Churches Tell Bashir to Let Aid Agencies Stay

Adding to the conversation on this blog about the role of religion in development, the All African Conference of Churches has added their group to a list of humanitarian aid organizations and UN departments calling for Omar al-Bashir to let international aid agencies stay in Darfur. 

Without these agencies 4.7 million people will go without essential services. 

I can't imagine that the All Africa Conference of Churches has more influence over Bashir than the UN Security Council, but I imagine they might have more influence over the African faithful. 

I am still skeptical of churches, I can't help it. But while there is opportunity for exploitation, churches DO organize people.  And because they organize people, they REPRESENT a heck of a lot of people. 

(This seems more like an example of a church being a group of people organizing around an idea - a mandate from people, and not something believed to be a mandate from God - though the Lordisa works in mysterious ways.)

And the more voices demanding that Bashir undo his dangerous decree, and allow international aid agencies to continue to  provide food, housing and health care for the people in Darfur, who's villages were set on fire, and families were killed on directives from Khartoum, the better.