The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and particularly in the Republics of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria, has to a greater scale cemented the hitherto ignored power of religion and the influence religious leaders wield vis-à-vis matters politics, social and even economy in Africa.
For a long time (and even up to now) religious institutions have played a pivotal role in shepherding the African continent - and its people. We have seen schools, health facilities, rescue centers for the aged, the vulnerable, the physically challenged, the homeless being built and supported by these men and women of God.
You see, this approach is commendable. They deserve respect and recognition. Theirs is a step worth emulating.
All these goodies aside. The centrality of religion - and especially the Christian religion - calls for a rethink and re-evaluation. I think, in my honest opinion and with due respect to the founding tenets of Christianity, that invoking the name of God to justify the sufferance of the people is escapist and self-defeating.
Let me explain: I have closely followed the Ebola issue especially in The Republic of Liberia. People have died and continue dying, whole villages are in total lock-downs, fear is reigning and the whole nation is mourning.
Wait, it will be pointless to bypass one vital lead in this Ebola equation: The Church, (read the Liberian Church Council), in its quest to promote (and "sell to the masses") the supremacy of God has failed to reason and speak for the victims of this deadly disease.
The council in its wisdom asserts that "God has unleashed the deadly Ebola virus as a plague upon the country to punish “immoral acts” taking place there, such as homosexuality..."
Tellingly, this is a departure from the cardinal role the Church ought to play: to speak for the victims and to demand that authorities respond accordingly. Not to pass the blame to poor villagers.
Listen to these sweet words from Pope Francis: “Among us, who is above must be in service of the others. This does not mean we have to wash each other's feet every day, but we must help one another."
It is rightly within their precincts to demand their followers to pray and seek forgiveness from God. But it is equally important to remind these chaps that a prayer devoid of action is a farce.
It is akin to teaching the populace to respect authorities because it is a "divine call" and (at the same time) fail to point out the shortcomings of those in power.
To claim that a deadly virus is a creation of God is to claim that God is a vengeful blood-thirsty monster mercilessly reigning terror on its victims. It negates the all-lovingness, all-goodness... of this Super-natural Being.
A belief premised on selective condemnations and whose legacy is to escape from the moral scrutiny of its faults is not a pro-people, pro-life belief. It is an extension of Man's malaise dressed in religious jargon.
It pontificates for its own selfish grandeur. Not God's. It must be pinned down and suppressed before it runs amok.
If this is what they say God is, let me be clear, I won't worship this blood-thirsty god.
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