DO NOT TERRORIZE ME WITH YOUR RELIGION

I must say first off that I was inspired to write this piece after reading Chidi Amuta’s back-page article in Thisday Newspapers of Thursday, November 18, 2010 titled ‘A Graveyard of Most Things’.

In the said article, Chidi wondered why most benefits of embracing foreign religions have eluded us. He alluded to the fact that those that introduced Islam and Christianity to Nigeria came with concurrent economic and moral values that go with the two religions and wondered why such values have helped develop the parent countries while seemingly getting lost in Nigeria where it was exported to.

That got me thinking and I zeroed the problem down to a position I have always held that in Nigeria, we elevate symbolic nuances of our religions to great heights while ignoring the basic tenets or practicing them in total breach of the original intention of the founding fathers.

I dare say that the Pharisees of biblical teachings must have established a strong satellite camp in Nigeria in days of yore which has grown exponentially and taken firm root in our daily endeavours. Unfortunately, Jesus is not here to physically excoriate us. We are simply put, a nation of hypocrites! (Yes, sue me).

How else would you explain a society that places such great emphasis on religious symbolism to the detriment of the actual teachings of the religion. Two examples will suffice at this point.

I do not go far. In my village, we have always had a Methodist Church where we worshiped whenever we returned for the annual Christmas pilgrimage to the East’ (I will discuss Christmas in another Note). There are three villages in my community sharing a common history and the three villages have always jointly worshiped in the Methodist Church.
Now out of the blues, about 10 years ago, a major squabble erupted regarding the name the Church should be called (a more than 50 year old Church that suddenly needed fresh christening). Protagonists and antagonists took sides and even people that were otherwise reasonable and of high mind were parroting a strange logic (or illogic) that since there were three villages worshiping in the Church, it would not be fair for the church to continue baring the name of one village only! It did not also help that the church was cited on a boundary between two of the villages.

Friends, I tell you that this debate led to boycott of church services by different villages at different times and tempers really rose to boiling point. Thank God it did not snow-ball into a communal (or is it fraternal) conflict among brethren that have always dwelt in peace.

At the end of a long period of tension, the matter was resolved by naming the poor church, (no pun intended), wait for it… Trinity Methodist Church, UUU. Yes, that is what is written on the signpost of the church as I write. Trinity not depicting the trinity that you and I know or have deduced from the bible or a dictionary, but trinity to connote the three villages that ‘own’ the church! The UUU also stands for the first letters of the names of the three villages! In other words, though the church sits on a land, no one can lay claim to it. It belongs jointly and equally to the three villages. That was how the matter was ‘resolved’ amicably and everybody resumed pious worship of God safe in the knowledge that no neighbour had any undue advantage over the other in laying rightful claim to the church.

Again, in a neighbouring community, a similar scuffle ensued owing to the mounting of a signpost at an Anglican Church that has always accommodated two villages. One day, an affluent son of one of the villages donated a signpost to the church and made the mistake of citing the location of the church in his village.

Pronto, the youths of the other village, not enamored by the niceties of diplomacy and dialogue, rose up in arms the next morning and uprooted the provocative signpost. I wish that were all. Whosai! They took the liberty of dispossessing neighbouring buildings of their windows and generally racked up a fine ruckus. In the proper Igbo tradition, the attacked village felt rightfully indignant at the unwarranted provocation and their youths, equally armed themselves and paid a retaliatory visit to the village where the aggressors had come from in the true spirit of ‘ubochi amuru dike na mba ka amuru dike ibeya na mba ozo’ (meaning the day a great man was born in a community, so also were other great men born in other communities. It’s a battle cry that comes in handy whenever there’s a need to raise testosterone levels a few notches higher).

Thus began a prolonged inter-village skirmish. I am made to understand that on Sundays, while coming to the disputed church, people of the two villages would conceal guns, machetes, cudgels and other choice weapons capable of causing grievous bodily harm under their fine Sunday apparel and while singing their hymns, they will be on the lookout for any sudden movement from their neighbours which will no doubt be met with equal and corresponding force. The biblical injunction of ‘watch and pray’ found potent adherents in that church.

Soon, it was decided that the two villages should not worship together again to avoid repeated altercations. A novel concept was created whereby one village would worship from 7am to 10am and vacate the church for the other village to come in and worship from 10am to whenever it suites their fancy to leave. The matter of who should worship first caused another great and mighty storm.

Thankfully, I understand an illustrious son of one of the villages has erected a structure and ‘relocated’ his people to an area of less resistance. Nonetheless, some die hards still insist that the church rightfully belongs to them and they have refused to forego their ‘rightful place of worship’ so that the other ‘infidels’ do not take undue glory. The matter still lingers.
I have raised these two examples to highlight what we go to church to do as Nigerians. The question is when these people go out on evangelism, what do they tell those they are trying to convert? One of the key biblical tenets is ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. Do these people love their neighbours? You decide.

It’s not quite different with Islam. There are probably more mosques in Nigeria than the entire Middle East where Islam originated from. In northern Nigeria, virtually every street has it own Mosque and affluent members of society build private mosques within their compounds yet the division persists.

A Yoruba Muslim is suspicious of praying in an Hausa-dominated mosque. Until recently when a young, debonair Army Brigadier General ascended the throne as Sultan of Sokoto, Northern and Western Muslims celebrated Sallah Eid on different days. It is quite more complicated than this. The recurrent skirmishes in the north are products of religious extremism. Is that really what the Quran teaches or are adherents of the Islamic faith interpreting the Holy Book to sooth their innate violent predilections? Again, you tell me.

In Nigeria, we practice religion to be SEEN and not to be emulated. A Muslim would rather pray in public so that his neighbour would see him praying as a true mark of observance of one of the 5 cardinal pillars of Islam. Our annual Hajj entourage is easily the largest worldwide. What about pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Ah, another matter. People go for sightseeing and to be able to affix JP to their titles rather than for spiritual edification.

Your neighbour wakes up at midnight to conduct ‘midnight prayer’ and keeps the entire neighbourhood awake with his supplications. Is he really praying to be answered or is he praying to be HEARD praying by his neighbours?

A man comes to you to transact business and the first thing he does is to identify himself as a member of your church. What has that got to do with the business at hand? Chances are that he will defraud you along the line. So much for being a ‘brother’.
We mouth platitudes promoted by our churches e.g you’re blessed, bless you, I am strong, I am rich, brother praise God, e.t.c. Our new wonder churches are another matter entirely. Thankfully, the Bible has warned that it is not all that call God father that will enter into the kingdom of God.

What then am I advocating? Let your religious piety speak for you by your actions and deeds and not by your words. Let me not know you as a religious person because you said so or because you act like one. Let your off hand actions and your unconscious utterances and deeds actually single you out as a good man. I am led more by works than by sight.

I do not have much respect for people who will want to intimidate me with their religion, their piety or their adherence to the style of the General Overseer or Imam. Be independently good and religious (yes, they go hand in hand) and all else will fall in place. Give because it is an innate quality and not because you want me to see what you are giving. Pray for me without telling me you are praying for me.

I once worked in an office in Abuja where a new guy was recruited. We explained to him the on-going scam in the company and enlisted his support. He declined to participate but did not stand in our way. Instead, he kept praying for us. We were neck deep and the money was good. One day, the sharing formula of a heist became a problem and a staff who felt short-changed spilled the beans to management. Pronto we were all rounded up and dispatched to the nearby police station to sing our hearts out. That day, a glorious thing happened. In unison, we the accused exonerated our pious colleague and vouched that he was not one of us. We were okay to go to the station but we insisted our colleague who was not a partaker be let go.

It was really simple. He did not judge us. He did not thump a bible in our face. He only admonished us constantly to change our ways in a way that we still had professional harmony. If I was going to change, it was because he walked his faith and was an all-round good person.
Brethren, let us drop all this hypocrisy. Deep down, we are not worthy. If not for GRACE, we would all have been condemned a long time ago. Jesus said he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. To assume that your private sin is a small one while the drunkard and philanderer is definitely hell-bound is the greatest sin of all.

Let us stop judging our fellow men. Go light on the open show of piety and concentrate on working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. On the day of judgment, those people you worked hard to prove to that you are holy will not be there to attest to your holiness, they will be answering their own questions.

Concentrate on developing your own relationship with God for on the last day, every man shall answer for himself. Seek a church that provides you with spiritual edification and ignore all the razzmatazz, it matters little in the long run.

Seek the help of the Holy Spirit to help you rightfully divide the word of truth so that you are not tossed around by every word of doctrine. Above all, constantly beseech God for his GRACE. That is the ultimate weapon that is more potent than all our grandstanding put together. The day you start assuming that you are where you are or what you are because of your righteousness, brother, sister, I pity you.

The above is my two-pence on the subject. I hope someone is blessed. I leave you all to work out your salvation with fear and trembling while I work out mine. Thank you.