Principle 2. The Kindgom of God exibits value for life. It is often said that life is cheap here in Africa. Life expectancy is less than 60 in more than 28 of the 53 African nations and less than 50 in 18 countries. In Zimbabwe life epectancy is just under 34 years for men and 36 for women. Poverty, of course, is staggering accross the entire continent. The World Bank reports that half of the 600 million people in sub Saharan Africa live in poverty. In 13 countries alone, at least half of the adult population is illiterate. In many countries, 10% of the children die before the age of 5. Yet the population growth rate in sub Saharan Africa is 3% annually almost 4 times that of developed nations and of course the enormity of the Aids pandemic is astonishing.
What one judges as being valuable in life is based on the principles and values one chooses to uphold. The lower the principle the lower the value. If man is as being viewed as being formed by God and valued by God, and if that life is sacred, then his worth and desirability increases. However if the converse is true, man simply becomes a commodity, a piece on the chess board, willing to be traded for any other piece of relative rank or importance according to whatever set of rules happen to be in place. Values simply revert to the lowest common denominator and man begins to operate by the law of the jungle.
