One topic I’ve hinted at several times already in previous posts, but never got a chance to reflect on thoroughly, is religion in Ghana. There are some things you should know before I begin and that is my relation to religion – I am, and was raised, as a secular Israeli Jew that has no real interest for, understanding of, and draws no pleasure from spirituality. I rest somewhere in the realm between agnosticism and atheism – with absolutely no belief in a singular (apparently male) being called God who created the universe, humanity, and now commands us to live in certain ways that he deems good, just, and true (and a strange combination of distaste and respect for those who do) – but with an understanding that there is no way to necessarily disprove the existence of an intelligent origin of the universe. Who knows – maybe we’re just little creatures in some laboratory somewhere of a much more technologically advanced (and unimaginably gigantic) civilization? Regardless, I find no personal, social, or ethical gain from living observantly and – in fact – find it considerably irrational. Even if we all agree that God exists and has created us and the universe (which seems like an irrational starting point given the non-evidence for the assertion but let’s just give religion the benefit of the doubt), it would be logically irrational to follow God’s commandments because logical rationality is based on premises leading to conclusions within a closed system. If the conclusion “to follow God’s commandments” is a result of the premise “they were decreed by God,” would that not require a commandment by God to follow all of his commandments? But if so, would you not be already following God’s commandments by following that original commandment requiring you to do so… without an axiom that would lead you to that conclusion? Ah, but I’ve digressed. I do find the topic interesting to discuss, however, as I have many a time, primarily with religious/observant Jews (ranging from Eliya to Rabbi Kasher at Hillel to Shabbat dinner conversations with Rabbi Ezzy and Nechama of The Friendship Circle). In essence, the only meaningful understanding of the Bible for me is as a story written and rewritten by humans over the past few millennia and has influenced countless people the world over. The only meaningful understanding of my Jewish identity is as an ethnic cultural tradition that has given me, most valuably, a thriving community and friendships that have defined me foundationally; most likely, I will find it important to pass that heritage down gently to my children for that reason.
In Ghana, religion is one of the centers of daily life and my encounters are (until I travel to the Jewish enclave of Shalom Shalom) with religions that are not my own – generally different sects of Christianity if a Ghanaian is from the South and Islam if they’re from the North, and remnants of pre-colonial religious conceptions (such as witchcraft, juju, and “African power”) throughout. What I heard before coming here – and has definitely proven to be true – is that Ghana is a very conservative religious society (so much so that religious ties usually supersede any others, including ethnicity, so a Muslim marrying a Muslim of a different ethnic group is fine but marrying a Christian of the same ethnic group is not), it is hard to find someone here who is not very religious (by my standards), you will pass by large groups of people chanting prayers and speaking in tongues late at night, and you will get woken up by preachers at odd hours in the morning. Just this morning, I was woken up by a preacher at 6:30am (that’s on a Saturday morning, my friends) - definitely irritated considering how hung over I was – who was screaming angrily on a megaphone about serving Jesus and repeating, over and over, how “the sinners should be killed.” Just peachy! So far, I’ve had some pleasant and not-so-pleasant run-ins with religion. I’ve had several really interesting conversations with my floormate, Alvin, about Christianity and we definitely respectfully challenged each other. He was under the impression that every American studying abroad here lacked much of a moral backbone and was really only interested in partying, doing drugs, and having sex. I assured him that although some of those were interesting, if that was all I wanted I would probably have stuck to Europe or Australia as travel destinations. I pushed back and complicating his contention that “everything that is Good in the world is God and everything that is Bad is Satan” by confusing him with what I believe to be the majority of life: the morally grey and culturally dependant (would you save a dying man in need of a transplant if his only option for survival is you killing a dying man in the next room for the organ?). He was left relatively speechless, and so has everybody else that I have challenged with this so far, when I questioned why he was so enamored by a morality professed by a religion that was brought here on the same ships that were used to traffic millions of Africans from this continent as slaves. I also really enjoyed Larbi’s sermon about humility and achievement at a birthday celebration on our Zoology fieldtrip. On the other hand, I’ve also had many unpleasant experiences ranging from being chastised for not seeing common sense and warned that I will go to hell if I don’t repent for my sins and accept Jesus (“would you rather stand in eternal fire or eternal water?” “ummm, if you stood in fire for eternity, wouldn’t you just end up getting used to it like everything else over time?”) to being what-could-only-be-described-as stalked to try to get me to come to Church.
So far, I’ve made two real reflections on how I feel about religion here. First of all, I have generally been received much better impressions by Muslims on campus than by Christians and have befriended them more – probably primarily because they, so far, haven’t at all been interested in making me become religious (all the preachers are Christian), have been understanding and genuinely interested when I say that I don’t believe in God, and - since, as a Jew, I often have more in common with the underdog - Muslims seem to be generally regarded with less respect by some here in the South. One of my best friends here on campus is Abdul, a devout Muslim (I didn’t believe that he prayed 5 times a day so he texted me starting at his first prayer at 5:00am), and we had one conversation last week that was just amazing. We were essentially hollowing ourselves out to each other – why we do what we do, what we’re passionate about, and where that comes from – and we realized that we have essentially arrived at very similar places (seeking to live good lives, helping others, caring about justice and equality and suffering, etc.) from two very different directions. For me, God had no place in my ethics – and in fact – if he did I would just feel like I was shifting responsibility for actions that were my own. For Abdul, none of his worldview – including his ethics – would exist without God and Islam, they are foundationally defined by it. I asked him about all the pretty horrible things done in the name of Islam (recognizing there are enough, if not more, horrible things done by Christianity and Judaism as well) and his reply was simple – one could call oneself a Muslim but misunderstand or manipulate the religion’s teachings, everything that he understood about Islam led him to seek a peaceful, just, equal, humble life bettering his corner of the world to the best of his ability. The second realization I’ve made is that although religion is professed to ensure a moral bulwark for religious communities, my experience so far (which I admit is really limited) suggests that this morality is really only practiced whole-heartedly only by the few leaving the majority of Ghanaians strangely hypocritical at times – it’s not uncommon in the slightest for deeply religious people to cheat on their romantic partners, for example. But hey, that’s no different from anywhere else on the planet, right?
As a reaction to all of this, I’ve made a decision that might seriously surprise some of you: I have decided to read the English translation of The Bible (and afterwards The Koran) from cover-to-cover. I’ve decided this for several reasons – (1) firstly, I’m genuinely curious how these words on a piece of paper enthrall countless numbers of people and influence so much social action (2) secondly, if I reject religion as meaningful to me then, at least as a form of intellectual honesty, I must engage with it and (3) thirdly, perhaps it would lead me to a better of understanding of my own religion and maybe I’ll actually learn something. So far, I have been reading the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible or Torah) including all of the Book of Genesis and sections of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I’m guessing many people back home have, like me, never read The Bible or at least never cover-to-cover so I might be quoting some portions I find interesting in the coming blog posts, starting with this one. Again, read as much or as little as you like. You’ll probably find some of these off-putting, enlightening, and usually highly contradictory… but hey, that’s what the source of all perfection decided to grant us (ok definitely a little snarky there):
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27).
“But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:20-27)
“To the woman he (God) said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)
“When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them ‘man.’” (Genesis 5:1-2)
“They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.’ Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, ‘No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.’” (Genesis 19:5-8)
“Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” (Leviticus 18:22)
“The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and wicker alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ The Lord said, ‘If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’ Then Abraham spoke up again: ‘Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?’ ‘If I find forty-five there,’ he (God) said, ‘I will not destroy it.’… He answered, ‘For the sake of ten (righteous), I will not destroy it.’” (Genesis 18:22-32)
“There are regulations for any infectious skin disease, for an itch, for mildew in clothing or in a house, and for a swelling, a rash or a bright spot, to determine when something is clean or unclean.” (Leviticus 14:54-57)
“Abraham traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’” (Genesis 12:6-7)
“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)
“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)
“The Amalekites came and attack the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.’… So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. The the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be rememberd and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven… The Lord will be at war against the Malekites from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:8-16)
“Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.” (Exodus 21:17)
“While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.’ So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.” (Numbers 15:32-36)
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.’ So Moses said to the people, ‘Arm some of your men to go to carry war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them. Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.’ So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel… [they] killed every man…’Have you allowed all the women to live?’ he (Moses) asked them. ‘They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.’” (Numbers 31:1-18)
“When the Lord our God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy… For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Lord your God has chosen you out of all peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-6)
“When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you mate these as plunder for yourselves... This is how you are to treat all the cities that are a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.” (Deuteronomy 20:10-16)
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