Insecurity: Can’t religion help?
By Asong Ndifor
As the Roman Catholic Pope said at the weekend
during a solemn ceremony to commemorate a century of World War 1, greed and
lust for power are the pillars of insecurity for "a third war, one
fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction,".
Pope Francis was right, although as a
protestant, I disagree with him for the canonical decree prohibiting Catholic
priests from getting married.
Whether it is Boko Haram in West and Central
Africa, Isis in Iraq and Syria; al-Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula; Al-Shabaab Ansar
al-Sharia in Tunisia, the pirates in the sea or land grabbing crooks in
Fako division, they are driven by greed, selfishness and the craving for power.
In the process, they all are killing and maiming in wars of varying dimensions,
tactics and ammunitions.
The question posed is: Would there have been
such demonic desire for illicit acquisitions and absolute power if religion was
given its deserved place in nations? My answer is no because faith and belief
affect every facet of human existence.
Even in China where atheism is almost
officially accepted, they are now thinking religion. The country has started to
encourage the creation of departments of religion and centres to study
Christianity in its universities because it believes Christianity plays a
significant role in the strength of the West.
Presidents of the United States swear by the
Bible while taking over office, our own Paul Biya swears to God. So why do we
abandon religion even to the point that the GCE certificate in such an
important subject is not recognized?
Many have been lobbying to get it recognised
and I think if that is done, it would be the beginning of the fear of God. It
certainly will discourage those who are provocatively drowning in illegal
wealth while the majority wallows in abject penury.
It will make those who want to kill others;
made in the image of the Almighty, to grab land, hang on to power they do not
deserve or steal from the common purse to rethink their actions.
The expression that “politics and religion
don’t mix” is often used just by egoistic minds who want to employ all means to
get to power and get drunken by it. Politics and religion do mix. I see it even
in ecumenical services on some government occasions; the Vatican has its
ambassadors, the papal nuncios.
A survey by Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary
of Harvard University indicates that “Religion appears to have an effect on
economic growth and development by fostering thrift, a work ethic, honesty and
openness to strangers. This has led to the notion of "spiritual
capital," analogous to human capital, which focuses on knowledge and behaviour
stemming from transcendent concepts and ultimate concerns.”
I embrace the views of mixing religion with politics on moral grounds and I believe many
do. If politicians and administrators are God-fearing, there wouldn’t be the satanic desire to be
greedy or selfish as Pope Francis has said. That would prevent the possibility of insecurity that can
gradually build into a third World War caused by the offspring of Lucifer who
have become disciples of corruption, bribery and power mongering.
Postscript: Reason and experience both
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle - George Washington (1732-1799) First president of the USA.
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