Like most youths born in the early 80s, I was born into a very religious family; we attended church services almost every blessed day of the week. Going to church as a child was something worth experiencing. I was very proud to tell my playmates I went to church and that I in fact, dropped money into the offering box. When I became a teenager, the need came for me to join one of the arms of the church. My parents were on my neck so I had to do something real fast to prevent “parental beating”. I couldn’t join the “ushering department” because I was way too shy to talk to people, either could I join the “choir” since I had and still have a bad voice. After much thought I settled for the “instrument” department since I had this flair for the bass guitar. I stayed there for a very short time because my parents changed church and began fellowshipping in a “micro-mini” church. We had just 5 members and each service day was as boring as listening to my ex-girlfriend. When I was 15, I began evaluating my actions as it relates to the church and religion in general. I found some loopholes but could not talk since they said “the ways of God are not the ways of man”. When I got into the university, I never wanted to attend any church but my friend cajoled me into attending his church. My first time at the church was quite interesting and I started attending on a regular basis but I was unease at the ways activities were carried out there. In my final year, I reluctantly joined the church’s “Final Year Forum”. We were asked by the pastor, to pay #6,000 for a “church project” not minding the fact that some of us had little or no money to finish our projects. The church project stuff turned me off and I stopped attending the church. Even before this “church project” palaver, the pastor had been telling his members that the church needed money to build a branch outside of the school environment. People were contributing (I contributed), only for me to see the pastor’s wife with a new car on a Sunday service! Like seriously? You need to build a church for God which you claim is urgent but on the other hand, you bought a new car. Are you not contradicting yourself? That apart, let’s go deeper…
Some people claim they are Christians, they worship at their different churches, and these churches have their own doctrines that most times, contradict each other. For instance, some churches permit ladies to wear trousers while others don’t, some permit the use of musical instruments while others don’t and among others. All these so-called doctrines create divisions within the Christian faith. For example, it is very rare for a Catholic Christian to marry a Pentecostal Christian. Why create all these divisions when you all claim you worship one God? Furthermore, it is now becoming a norm for every church in Nigeria to have its own university. I am not against that, what I am against is the high tuition fees these “church schools” charge. Some schools charge as high as #500,000 per session making it extremely difficult for the average church member (who contributed his money towards the building of the school) to send his children to the school. So I ask, of what benefit is this university to the average church member? These pastors collect money from almost all their church members to build a university but at the end, only the rich members can send their children to the school. Also, Nigerian pastors now have private jets, some even have 2, they say it makes evangelism faster. This is simply fallacious to me because you can do your so-called evangelism in a commercial plane. I believe that the primary aim of a pastor is to serve humanity, you can’t be buying a private worth over $20 million when 60% of Nigerians live on less than $1 a day! What kind of message are you passing to your members and Nigerians in general? Nigerians are castigating their leaders for squandering the country’s wealth and living a life of affluence, but the other hand, their pastors are buying exotic cars and living like the corrupt leaders. Most pastors are more corrupt than our leaders and that’s why they find it hard exposing corrupt leaders. I only respect Pastor Tunde Bakare when it comes to pastors speaking against corrupt leaders.
In the Bible, there are lots of grey areas. The Adam and eve story is an example. Nobody can categorically state what Eve gave to Adam to eat. Some claim it was sex, others claim it was just an apple while another group claims something different. Have you ever asked yourself why your pastor says women should not wear trousers? Does the reason(s) make sense to you? It was a person who made this rule in the first place, hence there are bound to be mistakes. Provided a woman wears it well, I don’t see anything wrong with a woman wearing trousers and if I may ask, who ever said trousers were meant ONLY for men? Is it in the Bible? Catholic priests don’t get married just because of a verse in the bible that can be interpreted in different ways. These priests in a bid to satisfy their sexual urge end up molesting young boys and girls worshiping in their church.
On the other side of religion is Islam. Islam indirectly supports child marriage, a man can marry a 13 year old provided she is mature and has given her consent. To them, 18 years/21 years, is not the age of maturity as it concerns marriage, you can be matured at 13 years or even 12 years. Whoever must have written or permitted this in Islam must be a selfish person. A girl of 13 years can never be matured enough for marriage and would not be able to decide on marriage especially when her poor parents are on her neck and the prospective suitor is rich. Also, in Islam, parents are allowed to “throw” their babies to the streets without any sort of parental care. These children grow on the streets and are exposed to the bad sides of life and in most cases they end up being used as tools of violence. Furthermore, in Islam, women in general, have to play second fiddle to their husbands, for example, in their worship places, women are separated from men for no just genuine reason. Another funny doctrine is forcing some gullible married women into covering their faces with veils. Please, what is the significance of this? This religion supports the giving of alms to the poor which is something I appreciate but in Nigeria, this has been bastardized as many followers prefer to live off the alms people give to them than working.
The average Nigerian is either a Christian or Muslim yet corruption is at its peak in the country or is it that their religion supports corruption or their religion isn’t having any positive impact on their lives? My problem with religious people is that they follow their leaders stupidly! They fail to understand what their religion really preaches and more importantly, solve loopholes associated with their religion. Men wrote the Holy Bible and Quran and hence, there are bound to be mistakes, it is only reasonable that you correct these mistakes instead of just following religion foolishly. To me, religious people are in sort of bondage, they just follow their leaders stupidly even when they are preaching trash. One thing to note is that being religious does not necessarily mean you have a good heart else Nigeria would have been less corrupt. If you want to pursue religion, pursue it wisely!

http://idowritestuff..com/2013/11/my-problem-with-religion-part-1.html

Obioha Uchechukwu Ebere
Lagos, Nigeria.

See,the fact is that organized religion is nothing but fraud . But , its becoming clearer that man shall soon evolve beyond religion !

God, if there is one will have to find a more honest way to reveal himself to modern man!

You said all in my mind .....

I see reasons to hate religion everyday by day mostly in Nigeria, imagine my colleagues at office are keeping malice because one is attending the Church of Christ and they don't pay tithe


What I hate most is proving yours is correct others are wrong

uchejava:
The average Nigerian is either a Christian or Muslim yet corruption is at its peak in the country or is it that their religion supports corruption or their religion isn’t having any positive impact on their lives? My problem with religious people is that they follow their leaders stupidly!

Do you have the same complaints about your own ethnic spirituality?