RELIGIOUS CRISIS: WHO IS THE TARGET?

Religion is the end product of man’s relationship with the Supreme Being: his knowing him, accepting him, and responding to him. Religion has to do with the knowledge and worship of the Supreme Being. There are many religions in the world such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, traditional religion, etc. A common denominator among these religions is that they uphold truth, love, justice, peace and unity among all.

If religion has the nature of promoting peace and unity, why do we experience religious crises in different levels and forms? If actually we know religion as the supporter of truth and peace, why then do we have religious crisis among us? We must state the different levels/forms of religious crisis. We have inter-religious crisis and intra-religious crisis. The former is a situation where two different religions are at “war” with each other, while the later is a situation where there is a war between two or more denominations in a particular religion. Whichever one we refer to, there is religious crisis in the society in many forms. And so the two bothering questions surrounding this malady are: why are there religious crisis? And who are the targets of this malady? In an attempt to answer these questions, we shall limit our scope to the Nigerian experience.

In Nigeria, there are basically three religions namely: Christianity, Islam and Traditional religion. When it comes to the inter-religious crisis in Nigeria, the much we experience is that between Christians and Muslims. When it comes to that of intra-religious crisis we find the quarrel among the different denominations of Christianity.

The inter-religious crisis has been between the Muslims and Christians. In the past this crisis is often caused by misinterpretation or misrepresentation of a religious personnel, doctrine or statue. In the past this has resulted into a physical and violent expression which has lead to loss of lives and properties. In recent times, we now have the Boko Haram, an Islamic sect who has been terrorising the country. Although they have not actually presented themselves as fighting the Christians, we cannot say it is. But then a survey of what they do, will show that they have been attacking Christians. The Christmas bombings of last year are still ever fresh in our minds. These and many others have much evidence to say that Boko Haram. Unfortunately this malady has caused more harm than good to the society.

In the intra-religious crisis, the case has been different as it has causes more harm than good too. This crisis is the disagreement and failure to reach a consensus among the various denominations in Christianity. The crisis is in the form of clash in doctrine, over the most superior, better of truthful, the best church, ministers, etc. Today Christians from different denominations directly and indirectly castigate one another’s doctrines and practices. This has been the order of the day in Nigeria. And a lot of harms have been done as a result of this religious crisis.

However, this social malady calls for a critical attention. Hence we ask: why do we experience religious crises in different levels and forms? There are may be some immediate causes to it, but the ontological cause for all these is the instinct of self-preservation. This instinct makes people to hold on to what is theirs and possible discard what is of the other person. This is the case whereby every denomination will claim that their teachings are the truth and nothing less than that. Apart from this, given any single opportunity, they tend to castigate violently the doctrines of others. There are other reasons attached to the cause of this malady such as greed, envy, etc. But then the major problem is that egoism.

If that is so, the other question we may have to ask is: who are the target of this religious crisis? This question is the heart of this work. Asking of the target of this crisis may imply two things. These are the targets at the long run and the target at the short. We can say that the target at the short run/ immediate target is the object or immediate receiver of the crisis. That is, the immediate target is the religion or denomination being fought at. The aim of this target is to do all that is possible to remove the religion from practice in the world, since it does not fall in line with the doctrines of her enemies.

The absolute target is the Supreme Being especially when it concerns the inter-religious crisis. This may rather appear/sound unclear. But the fact remains that it is true. This is because when people continue to attack a particular religion by attacking its faithful and doctrines, then they are attacking the Supreme Being; for to attack a thing is to attack the owner.

However, whomever or whatever the target may be, the truth is that the religious crisis should never be heard of. This is because religion preaches love, unity and peace. Religion in her teachings encourages these virtues with regards to human relations. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case especially in Nigeria; where we experience this inter and intra-religious crisis.

Religion is a matter of experience and that is why every religious group should be allowed to practice her tenets without being attacked. One thing we should know is that religion itself may not be evil but the activities of the adherents may be evil. Hence there should not be any room for the entire crisis we are having today. Let us respect and tolerate people’s religion and their doctrine. If this is done, there will not be any room to inquire who the target of religious crisis is.

Nwanyanwu Chris