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

The State of our schools

It’s the aftermath of the annual edition of the JoyFm’s old skul reunion which is also touted as the biggest outdoor program in West Africa and I want to use this opportunity to pat the back of JoyFm who is ostensibly the poster child of the multimedia group of companies based in Accra, for instituting and achieving this feat and to also wade into the national debate of the estranged relationship between Religion and education.

I do not intend to bore you with the history of Schools but once upon a time, Missionaries with all

The Main Gate of Presec boys that leads to a citadel of Knowledge

intents and purpose set foot on our land to evangelize the word of God but decided over time to set up schools to educate the inhabitants of the land to facilitate easy preaching and conversion, then came the government to take over from the Churches, thus rendering them a pale shadows of themselves without a bearing.

Education, as one of the building blocks of society has lately been in the news for all the wrong reasons such as yearly examination malpractices, decline in discipline and excellence - resulting in weaker institutions, inconsistent curricula, devaluing of our certificates outside the shores of the land, unwilling and unqualified tutors due to inadequacy and unattractiveness of the teaching profession and now a political tool in the hands of the Politicians which often results in unbridled strike actions, probably due to neglect from the very people it has helped nurtured into positions of repute and also because the government has decided to micromanage the schools including the very ones that were built by and through the toil of Churches.

The government then intruded the educational system as it were through regulation which eventually neutralized and accorded every player in the educational terrain an equal status to probably drive home the fact that we are all equal, before the Law and even before God. Maybe, we should be thanking the Government for whipping us into congruence. Nevertheless, I do not think we are all the same and wields equal status like they try to impress upon us simply because I see and commune with different sorts of people in my everyday walks of life and have seen enough to still frolic in the idea of all of us being the same. However, whoever thinks that we are all equal can revel in their delusion.

In every society, continuity is of essence - to preserve their cultural orientations and beliefs, to at least give them a false sense of permanence.  This permanence or any effort at instilling it is not hewed out of frivolity but often arrived at out of practical convictions have become one of the very reasons why humans will procreate to continue their race. I also believe it is in the same vein that religious entities instituted schools to indoctrinate their very owns and other affiliates who find their way to their doorsteps.

Muslims and Christians with their varied sects such as the Catholics, the Wesleyans, The Presbyterians, the Anglicans and even some latter day churches, through their mission schools have produced a chunk of excellent individuals who have metamorphosed into giant brands and sometimes, with a lot of followings. Then came in too much liberation and the equality argument without recourse to the preambles and purposes of why the mission schools were built in the first place turned up a notch higher. 

All persons, regardless of their creed were allowed anywhere but should they not be compelled to abide by the tenets of the accommodating institution?

Personally, Muslims and traditionalists who have no school anyway can attend the mission schools if they wish to be nurtured by the indoctrinating school of their choice and vice versa, but such individuals must be compelled to go the full haul to align to the spirit and letter of the Church or their schools thereof. And rightfully so, to continue breeding legions of soldiers who are without a doubt the future of the Church and an extension of its doctrines to ultimately fulfill the purpose of establishing the Church. 

But what do we see?

The St. Augustine's Administration block in its full glory

Pockets of infidels found their ways into these mission schools and have over time become cystic and protected by the law through their fundamental human rights that they can even haul a whole institution to a battle of wits at the courts of Law. The mission schools have now become pale shadows of themselves because discipline which invariably is/was a key to breeding near excellence is no more. Students are not even caned any longer or where necessary it cannot exceed six. 

Methinks, if the powers that be do not have a problem with these churches or cannot impugn on their existence and their indoctrination thereof, then these churches should be allowed to build their own schools as an appendage to train students accordingly. These Churches also have a need for permanence which requires them to spread their tentacles and by extension, their dominance. 

To think that religious and moral education have been expunged from the curricula has only made the government’s efforts at neutralizing and thwarting the objective of the mission schools too blatant. Government should both build its own school and make it free education or whatever political gains they stand to derive from their gimmick and leave the religious schools to operate since their mother churches have been allowed to fester. Better still, the government should leave the administration and its bearing in the hands of the Churches and if need be, regulate it from the fringes. We all know now what it means to say that government has taken over schools as it is so evident in how educational standards have fallen to their lowest ebb but the question is why and how does government take over all the religious schools in the first place?

Thus far, it is even convenient to say that it was imprudent of the government to take over these schools because it doesn’t seem to be making meaningful strides. At most, education is even a distraction on government’s plate, looking at how they are still toying with what a senior high school curriculum should entail and look like? If a lot was achieved through crude and not-so-smart ways of doing things in terms of storing and availing data or textbooks in the past with the Churches in charge, why can’t we mobilize, plan and execute our agendas in this day and age where schools now take pride in websites?

 Writer tweets @vilejah 

The Holy Bible!

Often times and especially for the sake of intellect where people resort to crediting their sources of information for much more credibility, the Bible is shoved aside. My observation has however revealed that the ‘let’s agree to agree’ kind of approach is mostly practiced by some Christians who should know better.

This phenomenon for which the reverse holds true is very disturbing if the trend should grow in the direction it is headed. You’d however notice that the more elitist one becomes the farther they move away from God, thus religion, and inversely the more unaware one is about their environment, the more their inclination to their faith

Maybe, it being my first point of call and fact that it was what I was predisposed to has made my lopsided influence very Grande but given the choice, I still would like to associate myself with the Christian faith for want of an overwhelming and much more plausible way of getting by in this deceitful and flexuous journey called Life.

Why is the Bible not accepted as a point of reference in intellectual discourses? What about the Bible negates the intellectualism in the so-called discourses as though it is not deep and embodies a horde of mysteries? Is it the claim that, its Author(s) are unknown or fact that some of the passages do not add up? And if all the assumptions holds true, then what other alternatives do you suggest?

Maybe I really need some Church but I seriously think something does not add up and rightfully so, because till date, Universities are awarding degrees in Theology – the study of God, religions and religious beliefs – making it equally relevant as the other disciplines these Schools offer. The Bible still remains the bestseller ever and still the most published and widely read book in the world so why the downright disregard?

I am yet to hear someone being admonished to refrain from the use of scientific terms, theories and other dependent laws or the use of anodyne tales to drive their points home. In same vein,  Manuscripts, pamphlets, unpublished books and scripts written by Professors, Seasoned Writers and Orators readily serves as a source of reference and inference only if one can provide the source and it’s alright but quoting from the Bible, the Quran or whatever one believes in earns the fellow a religious tag.

Personally, I do not care if the Bible connotes the largest organized religious group in the world and has unfounded stories by unknown Authors which makes it mysterious anyway, all I know is, it rates above all printed matters by the number of people who uphold and live by its tenets. After all, majority carries the vote, so why the fuss?

Its commonplace to hear some Christians denounce publicly that they are not religious but spiritual which sharply reminds the reader of how badly the clergy has failed the Church.  They have lost the essence of their call and are now chasing Politicians. They are busily prodding Christian singles to mingle at the detriment of the whole flock and their call. How can one be spiritual if they are not religious? I mean how?

Spirituality can only be attained through religion whether one is aware or otherwise. If there is any accepted way through which you acknowledge and revere God or the lack of it thereof, then that is your religion. Religion is simply anything one devotes his or her time to; be it God, a god, sex, football and other interests.

What makes it fashionable and acceptable to quote the works of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud or John Watson and even modern day Steve Jobs, Floyd Mayweather but can’t quote from the Apostle Paul or John the Baptist if what one is pontificating is relevant in a discourse? 

This may be probably because we do not believe they even existed let alone take their allusions with a pinch of salt and fact that we do not want to be rendered fools by the Empiricists from the side of the other, which also explains why we shelve our Bibles throughout the week only to dust and make them handy on Sunday. Yes! Because the Pastor will possibly and routinely read another story therein.

I personally believe that it’s a fallacious life for anyone who thinks the Bible is just a collection of stories, allegories, histories, eulogies, autobiographies and at most some a textbook to be used at the Church on Sundays without an iota of belief. You are either for the Bible or not, but the lackadaisical life of not holding fast onto its tenets only makes anyone a joke, indecisive and a chorus singer. 

There is something out there, so don’t get it twisted!

 

The Writer tweets @vilejah