Amarachi Nickabugu
Sep 5, 2018 · 6 min read

I WILL NOT BE CENSORED


If there is any institution I am familiar with that has perpetuated the most heinous atrocities in history, it is the Church. From the time of Moses till date, Christian faithful have been, at numerous times, collectively racist, intolerant, abusive, manipulative, and vile and sometimes outrightly and overtly wicked.

Between about 1095 A.D. and 1230 A.D., the Church instigated and participated in the Crusades, a long series of Holy Wars. Particularly in 1096, Christian Crusaders gruesomely massacred over 1000 Jews, in a German community. A great number of these people were murdered right in the middle of their Jewish prayers. So great was the terror, that the locals who escaped death at the hands of their oppressors committed suicide. Other survivors faced forced baptism. Yes, the Church forcefully “converted” people.

The Church also has a history of terrorizing and sometimes being complicit in the killing of scientists. Michael Servetus was one of them. He was a physician and theologian, credited with groundbreaking work and theories in Biology. Servetus was condemned by the leaders of the Catholic Church following his expression of contrary views on the doctrine of Trinity and child baptism. Later, he was imprisoned and killed, following prosecution fuelled by another Church authority, John Calvin. Servetus was burned at the stakes in 1553 for holding heretical views. Let’s just say they wasted him for challenging the teachings of the Church.

Galileo Galilei is another popular example. You know the Scriptures: “Tremble before Him, all the earth. The world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved.” (1 Chronicles 16:30). “You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it shall not be moved forever.” (Psalm 104:5). “The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose.” (Ecclesiastes 1:5). You can then imagine the rage when the Italian physicist started to push for the theory that it is the earth that revolves around the sun, and not the other way round. The Pope instructed Galileo to stop spreading such “falsehood” and when he would not succumb, he was sentenced to house arrest for life. His writings were also forbidden, including any which he may publish after the trial. Yeah, you read me right. The Church authorities saw to it that his scientific findings were banned even before they were uttered. If that isn’t dictatorship, I don’t know what is.
And that was not all. If you read about the Inquisition of Medieval Europe, you’d be nothing short of ashamed that the Church is capable of such brazen wickedness and appalling behavior.

Then there was the Salem Witch Hysteria of the 17th Century. Women who exhibited the slightest deviance from Puritan ways, such as failure to attend Church were accused of witchcraft, and put to death by hanging. As many as 150 people are reported to have been imprisoned at the time. Imagine being excommunicated, executed, “in the name of God” for having premarital sex, or refusing to admit that you are a witch. One man who happened to be so accused was crushed to death. It was nothing short of horrid.

Before this starts to look like a thing of the past, let’s look at modern Christianity, shall we?
The human rights abuse for which the Church and its leaders are responsible can never be fully accounted for. News of Priests, Reverends, Pastors and other Church Ministers raping girls and boys in the course of deliverance and prayers never stop surfacing on the internet. Or is it the fraud? The Church got that on levels unlocked.

In 2013, as much as 11 million US Dollars was embezzled by a Nigerian Pastor and his daughter. In 2016, another Nigerian Pastor, one Mr Kayode was jailed in the UK for £4.1 million. Not Naira, not Dollars, Pounds; as if the Holy Spirit itself was giving him the guts. I remember reading in the news not too long ago, how a United States Pastor and his wife scammed Nigerians of their hard earned money, to the tune of $2 million. The wife even had the audacity to use the money for golf trips and a birthday party. Just 6 months ago, another Pastor of the Salvation Army Church was arrested in Delta State for possession of firearms (up to 3,000 live cartridges), illegal drugs including Tramadol, as well as 4 million Naira believed to be ransom money from kidnapping. A certain Pastor Jamiu Ishola of the Redeemed Christian Church of God was recently sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for fraudulently obtaining the sum of 9 million Naira. Let’s not mention Pastor Adejumo and the likes of her who demand “sowing of seed” in hundreds of thousands of hard currency, sometimes millions. Talk about fleecing the flock. Lying, scheming, cheating, stealing, “in the name of God.”

The obsession with condemning “sexual sin” while perpetuating same behind closed doors is another angle to this hypocrisy. In January 2002, allegations of sexual abuse of children levelled against Catholic Priests numbering up to 300 came to limelight. It was a full-blown scandal. But what were the Church authorities doing? Simply moving the accused Priests from Diocese to Diocese. Covering up. Abetting. Dismissing claims. A former adviser to Pope Francis is currently facing trial for sexual assault. The cancer has been eating into the Church, in high and low places. Australia’s Anglican Church currently has a like case on its hands. Over 1,000 people have filed child sex abuse claims against members of the Clergy, in the past 35 years.

In Nigeria, Pastors flog people, to cast out demons. Pastors justify human rights abuses. Your Vice President is still a Senior Pastor of the RCCG, right? Some years back, a small boy was bound in chains, hands and legs at a Nigerian Church, on the instructions of a Pastor. His offence? He was accused of being possessed by evil spirits; a witch. They humiliated and starved him for days, to cure him of his witchcraft “in the name of God.” Pastors and other church leaders have been responsible for the death of many pregnant women by deceiving them into giving birth “like the Hebrew women” and that C-Sections are for sinners, for weak Christians. I could go on and on, but we already know these things.

Have I mentioned that Nigeria, a country where 40% of its population are Christian, is ranked one of the top ten religious countries, yet sits comfortably at the top of the ranking table for the most corrupt countries in the world? Our Christianity has not solved the problems of hate, greed, corruption and violence. Have you stop being a Christian?

You all are still Christians, trying daily to preserve and propagate Christianity. The abominations of the Church has not deterred you.
The structured and systemic wrongs, the intolerance, and monstrosity of the Church cannot at any rate, be compared with the loose inconveniences you suffer because of feminists, people you would call e-feminists because according to you, they still have to acknowledge their inferiority, outside Facebook and Twitter.

Yet you distance yourself from and condemn feminism because you see feminists insulting men on Facebook. “Because the theory has been bastardised,” as if your religion has not been bastardised “Because feminists are hypocrites,” as if your Church is not swarming with hypocrisy. Because feminists are “shoving a discussion down our throats.” (Well, yes, we have to shove it hard because freedom has never been handed the oppressed on a platter of gold).

You will have to be honest, my friend: if the abominations of the Church has not dampened your Christianity, then the supposed slander or rants of feminists is insufficient to discredit feminism. Because “feminists are angry,” (an anger which in itself is valid and justifiable). This can be no justification for your contempt for the belief in and promotion of the equality of the sexes. You never did believe in gender equality. If you did, this cannot be an excuse.

So miss me with that “the average Nigerian feminist is angry and confused.” You have never been a perfect Christian, despite being born and raised Christian. No feminist who has to concern him/herself with unlearning the patriarchy (s)he was born and raised in owes you perfection.

I believe in a cause that is greater than the flaws of its adherents. And I will fight here, and everywhere I can, to promote that cause.

I will not be censored.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Photo credit: zazzle.co.uk

Amarachi Nickabugu

Written by

Calm. Collected. Crazy.

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