Where did religion go wrong?

Sedem Ofori, the author

The common difficulty one encounters in discussing religion in rational terms is the question of faith. Faith portends personal convictions, abstract sets of ideas, values, and experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. It tends to draw a perfectly logical scrutiny of the subject into the realms of the exoteric. This is a problem.

I am in agreement with the view that religion has been a useful enterprise to human progress, more the norm than the exception I think. Religion has the noble objective of imposing moral obligations on mankind, and it has to a good extent given material basis to the concept of hope. Hope; religion's most lucrative commodity. But I am apt to assume also that religion is ailing in our world today.

The past decade has been among the most trying for organised faith globally. Christian villages in Jos are still reeling from their loss after a savage attack by Fulani men in Northern Nigeria. The attack is believed to have been carried out by Moslems in retaliation to an earlier one they suffered. It is not the first of its kind.

The Catholic clergy is in court to salvage whatever is left of her public esteem amidst charges of widespread child sex abuses and the most ungodly of conducts. The Islamic community is grappling with the insurgence of radical doctrine in its fold, which extols violence and carnage as legitimate instruments of self assertion. Gays and Lesbians are taking to the Anglican pulpit in cassock; bringing division to the church.

And here in Ghana, many a Christian following are still coming to terms with persistent reports of shameful crimes of rape, defilement and incest perpetuated by men of pastoral reverence.

Only last week I produced a radio discussion on Joy FM about religion; the doubling of classrooms, factories and public parks as church grounds. And how radio and TV platforms have been inundated with commercial adverts by churches and “men of God” who profess quick-fix solutions to all human problems. For such blatant impossibilities to bare even the slightest vestige of truth points to the endearing exactness of Karl Marx's assertion that, religion is the opiate of the masses.

The supposition that a sane man can live in a trouble-free world is more of a utopian ideal to me than of material significance. Progress itself exists only where there are impairments.

So where did religion go wrong? Since when did the Gods become so puny that men have to fight wars on their behalf? We offer chickens to scrawny deities and our woes persist. The fact is that religion and its corresponding rituals are really man's invention; to fill some mysterious void in his being. If understood, then religion is really a cultural product. In a sense your religion reflects your outlook on life. There is a curious correlation between a people's faith or religion and their communal progress. Christianity or Islam or Buddhism cannot be said to be working well where crime and exploitation thrives.

Take Japan for example. Most homes in Japan have a sacrosanct arena for the imploration of deities. The Japanese generally appear to be more inclined to religiosity than Ghanaians, and yet their social discipline and commitment to work and material progress by far surpasses that of Ghana.

We may want to take some refuge in our historical experiences of slavery and colonialism, and that may be fair. But to think that Japan which has no Gold, Diamonds, Bauxite, Silver, has very little fertile lands, is riddled with volcanic mountains and where earthquakes are common-place, yet, has the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and the third largest in purchasing power parity, is the world's fourth largest exporter and fifth largest importer, is the only Asian country in the G8 and is currently serving as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, has a very high living standards (10th highest HDI), has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world... should raise two important prognosis; either the Ghanaian's religion and his God are slow to progress, or the Ghanaian has a problem.

As a cultural out-spring, religion should necessarily grow with knowledge. But an honest observation will show that the moral ethos which undergirded the Jim Crow era; being the hypocrisy of the doctrinal formulations of the religious institutions (especially the white churches) then, and their ethical ambiguity when applied to slavery and human exploitation, has not radically changed from today's reality. They have only assumed new forms.

How do we explain the phenomenon where religious infrastructure keep growing at pace with crime, poverty, ignorance and injustice? I am tempted to think that the forms and symbolism of worship have taken centre-stage over substance.

The obsession has been more with winning converts and expanding territory, than imbibing enduring moral values in practitioners. In this regard, I have equal loathing for the manipulator as I do for the gullible. May I caution though that, I do not by this article seek merely to castigate religion. That will be futile. Instead I am calling religions and their practitioners to conscience, and to remind them of their moral obligation to a world in peril. The joy of prosperity and the promise of dignified life cannot be enjoyed by a few on earth while the vast majority cling on to hopes in the hereafter. If God is for all men, then his/her bread must be broken by all.

Author: Sedem Ofori, Producer (SMS, Frontpage)