CASUAL
Barnes, Mr.
Casual MR. BARNES, I PRESUME I wasn't mad—really I wasn't— but I was surprised. A notice in a newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, announced that I would be delivering a major address at a local...
...That, I figured, would be fun, a pleasant interlude during my vacation in Africa...
...It was a bipartisan moment in a normally hostile environment —at my expense...
...So I also talked about my experience as a Christian...
...After the speech, a fellow approached me and said he'd heard that a newspaper in Uganda had reported I'd be speaking there in a couple days...
...The Kenyan government doesn't quite understand what Sam's up to...
...For Sam, our visit to Kenya was not only a chance for our families to get together (we spent lots of time at wildlife preserves...
...Of course, it is, but only in the sense of a spiritual awakening, not a coup...
...When he and his wife Lynn and their three kids left for Kenya in the late 1980s, we kept in contact...
...Moi agreed only under duress a few years ago to allow opposition parties at all, and he still occasionally throws dissident members of parliament in jail for years at a time...
...The thing you have to know about Sam is that he's extremely resourceful...
...This was significant...
...I had no one to blame but my host, Sam Owen...
...I don't mean to sound critical...
...Sam is a Christian missionary with a remarkable ministry to political, civic, and business leaders in Kenya and nearby countries...
...Moi's ex-finance minister, Simeon Nyachae, elaborated on Kenya's need for private investment and expertise...
...Am I supposed to give a speech there too...
...His ministry is unusual...
...But that's what I was there for in Sam's scheme...
...This was news to me...
...In the end, I got off easy...
...True, I planned to drop by Daystar University for a relaxed chat about journalism with a handful of students and professors...
...The audience of maybe 150 filled a classroom, and as best I could tell it was politically—and religiously— diverse—just what Sam had hoped for...
...A speech was work...
...From time to time, attendees at his weekly breakfasts are interrogated by investigators suspicious that something subversive is afoot...
...I was a new believer and Sam was the first person I met...
...My remarks didn't matter much...
...There's one especially nice thing about speaking at a Christian gathering: You don't get hammered by questioners as you might, say, at an American university...
...Since then, they've invited my family to visit every year...
...If I could assist Sam's ministry, I was more than willing...
...The idea is to help them apply Christian principles to their daily lives and work...
...One ex-prisoner at Sam's dinner asked me how America maintains a two-party democracy...
...We became friends two decades ago at a Virginia church my wife had picked out...
...I'm sure there are journalists who can spontaneously hold forth on globalization, but I'm not one of them...
...Not this trip," he said...
...Anyway, opposition and government pols mingled, chatted, joked, and also agreed I had missed the point about what Kenya needs from America...
...Our second night in Nairobi, he and Lynn had a dinner in our honor, and I made a few informal remarks about the U.S...
...It was an opportunity...
...And there were opposition leaders...
...An opposition member, Beth Mugo, said I kept referring to foreign "aid" when that's not what Kenya wants...
...presidential race and my Christian faith...
...There were members of parliament from the governing party, KANU, of President Daniel arap Moi...
...A discussion among the 50 or so guests followed...
...FRED BARNES...
...I asked...
...My answer must not have been helpful because he asked the same question again...
...He brings leaders together for discussions of faith, study of the Bible, fellowship, and prayer...
...We'd taken a raincheck until this August...
...Now, this wasn't the same as Democrats and Republicans socializing in the United States...
...In Kenya, the opposition is hopelessly fragmented...
...He doesn't preach on streetcorners, though he'd be good at it...
...A notice in a newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, announced that I would be delivering a major address at a local university the next day on the highfa-lutin subject of globalization and the American media...
...Besides, it turned out a panel would critique my remarks...
...Kenya is not a full-grown democracy...
...They were merely the pretext for bringing together people who seldom meet socially...
...He has to be...
...I turned to ask Sam about this...
...Still, the publicly announced lecture at Daystar would take work...
...Daystar is a Christian school, and the session began and ended with a prayer...
Vol. 4 • September 1999 • No. 48
