Back in church in Cape Town

Without notice or direction

Last Sunday, we did lie-in though it was unclear from visiting the St. George’s Cathedral website whether in-person services were taking place. When we finally stepped out, it was already three hours after the morning service starts, there was no indication that the church had been open earlier in the Sunday.

The big noticeboard had disappeared and the other one normally for announcing other events had the service notes for the previous week and when it was updated it was still lagging by a week. We determined we would find out today. Woke up early and made for church without knowing what the situation would be. We were already there before we were assured.

Finding order in our disorder

Stepping in, we sanitised our hands, had our temperature taken and then signed in our names before taking our seats in a socially distanced arrangement of chairs. Ours were probably the closest together, and on the row behind, the seats to be left vacant were marked with an X in masking tape.

The service is usually conducted from a pamphlet and an insert, shuffling between the two to determine where were we at was an art of resignation because some of the recitations referenced from pamphlet to insert and vice versa were in neither, we just followed the experience.

Between the standing and sitting, it was not entirely clear whether the congregation was to join in or not, I whispered that parts I could follow and the singing was best carried by the choir, numbering just a few but rousing in their renditions and voices. On the procession at the close of the service, I was surprised that so few could project so well, they were probably joined by angels.

A prophet of lustful compromise

After the sermon, we were about to recite the Apostle’s Creed, when from the back of the church in what we first thought was a variation to the Sung Eucharist, a man dressed well enough to evade suspicion called out declaring he was a prophet of God and began to rain curses like prophets of the Old Testament for some perceived sin of whoever got his goat, none of which I intend to repeat of what I heard.

The President simply continued the service unperturbed and the usher gently took him by the arms to go and find other wildernesses to rot away in. My understanding is the office of the prophet changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, a prophet will speak by the Holy Spirit to edify and build the church, confirming things that are unresolved or remain mysteries.

The blessing we had

The age when the prophet had no grace and peace to offer is long past and those who proclaim to be prophets of God are tested of the truth and the alignment with scripture and that determines whether they are speaking their own vanities to instil fear and loathing or lifting hearts, minds, and lives to the amazing grace of God.

We continued our service to the end; the open doors of the church are inviting to those who solemnly seek to reflect and pray whilst being respectful of other worshippers. Holy Communion during pandemic times is just the bread without the wine. It was a blessing to be back in our church in Cape Town.

Thought Picnic: The gospel was never about Karma

Not what I believe

“Coronavirus is not God’s judgment on the world. We need to stop preaching Christian Karma. The Cross of Christ destroys all Karma. God wants to save the world, not hurl disaster at it!” Dr Andrew Farley

Coronavirus is not God’s judgment on the world. We need to stop preaching Christian Karma. The Cross of Christ destroys all Karma. God wants to save the world, not hurl disaster at it!

— Dr. Andrew Farley (@DrAndrewFarley) March 23, 2020

This was a tweet that appeared to encapsulate ideas I have not been able to articulate for a while. The number of religious people who look for disasters to project of a version of a vengeful and truculent deity who can only gain our attention by visiting calamity and catastrophe on his creatures.

Too many times we have heard, after an earthquake, a tsunami, a hurricane, a plague, or some natural disaster, where hapless lives are lost in stories that never get told except in the sheer spectacle of the horror that leaves us with a sense of the fragility of life and the suddenness that could end it.

In comes a religious figure who in their Jeremiad finds a greatly unmistakable sign from on high, as if we are back to our primordial animist worship practices, the gods are angry and we need to bring sacrifices up to the temples, mountains or grottos to appease the gods to spare us from another disaster.

Come with Noah’s Ark

The Christian variety of the evangelical or charismatic strand are the biggest culprits, from prophets who see the evil to come but are rarely able, willing, or equipped to navigate their flock from the apparent wrath to come, but are ready to gain the fame of having foretold the passing of the disaster. Their revelation never goes as far as to be inspired to build a Noah’s Ark as a sanctuary from the many floods, saving life and more.

Neither do I believe in Christian Karma, I separate the revelation of the God of the Old Testament from the God introduced in the New Testament through the ministry of Jesus Christ. In my view, his only act of mischief would have been when he allowed the evil spirits in a possessed man to enter swine and that drove the swine into the sea, at which point those spirits would have needed to find other hosts. [Bible Gateway - A Demon-Possessed Man Healed]

Our capacity in calamity

Like a friend opined yesterday, he said apart from the fragility of humanity, there is a resilience and strength that cannot be fully understood, the capacity of man to face adversity and come out the stronger and wiser to life and purpose. The spirits could not destroy the man even though they made his life miserable and yet the swine had no capacity to handle those spirits, their entry was an immediate suicide run in the swine.

Anyway, one of the reasons I do not believe in the concept of Christian Karma was in the words of Jesus Christ himself, when you look at the verse after John 3:16, John 3:17 says it all, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (NKJV)

Salvation is not for retribution

You don’t save the world, believer or unbeliever, sinner, or saint, Christian, Gentile or any identity you might care to possess by destroying them. Condemnation is not the purpose, even if a natural disaster, plague, or some other adversity comes our way. The prevailing purpose, opportunity, and desire are to save, it is of salvation and triumph. That is not in any way the spirit of Karma.

So, it is with sadness when I could in my basest human instinct lay hold on Schadenfreude that I learnt that a preacher who thought COVID-19 was an exciting bout of mass hysteria had now fallen victim to the Coronavirus and passed away.

It’s a shame, I doubt his religious beliefs would have expected that, yet, we are only human. Things happen to us, but I hope in our story, we can take whatever happens and create a better happening. May his soul rest in peace and may his survivors be comforted and strengthened with fortitude in this time of loss. [RawStory]

Nigeria: Politics, Prophecy and Perceptions of Tunde Bakare

Perceptions or propaganda

The Nigerian public space sometimes affords the opportunity to postulate, proselytise, propagate, preach, prophesy, pronounce, predict, pander or pillory.

That list is hardly exhaustive as people who believe they have a voice find easy platforms, lecterns, pulpits, organs and media to make their strong views known.

There is the truth out there and there are shades of the truth, people can subscribe to speak the truth but the whole truth in a society as diverse and multifarious as Nigeria cannot be in the exclusive possession of singular persons, communities, regions, states or particular interests no matter how altruistic, honest and laudable their aims might be.

We must however grant everyone the opportunity to relay and convey their version of the truth and those who hear must exercise the greatest and utmost meticulous means to assess, challenge, verify, discuss and ascertain with all objective resource the sum and product of all these versions to arrive at the truth, debunk the fallacies, contemn the lies and in all expressions of disagreement strive to avoid disagreeableness.

As we stand in Nigeria

This afternoon, I came upon a sermon delivered by Pastor Tunde Bakare who recently was the presidential running mate of Retired General Mohammadu Buhari of the CPC, which in the Presidential elections of April the 16^th literally swept the majority in the North but hardly made an impact in the South.

I am of the conviction that the CPC was never a party that had the requisite national representative cachet to take the spoils from both their poor showings in all the elections apart from the presidential one, which meant even if they did pull the miracle of winning the race to head the executive arm of government, it would have been impossible for them to implement their agenda with a minuscule number of representatives in the legislature.

In fact, I would have expected the Machiavellian nature of Nigerian politics to have inspired the legislature to make the impeachment of the CPC stalwarts their one and only aim until they put a ruling party stooge in charge, but that is speculation.

The backstories are many

Now, Pastor Bakare is a passionate man, he is most probably a very religious man and as a preacher he can put together a very compelling case that would rank with the legal prowess of Perry Mason or some other amazing legal luminary however in a court the case is heard for both the appellant and the defendant with sometimes the use of expert witnesses, the moderation of a judge and the attentiveness of a jury before a decision is arrived at.

I will contend that despite the many facts, truths, analogies, allegories, inferences, proverbs and riddles, we have only heard a side of a bigger story which appears on deeper scrutiny to be a proxy feud between families intent on laying claim to some crown of leadership of a community.

There are many backstories to the claims being made and it is important that beyond the sensationalist headlines that newspapers will gravitate to in the quest for grandiose speculation and vile vituperations it behoves all that are fair and just to listen to the good 1:45 hours of this message.

To enter the discourse

It is probably best reviewed in Internet Explorer where you can adjust the slider, in Google Chrome, you are forced to listen to the whole lot and using Mozilla Firefox you will need to have the Apple Quicktime plugin installed.

An open mind is required and you probably want to take notes, the last thing you want to do is jump to conclusions or make assertions that were not volubly and directly made by the speaker.

The admissible evidence

It started from Feyi Fawehinmi’s status on Facebook where over a 100 comments and exchanges have clashed with passion. Depending on his security settings you might be able to view the exchanges, have to login in to Facebook or become his friend on Facebook.

Bakare: A bastard can’t be Yoruba leader: The National Compass Newspaper scores a tabloid style news scoop courting controversy with some excerpts of the sermon.

The sermon – It’s time to speak – Tunde Bakare, best reviewed in Internet Explorer or through Mozilla Firefox on systems where Apple QuickTime is installed.