Our culture of cults
Pastor-bashing has
almost become a pastime in Nigeria just as much as the churches they have
founded have become the objects of much opprobrium. Worse still are attendees
of such establishments who by their attitudes have subscribed to the cult of
personality and have enslaved themselves to systems that operate no better than
shamanist grottos.
We must not however
allow the pall of injustice to hang over a demonstrably untenable situation
without comment; there comes a time where religious adherents need to cast off
the apparent dumbness of sheep that goes for community and fellowship returning
to the excitement of using their God-given intellect to review the
circumstances they are in.
The basics
of the story [1] are: Parents leave twins at church crèche, obtain tags as
proof, return to find one of the twins missing, church apparently doesn’t aid
investigation, church allegedly interfering with the process, child not found one
year on.
Facts of life anywhere
Rather than attempt
to rehash elements of the story, I will address some very fundamental points we
all need to be aware of.
A religious
environment or meeting place despite the atmosphere of piety and solemnity or
even feigned holiness in some cases is still a gathering point of people from
all strata of society – some good and others not so good with all sorts of motives
– there is a possibility that people will let down their guard in such settings
when they are to be vigilant – like in society, crimes do happen in churches,
mosques, synagogues, temples and grottos too.
Many religious
establishments depend on volunteers to function effectively, people generous
with their time and means are to be commended but each function and activity
comes with a modicum of responsibility even though we work in the implicit
trust that within an religious establishment people exercise the best of
conduct as if they are licensed and regulated in the functions they perform.
Once volunteers
have taken on responsibilities they are responsible for activities entrusted to
their care, there greater the responsibility the better the standards of
control and supervision must be – in the case of caring for children, it is
paramount just as one would not expect sloppily prepared food and drinks to be
served endangering the health of patrons, if I may, of the religious establishment.
Ordinary people make communities
A religious
establishment will usually have hierarchies, rules and structures to deal with
internal issues but when crimes are committed or criminal activity is
suspected, it is not the place of that religious establishment to replace the state
in the dispatch of police responsibilities for investigation, questioning of
suspects and witnesses, securing the crime scene for forensic analysis and
prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law those issues that have been
identified to require that level of scrutiny.
Much as a religious
establishment brings together many strands of society, it is not in and of
itself beyond its primary function a police station, a court, a hospital, a
school, a restaurant or a shop if it has not exclusively applied to operate as
any of those establishments and so the abuse of any of those function must
always devolve to civic authorities.
Persons who are
found to be professionally skilled in all these areas might take on advisory
role or even assume immediate responsibility until such a time that qualified
persons not conflicted by affiliation can ensure that adequate and due civil
process is followed.
Religious organisations are subject to civil
authorities
The Catholic Church
presents one of the poorest examples of the separation of Church and State when
on having cases of child sexual abuse reported to the senior clergy they
attempted to contain the matter rather than hand the cases over to the
authorities – the embarrassment they were trying to avoid as well as the people
they tried to protect has snowballed into an almost insurmountable crisis.
The case that inspired
this blog pertains to Winners Chapel, a sprawling Pentecostal religious
organisation that includes businesses and schools with the head of the
organisation having gained notoriety for being the richest Nigerian pastor and
the having delivered that legendary stinging slap in front of the congregation –
this new development appears to compound what from a secular perspective is
chronicling a catalogue of abuses.
Cajoled by religious behemoths
On the side of the
parents, too many issues need addressing in general. That it took a whole year
for the news of a missing child from the Children’s Department of a church to
make the headlines is beyond the pale but my second paragraph already shows
that people find it difficult, terrifying and sometimes impossible to challenge
religious authority on civil matters.
The news story
suggests that the church has been actively interfering with the investigation
with regards to the police; such that the handlers of the children have not
been interviewed to ascertain how a child under their care went missing, they
seem to have polluted the narrative to suggest the child did not go missing in
the care of the church volunteers, fed false information to the investigation
teams and they have intimidated the parents so much that it has taken all this
time for the parents to muster the courage to come out against the machinery of
a behemoth organisation like Winners Chapel.
Humanity and justice are paramount
If any of the
detail in news story bears any semblance of truth, nothing can justify the
actions of the church in trying to cover up this case much as the parents are
deserving of some sanction for not speaking up the more about this much earlier
and forcefully.
In matters like this,
victims after reporting matters to the religious leaders of their commune must
immediately see that they case is handed over to the civil authorities whilst
they engage counsel and advice outside of the structure of their religious settings
to see the matter through to its conclusion.
I will continually
say that the purpose of religion is for the service of the people, where that
purpose is lost, whatever that religious situation is has become irrelevant and
with the handling of the case of this missing child purpose and relevance are
being lost for expediency.
I am disappointed
in all parties involved in this case and most especially the church for not
being a better force for justice, for fairness and for right – if people and
children cannot feel safe there; the world is indeed a very dangerous place.
Actively seeking
the missing child and to be seen to be doing everything to help the police, the
parents and every concerned party is the great sense of justice that is
required and it is the least one should expect of a religious establishment and
most especially if that establishment is Winners Chapel.
Source
Related material
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are accepted if in context are polite and hopefully without expletives and should show a name, anonymous, would not do. Thanks.