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— The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
==Then all of a sudden the fire hit the pan.
Anatole leaned forward and announced, “Our chief, Tata Ndu, is concerned about the moral decline of his village.” Father said, “Indeed he should be, because so few villagers are going to church.” “No, Reverend.
Because so many villagers are going to church.” Well, that stupefied us all for a special moment in time.== But Father leaned forward, fixing to rise to the challenge.
Whenever he sees an argument coming, man oh man, does he get jazzed up.
“Brother Anatole, I fail to see how the church can mean anything but joy, for the few here who choose Christi-an-ity over ignorance and darkness!” Anatole sighed.
“I understand your difficulty, Reverend.
Tata Ndu has asked me to explain this.
His concern is with the important gods and ancestors of this village, who have always been honored in certain sacred ways.
==Tata Ndu worries that the people who go to your church are neglecting their duties.” “Neglecting their duties to false idolatry, you mean to say.” Anatole sighed again.
“This may be difficult for you to understand.
The people of your congregation are mostly what we call in Kikongo the lenzuka.
People who have shamed themselves or had very bad luck or something like that.== Tata Boanda, for example.
He has had terrible luck with his wives.
The first one can’t get any proper children, and the second one has a baby now who keeps dying before birth and coming back into her womb, over and over.
No one can help this family anymore.
The Boandas were very careful to worship their personal gods at home, making the proper sacrifices of food and doing everything in order.
But still their gods have abandoned them for some reason.
==This is what they feel.
Their luck could not get any more bad, you see?
So they are interested to try making sacrifices to your Jesus.==”