Live and Let Live

Abu Onyiani

“Jesus power, super power x2
Sango power, powerless power x2
Looking power powerless power” x2

The above is roughly the lyrics of a Christian song I sang for years as a Pentecostal Christian. No doubt, millions of Christians in Nigeria sang this song long before I was born, and many more still do to this day. This is why I was thoroughly disgusted when a video about Brazilians getting hit by natural disasters because they mocked Jesus Christ was shared by mischievous Christians, many with vindictive captions on numerous WhatsApp groups I belong to, about two weeks ago.

I had deleted them immediately I downloaded them, and had only hissed in disgust at this unfettered display of stone age barbarity, but I had let it slide on account of the fact that since I didn’t allow the rubbish get to my space, it was better I didn’t have to fight them, since I wasn’t even an admin of the groups in question, plus, I wasn’t too physically okay, and didn’t want my already terrible mood to be escalated people who without doubt believed they were fighting a holy war.

However, my sentiment about keeping my thoughts to myself would change in the next couple of days, when people I know personally started showing me the videos on their phones to seek my opinion on the matter. As a rule, I tell my associates not to share religious videos with me, texting about religion is better as I find that many of these religious propaganda videos to be overly dramatic, full of lies, half truths, and fake miracles engineered and distributed with the sole aim of enslaving unsuspecting innocent and vulnerable members of the society. I went berserk on my WhatsApp, condemning the videos on grounds of religious tolerance on my status, and asking Christians who have lost their humanity and who delighted in distributing these egregious videos -I saw at least two variations of them- to have a rethink, and save themselves and others from the obviously malicious barbarity of reveling in the misfortune of others because they refused to share in your religious beliefs and variations of them.

I was washing for my mum this weekend while she was talking to a friend of hers when she suddenly called my to ask if I had seen a certain video that was trending on WhatsApp. Now, my mum knows my religious and political views, and it was clear her friend who knows it too urged her to show me, like she had shown all her children by spamming their WhatsApp with the different variations of the video.

I simply sang the “Jesus Power” song to the two of them, and then asked them how they would feel if Olokun and Sango worshippers began to mock them for the lack of cash that no doubt affected the vast majority of Nigerians, due to the Emefiele induced suffering that was accented to by the incurably inept Muhammadu Buhari.

Of course they (my mum and her friend) would have been disgusted if they were mocked for it, same way they would have been angry if Ifa worshippers had boasted to them about Ifa being responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic that decimated the finances of many people, and caused the death of over 7.3 million people, including over 1 million in the United states alone.

For a demography (Christians) that were so docile when their brethren Deborah was murdered by a mob of tone-deaf brain dead religiously overdosed morons who declared she had to be murdered because of blasphemy in Sokoto, it is a cowardly and reprehensible behavior for them to openly mock a people going through a natural disaster, particularly when they live in the poverty capital of the world where absolutely nothing works. Many of these people sharing that video literally latibulated, and threw impotent rage at their phone keypads while others extensively carried Deborah’s death on their heads, yet they are quick to rejoice over the death of non Christians.

Regarding the video, I didn’t bother to verify it’s authenticity, dazed as I was by the public unnecessary display of theatrical holier-than-thou attitude Nigerians love to display. The churches in my street are known to organise special prayers for Yahoo boys, while fornication and adultery continues to be common everyday sins for Christians. Inspite of being deadly sinners themselves, they always appear in solidarity to mock atheists and animists who are suffering because they choose to reject Jesus and Christianity, which is a part of their fundamental human rights.

I grow langurous of seeing these kind of videos and articles on the internet. The richest, most powerful and the most famous people on earth are not even Christians, so what is it that Christians enjoy that people of other and no religions do not enjoy that they must now be condemned or pitied for? It appears that for most Christians, “Live and Let Live” is a phrase that only appeals to them when you are calling out their hypocrisy.

Even Jesus Christ himself had lambasted a crowd of disemblers by saying “Let he who has no sin cast the first stone”. How many of you sharing the videos have not sinned this year?

Like politics, people with different religious beliefs should and will analyse your religion. Members of other religions will compare notes and claim their own god is superior to yours and you must learn to live with that. Openly wishing such people evil is plain philistinism, and must be roundly condemned by all progressives. Even with Islam and all its violence towards “apostates and blasphemers”, you still find a lot of people talking about the religion and rejecting it without fear and favour, so why should Christianity be different? Christians, and everyone else must know that there will never be a time when humans will belong to the same religion. Geography alone makes this impossible.

In 2022, a group of pastors in my village tempered with the main holy ground of Indigenous worshippers in Ososo and carted away holy rocks. They were caught and handed over to the police. We have also heard news of Christians burning shrines, cutting down ancestral trees and desecrating shrines, so why should Christians be free from a parallel repercussion of their own actions that are increasingly encouraged in church.

A natural or human made disaster that leaves people displaced, especially children must not be siezed by religious extremists, who seek to wank in the delusion of having a bigger (but more deficient) penis. If Christianity was really working for Christians as they claim while condemning others, all Nigerians, or at least all Christian Nigerians will have access to portable pipe borne water, clean toilets, hospitals and schools that are world class and constant electricity. The reverse is actually the case.

This is 2023, and frankly, the world has moved on from the tales of Sodom and Gomorrah getting destroyed because of sin, or of bricklayers building a tower in babel who had their languages changed because it was getting too high and too close to heaven. Now we must as a people who are forward thinking progressives work together to ameliorate the misery of others, promote world piece, and combat Illiteracy, child trafficking, rape and diseases.

This is not to say that many Christians I know do not engage in the advancement of these positive activities. The crux of the matter is, all humans, irrespective of political, religious and ethnic leaning should be persuaded and seduced by the alluring nostalgia of World Peace, progress and wealth.

Until then, Live and Let Live.