Boko Haram and the Nigerian Church It’s Sunday morning and I am not in church. But I am thinking about the church. I suppose I should have been thinking about Christ’s own church but my mind keeps drifting back to the Nigerian church. Our nation is in trouble, trouble from insurgents, trouble from corruption and trouble from a collapsing system among others. And I have been concerned about the plight of my country. I have been disappointed and embarrassed at the reaction of the church to the menace in our society. So I decided to muse - to document my frustration, to outline what I consider should be done. I plan to write a few articles (more like a few ramblings) and I am kicking off with Boko Haram. Hopefully, I will address themes like, materialism, corruption, education, accountability, organization and among others. I must sound a note of warning, I am not an expert - no theology, law, history or sociology degree. I expect you might disagree with me. All I demand is that you articulate your own views. And hopefully a healthy debate helps us all. I expect that you are familiar with Boko Haram and their operations, so I won’t bore you with the details. And as of the day of this writing Boko Haram seems to be gaining grounds and taking over towns and cities in Nigeria. And the onus is on the Nigerian government to resolve this problem. I will restrain from expressing my views of the current Nigerian government regarding Boko Haram. However, growing up, I learnt so many things and it’s amazing how some of phrases stick in your head. One of such is “vicarious liability”. It’s a legal term and I believe I heard about it reading tort law as a 14 year old. Vicarious liability, paraphrasing Wikipedia in a broad sense, is form of secondary liability that arises under common law where a third party is held responsible because they had the right, ability or duty to control the activities of the violator. So I am holding the Nigerian Church vicariously liable for the Boko Haram insurgency. I am suing the church, not in a law court, but via these writings. Is the Church responsible for Boko Haram? Some times we are wired to think about responsibility from the perspective of “who created this, who started it, who is benefitting from this”, but we should also look at “who could have prevented this, who can fix this, who can manage this”. Even though certain people will group the church with the former, I choose to concentrate on the latter. And this ties nicely back to my famous phrase “vicarious liability”, Does the church have the ability to control the activities of the violator? Does the church have a duty to control the activities of the violator? THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST We know that Jesus, the progenitor of our faith, is big on delivering the oppressed from the hands of their wicked. So in the words of Jesus. Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’ “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.” There are five characters in this story. And permit me to add a sixth - the government of Israel who should have protected the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho. But I remember there was no government - there was Herod the King who had no powers and the Roman Empire- its soldiers and sentries. You can read between the lines. We know that Boko Haram is the “robbers”. We also know that Jesus ignored the government, so let’s ignore the Nigerian government. We know “a man traveling” can be replaced with citizens of North East Nigeria - with a significant population who belong to the Christian Party of Nigeria. We know that the scope of “a man traveling” has been widening and can potentially include Nigerians from Abeokuta to Sokoto and Port Harcourt to Potiskum. Help me place the Nigerian Church. Is the Nigerian Church the priest. Or is it the Levite. Or is it the Samaritan. GO AND DO THESAME It is not enough to complain and rant about the failure of the church. What can the church do. Jesus said “go and do the same”. So what can the Nigerian church do? 1. Abort your original project and focus on Boko Haram. A few questions; Is the church focusing on Boko Haram? Are they intervening in any way - praying, relief, aids etc. Is there anything that should take a higher priority than resolving this menace? 2. Spend Money to help the victim. How much of your church’s national budget is spent in the North East? How come you are evangelizing in the South West and not in the North East. Why are you raising missionaries to Asia and not North East Nigeria? We know that the Southern Church is super rich and we know that wealth stays in the south. What happened to the Samaritan attitude preached by Jesus? Our leaders understand the concept of social gospel. How come they are not deploying it to the North. There a lot of Christian institutions in the north with presence and know how but they are starved of funding. The Christian institutions in the south are rich but are unable and unwilling to help. Can the church create a fund to support and prosecute a Samaritan mission in the North East. 3. Pressurize the government and leaders - church leaders and national leaders Those of us with direct or indirect access to the leaders can actually write them, call them for meetings, tell them what we actually think about the current situation. Let the church be the voice. The voice for the victims, the voice for the oppressed. Can you speak truth to the church leaders. Can the church leaders speak to the government. Tell me what you think about the current state of the church and how the church is handling the issue. Give your feedback via this poll or send in your comments. goo.gl/Q8hsFI
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 14:18:48 +0000
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