We need divine intervention to restore people and places of worship
I grew up in a secular household. Appreciating the power of prayer and the difference between spirituality and organised religion came in my twenties. Moments such as the National Prayer Breakfast this week have particular significance for me therefore.
Like elsewhere in the world, the role of organised religion in Kenya is a matter of national debate. Even atheists and agnostics have an opinion. Religious leaders are increasingly being called upon to offer a way out of the corruption, impunity and discrimination faced by millions.
There are no less than 83 countries in the world that heavily restrict religious beliefs, practices and institutions. Kenya, and we can be proud of this, is not among them. In the last six months, mass attacks on American synagogues, Sri Lankan churches, New Zealand mosques and other places of sacred worship have shocked the world. Both state and social hostility threaten the right to worship globally.
In places like China, the freedom of worship is at an all-time low. As many as two million Uighur Muslims are regularly followed, their phones and blood tapped and scanned for DNA respectively and are denied access to mosques. At least 800,000 have been detained for their choice of religion. Their experience is mirrored by several Protestant churches and congregations. Given the fervour of the political leadership at the national prayer breakfast this week, it is surprising that this does not feature in Kenya’s bi-lateral talks with the Chinese leadership.
Fortunately, global trends suggest that religion will continue to be a vibrant moral and intellectual force in the world. For the next forty years, Christians will remain the largest religious group until Muslims catch up. India will overtake Indonesia as the country with the largest number of Muslims. Christians in the United States will decrease from three-quarters to two-thirds of the population. While religious congregations have been greying and balding for decades, interestingly in Africa, there is no significant difference between the number of older and younger adult believers. More remarkably, two out of every five Christians in the world will live and pray in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050.
These scenarios are not inevitable. They will only become so if religious leaders continue to speak and act as a powerful force for integrity and social change. All religious texts from the Koran to the Bible are framed around the extra-ordinary power of ordinary actions. By all accounts, the thousands of disciples, prophets and messengers were remarkable hope messengers and active disruptors in their societies. This is the enduring power and pull of spirituality for most.
The inconvenient truth we must all face is that there are few religious leaders who still speak from this conviction. In order to fill the tithe baskets, they have lost control of their pulpits. In order to build large religious buildings, they have desecrated places of worship for millions. I am with the Anglican Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit on this one. Religious leaders must now find the moral conscience and courage to reject dubious donations and bribes. This too, should have found its way into the National Prayer Breakfast.
I also agree with the Deputy President Ruto on two of the points he made on Thursday. Theft and corruption are bad in any language. It may take a while, but the investigators will always catch the thieves. Having said this, he missed an opportunity in declaring he wished to make confession. A confession is an admission that you have violated a standard of spiritual significance and now request forgiveness. The life share, while emotionally moving, neither admitted a sin nor sought forgiveness for it.
The prayer breakfast was short on a real confession also from South Sudan President Salva Kiir. The violence and desperation that face millions continues to spiral. As he spoke, south Sudanese security services are targeting refugees engaging in legitimate non-violent democratic protest. The stalemate unresolved, the United Nations have also just extended sanctions and an arms embargo for another year. If there is a country that cries out for divine intervention, it is this South Sudan.
Unless the new dawn is achieved, Christians across the region should not be surprised to find St Peter standing at heaven’s gates with a metal detector, life-style audit forms and warrants of arrests for the few who have professed the faith yet lived and walked another path. Restoring the places and people who worship as the drivers for integrity and social change is the only way to safeguard against this.
Happy Madaraka Day all.
First published Saturday Standard, June 1, 2019. Kindly reproduced here with permission from the Standard Group
Grants and Bid Methodology Writer. Technical Writing. Project Management
5 年as far as personal beliefs remain just beliefs and not political ideologies then it is fine, otherwise we are receding to theocratic societies... Politics are based in moral values and it is for the religious leaders to contribute to building healthy moral values in a society but nothing more, nothing else. To God what is of God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Churches, mosques and temples are full of hypocrites, leaders who publicly display what privately they do not practice, religious leaders that accept money of dubious origins without remorse. Let's also not forget that intellectually has rarely come in any chapter of history from any religious leaders who rather praise the status quo while intellectuals seek progress and innovation. I think that what the trends show is that religion is usurping again areas that belong to social non-confessional ideologies corrupted by bad and weak politicians all over the world.? Let's not expect from religious leaders what they are not and what they should not do but instead let's look inwards and our personal responsibility to have strong moral values and to defend them as the root of humanistic politics. that was the foundation of Greek democracies: CIVIC EDUCATION, not religion.
Executive Director at Capacity Development Institute
5 年Great insights Irungu.As it has been through history, religion remains a powerful social organization tool which can be employed for good or bad.Over the centuries it has changed the cause of history including the founding of American, the crusades,the conflicts in the middle east, 9/11 etc.We must find ways to employ it for good.
DIRECTOR, CHAPTER FOUR PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS LIMITED
5 年So much resource and opportunity lost when religious leaders ignore their role in the promotion of #integrity?and #socialjustice. Stepping away from religion for a minute and instead looking at our spiritual relevance could be part of the solution.?
Global Director at WaterAid International
5 年"...should not be surprised to find St Peter standing at heaven’s gates with a metal detector, life-style audit forms and warrants of arrests..." - love it. Thanks for this Irungu.
Board Member and Independent Consultant
5 年Religion is a general theory of the world and how it is understood from "our" perspectives. If the world is inverted, religion remains inverted! True consciousness calls for more.?