The Christian factor in 2015 Presidential Election

It was with great joy I received the announcement that General Muhammed Buhari, All People’s Congress (APC) presidential aspirant chose Professor Yemi Osinbajo as vice presidential running mate for the 2015 presidential election. Though under the guidance and anointing of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who withdrew himself from consideration on the presidential ticket of the party, described his move as a patriotic duty and personal contribution towards rescuing Nigeria from the clutches of poverty which he said the ruling government had plunged the country.

That’s another topic for another day how the PDP under President Goodluck Jonathan has fared in delivering the promises made to Nigerians. My interest today is the emergence of Osinbajo as the number two man for Buhari. Their task is to wrestle the instruments of power from the present administration and the onus is on Nigerians to vote for their choice of candidates. But the Osinbajo emergence is a clear prove that religion is among the chief plausible that can actually deliver block votes in an election in Nigeria. The Nigerian case is a proof that one might not just be as good as the best or better than the best but your religious affiliation or beliefs might just be a support base.

Osinbajo is a Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) pastor in Lagos, where it is believed they have the largest congregation of Christians in the country. On paper, Osinbajo should get a sizable votes of Christians considering he’s a senior pastor and an associate of Pastor E.A Adeboye, the General Overseer of the church. Though the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has denied that the church endorsed the aspiration of one of its pastors, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress.

Osinbajo pastors the Olive branch of the RCCG on Banana Island, Lagos, has said he has the blessings of Pastor Adeboye.  Adeboye, while reacting to the subtle endorsement of Osibajo by a Twitter handle: @rccgworldwide, presumed to be the official Twitter handle of the RCCG, denounced the page.

Though Adeboye has never supported any candidate in time past, same like other mega church pastors but it is time they present blueprints for Christian politicians who seek the church's blessings in whatever guise. There is nothing wrong for the church to identify with a candidate or policy especially when you don’t use the church as a campaign tool for any political party or candidate.

Christians as we all know are when rightly informed and motivated, change the character of political debate. They bring the moral standards of God’s kingdom into the civic realm and thereby become agents of His common grace — of His provision for those who believe as well as those who don’t. The church I mean the Christians should be able to use the opportunity having a Christian incumbent president and a Christian vice presidential aspirant to present an agenda for a change for the good of Nigeria. The church should bring the God’s standard into society as we have suffered too much corruption and stealing from supposed Christians in high offices including Muslims, but my focus is on Christians be it in political offices, private or public offices. One wonders what exactly the church has done to curb these excesses. Is it that the gospel is not preached effectively for people to sincerely convert to better persons for society?

 People are no longer their brother’s keeper, they steal and sleep with each other’s wives in reference to Obasanjo's book "My watch", and how political officers flirt with each other’s wives. Of course I and you know some of these rogues are Christians who attend churches.

We need the church to be the shining light in politics and help change the system for better. The church should task Goodluck Jonathan and General Buhari ahead of the 2015 elections, since the pulpit is where some of them will still come for special anointing and Holy Spirit direction to win an election. There is no time to seat on the fence and wait after the deed is done and task millions of Christians to go on 40-day dry fasting to heal the land. Let’s act now and save the church from becoming a laughing stock in the polity. The prayers of the saint have sustained the country to where we are at today but it is enough to always pray for change when the instruments of change can be used to instill change.

Christians in Nigeria, then, must enter politics because the Church conveys moral values. As the late James Boice once wrote, “Religious people are … the only citizens who actually advance the nation in the direction of justice and true righteousness.” Christianity not only provides for individual concerns, but for the ordering of a society with liberty and justice for all. Christianity provides both a transcendent moral influence and a transcendent ordering of society without an oppressive theocratic system.

Society’s well-being, then, depends on a robust religious influence. We don’t need more laws, Boice stated, arguing that without a moral citizenry even existing laws can be used immorally. The nation needs people willing to live by God’s moral laws. That’s the only way to retard evil’s advance. It’s also how the moral standards of God’s kingdom gain ground and community life becomes packaged in the image and likeness of the heavenly city.

Civil government benefits from a community of people whose lives testify to God’s standard according to Bible teachings.  The whole of human society requires a community that believes some things are right and some wrong, and which adheres to the God-given wisdom that pervades all creation (see Proverbs 8 and Proverbs 22).

Christians are restraining influence in any society. If injustice, corruption and insecurity are the problems of our society and Christians are not talking about it then we are in serious problem. Contrary to popular belief it is not government that is to promulgate moral vision for society. That duty belongs to other social institutions, especially the Church. When the state steps beyond the bounds of its intended authority, the Church becomes a veritable source of moral resistance.  But it doesn't resist for its own sake; it doesn't resist gathering power or broadening its own following; it resists for the common good. As Christians — those in government as well as those outside — should bring their Christian conscience, into the main polity. Christians needed to be involved, not to force their godly life or morals onto society as a whole, but to advocate for justice, show respect for life, and support the poor.

Condoms in the Church: To speak or not to speak?

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. A group of youth can be seen chatting and laughing soon after attending the second service at one of the most-attended churches in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Their youthful Pastor has asked them to stay around for a special announcement he could not deliver during the service.

The news, the Pastor says a few minutes later after the youth are gathered again, is all about a youth camp the Church has organised. It will be held in Bagamoyo, and so, individuals have to make some cash contributions.
In the meeting are Nevil, a 23-year-old choir member, and Abraham, 24, also an active church member. Sitting next to each other, the two seem excited at the news. They sign in for the camp meeting.

Since that day, the two have been calling each other and meeting secretly after several Church services. At first, it is as innocent friends. But before long, Abraham makes his intentions known to Nevil. She also confesses that she has had feelings for him since a long time ago. So, the affair starts.

It blossoms a month later, when the two join the youth on a bus to Bagamoyo for the two-day-camp. They are sitting next to each other, singing and chatting with everyone else. Many of their peers are also sitting in pairs on the bus – sister next to brother.
Abraham makes a move on Nevil. She can’t resist, and before they know it, they have become intimate. From here, sex becomes a part of their affair. This is despite the ‘no sex before marriage’ teachings in their church. They have made sure their sexual relationship is a closely guarded secret.

While the Church continues to preach against sex before marriage in accordance with the Bible, the influence of the media and a host of other external factors are increasingly making it difficult for this message to be taken seriously, especially by the young generation.

In Tanzania, cases of Church member pregnancies out of wedlock are no longer news to many. For instance, by all indications, an increasing number of young people are tying the knot when the girl is already pregnant.

Moral decadence
It is the new generation and the Church has not been spared by a wave of moral decadence fanned especially by the media, and a tendency by today’s young people to worship Western celebrity culture.

So, despite all the strict rules that the Bible and religious leaders have set, youth in churches still practise sex and it is no longer a secret. And forget about those kinds of youth who go to Church every Sunday for a service and come back. Think of choir members, praise and worship members and many more who are very active in Church.

How safe are the sex exploits by this group of Tanzanian youth? Should sex education be a part of the sermon on Sunday?

“I think the time has come where by sex is supposed to be taught to our youth in churches because the more we make it a taboo the more we see them being destroyed by it,” says Emmanuel Mosha, a Lutheran Church elder with a Dar es Salaam parish. “It is time we came out in the open to say something about it.”

Mosha recalls three years ago when he was a youth elder at his parish. “We had a case of a choir chairman who impregnated two girls in the choir at the same time,” he says.

“He was a dedicated young man, but he fell for the temptation. No one believed it when the news broke out. Nobody ever imagined that this young man could mess up that way,” the Church leader says.
He adds: “Sex is all over in today’s world. It is talked about everywhere. Unfortunately, the Church is lagging behind in taking the bull by its horns.”

However, there are many other Church leaders who would not agree with the idea of talking condoms at the altar, and for obvious reasons. “If we start telling them how to use condoms and how they can have safer sex it will be like justifying that sex before marriage is good,” argues Pastor Andrew Mgonja of the New Holy Spirit Church in Mbezi Beach. “As Christians we are not supposed to justify sins. A sin is a sin no matter how small and sweet it is,” the cleric observes, adding:

“By allowing the youth to have sex before marriage, the Church would be going wrong. On the contrary the Church is supposed to keep on telling the youth that sex before marriage is dangerous not only because of the religious rules but also for their lives and health.”

Alice Kimambo, a praise and worship member with a Pentecostal church in Dar es Salaam corroborates. She notes that today the Church is less strict than it used to be when it comes to dealing with issues of sexual immorality.
“I can not really differentiate the experience I had in college and the one I am observing at church today,” says Alice, who is in her late 20s.

“I can tell you that in some places it is not such a big deal to see a guy dating two or three girls from the same Church. It happens and everyone knows it.”

This trend might not be too difficult to understand, after all. There are stories all over, of some people going to Church, not so much to worship but to seek marriage partners.

“I know of one beautiful girl, who used to be known for her loose behaviour in our neighbourhood, and nobody wanted to marry her. But when she realised time was running out she ‘repented’, joined a local church and became an active member of the choir,” says John, a 35-year-old Makongo Juu resident in Dar es Salaam, who attends a Pentecostal church. “It was not long before she got herself a serious brother, who wanted to settle down because she is stunningly beautiful. But she quit the Church soon after getting married, and she is back to her old ways.”

This is not an unusual case. For Christians, one is reminded of Bible teachings on ‘wolves in sheep clothes’, or warnings about ‘dogs in the Church’. Apparently, the place of worship today has become a strategic hideout for some people with bad intentions.

Too many people no longer go to Church with the same purpose of serving and worshiping God. Some women and men, take the Church as the place where they can easily prey on love partners. No wonder cases of HIV/Aids have become common in then Church.

“Our Pastors seem to hesitate when it comes to telling youth about sex. Their assumption is that since they are in the Church, these youth are saved. But this is not the reality on the ground,” says Alice, who joined her Church’s praise and worship team last year. “You see this especially during the youth seminars and camps. We are not told about sex and the safe way of doing it. What we hear is that sex is bad and no one is allowed to do it before marriage,” she adds.

Pastor Abel Kinana of Jesus Celebration Ministry believes talking about sex and condoms in Church is not such a bad idea, only that it has taught carefully.

Says the youth Pastor: “We hear about sex all the time. When the topic comes up among my youth in the Church, I do not push it to the corner.”

He notes that if the Church fails to openly talk about such issues from a Biblical perspective, the youth are going to get information from their friends, movies, TV shows or by experimenting for themselves.

“God wrote about physical intimacy in the Song of Solomon. He wrote about proper relationships, how to court each other (without sex involved) and how once we are married that we can consummate a wonderful and sometimes wild sexual relationship with each other,” concludes Pastor Abel.