Disturbing realities are emerging from the United Kingdom and some other regions in the West that the paucity of worshippers and ministers is pushing the people to sell churches and worship centres.
It became imminent, years back, when a priest from the UK attending the ordination of another priest in Nigeria appealed fervently to the upcoming African religious to prepare to visit Europe on a mission to help re-evangelize the continent which had begun to experience an extinction of Christianity within its communities, especially among the youth. Today, the dying church in Europe is made evident.
On the average, the likely thought on hearing about this scenario is that atheism is taking over a hitherto heavily religious world. Marxists would throw their clenched fists in the air in victory, claiming that their principal who, in an apparent attack on religion, stated that religion is the opium of the masses, had been vindicated. Perhaps, the German philosopher Karl Heinrich Marx on a closer study may have meant well when he dropped that statement.
Other thoughts might wonder why Africans should still cling to the religion of the White man when those who brought it to the continent have abandoned it. This school of thought, encompassing some of the so-called African religionists, beckon for a return to the primeval African way of worship. We hear of eccentric persons of the Igbo stock burning the Holy Bible in open renunciation of the “white man’s religion” to usher in “Chukwuokike Abiama” giving the impression that all of Africa’s problems emanated when they embraced Christianity. There is the claim that the colonialists came to Africa with the Bible as their tool of deceit. South African Bishop, Desmond Tutu, was quoted as saying, “When the missionaries first came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land!”
In spite of the negativisms, Christianity has remained the most popular religion, but had come under heavy scrutiny, even to the point of persecution of its adherents. Yet, Christianity relies not in the least on coercion and inducement but much more on conviction and spirituality. This serves as an explanation to the rapid spread of Christianity after Christ was crucified, which on its own attests to the acceptability of that way of life He professed while on earth, even when many other religions predated it.
If we are to examine Christianity within the basket of other religions, we are sure to observe so many qualities that put a stamp of adequacy to it. The elements of pacifism, piety, charity, conviviality and the abundant emphasis on love of humanity sets Christianity out as a religion to follow.
An argument has often erupted as to whether Christianity is strictly one of the religions people believe is a bug on the society, or just a way of life that is worth following. Impliedly, the word Christian refers to one who aspires to be Christlike. That is to say, the central concern of Christianity in the Bible is the New Testament which vividly renders an account of the life and teachings Jesus Christ, giving the world a template for living, indeed a code of conduct for those who wish to see God in life after life. Christ Himself said, “I am the way” to my Father’s house, “the truth” about creation “and the life” that mankind must live.
It follows that the problem with Christianity is not in its essence but about its adherents who do things on the contrary either as a result of a misinterpretation of Christ’s teachings or outright determination to thwart the tenets in order to feed their idiosyncrasies. If we are in agreement that Christianity is pacifist, then, why on earth should a human being reject it as a way of life?
Christianity has, in many ways proved to be different from Judaism, for instance, where a plethora of dos and don’ts have been laid before the devotees and each must be observed to the letter. It is also not cast in the same mold as Islam known for many wars that claim lots of lives in the name of Jihad, as well as a crippling conservatism that could leave the world stale, drab, static and uninteresting.
Returning to the concept of religion as a tool for social control, or the opium of the people as Marx professed, we must agree that man’s raw nature makes it imperative that he should, to an extent, be under a good measure of self-control. If religion is able to play this role of engendering self-control into man, then it is worthy of practice, however, not to the point of extremism. Opium, in centuries past, was the elixir for those who needed to be sedated, those weighed down by the vagaries of life. From that standpoint, opium is positive. It is an abuse of it that is abhorrent.
Growing atheism or godlessness in Europe portends great danger not only to that continent but to the globe in general. Already, the Western world have been infested with a disgusting permissiveness, leading to a gradual acceptance of homosexuality as normal when, if observed through the prism of nature, it is a practice way into the unnatural, indeed a practice lower animals cannot indulge in. It bothers a sensitive humanity as well that humans could abort their seeds, a forming body and soul, without scruples. Is it a journey back to the brutish age?
On the sale of God’s houses; Jesus Christ, for the first time in his ministry, fumed at the market place the Jews made of His Father’s house. He picked up his cudgel and bludgeoned out traders and merchants desecrating the church. If He, the Son of God, frowned at mere traders displaying their wares and making dirty deals in the house, how would He feel about an outright sale of it? When did the Whiteman lose his sense of preservation of relics that stand as monuments of his glorious pasts, to the point of selling them off?
The other side of the story is that the most enthusiastic buyers of these church edifices erected by Christians of old which are now up for sale due to a dying Christianity are the Muslim sheiks who convert them to mosques after sealing the deals. That means, as Christianity is checking out Islam is creeping in. In other words, the Osama bin Ladens of this world are about to coast to victory in their bid to conquer the universe.
Is that what we want?
Dr. Odu can be reached through dirimrich2018@gmail.com or SMS 07016722929.
“In spite of the negativisms, Christianity has remained the most popular religion, but had come under heavy scrutiny, even to the point of persecution of its adherents”