Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Religion provides an anchor in the life of believers. Belief in a Supreme Being gives meaning to man’s existence on earth, and the promise of the hereafter makes life’s toil more bearable. Playing with questions of faith almost always brings a conflagration in its wake; no wonder church and state can hardly ever be linked together. In the liberal evolution of the world, the church, given its innate conservatism, has encountered much controversy.

The confirmation of the openly gay Reverend Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in the United States on June 7, 2003 has sparked much controversy within Christianity, particularly in Protestant or Anglican rule. Bishop Peter J. Akinola of Nigeria strongly opposed the phenomenon to the point of being regarded in much of the Western world as an intolerant apostle of conservatism. The dreaded Reverend Akinola did not want to bow, pointing out that the church should not support anything that is unscriptural. Anglican bishops across much of Africa, Asia and Latin America severed ties with the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia when it sponsored same-sex marriage, a development that rocked the church around the world. The 77 million members of the Anglican Communion around the world have thus found themselves plunged into a crisis that is becoming increasingly insoluble, even as Bishop Robinson divorced her husband, Mark Andrew, in 2014.

Christianity is indeed in a desperate situation. Like the church in Antioch, its many devotees have all kinds of visions. Witch catchers and various demon arrests present themselves today as Christian preachers and Pentecostal evangelists. There are more charlatans in the pulpits of Christianity than there are criminals in the streets of Lagos and Onitsha. You can sum up the antics of these so-called Christians in one short sentence: The devil finds work.

The early church found its anchor through the salvation of the soul. The Nigerian church primarily preaches material success. Prosperity is the word. Each pastor points out that his “God is not a poor God,” and the name of the game is gross materialism. There is no greater business organization than the church.

Throughout history, the church flourishes in the worst of times. Nigeria is now doing the trick. Christianity has been requisitioned for nefarious reasons by the creme of Nigerian aspirants. The man-made churches of today are as flawed as all the individual businesses which more often than not die with the owner, or can be transferred to the wife or “mum” until some doomed fate. havoc.

It is necessary to bring Christianity back to its roots. The church should return to its spiritual moorings in the Bible, namely, when Christ anointed Saint Peter. The Catholic Church traces its history back to the fact that Christ named Peter the Apostle as the rock on which the church is built, thus naming him the first pope. The Catholic Church was the universal faith until 1517 when, in Wittenberg, Germany, Martin Luther challenged the Catholic sale of indulgences and the doctrine of salvation by merit. Henry VIII followed suit in 1534, breaking with Rome for marital and political reasons. Thus was born the Anglican Protestant communion which flourished with the founding of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States in 1789.

John Calvin’s efforts during the Reform movements of the 16th century led to the birth of the Calvinists and ultimately the founding of the Scottish Presbyterian Church by John Knox in 1560. The history of the Baptists dates back to John Smyth and the English Separatists from 1609; and later Roger Williams of Providence in 1638. Methodists began in the Church of England, Reverend John Wesley having founded it in 1738.

The Church of Christ Disciples would in turn challenge the decline in fervor and the factional division within Protestantism by carving out another faction among the Evangelical Presbyterians from 1804 to 1832. Joseph Smith received visions from the angel Moroni , as revealed on the Gold Tablets of the Book of Mormons to found the Mormon Faith in 1827 in New York City.

Charles Taze Russell founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement in 1870, incorporating the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in 1884; and the church finally adopted the name Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931.

A major break in Christianity occurred in the American cities of Topeka and Los Angeles in 1901 and 1906 when the Pentecostal “speaking in tongues” movement began in reaction to the loss of fervor among Methodists and various Christians in general. . The advent of Pentecostalism was quite widespread throughout the world.

To take an example of a church founding closer to home, Samuel Bilewu Joseph (SJB) Oschoffa founded the Celestial Church of Christ in 1947 in the jungles of Porto-Novo after wandering in the forest for three months without food. nor water. Like other sects, the Heavenly Group has split into factions since the founder’s death.

The history of the church as summarized here makes it clear that all other churches were protesting in one way or another against the Roman Catholic Church, the early universal faith. As early as 1054 AD, Orthodox Catholics had separated from Rome as a result of intractable doctrinal dissensions. Even in the midst of factions, some churches saw the need to come together to form a strong union. The United Church of Christ is a 1957 ecumenical gathering of Calvinists and Lutherans.

The crucial question to be addressed in the greatest need to save Christianity is that the dissentient churches have not been more successful over the years than the original church. Critically, Vatican Council 2 showed that the Church is not hostile to change from within. When Pope John XXIII opened Vatican Council II in October 1962, he said: “The whole world is waiting for a step forward. More than 2,400 patriarchs, cardinals, bishops and religious superiors participated in the debates. In an unprecedented show of accommodation, observers from Protestant and Orthodox churches were consulted and attended the deliberations. Vatican 2 was markedly different from the 20 previous church assemblies of Roman Catholicism that preceded it, and the 16 decrees, constitutions and declarations promulgated bear witness to modernization and liberation. Vatican 2 did more to accommodate other Protestant churches than the First Council of Nicaea which was convened in AD 325 by Emperor Constantine to combat the Aryan heresy. Of course, the failed Vatican 1 was undermined by the industrial revolution. It was Pope Paul VI who closed Vatican II in 1965, proclaiming it “among the greatest events of the church”. As the oldest and largest body in Christendom, the Catholic Church has used Vatican 2 to provide shelter for all of Christ’s followers.

It is unfortunate that factionalization persists within Christianity despite the Catholic appeal of the Universal Church. It is as if everyone wants to run their own church, as John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, namely: “To reign is worth ambition, although in hell: better to reign in hell than to reign.” serve in heaven ”. Every type today adorns the robe of the Man of God, even when caught with severed heads of human beings! Christ is simply seen as the winning brand that can serve as a cover for a wide range of practices such as voodoo, juju, magic, grigri, etc.

The protesting churches should retrace their steps until the beginning, that is, where the rain started to beat them, to redeem Christianity from the discredit into which it had fallen because of crude factionalism. From within, all true believers can reform the one Christian church into a great institution worthy of the name of Christ. It is a pity that the Christian brothers are still unhappy with the pejorative indictment: Roma locuta; causa finita (Rome has spoken; the case is closed.) But my investigation shows that since Rome has embraced modern times in all its plurality, in particular with the significant changes brought about by Pope John Paul 2. Catholic theology has caught up in the ideals of social justice, the revolutions of science and the mores of world secularization. Even controversial issues such as homosexuality, abortion, divorce, etc. can now be pleaded for or against without the Inquisition intervening!

Jesus Christ led only one ministry and made faith the cardinal principle of worship. By losing faith in the universal Church, the acolytes of other churches apparently unknowingly lost their participation in Christianity.

Modern claims of being “born again” ignore the very idea of ​​becoming a Christian through baptism which began in the time of John the Baptist, Saint Peter, Nicodemus et al, and is still being held. today.

Christianity should be about having faith in the institution established by Christ instead of erecting parallel bodies.

In truth, these parallel human-made bodies cannot be Christians. The founders of these other churches could very well have given the bodies their names – instead of dragging out the name of Christ.

A revolt against a divine mission cannot be mitigated by nomenclature. Christianity is a deity and any escaped device is a distraction wooing damnation and the burning flames of hell.

Let’s close with a toast to Bishop Jonathan Goodall who has just resigned after eight years as Anglican Bishop of Ebbsfleet in England to join the Catholic Church in the struggle for universal Christian unity.

Uzoatu, a seasoned journalist, writes from Lagos. He can be reached on [email protected]

The Catholic Church in the Philippines officially opened its one-year celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Christianity on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021. The theme of the celebration “Gifted to Give” aptly expresses the grateful response of Filipino believers to the gift of the Christian faith first took root on its soil in Limasawa Island, Leyte, on March 31, 1521. As Pope Francis urged Filipinos in his homily in Rome for the occasion, “Never be afraid to share the gospel, to serve and to love.”

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and former Archbishop of Manila, said the gift of Christian faith in the Philippines, passed down from generation to generation, has shaped Filipino culture and the Filipino nation. This same faith is now shared by countless Filipino missionaries, migrants and their families wherever they are in the world. The Philippines has the third highest number of Catholics in the world today, and there are 2.9 million Filipino American Catholics.

The missionary spirit of the Filipino people is best illustrated by the heroic examples of two Filipino saints, Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod, lay people who died as martyrs in other countries.

Lorenzo Ruiz, serving as choir and calligrapher at Binondo Church in Manila, fled with Dominican missionaries to Japan to escape a false accusation. He was martyred in 1637 by the Tokugawa shogunate, then the feudal military government of Japan, for refusing to renounce his faith.

Three hundred years later, Lorenzo Ruiz was canonized as the first Filipino martyr and saint. Recalling his words, San Lorenzo said he would rather die “a thousand dead” than deny the Savior. He is the patron saint of Filipino youth, the Philippines and foreign workers. His feast day is September 28.

Pedro Calungsod, the second Filipino canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, was a young missionary catechist who died a martyr in 1672. It was four years after traveling with Father Diego Luis San Vitores and other Jesuits to evangelize the Chamorros, the indigenous people of Guam. After rumor spread that the Jesuit baptismal water was poisoned, the Chamorros turned on the missionaries. Calungsod was hit by a spear in the chest while protecting Father Diego from two native aggressors. Almost three and a half centuries later, Calungsod, the first martyr of the Visayas Islands, was proclaimed a saint.

During the beatification of Calungsod, Pope John Paul II remarked that “in a spirit of faith, marked by a strong Eucharistic and Marian devotion, Pedro undertook the demanding work that was asked of him and bravely faced the many obstacles. and difficulties he encountered ”. The feast of San Pedro Calungsod is April 2. He is the patron saint of Filipino youth and an excellent example of a catechist willing to risk anything to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the world.

The gift of faith that the Filipino people have received and nurtured over the centuries has borne its most sublime fruits in the martyrdom and holiness of these two lay people, San Lorenzo Ruiz and San Pedro Calungsod.

On Saturday, September 18, 2021, the various Filipino communities in the Archdiocese of Washington, as well as the Archdiocese of Washington Cultural Diversity and Outreach Office, and the Cultural Diversity / Pacific Islands Affairs Secretariat and of the Asian Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States will celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines and the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Everyone is invited to attend this event, which will take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, starting with a procession at 9:30 a.m. followed by the rosary prayer at 10 a.m. and mass at 10:30 a.m. celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop of Washington Mario E. Dorsonville.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines prays that the historic celebration of 500 years of Christianity will spark a renewed commitment and enthusiasm among the Filipino people to continue with gratitude to live and share this precious gift of faith wherever it is in the world. the world.

(Rosemarie A. Ong is the Director of Human Resources for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington. She holds a Doctorate in Education from the Executive Leadership Program at George Washington University and a Masters in Human Resources Management from the Catholic University of America.)

In another sign, Donald Trump is considering a race to return to the White House, the former president and his religious advisers announced last week the launch of a National Faith Advisory Council, apparently intended to reinvigorate his conservative Christian base.

The new initiative, reported for the first time by the Jewish newspaper Before, was officially unveiled at a conference call hosted by Intercessors for America and led by longtime Trump adviser Paula Blanche.

The pastor of the Pentecostal mega-church said the new effort, which includes the participation of “70 cadres,” is intended to continue the “great work that we have done,” referring to the efforts she oversaw as as head of Trump’s White House denominational office.

White drew parallels with the creation of a previous “faith advisory board,” a likely reference to a group of largely evangelical Christian leaders who advised Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and functioned as informal advice on religious matters throughout his presidency.

“It has become the strongest coalition in modern history,” White said of the work of the board. “Our unity has brought unprecedented victories, influence and access. “

White was joined by Jennifer Korn, who was previously Special Assistant to then-President Trump through her White House Public Liaison Office. Korn told listeners that the new National Faith Advisory Board “will continue the work of the White House Public Liaison Office outside to ensure that we are one strong voice.”

Trump echoed most of the rest of the call with lengthy remarks in which he wavered between criticizing President Joe Biden’s record on denominational issues – “a lot has happened in regards to faith and religion , and those are not good things “- and praising his own mandate, saying:” One of my greatest honors has been to fight for religious freedom and to defend the Judeo-Christian values ​​and principles of the foundation of our nation. “

He listed various accomplishments of the Trump administration popular with conservative Christians, such as the designation Jerusalem the capital of Israel, found a new religious office at the White House, declare churches “essential” during the coronavirus pandemic and appointing conservative justices to the federal bench and the Supreme Court.

Trump hinted at Supreme Court decision not to block last week controversial Texas abortion ban, saying, “Even last night you get some very powerful decisions, more powerful than anyone would have thought.”

He also reiterated the claim that he had “totally erased” the Johnson Amendment, a section of the U.S. tax code that prohibits religious groups and other nonprofits from supporting candidates. (Trump’s decree of 2017 was intended to hinder its application but did not remove the status.)

Trump then answered questions from leaders of various faith-based organizations, most of which are policy-oriented, including Jason Yates, CEO of My Faith Votes; Brian Burch, director of CatholicVote.org; Dave Kubal, head of Intercessors for America; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Director General of the Coalition for Jewish Values; and Dave Donaldson, co-founder of CityServe.

Responding to their questions, Trump criticized Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it a “mad rush” and lamenting the Taliban’s seizure of US military equipment.

Trump referred to hypothetical future scenarios “if we are able to come back”, while repeating the widely discredited claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. Discussing the Catholic vote, he admitted that he had lost ground with the bloc during his four years in power.

“I’m a little surprised that we didn’t do better with the Catholic vote,” Trump said. “I think now they would give us a vote. I think we got about 50 percent of the vote. And yet, we have done a lot for the Catholic vote. So we’ll have to talk to them. We’re going to have to meet the Catholics.

According to a recent election analysis published by Pew Research, Trump won the support of 50 percent of Catholics overall in 2020, a drop of 2 percentage points from 2016 (Biden took 49%, up from 44% for claimed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016) .

The change has been more dramatic among white Catholics, a Key constituency in the Rust Belt battlefield states: Trump’s share of that vote rose from 64% to 57% between 2016 and 2020, while Biden won 42%, an 11 percentage point improvement over Clinton in 2016.

The former president expressed frustration at the lack of support from Jewish voters, despite his administration’s support for Israel. “Look at what I did with the embassy in Jerusalem and what I did with so many other things. … Israel has never had a best friend, and yet I got 25% of the vote, ”Trump said. “I think they have to get together. There needs to be a little more unity with the religious groups all represented on this call.

The polls of Jewish voters in the 2020 election varied, with a Republican Jewish Coalition poll find 30 percent support for Trump and a separate survey led by the liberal J Street group reports only 21 percent.

Trump made similar remarks when answering a question from Yates of My Faith Votes.

“All I can tell you is I think we have to have a great election and we have to have a strong vote,” Trump said. “If we don’t have a very strong vote, then Jason, I’ll talk to you in the future, but it won’t be very positive.”

Trump, a former Presbyterian who converted to non-denominational Christianity towards the end of his term, was also asked directly about his belief in God.

“Everything is based on God, it’s so important,” he replied. “God is so important to the success of what we do. Because without God we have nothing.

The call ended with a prayer from Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church near Dallas, which Trump visited during his 2020 campaign. Morris was among the religious leaders who gathered in the White House rose garden to celebrating Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court in September of that year, a no-mask case later called a COVID-19 spreading event.

Morris prayed for Trump and his family, saying they “have suffered more attack from the enemy than any president we can remember.” He added, “And yet, Lord, he continues to stand strong for the Jewish people, and for Christians, and Lord, for the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation. “

Morris then concluded by echoing Trump’s criticisms of Biden and reiterating the debunked suggestion that the election was “stolen.”

“I pray for Americans who voted the wrong way,” he said. “I pray, God, that they will see what … bad administration, what it does to a great nation.” I pray, Lord, that You will do something even, too, Lord, for our electoral system. That we’ll never have another election stolen from the American people – the American people. We should be concerned about it. So Lord, whatever we have to do to fix the electoral process, I pray for it. “

At the end of the session, White told listeners that there would be monthly calls and to keep an eye on “instructions.”

“Thank you for this coalition of unity which has always had such influence and such power to make things happen,” she said. “We are in a great battle, but I feel we have the capacity to achieve great victories.”

Not everyone knows that it was the Catholic Church that invented and gave birth to the university. The values ​​that Christendom infused into the academic quest for knowledge led to an explosion of scientific discovery which became the scientific revolution. Slowly but surely, however, the tension on the mooring rope that has tied the university project to a search for universal philosophical and empirical truth has stretched more and more towards the breaking point.

At the University of Nottingham, the breach may have finally taken place, albeit in what will seem to many to be a small matter. To ignore the importance of this question because it seems small at first glance would be a mistake.

Any measure taken by a university to restrict or denounce the Catholic faith has a particular historical resonance. It also marks a moment of Oedipal intensity that presages a tragedy to come.

The University of Nottingham has taken steps to delegitimize the chaplain that the Catholic Church has appointed for the care of its students, staff and teachers.

The pathos is all the more profound since Fr. David Palmer, candidate for the episcopate, is a former student of Nottingham. They reject one of their own. It is certainly a damaging step reminiscent of an anti-Catholicism that marred civic life in this country in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it is more than that. It emerged from the fear and state and civic prejudice of one Christian group towards another.

This time, the civic reflex has shifted from anti-Catholic to anti-Christian. But in doing so, he has become anti-democratic, anti-tolerant and anti-inclusive in a real sense. We have the beginnings of a totalitarian political exclusion from public space.

The form that this intolerance takes is that of an awakened culture and its capture of Higher Education.

Despite the fact that its progressive propaganda campaign is perpetually driven by its rallying cries of “inclusion, equality and diversity”, every now and then there is a moment that exposes the deception and cover-up of secular political propaganda.

It should be all too obvious that if wokery really intended to practice inclusion, equality and diversity, then members of the Catholic Church would be protected and included “in”, not excluded “out”.

But because these words cover a very different set of values, it is only in times of crisis that the real agenda emerges through the haze of double-thinking and serpentine linguistics.

Perhaps aware that he was combing his hair in a corner, the University of Nottingham spokesperson claimed that Father Palmer faced not mere resistance from his views on abortion, but because of the the way he expressed them.

There are different ways to assess the viability and status of a fetus, but when one adopts the Catholic position that the fetus is a human being with a soul from the moment of conception, it is hard not to use words describing the destruction of the unborn child that are graphic.

Indeed, the pro-abortion lobby strives to choose euphemisms that mask the horror of cutting a living being into pieces in its mother’s womb. He goes to great lengths to censor the photographs that demonstrate the destruction of the fetal child. She tries to hide the abuse of power towards the child victim by focusing only on the mother’s rights over her own body. It should come as no surprise when abortion opponents take the same care to use the kind of language to express their opposition that is as explicit as those who advocate abortion.

The state of Texas has decided to introduce legislation restricting abortion until the time of birth. Putting aside the arbitrary measurement by weeks, he chose the heart rate measurement to decide the point at which the unborn child becomes safe. It’s as scientific as it is emotional, of course. The very name of the “Texas Heartbeat Act” has an emotional subtext that is hard to ignore.

Why should not the language used by Father Palmer and other advocates for unborn children be as carefully chosen and emotional as the language used to defend the rights, or more accurately, the interests of the mother?

It should come as no surprise to proponents of abortion that opponents of eliminating embryos growing in the womb emphasize the fact and significance of fetal heartbeat; and after having identified the embryo as fully potentially human, to speak of its destruction as the murder of a child. There is no scientific or empirical basis to justify preventing emotional language that describes an emotional situation.

Nottingham’s objection to the descriptive language used by Father Palmer is simply a fallacious way of disguising the crude politicization of its own censorship.

However, just the pressure to lose income or fall into public opinion is likely to make a difference in the University of Nottingham’s decision.

In a cohesive world where clarity of thought and spiritual discernment were valued and practiced, the entire Christian world as well as the Catholic community could unite around the ethical priority of protecting unborn children. In such a world, Christians would boycott the University of Nottingham for its attack on Catholicism as well as its repudiation of its own liberal values ​​of inclusion. Overseas charges would count more than domestic charges, but such a boycott could still have an impact.

The difficulty is that the Church in the West has become so confused by the pseudo-ethical values ​​that progressive politics claims to endorse, that it has become impossible for Christians to agree on the defense of fundamental ethical values. It has become difficult to know what utopian hook some Christians will not swallow in their need to appear morally up to date and acceptable to their neighbors.

A sign of hope is that some secularists are also beginning to denounce the illiberalism of the culture of cancellation. In support of Father Palmer, Ann Furedi, the former CEO of BPAS, the nation’s largest abortion provider, wrote on Twitter: “So stupid to cancel this guy. FFS is a Catholic priest – let Catholic students decide individually if they want his advice. “

Bari Weiss was previously a reporter for the New York Times. She was a progressive lesbian formed by the left. However, she too found herself called off by even Twitter’s woker warriors and lost her job.

She recently warned that the left woker is dividing the world into binaries along dangerously tribal, often racial lines. In this worldview – which is also becoming ubiquitous in Britain, she warned – people are either “victims, in which case you have moral authority” or “victims, in which case you were born in. this position ”and get stuck there.

She concluded in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that she sees only one solution to the cultural takeover by the identity-obsessed left – “they won, they took over all the elite institutions in America, period “- and it’s starting over: new publishing houses, newspapers, film studios, think tanks, even schools and universities.

When someone like Weiss warns that the point of no return has been reached, we should sit down and take note.

Rod Dreher, author of Benedict Option, offered the Christian West the same analysis: the culture war has not only been lost, but lost so catastrophically that there is no way to return to the public arena. . Christians will need to make their own private arrangements as a Christian community for a variety of businesses, including medicine, education, and legal representation.

It was dismissed by many at the time as being far too apocalyptic. But now that his analysis has been endorsed by thinkers like Weiss, some may think again.

Father Palmer and the Catholic community are asking the University of Nottingham to reverse the censorship of his appointment. To date, there is no indication that they will. This moment may prove to be a turning point as other universities across the country look to see if there is any real opposition to their illiberal censorship of Christianity.

Speaking of another totalitarian attack on freedom, a threat from the fascist right, Martin Niemöller wrote the famous lines: –

“First, they came looking for the socialists, and I didn’t speak because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came looking for the trade unionists, and I didn’t say anything – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came looking for the Jews, and I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came to get me, and there was no one left to speak for me. “

This time, when we are faced with a threat from the totalitarian left, the poem could begin: “They first came for the Catholics …”

Dr Gavin Ashenden is a former Chaplain to the Queen. He blogs on Ashenden.org