Jinja Wrestling and Church Softball

Today, during one of the course sesssions at the Busoga Bible School, I taught the students about social issues in the first century world of Greco-Roman and Jewish thought. To say my translator (Monda) is good is an understatement.

One of the areas that was most interesting to the students, was the discussion of "honor and shame" in Jesus' ministry--specifically the Gospel of Luke.

The short version goes like this. In Israel, men attempted to gain great honor through education, wealth, friends, skill, accomplishment, family, marriage, etc. The more items on the list, the more honor one would receieve. Thus, Jesus exposes the dangers of culture's built upon honor and shame, by turning everything upside down. He is not formally educated, lives a simple life from the backwoods of Nazareth, associates with the "nobodies" and does very little to promote his family or make important social relationships. Just look at the people Jesus ate with. You get the idea.

I asked what men (not women necessarily for Uganda's culture still sees women as second class, as do some pockets of American culture) do to gain honor. One man, Martin, proceeded to tell me about the wrestling competitions that used to consume life in Jinja. Men from various churches would compete against other men. They would have a tournament of sorts . . . the winner was esteemed as a person of great promise. One more important detail is in order. I asked Martin and another man to demonstrate in the front of the classroom. Their wrestling is much more reliant upon skill and speed as opposed to violence and power.

Martin then, after eloquently explaining this to me, turned the question to me and asked, "Joshua . . . .In America, do your churches ever wrestle against one another?" I thought of some funny answers regarding church polity, doctrinal disputes, etc. but decided not to run down that road. Instead, I simply smiled and said," Martin . . . we have something similiar . . . are you familiar with church softball?"

Never did I think I'd have to explain church softball to a room of Ugandan ministers.

The world can end tonight and I'll be just fine.