Teachings of the "African Bible"
On corruption:"God is a righteous judge (Heb 10:30). Reflecting his justice, we should never demand, accept or give any bribe, even when bribes are part of our culture."
On "black magic":"While Satan is active in the world through his agents, African Christians need to remember that witchcraft, sorcery and all forms of demonic activities have been conquered and rendered powerless by Christ through his death and resurrection."
On HIV/Aids:"Jesus Christ is our Saviour (Matt 1:21). He loves us and forgives us for all those sins of which we sincerely repent, even those that may have resulted in us suffering from HIV/Aids or infecting others with this disease."
On female genital mutilation:" . . . to abuse the body in a way that destroys the ability to appreciate one of God's gifts is an insult to his creation."
On polygamy:" . . . nowhere in the Bible does God explicitly condemn a person for polygamy. Yet those who practice it are shown to suffer the consequences . . . "
On animal sacrifice:"These sacrifices are a contact point for the presentation of the supreme sacrifice, that is, Christ. The fact that many of them involved animals whose blood was shed provides a wonderful opportunity to present Christ as sacrifice for sin."
On secularism:"While it is true that some aspects of Western education contain values that are contrary to the teachings of the Bible, we need to remember that these negative values are not the facts of education, but are only ways of seeing, interpreting and applying knowledge."
On women in the church:"Where churches have listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit and have accorded women their rightful place in all the ministries of the church, women have been ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament."
On reason:"Western time-consciousness and intolerance of ambiguity affect patterns of worship, preaching and church government . . . Africans can happily live with unresolved ambiguity."
From Africa Bible Commentary, edited by Tokunboh Adeyemo. The recently published volume, a codification of African Christian beliefs, represents the thoughts of 70 scholars from a range of African evangelical churches
