I DON’T BELIEVE

I am a staunch Christian believer, but at times I don’t believe.
I don’t believe that Christianity is a religious doctrine of promoting mediocrity.
I don’t believe that every opinion is to be believed.
I don’t believe that Christianity overrides my human rights.
I don’t believe that Christianity denies any human being their right to independently reason.
I believe, so I don’t believe. I don’t believe, so I believe.

I believe, just like any other right-minded Christian that I live here on earth and not in heaven. Heaven is my home, but I am not yet there. I know that God saved me, but not to solely go to heaven, but rather to make an impact in my generation.
I am tempted to think aloud, and misperceive me not, that God saves man for a greater purpose than going to heaven. If Christ saved you for heaven only, then he should have taken you away instantly the day you confessed Him. Heaven is a reward after a successful, purposeful and fulfilled life on this planet.
I write this not because I predetermined, but because of the current state of affairs in our republic. There is a great rise in political temperatures even everybody runs to persuade everybody else, other than themselves of course, to list as voters.
I seldom dare question the values and beliefs of any religion and more so the one whose cons and pros I abide by. But, I have seen it better to write my mind to counter the naivety of they that should be wise, to question the wisdom of the fools and challenge the folly of the wise. Christians have naively thrown children’s bread to the dogs.
Not long ago, I walked into a sanctuary in which a very learned friend was sharing the word of God. However, from the way he conveyed his message, you could tell that the church of Christ have lost grip of the current affairs. He vigorously demonized and devilized politics and indeed warned the congregation against “entangling themselves with the affairs of this earth.” Two weeks earlier, I watched and listened in disbelief as believers viciously attacked a clergy who had admonished his congregation for not listing as voters.
This got me thinking in the line of Dr Martin Luther King’s when he said; “There was a time when church was very powerful…In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of a society…by their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.”
In his letter from Birmingham Jail to his fellow clergymen from Alabama, Dr King says; “Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is the arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of an average community is consoled by the church’s silent-and often even vocal- sanction of the things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”
If this was King’s observance of the twentieth century, how about this century? The church is tremendously losing its hold onto the political and economic systems of the present day. If Christians lose touch with their immediate world, how do they expect to influence it today? It is the high time the church got involved in daily affairs of governance of the state.
Not voting is the greatest form of injustice the Christians have done to themselves. Karl Barth advised and warned us back in the sixties, “The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need – according to my old formulation – the Bible and the Newspaper.”
Let the church arise from its century-old slumber.
Let the believers be real and realistic.
Believers don’t live in solitude and should thus fully engage in their environs.
Let the believers chat their course without fear.
Let the church authenticate its authority.
Let the believers be heard. Let the brothers participate in health politics, let the sisters involve in building the economy, let the church support them fully. Let the believers exhibit their faith in actions. Enroll as voters and vote wisely for when we lament to God someday about the sitting government, I believe that the angels will remind us of our negligence in this time of elections. Pray like Prophet Elijah, but on 8th of August, 2017 don’t forget to end to Jesse’s house to anoint a King for Kenya.
Finally, as I sign off, I join Martin Luther in hoping that the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.