Saturday 16 February 2013

Who Will Watch The Watchers?


Religion is one of the most ambiguous things in the world, perhaps, even more confusing than the universe itself. I’m not a Muslim, neither am I well-read when it comes to Islam so I won’t be writing anything about it. The bible on the other hand, is as confusing as they come.
People see what they expect to see, what they want to see, my sister tasted chocolate in a cake that contained only a meager amount of brownie, after I told her there was chocolate flavor in it. What I’m implying here is that, we see what we want to see in the bible, most of the time, what we are told to see. There are thousands of factions in Christianity and almost all interpret the bible in different ways. My problem however is not with the bible, no. My problem is with our religious leaders.
If one is an ardent follower of our religious leaders, especially the ones abroad, one would find that there are thousands more reasons to be an atheist than to believe in Christ. I mean, religion has been used as a tool to carry out various evil deeds. Pope Nicholas V said God told him in a dream that it was permissible for Christians to “buy and sell heathens” to encourage slavery, Pope Alexander I actually endorsed slavery. Even in Nigeria, Catholicism was used by the early colonialists as a means to enslave us. When one considers all these, it’s very easy to assume that Christianity was thought up to make the less privileged submit to the will of the elite.
Back to Nigeria, it is common knowledge that our pastors now live large with fleets of jet and exotic cars while amassing unbelievable net worth. Our lovely Christian leaders, who are more interested in their titles (Arch Bishop, Bishop, Professor and even Evangelist-Apostle) than in the well-being of their members and the citizens of the country at large. These leaders who interpret the bible to fulfill their own interests, leaders who extort their followers through offerings, tithes, donations, seeds, thanksgiving offerings, faith seed, love offering  and so many other bizarre ways by promising them eternity.
My brother says that a pastor is human, that a pastor is just like everyone else and should be allowed to enjoy the good things of life. My friend says a pastor is in fact supposed to enjoy the good things of life because he’s a servant of the Lord. Well, I disagree; I do not believe that a pastor is like everyone else and should be allowed or is supposed to live life to the fullest. I believe that as a religious leader, a minimalistic approach should be taken; one should give endlessly and outrageously and not own a fleet of over-the-top expensive cars. I read recently that a pastor in another country gives all his wealth at the end of every year, even Warren Buffet who is said to be agnostic is known to give out endlessly while our pastors here are striving to be included in the Forbes’s List of Billionaires.
Saw a comment by the Christian Association of Nigeria and I just laughed out loud, it is quite obvious that the CAN has lost its way, or what does “We must state that unlike others, Christians do not shed blood, take life, kill or maim others at the slightest provocation. Nevertheless, we must warn el-Rufai not to take Christians for granted and to inform him that it is with great difficulty that that we have had to restrain our youths from taking the law into their hands; which by extension means bringing el-Rufai to justice on account of his incitement and insult against the Christian faith” mean?! I mean, they have decided to stoop so low to start condemning Islam while at the same time, threaten a fellow human? What makes the matter even worse is the issue on which the above statement was released.
This is the issue that the Christian Association of Nigeria has decided to tackle while ignoring the corruption of our leaders who come to our church and kneel on alters. But as I usually say, what do I know? I'm just a bloody undergraduate. All-in-all, I just hope people open their eyes and begin to question the injustice brought upon us by those who are supposed to be helping us, and like the famous saying goes "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"