i always endeavor to attend church every sunday, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. the main reason is usually not to appease god nor to repent but because attendance gives me a good ‘holy’ start for the week. i gave up on repentance coz i am a serial ‘sinner’ who had coded my regular ‘sins’ to the tens, code zero being sins of omission and commission, committed knowingly or unknowingly. i repeated the codes so many times during confession until I got convinced that god had perfectly memorized them too. after all, he/she knows my destiny no matter what i do.
though not pentecostal at heart and with no fixed abode, i freelance the various pentecost joints in the city depending on the peer pressure of that particular sunday. often i find myself at nairobi pentecostal church valley road, they that own hope fm radio station. its easy to get lost in the crowd, the chanting is less, there is no annoying solicitation of the amen rejoinder, the gymnastics and spiritual antics are minimal, most congregants mind their own business and the sermons are intellectually stimulating - at least most of the times. i also like their contemporary approach to politics, business and societal issues, but get perturbed by their christian fundamentalist stand and abrasive intolerance to any other faith. well, i understand that’s their mandate, mission and business strategy, so i have learnt to live with that.
my thirst for sensational religious confrontation is insatiable. in worship of that thirst i religiously tune in to hope 93.3 fm station on friday evenings to a very swahili sanifu islam thrashing broadcast called ‘yesu ndiye njia’ whenever my wallet, peers and mood are congruent and bordering towards zero. last friday i tuned in and this time the debate was on isa not being yesu and the prophecies on isa, mohammed and yesu in a bid to prove who is superior in terms of prophetic predestination. the debate usually digresses to other matters like divine birth, death, resurrection and such religious verbose. along the way my mind punctured and deflated to the lull of the articulate swahili debate and i slowly slid to lullaland.
it is during that nocturnal timeout that hope fm station was attacked and petrol bombed at 10.30 pm leaving one guard dead from gunshot wounds and the station went off air for 10 hours. at night i awoke to the shiiii of the radio, didnt give it much thought, so i switched it off and continued sleeping. in the morning i tuned to kiss fm without much thought at the shiiiiness of hope fm until later in the morning when i learnt of the attack. in my view while the pentecosts were busy chambuaring the other faith with words, the offended shamburiad physically with petrol bombs and guns in defence. ironically and unconnected, a mosque under construction in fedha estate collapsed nyamakima style the following day (saturday) at 1 pm. this made me wonder. why are we so religiously intolerant? why do we fight the battle for the gods? why don’t the gods leave us to live our life in peace? or why don’t we leave the gods to fight their own wars? if the human race sheds off the religious shell, we will have solved half the problems the world is facing today. let the gods fight their own wars. if possible out of ‘our’ earth given that they have the whole universe at their disposal. except if they are not omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, all powerful, beyond reproach, highly intelligent et cetera as they have made us believe since our foremothers’ days through those suspect ‘holy’ manuscripts that have been peddled faithfully by generations before us!
6 comments:
just because my faith condemns gays, it deosnt give me the right to go beat the daylights out of a gay person. A gay man should without fear of being beat up, preach His belief to me and i should preach to him my beliefs without the same fear. how is this connected???
A hindu,muslim,christian, etc should have the right to defend their beliefs..I as a christian should not go on a killing spree just because you are professing ur faith to be the truth and mine to be a lie.
this is here is not a physical warfare but a spiritual one.
Cant be said well than what farmgal has expressed here and it is such a pity to see things turn violent while there is a process to correct anything said..
Tight post..
JP, I do not believe that there is any philosphy that actually encourages its followers to kill those who do not believe as they do. Most muslims are not terrorists.
It is a shame that people kill in the name of God, but I believe that they create god in their own image - yaani a lie.
Good post.
@farmgal
cannot agree more, you are spot on. there is no justification for turning physical coz of religious beliefs.
@nakeel
karibu sana here. people should be able to sort out their differences using non-violent means.
@uaridi
i was impressed by the way most vocal and influential muslim leaders came out to condemn the attacks.
my $0.02:
Truth is a point, the subtlest and finest; harder than adamant; never to be broken, worn away or blunted. Its only bad quality is, that it is sure to hurt those who touch it; and likely to draw blood, perhaps the life blood of those who press earnestly upon it. - Walter Savage Landor
@mia
they say truth always prevails, others argue its relative while others hold that truth will indeed set you free. am in all three
@deeply pertubed
karibu sana
despite the urge to fanatically enslave people, i feel its of much worth if we all tolerated each other, religiously speaking. by the way is religion still the opium of the poor? if religious institutions and leaders were told to declare their wealth, you will be surprised.