Christians Destroy African Artifacts

[MommaSquid]

Christians destroy Nigerian artifacts

Dulue Mbachu
Associated Press
Sept. 9, 2007 12:00 AM
 
ACHINA, Nigeria - Born to a family of traditional priests, Ibe Nwigwe converted to Christianity as a boy. Under the sway of born-again fervor as a man, he gathered the paraphernalia of ancestral worship - a centuries-old stool, a metal staff with a wooden handle and the carved figure of a god - and burned them as his pastor watched.

"I had experienced a series of misfortunes and my pastor told me it was because I had not completely broken the covenant with my ancestral idols," the 52-year-old Nwigwe said of the bonfire three years ago. "Now that I have done that, I hope I will be truly liberated."

Generations ago, European colonists and Christian missionaries looted Africa's ancient treasures. Now, Pentecostal Christian evangelists, most of them Africans, are helping wipe out remaining traces of how Africans once worked, played and prayed.

Full Article:  
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... s0909.html

Artifacts are being destroyed in the name of a jealous, vengeful god.  History be damned!

[SteveS]

Mmmm - A nice bonfire of sinful objects - Jack Chick would be proud!  If only they could have found some Dungeons & Dragons books to help fuel the blaze....

On a more serious note, this event reminds be of the Buddha statues the Taliban destroyed.  Not much difference in the mentality driving these acts if you ask me.

This guy believed he experience misfortune as a result of keeping a stool, a staff, and a carved figure ... is that not superstition at its height?

[rlrose328]

Not a surprise... religion has destroyed entire CULTURES and tribes in Africa... why should a few religious objects be any different.

Sickens me.

[donkeyhoty]

Jack Chick would be proud

So would Goebbels.

[EbzDirtyHeathen]

Fantastic -_-............

[matty.the.damned]

Ya gotta love those wacky born-agains.

Some years back the local anglican (episcopalian) church here was taken over by a hard-line puritan minister. He declared that the priceless stained glass windows and interior wood carvings (over a century old) promoted idolatory and had the removed and destroyed.

No really. Not donated to some dusty old historical society or even given to those evil Mary worshipping papists, but trashed.

He then had the interior of the church redone in severe low church white.

For supposedly enlightened people of god, they sure have little respect for their heritage.

MtD

[SteveS]

The aesthetic beauty of churches is one of the only things I like about them!  Trashing them seems foolish - I'd rather they were just put to better use is all - mostly they are really beautiful buildings.

[McQ]

Now, don't get me wrong here. I think that this example is atrocious, and clearly typical of idiot missionary thinking christians.

But.....

If you are an atheist, what is the difference in dismissing one god or all gods? Why should we be upset that another god has been tossed in the heap?

If these items were simply of a cultural, non-religious nature, then I can see the outrage. But exchanging one make-believe deity for another?

Someone help me see the issue. Honestly, I'm not sure I get it.

[matty.the.damned]

Well that's a good point.

But these things are still important relics of human culture and heritage and irrespective of what they might stand for they shouldn't just be destroyed.

Whether it's African artifacts, a century old stained glass window in Crow's Butt Australia or even those Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan they tell us about ourselves at various points in our history. Who we were, are and so on.

Regardless of what we might think as atheists, they do have some intrinsic cultural and social value. We are worse off as a species for their destruction.

The fact that such things should be destroyed to satisfy the backwards beliefs of some christian fanatics is a bad thing.

MtD

[McQ]

Well that's a good point.

But these things are still important relics of human culture and heritage and irrespective of what they might stand for they shouldn't just be destroyed.

Whether it's African artifacts, a century old stained glass window in Crow's Butt Australia or even those Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan they tell us about ourselves at various points in our history. Who we were, are and so on.

Regardless of what we might think as atheists, they do have some intrinsic cultural and social value. We are worse off as a species for their destruction.

The fact that such things should be destroyed to satisfy the backwards beliefs of some christian fanatics is a bad thing.

MtD

Good elaboration on my point. It's the social and cultural value that is more important, along with the senseless destruction that I looked at here.

[EbzDirtyHeathen]

Regardless of what we might think as atheists, they do have some intrinsic cultural and social value. We are worse off as a species for their destruction.

The fact that such things should be destroyed to satisfy the backwards beliefs of some christian fanatics is a bad thing.

MtD

Absolutely...............