From scamming pastors who “preach” that tithing is necessary for blessings and who allegedly live off those said tithes.
I don’t know how I feel
about writing this topic, I have been thinking about this for quite a
number of days now something I observe, a sermon here or there, a
comment made, a law passed, everywhere you go religion is slowly being
made irrelevant in todays’ society. It is deemed as too outdated, too
sexist, too homophobic, too violent, too restrictive, just too much of
everything bad.
God just doesn't seem
fun anymore, or cool or hip, even the traditional idea of God that we
had is fast eroding, the God of the bible, a personal God, is being
replaced with a new-age wishy washy, God is in everyone and everything,
God is a supreme being, something that you know is there you don’t have
quite any reverence for but you feel it is ultimately in control.
Now
at the end of the day, I firmly believe that everybody is allowed to be
as irreligious as they choose to be, I have a live and let live
approach to faith, I am not going to ram anything down anybody’s throat
or force you to believe in what I believe in, however, as a collective I
really want us to stop and think of what we are doing to ourselves,
when we eliminate religion or the fear of God if you will.
Now
I know religion, which ever you pick has been blamed for so many ills
in the world today, from scamming pastors who “preach” that tithing is
necessary for blessings and who allegedly live off those said tithes
depending on who you follow on Instagram, to radical Islam that has
spurred so many heinous terrorist attacks we have even lost count,
people have been said to have killed in God’s name, committed acts in
Gods’ name and if you are religious and you are opposed to certain views
you are labelled a bigot before you even open your mouth.
It’s
becoming tougher and tougher to hold on to seemingly archaic views, not
to mention that there has been so much expansion in man’s intelligence,
and the ability to explain everything scientifically, it almost seems
impossible to believe in miracles anymore, reverence for God , going to
church, even observing religious ceremonies don’t seem to matter
anymore. Talk less of the liberal onslaught of western ideals via
globalization to the rest of the worlds’ psyche and you have a perfect
storm.
So do we really still need God? I
mean when it comes to the crux of the matter is a future without God
really that bad, I mean asides from the obvious cultural and cohesive
benefits religion/God brings to communities and the society at large,
what does God/ religion really have to offer, I mean let’s be honest, we
all know that culture is being shaped increasingly by social media,
hence I find myself asking this question constantly, what is the
relevance of faith in a post-modern society? How do we factor God in our
daily decisions on how we vote, or the issues that really matter to us?
The
reality is what happens in the personal, always spills over to the
public space. It’s not like we woke up one day and we decided that God
didn't matter any longer. The change started from us, we thought we
didn't need God in our own lives, we didn't need him to tell us what to
do, how to think, who to marry, what was right for us according to what
his will was in our lives.
Then we
thought why should he decide how we vote, what was important when it
came to social issues, why should a book written 2,000 years ago written
by men with highly suspicious characters be the text to decide how we
feel about fundamental issues of life, and slowly and rather quite
joyfully we deemed God irrelevant. As I sit here and write this blog, I
don’t know how I feel about this, the truth is that we don’t want this
to change, man is rebellious in nature, we love doing things our own
way, right or wrong, good or bad, we are quite happy taking God out of
the picture.
Most people in Africa might
disagree and say oh but this isn’t applicable to us, this only happens
in the west, oh but it is coming, the dissenters have started first they
are going for tithe-paying (I’m not even going to go into that), next
they will probably bring up the oppression argument and God knows what
next, they conveniently forget that in communist china and soviet union
where heinous human rights violations were committed were
Godless/anti-religion societies, but I digress.
I
want to wrap this up by saying I’m not arguing for or against religion,
I am a Christian and I may have a bias but at the end of the day, if I
can go super spiritual (it is my blog after all I am allowed lol) the
beginning of all and everything is the creator, a life without him is
bleak at best and nihilistic at worst, it is not too late to turn back
or then again it may be.
Romans 1:21-
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give
thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their
foolish hearts were darkened.
Written By Ndidiamaka Ndekwu.
Picked
up the writing bug, when I was about 5/6 currently trying to share my
experiences and stories, faith through words, full time graduate student
at ohio university, part time
blogger-www.musingsandothershortstories.wordpress.com, sometimes
entrepreneur bubo hair and beauty.
I can be reached via email at ndidindekwu@gmail.com, on IG:@ndidi_a