Contemporary Christian

For God's ake

2008-01-06T08:54:00.000-08:00

For God’s Sake

You have to admit the Word of God has never changed, but the widely accepted interpretation of the “Word” constantly transmogrifies. Okay I might have gone a bit over the edge with that word; I mean it’s not been all bad. The early Christians had no choice but let their leaders read them the apostle’s letters and prophetic documents (today’s bible), so it is not their fault if they got a misinterpretation every once in a while, but you and I have our own bibles (the complete works of God). It is appalling the amount of havoc that has been wreaked due to interpretation of the word by us and our leaders over the many centuries.

Here are a couple of examples; I read somewhere of an ex-communication performed by the Anglican Church on the grounds of bigamy. Bigamy? What a laugh, the Anglican Church was formed on that very premise. I write this not to denigrate the house of God at the Church of England for without them Christianity would have failed to reach the corners of Africa during the Victorian expedition for world conquest, all in the name of (you know who): God.

Notice my capitalized “G’s” in God? It stems from my rigorous catholic upbringing, an experience I take great pride in. One must however wonder about this church that formed my religious mind and embedded in me the deepest respect for women was once responsible for the decimation of races and the death of many free thinking women of ages past. Now the pope preaches peace but once that seat advocated war for various reasons each time quoting (yes you guessed it!): the Word of God. It is amazing how the word of God suits our needs and desires. Just the other day a prominent Christian leader spoke out against the Mormon Church, how dare he? The Mormon Church like every other Christian denomination believes Jesus loves them more and that they have received the “True” Word of God and everybody else is only second best. They like the rest of us reserve the right to twist the Bible to suit their belief system; we would have to wait to see whose right won’t we? American history teaches us that the “great” puritans left the old country for the new world in search of…well as the word connotes…purity! They had every right to, during the era of the Church of England’s reformation, things were going out of hand, and so we are told to believe. The Puritans quoted from the same book the Anglicans did to come to such a past. Today we have several thriving branches from that dying denomination and a leader of one of such branches speaking out against the latter day saints who...well...started out the same way. You won’t believe where the inspiration for all this chaos comes from. You get one guess! From my tone thus far you must have noticed that my argument is not that the Word of God was misinterpreted but that every time it was interpreted, it was interpreted correctly for that particular selfish reason or time.

Recently, a prominent political leader(not mentioning names) led a great nation to invade smaller nation under a false pretext although never admitting fault, he conveniently switched his reason for such an atrocity to a revelation from you know who. On and on the people of God are beguiled into horrible predicaments as if we had no light of our own. I am fascinated by the number of clear cut incidents where we would have individually decided to choose what is right but have chosen to listen to somebody who made himself an oracle of God. I thought by now “God” would have seized to be reason why we went to war with people we had problems with, since the beginning of time He has always been a convenient reason because He is the reason that most appeals to the masses, more-like a school backyard fight where the instigators say “Oh, I think he said your mama”, it works every time, why should this time be any different and the sadder part of this argument is that on the other end of the bow, they are also being instigated by the same reason or should I say person: God!

It’s ironic that we are the generation with bibles on mp3 players, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and every where else and it was the early church that was not deceived. You see the bible was made for man and not the other way around, it is pertinent that we understand this and act accordingly, If we do maybe we would stand a chance to achieve real spiritual freedom like God intended, you know the type He sent His Son to die for? It is important that we all invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts and minds and let Him teach us all things like we were promised so next time we won’t be easily beguiled. As long as the bible is just another ornament, a symbol of religion, something we carry around to mark ties to a group, it will remain useless and our mind would forever be clay molded to suit the ideology of the people that actually read it. Every post-Christ Anti-Semitic remark or actions have been instigated by people twisting the word of God. It hurts me to think that sometime ago a plantation taskmaster went into church, prayed and received the blessings of his minister for a job well done. He might have even paid tithes off his income or held a special thanksgiving service, do you get my drift?

It is time to call it quits, Iam not advocating for chaos or a re-organization of the church; all I am saying is this: If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won't correct you for asking. It still remains pertinent to attend congregations and appoint leaders, but we must be wary of the band wagons we hop on. Too many things are done in the name of Christ. Choose for yourself your own path and serve your God and not your preacher’s God so that some sanity would return to the world.

Suicide

2007-12-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

Suicide

All suicides go to hell! That’s as fundamental a catholic doctrine as the virgin birth. I am not trying to be judgmental here but it’s one of them I believe. I have never thought of suicide (I have wanted to die but never to kill myself), I am not even that happy a person but the will to live is primordial, it’s an instinct, a sixth sense if you will. Just recently, a disturbed young man walked into an establishment shot eight people to death and then turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger. Wow! That chain of action left me bewildered, bewildered in my soul because although he committed heinous crimes, I can not help but marvel at the sheer guts it takes to pick up a weapon and take human lives even if they include yours. I can already hear you say “Guts?” I know! It’s almost like the perfect paradox because there is no greater display of cowardice as one portrayed in suicide.

Now the reasoning behind “Suicides going to hell” is that however you look at it, a person is committing murder, a great sin if not the greatest, if we are permitted to grade sins. Although like the rest of us the culprit is entitled to heavenly mercy, but he had no chance to request or receive it. As we all know, anyone who dies in sin goes straight to hell as purgatory no longer exists. The reason I believe murder is colossal is because I believe the universe exists in perfect harmony, the star systems in their place and the little rocks revolving them, even the black hole has its role to play however sinister it may be provides some form of balance. It is in that manner our own cosmos functions, from the sun, to our planet and then our nation and it trickles to the smallest but yet the most important of all universes’: the human family and person.

Every now and again, a baby is born and a person dies of old age, but sometimes it is not quite as poetic or timely, people die untimely(by my calculations) as I would not have it. I do believe that in that ruckus, the fundamental balance in all things is kept. You would agree that when you combine the extremes of all major evils; hatred, greed, selfishness, total lack of empathy for a human that we will brought to a position where we would not only conceive but also commit murder. It is at the point the universe is thrown off balance, when one person assumes the position of deity and takes a life. The very foundations of the earth tremble at such a sub-human act! Now the soul of the deceased goes to another place but not without living a signature on their assailant, forever ignominiously deforming such a being.

He Called me N*&&@%

2007-11-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

The first time I fell a victim of obvious racial abuse was in traffic: I was driving down the beltway and for some reason I got into a lane struggle during rush hour. He cut me off and so I honked persistently at him and at the first chance i had, I cut him off needless to say it was a horrible game we were playing. The road had begun to clear out and he 'had the last laugh' and cut in front of me one more time and I laughed then without warning he raised his hand out his window and saluted the third Reich salutation. 'Wow! in America?' I thought. You see I was raised in Nigeria, one hundred and thirty million people and everybody black, never happened before.

The second time I experienced racial abuse, I was on my way home from work on a Friday and it was pretty late. I was about to cross the street when a car filled with Caucasians as young as myself almost hit me and then they slowed down and one of them hurled saliva at me but missed and I heard another call me N*&&@%. I had never heard that word in that way, I mean on MTV and BET it was harmless and fun, in fact back in Africa it was a good thing when we were very young before we learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle.

I could not help but smile, because I was amazed at the level of ignorance. I did not know they still used words like that, after thinking about it I realized that he meant for it to hurt me. Now that was impossible, not because I was educated or anything else but because I had never heard it before, at least not in that context. It had no power over me, I had never been oppressed or felt oppressed. Why do we let these words hurt us? Why do we empower the ignorant ones among them get an advantage over us? We have the power to become numb to the effect of words and like actions.

I also apologize to every African born and raised in the United States under the law of prejudice where the feeling of inequality and inferiority is drilled into your subconscious so that words like that and actions like the ones I explained above remind you of a perilous past, I apologize that though born princes and free men the ancestors were taken far from home and made slaves but we must remember one thing: we have overcome, we lost for hundreds of years but it takes just one victory to overcome them all. Today is the day of victory, it was easy for me to laugh at those things and to be unaffected by them, it might bit more difficult for you but you have the power, chose to become unperturbed by such nuisance. Take the power from them, it is yours!