NIGERIAN CLERICS: KICKING GOD, KISSING THE DOG

When Karl Heinrich Marx, the 19th Century German Philosopher, Economist, Sociologist, Historian, Journalist and Revolutionary Socialist, declared that religion is the opium of the people, he could as well have been speaking of contemporary Nigeria and other undeveloped parts of the world. Religions have provided deceptive avenues for the location and hide-out of every manner of persons who have failed in other careers.
Instead of using their past failures or non-fulfilment as a stepping stone to attempt other careers, they descend on religion; religion thus has provided unlimited space for several of such vocational dropouts to hibernate. With nothing but money in their mind, they plot the exploitation of human weaknesses for their selfish benefits, through preying on gullible and unsuspecting adherents. And a sketch of world religions will clearly demonstrate that religion is a strong commodity.
 
World Religions
Four largest religions
Adherents
Percentage of world population
Further information

World population	6.9 billion[1]	Figure used by individual articles
Christianity	2,000,000,000	29%	Christianity by country
Islam	1,650,000,000	24%	Islam by country
No religion	1,100,000,000	16%	Irreligion by country
Hinduism	999,800,358	14.5%	Hinduism by country
Buddhism	489,807,761 – 690,847,214 – 1,921,989,641, depending on extent of syncretism	7.342% – 10.356% – 28.775%	Buddhism by country
Total	6.8 billion	93.5%

  
    
Little wonder that Karl Marx can make his captivating submission. Religion is the opium of the people, one of his most frequently paraphrased statements, was translated from the German original, “Die Religion…ist das opium des Volkes.” The quotation originates from the introduction of his epic work, “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.” The full quote is:
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
This commentary perhaps may or may not generate diverse opinions. But reactions are welcome as long as they are meant to draw the attention of Nigerian clergymen and clergywomen to introspectively re-consider their individual or group profile before God, Whom they claim to serve, before their innocent adherents and before the larger society. Let me also state strongly that I am not passing judgment on the clerics but calling their attention to the unsavoury image the lifestyle of some within their fold has created for Nigerian Christians.
I am not unmindful of the fact that in recent times, Nigerian clergymen and clergywomen have done some positive work to expand the Kingdom of God and the Good News globally.
It is a fact that today, it is Nigerian priests on missionary exploits who are building large churches in the states of Europe, Asia and the United States of America. The Europeans and Americans, who in the 19th and 20th centuries came on missionary journeys to Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African nations, have virtually moved on to other pastimes, as their societies have conquered hunger, and achieved self-sufficiency in housing, clothing, efficient transportation, relatively quality education, medical care and care for the aged. These services that Western societies take for granted are still the aspirations of a continent, where about 70% citizenry remains pauperized and dehumanized by both military and civilian rulers who have appropriated the commonwealth to themselves and their fellow conspirators.
The current state of religion’s expansion in Nigeria without commensurate godliness is just part of the fulfilment of the prophecy contained in both the Old Testament and the New Testament as signs of the end times. These signs are illustrated particularly in Ezekiel 34:2-7 and 27, and Mathew 24:11-12, respectively. Ezekiel 34:7-10 and 27 states:
“Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds...”
Meanwhile, Matthew 24:11-12, predicts:
“And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
An American-based research group in 2010 reported that Nigeria was the most religious country in the world. Another organization, measuring citizens’ state of mind in 2008, reported that Nigerians happen to be the “happiest” of all people globally.
That is a paradox. How can the sixth largest exporter of crude oil, with about $400 billion gross oil earnings, have one of the most wretched people in the world, have unprecedented levels of poverty, have about 70% of its population living on about $1 per day, have about 40% of its work force unemployed, and yet be considered the “happiest” place in the world? It beats logic. It is an irony. To say it is a contradiction to reality is an understatement. As a Nigerian, are you happy with all that you see?
Confronted with an economy that defies all understanding, Nigerians sought refuge in He who promises peace that passes all understanding. The national economy witnessed an unprecedented down-turn, and many Nigerians resorted to patronizing the many one-man founder churches for promised succour, comfort and varieties of trumpeted “miracles.”
In looking up to the hills of religion for help, these Nigerians were just being human. Humanity is faced with the regular situation of a state of anomie, confusion and paranoia in attempting to deal with the fear of the unknown. But once laid vulnerable, human psyche quickly becomes susceptible to various manipulations by so-called men of God. We have had the likes of the “Jesus of Oyingbo,” the “Saviour of Agege,” various Gurus, and their likes in the early 70s. And their proliferation in recent times is indicative of the end times as forewarned in the Bible. Many now deceptively profess to be Pastors, Bishops, Founders and General Overseers, Popes, Prophets, Evangelists, Imams, Ustazs, Gurus, Grandmasters, etc. But as prophesised, they usually come in sheep’s clothing. But they are wolves through and through. One common thread in their activities is that rather than proclaim God’s supremacy and the Gospel of Christ, they engage in vain self-glorification and self-advertisement of their accomplishment of the “supernatural and miracles.”
Apostle Paul’s divinely inspired teachings on the acceptable characteristics of true servants of God as contained in 2 Corinthians 2:14-26 and 1 Timothy 3:1-7 are noteworthy, particularly where he instructed in 1 Timothy 3-2-3 that:
“A Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach…. Not given to wine, no striker, NOT GREEDY OF FILTHY LUCRE, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.”
Furthermore, Paul’s admonition in Titus 7-9 is helpful enough as guide post to our clergy.
There are numerous advertorials in the media, signposting where these charlatans make ridiculous claims of general and specific miracles –making babies for the barren, matching-making spinsters with life partners, securing jobs for the unemployed, healing the sick of afflictions, overcoming worshippers’ enemies, prophesying and foretelling for the curious, etc.
A particularly worrisome dimension to the reported cases of the outrageous conduct of many clergymen and clergywomen in recent times is the incredible race by church proprietors and leaders to out-pace, out-manoeuvre, and out-class their colleagues. They have embarked on this inordinate acquisition of cheap popularity, dubious wealth and the endorsement of and collaboration with politically-exposed persons and business tycoons capable of financing them. Many Nigerian clerics today will take tithes, offerings and gifts from anyone without questioning the sources of such largesse. And sometimes, these gift-givers wear the reputation of corruption, with provable evidence and indictment for misappropriating public funds. Yet our clerics will accept offerings from these degenerate dogs. In fact, they have shown a preference to kick their God and kiss these dogs. But they have queries they must answer their Creator and the society.
(1)    How can our clergymen justify their penchant for contracting their personal security to armed professional outfits? Why are they afraid, to the extent of employing bouncers to keep commoners from coming in contact with them? Are they not now in unholy competition with our political jobbers who hedge themselves in with armed guards and convoys?
(2)    How can our clergymen justify their ostentatious lifestyle and opulence in the current circumstances of extreme poverty and misery ravaging their flocks?
(3)    How can our Christian religious leaders rationalise their usage of private jets when their flocks are being manipulated through sophistry to part with their hard-earned donations and tithes?
(4)    What biblical foundation justifies their playing “god” in their various advertorials, propagandas, signboards and banners, as opposed to promoting Jesus Christ?
No doubt, the global community has entered the JET AGE, concomitant with the development of IT and social media, and many church Ministers just want to “belong.” But should our clergymen and clergywomen not return to the divine injunction of soberness and tenderness of the spirit to prevent further ridicule of Christendom?
Nothing here indicates we demand that our priests must be superhuman and behave like angels. But as we find in Luke 12:48, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” meaning that, “Greater privileges demand greater responsibilities.” In essence, anyone who has volunteered to heed the divine call must accept the demands, the disciplines and the denials concomitant with such a high calling. Otherwise, clerics have kicked God out of religion.

FORMER SECRETARY OF AFENIFERE AND NADECO, MR. AYO OPADOKUN IS CURRENTLY CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL WORKING COMMITTEE, COALITION OF DEMOCRATS FOR ELECTORAL REFORMS (CODER)

NIGERIA, RELIGION AND I

Karl Marx must have had a vision of the present day Nigeria when he submitted that “religion is the opium of the masses”. I am alarmed at the rate of religious bigotry and fanaticism especially amongst the Christian folks, the hitherto tolerant religion is now at the pinnacle of over-zealousness. From all indications, Nigerian Christians now employ all sorts of dodgy approaches in their bid to convince us “unbelievers” that we are all going to perish.
While Nigeria is daily galloping down the valley of perdition, my religious folks are daily ambushing me to “accept Jesus as my Lord and personal Saviour”. [Whatever that means].
As a child born into a Christian family, [Catholic] I went through the rigours of attending Mass every Sunday, passing my catechism classes before receiving the Holy Communion and eventual doing my “Confirmation”. In my catechism class, I was thought [and I believed it then] that an Anglican fellow’s chances of making heaven were extremely slim-almost impossible. As a child, I was thought to always pray to Maria and ask for the forgiveness of my sins-sins I knew nothing about. To cut a long story short, I practiced all I was taught in my catholic faith up till adulthood. As with all cases involving the antics of a rational being, my perception of the world has changed, my religious inclination is different now, to the chagrin of my Christian mates. I hereby wish to state once again for the benefits of my “born-again” folks that I do not accept certain teachings of Christianity as being true.
I do not believe that Mary the mother of Jesus appeared to three children in the village of Fatima in 1917 with the command that they pray regularly to her in order to appease her son, Jesus. That would be throwing modesty to the winds! Hence, anybody who tries to enjoin me to pray with the rosary will be insulting me. While still on Mary, I simply find the fable of Immaculate Conception too incredible to believe. I wonder why almost all the major religions of this world make claims to their founder being the product of some “immaculate conception”. Does anybody know the story of Buddha? 
While the rest of the world is making headways in science and technology, Nigerian Christians are making so much noise about the second coming of Jesus. Every street in Nigeria has a church with loudspeakers mounted at all the four corners, blaring! The message is always the same, though the ferocity and intensity of the threats may vary-the kingdom of God is at hand! I have no problem with anybody claiming that the kingdom of his God is “at hand”, but then when you ambush me with threats about hell fire and eternal destruction, weeping and “gnashing of teeth”, fire and brimstone, etc, I get angry. I simply will not accept that when eventually Jesus makes his second coming, everyone that does did not accept him as his “Lord and personal saviour” will be murdered! This is pure crap! Again, please when you wish to assert that “Jesus is the way and the truth….” leave me out of it. I don’t believe that.
Why is it difficult for Christians in Nigeria to accept that there is something like a “comparative theory of religion”? Why should anybody expect me to keep quiet when a preacher gets up in a coach I am travelling in and start shouting about nothing other than witches and wizards, blood sucking demons, principalities and powers[in high places o!], marine spirits, devils and demons, and of course hell fire? What good has religion done for Nigeria? Does religion make people moral? What has been the good impact of the thousands and pockets of churches and worship centres scattered all over Nigeria? What is keeping the Christian/Muslim God from killing our politicians who all swear by His name to be upright in discharging their duties rather than stealing our money? It is so annoying the way religion is being used as an instrument of suppression in Nigeria. Why should I “fast and pray” before I could get a job after graduating from the university?
What do we blame for this? How did Nigeria get to this sorry state? Nigerians accept anything said by a Pastor or Imam as the truth, and nothing but the truth, Nigerian leaders lie to the people in God’s name and nobody asks any question. Olusegun Obasanjo is the champion of this gaffe; he built a church inside Aso Rock where he worshipped with his otimkpus and Nigerians shouted that yes, he was a “God fearing president”, when he wanted to rig his way into Aso Rock for the second time, he claimed he was waiting for God to speak to him[ He finally did-through Maurice Iwu’s INEC], after squandering billions of dollars without any tangible result in the power sector, Obasanjo enjoined Nigerians to pray to God for electricity! And Nigerians went down on their knees-till this day! When Jonathan Goodluck assumed the position of the President of the Federal Republic, he gleefully announced that he was looking up to God for guidance; a clear testimony that he had no idea how to govern Nigeria. Now, his government has budgeted about N9.7 billion for a “Nigeria @ 50” party-is this the kind of guidance God is giving to this man? One would think that his God would have directed him to use that money in revamping the notorious Sagamu-Benin expressway that claims the lives of innocent and hapless Nigerians on a daily basis. Who is celebrating Nigeria at 50? Fifty years of what? Fifty years of monumental corruption! The only people that would be celebrating would be the IBBs, Abdulsalami Abukakar, Obasanjo, Atiku, Peter Odili, Jonathan, [he’s been too lucky] Lucky Igbenedion, Orji Uzor Kalu, David Mark, Bankole and the entire space-wasters/“cashivorous” National Assembly folks[ apologies to Pius Adesanmi]. Those are the ones who always hire pastors and imams to “proclaim the goodness of the Lord”. As for the ordinary Nigerian citizen, life is too hard and too short, what with the constant prayers and supplication to God for regular power supply, constant water supply, provision of passable roads, protection from enemies, armed robbers and kidnappers, financial breakthrough [ this is my year of unstoppable cash flow!], etc. So much confusion and “speaking in tongues”, casting, binding, uprooting and throwing into the abyss!
Religion will never lead Nigeria out of the wilderness, praying and fasting will not give Nigeria the much sought after uninterrupted power supply, building churches on both sides of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway wont get rid of the kleptomaniacs parading our corridors of power, organizing “miracle night” crusades at the National Stadium, Surulere will not stop our police officers from asking for “roger”. Is there any God in the confines of Nigeria? Why has He allowed so much suffering and hardship especially amongst the ordinary citizens of that country? Has God abandoned Nigeria in protest or frustration? Is there really any such thing as God’s intervention in the affairs of a nation? Is it God that is making the leaders of countries like China, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Ghana, and Botswana to be planning for a better society of man in their various countries? Nigerians are so obsessed with God to the point that we ignore the fact that leaders should be held responsible and accountable for their actions and inactions. Under apartheid rule, the South African blacks did not fast and pray for deliverance from the claws of their oppressors, they challenged the powers that be until they won. When Sani Abacha had Nigeria under his jack-boot, what did our religious leaders do? The Catholic Bishops came up with a hilarious “prayer for Nigeria in distress”, it was customary for everyone to recite that stupid prayer at the end of every mass. I am not privy to any miracle being as a result of that silly prayer. Developed and developing countries of the world do not rely on prayers in running their countries, they plan. The citizenry of better organized societies hold their leaders responsible for whatever they do while in power. In Nigeria, everything boils down to tribalism and religion. Corrupt leaders are always seen with in the company of church leaders who appear to be happy at their company. Olusegun Obasanjo was a regular at Pastor E.O Adeboye’s crusades at his Reedemed Camp, mounting the podium preaching about Godliness and all that. Now we know better; Obasanjo’s claims to piety has been shattered by numerous revelations and instead of hauling him back to jail where he rightly belongs, the present day government is busy involved in some immoral romance with him. Religion is really the opium of the masses especially in my beloved Nigeria, that is why a transport company that goes by the name “Ekene-dili Chukwu” Nigeria Ltd [praise be to God] will be defrauding passengers daily by providing rickety coaches that will break down half way into the journey after collecting huge sums as fares-of course, the coaches break down and the conniving drivers disappear, abandoning passengers to their fates! Religion corrupts everything; in this 21st century, the Catholic Church in Eastern Nigeria still forbids a marriage between a catholic lady and an “Anglican” man! The fear of the parents of the lady in question being barred from receiving the “holy communion” insures that parents stop their daughters from agreeing to such marriages. Can anybody give me any rational explanation to why this practice is still going on in this modern day Nigeria?
I have nothing against religious people; I subscribe to a practice of religion backed by the purest form of human rationality. My friends who try to “frighten” me with eternal hell fire and all that wishful wickedness should be rest assured that their claims and rants do not move me. Like Socrates, I believe that an unexamined life is not worth living, a life of pristine morality can be attained without any recourse to religion-in any form. We need practical solutions to the hydra-headed issues bugging down Nigeria, our dear country. Religion is an instrument of oppression and control, a wicked tool designed to keep the commons in a perpetual state of submission while the big men and thick madams maintain the status quo. I might change my opinion about religion and its stranglehold on Nigeria the moment we pray and every corrupt governor, National Assembly members, PDP cabals, rogue police officers, dodgy civil servant, 419 pastor/Imam, thieving bankers, fraudulent individual all drop dead! Yes! That would be the day, but until that day comes I am happy ignoring all calls to “repent” while working towards the attainment of a just society.

by Sahara Reporters

NIGERIA: RELIGION WITHOUT FAITH. IS IT WORTH THE TROUBLE?

Foreigners are often surprised to discover how religion is deep-rooted in the psyche of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians. When the Egyptian-American doctoral student of Harvard, Sarah al-Tantawi, visited me early this year to ask some questions regarding the impact of Sharia implementation on women, she did not fail to show her amazement at our religiosity.

“I am surprised to see so many people here attend the fajr (dawn) prayer”, she exclaimed. “Yes, more than you can find anywhere in the world, perhaps”, I replied with a temporary feeling of worthiness. However, as the interview took off, it did not take time for her to realize that our commitment to God ends just at the ceremonial level, that we are not better than the rest of the world.

I remember what was the most crucial question to her, about which almost nobody was ready to tell her the truth throughout her travels across Northern Nigeria: why were the Muslims in the North hesitant in applying the rajm (stoning) in the case of Amina Lawal; instead, they did all they could to find excuses for her? And when her appeal against the conviction succeeded one could feel the air of relief even among the Muslims? “Nobody wants to tell me why,” she complained. I asked her: “Do you really want an answer?” She replied, “Yes, please.”

“Okay. I will tell you,” I started to explain. “The reason is not farfetched. Though one can foresee the anguish of watching a woman actually stoned to death, the real reason why Amina gained so much sympathy because we all believed that she was not the only one who commits such a sin. We are many. This is a nation in which religion ends in the mosque or the church. Outside our places of worship, we are hardly restrained by conscience from committing any crime in any way. So since we go unpunished why would Amina suffer for a sin that is common?”

And so I went to present the usual points I have repeatedly made in my writings regarding our relegation of religion to the status of ceremony. The widely acclaimed article, Cheating God, was the most recent. I am increasingly approaching the conclusion that the Nigerian mindset is essentially but dubiously secular. We generally like God to be restricted to place of worship. We – Muslims and Christians alike – attend to Him there only under the wrong notion that regardless of whatever we do, He is the Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful, who will overlook our shortcomings and let us go into paradise. It is members of the other faiths (ironically, with whom we connive to perpetrate evil) that he will punish in the Hereafter.

We often deliberately expel Him from our minds when we come to commit one crime or another.  One day, the internal auditor of my local government gathered its councillors to discuss the distribution of fertilizer. The auditor told them that if they agree they would not need to return the proceeds of the sale; he will know how to cover them. One of them, the youngest, asked: “Ok. If we do not return the proceeds what do we tell God in the hereafter?.” The auditor quickly interjected, “Kash, Kash. Kai kuwa kar ka kawo maganar Allah mana a nan. (Oh. Please do not bring in God here). Among the eleven councillors, only two returned the proceeds and only they were saved when the matter was later investigated. Others had to sell their houses and mortgage their salaries to pay back. The auditor remains unpunished.

What pushes me further to discover our dubious secularity is its commonness. It is not restricted to Muslims or Christians. In fact, Nigeria would have been a great nation if either group had carried its faith beyond its mouth because the population of each is substantial. However, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria today are mirrors of each other. The Hausa used to be seen as an epitome of honesty in Eastern Nigeria, for example; but no more. The Hausa Muslim, on his part, used to see the Northern Christian as a more disciplined, more humble and more honest person. That one na before. My fellow Muslims express surprise when I tell them that very little of the aid sent to Christian victims of the Jos crisis through the Plateau state government actually reach. The case of consignments of Turai Yar’adua and Dangote in 2008 are good examples to cite. Turai, at her best hour, asked a consignment of six trailer loads of assorted household items originally destined for Republic of Congo to be diverted to Jos in the aftermath of the crisis in November 2008. Dangote also did the same, allocating almost an equal load of grains and beverages. Those consignments never reached the victims. Rather, Christian officials of the government sold them to traders –this Alhaji and that Alhaji – at subsidized rates! The Alhajis paid for the goods and claimed them directly from the warehouses. That is why both NEMA and Nigerian High Commission for Refugees took the pain of carrying their relief themselves to Dogo Nahauwa, at the distaste of the Plateau State government. In cheating God, Nigerian Muslims and Christians go into partnership; in killing one another, however, each faction demands the exclusive partnership of God. Glorified and Exalted is He above our wrongdoings!

Many times I contemplate the wish that we could leave God alone and go the whole hog to reject him. We would then vindicate God from our daily inequities and own up to our misdeeds. If anyone cheats in an election and become the president or governor, no cleric would anesthetize us by invoking predestination, saying he is God-given and anyone who does not pay him homage is a disbeliever as it happened in the aftermath of Yar’adua’s selection in 2007. We would employ reason to tackle our problems, not waiting for God to do it or waste time in appealing for His fear among the hearts of men who do not have any regard for him. We would realize that employing technology would do a better job, like introducing electronic voting machines during elections.

Our problem is that we want to enjoy both, the belief in God and the liberty to behave irresponsibly towards our fellow countrymen. The two cannot be reconciled. We should either believe in God and behave responsibly or acquit ourselves of Him and behave irresponsibly. Both ways would finally lead to orderliness as the latter, through reason and technology, would achieve with greater efficacy in the mundane what the former would achieve through revelation. This is a choice that Nigerians must make and stop wasting their time.

For me it is a choice that I made long ago. I told Sarah, the Harvard Student, that, given my background in natural sciences, I would have ceased from believing in God long ago, if not for two reasons: one is the profound conviction, against all that I read about Darwinism from Darwin himself down to his present vanguard, Dawkings, that the complex universe cannot be a product of chance; and, two, the computational and content analysis of the Qur’an which alludes its divine origin. The two continue to glue me back to religion whenever I tried to wander away, more than anything else that a Nigerian preacher would say, to whom I barely listen and treat with glaring contempt anyway. Yet, I often tell people in my conversations that if I have to cheat to win elections or loot public treasury to survive, I would abandon religion for it has failed to make me better than an animal. This is a promise that I have resolved to keep until death to the best of my ability.

I know there are thousands, if not millions, of Nigerians that are frustrated with our inability to use our entrenched religious fervour to solve our problems, which are essentially none other than our inability to transform ourselves from the levels of individuals to that of a community where we the action of one person has consequences – good or bad – on the life of all others. We still see ourselves as individuals, those hunter-gatherers that our ancestors were. If we gain any elevation, it is not beyond the divisive boundaries of clan, tribe or religion. We fail, repeatedly, to view ourselves first as part of the humanity whose members deserve an irreducible minimum of rights into which we must restrain our desires from encroaching. We have still failed to see that our survival, security, happiness and progress as individuals lie only within that realm of humanity which we must sacrifice our animals instincts of selfishness to protect. Instead, we prefer, to abandon the education we acquired in citadels of learning and behave as individuals first, aggrandizing for our selfish ends whatever comes of our way that is meant for our common good. The inevitable end is the collapse of any edifice that we build: NEPA, NITEL, Nigerian Railway Authority, INEC, education and health institutions, and all other public parastatals, along with the entire political structure.

We are in the last days of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Thousands of Nigerian Muslim elites have gone for the lesser Hajj, umrah. So much time and resources go to these and other rituals which virtually every Muslim in Nigeria would agree have become mere ceremonies. Why suffer so much then in the name of religion? At the Holy Land, outside the Holy Mosques, the discussion will surely be dominated by politics. People of various parties and interests will be meeting to see how they can have an upper hand in 2011: the most effective way to rig the elections or hoodwink the masses. The concern of civil servants, who have now supplanted the local bourgeoisie in attending the jamboree, is the ongoing in their offices back at home. Two years ago, a cashier of a local government paid a huge sum to enable him return from Hajj a day earlier in order to participate in the monthly payment of salaries. He did not want to miss the proceeds from ghost workers. Subhanallah. What is the benefit of the Hajj or Umrah then?

The common answer is that well at least the reward from the rituals would compensate some of the wrongs we commit. This is underestimating the gravity of the wrongs. Islam lays a very high premium on public accountability. Everybody will stand trial before God in the Hereafter where he will account for his deeds. Yet, there a consensus that public office holders will have the severest trial for the sins they committed that border on denying the rights other fellows. Among us is the person whom the Prophet (peace be upon him) called muflis, the bankrupt cheat. He would come with a pile of good deeds. Then people would troop in each asking for his right which the cheat usurped backed on earth. God would start compensating them by distributing the good deeds of the cheat to them until when his entire good deeds are exhausted and many more claimers would be awaiting their compensation. Then God would instead remit the bad deeds of each claimant into he account of the cheat before he is finally committed to Hell. How many people would come asking for their rights before a president, a governor, a local government chairman, or a public officer who stole from the treasury? Is this end all what our religiosity could buy us? If this is what awaits us, is the religiosity worth it?

Our problem is that there is so much religion around, but no faith. We should acquire in the latter or free ourselves from the former, all together.

 

By Dr. Tilde,

GOD'S SECRETARIES AND THE MAKING OF THE BIBLE

I never had any conflict between faith and science. In fact, the man who told me about the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses was the one who taught me Physics and Chemistry.
Francis Osora Ezengige was the first genius I knew. He was two years ahead of me in high school. During long vacation when he visited Nnobi, he spent his time teaching science to my friends and me. He explained to me why a piece of yam changed color when cut and left in the open. Long before he made 2nd Class upper division in Engineering at UNN, he had explained to me why supersonic planes went far before we heard the sound. Francis knew the answers to all of life’s intriguing questions.
Then one day, we watched Michael Jackson’s Thriller on TV. After the performance, he said to me, “You see, white people indulge in voodoo, too,” I was stunned. His words devastated me. How could he believe in science and in voodoo, too?
For a couple of days, I suffered from the confusion of that knowledge. Then, a few weeks after, we watched “The Making of Thriller.” It explained how the music video was made. The making of Thriller took the thrill out of Thriller. The making of the Bible does the exact opposite. It humbles my assumptions.
While many Christians believe that the bible is the word of God, free of errors, the truth is a lot different.
With recent archeological, linguistic and literary discoveries, new insights are emerging on the making of the Bible. Africans typically do not want to invest in this kind of study because they fear that it threatens Christian religion itself. For a book on which basis you decide what is right and what is wrong; what you hate and what you love; and where you go after it is all over, one would have thought that everyone would be interested in knowing how the book came into existence. But that’s not the case.
In his book, “Who Wrote the Bible?” Richard Elliott Friedman outlines problems in the biblical texts. Several contradictions led to questions about the authorship of the Bible. In Books said to have been written by Moses, Moses tells the story of kings who lived after him. In one it says that Moses is going to a Tabernacle and later in the book it says that someone builds a Tabernacle. How do you go to a Tabernacle before you build one? In one of Moses’ books, it is said that Moses is the humblest man on earth. Moses will not say that Moses is the humblest man on earth. We also read the account of Moses’ death in a Book written by Moses. So how can Moses tell of his own death?
Friedman noted that investigations of the Bible have brought science, religion and secularity into conflict. In the past, books that challenged the authorship of the bible were banned and burned. Authors were excommunicated and some even killed. Adherers argue that the Bible is divinely dictated, revealed and inspired.  Whether the Bible should be interpreted literally, figuratively or symbolically, have far-reaching implications for many. So are questions of whether it is fiction, history or non-fiction?
Whether one’s interest in the Bible is religious, literary or historical, Friedman stated, knowing who wrote it and when it was written is important. An author’s life and time reflects the world the author depicts. It is virtually impossible to understand the text of the books in the Bible without an understanding of who the author was. The story by a witness of an event differs from the one written by someone with a second hand source. The author’s experience and event of his life influence the story he tells and how he tells it.
The Hebrew Bible that forms the basis of the Christian Old Testament is a compilation of books on the Jewish laws, the prophets and the writings. The first five books were attributed to Moses, as the author. Biblical scholars have since determined that Moses could not have written the 5th book. More likely, they were written by several people. Irrespective of who wrote them, scholars believe that the books retold what had been transmitted for generations through oral tradition. To understand how diverse the books were, imagine putting together as a book, Things Fall Apart, The Man Died, Labyrinth with Path of Thunder, Eze Goes to School, Palmwine Drinkard, Efuru, There Was A Country and Heavensgate, amongst others.
Here is a summary of the history of the bible as recorded in various encyclopedias –Americana, Britannica, Catholic, New World etc, based on books by numerous scholars in the last four centuries.
The Hebrew Bible came about when a committee came together to select texts from writings that survived the destruction of Jerusalem. These were writings the Jewish committee best believed would guide them in the observation of their religion. The Hebrew Bible is arranged in such a way that it ends with the Israelites returning to Jerusalem. The Old Testament of the Christian Bible ends with Malachi. The poetry of Isaiah did not refer to Jesus. But Christians interpreted it to mean a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ. Jews on the other hand rejected that interpretation. In some bible editions, the book of Esther did not mention God at all. It is one of those books now considered a historical novella that was not written to represent actual events.
The Hebrew Bible does not have the New Testaments in it. The New Testament was written in a 70-year period by several authors. All the authors were Jewish except for Luke. Paul, Peter, John and James wrote most of the epistles to the new churches on how to live and worship God. As the early church grew, church leaders began the process of selecting from numerous epistles and accounts of what would be the canon of the new Christian religion. At the end of the 2nd century, only 20 books were accepted for inclusion in the New Testament. The Revelation was rejected. The full 27 books in the New Testament were adopted at the synods of Hippo Regius in 393 and Carthage in 397.
Books like the Acts of John, and the Acts of Peter written by John’s companion were called apocryphal acts. Early church leaders saw them as texts not divinely inspired. Some were rejected because their authenticity was regarded as questionable.
What is accepted as canon by each church depends on the translation from which the particular church picked their books. The early Christians depended on the Septuagint. This was the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. In AD 382, Pope Damasus called a Council of Rome that put together the first list of books of the Christian Bible. Saint Jerome put together the texts in Latin. In 1546, the Church declared this Bible the only authentic Bible.
During the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, a debate about what books to be included in the Protestant Bible ensued. The Protestants took out from the Septuagint, books that were not in the Hebrew Bible. While Catholics called these books deuterocannonical book, Protestants called them Apocrypha. So the Protestants have 39 books in their Old Testaments while the Catholics have 46. The Catholic Bible has several books that are not in the Protestant bible. Books like Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children. The Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches recognize other books like Prayer of Manasseh, Esdras, 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151. In the New Testament, the Christian churches are in agreement on the final 27 books that made it. But Catholic churches accept doctrines from other books that did not make it into the canon.
Bible scholars generally regard most of the books as a work of literature and not historical documents. For instance, the Exodus from Egypt and emigration to the Promised Land is not considered historical.  There are no archeological and historical evidence to support that.
Those who try to tell the story of the bible risk being seen as nonbelievers who intend to heap scorn on the believers. Bible does not mean God. The word, Bible, means little library. It indicates that it is a collection of books written by several people. In fact, a modern day analogy is the Wikipidia. Many of the books were written and rewritten by many people before it came to this final copy that we have today.
Because the bible was not written like most books of today, and because several books in the bible were written under different contexts and with different purposes in mind, there is a problem when we read the bible like a regular book. A lot of the things in the bible are not meant to be taken literally.
“The question all along was not who inspired the Bible?’ Or ‘Who revealed the Bible?” Friedman wrote, “The question was only which human being actually composed it? Whether they did so at divine direction, dictation or inspiration was always a matter of faith.”
If God had wanted, he could have dropped a definitive manual on how to live from heaven. But he didn’t. And because he didn’t, man did.

By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo  (Credit to Sahara Reporters)

THE CURSE OF THE NIGERIAN 'BIG G' GOD

The narrow, dirt streets in southern cities like Aba and Port Harcourt are lined with zinc and wood structures with motorcycles parked in front of them and worshipers dancing to praise songs in traditional languages with their white handkerchiefs. On the wide, tarred major roads, gigantic churches - beautiful by all standards and filled to the brim - add valor to the streets with the large billboards and newest cars parked in front of them. Up north, mosques are fewer, larger and even more elegantly adorned than churches but filled up nonetheless.

The religious faithful gather to pray, women lined up behind men, either in these tall, gold majestic mosques or on the corners of the streets where there are no official structures. In Lagos or Abuja or any other major city where migrant tribes are as dominant as indigenous ones,  the religions are not as distinct from each other; mosques sit side by side with churches. It is Nigeria, where almost the entire population identifies as either Christian or Muslim.
The most populous sub-Saharan nation embodies historical, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity as well as diversity of religious traditions including indigenous religions, new Spiritual movements and various strands of Christianity and Islam. The distribution of Christians and Muslims is stark in the predominantly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south but not as stark in the Western region, where Christians and Muslims exist in almost even numbers. The scriptures of the major holy books of each religion, the Bible and the Q'uran are plastered on the walls of homes, cars and city walls.
Religion continues to shape the ways in which Nigerians interpret the complexities of their existence and surrounding realities; to the extent of religion serving as a panacea for problems of day to day living. Christianity and Islam are the predominant practices in Nigeria with 45% of Nigerians identifying as Muslim and another 45% identifying as Christian. However, both religions are thoroughly influenced by indigenous religious and cultural traditions. One clear distinction between the two main monotheistic religions in Nigeria and the African Traditional Religions (ATRs) is that the former have sent God to Heaven while the latter have their gods on Earth.
When God was sent to heaven, He was sent along with the godliness and virtue that men used to have for things around them. All of a sudden, the Earth and its fullness thereof were no longer sacred because God had been removed from them. In fact, monotheistic religions encouraged their members to not only dominate but conquer the Earth. The Earth became a mere tool for man's anthropocentric agenda; nothing more than a base upon which man can proudly stand to exterminate everything else that existed in unison before man came along. The Earth became a less worthy being, one that deserved taming and exploitation. The Earth became a wildfire to douse, her parts became objects of war and her less mighty people became like mud to trample upon.
This is what happened with the Nigerian 'big G' God.
Nigerian monotheists spend more time justifying their God than they do serving Him and having God-like virtue is like having lady-like characteristics: if you have to defend it constantly with more words than character, you probably don't have it. Bring a piece of God back down to Earth. Bring an even smaller piece back down to Nigeria. We need it. If humans are greater species because humans have souls, how about we nurture and cultivate rather than destroy and conquer?
Monotheistic religion in Nigeria is both a blessing and a curse. Yet, this sentence will probably anger many Nigerians because God is the one part of Nigerian "culture" that Nigerians have refused to accept is borrowed especially as Nigerians are very inconsistent in their definition of 'culture' and 'foreign', per convenience. Monotheistic religion is the one part of Nigerian culture that Nigerians profess the most and understand the least. Monotheistic religion is the worst vice the colonials left Nigerians with because they left a piece of their arrogance, a piece of their self-righteousness on over a 100 million sheep.
I find God in the swaying leaves, in the sturdy mountains and in the chill of the river. In the same breath that we enthrone Him on high, we must regard Him in the simple things. If we did, we would not devastate a community's livelihood in Ogoni because our foolish wisdom discovered oil. If we did, we would not steal from the poor and give to the rich. If we did, we would not define our progress by how many churches are found on each street but by how many of our children are righteous and how many of our old men are wise. Righteousness is like wealth, those who've mastered its craft don't need to speak about it; their lifestyles do without much effort. Religion can be a virtue in Nigeria but it isn't one yet. Until then, like I have mentioned before, Nigeria is not a literary and artistic land of contradictions but a pitiful paradox.

Oluwafunmilayo Oyatogun is the founder of BailiffAfrica.Org.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN?

In Genesis 32: 25, Jacob wrestled with God. The Bible says that, God touched “the hollow of his (Jacob’s) thigh.” In Genesis 47: 29, when Jacob was near his death, he asked Joseph to swear an oath not to bury him in Egypt by, “putting your hand under my thigh.” What does ‘thigh’ in those expressions mean? Who puts his hand under someone’s thigh to swear? Was it an ancient tradition? Does ‘thigh’ refer to something else in Hebrew, the original language of the Jews used in the Old Testament scripts? Or was it a euphemism?
Ziony Zevit, a professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles states that the world “tsela” in Hebrew does not mean ‘rib’ as translated in Genesis. He said that it means ‘side’ literally. In his book, “What Really Happened in the Garden of Eden?” he suggested that ‘rib’ does not make sense in the story of creation that was littered with sexual innuendo. He said that the writers of the book of Genesis used ‘tsela’ as a euphemism for ‘baculum’ – penis bone- found in Chimpanzee, gorilla and males of other mammals. There is no term for penis in Biblical Hebrew. In a way, the story in Genesis provides a mythological explanation for the lack of this bone in man.

Put in that context, the line of the Bible that says, “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and He took the bone of Adam’s rib and made him a woman” will then read that God took the bone of Adam’s penis.

Translation is hard. Translating a text written and rewritten by many writers straight from oral tradition is a lot harder. It is a hardest when the translation is ordered by people with a particular agenda.

The King James Version of the Bible was 400 years old last year.

In 1604, King James I of England gathered 54 scholars at the Hampton Court Conference, all member of the Church of England, to translate the Bible into English. The King was concerned about problems in the available translations of the Bible. Out of the 54 scholars gathered, 47 finished the work in 1611.

The scholars were divided into six groups. Each group was responsible for a different part of the Bible. Some were based in Oxford, some in Cambridge while others were in London. They based their work on the Tyndale Bible, the first printed Bible translation into English from Hebrew and Greek, and on the Bishop’s Bible of 1568. The John Wycliffe Bible was the first English translation of the Bible in a manuscript form. It was banned in 1409 but its texts showed up in the Latin Vulgate. Tyndale Bible was succeeded by the Great Bible of 1539. The Reformed Protestants based in Geneva under John Calvin revised the Tyndale Bible and the Great Bible to produce the Geneva Bible.

The King James Version became the third printed translation of the Bible into English.

King James’ instruction to the translators was to make sure that the new Bible conformed with the ecclesiology of the Church of England. He was also interested in getting a Bible that would reflect the Church’s belief on the ordination of clergy. The other available Bibles at that time had divergent views. The King James Version was seen as ‘a document of political and theological compromise.’

Though the first edition claimed that it was translated “out of the Original tongues,” it was clearly based on the two previous English translations. Scholars were correcting grave errors on the margins of the previous translations like one in the Great Bible where, ‘They were not obedient;’ was translated into ‘They were not disobedient.’

The scholars made draft of changes they recommended on the margins of specially printed Bishop’s Bible. They compared and revised these works. A general committee made general changes with the Archbishop of London having the final say.

The 1611 print was made before the standardization of the English language. Spelling of words, punctuation and grammar were later revised. In the preface, the translators stated that their goal was not to make a bad translation good but to make a good translation better.

Initially the new Bible was rejected by leading Bible scholars of the time. They still preferred the Latin Vulgate. It took a long time for the King James Version to become universally accepted. It reached that height in early 18th century. That was when a challenge to its text was seen as an assault on the Holy Scripture. For over 250 years, the King James Version was the dominant Bible.

Though dominant, thousands of changes have been made in the course of time. From 1638 to 1762 the text had a lot of printers’ errors. In 1631, the Eight Commandment read: “Though shall commit adultery.” That edition is often referred to as the Wicked Bible. In 1653 another error in 1 Corinthians stated that the unrighteous shall inherit the earth. That edition is called the “Unrighteous Bible.” There are greater mistranslations noticed over the years. It is so widespread that each reinterpretation seems to lead to yet another version of the Bible.

Though the King James Version of the Bible was the most influential, it was, like others before and after it, aimed at satisfying its own interest group – in this case, the Church of England. It is not impartial and its translation has been questioned over the years. As our understanding of the world of the biblical age increases, so are questions about the translations. Archaeological excavations have unearthed ancient documents that question the understandings and translations of the texts. The Bible’s continuing translation problems remain us that it a book of other people who lived in other times and spoke other languages.

“The Christian appropriation of the Jewish scripture involved allegorical or figural readings of many of the texts,” says the introduction of the Oxford World’s Classics of The Authorized King James Version of The Bible. “Often, however, these did not so much replace literal readings as complement them, so that multi-level, or polysemous, readings became the normal method of biblical interpretation.”

Unlike the Quran which is in Arabic, the language of the founder and most of the adherents, the Bible came about from scriptures written in a language that no Christian spoke. The Christians believe that the translation of the Bible was inspired. The Muslims believe that the English version of the Quran is not a translation and does not have the inspiration they find in the Arabic Quran.

The Bible, unlike the Quran, evolved from oral tradition. It was written by several writers over a long period of time and in several languages. It was put together by a committee.
The King James Version has remained the most influential translations of the Bible. It is also ranked as one of the influential books in the English language. It makes up over 15% of all American Bible purchases.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ and the 401 years of the King James Version of the Bible, we remember that we still do not know what really happened in the Garden of Eden.
 
By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

SHALL WE BAN RELIGION?

I got the first phone call just before 1:00pm, UK time.  This was Tuesday 13th November 2012.  It was from my sister in Lagos.  She was frantic.  Our younger brother’s wife was bleeding, losing a lot of blood, laid out on a bed at the National Hospital, Abuja.  She had just delivered a baby, their second in just over two years.  My sister informed me that despite serious pleas from everyone in the family, from clinical staff at the hospital, and from concerned strangers, my brother refused to give his consent for his wife to have blood transfusion.
Why?  Unfortunately for his wife, my brother is a Jehovah’s Witness.
I called my brother and spoke to him.  He didn’t budge.  He said his faith; his religion forbids its members from accepting blood under any circumstance.  Though I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, I said that it was ok.  I told him that he could refuse blood transfusion when he is the patient, but since it was his young wife at death’s door, he should give consent for the treatment for her.  I added that after his wife has been saved, he could go ahead and ask for forgiveness from the anti-transfusion god, and once again reconcile himself to his faith.
He declined.  
I then went into the medical aspect of what was happening.  I informed my brother that the average male has only about 5.5 litres of blood in their body.  The average female has even less.  I told him that if the body loses too much of that, there wouldn’t be enough for the heart to pump, and the heart would stop beating.  The patient will die.  He still didn’t budge.  In fact, he promptly hung up on me.  I called him back a few more times but the young man refused to answer his phone.
I called back my sister in Lagos and reported my failure.
T
he second call came at exactly 2:00pm.  This time my sister was crying.  The young lady has died.
I immediately called my brother again.  I wanted to tell him to take and bow and to clap for himself.  But he was still refusing to take my calls.
I spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about religion.  I know that religion has its many benefits, but I am beginning to wonder whether these are outweighed by its negative aspects.  Most people appear to check their intelligence at the door when it comes to their religion and practicing their faith. 
Unfortunately, my brother is one of them.  I couldn’t believe that an educated man (he has a Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan) would sit around and watch his wife die when he could have very easily prevented her death by signing a piece of paper.  What has religion done to us?
I called my other sister in Abuja to get more details.  I wish I hadn’t.  
She informed me that she spent more than an hour on her knees begging our brother to give his consent for his wife to be given blood, but he refused.  He refused her, and he refused all pleadings from the medical staff, some of whom were begging him with tears in their eyes.  He was told repeatedly that without blood transfusion, his wife would die.  He wasn’t moved.  He informed them all that if his wife died from bleeding and never got blood transfusion, she would go straight to Heaven.  This is a novel idea.  If only Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Abacha and the rest of them knew this nice little secret.  All they needed to do was slit their own wrists and the express lift to Heaven would have come for them.
Then it got worse.  I was informed that the young lady’s mother was present throughout at the hospital.  The doctors went to her to give consent for her daughter to be given blood to save her life, but the mother also refused!
She too is a Jehovah’s witness.  She maintained throughout that only the husband can give consent, she would not.  
In desperation, the doctors called the young lady’s younger brother who is a junior doctor in Jos.  The deceased worked at the National Assembly and was the main breadwinner in her birth family.  She paid for the education of all of her siblings, including that of this junior doctor.  As the doctors in Abuja pleaded with him on the phone to give consent for his sister to receive blood to save her life, this junior doctor demurred.  He directed that she be given some coagulants and blood clotting agents.  He was informed that all of that has been tried but the patient was still losing blood.  In the end, he refused to give consent.  He claimed that it was the duty of his sister’s husband, not his, and terminated the call.
He too is a Jehovah’s witness.  A doctor!  What has religion done to us?
Before this, I have never imagined that any mother could sit on a chair, fold her arms and watch her child die and not do something about it.  This was a child she gave birth to and nurtured, and who in turn, had been taking care of her in her old age.  I don’t know whether I’m the one losing my mind.  What has religion done to us?
Anyway, the mother and my brother were finally called to go to the lady’s bedside as it became obvious that she was struggling through her last breaths.  Mama ran in the opposite direction shouting, “Jehovah o!  Jehovah is life!  Life is Jehovah!”
qqqqMy brother took his place by his wife’s bedside and watched life ebb out of her.  He stood there and watched her die.  What kind of boldness is that?  What kind of cold-heartedness is that?  When asked why he did what he did, he responded that when he dies, he would marry his dead wife again in Heaven!  Is this logical?  I have to confess that I am not the most religious person in the world, but are there marriages in Heaven?  Are we going to continue having more children in Heaven?
More importantly, would God be pleased with a person who had the power to save one of his children, one of his creations, but deliberately refused to do so?  It is one thing to watch helplessly and only give comfort as someone lies dying on a motorway, but to deliberately and actively withhold life-saving consent?  Especially to your own wife?  Your own child?  Your own sister?
My brother has become a latter-day Abraham.  He even went further by sacrificing his wife on the altar of religious principles.  But why are some religious people like this?  Is it the fear of going against the grain of their faith’s community?  Is it the fear of being seen or being thought as not faithful enough by their fellow religious comrades?  Is it the shame of being considered weak by one’s religious peers?  And if this is the case, are these feelings not trumped by love for another human being?  Personally, I think that it has got to be illiteracy of the mind.
Once upon a time, the Earth was thought to be the centre of the Universe.  That was the Church’s established view.  It was widely accepted that the Sun and all heavenly bodies revolved around an unmoving Earth.  Furthermore, it was thought that if the Earth moved, why are we not flung off its surface?  As Copernicus and science began to intrude, the Church was compelled to re-assert that the idea that the Sun stood still and that the Earth moved were "false" and "altogether contrary to Holy Scripture."  Well, Galileo later published a book, ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ in which he argued and proved that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, and that the Earth does move.  The Church and its head, Pope Urban VIII (who was actually Galileo’s friend) were enraged.  In 1633, Galileo was arrested and found guilty of Heresy.  His book was banned, he was forced to recant, and was placed under house arrest until he died.
But all of that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries.  Why are people today still favouring antiquated religious policies over love for one another – especially after the advent of Jesus Christ?  It cuts across all strata!  I don’t get it!  
The entire belief system of Jehovah's Witnesses is founded on the basis of its teachings about the second coming of Christ.  They are so fixated on the end of the world that they sit there, petrified, unable to move forward.  From year dot, they have been making loud predictions about this.  Some examples:
•    1877: Christ's kingdom would hold full sway over the earth in 1914; the Jews, as a people, would be restored to God's favor; the "saints" would be carried to heaven
•    1891: 1914 would be "the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”
•    1904: "World-wide anarchy" would follow the end of the Gentile Times in 1914.
1914 came and went.  Nothing happened.
•    1916: World War I would terminate in Armageddon and the rapture of the "saints”
•    1920: Messiah's kingdom would be established in 1925 and bring worldwide peace. God would begin restoring the earth. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful patriarchs would be resurrected to perfect human life and be made princes and rulers, the visible representatives of the New Order on earth. Those who showed themselves obedient to God would never die.
•    1922: The anti-typical "jubilee" that would mark God's intervention in earthly affairs would take place "probably the fall" of 1925.
•    1924: God's restoration of Earth would begin "shortly after" October 1, 1925. Jerusalem would be made the world's capital. Resurrected "princes" such as Abel, Noah, Moses and John the Baptist would give instructions to their subjects around the world by radio, and airplanes would transport people to and from Jerusalem from all parts of the globe in just "a few hours."
1925 came and went.  We are still here.  Things are still the same.
•    1938: In 1938, Armageddon was too close for marriage or child bearing.
•    1941: There were only "months" remaining until Armageddon.
•    1942: Armageddon was "immediately before us."
Hmm…
•    1966: It would be 6000 years since man's creation in the fall of 1975 and it would be "appropriate" for Christ's thousand-year reign to begin at that time. Time was "running out, no question about that." The "immediate future" was "certain to be filled with climactic events...within a few years at most", the final parts of Bible prophecy relating to the "last days" would undergo fulfillment as Christ's reign began.
•    1969: The existing world order would not last long enough for young people to grow old; the world system would end "in a few years." Young Witnesses were told not to bother pursuing tertiary education for this reason.
•    1971: The "battle in the day of Jehovah" was described as beginning "shortly, within our twentieth century".
•    1974: There was just a "short time remaining before the wicked world's end" and Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to "finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service."
Nope.  Nothing happened.  1975 came and went un-obstructively as well.  
Well, after mama ran away, my brother too voted with his feet.  He couldn’t be found for a few hours.  Eventually he showed up and took his day-old baby over to our sister in Abuja to look after.  The next day, ten of his fellow Kingdom-hallers turned up to stare at the baby.  I cannot help but wonder what would have been going through their minds.  Would they be jubilating that a fellow member has been ‘martyred’ by her husband?  Are they happy that a needless and easily preventable death took place in their midst?
My brother is now faced with the daunting task of raising two infants on his own.  I wonder whether he has thought much about the future.  What would he tell his children when they become old enough and ask about their mother?  Is he going to lie to them for the rest of his life?  They would find out eventually, of course.  And when they do, would they thank him for the leading role he played in their mother’s death?
And bringing up those two infants on his own would be tough – very tough.  I assume he would have to stay single now for the rest of his life since he claimed that when he dies, he would remarry his dead wife in Heaven.  It would therefore be illogical for him to marry someone else again in this world.  That would complicate things for him in Heaven, unless Jehovah Witnesses are entitled to marry more than one wife in the great beyond.
But God is so patient!  The many mad things we do in His name!  What a waste.  What a complete waste of human life and human potential.  What has religion done to us!
Well, three days later, my brother called me.  He was looking for N250,000 towards funeral cost.  Of course I hung up on him…

By Michael Egbejumi-David

demdem@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: demdemdem1