Wednesday 13 October 2021

IS GOD STILL PRESENT IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES?

Chief Anayo Nwosu
 
What happened in 1906 in Nnewi that made the significant deities or arụsị lose many of their worshippers to Christianity, a new religion of the whiteman, are now happening in Nigeria. At that time, the elders of Nnewi and most Igbo communities gave the Christian missionaries the evil forests of powerful deities, namely, Udo, Ogwugwu, Nweke, Egbochi, etc. to build their churches hoping that the deities would make names for themselves by decimating the whiteman and his intruding deity, called God who they claimed was higher than any other deity.
 
Nnewi and other Igbo deities' worshippers' disappointment paned into laughter when the pan-Igbo shrine at Arochukwu in today's Abia State, south-east Nigeria, had been levelled and that the British Expeditionary Armed Forces publicly executed the revered chief priests. An Nnewi person represents most of what Igbo people are known for. They believe that "ọgbọ m ka m, efee m ya", meaning that "a victor must claim his prize." They are merit and results-driven. "Now that the God of the whiteman has defeated their gods, why not transfer allegiance to a more powerful deity?" the Igbo people asked. The same thing the users of typewriters did when computers appeared. And many of them, except the beneficiaries of the status quo, moved on to worship the whiteman's deity. It is understandable that people react differently to change. And it played out.
 
Consequently, the Igbos were indoctrinated and asked to jettison their old beliefs, including the reasonably practical ones like the long-held belief that "there is no common God for the human race". The Igbos believe that each individual has his own "Chi onye" or "personal God" responsible for the person's destiny. They believe that height or low anybody achieves in life is a function of how good or powerful his "Chi" or "God" is. The Igbo saying of "onye na chi ya" or "each person is guided by his own God" resonates today. It is a person's Chi that protects him. Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, made Igbos rather see their personal Chi as guardian angels. They went ahead to construct a big Chi or "Chi ukwu", also written as "Chukwu". With this, every Igbo Christian is required to start depending on one Chi for protection. Perhaps, out of a feeling of abandonment, our various personal Chi left us to our own devices. And this fell apart.
 
For many years, Christianity has sold the sanctity of their places of worship to credulous Igbos, and they believed them. Sanctuaries were still built in many churches where the faithful converge to pray instead, to take their eyes away from the shrines of their ancestors' deities. The recent events in Nigeria have brought to scrutiny, the impregnability of sacred places of worship and their capacity to serve as a bunker or refuge to worshippers. It is faith-shaking to behold successful massacres of Christians inside the churches where the power of their God ought to be at full strength. How would God watch and see evil men invade God's house and kill not only His pious worshippers but also the chief priests? The murderers also desecrate the sanctuaries and all that the worshippers consider holy. How can a sinful killer touch and kill the anointed so easily and destroy the dedicated Church of God?
 
These are hard questions that must be explained to an Nnewi man as he is being brought to the decision point in 1906. Where would a human being run to, order than to his powerful God's house, which he is told is a refuge and protector? Catholic Church teaches that Jesus who is also God also resides in the Holy Sacrament and the Church. How come the sinful invader, a mere man, could waste or destroy the Blessed Sacrament and destroy its tabernacle? How could the faithful comprehend killings inside St. Philip's Catholic Church Ozubulu on 6 August 2017 and another at St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpor-Mbalom, Benue State on 24 April 2018? While the priest in Ozubulu escaped, those in Benue were not that lucky. They died along with worshippers in the house of their God, inside the very house that should have been their refuge.
 
Agents of death have also reduced the radical members of the Christian fold's power and claims known as Pentecostals. The herdsmen and Islamic fundamentalists have been making mincemeat of many Pentecostal churches in Northern Nigeria and their members and elsewhere in the world without a supernatural challenge. Could it be that Christianity oversold security to Nnewi people and entire black Africa in a bid to gain worshippers? How can we be made to lose a monkey to gain a baboon? As a confessed Christian and a Roman Catholic, I have brushed aside the earthly protection being sold to me without guarantee by men of God and some priests to pursue the promises of the new world after death. My decision was hinged on a disclaimer issued by the owner of my adopted religion in John 18:36 that his Kingdom is not of this world. Matthew 4:8-9 validates that Lucifer or Satan was given ownership of this world after the civil war in Heaven.
 
When he was offered the Earth and its Glory by the leaseholder called Nwaekwe or Satan in Matthew 4:9, Jesus rejected the terms and the offer. It would be a comforting mark of integrity if the Christian leaders could swallow their pride, apologise to their followers and tell them that they do not have adequate protection for them against murderers, Boko Haram, killer Herdsmen and other natural disasters; that they should find different ways to protect themselves than to depend entirely on prayers and running to Church for protection. It is a mark of wickedness for Europe to sell ineffective protection to mostly Africans, a product they used and dumped, and still went ahead to build advanced military hardware and equipment for safety that they sell to us for our own destruction through inter-tribal conflicts.
 
Who will blame an Igbo man who, after reminiscing on his people's history and the failure of his new Christian religion to offer him reliable security in the face of danger, decides to arm himself with traditional, religious and conventional weapons to protect himself? By adequately arming self with a variety of protectors like ọdụụna, eti a da, ọdaeshi, etc. the Igbo man believes that "nkea alụghịịọlụ nke ọzọ alụọ ya" meaning that "any of the weapons could be the lifesaver". To his critics of multiple self-protection, the an Nnewi man would say: "onye gbuo onwe ya ọ na eje!" meaning "a person who leaves himself unprotected committed suicide". After all, the country, the government, Christian God and other gods derive their essence from the living.
 
The most outstanding deceit soaked in eternal shame is that our political leaders who daily assure us of security and their religious counterparts that sell theirs from the pulpit don’t play with external security as they are well guarded by physically armed security agents. Only God knows the complementary but invincible security gadgets they tie to their waists, traditionally made devices breathing inside their stomachs and other native doctors’ prepared vaccinations on the various parts of their bodies.

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