Churches in the Wild...

Thou saith that “for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst” but can we go a tad further to scrutinize the passage by trying to conceptualize the wherever therein?

I am convinced beyond doubt that God with an Omni presence is everywhere even if the people thereof are gathered in the name of evil but does it imply that He will still be amidst two or three people who are rooted in His name in the middle of a certain Champs Sports Bar in Accra on a Friday night when the whole of Accra have decided to go there for a getaway? Wow!

And I almost thought good and evil could not dwell at one place…

I know God protects his people wherever they find themselves but just how did Churches resolve to convert Classrooms into places of worship? How did we as a Society allow these latter day sects to fest among us? And did you also know that they are the number one culprits for noise pollution in the City?

Pray do tell if it’s not a worrying sight to see a six classroom block, each occupied by a different Church, screaming on top of their voices through the low quality PA systems they use as though there are laurels at stake for the best noise pollutant? I bet you haven’t noticed that most Schools in the City and recently a budding trend in the villages have become places of worship by day and invariably a place of worship at night?

How do they even do it? Wait, I can hazard a guess. Firstly, the Pastor with a group of people will go and consult the Headmaster alone or together with the Board that they want to start worshiping in their facility to align with God’s directive of winning souls for Him to which the Headmaster being a religious person will assent to either by veto power or in consultation with other stakeholders. Next thing, ground rules are set with some money exchanging hands and a promise to keep by both parties.

Then comes a day of worship where you will see a group of believers coming to the school ahead of time, frantically pacing about, waiting for the extra classes that have run into the evening to finally come to an end for whatever they were worth for their Classrooms to be occupied. To worship. And when the bell goes for closing, you are sure to see these Church members practically shoving and parking the desks to one side of the classroom even before the kids leave. Some sweeping and picking up litters, others decorating the Teacher’s table with fine lace and a flowered vase and a collection box placed between the Clergy and the Congregation to continually remind everyone of how good it is to give…

What in God’s name will make about 15 or 20 people decide to establish a church as though it’s a venture? What are they teaching that is not been taught at bigger Churches; mostly from where they break off? Just visualize a Classroom and tell me how many Church members can actually squeeze in if not just a handful of Congregants? 

Methinks Church premises should exude an atmosphere of serenity, quietude and that saintly presence that draws you in and brings chagrin to the fore especially for a reckless sinner like me - that is why this sudden transformation of a classroom into a holy place within a twinkle of an eye does not cut it for me. Blame my conservatism, but I also do not believe we need too many Churches. We need some decorum in the house of the Lord because it looks like these zealots are becoming more Catholic than the Pope. 

As much as there is freedom of Association where people are entitled to their respective choices, I think society still owes it a duty to save some of these wandering souls just the way the government has taken it upon itself to save and protect smokers from the throes of wee(d) which hitherto used to be one of their right and delight.

And Just a quick question. Will there be a conflict of interest should a teacher decides to organize an extra classes for the pupils on a Sunday morning which also happens to be the Church’s Harvest?

Writer tweets @vilejah                                            

Sexing with the Christian

when is it right to have sex, especially for the married couples who are making so much or too little sex break their marriages? 

Should you give in to your spouse’s demands for sex just because the bible has decreed that the body you wield is not yours, but that of your significant other?

How can we salvage the perversion and its related pornography making rounds in the house of the Lord?

Society has undergone an acute change depending on your knowledge or lack of it. People are being encouraged to be vocal and to possibly lay bare every thought that passes through their minds all in the name of expressing one's fundamental human rights - irrespective of whether it makes sense or not. Just say it by all means...

It has even become a serious situation in our modern dispensation where women engage in more lucrative and sophisticated ventures than their male counterparts who have become emotional - a feat they have achieved above their forebears who did all the menial work and nothing much. Either these forebears did not really use their creative faculties that much or were not allowed by the men to use them or both. There could even be more contributive factors but that will be treated under a different subject matter at a different time.

Even though these changes can be grouped into the positives and negatives, they are ghastly weighing down the law and order and even the trends of old. This change irrespective of what one believes in has influenced society and by extension, our lives.

Be it a Christian, an atheist, a Buddhist and the other millions of religions that abound, human beings are endowed with varying degrees of energy and physique which directly bears on how much we can put in and even take out. For instance, when emotions blind two different people at the extreme ends of the gender parameter to come together as a man and a woman, coupled with desires to match, then your guess would be as good as mine.

 

As much as there is no gainsaying why a man and a woman would want to relate intimately, it is also imperative to note that two different people cannot always be ready for sex at the same time, which makes it difficult for couples to sustain a relationship in many cases. And it is rightfully so because the degrees of the difference in timing and its related tardiness becomes a surety that erodes the very foundation of the union. Simply, it breeds mistrust issues.

It is however interesting to know that, aside energy, desire, experiences, age, culture, expectations, availability, reciprocity and accessibility which influences how much we are willing to have sex, work issues have also waded in to confound the already labouring situation. This means, there is the probability that one of the couple is always almost tired or disinterested in sex which breeds apathy out of the constant rejection or inability to give or be ready, even when it matters most.

You would then realize that the Inability of one of them to respond "how deep?" when asked to dig, becomes the Achilles heels of the union. 

As a matter of fact, The Bible has failed to prescribe how sex should be practiced and all the other nuances regarding it, but has explicitly stated that sex is for procreation and shall remain the preserve of the married but it appears the unmarried Christians are having it too. There is even the likelihood that they are having it more than the married couples because of their zest, energy and mostly their purpose, which is the pleasure they derive from engaging in it.

For a Christian, it must be very difficult being caught between your penchants and God's directives even though they have from time immemorial proven how well versed they are in selective pragmatism - doing only what pleases them and relegating the ones they can’t do to the back. 

Why is Christendom looking on for their very foundation (future leaders) to crumble? Have they given up on the fight to ensure that every chosen one upholds the tenets of the Christian faith? Has Christendom being swallowed up by the world out there or they don’t even believe the gospel anymore? Something tells me, they are putting God to test to ascertain if he is really the true forgiving God he claims to be.

Thanks to the power of technology, sex is now commonplace like a flicker of fire in a mud hut razing down nations of which the Christendom is a minute part, so how are they going to survive this inferno when the opposite is what they are expected to do? 

Sometimes, it appears the Christian is the most ignoramus and most confused person to ever walk the face of the earth but that would be under-estimating their presence and what can become of them.

To be continued…

The Writer tweets @vilejah