Christianity vs. the old gods of Nigeria - Yahoo! News
I don't want to be the guy to always rag on religion: I say if it makes you feel better and it doesn't hurt anyone else, feel free. But damn if a lot of these religious folk don't break those rules. Their religion both makes them feel bad, and they end up hurting others. This story is a case and point:
Born to a family of traditional priests, Ibe Nwigwe converted to Christianity as a boy. Under the sway of born-again fervor as a man, he gathered the paraphernalia of ancestral worship — a centuries-old stool, a metal staff with a wooden handle and the carved figure of a god — and burned them as his pastor watched.That's the kind of religious leader everybody needs: one who isn't threatened by old superstitions.
"I had experienced a series of misfortunes and my pastor told me it was because I had not completely broken the covenant with my ancestral idols," the 52-year-old Nwigwe said of the bonfire three years ago.Oops. Nothing superstitious about that statement.
As poverty deepened in Nigeria from the mid-1980s, Pentecostal Christian church membership surged. The new faithful found comfort in preachers like evangelist Uma Ukpai who promised material success was next to godliness.What a beautiful doctrine.
"Since the curses and covenants do not automatically disappear when we repent, Rev. Dr. Uma Ukpai is a man called by God for the total liberation of mankind," he says on his Web site, claiming to have the spiritual backing of Jesus to break the curses.So were these false gods, in which case where did the curses come from, or real gods with power that only Jesus can trump?
The National Commission for Museums and Monuments, which is responsible for protecting the country's cultural antiquities, has responded with a sensitization campaign.
"We are ... telling the Christians that they can't detach themselves from their past, that there is a beginning to their history," said Omotosho Eluyemi, a senior commission official.
Actually, I think "detach(ing) themselves from their past" is the whole point of that "redemption" thing. I don't see them buying into this. That would require "reason" and it seems as if they're rejecting that outright.
OK, so no one is actually "hurt." Except all the archaeologists and historians who won't be able to get grants to study the destroyed artifacts and culture. But I feel for them.
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