Transcending Evil: Faith and the Limits of Politics

In the wake of last weekend's mass-shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, I am of the opinion that the commentaries and responses from faith-leaders are lacking in moral clarity and spiritual substance. For instance, many have called for an increased emphasis on mental health, but the mental health appeal merely sanitizes the problem and reduces it to simplicity. The problems of mass murders and spree killings are too complex to be reduced to a diagnosis and a pill.

As a matter of faith, churches have a prima facie duty to look evil in the eyes and call it for what it is...evil. El Paso and Dayton are acts of unmitigated evil and should be condemned as such. Meaninglessness without a conscience rebels in desperation against society; it sees itself as the victim of society's successes and progress and lashes out in antipathy and hostility. The faith community must respond out of a sense of crisis and biblically inspired vision by "re-creating" meaning and meaningfulness individually, socially, nationally, and institutionally, through a renewed commitment to righteousness, which is the best and most fundamental solution to unconscionable evil. Equally, faith-leaders must be resilient in reclaiming the efficacy of biblical authority by proclaiming God as the Great I Am who speaks life over death and peace over human conflict and suffering.

Genesis 6:5–8, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

My main point or question is this: when will we understand that this problem is way bigger than politics?...it is supernatural and thus requires a supernatural response spearheaded by faith leaders and the entire faith community. Evil is in the hearts and minds of humanity, and heart and mind, expressed through will and reason, can only be "transformed by the “renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). Politics will never, ever, ever have an answer to this magnitude of wickedness because as evil has metastasized and evolved over the centuries, politics as an institution enables evil by its lust for power and its relentless appetite to foment division, despair, alienation, moral compromise, and moral crisis with reckless disregard. From Old Testament evil, through the Dark Ages, resurfacing as the African Slave Trade, Jim Crow Laws, and the Black Codes, again through human trafficking, again through serial murderers, terrorism (from the IRA to Isis), to church burnings, church killings, and today’s mass killings, evil, in all its permutations throughout history, remains alive and deeply intertwined in political life globally. This is the reality of evil and politics, and until the people of faith respond biblically, evil will continue to run its course and feed off human ignorance and arrogance with relentless destruction. Wake up church, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood".

Ephesians 6:12-18 King James Version (KJV)

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints[.]

The man whom God has taken to Himself, sentenced and awakened to a new life, this is Jesus Christ. In Him it is all mankind. It is ourselves. Only the form

of Jesus Christ confronts the world and defeats it. And it is from this form alone that there comes the formation of a new world, a world which is reconciled with God. - Bonhoeffer, Ethics

Nigeria's Middle Belt: the Silence of the Christians

Since doing this blog on-and-off over the past year (Murphy's Law is really real), I continue to find myself drawn to the constant drumbeat from thought leaders throughout the African continent whose drums beat loudly in unison around the message of moral leadership, government integrity, and moral transformation in Africa. With prolonged sectarian violence resulting in genocidal conditions, Nigeria seems to be one of the more outspoken countries when it comes to the issues of morality, leadership, and government.

In the July 12th article at dailypost.ng titled, UK report indicts Buhari Govt over alleged killing of Christians, makes shocking revelations, the pathology of Nigeria's turmoil is laid bare to the world. At its core are the pervasive problems of religious persecution, inaction, indifference, and complicity in what many are calling genocide in Nigeria. The article clearly chronicles these hellish conditions, which the author captures in the following:

The “intensification of conflict” in Nigeria in recent years comes at a time when Christians in the country have suffered some of the worst atrocities inflicted on Churchgoers anywhere in the world. Since 2009, Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group in “allegiance” with Daesh (ISIS) extremists in Iraq and Syria, has 424 “inflicted mass terror on civilians, killing 20,000 Nigerians, kidnapping thousands and displacing nearly two million”.425 The kidnapping of “mostly Christian girls”426 from a school in Chibok north-east Nigeria in April 2014 and the forced “conversions” to Islam of many of the students, demonstrated the anti-Christian 427 agenda of the militants.

The reader quickly comes to grips with the realities of Nigeria's Middle Belt, a region replete with torture, kidnappings, and killings, where over 20,000 Nigerians have been murdered since 2009! Amid the carnage and bloodshed, the silence from the world community is as disturbing as it is deafening. News coverage has been scant, and international leaders offer no floor speeches, resolutions, or in-country meetings on behalf of persecuted Nigerian Christians. One would think that at least religious leaders or ecumenical organizations would champion Nigeria's cause under the banner of human rights, but silence prevails here too.

Ethnic and religious conflict has been a part of Nigeria's history far too long, but as Eniola Anuoluwapo Soyemi writes in her 2016 article that appeared in The Conversation,

Failures of a weak state are to blame for Nigeria’s ethnicity problem, the problem begins and ends with the State and the government's inability to enact policies that facilitate cultural and ethnic trust among its many demographic groups. This is a compelling article that offers a excellent analysis as reflected in the passage below.

Although ethnicity is far from being a uniquely Nigerian phenomenon, it presents a serious challenge to Nigeria’s stability.

If we are to believe Robert Putnam’s thesis on national cohesion, trust is at the very centre of any successfully functioning society. But this trust is something that nation after nation, and country after country, has always had to build. And in Nigeria’s case, an inability to take nation-building seriously has enabled the persistence of the country’s ethnic divisions.

Ethnic divisions persist in countries like Nigeria not because the “cultures” of those countries are predisposed to ethnic strife, but as a result of a weak state. It is a weak state that has, up until now, been incapable of capitalising on policies that enhance and benefit a singular Nigerian national identity.

Countries like Nigeria, which has more than 250 ethnic groups and more than 500 spoken languages, are tautologically explained to simply be too “culturally” heterogeneous to ever be cohesive. It does not help that often “culture” takes on any and whatever meaning the user wishes to imply.

Sadly, where the Nigerian state does make an impact on the lives of individuals, these benefits are rarely in the provision of public goods available to all without consideration to wealth, gender, or ethnicity. Instead, it is in the provision of narrow economic benefits to individuals with personal links to specific actors in government.

As such, the socioeconomic importance of ethnic ties is maintained, and so is ethnic-based mistrust.

Soyemi convincincingly captures the essence of Nigeria's complex socioeconomic situation, and deeply rooted in this turmoil are the problems of religious intolerance and religious persecution. From world leaders to the global faith-community, the silence of the Christians worldwide must be broken to shed light on the atrocities in Nigeria's Middle Belt and to elevate everyone's moral expectations and moral outrage to effectuate change for the common good. Thankfully, Catholic bishops in Nigeria are challenging the government to reform and respond in meaningful ways. Ultimately, if conditions continue to deteriorate, church leaders globally must descend upon Nigeria as the collective Christian voice to defend religious freedom and to overwhelm inhumanity with boldness and the power of purpose in efforts to restore order and rebuild the walls of Nigeria, socially, politically, economically, and spiritually (1).

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1. "Rebuild the Walls" is a direct reference to the biblical story of the prophet Nehemiah and his vision to move Jerusalem from desolation to restoration. See Nehemiah 1:1-7; 2: 4-5, 17-18.