Posted on: September 27th, 2010 Nigeria & Eliza Griswold’s _The 10th Parallel_
About a month ago I heard a podcast of “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross in which she interviewed both Eliza Griswold, daughter of former Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, as well as Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family and 2010 Blandy Lecturer at the Seminary of the Southwest.
Sharlet has an article in this month’s Harper’s on homosexuality in Uganda called “Straight Man’s Burden” which is interesting reading.
After hearing the interview I purchased the book and started reading, largely to prepare myself for the upcoming visit to Christ Church Tyler of the Most Reverend Benjamin Kwashi, an Anglican archbishop in Nigeria. (God willing, I also have the amazing opportunity, at the Archbishop’s request, to travel to Nigeria next summer with a group from Christ Church.)
I plan to blog on this book over the next few days. For now, here’s a great quotation (from page 11):
Today’s typical Protestant in an African woman, not a white American man. In many of the weak states along the tenth parallel, the power of these religious movements is compounded by the fact that the “state” means very little here; governments are alien structures that offer their people almost nothing in the way of services or political rights. This lack is especially pronounced where present-day national borders began as nothing more than lines sketched onto colonial maps. Other kinds of identity, consequently, come to the fore: religion above everything – even race or ethnicity – becomes a means to safeguard individual and collective security in this world and the next one.
2 Responses to “Nigeria & Eliza Griswold’s _The 10th Parallel_”
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Collins aka Boo Says:
September 27th, 2010 at 10:09 amhmnnn…I have peeps in Nigeria, let me know when you go.(but it’s no joke out there)
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matt Says:
September 27th, 2010 at 4:25 pmNext summer is the plan….