Religion and moral duplicity should never be bedfellows
By PD columnist, June 15, 2022Presumably, there’s a cross-cutting philosophy, nay, indispensable virtue across religions that obligates them to provide society with a sense of moral rectitude. Laws, too, exist to enforce this fact of life. The truth is, left without a moral compass humanity would test their limits to disastrous extremes where the stronger would trample over the weak willy-nilly. One can only imagine the anarchy that would ensue in such an environment.
Lately, the Church has been on the spot for abandoning what many view as its core mandate—anchoring humanity on matters decency. It is expected to champion adherence to fairness in society. However, for it to convincingly carry out this social duty, it has to occupy an uncontested high-moral ground. That is not possible when craving for material things supersedes its solemn commission of proclaiming probity and fairness in society.
In the last couple of years one of the biggest recipient of political largesse is the Church. While there is absolutely nothing wrong in receiving material gifts from politicians, it is utterly amiss for the body of Christ to bend the levers of rightness courtesy of gifts meant to subvert society’s sense of honour, ethos and decency. The question we ought to ask ourselves as a society and in all honesty is whether the Church hasn’t lowered its guard with regard the interplay between raw materialism and true spirituality that is a matter of public debate today.
Proverbs 11:3 states, The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. If this is a guide to go by, then the Church should represent the best of our collective morality. Kenya is upwards of 70 per cent Christian. As a single force, this demography, at least ideally, should be our best bet in making ours a society guided by a deep sense of what is good or bad.
The Church has been the more preferred theatre of publicity for many a politician. As it may seem, the clergy in most congregations don’t mind the silver and gold politicians come bearing to the House of the Lord but a cursory look doesn’t seem to suggest the clerics are equally keen to remind their benefactors that heaven and hell still beckon. There is absolutely no research needed to determine this. And, therefore, the question is, haven’t we compromised our mission to rein in humanity to virtuousness?
The vortex of depravity our society is caught up in should be addressed before our society sinks into total debauchery. With runaway pilferage of public resources by shameless gatekeepers who should be steering the country to prosperity you cannot blame Kenyans in their hundreds of thousands to feel despondent and hopeless. This is the time Kenya needs all religions of virtue to stand up and reclaim withered sense of shame. It is the time religion critically re-examined its role in dignifying the citizenry by creating exemplars of what is incorruptible in all spheres of life—to retain their relevance.
The prevalence of invasion of the Church by political players has blurred the purpose for which religion is to society. This is made worse by the fact that morally speaking places of worship are public spaces that are patronised by anyone. This being the case, the same spaces also become arenas of political contestation itself a distraction of the mission for which religion ought to exist.
So much has been said in public forums lately regarding politicians gifting churches materially. Apparently, there is a legion of individuals among the priesthood that sees absolutely nothing wrong with receiving gifts from politicians even when their benefactors’ core motive is to conscript them as disseminators of partisan messages for parochial political gains. Yet there are those underwhelming minority whose contrary view gets easily drowned by the thunderous voice of those in favour of political seduction in spiritual spaces.
At this watershed moment, we should make hard decisions and create a strict set of rules of engagement between religions and the political class. Only by so doing shall we begin to rescue religion from the grip of political calumny.
— The writer comments on topical issues