Religious fervour and the effects of climate change may combine with explosive effect over the coming months and yearsThe story is told of how two Ghanaian old ladies emerged from church one Sunday morning in June 1967. During the service, the minister had asked for prayers for the people of Israel, who were at war."Akosua", one lady turned to the other, "what are we going to do?""Do about what?" the other asked, perplexed."Didn't you hear the priest? Jerusalem is about to be destroyed!""Oh that … ""Yes. You and I have been paying our church dues regularly. We have been coming to morning service without fail. But now that we are approaching the time when we shall leave this place of suffering and go to Jerusalem, our heavenly home of eternal peace, they say that that place, too, is going to be destroyed.""It's not fair!" the other old lady assented. "All our good deeds have been done in vain!"This story illustrates a phenomenon very common indeed in Africa: many Christians on the continent take what the Bible says about almost anything quite literally.It is therefore extremely worrying that climate change is already changing the Africa's environment irreversibly.Indeed, very frightening pictures have been coming out of Kenya and other parts of east Africa in recent months.Apart from the suffering of the people, and the dying of the cattle and other livestock by which they measure their economic wellbeing, disaster is also staring them in the face in the form of the loss of the wild
animals that have made east Africa a tourist paradise. One of the most beautiful creatures n the world, the giraffe, for example, has suffered a crash in numbers. Estimates of the number lost in the Masai Mara are as high as 95%.If things get worse – as they undoubtedly will do – it isn't only nature that will take its toll on the African people. The many "prophets" who have set up "charismatic" churches all across Africa, and which already prey financially ...
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