spiritually' (Tribe and Class, p. 164). The St Paul's Pentecostal Church of Christ (New Kru Town) offered films every evening of its crusade, 25-7 Aug. 1989.

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anity in Liberia: 'The greatest need in Africa is economic security. When in difficulties people turn to God.'92 In making this statement, he was not focusing on the lack of economic security with the intention of remedying it. He was in the business of making people turn to God, and for that a little economic insecurity was not unhelpful. Bythesemeans - Bible Colleges, correspondence schools, workshops and crusades - Liberian Christianity in the 1980s was being standardised into either a form of the faith gospel or what we have discussed above under the label' evangelical', or (since, as we have argued, the distinction was not clearly seen) some combination of the two. But what concerns us is that in all these cases, social concern simply did not arise. And the mainline churches, which at least elsewhere have shown that they can incorporate this social analysis, offered no counter to this process. Liberia, of course, had a unique feature in that nearly all the mainline training centres were in Gbarnga, leaving the only major centre of population unprovided for. But, more importantly, the mainline churches in Africa have no tradition of doing anything for Christians in general. They work to spread their own denomination, and their theological activity is directed to their own members (usually clergy), and in their own institutions. Thus, compared with the hundreds of independent pastors receiving some form of training in the faith movement and in conservative evangelicalism, one single independent pastor benefited from the schools at Gbarnga, a pastor of the Church of the Lord (Aladura) on a scholarship provided by the CSM. 93 These standardising influences were affecting the classical AICs as much as they affected products of the new wave - that is why any clear distinction between the two was hard to maintain. The belief widely held in the 1960s and 1970s that these AICs were on the way to producing a genuinely African 92 93

Interview, 3 M a y 1989. I n M o n r o v i a since 1984 the Episcopal C h u r c h h a d r u n a 4-year evening course in theology; it g r a d u a t e d its first 11 students in 1989 {Trinity Tidings, 1 F e b . - A p r . 1989, pp. 8-10). The UMG's equivalent actually stopped functioning after about five weeks in 1988; it was resurrected in 1989, with about 20 students attending in the first semester.


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Christianity, was in the 1980s becoming increasingly hard to maintain. In Liberia, certainly, all the educational forces militated strongly against the development of anything particularly African. The resulting Christianity was always called simply 'biblical5 or 'non-denominational', but this was very misleading. These forms of Christianity have particular concerns and preoccupations, and these are related to their American origins. The significance of this we shall consider in the following chapter. APPENDIX! FISSION DYNAMICS IN AMERICAN CHURCHES

Splits within the US Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and Liberian parallels.

(PAW),

The PAW is the oldest of the Apostolic or 'Jesus-only' Pentecostal Churches (Melton, Encyclopedia, n. 410). It began as a loosely organised fellowship of (Trinitarian) Pentecostals in 1906; but soon it adopted the 'Jesus-only' theology, denying the Trinity and identifying Jesus with Jehovah of the Old Testament, and likeminded groups joined. Its major splits have been: A The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, founded by Bishop Lawson in 1919 (ibid., n. 401). This in itself split into: A1 The Way of the Cross Church of Christ, in 1927 over the issue of leadership (ibid., n. 420). A2 The Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith (Philadelphia), in 1933 over the issue of women's dress (ibid., n. 402). A3 The Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ World Wide (Inc.), founded in 1957 by Bishop Smallwood E. Williams over autocratic leadership (ibid., n. 398). A4 The Bible Way Pentecostal Apostolic Church, in i960 (ibid., n. 399). B In 1924 most of the white members withdrew from the PAW and after a complicated history of attempted mergers

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and splits, united in 1945 as the United Pentecostal Church (ibid., n. 418). C The Highway Christian Church of Christ, founded in 1929, which preserved very harmonious relations with the PAW (ibid., n. 405). D The Church of God in Christ (Apostolic), in 1945 (ibid., n. 416), which in turn split in the 1960s into Di the United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) over the leader's behaviour in the matter of divorce and remarriage (ibid., n. 416). E The Pentecostal Churches of Apostolic Faith, which broke away in 1957 over the issue of leadership, although divergent understandings of the nature ofJesus also played a part. The church again split in 1964 when most returned to traditional apostolic doctrine (ibid., n. 412). (Of these churches, besides the PAW, those listed A, Ai, A2, A3, B, and E were active in Liberia.) The PAW was founded in Liberia in 1919. Its major derivatives (and derivatives of those derivatives) have been: A (1938) The Abosso Apostolic Faith Church of Jesus Christ, founded by Bishop Grandoe, alleging lack of support. The church subsequently affiliated to United Church of Jesus Christ in Baltimore (Daily Observer, 8 Dec. 1989, p. 4). (This Baltimore Church is itself a split from the PAW in USA - see Melton, Encyclopedia, n. 416.) A1 (1981) The Holy Church of Africa, founded by Bishop Wisseh, after a leadership dispute including days of rioting and court decisions (Daily Observer, 14 Sept. 1981, p. 1; Daily Observer, 18 Sept. 1981, p. 1). A2 (1981) The Church of God in Christ, founded by Bishop Kpalleh, over leadership. B (1945) The African National First Pentecostal Church, founded by Bishop Samuel Doe after a leadership struggle. The Church in 1985 changed its name to the National Bible Way Churches after affiliating to the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ World Wide (Inc.), of


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Washington, DC, headed by Bishop Smallwood Williams (Melton, Encyclopedia, n. 398). Bi (1981) The New Testament Pentecostal Church, founded by Bishop P. T. Nma, over a power struggle. B2 (1988?) The Christ Delivering Church, founded by Bishop Konwloh. C (1947) The Pentecostal Churches of the Apostolic Faith, founded by Bishop Samuel Stepney, over tribal squabbling between his Bassa followers and the predominantly Kru PAW. D (1952) The Independent Pentecostal Church, founded by Bishop Kekeh when he refused to submit to church discipline. Di (1975) The Mount Calvary Holy Pentecostal Church of Liberia (Inc.), founded by Bishop E. W. Daniel after a leadership struggle. D2 (1976) The Have Faith in God Independent Pentecostal Churches of Liberia (Inc.), founded by Bishop Wratec, after a leadership struggle. D3 (1988) The Bethel Evangelical Church, founded by Bishop Borloh when he was deposed as head of the parent church (D) for financial mismanagement. D4 (1989) The Chapter House of God Outreach, founded by Bishop Worjloh when he was deposed as head of the parent church (D) for financial mismanagement. E (1973) The Faith in Christ Church (Inc.), founded by Bishop Moses P. Caulae, who later affiliated to the Apostolic Holiness Churches (Inc.) of Georgia. F (1974) The Soul-Winning Independent Church of Christ, founded by Bishop John Frazer, a district superintendent of PAW in Sinoe, over alleged neglect. G (1984?) The Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church, founded by Bishop W. Dixon leaving the PAW to affiliate to Don Stewart Ministries, Phoenix, Arizona. Gi (mid-1980s) The Calvary Redemption Church, founded by Bishop P. Teah, citing leadership abuses in parent church (G), and affiliating to the Church of

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God of the Mountain Assembly of Jellico, Tennessee (ibid., n. 321). Splits within a US white Trinitarian Pentecostal church

The Church of God (Cleveland, TN) was founded by A.J. Tomlinson in 1903 (ibid., n. 317). The following can all be considered derivatives: A The (Original) Church of God, which split in 1917 over issues of local autonomy and divorce (ibid., n. 338). B The Church of God of Prophecy, which Tomlinson founded in 1921 after being removed as overseer of the parent church for financial irregularities; different accounts of the split give as explanation financial accountability or polity (ibid., n. 319). C The Church of God with Signs Following, the loosely organised groups of snakehandlers, which were forced out in the 1920s (ibid., n. 445). D The Carolina Evangelistic Association, founded in 1930 (ibid., n. 316). E The Church of God, the House of Prayer, which split in 1939, and was involved in lawsuits with its parent group (ibid., n. 324). F The Church of God (World Headquarters), which originated in the dynastic struggle (and lawsuits) between Tomlinson's sons at his death in 1943. This church, with its teaching about setting up governments, has evolved a special doctrine of its own (ibid., n. 325). G The Evangelistic Church of God, which was founded in 1949 by a former minister of both the parent church and A (ibid., n. 329). H The Church of God (Jerusalem Acres), which split in 1957 on the issue of church polity (ibid., n. 318). I The Gospel Harvesters Evangelistic Association, which was founded in 1961 and has an added end-time stress (ibid., n. 457). J The International Evangelical Church and Missionary Association, which began in the early 1980s when the


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pastor was disfellowshipped from the parent church because of his unlicensed ministry, and which is more properly categorised as part of the latter rain movement {ibid., n. 459). As well as the parent Church of God, B and H were active in Liberia. The founding of Liberia's Church of God (Jerusalem Acres) well illustrates the point being made in this chapter, namely the increasing dependency of Liberian independent churches on US churches. In the early 1980s a Bassa prophet/healing church founded in 1965 and called the Liberian Gospel League, wrote to several American churches seeking a parent body. They received several replies, but chose in 1984 to affiliate with the Church of God (Jerusalem Acres). This church has developed a doctrine called 'New Testament Judaism', and observes the Old Testament Calendar, the sabbath, and has abolished 'pagan feasts' like 'Christmas, Hallowe'en and Easter'. The American church in 1987 made the Liberian head one of their 70 elders, but by 1989 had sent no funds; the Liberian church was to learn the teaching first, and only after the doctrine was assimilated would money follow. The district superintendent for Grand Bassa (interview, 19 May 1989) claimed that 26 Aladura churches had joined the new church, so it had in 1989 63 branches and about 3,000 members. A leaflet expounding 'New Testament Judaism' (available from PO Box 1207, Jerusalem Acres, Cleveland TN 37311) claims that it is 'merely a perfected order of worship and service', but it does lean towards Christian Zionism (see next chapter); in fact, this leaflet was used (but not acknowledged) in the thoroughly Christian-Zionist publication Judeo-Christian Restoration of Awareness Ministry (of PO Box 364, Huntsville, Alabama 35804). Scheffers refers to the origins of Liberia's Church of God (Jerusalem Acres) in 'Schism', p. 66.

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Christianity and politics in Doe's Liberia Splits within a US black Trinitarian Pentecostal church

The Church of God in Christ began in 1894, and reconstituted itself in 1908 when it formed a general assembly in Memphis, Tennessee. It has grown to over 3 million members in the USA, and has now more blacks than the Methodists (Melton Encyclopedia, n. 424). Its derivatives include: A The Free Church of God in Christ, which merged with the Church of God in Christ in 1921, and then seceded in 1925; it preserves the same doctrine (ibid., n. 431). B The New Bethel Church of God in Christ (Pentecostal), which seceded in 1927 over the 'Jesus-only' doctrine (ibid., n. 408). C The Church of God in Christ, Congregational, which seceded in 1932 over understandings of polity (ibid., n. 425). D The Sought Out Church of God in Christ, founded in 1947 (ibid., n. 439). E The Church of God in Christ, International, which was established in 1969, when 14 bishops rejected the polity of the parent church after a reorganisation of the church (ibid., n. 426). If one adds the Church of Christ (Holiness, USA) and the Church of the Living God (Christian Workers for Fellowship) (ibid., ns. 292 and 427 respectively) which are related, one has the additional factor of racism. One has in this family nearly all the factors that characterise splits in Africa, viz. the leadership disputes, personality clashes, financial issues (occasionally), matters of doctrine, and even divergent understandings of the splits. Of course, the Mormons and their numerous derivatives provide possibly the best parallels between African and American fission dynamics (ibid., pp. 569-92).

CHAPTER 6


A US COLONY

In geopolitical terms, Liberia was a client state - one might say a colony of the US. There is some irony in this because the United States was very late in recognising its offspring; in the first decades it offered little but neglect to its repatriate slaves. In this century, however, the US forged such close links with Liberia that their relationship was almost symbiotic. Firestone and other US firms made great investments in Liberia. The US built up strategic interests. Robertsfield International Airport outside Monrovia was built by the US as a military airfield, and the US had landing and refuelling rights for military planes on 24-hours' notice. Monrovia's port, too, was a US military project. The US had in Liberia its VOA transmitters for Africa and the Middle East, the CIA intelligence relay system for the whole continent, and the Omega tracking station, one of only a handful around the world that monitor the movement of all ships and aeroplanes.1 Besides protecting these commercial and strategic interests, as Africa's colonies moved to independence, many of them committed to socialism, the US needed a proxy among these black nations that could promote the American viewpoint ('a voice of moderation'). For all these reasons, the US wanted a stable government, of unwavering loyalty.2 In 1

2

For US interests at the time of Doe's coup, see Chaudhuri,' Liberia', pp. 52-5; Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, pp. 176-8; West Africa, 8 Sept. 1980, pp. 1702-4. Chester Crocker, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, alluded to the importance of Liberia's support in the UN 'including on vital Middle East issues' in his 23 January 1986 'Statement before the Joint Session of the Subcommittees on 231

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return for this, the US was prepared to ignore the rampant corruption, mismanagement and injustice, and the neglect if not oppression of the majority of the population. So US VicePresident Humphrey could describe Tubman, in a tribute after his death, as ' a man who devoted a good part of his life to the development and welfare of his country... Liberia stands today as a living monument to his labours. He died a statesman, a great President, and a beloved human being. The world mourns his absence and praises his achievements which stand stalwart against the tide of time.' 3 Likewise President Carter, on his stopover in Liberia in 1978, spoke fulsomely of Liberia as a place where 'individual human freedom' and 'the liberty of the human soul' flourished. He said how impressed he was by 'how much [Tolbert] knew intimately and personally about the needs of the average citizen in Liberia'. 4 Of course, their tributes disguised the reality, but were judged necessary if the US was to keep its strategic interests, repatriate its profits, and keep its loyal proxy in international gatherings. Interestingly, it was during the later Tolbert years that Liberia seemed to be gaining some degree of independence. Whereas Tubman had always offered diplomatic excuses to Soviet invitations — in 1950 he was simply told by the American State Department not to go 5 -Tolbert had, by mid-1972, established full diplomatic relations with Romania and the Soviet Union. Then in rapid succession links were established with Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, North Korea and Cuba. In February 1977 Tolbert established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and consequently lost any link with Taiwan. 6 In June 1978 he visited Peking. Tolbert justified this major shift in Liberia's foreign relations, saying that his policy involved ' genuine nonalignment ' and ' forging new friendships' while ' strengthening

3 5 6

Africa and on Human Rights and International Organisations of the House Foreign Affairs Committee', in Liberia Forum, 3/2 (1986), pp. 115-16. 4 Wreh, Love of Liberty, p. 123. Ungar, Africa, p. 99. Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 191. Doe reversed this procedure in October 1989, for $212 million in aid. See above, pp. 36-7.


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existing ties \ 7 Along with these new links, Tolbert was prepared to sever relations with Israel in 1973 in keeping with an OAU decision. He also donated money to African liberation movements.8 All these were indications of a growing independence from the USA. After the coup, it seemed that Liberia was moving towards full independence and genuine non-alignment. G. Baccus Matthews, the new foreign minister, seemed to want complete non-alignment. But, because of Liberia's isolation out of distaste for Doe's coup, and because of a collapsing economy, Liberia was pressurised more and more to return to its 'special relationship' with the US. 9 This reversed the trend of the Tolbert years, and made Liberia a US puppet as never before. Those with independent views began to be weeded out of the military government.10 Libyan diplomats were expelled in May 1981.11 In August 1983 Liberia became the second black African state (after Zaire) to resume diplomatic ties with Israel. Doe made a state visit to Jerusalem in September 1983 (the first by an African leader since 1971). Doe called on the rest of Africa to 'adopt a new and constructive attitude to Israel.'12 In October 1983 the Soviet Ambassador was expelled for alleged collusion in an anti-government conspiracy, and in July 1985 the Doe regime severed relations with Moscow altogether for alleged links with student activists. Liberia rejected Polisario's claim to recognition as the sole representative of the people of Western Sahara, supporting Morocco's claim instead. Doe became a defender of US policy in international meetings - for 7 9 10

11 12

8 Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 192. Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p. 34. Doe refers to this in his BA thesis, 'Survey', in News, 14 Aug. 1989, p. 6. Matthews was removed from the cabinet by Doe in 1982. Another advocate of an independent course, the Marxist Planning and Economic Affairs Minister Tipoteh, sought political asylum in the Ivory Coast in August 1981 (Ungar, Africa, p. n o ) . Daily Observer, 18 May 1981, p. 1. For an extremely critical assessment of Israel's role in Doe's Liberia, see George Klay Kieh Jr, 'An Analysis of Israeli Repenetration of Liberia', LSJ, 14, 2(1989), pp. 117-29. Kieh argues that Doe, not Liberia, benefited from the Israeli link. He benefited from bribes from Israeli businesses, and made full use of Israel's' technology of repression'; above all, it was Israeli 'advisers' who foiled Quiwonkpa's 1985 coup (p. 126). For a very uncritical assessment of the Israeli link, see Gershoni, 'Liberia and Israel'. See also Daily Observer, 18 Aug. 1989, p. 3; Daily Observer, 11 Dec. 1989,

p. 12.

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example at the 1986 meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Harare, after which he was commended by Reagan. 13 Doe was amply rewarded for returning so faithfully to the US fold. First, he was awarded a full state visit to Washington in 1982 (where unfortunately Reagan welcomed him as 'Chairman Moe'). And when he returned to address the UN General Assembly in 1983, Reagan met him again in New York, and described him as 'a dependable ally - a friend in need'. 14 More important, though, Doe received aid, both military and civil. From a level of $20 million in 1979, by 1985-6 the level of US aid had grown to over $90 million annually. In his first five years Doe had received roughly half a billion dollars; Liberia was receiving more US aid per capita than any other African nation, such aid constituting over one third of the nation's budget. Between 1980 and 1985 Washington gave Doe $52 million in military aid.15 Military aid to Liberia afterwards decreased, but that indicated no dissatisfaction with Doe. For US military policy, Africa was the very lowest priority, and military aid to Africa was slashed from $147*6 million in fiscal year 1985 to $25*25 million in 1988 - a decrease of 84 per cent. Liberia was simply affected by this general policy.16 The USA was also very accommodating to Doe's shortcomings. Initially Washington obviously hoped that elections would take place as scheduled and that a civilian government 13

14 15

16

For the return of Liberia to the US fold, see Sawyer, Effective Immediately, pp. 34-5; Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 193; Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, pp. 252, 303-6; Seyon, 'Liberia's Second Republic', pp. 174-6; Banks, Political Handbook, p. 346; Ungar, Africa, pp. 110-11; Ghaudhuri,' Liberia', pp. 53-55; R. Kappel,' USA und Liberia: Okonomische und politische Allianzen seit dem 2. Weltkrieg', in Kappel, R., et al. (eds.), Liberia, pp. 225-45. Ghaudhuri, 'Liberia', p. 57; see all pp. 55-9; and Kappel, 'USA und Liberia'. For aid to Liberia, see Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, p. 166; Sawyer, Effective Immediately, p. 34; Seyon, 'Testimony', p. 88. See Bernd McConnell, 'US Security Assistance in Africa: A Traditional View' paper delivered at ASA conference, Atlanta, 2-5 Nov. 1989. For Liberian pressure for more military aid, see Mews, 14 Aug. 1989, p. 2. For US military aid to Liberia, its policies and objectives, see United States of America, Congressional Presentation for Security Assistance Programmes Fiscal Tear iggo, Washington D C , 1989, pp. 190-1. For

a savage appraisal, see George Klay Kieh,' Merchants of Repression: An Assessment of United States Military Assistance to Liberia', Liberia-Forum, 5/9(1989), pp. 50-61.


235

would duly come to power in January 1986. But the USA pressed for no inquiry after the invasion of the University of Liberia campus, not even after it was alleged that an American citizen had been stripped, beaten, perhaps raped in the assault. The USA made little effort to use its influence to push for human rights and freedoms. Quite the contrary. All observers recognised that Doe had stolen the 1985 election.17 But Reagan sent Doe a congratulatory telegram, hailing the election of 15 October 1985: 'On that date, the people of Liberia expressed their strong commitment to civilian democratic rule.' That is true, but that expression had immediately been nullified by the very man Reagan was congratulating.18 Two months later, Assistant Secretary of State, Chester Crocker, while admitting to some 'shortcomings', praised what he said were ' noteworthy accomplishments' in the elections. He said the participation of four parties and coverage of the elections by four newspapers and three radio stations constituted ' rare achievements in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World where one-party elections covered by a single government newspaper are too often the norm'. He noted that 'election day went off well'. Crocker drew attention to the 'fact that Doe claimed only a narrow, 51 per cent, election victory. [This was] a departure from the norm in the region where incumbent rulers normally claim victories of 95 per cent to 100 per cent of the vote. In claiming only 51 per cent, Doe publicly acknowledged that a large segment of society — 49 per cent of the voters — supported other points of view and leadership than his own.'19 No Liberian attached the slightest importance to this; the key thing was that Doe had stolen the election, not the alleged margin of victory. Similarly, in his remarks about the November coup attempt, Crocker obscured both the scale of the abuses and who was responsible. He went to some length to dissociate Doe from the abuses of his soldiers. He said, ' Doe appealed on television for an end to retribution, ordered his armed forces not to molest 17 18 19

Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 178. Patrick L. N. Seyon, 'The Results of the 1985 Elections', LSJ, 13, 2(1988), p. 228. Crocker, 'Statement' (see n. 2 above), pp. 109-10.

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civilians, and the Minister of Justice publicly declared that those disobeying Doe's appeal would be prosecuted.'20 But Crocker did not disclose that Doe made his appeal a full ten days after the coup, nor did he indicate that in fact no government inquiry into reprisals was ever conducted, and that none of those who carried out the reprisals were ever disciplined or charged. Crocker went on to describe the outlook for Liberia's Second Republic in a manner that can only be described as cynical: 'There is in Liberia today a civilian government based on elections, a multi-party legislature, a journalist community of government and non-government newspapers and radio stations, an on-going tradition among the citizenry of speaking out, a new constitution that protects those freedoms, and a judicial system that can help enforce those provisions. The government is committed publicly to that system.'21 Similarly, Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz, visited Liberia in 1987 and complimented the Doe regime: 'There is freedom of the press here, there is an opposition, there are no political prisoners. So there is genuine progress.'22 So it continued. US aid was reduced from its peak, a greater percentage of the aid was channelled to NGOs, and there were frequent appeals to improve the human rights record or face losing US aid. The appeals came from Congress, but were ignored by the administration. The symbolic and ritualistic nature of these appeals became evident in mid-1989, when US Representative Mervyn Dymally visited Liberia for a public affairs forum on 'The Rule of Law in a Democratic Society'. Dymally insisted that Liberia would have to give ' clear signals' 20 21

22

Ibid., p. i n . Ibid., p. 116. See Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, pp. 165-74. The whole statement displays a naive willingness to accept the word of Liberian officials. See Liebenow, Liberia: Quest, pp. 304-6. Crocker expressed the same attitude in a letter dated 3 Feb. 1986 to the New York Times (17 Feb. 1986): 'Are we comparing Liberia with New England or the bulk of the rest of the world?' (Cited in Seyon, 'Results', pp. 229-30). The Herald quotes another State Department Official to the same effect: 'There are elements of pluralism in Liberia today, unlike in many other countries of the region' (Herald, 28 Sept-4 Oct. 1989, p. 10). Ali Affum, ' A m e r i c a n C u r e Fails Liberian Ills', All Africa Press Service release, 12 Dec. 1988.


237

to Washington that it was serious about improving its record if it wanted to continue receiving aid. Such signals included: ' the existence of a free press, free speech, free association, the observance of the rule of law, not only by the people but also by the government'. 23 Two weeks later, Doe closed down the Catholic radio station ELCM. All the following week the Catholic Church, opposition parties and local journalists protested vehemently at this abuse on the part of the government. On 21 June the Daily Observer carried on its front page more protests against the closure, and alongside the protests the news that the previous day Liberia had received a $9-5 million grant from the US; at the signing ceremony, Doe had been praised for his 'stalwart leadership and foresight'.24 So Liberia under Doe received massive US aid. Many Liberians began to ask what the aid was for: was it to buy a compliant leader, or to further the human development of the Liberian people? Clearly it was the former; Americans chose ' "friendship " with a dictator over democracy for the people \ 2 5 This was particularly evident when military aid was considered. In July 1987 the Liberian army numbered 5,300, with a coastguard of 450 and a paramilitary of 2,000. In 1987 it was announced that a separate navy and airforce were to be formed. 23

25

Daily Observer, 25 May, 1989, pp. 1 and 6. Note that Dymally gave at least equal space to the need for US investments and strategic interests to be protected. For an account of the forum, see Herald, 1-7 June 1989, pp. 4, 9 and 10, and West Africa, 24 10-16 July 1989, p. 1128. Daily Observer, 21 June 1989, pp. 1 and 6. Dunn and Tarr, Liberia, p. 178. This was even admitted by a US government body, the General Accounting Office, in a 1987 report: see Africa Events, April 1987, p. 20; West Africa, 14 April 1986, p. 179. See also Hayden, 'Many students... are asking whether the US was interested in all of the people of Liberia or merely in maintaining a military leader in power so that the interests of the United States might be maintained' ('Testimony', p. 105). Among the 'Objectives and Policy' of the Bush administration was to ' retain... US Government facilities in Liberia' (see Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Alison Rosenberg's testimony before House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, 14 April 1989, in Department of State Bulletin, July 1989, vol. 89, n. 2148, p. 40). The Bush regime noted the 'setbacks to improved human rights observance' in Liberia, and declared its policy 'to encourage the growth of democratic institutions and the rule of law', and sought to achieve this by funding exchanges and training, sponsoring seminars and creating a law library. (See statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Kenneth L. Brown before Subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the House Appropriations Committee, 7 Feb. 1989, in Department of State Bulletin, May 1989, vol. 89, n. 2146, p. 29). What effect these measures were expected to have is not stated.

238


Defence expenditure was estimated at $37*7 million in 1986-7, or about 10 per cent of total budget spending.26 What was this army for? Liberia had no external aggressors. Doe's only enemies were his own people, and all this manpower, US equipment and Israeli training were required solely to keep himself in power and his people in subjection.27 More and more Liberians came to see the USA as the greatest single support for the repressive regime under which they suffered. As an American missionary, deported by Doe, explained to the US Congress: Liberians 'have become entirely disillusioned with regard to America's much vaunted commitment to justice, truth, democracy and principled action [because] the support - both political and economic - forthcoming from the USA is recognised universally as the single most potent influence perpetuating this dictatorial, corrupt, inept government in Liberia'. 28 26 27

28

Europa Year Book 1988, p . 1699. ' Too much training, too much equipment and too much power has been given to the Liberian army under the rubric of USAID. The army is now not a protector of the people but a group of well trained men who have almost absolute power to intimidate, arrest, beat and even execute Liberian citizens... Under Doe, thousands of Liberians [have been] killed by guns and bullets provided by the American taxpayer' (Hayden, 'Testimony', p. 105). See also Seyon, 'Testimony', pp. 88-9; Hickey, 'A Land', p. 74. Hickey, 'Proposed Testimony', p. 7; also Seyon: 'Liberia is now a textbook case of how the US that preaches freedom, human rights and democracy can be the mainstay of a fascist, military dictatorship that is the very antithesis of what it preaches' ('The Results', p. 238); also Harden: 'Doe deserves a closer look not for what he was, but for how he survived so long. His ignoble reign is a lesson in how foreign powers - in this case the US government - perpetuate destructive personal rule in Africa...By propping up a widely hated, wildly corrupt, and laughably incompetent leader, the US government prolonged human suffering in Liberia, postponed economic development, and put off the inevitable collapse of Doe's regime' [Africa, pp. 237-47). Tarr writes: 'Liberians learned to their sorrow that America has no commitment to any ideals but its interests, the range of which is narrow' ('Founding', p. 35; see also p. 45 where he suggests that America's 'preoccupation with the protection of its "national interests" and investments [is] perhaps not uninfluenced by racism'). See also Seyon, 'Testimony', p. 89; Seyon, 'Liberia's Second Republic', pp. 174-85; Lawyers', Promise Betrayed, pp. 165-76; George Klay Kieh Jr, ' The Reagan Administration's Policy Towards Liberia: A Critical Analysis', AC AS Bulletin, No. 25 (Fall 1988), p. 11; Africa Watch, 'Liberia: Flight from Terror. Testimony of Abuses in Nimba County', LSJ, 15, 1(1990), pp. 156-8. Significant parallels can be drawn between US policies towards Doe in Liberia, Marcos in the Philippines and Mobutu in Zaire. For Marcos, see Raymond Bonner,


239

AMERICA'S 'BIBLICAL' CHRISTIANITY

During the Doe years there occurred an enormous increase in the number of American missionaries to Liberia, and a corresponding increase in Christianity. From our analysis of this Christianity, it is immediately obvious how closely its sociopolitical effects coincided with the goals of American foreign policy. One might even say, this Christianity was one of the means used to achieve these US foreign-policy objectives. The missionaries, of course, always called their Christianity ' biblical'. It is necessary to show that, far from being biblical, this Christianity was largely a product of US social forces. American Christianity has always been particularly nationalistic. There is no doubting the strength of religion in America; the figures for church attendance and religious affiliation in the USA are remarkable when compared with those for other Western nations. Herberg has suggested an explanation for this. He argues that the original Protestants initially refused to accept Catholics and Jews as properly American. These two groups gained acceptance only by establishing their nationalist credentials.29 New Americans have come more and more to think of being a Protestant or Catholic or Jew as three alternative ways of being an American; they tend to regard Waltzing with a Dictator: the Marcoses and the making of American Policy, New York,

29

Vintage Books, rev. edn 1988. Bonner shows how Marcos protected US business interests (pp. 134-6). He quotes National Security Decision Memorandum 209 (' Secret') that the US will continue to support Marcos because he provided stability and because he cooperated in 'our pursuit of fundamental US interests in the Philippines' (p. 138). Bonner also stresses the importance of the US military installations in determining policy: 'America's military bases overseas have frequently been the lodestone for the nation's foreign policy, bending it on a course away from democracy' (p. 204). For an exhaustive treatment of US support of Mobutu over the welfare of the Zairean people, see Steve Askin, Zaire: the Theft of a Nation, London, Zed Press, forthcoming. O'Brien also argues this way: Catholics had to 'try harder' to prove themselves true Americans. In the 1950s New York's Cardinal Spellman was forever preaching 'Americanism', and the Catholic senator Joe McCarthy led his anti-communist crusade. McCarthy was so effective that he convinced the majority of Americans that Satan had, in O'Brien's words,' changed his address, moving from the Vatican to the Kremlin'. Without McCarthy, says O'Brien, Kennedy could never have become President in 1961 (God Land, Reflections on Religion and Nationalism, Cambridge M S and

London, Harvard University Press, 1988, p. 36).

240


Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism as three alternative expressions of a great overarching commitment which they all share by virtue of being Americans. American faith is very strong and important; it provides an identity in 'the great wilderness of a mobile American society5. But the typical American takes his values, ideals and standards from what is so often his ultimate commitment, the American way of life. He combines his religion and his culture ' by making the former an expression of the latter, his religion an expression of the "moral and spiritual values of democracy" 5 . 30 Thus religion is thoroughly ' functionalised5 or converted into a tool for secular purposes. Note that Herberg is in no way criticising the American way of life. On the contrary, he sees it as 'one of the best ways of life yet devised for a mass society5.31 He is merely drawing attention to the fact that American religion is reduced to a vehicle for promoting this way of life.32 Thus, for example, it was Christianity that was used to justify the Cold War. One could not defend the Cold War by saying that it was good for the defence contractors or even for the economy at large. Even to cite 'the defence of free enterprise5 was problematic, because a passion for free enterprise was too obviously related to the revenues therefrom. Defence of freedom was a better justification, and it was often used. But those who most disliked the Soviet Union were not completely comfortable with this, for many radicals were championing a better distribution of wealth and the emerging welfare state in the 30

32

Will Herberg, Protestant—Catholic-Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology, Garden

City NY, Doubleday, rev. edn i960. This quotation is from his article, 'Religion and Culture in Present Day America', in Ferm (ed.), Issues in American Protestantism, p. 31 362. Ibid., p. 364. ' The very same people who, four out of five, say they regard Jesus as divine, when asked to name the most important event in all universal history, place the Christevent - the birth or crucifixion of Christ - fourteenth on the list, tied with the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane: the Number 1 event, almost without exception, is given as Columbus' discovery of America' (ibid., p. 351). In support of Herberg's argument, note that the National Religious Broadcasters'' Code of Ethics' states that members must air only programming t h a t ' enhances... understanding of Christian principles and patriotic endeavors'. In listing the qualities of such programming, it lists 'protects and upholds the integrity of the USA' before 'presents the gospel message in clarity and fidelity' (Appendix 1 in Ben Armstrong, The Electronic Church, P- 179)-


241

name of freedom. So freedom, obviously, needed careful watching. It could not be simply invoked as the best case against communism. It was John Foster Dulles who came up with the completely acceptable doctrine on which to base the Cold War, one that avoided all embarrassment. The Cold War had nothing to do with economics; indeed, an excessive preoccupation with material values was a basic fault of the other side. Freedom was mentioned but was not central. The Cold War was a crusade for moral values - for good against bad, right against wrong, religion against atheism. It was the defense of the faith of the average, neighborly, God-fearing American - one's own beliefs and those of the people next door.33

Thus the Cold War became a moral, religious and Christian crusade. A strong, military policy became a Christian duty. John Foster Dulles' ideas perfectly fitted the prevailing mood and need. A clear example of the use of Christianity to serve political goals is the Annual National Prayer Breakfast begun by President Eisenhower in 1953 and attended by the President and leading representatives of both Houses of Congress, of the Galbraith, Age of Uncertainty, p. 235. According to Foster Dulles: 'The terrible things that are happening in some parts of the world are due to the fact that political and social practices have been separated from spiritual content. That separation is almost total in the Soviet Communist world. There the rulers hold a materialistic creed which denies the existence of moral law. It denies that men are spiritual beings. It denies that there are any such things as eternal verities. As a result the Soviet institutions treat human beings as primarily important from the standpoint of how much they can be made to produce for the glorification of the state. Labor is essentially slave labor, working to build up the military and material might of the state, so that those who rule can assert ever greater and more frightening power. Such conditions repel us. But it is important to understand what causes those conditions. It is irreligion... But it is gross error to assume that material forces have a monopoly of dynamism. Moral forces too are mighty. Christians, to be sure, do not believe in invoking brute power to secure their ends. But that does not mean that they have no ends or that they have no means of getting there. Christians are not negative, supine people. Jesus told the disciples to go out into all the world and to preach the gospel to all the nations. Any nation which bases its institutions on Christian principles cannot but be a dynamic nation' (' Faith of our Fathers', based on an address given at a New York Presbyterian Church, in US State Department Publication 5300, General Foreign Policy Series 84, Jan 1954, pp. 5-6.)

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Supreme Court, of the armed forces, and by leading governors and mayors and thousands of ordinary Americans. This Prayer Breakfast serves a particular political purpose. Instituted by a military President, and timed for a critical period in the US fiscal year, the Breakfast serves to call down God's blessing on the military budget and to mobilise support for the budget. In 1985 this point was made with memorable clarity in the closing prayer delivered by the US Army Chief of Staff: CO Lord, help us defend our freedom. Freedom is never free. It is the most expensive thing on earth. And it must be paid for in installments.'34 Under Reagan, between 1980 and 1987, the US military budget doubled, to $300 billion annually. Funding for the military is more easily acquired if it can be presented as a Christian duty. Such expenditure would be more difficult to justify if the case was to be argued purely in political or military terms. But the kind of Christianity spreading in Liberia was not American mainline Christianity. It was fundamentalism. This is an even more culturally conditioned form of Christianity, the product of particular forces in a particular sector of the USA. Fundamentalism is essentially a reaction against the process of modernisation. It is important to stress that fundamentalism is a modern reaction, because fundamentalists invariably present themselves as conservatives, preserving the faith of their fathers against dangerous innovations. Fundamentalism does have roots in the frontier religion of Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) and before, but in its present form US fundamentalism is a reaction to the new forms that mainline Christianity was taking at the turn of this century.35 The reason for the reaction was 34

35

O'Brien, God Land, p . 6 8 . T h e Congressman presiding in 1985 b e g a n with this p r a y e r : ' I n t h e excitement of the presence of the President of the U n i t e d States of America, help us to remember the presence of Your Son, Jesus Christ.' O'Brien, startled, recounts how he looked around at his neighbours 'but none of them seemed to find anything incongruous about the idea that Reagan might upstage Jesus, unless the Father threw His weight into the balance' (ibid., p. 67). Barr, Fundamentalism ( L o n d o n , S C M , 1977), p p . 1 7 3 - 7 an 58 n 29 their Christianity 49-51 origins 9 survival in Second Republic 25 n 39, 33 Arens, Moshe 257-8 Assemblies of God 101-2, 111-12, 133, 166, 206, 213, 221 Association of Evangelicals of Africa and

Madagascar (AEAM) 99-100 Association of Evangelicals of Liberia (AEL) 87, 98-100, 113, 132-3, 138, 177, 212, 265 Association of Independent Churches of Africa (AICA) 99-101, 132, 152 n 12, 195, 216 n 65, 219, 303 Awana Youth Association 115 Bahai's 286-7 Bahnsen, Greg 253-5 Bakker, Jim and Tammy 181,186, 193-4, 208-9, 249 Banana, Canaan 2 'Banzer Plan' 278 Baptist Churches 51-2 LBMEC 51, 87 Seminary 87-8, 90-1, n o Barclay, Arthur 56 Barrett, David 193, 293 Bassa Ministers' Association (BMA) 106-7 Beecher, Henry Ward 184 Begin, Menachem 257 Bethel World Outreach 117, 133, 163-6, 174, 218 n 72, 221 n 85, 265 Beyan, Amos J. 304 Bible College by Radio 104, 212, 217 Bible Correspondence Mission 217 Bible Society n o ' Big Man disease' 308—12 Billy Graham (Mission World) 101 n 7, 103, 113, 131, 132-40, 211, 218, 222, 249, 265-7, 270 n 106, 298, 300

Blyden, Edward Wilmot 6, 92 n 102, 140 n 79, 299 n 28 Bonnke, Reinhard 149, 180, 219 n 75 Borteh, Larry 30

343

344

Index

Bowier, Emmanuel 31, 84 Branham, William 146 Browne, (Archbishop) George 53, 60-6, 67 n 59, 86 n 89, 221 Bush, George, and Bush Administration 237 n 25, 246 n 52, 251 n 70, 280 Caine, A. 263 Calvary Redemption Pentecostal Church 200 Campus Crusade 110-1, 277 and see Great Commission Movement of Liberia Carnegie, Andrew 183 Carter, Jimmy 232 Carver Mission 108—9, 2I3> 2 I 4 Catholic Church 55-7, 71-3, 84-6, 93, 105, 191, 239 n 29, 289—90, 310-12 pastoral letters 73-83 seminary 88—90 Caulae (Bishop) Moses 200 n 22, 227 Ceaucescu, Nikolai 28, 137 Cheapoo, Chea 26 Child Evangelism Fellowship 111, 212 Christian Councils 5, 311-2 Christian Education Foundation of Liberia (CEFL) 106-7 Christian Embassy 258-9 Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL) 93, 296 Christian Literature Crusade 105 Christian Nationals' Evangelism Commission (CNEC) 101 n 7, 215 Christian Reformed Church 103, 105-7, 112, 213 n 55, 217 n 67 Christianity American 104 n 12, 104 n 15, 180-6, 239-46, 249-52, 259-61, 268-9, 282, 290-1, 305 'Biblical' 180, 225, 239-46, 252, 285, 302 fundamentalist see Fundamentalism Liberian 49-51, 57-60, 64-5, 98, 132, 140-5 'non-denominational' 160, 179—80, 225 of slaves 47-9 of southern states 242-6 Church Growth movement 307, 309-10, 315 Church of God (Cleveland) 213, 228-9 Church of God (Jerusalem Acres) 228-9

Church of God of Prophecy 127-8, 228 Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic 199 n 21, 204-5 Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints see Mormons Church of the Lord (Aladura) 89, 128-9, 2 I ^ n 65, 219-21, 301 n 31 Church of the Twelve Apostles 193 Church Planting 303, 307 Coe,Jack 147 Cold War 240-1, 271, 305 Cole, Ed Louis 156, 158 Coleman, Robert 131, 138 n 77 Communism 241, 256, 268, 275, 278-80 and see Russia, Soviet Union 'Concerned Methodists' 69-71 Conspiracy 254 n 75, 282-3, 3°6 Conwell, Russell H. 184 Copeland, Gloria 149 n 8, 150 n 10, 181 n 41, 185 n 56 Copeland, Kenneth 118 n 32, 147, 156, 166, 176, 179 n 39, 180-1, 185 n 57, 187, 188-9 Faith preaching 148-54 Council for Inter-American Security 278 see Santa Fe Documents

Coups d'etat 16-17, 23~24> 2 9~3 X Criswell, W. A. 176, 259, 245 n 49 Crocker, Chester 231 n 2, 235-6 Crusades (revivals) 221-4 Cunningham, Loren 101 n 7, 255 n 79 Cuttington University College 67, 89, 264 n 96 Dahnweih, Gonwo 99 Daily Observer 27, 28 n 52, 30, 32, 39, 79,87, 263 n92, 294 n 19 Darby, John Nelson 246-7, 259 Daugherty, Billy Joe 156, 160 Davis George, Eliza 51, 100 n 7 Deeper Life Ministry 172, 221 n 86 Department of Defence (US) 272-3 Development, Christian involvement in, 311-12 Diggs (Bishop) Ronald 62, 91 Dispensationalism 135 n 72, 212, 246-52, 257, 259, 315 Dixon (Bishop) W. 87, 98, 101, 173, 200-4, 227 Doe, Jackson F. 22, 24

345

Index Doe, Samuel Kanyon 62-5, 84, 108 n 19, 137, 299 n 28 economic mismanagement 34-40, 288 election victory 18-23, 2 35 elimination of opposition 29-31 to be obeyed 127-32 relations with USA 233-8 rise to power 16-17 his Second Republic 24-29 suppression of 1985 coup 23-4, 235-6 use of religious language 140-2, 305 ' Dominion Theology' see ' Kingdom Theology', reconstructionism Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church (DSCPC) 87, 173, 200-4, 218 n 72, 219 n 75, 227, 295 n 21 Drake, Marty 178 n 38

Dugbe,J. 99 Dukuly, Momolu 84 Dukuly, Wilhelmina 161 Dulles, John Foster 241 Dunn, D. Elwood 96 Dymally, Mervyn 32, 236 Eckankar 209-10, 291 n 12 Ecumenism 87 n 91, 92 Edwards, Jonathan 242 Eisenhower, Dwight 241 El Shaddai Church 193, 194 Ela, Jean-Marc 316 n 58, 317 ELCM 28, 84-5, 143 n 94, 237 Elections' Commission (ECOM) 32, 142 see also Special Elections Commission E L W A 102-4, I I J > I J 4> I2O > I2 4> J 4 2 >

176, 200, 212, 220 n 80, 251, 261 n 88, 300 Episcopal Church 52-3, 57, 58 n 29, 66-7, 190, 224 n 93, 264 n 96 Evangelical Christianity 112 socio-political effect of 118-26, 145, 189, 239, 255, 282, 296-308 varieties of elsewhere 144—5 Evangelical Witness in South Africa

145

Faith Healing Temple of Jesus Christ (FHTJC) 122-3, I28 > J94> 2 2 1 n 85 Faith teaching 161-3 Faith in Christ Church 200 n 22, 204 n 33, 216 n 65, 227 Faith Movement 146-89, 292 n 13, 295, 315

socio-political role in Africa 186-8 socio-political role in America 182-6 socio-political role in Liberia 189 Falwell, Jerry 181, 249, 257, 259, 261, 283 Fatalism 118-20 Ferguson (Bishop) Samuel David 53 Firestone Rubber Company 12-13, First Church of Love and Faith 206-7, 216 n 65, 218 n 72 Fission Dynamics 197-210 economic factors in 199-200 in US churches 225-30 Flanzamaton, Moses 63 Footprints Today 27, 28 n 52, 265

Ford, Elizabeth 204-5 Francis (Archbishop) Michael 27 n 48, 56, 60 n 39, 64, 84-6, 90 n 99, 92, 93 n 106, 264, 290 critic of socio-political system 71-83 Freedom 131-2, 138, 222 n 87, 232 Freire, Paulo 297, 299 n 29 Friday, Jerry 30 Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) 112, 118, 218 Full Gospel Church 214 Full Gospel Evangelistic Association 222 n 86, 270 Fundamentalism 103-4, 112, 185, 188, 194, 212, 242-4, 247, 258-9, 307, 213 n 55, 251 n6g Gaddafi, Muammar 268 Gbarnga School of Theology (GST) 89-91, 264 n 96 Gramsci, Antonio 276 'Grand Coalition' 26, 32, 96 Great Commission Movement of Liberia (GCML) I I O - I I , 212

Green, Melody 209 Growth of Christianity 31 o reasons for 288-96 Guatemala 192 Hagin, Kenneth Jr 147 Hagin, Kenneth Sr 146—8, 154-8, 176, 180-1, 187 Halsell, Grace 257-9, 2%3 Harmon, Emmett 13, 22-3, 35, 141 Health-Wealth gospel - see Faith Movement

346

Index

Henries, Richard Abrom 13 Herald 28 n 52, 32, 85 n 85, 264 Herberg, Will 239-40 Hershey, Keith 175, 194, 196, 217 Hickey, James 27, 238 Holy Church of God 215 Huffman, D. 168-70 Human person, as depraved 124-6 Humphrey, Hubert 232 Idahosa, Benson 152-3, 180 Ideology ideological use of Christianity 140-5, 246, 277, 304-8 Immanuel Pentecostal Church 160, 198 n 16, 216 Inculturation - see African Theology Individualism 125, 134-5 Institute of Liberian Languages (TILL) 55 Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) 65, 277 Interim National Assembly (INA) 18-22, 25 n 39, 62 International Convention of Faith Churches and Ministers 147, 180 Islam 211 antagonism to 261-71 dialogue with 86, 263-4 numbers in Liberia 262 n 91 vitality of 262 n 92, 287-8 and see ' Muslim threat' Israel links with Liberia 233, 238 and see Zionism, Christian Jehovah's Witnesses 105, 248 n 58, 286 Jessup, David 65 Jesus Festival 1989, 166-70, 178, 218 Jews 153 Johnson, Prince Yormie 142 n 89 Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen 21, 39, 45 Judiciary, subservience of 20, 26-7 Kaipaye, R. 29 Kairos Document 2

Karnga, Abba 107, 112, 139 n 79, 144, 197 n 15 Kato, Byang 99-100 Kennedy, Lawrence 265-70 Kenyon, E. W. 148 Kesselly, Edward 20-1 Khomeini, Ayatollah 268

King, C. D. B. 11-12 ' Kingdom Theology' 255 and see Reconstructionism Kpolleh, William Gabriel 22, 29 Krahn (Doe's tribe) 23, 33-4, 63 n 48 Kulah, (Bishop) Arthur 60 n 40, 61, 65 i*54> 69-71, 138 Liberian American-Swedish Minerals Company (LAMCO) 12, 24 n 36, 46, 210 Last Days Ministries 209 Lausanne Movement 132, 299 and see Billy Graham (Mission World) Lawrence, William 184 Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights 96 League of Nations, investigation into forced labour 11, 55, 56, 58 n 29 Legislature, subservience of 25 LeTourneau, R. G. 151-2 Liberation Singers 177 Liberation theology 1—2, 83-4, 88-90, 255 n 79, 288 n 134, 297-9, 3H~^ 3/7 n 59 Liberia settlement of 9-10 First Republic: economy 12-14; politics 10-12; social conditions 15 n 16 Second Republic - see Doe, Samuel Kanyon Liberian Action Party (LAP) 21-2, 25 n 4 i , 85n85, 141 Liberia Fellowship of Full Gospel Ministers 118 n 32, 166, 198 n 16, 216, 218, 265-6 Liberia Free Pentecostal Church 109—10

Liberia Unification Party (LUP) 22, 29 Liberian Christian Assemblies (LCA) 119, 206 Liberian Council of Churches (LCC) 61, 62, 64, 70-1, 86-7, 96, 99, 133, 161, 220-1, 204-5 Liberian Evangelical Fellowship (LEF) 98 Liberian People's Party (LPP) 20 Liebenow, Gus 97 Lighthouse Full Gospel Church 126-7, 216 n 65 Lindsay, Gordon 147, 303 Lindsey, Hal 248-9, 303

347

Index Little White Chapel 122 n 42, 172, 195 n 9, 196, 223 Living Water Teaching 154, 163, 175 n 30,

220

and see Monrovia Bible Training Centre Low Intensity Conflict (LIG) 274-7, 280-2 Lutheran Church in Liberia 54-5, 57, 87-9> 95> I I J > J33> l 6 l > J99> 264 nn 96-7, 299 McCauley, Ray 180, 186-7, 189 n 61 McClain, Wisseh 39 McGee, Vernon 104, 121, 124, 251, 261 n88 Macmillan, J. A. 148 Mainline churches 190-1, 224 changing roles of 64-5 financial dependence of 65-7 non-ecumenical nature of 92, 93, 95 seminaries 87-91 socio-political role of 93-4, 143-4 and see under individual churches Manston, H. 41 Maple Springs Baptist Church 218 Martin, David 2-3, 293 n 16, 295 n 21, 3i3n53 Marwieh (Bishop) Augustus 99, 100 n 7, 132, 144, 152 n 12, 195, 215, 219,

221

Maryland Colonization Society 10 Masonic Order 56, 58 Matthews, Gabriel Baccus 16, 21, 60 n 39> 233 Mazrui, Ali 270-1 Mennonites 101 n 7, 106, 215 Merchant, Wilmot 86 n 89 Mid-Liberia Baptist Mission 107, 113-15, 123 n 43, 208 n 35 Millennialism see Dispensationalism, Pre-Millennialism, PostMillennialism Ministry of Hope 101 n 7 Mission for Today Church 206-7 Mission Monrovia 221 Moniba (Vice-President) Harry 24, i3°> 3°5 Monrovia Bible Training Centre (MBTC) 116, 118 n 32, 128, 133, 175 n 30, 179-82, 194, 216, 220, 265 faith teaching 154-70

Moody, D. L. 247 Moonies 286, 291 n 12 Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) 105, 176, 182, 199 n 18, 208, 286 Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) 15, 17,60,89 'Muslim threat' 98, 138, 265-6 Mutual Faith Ministries 175, 266 and see Hershey, Keith Nagbe (Bishop) Stephen Trowen 52 Naipaul, V. S. 243—5 National Council of Churches (USA) 105 n 16, 115, 277 National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) 18-23, 27, 28 n 52, 31 n 63, 33> 64> 263 National Prayer Breakfast (USA) 241-2 National United Christian Ministers' Alliance of Liberia 214 New Tribes Mission 114, 217 Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) 311-12 Non-western Missions 296 North, Gary 254 n 75, 255 n 79 Obedience, need for 127-32, 137, 158, 188, 212 Olford, Stephen 103, 142 n 91 Open Bible Standard Church 109 OPEX (Operational Experts) Team 35-7, 3O5 n 38 Oral Roberts University 148, 163, 167, 172,

213

Osborn, R. L. 147 Osteen, John 147 Patience, need for 126-7 Peace Corps 187, 275 Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW) 197-8, 200, 225-8 Pentecostal Explosion of 1980s 2-3, 198 as African phenomenon 313-4 as American influenced 315 People's Redemption Council (PRC) 16-19, 61 Decree 88A 18-20, 62, 81 Philippines 60, 83, 85, 167, 201, 238 n 28, 256, 274, 303 n 33 Phillips, Romeo E. 211-12 Pillar of Fire Church 113 n 24 Podier, Nicholas 29-30, 85 n 85

348

Index

Polygamy 55, 91, 106, 107, 140 n 79 Poro see Secret Societies Post-Millennialism 252, 25^ Potter's House Church 118, 120 n 33, 121, 130 n 60, 172-3, 218, 222, 224 Prayer Bands 195 n 10 Pre-Millennialism 255, 307, 315 and see dispensationalism Presbyterian Church 53-4, 57 Press, freedom of 27-8 Price, Fred 147, 180 Prince, Derek 260 n 87 Progressive People's Party (PPP) 15, 16 Prosperity, Gospel of see Faith Movement PTL Heritage Church 133,193-4, 208-9

Sawyer, Amos 18-21, 60 n 39, 97 Schuller, Robert 101 n 7 Scqfteld Reference Bible 247-9 Scott, Jenkins K. Z. B. 23, 26 n 44, 27, 29, 62 n 46, 67 n 60, 71, 82 n 78,

305 Scripture Union 99, n o , 212 Secret Societies 91, 107, 107 n 18, 140 n 79 Seventh-Day Adventists 105, 222 n 89, 247 n 58, 286—7 Seyon, Patrick 96 Shaw, Emmanuel 26 n 44, 142, 305 Shepherding Movement 147 Shultz, George 236 Sider, Ronald 144 Slave Christianity 47-51 Slaves, repatriate 9-10, 49-50 Quiwonkpa, Thomas 23-4, 63, 85, 141, returning to enlighten the heathen 50 233 n 12, 301 n 31 ng Smith, Paul B. 101 n 7, 221 Reagan, Ronald, and Reagan Social deterioration in Liberia 42-4 Administration 234-6, 242, 250-2, reason for growth of Christianity 256, 274-6, 278, 280, 283 n 134, 288-92 306, 308 in Africa 312-14 Reconstructionism 252-7, 315 Social Gospel 185 Reeves (Bishop) Alfred G. 60 n 39, 128 Soul Cleansing Clinic of Jesus Christ n 122 n 42, 172, 195 nn 9-10, 196, 53 223 Relevant Pentecostal Witness 145 Soul Winning Independent Church of Religious Right 244, 255-6, 303 n 33 Christ 205 n 34, 215, 227 Repentant Muslims 262 n 92, 287 Source of Light Correspondence Course Rhema Bible Training Centre (Tulsa) 122-3, 2 I 7 147, *54 South Africa 1-2, 60, 86 n 89, 88, 108 n Richards, Walter 71, 86, 92 Road to Damascus 306-8 19, 130 n 59, 132, 144-5, 256, 298 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 51, Roberts, Mai 120 n 33, 121, 128 Roberts, Joseph Jenkins 50 n 9 57, 66, 88, 244-6 Roberts, Oral 146-7 Soviet Union 232, 240-1, 249, 269 n 106 and see Oral Roberts University Robertson, Pat 181, 249, 255 n 79, 259 and see communism, Russia Rockefeller, John D. 183 Special Elections Commission Ross, Samuel 11 (SECOM) 20-3 Rugh, Gil 104, 124, 176, 251, 261 n 88 Spencer, Herbert 182-4 Rushdoony, R. J. 253-5 Spiritual Warfare 116-18 Russia 249-50, 251 n 70, 269 n 105 Spread of Christianity 192-3 and see communism, Soviet Union Stewart, Don 173, 202-3 Ruthven, Malise 285 and see Don Stewart Christ Pentecostal Church Salvation Army 200 n 22 Stoll, David 2-3, 283 n 134, 313-14 Sande see Secret Societies Studd, C. T. 105 Santa Fe Documents 274 n 111, 275 n 114, Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) 102-4, 278-9, 283 109, i n , 115, 123 n 4 3 , 176, 215, Savelle, Jerry 147 217, 266, 303

Index Summer Institute of Linguistics see Wycliffe Bible Translators Sumner, William Graham 183 Sumrall, Lester 116, 130-1, 167-8, 180, 182, 260 n 87, 269 n 105, 269 n 106, 284, 303 Sun Times 27, 28 n 52 Sundkler, Bengt 192-3, 289, 301 n 31 Sung Cheon Korean Presbyterian Church 292 Swaggart, Jimmy 101, 128 n 56, 148, 181; 221, 249 Talmadge, De Witt 184 Tarr, Byron 96 Taylor, Charles 46 Teah (Bishop) Philip 200, 227-8 Tikpor, Robert 50 n 9, 85 n 86 Tipoteh, Togba-Nah 60 n 39, 233 n 10 Tipton, Ben 101-2 Tolbert, William 51-2, 58-60, 88, 97, 118 n 32, 119, 128, 232, 305 corruption of family 16 presidency of 15-16 Townsend, Reginald 58 Transcea (Transcontinental Evangelistic Association) Church 124-5, X74> 190, 218 n 72, 221 n 85, 293-4 Tribalism 33-4 Trinity Evangelical Church 215 True Whig Party (TWP) 10, 14, 57-8, 108 n 19, 271 Tubman, William V. S. 13-15, 36, 52, 97, 232, 128, 305 Unification Church see Moonies United Christian Fellowship of Liberia 215 United Liberia Inland Church (ULIC) 99> l°5> 111, 123 n 43, 177, 303 United Methodist Church 52, 57, 65-71, i n , 117, 122 n 42, 125, 191, 199, 224 n 93, 264 nn 96-7 internal dissention 68-71 United Pentecostal Church 170, 214, 217, 226 United People's Party (UPP) 21, 141 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 37, 187, 271-5, 312

349

United States of America, relationship with Liberia 35-7, 231-8, 275 n 113 Unity Party (UP) 21-2, 84, 141, 263 University of Liberia 19, 28—9, 62-3 Van Impe, Jack 251-2 Viguerie, Richard 251 Vines, Jerry 245 Voice of Pentecost Church 170-2, 223 Wallis, Jim 144 Waivoord, John F. 251 n 70, 260 n 87, 270 n 106 Warkie (Bishop) Peter 200, 214, 215 n 64

Warner (Bishop) Bennie 58, 60, 89 Wesleyan Church 113 n 24, 178 West African Association of Theological Institutions 92 Weyrich, Paul 251 Williams (Bishop) D. L. 206-7 Williams (Bishop) R. C. 204-5 Williams Charles 108 n 19 Willie George Ministries 160 Women, needs met in new religious groups 288-9 World, as evil 120-4 World Baptist Fellowship 214 World Council of Churches (WCC) 99-100, 105, 108 n 19, 115, 259 World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) 99 World Wide Harvest 222 World Wide Mission Church (WWMC) 107, 112, 208 n 35, 215 n 62 Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade (WEC) 105 Wycliffe Bible Translators 104 n 13, 114 n 25, 282 n 134 Yancy, Allen 11 Yonggi Cho, Paul 152 Youth With a Mission (YWAM) 101 n 7> 255 n 79 see also Cunningham, Loren Zionism, Christian 212, 257-71, 283, 3!5 Zirkle,Jim 154

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