A war is seemingly likely on amongst Christianity and Lifestyle wherever the previous thrives these days in all sections of the entire world. Some commentators have discovered this war as “Culture War,” and some others connect with it “Holy War.” I have examine quite a few commentaries on the topic, and most of my readings emphasised ‘misunderstanding’ or ‘misconception’ as the cause of the war. This is probably for the reason that the commentaries came from the rest of the globe outdoors Nigeria, and the authors wrote about the relaxation of the entire world, and not about Nigeria. They did not know about the phenomenon called the Nigerian Factor, which can make a full ton of change as Nigerians more and more join the war.

Marginally deviating from the common emphasis on “misunderstanding” or “misconception” as the supply of the war, I target on a third ‘m’ phrase called ‘Mischief.’ I frown at the truth that mischievous Christians in Africa, Nigeria in specific, are slowly perfecting the art of turning Christianity into a small business franchise. Nonetheless, I in all probability would not have paid a lot attention to this, if only they remaining the African Lifestyle out of their mischief. But, no, they experienced to start off annihilating the tradition in the most ignorant way, all centered on gross misinterpretation of the Holy Bible! And, since Nigerian Traditionalists are not sitting back again and seeing the assault on the society of the land, there is genuinely a war likely on between Christianity and Tradition in Nigeria.

The “Holy war” is executed on two independent battlefronts. On a single front, the fight is raging amongst Christians and the previous-standing adherents of the Traditional African Religions who are protecting their regular belief program from the foreign Christian concepts. And then, there is the 2nd battle that is inner among Christians themselves, who disagree on some essential rules of Christianity, particularly as they have an impact on the tradition of the land. Grievously, mischievous Christians conceal driving the confusion to prey on their emotionally vulnerable brethren to make a living. So, now we have pastors whose funds-producing specialty in Nigeria is to desecrate all the factors of the African Society, with “holy h2o” and “anointed oil” in hand, and an army of ignorant and damaging followers at the rear of him. The final desire of the funky pastors is m-o-n-e-y! Certainly indeed, the pastors in Nigeria get paid out for the tradition-demolition escapades and I mean substantial expenses! The a lot more thriving types do not only make a residing by means of pastorship, thoughts you they are living in outlandish jet-paced affluence like historic Roman Emperors, all in the name of God!

My curiosity in the Tradition-versus-Religion war was kindled in December 2007. I was checking out my distant village in a town called Nnewi, which is located in the Southeastern Point out of Nigeria named Anambra State. It all began when a group of Christians woke up one particular working day and resolved to place a ban on a cultural factor of art and entertainment termed masquerade. They feel, and insisted that all the cultural festivities and other elements involved with masquerades, which make us who we are-Africans-need to be abolished, in the name of Jesus. The natural way, another team in the village, all Christian, much too, said no to the ban, and…bang! A war broke out in the village, and I was appropriate in the middle of it. The Progressives insisted, and however insist that the masquerades have to be retained for their most important purpose of cultural entertainment, and if any individual masquerade is identified to be seeking in any sort, then it should be purified, sanctified or modernized where essential. It goes without saying that I was on the side that said that the masquerade society has to continue to be.

The pertinent concern in the overall disagreement has to be: How does the cultural enjoyment tradition of masquerade go in opposition to the teachings of Christ and the Holy Bible? I tactic this question starting with the definition of the word masquerade. Numerous dictionaries and students outline a masquerade variously as: Impersonate Pretend to be Make-perception Disguise, subterfuge, to decide just the five. In essence, a masquerade is what the masquerader claims that it is what the “pretender” says that he is pretending to be, and nothing at all additional. In other words and phrases, the masquerade alone (the “make-up”) has no intrinsic benefit. If we say that a masquerade is an ingredient of cultural leisure, then that is what it is. There are entertainment masquerades all about the earth, and they are built in the likeness of reptiles these types of as crocodile mammals such as elephant, and other conceivable creatures on earth, including person. Dragons and some sort of worms are typical characteristics in masquerades in Asia.

In truth, a masquerade might represent or fake to be a poor deity, but this does not usually mean that it venerates the deity. It can be a operate of artwork employed to insult, mock, or ridicule the bad deity as it entertains, in which circumstance, a discerning Christian need to see it as a favourable instrument to advertise Christianity. And if in fact a masquerade gets possessed by a demon, then the detail to do is to exorcize it, get rid of the demon, and not destroy the masquerade. If it is too undesirable for reformation, then discard that particular masquerade, and do not even consider about the abolition of the full concept! In the end, masquerades all above the environment, in the context of this discourse, are mostly for cultural amusement.

It is a truth that a masquerade as a principle can’t possibly be an evildoer, for the reason that it does not have both lifetime or ability to do anything whatsoever, very good or evil. It is also a simple fact that a person that needs to do evil would constantly locate a way to do it, with or without a masquerade. And so, if indeed masquerades constituted any risk, or did anything at all un-Christian everywhere in Nigeria, it could never have been the costumes identified as masquerades. The culprits would have to be the masqueraders (people today) inside of the masquerades. As the late Nigerian Afro-Beat music legend, Fela Anikulakpo Kuti at the time place it in a various context, “Uniform na fabric, na tailor de sew am,” this means that ‘a (law enforcement) uniform is merely a piece of fabric sewn alongside one another by a tailor.’ The policeman inside of the uniform continue to remains what he had usually been in advance of he at any time received hold of the uniform. If he was evil right before he picked up the uniform, then an evil policeman he is. And if he was a superior guy, then he will make a very good police officer. In Fela’s context, the man is not a significant deal he is just one more man, uniform or no uniform.

Likewise, desire groups and persons in the United states of america who marketing campaign for a citizen’s appropriate to bear arms have commonly and correctly argued that “guns do not destroy persons instead, individuals eliminate persons, employing guns.” The stage in this argument is that the evil gentleman is our trouble, and not the gun. Sure, there are occasions the place quick availability of a gun can be a factor. Nonetheless, the argument is that human mother nature generally has execs and downsides in every issue, and we simply cannot go about abolishing all the things that has some ‘cons.’ If we do, then we will have no to abolish each individual idea we presently hold as human beings, for the reason that they all arrive with very good and terrible. For instance, the contraption called plane crashes and kills individuals nearly each individual other day, but we have never considered scrapping air transportation in the earth. What we do is preserve improving on the strategy, which include far better schooling of pilots, hoping to great it all 1 working day, if at any time achievable.

The argument, thus, is that a particular person that desires to handle the level of shooting fatalities in a society must control the people’s attitudes, and not the inanimate gun. That’s why, the masquerader is our problem, and not the notion identified as masquerade. A individual that would like to regulate witchcraft ought to regulate the masquerader, and not a mere inanimate costume referred to as masquerade, which cannot make any transfer on its have. The way to get rid of evil, for that reason, would be to modify the conduct of the evildoer within the masquerade, and definitely not by destroying the masquerade and all its positive values.

Let’s face it, if we destroy the masquerade, the man inside of it, if evil, simply just alterations his approach of undertaking evil, period of time. As the saying goes, once there is the will there will always be a way. If one particular way closes, then the person with the will finds a different way. Guaranteed, there ended up masquerades in the previous that have been supposedly extremely strong in the hocus pocus earth of the spirits and wizardry. But all they did, if and when they did, was to, supposedly, have interaction a person yet another, among by themselves, in religious energy tussle.

In the festivals that I individually seasoned as I grew up in Nigeria, I did not see something out of the common to recommend convincingly, that some spiritual warfare really went on among the masquerades, but I am keen to settle for other people’s term who witnessed manifestations. Other than, I believe that that it almost certainly did in some cases, because, due to the fact I feel in Christ and God, and believe that there is Satan, I think that the spirit globe does exist. What I did see and knowledge for guaranteed, however, were being excellent, memorable times of interesting, exciting-stuffed cultural leisure supplied by masquerades in my city.

I am happy to announce that the professional-tradition Christians in my village won the first struggle in the masquerade tussle. We do have the custom however going on in the village. Next the incident, the element of which I reserve for an additional edition, I commenced a investigate on the tradition-annihilation phenomenon in Nigeria, and I have because arrive across a number of unpleasant incidents of communal clashes in between Christians of divergent sights on the tenets of Christianity in the nation. In essence, most generally, all the conflicting events are Christians who disagree on just how to be Christian.

My interest in the topic of preservation of tradition, any society in anyway, led to the development of “Tradition Enjoy Africa” non-financial gain Organization, with the mission to safeguard and boost the African Culture from the new-wave “born-all over again” Christians. As I commence this delicate mini-series on “Christianity At War With African Society” it is extremely imperative to state pretty evidently that I am a Christian, and I am certainly not foremost or backing any marketing campaign versus Christianity, or any other faith for that issue, God forbid! Mine is a campaign from misconstrued and mischievous Christianity, which is engendered by ignorant and mischievous misinterpretation of the Holy Bible. I have a lot of tolerance for the Christians who ignorantly misinterpret the bible “they know not what they are doing,” stated Christ on the cross. My grouse is with those who mischievously, advertently misinterpret the bible for selfish causes.

Destructive and lethal conflicts in between extremist anti-culture Christians and their culture-pleasant counterparts abound in Igbo land in South-Japanese Nigeria. A person of the noteworthy kinds degenerated to the destruction of a neighborhood church building in a local community regarded as Nsirimo Village in Umuahia City, Abia State. It commenced with a rampage on the culture of the land in Nsirimo neighborhood, by a Pentecostal church heading by the identify Charismatic Renewal Motion (CRM). Their casualties included a pair of peculiar, ancient trees. In most sections of the planet exactly where tourism is promoted individuals trees would have been really celebrated vacationer attributes. In truth, even though belatedly, the authorities of Abia Condition experienced currently authorized the trees for Tourist Attraction development challenge, shortly just before the overzealous born-yet again Christians made the decision and succeeded to chop them down. They also destroyed the village shrines. In retaliation, irate youths basically matched to the CRM church on December 1, 2007 and burned it down. The information from the youths was pretty clear: “You demolish our tradition we ruin what you assert to be your lifestyle.”

Do note that the youths that burned down the church were being not pagans, anti-Christ, or anything at all like that, as the holier-than-thou Christians would want every person to believe. Indeed, some of the youths have been possibly additional Christian in behavior than a lot of of the hypocrites between the un-appointed Christian Warriors. By their motion, the youths ended up declaring that the extremists had been/ are going much too considerably, and should be stopped, even if it intended or means destroying the church. Underneath normal circumstances, the youths, just like the Christian culture-demolition warriors, do think in Christianity, but not at the price of the African Society. They are mindful that the two can coexist, consequently, they say no to the destruction of a single by the other.

Nigerian national day by day newspaper, “The Sunlight,” experienced a different story on March 19, 2008, which was titled “Spiritual Warfare.” Published by David Onwuchekwa, the story came with a subscript: “Main Priest threatens church with war for desecrating his shrine.” The incident occurred in a village named Umuenem, in Nnewi town. The desecrated shrine, which was named “Udo Enem Shrine,” experienced been in that village for about 4 hundred a long time. Relics carted absent by the Christian warriors included an historic carved door that had secured the shrine from thieves. The Chief Priest of the shrine, David Chukwukadibia Onuchukwu, believed all the relics eradicated or destroyed by the Christian warriors to be worth in excess of five million naira (about forty two,000 U$D). He claimed the vandalism to His Royal Highness, Igwe Kenneth Orizu 111, the Igwe (King) of Nnewi. Igwe (King) Orizu condemned the vandalism in totality, and essentially suggested the aggrieved Chief Priest to invite the Nigeria Police into the matter. Also with a potent condemnation of the vandalism was the President of Odina Ana Anaedo Cultural Corporation of Nnewi, Dr. David Igwilo.

The Christian Warriors violate the Constitution of Nigeria when they go on their destruction rampage, and they do not even appear to be to know it. They don’t appear to know that they have no appropriate to forcibly dispossess citizens of their cultural artifacts and melt away them amidst protest by the proprietors. This has resulted in an additional hideous anti-culture trend in Nigeria-Nigerians are advertising off all the remaining artifacts of the African Culture in Nigeria. Somewhat than being persuaded by quack pastors, or forced by their converted brethren in the village to demolish the artifacts, some people select to provide them off to foreigners who have great values for them. The Afro-cultural heritage of all Africans, which is supposed to be handed on to the upcoming generations for the continuation of history, the future tale of our sojourn on earth, is remaining carted absent piece by piece every single day by foreigners.

In an short article (September 4, 2007) titled “Christianity Vs The Previous Gods of Nigeria,” Affiliate Push writer, Dulue Mbachu said: “The altering attitudes have not escaped the attention of artwork dealers. protected by the blood of jesus in the past, European colonists and Christian missionaries took away Africa’s historical treasures. Now, Pentecostal Christian evangelists-most of them Africans-are assisting wipe out remaining traces of how Africans the moment labored, played and prayed.”

“This operate you see here is from a shrine,” reported a supplier at Ikoyi Lodge in Lagos, Wahid Mumuni, as he gestured at a carving. “It was brought to me by one particular female who stated her pastor experienced requested her to get rid of it.”