Give us Barabbas!

Evangelical pastor perfectly refutes MAGA Christianity! Culture, Faith, and Politics

The odious appeal of Donald Trump

Until just a few minutes ago, I was quite puzzled about how the Evangelical and Pentecostal movements in America and further afield seemed to embrace Donald Trump as the person and symbol to centre Christianity in the political discourse of the nation.

Fundamentally, I saw no principle or example that made Donald Trump likeable or amenable to the idea that this would help the promotion of Christian values. In fact, what I saw was a corruption of the purpose of Jesus Christ for the gain of earthly and political power without helping anyone see the mercy, the grace, the glory, or the power of God in their lives.

Christian nationalism with all its culture war paraphernalia and the accoutrements of wedge issues on women’s, reproductive, identity, or another other kind of right that suggests justice, fairness, respect, and dare I say the love of one’s neighbour, the grist of right-wing political doctrine seemed to replace the gospel and the message that Jesus Christ represented.

The quest for temporal power in determining who sits on the Supreme Court, what is taught in the schools, who has access to critical reproductive health options, and now, whether the net can be widened to give opportunity to those who are not like us had become the unquenchable thirst of religious purpose.

Discernment and discrimination

Even with my more active Anglican adherence, I am quite engaged and involved in the Evangelical and Pentecostal doctrines. A good deal of the underpinning of my faith comes from inspiration borne of charismatic expression and from listening to the anointed teachings of many leaders of that persuasion.

In listening, I have to be discerning and alert, following two basic credos from another preacher who has long departed to be with the Lord. In the first instance, he said, “Have as much sense as an old cow, eat the hay and leave the baling wire.” By that, I understand that not everything someone says is ingestible, I need to know what the hay is of the beneficial and the baling wire which is the packaging that is not edible and harmful.

I do not because I disagree with some things a person says then discount everything they have to say. I think there is a function of intelligence in being able to select the gems from the dirt or the rough. Nature is already a demonstration of that thinking.

We have always been human

Secondly, and I would paraphrase, “Do not follow anyone so close that you cannot cut away when they are falling into a ditch.” I guess someone else might say, “Keep a healthy distance and the door wide open.” Another variant of that would be something I read about a conversation between a mother and her daughter. “You have every reason to fall in love but get up and walk into your marriage.”

Do not yoke yourself to the untenable, make the allowances for the protection of your heart and your mind. Be smart and sensible, trusting just enough and verifying everything against the principled sources. In this case, when it comes to Christianity, that is the Word of God, the Bible.

I guess what always surprises me is how humanity in its fundamental nature has hardly changed. We can be persuaded in different ways to follow our basest instincts through charisma, sophistry, or just some force that through expediency we cannot resist.

Threatened powers fighting back

This brings us to the court of Pontius Pilate on the day that Jesus Christ was brought to trial before him, for he was the only political official who could sentence Jesus to death for the crimes that the chief priests had accused him of.

By the time Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, the priests were afraid that they would lose their religious influence on the Jews to Jesus Christ and their semi-autonomous political power to the Romans. They determined through Caiaphas the chief priest that Jesus should be put to death.

⁴⁸ If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

⁴⁹ And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,

⁵⁰ nor do you consider that it is expedient for ^[a]us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” [Bible Gateway John 11:48-50 (NKJV)]

From then on, a plan was hatched to put Jesus to death. Still, the other relevant things alluded to in the YouTube video are what happened on Palm Sunday and the symbolism of riding on a colt of an ass, Hosanna which in Judaism is a cry for help and not the Christian shout of praise, the laying down of palm branches has its significance in the apocryphal book of the Maccabees. They lay down their garments for him to walk on, as if for a king. [Nashville Catholic: Why Palms? The Significance of Palm Branches on Palm Sunday] [Jehu is king! Bible Gateway 2 Kings 9:13 (NKJV)]

We want Barabbas

Even as Pontius Pilate had determined that Jesus Christ was innocent and had done no wrong, the priests prevailed on the crowd to demand the head of Jesus. Pontius Pilate could have exercised his prerogative of power there and then, but instead, he presented the people with the choice between Barabbas and Jesus Christ.

Every inclination would suggest the people would choose the man who brought the gospel, healed the sick, and raised the dead. Still, they chose Barabbas and the priests for that moment seemed to secure their political advantage.

At that, the crowd went wild: “Kill him! Give us Barabbas!” [Bible.com Luke 23:18-25]

Still, at the point where Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross, the inner sanctum of their political and religious power that only the High Priest could enter was exposed as the curtain was rent to two.

The birth of Christianity came on the day of resurrection as the priests had inadvertently dispossessed themselves of what they sought to keep. More pertinently, in contemporary times, we have situations that present us with a Barabbas or a Jesus Christ and what obtains in the quest for political influence and power by religious entities is selecting Barabbas over Jesus Christ, the expedient over the necessary, the temporal over the eternal, the human over the godly.

Essentially, the religious folk are just like you and I, we might have high expectations of their choices, but we would be disappointed if we trust more in humans than we do in the divine. In the biblical and today’s context, I now understand why Donald Trump appeals to the evangelicals as they choose the political over the gospel and find ways to justify their indefensible stance.

Thought Picnic: Being a real person and not a faux parson

Serve it cooked

As much as possible, I do not want to wear my religion on my sleeve, I do write a lot on spirituality and beliefs, but mostly to explore the depth of our humanity. I believe for myself that elements of my character, values, and outlook find their grounding in a broad and liberal Christian foundation.

I am fine with contextualised insight, but dislike being preached at. Some time ago, I was invited to a WhatsApp group of the Class of 91 of my secondary school. Considering I have maintained minimal social contact with my classmates and schoolmates apart from a few on Facebook, I allowed myself in to observe.

Sadly, there was no particularly productive discussion going on apart from people sharing snippets of pompous religiosity with no indication of what it meant to them or how it affected them. I do not think I lasted a week in the group before I extricated myself.

A respectful disposition

What irked me most was I was probably the most religious due to circumstances relayed in an earlier blog that my nickname was Pastor, and at no time did I thump the pulpit with my beliefs. I was left wondering where and when they suddenly took on a mantle of religious calling to pontificate amongst their peers.

In fact, the ones who did eventually go into ministry who I respect for taking on the challenge, do not exaggerate themselves upon me to suggest they have a revelation too new to be ignored. Probably, down in their hearts, they do recognise that a prophet is yet without honour amongst their own. For we of those times together know enough history even if their paths might have been obscured after we left school to the present. Each is still owed courtesy and respect.

The nuisance I was

I know I have made that mistake before when I wrote tracts of religious insights and sent to friends, before I started blogging in earnest. My best friend remonstrated responding to one of my emails, he was not interested in my religious musings, rather he was more interested in what I was up to, my life, my circumstances, and maybe some intimate things you will share with friends.

Taken aback, I went on the defensive retorting that what I was writing about was really about how things affected me. I remember it was soon after I had the HIV diagnosis and when I wrote about it, I was circumspect about the matter but resolute about the lessons and the future ahead of me. I did, however, reflect and abandoned the activity. I would think other recipients out of politeness simply passed my religious emails to the junk folder.

Affected to effect

My hope is that I have the best virtues of religious and Christian instruction imbued in me to reflect warm and kind humanity, able to sympathise and empathise, ready to listen and understand, willing to consider a broad view of things, believing the best of everyone and persuadable of different things by discussion, by debate, and by merit. Maybe there are ways to see the positive and the objective with the ability to help or give succour.

It is a progress of constant improvement with a willingness according to Peter Drucker, to “discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and overcome it.” I am really working hard on that. I strive to be the warmth you feel rather than the fire that singes, the lamp that shows the way rather than the light that blinds the eyes.

This was not the blog I was planning to write when finished the first paragraph, but by the third, I realised I probably would be writing another blog on what was on my mind before I started writing this one.

The Terrestrial Church of Cacophony

Out of sight, but an earful

I first learnt of the Celestial Church of Christ, an African initiated church in the 1970s when I spend short school breaks at my cousin’s in Sagamu.

The church was situated at the end of the road with a stream running by the church into a dense forest, they could have been unnoticeably ensconced there without disturbance.

Yet, it was impossible to ignore them, at almost half a mile away, their daily rumpus or dare I say worship was loud, agitated and quite a public nuisance.

Embrace silence

It came to a head one morning when the head of the house sent a cease and desist notice to the church to maintain a sense of considerate neighbourliness in their activities by lowering the volume of their orgies. God, we must appreciate is not hard of hearing.

Now, that was courageous, daring and bold, for anyone to challenge a religious establishment in that manner. It worked, they were quite amenable to the idea, probably under duress and with the knowledge that the aggrieved was a lawyer.

Mind the fine

Later, towards the end of the 1980s, I was a ward of some senior members of the Celestial Church of Christ, they were quite obliging to allow me attend the church of my choice rather than force me to align to their tenets, for that, I am exceedingly grateful.

However, the reason why we have this recollection of events past is because this morning I read in the newspaper that the pastor of a Celestial Church of Christ branch in Grays, Essex had been fined a total of £1,241.50 including costs for conducting unbearably loud services four times a week well into the early hours of the morning; 4:00AM that is. [Metro]

The neighbours had endured this public nuisance for months and one really wonders why any religious activity needs to be broadcast beyond the confines of the walls of the meeting place except for the need to use the sound to keep the members alert throughout the interminably long services.

Just unacceptable

More pertinently, what this suggests is a lack of understanding that what is tolerable and allowed in the hyper-religious Nigerian society borne of Lord Lugard’s suggestion that we have a vague dread of the supernatural, is hardly acceptable in many Western societies.

People are not as religiously imbued and those who have any sort of religious affiliation tend to go about their devotion with consideration and moderation, too high a bar of expectation required of an almost fanatical claque.

If this sanction does not serve as a deterrent, the council has suggested that the church might have to lose its sound equipment. Knowing that I have lived in a part of Essex where there was at least 6 non-establishment churches within 500 yards of our apartment, I was fully persuaded to veto an application to site another church nearby just because the existing ones had already exercised our tolerance to the point of intolerable.

For all the celestial aims of the church, there are terrestrial norms expected of any gathering for any purpose they might be persuaded to pursue. This one like many that have yet to be called to order around the UK has become a congregation of the Terrestrial Church of Cacophony.

Thought Picnic: Good Religious Observance is Always Accompanied by Common-Sense

Sights of London

This afternoon as I sat observing Londoners I saw something worth commenting about and if I expected the tweet to go unnoticed, I failed in that mission.

I robustly engaged all commentary and I have decided it is an issue that should be blogged.

With a number of #SightsOfLondon hash tags I tweeted:

#SightsOfLondon It's 26 degrees and you are in a black hijab. Diagnosis: Heatstroke brought on by religious stupidity.

Immediately after I posted this I was told my comments were inappropriate and that I was ignorant of the subject.

This was one area where I was not ready to back down to insouciance because of the many things that were clearly in that tweet that the reactions missed out of a lack of comprehension first, an inability to contextualise commentary and thin-skinned feeble-mindedness.

The context

The setting is this – the weather, it was hot and humid, without a wind, literally every was dressed lightly, I did not see any extremes of undress of exposure, but people were dressed to ensure they did not overheat, probably dehydrate and possibly suffer heatstroke.

The verdict in terms of diagnosis what I anticipated the possibility that if she was dressed and completely covered in black, the body will not be allowed the opportunity to dissipate heat and hence cool down bringing on heatstroke – if she did suffer heatstroke, one would expect that emergency services and doctors will come to an easy conclusion, but that was from my tweet a future possibility much as she might well never suffer heatstroke for all sorts of extenuating circumstances.

What my tweet did not say was that hijabs were bad and the completeness of my tweet made a clear reference to colour.

Common-sense: The missing piece

Then to address the other surrounding issues in terms of the reactions, I have no problems with people following some religious creed or diktat, it is a matter of conscience but even religious matters require the use of common-sense, that is what we have our intellect for, to be able to reason and make smart decisions in relation to our faiths.

The hijab allows for wearers to express outward modesty and chastity but it should not be at the expense of their well-being and comfort because that will be foolish – I can see no reason why that should excite argument apart from fundamentalist fanaticism that sacrifices every God-given ability to reason for a blind adherence to letter that has not spirit of recognising basic human circumstances, needs and situations – reason allows us to adapt – in very hot and humid weather, sure reasoning would have been expressed in wearing a hijab of light clothing and light colours.

The disabling power of ignorance

It is the same lack of reasoning in the application of religious views that had the Catholic Church in Brazil opposing the abortion of the pregnancy of a nine-year old girl where doctors had clear said she could not bring the pregnancy to term and the risk of loss of life to the girl and the foetus was very likely.

The parents were pragmatic and sensible enough to allow for the pregnancy to be terminated to save their nine-year old daughter than to risk the loss of their known daughter and completely unknown prospective grandchild. Sadly, they were ex-communicated.

The same can be said of the Mohammedan cartoon controversy where people were killing themselves in faraway lands for depictions that could never be true and they should have better not to accept considering the artists were not even adherents of the faith.

Feeble sensibilities

I am saddened that feeble sensibilities, ignorance and the wiliness to be easily offended to the extent of causing oneself undue and unnecessary stress over matters that are particular and easily irrelevant is stifling good discussion but if we allow a latitude of tolerance in our outlooks we gain the opportunity to show that our religion is not driven by fanatical observance to the exclusion of our faculties one will usually expect this of the supposedly better informed.

From time immemorial, religious practices of all faiths have been praised, debated, questioned, condemned, excoriated, blamed or ridiculed – it will not stop today and if the affected are not ready to cast off subjective assessments of the issues and they succumb to the disabling influence of sentiment that negates the use of their intellect and common-sense, they will invariably be hurt and the higher moral ground with be yielded to those who challenge the practices.

Worse still, their reactions might well take what has been questioned into the realm of the bizarre, the outlandish and outrageous bringing even more opprobrium on the matter.

In closing my argument, the tweet was written to a very particular situation and observation but it got blown up into a generalisation by the reactions that it would have been within my rights to take serious offence for the fact that the readers lacked understanding of my tweet and their comprehension of the whole context was wanting – on the other issues of fundamentalism, fanaticism and the use of intellect – the blog speaks for itself.

FGM banned in Eritrea

Too prevalent for comfort

This is topic I think experts would celebrate better than I could in this write up. I was quite shocked to find out how prevalent it was in Africa, Middle-East and Indonesia, no more so when I also heard that the practices does still thrive in Nigeria.

Learning that Eritrea has banned the practice of Female Genital Mutilation or Circumcision (FGM or FGC) is definitely great news and to be celebrated.

It marks a beginning of what should be a wave of the civilising of customs, traditions and religious practices that cause undue physical harm without any particular health benefit apart from a modicum of social acceptance.

With this law, the practitioners of these acts of mutilation who are usually female too and matriarchs of those communities when caught could face fines and possible imprisonments.

Enforcing the law

However, the issue at hand would be how to break down the ranks after this illegal act has been committed; people can be sworn to silence, risk ostracism within their communities or even suffer worse fates like "honour killing" - basically, one wonders about the enforceability of this law.

Beyond this is the need to health and material support for the victims of this heinous mutilation which at times to other health complications.

Now, we also have the aspect of Male Genital Mutilation known as circumcision which seemingly has a religious progeny has been found to provide health benefits in arresting the spread of HIV/AIDS, this is no way comparable to the mutilation that females suffer as a rite of passage into womanhood.

Conserving the good bits

In all, there is no way that the 4 listed types of mutilation which are just too revolting and despicable to list here but covers excision of critical parts of female sexual organs and in some cases the application of corrosive substances can be justified in the 21^st Century, in fact, it is violent abuse and now considered a violation of human rights by the UN. The other types are no less atrocious in trying to understand what they are trying to achieve.

It is time to ensure that these archaic and barbaric customs are rolled back and consigned to history; we should not condone or countenance anymore the sacrifice of human beings to customs, traditions, culture or religious practices just for the sake of keeping uncivilised practices alive.

We can conserve the positive parts of our heritage whilst losing the negative parts without necessarily losing our identity, acts of separation and differentiation through mutilation have no place in what is now a global village of interacting peoples.

Finally, it is a welcome development that even Muslim scholars have called for an end to this practice, with bans and sanctions; it might require religious leaders sounding the word from the pulpit about how unnecessary these acts are without rubbing up too hard on long held but out-dated customs - the abuse must be stopped forthwith.

References

FGM on the rise in the UK - 2004

Images of FGC - cautionary viewing advised

The Cult of the Burnt Fornicator II - Judgment Day

A Jesus impostor in your vicinity

Judgment has come upon the man who deluded many and who as the leader of the Christian Praying Assembly in Lagos proclaimed himself as Jesus Christ with power on earth to punish sin.

Just like something out of a witch-burning activity in the 15^th Century, anyone caught in the sin of adultery or fornication – if that means anything to people today – was doused with petrol and set alight.

One of the said sinners did burn and lost her life in the process before the law in Nigeria waded in to seek justice for this abuse of power and criminal act. Months ago, in Cult of the Burnt Fornicator I wrote about this episode.

What is most disconcerting is the number of people who would follow a lie and engage themselves in cultist activities that seem to create more adherents as their increasingly bizarre and uniquely outrageous acts gain notoriety.

Proselytisers bring friends who feel they would be protected from greater evils by submitting themselves to a lesser evil which holds sway over their freedom, their liberty, their rights and their freewill; the stupid and gullible being lead by a con – there can be no greater partnership.

Ignorance that grates

Beyond this, it is the ignorance of the rule book that grates the most, a person going to church should and must be able to read a Bible in whatever language they speak, nowadays, Bibles are in pictures, in audio and fully dramatised in audio-visual sometime crass acting, but there is almost no excuse for not checking if what you have heard is really true.

We have a case where Jesus had to deal with the issue of adultery, it was a lesson in understanding the gravity of the offence but greater still, understanding the greater good of forgiveness, giving the adulterer the opportunity to repent and spread the news of forgiveness.

Men had arraigned to stone the adulterer to death as is expected of the law of the day, but rather than carry that sentence out, they approached Jesus to hear his view of the matter.

Knowing the law, knowing humanity

Jesus did not argue either the law or the sentence of the law, but he highlighted that fact that those who stand in judgment should themselves be free of guile and sin – let the man without sin throw the first stone, he said – then you all can then have a killing party, he implied. From the oldest to the last, they dropped their stones and walked away as conviction came upon each and everyone – meanwhile, the adulterer stood waiting for judgment deserved as Jesus scrawled in the sand.

At the end, there was not one accuser left and he who could pronounce judgment spoke mercy – “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more”. How, then can another man impersonating Jesus then be carrying out gruesome petrol burnings when the Jesus we know would not do such a thing?

As we have seen through the ages, the man involved in the act is often never caught or brought to judgment that is another issue.

The man the con

The problem is, as the man takes his sentence for murder and more heinous crimes, there are many who still believe that this religious tyrant is some messenger, a messenger of death and terror, I would say, as he tries to model his sufferings on the sufferings of Jesus.

No, people should not buy into that lie, I am no supporter of the death penalty, however, if he must die, I am happy that no one has decided to take the joke as far as to crucify him – however, it is evident that Jesus cannot die twice, a revealing truth that makes this religious cad, a false prophet and charlatan.

It would appear Nigeria needs a Religious Cons and Cults Tribunal to ascertain the qualifications of these preachers of woe, vet their practices, audit their accounts and testimonies, close their operations if found wanting and prosecute them to the limits of the law if they have been dishonest, deceitful, deceptive, cajoling and threatening.

I have seen many and they perform their deeds with impunity because the hold and sway of the superstitious and the incredible prevents seemingly rational minds from questioning the veracity of outrageous claims, all fearing a great wrath would befall them.

That is the power of these purveyors of evil, the ability to maintain an atmosphere of pervasive awe backed by the fear of evil rather than the courage of good.

This sentence would go to appeal, but it is time for the courts to hold up the mantle of justice for those who have been sacrificed on the altar of retaining the awe of the spectacular. The blood of the innocent, albeit gullible must be requited by a suitable punishment as a lesson to those who still seek to deceive.

References

Jesus Forgives Woman Caught in Adultery

Churches should be sanctuaries not prisons

How to spot religious abuse

Opinions on cults and religious abuse

Do not cross the cross

Handbagging rotten design

“Terrible, terrible, absolutely terrible”, she said as she covered those so-called “world designs” with a handkerchief and walked off with her trademark Salvatore Ferragamo handbag.

Years, before, they paid hefty legal fees, generous compensation and ate humble pie as their institutionalised “dirty tricks” campaign against a business man who does not wear a suit blew up in their faces.

The was the watershed, the comeuppance of the domineering influence of the bastions of British establishment as the common man refused to be cowed by overbearing and reckless abuse of privilege to perpetrate what is patently wrong.

Secular uniforms for the working pagans

Generally, British Airways just seems to find a way of hugging the spotlight for the wrong reasons which border on the inexplicable earning brick-bats from all people of stature till they are forced to adopt what is supposed to be the common sense view.

There are people who would promote the secularist argument about religious symbols and apparel, and this excites social and political comment nowadays with the veil and the burqa.

The cross, a symbol of Christianity was the centre of a debate that had the principled stance of a BA employee elicit the support of civil liberties and put the BA in the crosshairs of religious disappointment and political opprobrium.

Eventually, the fence-sitting Archbishop of Canterbury finally cantered into the debate having flown to Rome in a BA flight – read as a tacit approval of the BA stance or a lack of conviction on a rather serious religious issue.

The employee had gotten suspended for wearing a cross having not been able to reach an agreement with her employers to compromise on a basic inoffensive principle – visibly wearing a cross no bigger than a small coin.

Disappearing Christianity in Europe

This is not the only problem with the way Christianity is being consigned to ignominious irrelevance, you only have to visit a card shop and notice how few cards talk of Christmas and many more talk of Winterval, Seasons Greetings and so on – God forbid, the mention the Christ or Jesus – people might find it offensive to hear about Christmas but be willing to take the holiday and the knock-down sales of the consequent days.

We now have to apologise for being Christian in Europe as people cannot profess their faith publicly because a foreign but non-indigenous faith is gaining prominence. We know the dominance of those faiths in their origin-lands is used to persecute other faiths, with impunity.

Sometimes, it appears political correctness is thumping commonsense values to the chagrin of many and this is becoming unacceptable leading to growing animosity between formerly accommodating societies and the seething intolerance to visiting cultures.

Teaching an old dog …

Now, that BA has backed down from this unsupportable stance having made us cringe from the bluster of official-speak and semantics, the impending boycott of their services can be suspended. Till the bishop customer cannot wear a visible large cross, the imam cannot wear a turban or show his prayer beads or some other inspired idea that a publicity faux-pas official can dream up to bring the BA back into the spotlight of every stupid thing that exemplifies British-ness (Brutishness). Just what we need – every time.

If British Airways can learn any lessons, it would be, you must not cross the cross.

References

New Tory cover-up shock

BA turns tail on colours

BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1993: BA dirty tricks against Virgin cost £3m

Christian BA employee to take legal action over suspension for wearing cross