Living life: Faith & Religion

I watched with sheer amazement last week as the newly elected leader of Britain’s Labor Party, Mr. Ed Miliband, told a journalist that he does not believe in God and is thinking about marrying his partner and mother of his child sometime! I then thought to myself that even with western civilization permeating Africa and the east, there are certain things apart from the capitalist culture that just won’t be usual very soon – like a leader of political party and potential prime minister saying that they do not believe in God on international TV and still get away with it. It is a pity that Africans adopted Christianity from Europeans who purportedly showed us the light and way, yet just a century or so later, they lead the journey to secularism. It is the ironic do what I say, not what I do. The two main Christian branches, the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church are both rooted in Europe, England and Italy respectively, yet secularism abounds in that same continent. One would easily want to say to hell with all kinds western imports including culture, religion, sectarian biases and the like, but look what happens in the other past of the west – in the USA. President Bush was a staunch Christian while in power while Obama almost sunk his presidential hopes because of association with a right wing pastor. In America, people are so awake to religion although not the traditional Christian type. To be purely secular just as to be too religiously extremist will draw similar ire in the American society whose flirtation with Christianity is basically Pentecostal. So which way Africans? I have always thought that matters religious should be left to man himself in singularity and his God. There is no need in hiding behind veils of religious groups to demonstrate your perceived high qualifications for entry into paradise. After all it is not your pastor, or priest who will make the final shortlist nor influence the results. If anything, we mortals will all line up on the same road. It is okay to be religious, with varying degrees but we must learn that religion and faith can be one and the same thing or completely different. A religion is more of an institution to express belief in a divine power and still requires faith because it is made of mortals. But faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing, in this case a higher being. Some individuals are keen to be religious and are obsessed with exercising the acceptability of the institution and not the glue that binds the institution which should be the faith. To be religious and full of faith is good, to be faithful good enough but to be only religious, not good enough. The secular movement might be rebelling against the trapping of religion but not faith. In order to fight secularism, churches should be careful not to strangle all their followings space with the decorum of religion and leave no space for practicing faith. They should teach their followers that the relationship between man and god comes before man and church. I wish you a religious Sunday. kelviod@yahoo.com