And he said, "Your religion is empty. All of the adherents are simply gullible and pander to the whims of the so called 'spiritual leaders'."
Understandably, he was angry.

Very angry at the new statistic that showed my country to be the most corrupt in the world. He was pissed at the fact that kidnappings, murders, and most especially, poverty, reigned supreme in a country with the most amount of churches.

I could not blame him. For which person does not recognize the fact that a church is planted every five minutes walk?

I knew of single locations where six churches are planted and rival each other in terms of the blessings and breakthroughs offered to people.

Then again, I calmly looked at him and said, "do not judge any religion by its abuse"
It is easy to look at the wanton actions of an individual and then point accusing fingers to the structure that the individual claims to belong to.
Logically, that is a very wrong way of deduction because it excludes the vast majority of others who were not included in the premise.

Let me explain better: You should never say that Islam is a religion because of the fact that certain groups like Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram create terror while chanting 'Allah akbar' in the process. Much more, do not even justify your beliefs with the fact that those terrorists quoted specific Quranic passages to fuel their appeal for more supporters. If you do this, you will find yourself excluding millions of other musuluman who are peace loving and caring to a fault.

To make claims that Islam is wrong, engage in a wholesome study of the basic philosophy of the religion and then make your conclusions.

Back to Christianity.
Never judge the Christian institution by its disabuse by large swathes of people. You have to always remember that humans have always been prone to disabuse institutions and twist them to sate their basic and crazy desires. The fact that many people remain embedded in poverty and are corrupt, even while claiming Christianity, shows that they lack the substance.

Suffice to say, MANY ARE NOT PHILOSOPHERS.
Many fear the word itself because they immediately feel it is an affront to the idea of God.
Many do not understand that philosphizing entails the daily critique of everything you listen in order to get to the meat that will fatten your faith (something the Berean Christians were always wont to do).

Listen sirs and mas,
You have got to take a pause always in order to determine the reason for your faith. Then, proceed towards KNOWING EVERYTHING you can.
Start from the historical data. Unearthen the values that the early adherents cherished.

From beneath the chaos of the crusade, unearthen the hidden human selfish desires that were being sated.

I told my friend that many Christians fail to ask core questions.
Told him, we failed to attempt to poke holes into popular phrases uttered from prominent 'spiritual fathers'

Told him we failed to even understand the basic philosophical and scientific arguments for the existence in what they believe in.

Told him we are even scared to listen to arguments AGAINST the existence of God for fear that 'the seductions would be too tempting'

Told him that we turn to emotions when refuting such arguments against the faith because we are not sufficiently equipped with the meat of the word.

I sighed and sadly told him that it won't stop. And because of this, many would still continue to be disillusioned, depressed and gullible.

He tapped me affectionately and said, "Bashorun, perhaps you are right. But, there is hope. For you are able to carry the message in ink and etch them into the minds of your readers"