Gaming Pastors

Anointing Oil.

Consultation fees.

Mezuzah.

Yamaka.

Talismans.

Waist bands.

Wrist bands.

Lotteries and gambling in all forms is a growing phenomenon that has caught up with us like a fully blown virus that won’t go away anytime sooner.  And while it is equally attracting a commensurate concern from a few conservatives, it is also worthy to note that we cannot just wish it away unless our law makers decide to hold the bull by the horn.

A cursory look around our towns and cities readily gives you insight into gullible people being exploited in all forms, all in the name of religion and its attendant salvation.  Charlatans with bibles, posing to have heard and seen God are abusing the citizenry.

What happened to "freely, I gave you' freely you shall give or they probably paid for all these gifts? Given that, in tandem with the findings of consumer studies which posits that consumers are rational at all times and not gullible, can the government still look beyond that maxim and salvage its people?

Why do we allow fraudsters to parade and exploit our very own with impunity? If a President had so much compassion for some displaced Yemeni citizens in times past, then it is prim and proper that same compassion is extended to Ghanaian citizens.

Freedom of Association cannot be translated into an avenue to abuse people and offend the sensibilities of observers. All of us may be groping in the dark, but a ray of light in the tunnel should be enough hope that a silver lining is nigh.

How different is a Pastor who engages in all forms of extortion by fronting salvation under the guise of religion from a certified businessman who consults for a living? How many Pastors give to some of their dire and needy church members? All they do is to take, take till the members are pale and lost as it were.

How sensible is it that the one professing to be the bridge between the flock and Jesus; the supreme watchman and protector be guided by a host of trained security and heavily built men yet continually admonishing and asking the congregation to believe and trust in their maker and to think that all these is funded by the same church is lost on some observers. Is it a situation of the congregation casting their bread on the waters while the pastors and leaders going around to gather them?

We can’t speak to the calling issues of these pastors since we were not there but we can speak to their responses because we have been admonished to know them by their works and thus far, their work ratings do not seem to be making things easier. We cannot begin to worry about them when we already have that of the politicians to contend with.

 

In as much as the people would have to be conscientized  to realize that they are followers of Jesus and not the pastors to forestall most of these anomalies, the government also owe it to the people to salvage them from these organized crimes. Government must scrutinize some of these religious groupings to ascertain whether they have the goodwill of the people at heart or they are just in for their family and friends because the hunger games must stop and the musical chairs must go with it.

Writer tweets @the 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

I need Jesus...

I need me Jesus, a WiFi and a stocked fridge with everything I might need to get going to be able to fulfill the scriptures. Jesus to aid my salvation, WiFi to watch movies, chat and surf the internet unend and food as a basic need and I will just be fine. I don’t know about you but going through each day is an arduous task for me. The kind of bs I have to put up with by virtue of the role I play as a family, a friend, a colleague and a member of the community I find myself in, at any given time. The need to guide my mind against that of others, when to discard or hold on to an existing knowledge or a piece of information and the need to keep my mind open or close at alternate times can be debilitating but I still thrive because the pain has become the reason to love.

Jesus died painfully on the cross because he loves us. Wait! Is it Jesus Christ who loves us or it is his Father, God, who does? Maybe, both of them love us. But where do I place the Holy Ghost? Maybe all of them do hence the conspiracy to sacrifice Jesus for our sake. And all of these add up to the pain I mentioned in the earlier paragraph. Nothing makes sense anymore and it hurts to know that. Maybe it’s information overload which is fine by me because I can’t even allow myself to be labeled a basket case.

They claim it’s a free world and I can be anything I want to be but I dare not because I live in an institutionalized society where stereotyping is our stock-in-trade. We are supposed to go to the Mosque on Fridays, attend church through Saturday to Sunday even though some denominations have taken it a notch further. We also attend school from Monday to Friday, vote at a given time, expected to marry and become a parent at a certain time and many other expectations which have timelines even against the back drop of what I want to be. 

According to the law of consequence which is in harmony with the world and by extension, order, a man reaps what he sows making everyone responsible for their own actions and inactions. But in another vein, Jesus Christ came to die to redeem and salvage all of us from our sinful ways and this right here contradicts the law of nature. Now my dilemma is should I just walk about expecting to reap what I sow, or be rest assured that Jesus’ death has already solved every thing? How can one person die to cleanse our sins when we are supposed to actually be responsible for our individual transgressions? Unless two analogies transits or comfortably fits into each other, one is discarded - leaving behind the one with the near precision so right here, we have to discard one of the theories which to me is another cul-de-sac.

Would it not be consistent with the laws of nature, nobler and responsible of us if we account for our lives rather than hiding in the shadows of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Maybe, I am lost for wanting to know what Jesus’ death has got to do with this but again we were told in his own words that "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." So I don’t understand why Christians think Jesus came for everyone or everyone must go to the Father only through him who is the light of the world.

In Jesus own words, it is not everyone who needs him. Hence he did not come for everyone but those lagging behind which also means there are people in the forefront who are already doing well. So why do his followers think otherwise? Again he has admonished us not to be judgmental but our zealousness makes us assume his role as the judge when they should be working their salvation with trembling and fear. It is common for Christians to condemn other religions even though that is not their preserve.

Contrary to the popular opinion to what Jesus should look like, I saw one portrait of Jesus Christ looking like a rock artist wielding a goatee as he was been baptized and all I could mutter was anokwa. Christian’s inability to understand the nuances of Christianity has made it a ridicule and all of these sometimes makes Christianity appear to me like a child’s play. For instance, Christians do not believe in reincarnation because it is supposed to be a traditional belief yet they will preach to you about Jesus Christ’s resurrection and are even looking forward to die and meet him in Paradise and I just do not know what to believe anymore.

It is the contradictions and differences in ideologies and doctrines that have given birth to so many denominations in the realm of Christendom. There is no consensus as to what is right and no sense of unity among Christians so how do they expect to bring other religions into their fray? 

It is even pathetic how you are condemned when you ask in-depth and mind-boggling issues concerning the Christian faith and because I have become weary and sick from all this hot air, I have decided to forget about all these people and the related protocols to seek the Boss himself – the only reason why I need me Jesus.

The writer tweets @vilejah