Exporting Jesus vs. Building Infrastructure
Last week, I took my car in for a recall adjustment and was driven to the service station by a Lift driver born in Kenya. Talking to him brought back memories of the wonderful experience I had years ago when participating in a research study of elephants passing through Tsavo National Park. I was surprised to discover that my fifty year old driver was a Kikuyu who planned to return to Kenya to become a farmer.
I asked him if he worried about the ground being too dry to grow crops due rising global temperatures. is answer surprised me. “No,” he said. “The Chinese dug wells connecting to a large underground aquifer. There’s plenty of water.
My driver said that I wouldn’t recognize Kenya if I returned because of Chinese investments. Roads, buildings, power plants and plumbing projects have transformed Kenya and were helping the country prosper. He mentioned that Chinese involvement also worried him. It could plunge the country back into colonialism by making it a puppet of Asia rather than England.
Our conversation particularly interested me since watching “The Family,” a Netflix documentary based on books by Jeff Sharlet warning of the dangers of mixing fundamentalism and power with politics.” The series documents a secret society that promotes what they call “Jesus Plus” ideology. Since the late 1960w it’s been in existence behind closed doors under the leadership of an Oregon born man named Doug Coe (recently deceased). Doug subsidized Georgetown accommodations for congressmen who embraced a Christian religious agenda. Young adult graduates of elite colleges live in all male or female homes caring for congressmen who live in C Street and the dignitaries who visit. According to Sharlett“They (The Family) have more power now than ever.”
Military leaders, politicians and business leaders are united through prayer breakfasts attended by presidents from Eisenhower onward. Mike Pence is part of the group and President Trump has been anointed by it. Those on the Jesus Plus bandwagon do not believe in separation of church and state or that all men (women) are created equal. Conservatives only, never liberals, are invited to the table. Abortion rights, fair housing, equal access to voting, and global warming activists are rare and far between.
Based on Calvinist ideals around predestination, Coe’s movement rewards dictators, wealthy individuals, and Mafiosa strongmen by providing forgiveness when they rule oppressively. Believing that powerful men are chosen by God, they are not subject to the same sexual, moral, or financial/legal rules the rest of their countrymen follow. They say the poor, also marked by God, will always exist and must accept their lot. In my mind, The Family’s rational is reminiscent of India’s caste system, 14th century missionary zeal, and pre-Civil War rational for suppressing people of color.
My partner Ray pointed out that to build trade and spread influence, the United States leaders preaches Jesus to an international power elite while the Chinese construct infrastructure. Though self centered motivations may be at the base of both countries, one can’t but wonder which one benefits the majority.
By improving economic conditions in struggling countries, the also Chinese support businesses that create new markets for their goods. They build schools, roads, bridges, railways and hospitals. Their investments save deteriorating facilities, rescue jobs and create thousands of new ones. They carry a banner we used to wave at the end of WWII when the Marshall plan was in place. And, they are reaping many benefits.
The US also spends billions of dollars in foreign aid ($300 billion since 1970). I’ve read that 80 percent goes to companies in the United States for weapons and agricultural products while 20 percent is allocated for health and disaster relief. Much of the money winds up in the hands of corrupt individuals at home and abroad. Those in need are marginal beneficiaries.
There was a time when U.S. foreign aid was connected to the recipient’ country’s human rights track record. That is rarely true anymore. We (as does China) look the other way when it comes to countries like Saudi Arabia. China’s influence abroad benefits by their no-strings attached program promising growth. China spends half of its aid capital in Africa, benefiting from the continent’s rich natural reserves of oil, iron ore, timber, and copper. In exchange, China provides cheap manufactured goods, infrastructure, direct investments and billions of dollars in loans. Many of the projects they fund are implemented using Chinese labor. In 2014, China’s trade with Africa totaled over $ 200 billion.
Chinese foreign aid is rapidly shifting political influence away from the United States. The countries they help return the favor by voting China’s interests at U.N. and other international gatherings.
“We the People” of the United States are at a critical point in history. We face an identity crisis as to who we are and what we want to be in the future. Are we the loving, giving, compassionate, pluralistic society we consider ourselves to be or the self-centered, militaristic, racist, greedy one much of the world believes us to be? Do we honor dictators as men chosen by God or are ordinary people a manifestation of the Kingdom of God? Do white Christian men supposedly anointed by God rule or do we want a democracy that values all who reside within?
References:
Sharlot, J. (2009) The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, Harper-Collins Publishers, New York.
Manero,E. (2017) China’s Investment in Africa: The New Colonialism? Harvard Political Review: retrieved from http://harvardpolitics.com/world/chinas-investment-in-africa-the-new-colonialism/
Bonasso, D. (2019)US Foreign Aid to Africa: What we give and Why . the Borgen Project. retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/us-foreign-aid-to-africa-what-we-give-and-why/
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