The Audacity of God's Grace: 10 Strategies To Living Your Best Life Now (8 page)

CHAPTER FOUR
RELIGIOUS EXPLOITERS
INFLUENCE, POLITICS & WEALTH

“You are successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.”

—Charles Carlson

DON’T ALLOW RELIGION TO GET IN YOUR WAY

In my journey for success, what I discovered is that those who are unwise allow the enemy to use religion as a powerful tool to sabotage success. The misappropriation of religion however, creates double standards.
It can get in your way and be a real obstacle.
While I personally embrace Christianity as a movement of God’s love in action revealed in the life, death, the resurrection and intercession of Jesus—our high priest who therefore is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him, since he lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf (Hebrews 7:25), I hate to see when professed religious people allow the enemy to use religion in their lives as a tool for mediocrity—slavery, terrorism, economic injustice/oppression, colonization, and neo-colonization, genocide, you can name the rest.

In this light, we can see the realities of Karl Marx criticism of religion as the “opium of the masses” as Marx observed, and a means to utilitarian ends as it has been misused for a number of reasons. Most religious people who unmistakably misappropriate religion are usually hypocrites who embrace double standard. According to Marx understanding of religion in this regard, religion cannot be excused from the lived experiences of people in society because of the mighty who uses it as an instrument for oppression of the poor. Marx therefore, saw religion from this standpoint as an expression of material realities and economic injustice. Marx observed that problems in religion ultimately translate to problems in society. Additionally, Marx recalled that religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. By implication, what Marx forcefully was against was using religion by oppressors—the powerful group, religious leaders, the politicians/policy makers, and others who control the earthly material resources as an instrument to make people feel better about the distress [economic disenfranchisement or exploitation] they experience due to being poor, ignorant, and exploited. This was therefore, the origin of Marx observation or comment that religion is the “opium of the masses.”

Religion when misappropriated in this way is mostly like a law that makes exception for the cabals—the powerful and mighty politically connected group in high places. Usually, the values of those belonging to these groups are usually built on certain prescribed antecedents that claim to have the greater good of the masses and godliness [conservativeness] to some degree, but lacking the spiritual connectivity and the living experiential realities and the power of transformation thereof. Religion when misappropriated in this way becomes an opiate for evil; for it is readily inconsistent since it is unrepentant humans that are the custodian of the creed and mostly—people who deliver it as they will. It gains its greatest strength on traditions that call for conformity at the convenient of some group, yet at the discomfort of the other groups as witnessed in the lives of people who have been subjected to intense pain, difficulty, and in most cases, death either through slavery or colonization.

Additionally, the misappropriation of religion has further disenfranchised the lives of a greater number of the populations as seen by the 1978 nine hundred and eighteen deaths of American civilians in the Jonestown People Temple Agricultural Project in Guyana; the 1993 deaths of the Americans in the Texas Waco Davidians. What about the 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center that killed Americans in thousands? Every now and then, we see the effects of the Taliban’s and Al Qaeda’s destruction of lives and properties, and people in the name of religion, the Boko Haram destructions of Nigerian lives and institutions and other terrorist organizations operating in the name of God and religion. Many a great people have failed to live at their best on a daily continuum because of religion or religious people and religious conditions. In our past history and even now, religion has been used as a powerful tool or instrument to destroy the infrastructure that builds society by punishing people and subjecting them into untold pain. It has been used in many countries to Balkanize the lives of people who once flourished and was on the path of greatness.

Africa For Sale

Not too long ago in our distant history, Africa and the African people were at the market place where the people and their indigenous resources where offered for sale by foreigners or foreign governments. Majority of these foreign governments if not all of them were religious people or represented a number of religions. Colonization, the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Africa, the racial inequality and segregation in the United States of America, and hate crimes like those of the White Supremacist have all used religion and skewed politics as their laboratories to achieve evil ends that favors one group and disenfranchise the other for generations.

Ever thought about what happened to Africa at the greedy-powered Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 at the Berlin residence of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in Germany where the business plan, the negotiations, and the contractual agreement for the sale of the continent of Africa was drafted and where the grand plan for the exploitation of the African continent and the fate of the people was disappointedly hatched, decided and executed without one African present? It was in this Berlin Conference without the presence of a single African individual, that birthed the African politico-geographical map and thus, a permanent liability that resulted from the three months of ignorant, greedy acquisitiveness during a period that Europe’s search for minerals and markets had become insatiable. The same Berlin Conference according to credible sources paved way for the Congo Free State, conceived as a “neutral” zone to be run by an international association in the interest of bringing science, civilization, and Christianity to the indigenes, which received the Berlin Conference’s blessings of approval.

What Happened to Africa From
The Berlin Conference?

Unfortunately as we are informed in history, the Belgium’s King Leopold II who soon afterwards, took control while exploiting the people’s resources and reaping fabulous personal profits through the sale of land and development rights, was responsible for up to 10 million deaths in Congo. Thomas Pakenham, in his book, The Scramble for Africa: White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912 noted that: “In scarcely half a generation during the late 1800s, six European powers sliced up Africa like a cake. The pieces went to Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium; among them, they acquired 30 new colonies and 110 million subjects. Although African rulers resisted, many battles were one-sided massacres. In 1904 the heroes, a tribe of southwest revolted against German rule. Their punishment was genocide—24,000 driven into the desert to starve; those who surrendered were sent to forced labor camps to be worked to death. At the center stage are a motley band of explorers, politicians, evangelists, mercenaries, journalists and tycoons blinded by romantic nationalism or caught up in the scramble for loot, markets and slaves.”

Western Colonization & Christianization

How can the Western colonization and Christianization of the continent of Africa, where the people were raped of their natural resources and tons of these natural and human resources stolen by force from the people for many decades with the Bible in one hand and guns on the other hand be justified in the name of God and the grace of Jesus? What about the colonization of Nigeria by the Brits and the forceful amalgamation of the people in 1914 which only favored the colonial masters and fattened the British treasury to the disadvantage of the people who have established political structures prior to this invasion that effectively govern each tribe or region as they have different languages, customs and cultures, religion and traditions, altogether?

For instance, the amalgamation of Nigeria, singularly for the financial benefit of the British government and to the disenfranchisement of the populations and tribes which has caused a great majority of the Nigerian State instability, ethnic and religious tensions and a great majority of Nigerian citizens underdevelopment at best was done by religious people with small minds. The root causes of the South African Apartheid equally can trace its beginnings with the 1884 -1885 Berlin Conference. Majority of the world’s problem today as seen in the lives of the masses could be traced to political and religious misappropriations of the oppressors as observed by Karl Marx. The question should be: How can we use religion or politics to help the populations live their best life now?

The Growing Islamic Religious Tensions

How can Al Qaeda and the Muslim extremists who are continuing to terrorize the world including an egregious attack of the American people on the American soil on September 11, 2001 (9/11) or the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing find meaning in their evils apart from misappropriation or abuse of religion? What about the Boko Haram terrorist group who have continuously caused an uprising and destroyed many Nigerian infrastructures for development and killed scores of thousands of the Nigerian people including those who were bombed on a Christmas day why they worshipped God in a Christian Church? Again the misappropriation of religion becomes conspicuous. I want you to think about your religiosity and examine whether it has caused more joy to people or inflicted them with more pain and sorrow regardless of which religion you identify with.

The Product of Some ‘Religious People’

In places like Nigeria as a country, every politician’s primary task in office as they make their campaign promise is about the capital development of the people they represent, and bringing the dividend of democracy to every nook and cranny. For each of these politicians to be sworn into office, they must choose a religion of preference before they take oath of office, for there is no room for neutrality. They are given two options: the Bible or the Quran. Now, each of these politicians, many of which are conspicuously corrupt belong to a religion that claimed that God and heaven is real, to preach love, harmony, peace, justice, fairness, equity, giving, and taking care of the poor and the masses etc. But by closely examining the lives of 98% of those who represent the people as the political elites and who are “religious” you quickly discover that they all claim a godliness that lacks the power of transformation and of love to help people live their best lives therein.

In places like Nigeria, if an individual does not attend church services or go to the Mosque, people will have a second look on such individual. All the law makers and politicians must identify with a religion and are visibly involved or occasionally seen in their places of worship. Churches and Mosque are seen almost everywhere. In the general population, almost everyone is seen to be religious and/or a religious practitioner in some sort of ways. However corruption geared by greed, evil and injustice is a common practice.

Can You Believe What Happens to
This Religious Country?

By April 2013, the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry submitted a new report to the United States Congress captioned: Country Report for Human Rights Practices for 2012. In that report, Mr. Kerry indicted the Nigerian government for corruption. Under the chapter on Nigeria, section 4, which was prepared by the Department of State, using information from US embassies and Consulates abroad, foreign government officials, non-governmental and international organizations, and published reports, it stated that: “Corruption and lack of transparency in government,’ States: massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security forces.” Furthermore, the report affirmed that “though Nigerian law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, ‘government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.’ It also scored the judiciary low, noting that: “there was a widespread perception that judges were easily bribed and litigants could not rely on the courts to render impartial judgments.’ ‘Government money lost to ‘endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency’ is estimated at 1.067 trillion naira (about US$ 6.8 billion),’ the report said.

This Problem Is Not New In Nigeria

Before now, in an earlier report in 2007, Femi Awodele attests that the solution to Nigeria’s problem is not (only attributable to) democracy or politicians. He perceived that countries that have practiced democracy (like Britain, France, America etc.) for years (hundreds) still have problems with governance for the simple reason that it is humans that run the show; who are in themselves, sinners and who are imperfect. Femi estimated that in America for instance, politicians have about 80% commitments to serve the people and 20% to enjoy the benefits of their office (mainly from lobbyist). In the case of Nigeria, the politicians have 90% commitment to their pockets by looting and laundering the tax payers money, 5% to their parties and 5% to the people they supposed to serve.

They Are Either Muslims, Christians or Other

Painfully enough, all of these politicians are either Muslims or Christians by faith and religious affiliation. Using Nigeria as a case study of ‘religious people’ to help you understand how people misuse religion and faith and subject countless of million families and communities into greater pain and suffering, I want you to discover here that being religious and not God-fearing or loving is often a good way to miss the point of helping people live their best life now. For this reason, I want to raise your level of understanding of the many inequities, not taking responsibility by both the mentors (leaders) and followers have subjected a countless number of people.