THE CHURCH AND THE STATE OF THE NATION (2)

Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma
...CAN will ban unregistered churches

"As I mentioned here last week, it does seem as if some church leaders are beginning to redirect our focus from the physical origin and consequences of the fact that Christians have, by far been the victims of the on-going crisis in our nation. Is it the incessant attacks on churches with the attendant loss of lives, limbs and properties; or the share sacrilege of people being able to routinely attack churches, God’s very own abode, successfully."

This is a very important day in the life of our nation. It’s Children’s Day; a day when we are supposed to focus on the place of children in the life of our nation. It’s a day that should be seen by all adults – the leaders and the led – as affording us yet another opportunity to reflect on the kind of tomorrow we are bequeathing to our children. 

It is my hope, indeed, expectation that most of us will do that reflection as individuals before we do as members of our various groups, communities and citizens of Nigeria. What the collective appraisals usually do is lead us to finger-pointing. And we’ve done more than enough of that. It’s time we started lighting our little corners in the most enduring ways. 

Oh, yes, some of us do light our corners in many other ways: food on the table; the best schools we can afford; holidays at our levels, and sundry other things that “good” parents who can afford it go out of their way to provide. But, how many of us can honestly, and proudly, tell our children where the funds for those good things are coming from? How many in leadership positions can boldly declare that we are doing our best for God and country and not for that unholy trinity, me, myself and I. How many of us can stand to be counted in the character, the integrity department? How many of us are bequeathing a legacy of love, truth, selflessness, humility. In short, how many of us are living our lives as true representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ?

This is what today’s Children’s Day must be about: reflection on what kind of communities and nation we are building for our children, and the future generation. One where graft is normal; where lying is the norm; where there is no honour even in public governance; where kidnapping is small-do; one where men can marry men and women can do the same?

Another important thing about May 27 this year is that it is Pentecost Sunday! Many of my brethren in the Pentecostal and charismatic wing of the church would of course pay scant attention to it, sadly. We will dismiss any such observance as religiousity or even ritualistic – thereby throwing the baby out with the birth water. But that is a matter for another day. I mention it only because, I wish to evoke the significance of the day to enjoin the church to awake to the pivotal role it has in this nation.

As I mentioned here last week, it does seem as if some church leaders are beginning to redirect our focus from the physical origin and consequences of the fact that Christians have, by far been the victims of the on-going crisis in our nation. Is it the incessant attacks on churches with the attendant loss of lives, limbs and properties; or the share sacrilege of people being able to routinely attack churches, God’s very own abode, successfully.

The Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion’s Primate Nicholas Okoh, may not have put it in those words, but his attribution of successful attacks on churches by the militant group, Boko Haram, to the unrighteousness of many Christians, cannot not be easily disputed.  

In media reports quoted here last week when he received a Nigerian Red Cross delegation, he  said, “Our unrighteousness is why God is allowing the church to be so attacked and lives of Christians are being lost…we need to look inward to see whether our hands are dirty. If our hands are dirty, then we should repent so that God can have mercy on us and take away the reproach upon us.”

 Another cleric who spoke in similar vein was Apostle Victor Ajayi, a district leader of of Ona Iwa Mimo, Cherubim and Seraphim, Nigeria and Overseas, in Ipaja, Lagos. He said among other things that, “…there would be many tribulations that are caused by our sins as we are witnessing through the activities of Boko Haram, kidnapping and armed robbery among others…All these are caused by our sins…There are many sinners in our society that is why we are witnessing all these ungodly acts.”

Yet another man of God, who spoke on the state of the church, was the South-Eastern zonal chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria and Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma. In announcing his association’s plan to enlist the services of security agencies to close down unregistered churches, he was quoted as follows: “We are worried about the activities of churches that are springing up in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but are committing all forms of atrocities and soiling the image of Christianity…many of them have become the hideouts of robbers, kidnappers and other criminals.”   

While I do not know if Bishop Chukwuma would have the legal basis to carry out his threat, and I certain wish he has, I am glad that this refocus inwards in the search for answers to the National Question is taking place. But as I asked in closing last week, is this new awareness of the poor state of the hearts of Nigerian Christians, clerics, government and corporate leaders as well as the led (mostly men), going to begin to receive the required attention?  It needs to be, if we are going to succeed in keeping this country together.

The famous verse of scripture: “… if my people who are called by my name become humble and pray, and look for me, and turn away from their evil ways, then I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2Chronicles 7:14), certainly applies here. But the emphasis must shift from “humble themselves and pray” to “turn from there evil ways.”

Yes, we the people who are called by God’s name MUST turn from our evil ways, whether we are primates or popes or prophets; whether we are presidents or peasants; whether we are of the pulpit or the pew. If we don’t and that soonest, I hate to say it, Sudan beckons. God forbid.

LARRY TITUS' TELEIOS MAN SET FOR WEST AFRICA

The TELEIOS MAN, a book by veteran minister to men, Pastor Larry Titus is set to hit the book stands all over West Africa. Here the author (right) and Remi Akano, CEO, KP Books sign the publishing contract. Subtitled,“Your Ultimate Identity”, the book is one of the most complete single volumes on men to men, by a man who knows what it is to be a godly man. Watch out.

THE CHURCH AND THE STATE OF THE NATION

Archbishop Nicholas Okoh

“Our unrighteousness is why God is allowing the church to be so attacked and lives of Christians are being lost. While we are examining the national aspect of it, we need to look inward to see whether our hands are dirty. If our hands are dirty, then we should repent so that God can have mercy on us and take away the reproach upon us.”


The Primate of Anglican Communion, Rev. Nicholas Okoh, was last week reported to have attributed the recent successful attacks on churches by the militant group, Boko Haram, to the unrighteousness of many Christians. He therefore said there was need for Christians to repent and seek divine assistance.

According to media reports, the Primate spoke at the Anglican Communion Cathedral Church of the Advent while receiving a Nigerian Red Cross delegation on a visit to the church.

He told his visitors: “Our unrighteousness is why God is allowing the church to be so attacked and lives of Christians are being lost. While we are examining the national aspect of it, we need to look inward to see whether our hands are dirty. If our hands are dirty, then we should repent so that God can have mercy on us and take away the reproach upon us.”

He wasn’t alone in this line of thought. Also last week, Sunday Tribune carried a piece headlined, “Church Leader Blames Insecurity jn Nigeria on Sinful Leaders.”  Written by Shola Adekola, the report quoted one Apostle Victor Ajayi, of Ona Iwa Mimo, Cherubim and Seraphim, Nigeria and Overseas, in a district of the church in Ipaja, Lagos, as saying that “the spate of insecurity ravaging the unity of the country has been attributed to the grievous sins committed by leaders in Nigeria”.

Positing that “all the crises presently affecting Nigeria are signs of end time as revealed by the word of God, he said, “it has been revealed that when the end is approaching, there would be many tribulations that are caused by our sins as we are witnessing through the activities of Boko Haram, kidnapping and armed robbery among others…All these are caused by our sins but God loves Nigeria. There are many sinners in our society that is why we are witnessing all these ungodly acts.”

Into the mix came a threat, (or is it a promise?), from the Southeast Zone of the Christian Association of Nigeria to close down unregistered churches.

The Nation newspaper attributed the story to zonal chairman and Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma. His words, (as reported by Chris Orji): “We are worried about the activities of churches that are springing up in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but are committing all forms of atrocities and soiling the image of Christianity…In the Southeast, we will shut any church that is not registered with CAN. Some of them have become the hideouts of robbers, kidnappers and other criminals.”  CAN plans to enlist the services of security agencies in effecting the shut-downs.

Do these reports signify a change of focus in addressing the National Question? Is a new awareness of the poor state of the hearts of Nigerian Christians, clerics, government and corporate leaders as well as the led (mostly men), going to begin to receive the required attention? Please let’s look at it together next time.

 

 

AGAIN ON THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL



Hon Tambuwal, Speaker,
House of Representatives

" While Obama’s views were still evolving, he signed an executive order providing funds to support gay lobbyists abroad. UK’s Cameron is on record as tying financial aid to respect for gay rights. South Africa already has a constitutional provision defining marriage more loosely. I shudder to think about it, but Nigeria may someday soon be counted in this hall of sodomy if the House of Representatives and then President Goodluck Jonathan do not move fast on this bill."

Leadership newspaper, it was that first jogged my memory about the loss of momentum in the drive to take a firm legal stand against homosexuality and the so-called same-sex marriage in this country. In its editorial of Monday May 7 titled, “House of Reps’ Silence on Same-Sex Marriage Bill,” the newspaper drew attention to the fact that Senate Bill 05, more fully known as “An Act to Prohibit Same Sex Marriages”, has yet to go beyond the first reading in the second chamber of the National Assembly.

The Abuja-based national daily expressed surprise that “more than five months after the Same-Sex Marriage Bill was passed by the Senate, Nigeria’s House of Representatives has not yet acted to take a vote on the bill, beyond the first reading to which the bill was subjected in the House just a week after being passed by the Senate”. It then urged “the House to expedite and conclude action on the Same Sex Marriage Bill. And, in doing so, we wish it would accept the Senate’s version so that the bill could be sent to President Jonathan for his assent without delay. Without prejudice to whatever it ultimately chooses to do, the House should refrain from “killing” the bill by its prolonged silence or simply inaction.”

Two days later, President Barack Obama of the United States of America, who had said that his views on the subject of gay marriage finally took a stand.  In a well promoted interview with American Broadcasting Corporation, ABC's Robin Roberts previewed on Wednesday evening edition of "World News with Diane Sawyer" and fully aired on Thursday’s "Good Morning America", Obama said: "At a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married."

Obama was clearly stampeded into making the statement at the time he did because at least two key members of his administration had gone public with their conviction on the subject.  Vice President Joe Biden had been widely reported to have told National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC on Sunday that he was "absolutely comfortable" with couples of the same gender marrying. Also Education Secretary Arne Duncan answered an unequivocal “yes, I do” on Monday when asked on MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe’ if he supports allowing individuals of the same gender to legally wed."

As if to confirm the suspicion that for Obama, the decision and its announcement was all about his re-election bid, he played up the decision about 36 hours later, at a fund raising event  where he subsequently raised $15million. His words: "Obviously yesterday, we made some news…But the truth is it was the logical extension of what America's supposed to be. It grew directly out of this difference in visions. Are we a country that includes everybody and gives everybody a shot and treats everybody fairly? Does that make us strong? I believe it does.”  

Expectedly, Obama’s announcement is being celebrated by the gay movement internationally. The Guardian (London) carried a piece that’s typifies the celebratory mood of the group by one, Peter Tatchell, described as “a human rights campaigner, and a member of the gay rights group OutRage! and the left wing of the Green party”

It reads in part: “President Obama joins prime minister David Cameron and the new French president, Francois Hollande, in backing same-sex marriage. It's one of the great moral and human rights crusades of our age – and it's an unstoppable global trend. There is a growing momentum to end the ban on gay marriage in more and more countries, from Cuba to Finland, Uruguay, Nepal, Denmark, Brazil, Australia and Colombia.

“Obama's support will have a huge positive impact. It will boost the worldwide campaign for marriage equality and, through media reporting of his support, raise awareness of gay marriage among billions of people in every corner of the globe. Even people living under tyrannical, homophobic regimes will hear the message of gay equality. It is significant that Obama's change of heart was influenced by the sacrifices of US lesbian and gay military personnel and by discussions with his family and friends, including gay White House staffers and gay parents at his daughters' school. This concurs with existing evidence that people who know a gay person are more likely to support gay equal rights. (CONTINUES BELOW)

“Endorsing marriage equality was a brave move, given the upcoming presidential elections and the fierce, powerful opposition he will now face from republicans and religious conservatives…In some respects, however, Obama is merely catching up with the historical trend towards equality. Same-sex couples are already allowed to marry in Canada, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland and South Africa, plus some regions in Mexico and Brazil. Denmark is expected to legalise gay marriage next month. Within the US, gay marriage laws have been passed in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington. A majority of Americans support equal marriage rights for all.

“Obama's move throws the spotlight back on Cameron and recent wavering in the Tory ranks on this issue. The UK campaign for marriage equality has been spearheaded by the Equal Love campaign involving a twin-track strategy, both political and legal. We've succeeded in persuading the government to legalise gay marriage by 2015, although the prime minister is under pressure from a rump of homophobic Tory MPs to drop this commitment…”

 Now, check out the list of countries already in the gay lobby’s kitty again; all of them powerful and relatively rich. While Obama’s views were still evolving, he signed an executive order providing funds to support gay lobbyists abroad. UK’s Cameron is on record as tying financial aid to respect for gay rights. South Africa already has a constitutional provision defining marriage more loosely. I shudder to think about it, but Nigeria may someday soon be counted in this hall of sodomy if the House of Representatives and then President Goodluck Jonathan do not move fast on this bill.

As I had occasion to state here before, delay is dangerous. The same forces that truncated two previous attempts at the legislation are still alive and well. Indeed, if anything, they are waxing stronger, by the day.

WHAT MANNER OF MEN ARE THESE? (3)



St Saviour's Anglican Church, Otuoke

'Specifically, the head of the Anglican Church of Nigeria was quoted as saying: “The call by the opposition party is not only satanic and barbaric, but equally ungodly as it was a direct attack on Christianity in the country…capable of causing further religious implosion in the country already bugged down by problems that bothered on security… anybody who intentionally kicks against the construction of church building in any part of the country under any guise should have his brains re-examined...”'

Two recent incidents, I was saying, make me wonder what manner of men have led and continue to lead us. One was ex-military head of state and civilian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who brazenly attempted to rewrite very recent history concerning his abortive attempt at life-presidency a few short years ago. He went on television and bold-facedly declared that he was never part of the move to amend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to grant him another term. He even had the temerity to describe his Channels Television interviewer as mischievous!

The other incident is President Goodluck Jonathan’s admission that he solicited the help of the CEO of an Italian construction company handling several government contracts to renovate or rebuild the church in his home village of Otuoke. In fairness, “complained to” were his words. The statement made at the dedication of the new or renovated sanctuary has, to my knowledge, not been denied.

An incident as simple and straight-forward as that has helped to provide a window into the moral and even spiritual condition of the hearts of some of those who find themselves in position of power and influence in our land. And what I personally glimpsed from many of the published reactions, reported here in the last two weeks, is shocking, to say the least.

Most of the reactions remind one of a guy called Niccoló Machiavelli, who though did not invent the maxim, helped propagate that “the end justifies the means.” The arguments have gone mostly like this: since the end is renovation or rebuilding of a church, which is a good thing; it doesn’t matter if a contractor was cajoled into handling it of free-of-charge, in violation of the code of conduct for public officials and against basic morality.

I have also read and heard arguments about the church building being a corporate social responsibility project of the company. A corporate social responsibility project in the home church of the President and instigated by the President who has the power and influence to make things happen or stop from happening for the contractor. How nice!

However, what worries me most of all is that this is about a church building and the leaders of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) have risen in defence of the President. In defending the president and the building, they have come against those who have rightly called for further investigation into the matter, particularly the Action Congress of Nigeria, which had asked the national Assembly to start impeachment proceedings against the President.

Specifically, the head of the Anglican Church of Nigeria was quoted as saying: “The call by the opposition party is not only satanic and barbaric, but equally ungodly as it was a direct attack on Christianity in the country…capable of causing further religious implosion in the country already bugged down by problems that bothered on security… anybody who intentionally kicks against the construction of church building in any part of the country under any guise should have his brains re-examined...”

Even in righteous indignation, these words would still have been out of place in the mouth of the lowest of clergymen. Yet, this was none other than the Primate of All Nigeria. With the greatest respect, I wonder where the moral high ground to call politicians, who we accuse of “heating up the polity” to order, when Church leaders allow themselves the liberty of speaking like them.

But even more significant is the fact that there is nothing righteous about the indignation the church seemed to be expressing. Except in the minds of those who have read and internalised Machiavelli’s Prince, the God that we serve does care about means, as much as he does, the end. In other words, God would be concerned about the means by which St Saviour’s Anglican Church at Otuoke was built or renovated. He would be interested in whether any laws were violated, whether the process was moral etc.

Perhaps the story of Saul, the king in the 15^th chapter of the first book of Samuel would serve to drive home the point: “Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly… And Samuel said… the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (verses 7-9; 17 -22).   

This story, no doubt well known amongst us Christians as a powerful reminder of God’s insistence on obedience, is also powerfully illustrates that good and therefore welcome as sacrifice normally is to God (the end),  Amalekite fat obtained in disobedience (the means) disqualified it!  Church leaders of all hues and all who lead in every area of national endeavour, who name the name of the Lord, (mostly men) must always remember that God is a law and order God, who refrains from, and abhors, impunity. He expects no less from us. (CONCLUDED).