BURDENS

‘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’- Karl Marx

Life is a school and being the ever willing learner, I must confess that I take every opportunity that life throws my way to learn superior truths, to unbuckle the belt of half truths, cleanse my mind off the regurgitated information shouted down at me in my formative years and free my soul from men’s perception of me which is NOT a reflection of God’s perception towards me.

In my quest to move towards more noble goals that fertilize my soul, I have resolved to ditch "state theologians" whose representation of an erroneous gospel seeks to justify the status quo, capitalism and totalitarianism. They bless injustice, canonize the will of the powerful and reduce the poor to passivity, obedience and apathy. It holds people in bondage, manipulates trusting souls and preys on the gullibility of the needy. It is a shame that the people that have been tasked with a most sacred duty have taken to fleecing innocent albeit ignorant people. They lure them by capitalizing on their emotions and they base their teachings on emotionalism/sensationalism knowing the ignorant desperate masses feed off the weekly emotional highs. It is a sorry sight -seeing the masses enriching individuals while they languish in poverty, their children attend public schools while their so called ‘prophets’ are sending their children to exclusive private schools paying school fees enough to light an entire village.

The recent expose of an East African clergy who coaches a section of his membership to claim he works miracles in order to cash in is just but a tip of the iceberg on the moral decay and compromise in institutions of worship.

Charismatic religion has crept into our churches and while it is different from the religion we were taught to shun and abhor, this new form of religion has disguised itself in tongues, polished accents, designer clothes and opulent lifestyles. There is nothing wrong with speaking in tongues, having a polished accent or even wearing designer, in fact, every individual should pursue the finer things in life but the problem comes in when the pursuit of this things is accompanied by manipulation, intimidation and fear all in the name of God.

I am dismayed at the brain washing forced on simple people to place the value of religion on men, false prophets who demand congregations to offer them accolades in order to validate their positions in society. This clergy basks in the glory of the attention afforded to them by the unsuspecting crowd and they lewdly allow the people they have ostensibly been called to, elevate them instead of pointing this folks to God.

Organized religion and abusive leadership attempts to control people, instills fear, manipulates them, if "you fail to file your tithe tax, God will allow diseases and destruction by the devil to occur in your life"! (Tithe is right; we should pay our tithes, for the record) If you don't pray enough, spend your Fridays in all-night prayer vigils, go to church every Sunday; sow financial seeds beyond your income and if you failed to offer your priority time in service to the church, HE (God) will not bless you. The people under control fear to question the powers that be thinking that questioning such individuals is questioning God. We now have a clergy with bloated egos that’s sitting on God’s seat and casting judgment and aspersions on the laity. It is not the ‘do not sin or you go to hell..’ kind of judgment.  It far worse.  It’s emotional, psychological and mental. They tell the laity that their lives are intertwined with theirs (the parishioners) and if they leave the church; they will in essence be jeopardizing their destinies. I understand the concept of a spiritual midwife but if I am afraid of questioning the actions of my spiritual midwife or prophet or father then how is that different from a dictatorial system of governance.

Religion threatens people with holiness, righteousness and fasting obligations that people mostly don't measure up to. In Jeremiah 6:13-14 we read again of self-absorbed prophets and priests who are so preoccupied with their own needs being met that the needs of the people are being ignored. We read: "From the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. And they have healed the brokenness of my people superficially, saying, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace" (NAS).

A common characteristic of an abusive religious system is that the real needs of the people are lost in the never-ending quest by the leaders for personal fulfillment and gain. The 21^st century church has a lot more clergy that are more concerned about building empires and monuments around their names. These ' false prophets' purporting to be representatives of God oppress the very image of God (his people). This is evident in the contrast of their professed theology versus their practiced theology. 

While they claim the Kingdom of God is not governed by democracy, rather by Theocracy they do the opposite of what "Theo" (God) values represents. They practice fascism to bring parishioners under subjugation and repress their freedoms.

Their popular claim that the church is under Theocracy is an attempt to avoid scrutiny and accountability which is a key requirement of good governance and its values of consensus oriented, transparency, participation, equity and inclusiveness; not only in governmental institutions but also the private sector and civil society organizations which must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. 

While we all agree that some of the clergy has failed in its sacred duty to show us the paths of truths, I submit that every individual has a moral obligation to pursue the truth. For a long time, we have relegated this sacred duty.

I wonder what would happen if each person made it their personal responsibility to interrogate the bible for themselves. How would our society be different if we followed the Word of God instead of men of god that have a form of godliness but without the power and the anointing of God.

Imagine how different our lives would be if we learnt to hear God for ourselves instead of running around every byway and highway looking for ‘prophets’ to confirm if our names are in the book of life.

I strongly believe that its time believers of all walks of life took back the power they have so blatantly given over. My clarion call is for individuals to get back to the place of dominion and rulership and that will only happen when we spend time in study of the Word; don’t take a preacher’s word for it, look up if what they’re teaching is biblical and most importantly have the courage to defy regurgitated information that has no basis in the word of God.

It is time to ditch religion and embrace spirituality. Religion focuses on man’s effort to touch God while spiritualism focuses on God’s effort to touch man. All this craziness going around in the church will end the day we favor freedom (spiritualism) over law (religion).

m.

courtesy