In the words of the late Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, “suffer suffer for world, enjoy for heaven”. Sadly this is an excerpt from a song that has been over twenty years old and it still remains the condition today, perhaps religious delusion is one of the most difficult things to overcome.
We live in a world today where the system is built to make the poor poorer and sadly, religion that is supposed to be the hope of the common man plays a major role in keeping the system this way. The idea of worshippers suffering on earth and enjoying in heaven while their collective wealth is being used to finance the flamboyant lives of their pastors is evidence that religious delusion is a mental illness. A recent blog post circulated the news where the name of those who couldn’t pay tithes was pasted on the church notice board, a time where the church should be helping its members by providing palliatives to cushion the effect of the economic recession. The popular saying ‘Do not rob god’ should be changed to ‘Do not rob your pastor’ as god is not the occupant of the big houses they build nor does he share the expensive suits with them.
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The idea of pastors owning jets while most of their congregations do not have their own cars is a proof that religion and politics are two opposite sides of the same coin. The series of continuous cost incurred from owning a private jet is a burden carried by these middle class and impoverished families. Religious leaders climb on the pulpit and preach the direct opposite of their lifestyles to the gullible congregations and then go further to protect their selves with the ‘touch not my anointed’ phrase. A popular pastor with fierce looking bodyguards surrounding his pulpit and then at the end of the service goes forth to pronounce protection on his sheep with ‘the blood of Jesus’, such double standard and contradiction!
It is obvious our religious houses are fast becoming business conglomerates or how do you explain universities built by churches, whereby most of the congregations cannot afford the tuition fee. It is common knowledge that education is expensive, but it is also injustice to set up an establishment and deny the major stakeholders opportunity to partake in the benefits, while being hoodwinked with blind faith. It is synonymous to a situation whereby the federal universities in the country is affordable only by the rich and wealthy in a country where majority is poor. Another of our popular pastor who is famous for hedonism displayed a Gucci bag worth over a million naira in a selfie on social media, and some of his gullible followers came to his defence that a man of god cannot be poor. No one is saying a pastor should be poor but these gods of men that have no other means of livelihood should not feed fat on the sweat of their congregations up to the level of luxury. The issue of double standards within the religious sphere cannot be overemphasised as we see the flamboyance and exhibitionism the daughters of the Muslim billionaires display on social media and I ask myself ‘Is hijab and modesty only for the poor?’
The average Nigerian churchgoer prefers to pay his/her tithe than to pay tax and we wonder what is wrong with our country. Blind belief has been sold to us and we are hoping for a New Jerusalem after this world, instead of us to create a new Nigeria here by being hardworking, diligent and stop being good people only on Sundays. These so called men of god celebrates politicians who are common thieves, and give them the best set of cushion close to the pulpit on one of the very few days they come to their place of worship, and even anoint them publicly and give them their fake prophesies as usual in return for their brown envelopes and cheques. And we ask ourselves, this god they talk about is it Money? Because it seems like that is the only thing they give the slightest regard.
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It is time for us to stop hoping for a new Jerusalem and start building a new Nigeria, because even the owners of Jerusalem that houses mount Horeb (which the Jehovah Witness claim will be the first bus stop during the second coming) have went ahead to develop their country to a first world after being resettled in the 50s. I heard the Christian association of Nigeria organised prayers to battle economic recessions, haven’t we been praying hard since 1930? The iconic times of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, have our prayers been falling on deaf ears? Or is this a continuous chain of event to continue keeping us in the dark? What about the atheists countries that are far better off than we; the most religious nation? This is a strong indication tht we should work not pray about it.
We should hold our politicians responsible, be truthful to our country, work for its utmost good and stop being pawns in the hands of these conmen.
Olumide Oso is a sceptic who writes from Nigeria and can be contacted at [email protected]
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