Beneath belief

We attach too much power to our belief. This can be counter productive. One who believes his religion is the best in morals would be dissapointed to find out they the religious leaders is involved in immoral activities. He may be dissapointed and vow to change church.

Another who strongly tithe regularly may feel betrayed for being sacked. It is like the God did not fulfill his own part of the bargain. This may lead to a rejection of all Religion

Someone who love violence would look for the biblical verse justifying violence perpetuate his act.

When we nurture a belief into truth, it becomes serious. We cannot no longer joke out of them.

2020- A year of anger

Anger flows in the land. The people are walking like a ticking time bomb waiting for any little fuel to ignite the internal flame. . The citizen stayed at home in an empty stomach to comply with the COVID-19 lock down order. The government wants her citizen safe from the virus. The citizen is threatened by hunger. A hungry man is an angry man. After the lock down, the organization laid off her workers. The hungry citizen are jobless. Anger is doubled. Officers of the Nigerian police force continued to be brutal. A joyful person could tolerate a certain percentage of pain. An angry person already feels pain. He seeks to eliminate the pain on the stomach and the pain of joblessness. He needs no physical pain from the local authorities. One little trigger was sufficient to ignite the pain he has been repressing. The youth protest began. It spread from police brutality to bad governance and then looting of warehouses.

Some Christians diverted their anger to God. They felt a sense of betrayal for not being protected from the massive job loss despite obeying all his commandment, rules and ritual. They felt used and dumped by the creator. Staying at home without going to church did not end their lives. So why bother going? A gradual loss of faith.

Others diverted their grievance to the clergy. Few church leaders launched an online platform for tithe collection. A hungry and jobless Christian threatened with eternal punishment for not paying tithe is the last thing an angry person expects from the religious leaders. Members expected the church to feed them the way Christ fed the five thousand. Their disappointment led them to swear not to go to that church again.

Anger like Joy, hunger, or sadness is neither good nor bad. It is an emotion to be felt. Anger can be a fuel for transforming one’s life. We need to be angry at our present circumstance before we can act to change them. Righteous anger is when we feel the pain of the oppressed and try to stop it. when we are angry, we feel it calmly to understand its source. Impatient anger could lead to violence or Hasty decision when we lash out instantly.

Righteous anger is speaking against the religious practice that is harmful or religious leaders that abuse their trust. Jesus vented his anger at the religious leaders in his time. He called them hypocrite. He scattered the moneymakers in the temple. He stated that his life mission is to free the captive. That includes those in religious bondage. He was not operating from hurt targeted at him. It was not a revenge mission. He was interested in uplifting humanity. Examine your anger holistically.

We hope 2021 would be better

Violent activist in search of evil group

This millennium has witnessed the rise of many groups fighting against what is perceived as injustice. First was the Niger Delta  millitant . Then came the bokoharam and finally  the indigenous people of  Biafra.   Each group believe they are fighting a good cause. The millitant do not want their natural resources exploited and environment destroyed without compensation . The  bokoharam are against Eastern education while IPOB want independence. In a nutshell, one is environmental and financially motivated, other is educational and religiously motivated and the third is tribal and politically instigated.

Each group believe they are the victim . The other group is the aggressor.The use of threat of violence is also a common attribute of all group.  When we examine the world crises, we see a similar pattern. Adolph Hitler believed he was on a mission to eradicate the Jews from the map so as to make the world a better place.  Osama Binladen believes the United States are forces of evil bringing corruption and domination to the Islamic world.

Each group sees the other as evil and desire to make the world a better place by eradicating the evil . The main cause of violence is the desire to eradicate evil. Let us assume the other party is as evil as potrayed , Is punnishnent the best solution?

One school of taught believe trading evil for evil serves as detterant  to  others . If that is the case, why does evil persist? Punnishnent is driven by desire for vengeance. An eye for an eye makes the world go blind.  Violence breed more violence .we  view the other group as different from us. A we vs them mindset. Our group is better,right,superior. This creates pride., Segregation. When we add religion to this feeling, we turn it to a holy war. Each group is moved by  greed and selfishness that they refuse to see the wider implications of their actions. Violence  occur because each group fear what  the other side would do to them This fear grows into hatred. Hatred grows into anger. Anger result in violence.  The frequent Christian versus Muslim war in kaduna and Jos  follow the same pattern  . Muslim fearing Christian dominance and vice versa.

The best antidote to evil is to replace fear with love. When love exist among group, bridges  of connection is built rather than walls of saperation . When youth from each group  are allowed to fall in love with each other and get married, families are forced to include each other in gathering. When enemies come together to achieve a goal, their dislike for each other reduces . Children born from such union would learn to like both group. Focusing our mind on evil empowers evil. An unmatched readiness to assist humanity , a desire for truth and a heart of compassion are what is needed. Peace can be achieved when we are inspired by an inner convictions to embrace the oneness of humanity to seek power through forces of love and partner.Any hateful thought towards any group diminished this power. We look for ways to handle our difference without aggression.we can begin by suspending our differences and focusing on our similarities.