< why we should trouble no one about their religion >

Whenever people have conversations like the one upon which I’ve set out, those who care about them fear for them. They fear that they’ve lost faith. And if they end up with the sort of conclusion I’d be winding up with, they fear all the more. They fear that God punishes those who pitch themselves against the faith. Therefore, I like to start by allaying them, my crew, of those fears. Guys, there’s no cause for alarm; “What the father has taught me is what I preach.” Did you laugh? You’re wrong if you didn’t.

The encounter between a shopkeeper and a policeman I chanced upon last night really got me thinking. And cracking. Long story short. The Muslim shopkeeper says to the policeman, “By the grace of God, one day you will become a Muslim.” The obviously Christian policeman forcibly retorts, “God forbid! That’s the last thing I’d do.” Me? I had a really good laugh for myself. The catch for me was that both men made recourse to the same God in their mutual hate for each other’s religion. May I humbly request you don’t bother yourself trying to convince me that it’s not the same God? Yea, it’s not necessary. Because I’m unto a different point altogether.

I really think – and this is my own thinking ooo – that we got it wrong when we decided to start helping God do his job; when some human beings transformed themselves into God’s own secretaries, and starting knowing exactly what’s on God’s mind: how exactly he wants things to be done, where exactly he wants all of us to be, who will glory in heaven and who will burn in hell, which religion is the way and which church is true. And, trust me, these are matters of opinion, and we’re in the religious mess we’re in right now because nobody can be wrong in matters of opinion. It’s even a bigger problem when people by themselves convert their opinions into truth claims.

My opinion on this matter has ways been that God should sort himself out. If he didn’t do anything about the rise of Islam, does that not already say he’s fine with it? Unless you think he needed help. Where was he when his priest Martin Luther led the Protestant revolution? For me, not to have stopped him means he’s fine with it. Why hasn’t he shutdown the Catholic Church. Methinks he’s still fine with having us around. Why can’t we just trust that God knows what he’s doing, that he’s already figured out a way to sort these things out on the last day.

Jesus was gentleman enough in his formula for evangelism: “Preach to only those who make you welcome. And if they don’t, leave.” The most they could react was shake off the dust from their feet – not insist. Let’s be realistic, with the number of different religions in existence and growing number of Christian churches with some adopting a ‘bokoharamic’ evangelism method, do you think any human being can make everything one again? Was it ever one at any time?

I think God should sort this one out for himself; “this matter don pass our level.” I don’t see him needing help here. Unless you think otherwise. For me, whatever you think is still fine.

Your No.1 fan,
Cornel

PS. If you’re not God, don’t come and be quarreling with me ooo.

< why “accident-based” shaming is plain stupidity >

The word “accident” sitting up there isn’t the one you’d find in a conventional dictionary. It doesn’t mean “happening by chance, unintentionally, or unexpectedly.” The word seats on that subtitle with the meaning it bears in Aristotle’s ontology, “an attribute that does not affect the essence of a subject.” And “essence” here would be exemplified by the “chairness” in every chair whether they be made of wood, plastic, concrete, whatever. This is the lowest I could go; so sorry if you didn’t quite get it. Let’s move on.

Two inspiring documents I came across in the course of fulfilling the requirements of “Philosophy of Human Rights” during my sophomore year at university were the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Declaration of Independence. It is stated in both documents, and eloquently so, that “all humans” are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. From them, and my teacher Dr. Ani, I learnt that the passport to accessing the human rights and its attendant equality and dignity is the human essence – never the accidents!

I intend to take this conversation a bit further, to the effect that it is plain stupid to rate, treat, judge, or shame people based on anything outside of the human essence. Markedly, the human essence is whatever you see in any animal that makes you recognize it as a human being, whether they be tall or short, black or white, whole, infirmed or challenged, Nigerian or Icelander. lol!

It’s being a matter of serious concern for me that we’re increasingly basing our assessment of people, and shaming them, on the grounds of the Aristotelian accidents. Nine of them: quality, quantity, relation, place, time, position, state, action, and affection. Add ‘substance’ to that list and you’ve Aristotle’s Categories; ten of them.

Look up the stats and find that the number of women going under the knife is on an alarming increase; it has come to stay that women are shamed for not having full bosoms and well-rounded backsides. There are even crazier trends that I’ve held myself back from mentioning. It’s such a shame that we pretend to forget that no human being came in a preferred condition. Show me who chose to be short, who preferred to be poor, who went for less rather than more. You tell me, what did the beauty queens do differently to deserve their looks? The most they do is protect what they already have, what they were ‘given.’ Why would some women literally sniff the manhood off their men for not being gorgeously endowed? Why not simply research a friendlier position. [This very one is not my handwriting]

What about height? There’s more than one way to be short, and tall parents is no guarantee. There’s the place of recessive genes, nutriment, and hormones; none of which is not the short man’s fault. lol! And so, to genuinely shame a person for being brief in height is one way to be stupid. lol! What about my gateman, Abdulahi? He’s Nigerien, knows no word of English, generously smiles at everyone, wears me out with asking for alms. lol! What did Abdulahi do to deserve his social status? Sincerely, one way to measure my level of stupidity is to observe how I treat him. And I’m lucky to have known better.

We should think twice before we shame people. Having thought twice, we’d realize that shaming people, particularly on “accidentally” grounds, is a show of stupidity.

Your No.1 fan,
Cornel

PS. The choice of “stupid” is intentional. I needed the message to sting whoever is guilty as charged. I didn’t mean to be rude.

I remember every bit of that movie, “The Ultimate Gift” – and its sequel, “The Ultimate Life.” Those movies changed my life in more ways than I can report here. Just a quick recap: Jason’s billionaire grandfather, Red Stevens, wills almost everything to him, but needed to get him transformed, being a spoilt brat, before having him take possession of an empire he built from ground up with his sweat and blood. Before his demise, he prepares a series of 12 ‘personal’ gifts Jason must first receive before landing “The Ultimate Gift” – insane wealth! Steven’s lawyer was to see that Jason performed satisfactorily on each ‘gift’ before the billionaires fall to his laps. The gifts of work, learning, friends, giving, love, perfect day…

Now, what that movie particularly did for me was get me searching for other unsung gifts; gifts God, family, friends and even strangers give us by the day and yet we take them for granted, yet we fail to acknowledge and appreciate them. What I’ve come to realize is that some of these unsung gifts are even more important than the gift of cash and the likes. A personal example would do.

September 28, 2018 was the day. The day I was given the gift of an experience that changed so much about the way I see this country. A family invited me over for a party at a facility on the Bonny Island. All I was to do was appear at their Trans-Amadi jetty, identify myself, join “Confidence 1” – and that’d be all, as they’d be waiting for me at the other end.

But that wasn’t all. That was also my first travel on deep waters. That was my real first experience of how important being on that boat makes you, as we had two Nigerian Navy gunboats escort us from the very start to the finish of the 1.45hrs-long journey. So I don’t end up saying too much, lemme end it already by saying that the experience on that island was just like heaven on earth, and left me with the conclusion that there are different ‘types’ of Nigerians and it’s up to us to choose our type. I made my pick on that island.

When I was good to leave, after a thrilling night with Okey Bakassi and Dan the Humorous, my friends looked at me in gratitude and thanked me profoundly for making out time and taking the risk of coming in search of them ‘at the very end of the earth.’ I looked at them and smiled. Perhaps they didn’t know they’d given me more. They’d given me the gift of a life-changing experience, one I’ll always be grateful for.

Back to the ‘gifts’ gist. I’m convinced that the gift of experience is as important as the gift of cash and other material items. And I think we should be as grateful for the gift of experience as with other ‘tangible’ gifts.

Your No.1 fan,
Cornel

I find it super-difficult to tell the stories of “White House Down” and “Olympus Has Fallen” apart. Movies, actually. This difficulty stems from the fact that they told a similar story – albeit different lines: how the White House was captured and how some superhero from within turned things around. I’m particularly confused right now because I want to pick out something from one of the two movies but can’t exactly say which is which. Moreover, I’m counting on the assumption that it’s rare to find someone who’s seen one and not the other.

If you’ve seen both movies, then let’s do this together: Which of the movies has Bernie, the ex-Secret Service agent that eventually saved the day; the one that has little Connor as Mr. President’s son, who’d lost his mum at the start of the movie? You, tell me… That’s the one from which I intend to borrow a leaf.

If you’ve seen that particular movie, did you catch the scene where the defense person was gisting Bernie why the terrorists were very interested in getting Connor, the President’s son, and why he must be found and evacuated before they ever get to him? In case you missed it, this is why: There’s a clause in the constitution that relieves the president of his oath of office when he has to choose between doing his job and protecting his family. Notice that the South Korean terrorists didn’t bother asking for his severance code; they were busy looking for his son. They already knew that any American president, including Trump, would gladly give his or her life to keep the American people safe.

I just love the ‘realness’ of the writers of a constitution that permits the president to give out the most important password in the world to terrorists in order to keep his immediate family safe. There’s a limit to the trust they’d given him in the first place; they don’t expect too much from him.

And so, when next you accuse someone of betraying you, it is only fair that you evaluate the circumstances that led to that betrayal. What was at stake? What were the available options, what choice did they make, and who is/are the beneficiaries of that choice? Trust me, sometimes you’d just discover that you’d have done worse than he or she did should you have been in their shoes.

My point exactly: Be fair to those you trust. Don’t use your trust to rob them of our shared flawed humanity, of their right to self-preservation when their very own life is at stake, of their right to mercy when they screw up.

Your No.1 fan,
Cornel

PS. This is not a call to condone betrayal of trust. This is only a way to happiness.

I am a notorious sinner. Like David, my sins are always before me. However, with faith and trust in the Ocean of Mercy, I, too, can boast of a certain level of relationship with God, one in which I can at least look up to heaven and call him ‘Father,’ and have him, in response, look upon me with a kind countenance. I’m not so familiar with him as to have him drink tea with me, nor am I grown up enough to hear him with my naked ears. Even at that, he still speaks to me, albeit differently: through the Words of Scripture, uncovering his things to my mind, and speaking to me through my friends. In a way that I can’t really explain, I know when he comes calling. Like this morning.

I’d just finished getting ready for church when all of a sudden I found myself assuming a familiar sitting position, the type that works well with a favourite soap running on the screen. Interestingly, there was a screen – at the back of my mind – on which was being projected my past: the environments, the people, the troubles, the everything; good, bad, and ugly. And then these words seemed to accompany each slide, “I was there.” Lemme confess already: it was annoying to find that the worst things that have happened to me also bore “I was there.” Yes, I remained angry and only stopped being so when the meaning of everything arrived.

Lemme take this off me already and delve straight to the point. There is a process of growth God has been taking us through, one that was set in motion at our conception. He’s been there as all manners of things happen to us, thereby shaping and refining us into a fitting mould to hold the liquid of his purpose he intends to eventually set in us. For instance, he’s let human beings disappoint, backbite and betray you, so as to leave you in no doubt how desperately wicked the heart of humans can be. He’s left you experience pain and suffering so your capacity for handling them could expand and your dependence on him for help increase. What’s happened in your life in his absence? Ask Moses, and he’d tell you it was God over the 120years of his life. Ask David, and he’d tell you that even his affair with Uriah’s wife came with a humbling effect.

Ask me, and I’d tell you that not one day has gone by without God letting me profit from my foolishness. This one is on a lighter note, though.