What are the churches doing wrong?
Published:Tuesday | April 23, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
With more churches per capita than any other country in the world, the irony of the heartrending crime and violence that occur in the nation on a daily basis is overwhelming, as the latest horror displaces the former.
A child, or an adult missing, with the anticipation of death as the result, is as familiar as the rising and setting of the sun. Yet, the barbaric acts of vigilante justice in revenging that crime on someone who confesses to the murder, especially if he’s mentally ill and perhaps is dreaming, is no less brutish than the crime it claims to be addressing. Smoking fury overrides the need for proof or evidence every time, as we widen the scope of slaughter and bloodshed, even if the confessor was not the actual murderer.
Friday up to Sunday, churches were filled, yet amidst this moment of reflection and gratitude for the selfless love that Jesus showed in offering His own life to spare ours, this brutal and animalistic disposition to each other rages on.
If the central theme of the Bible is love (I John 4:8), and yet a spirit of hate seems to be the force that is propelling the country, maybe the churches are doing something wrong. Maybe a need for financial security among its leaders has compromised the Word of God for expedience and material profit. Or maybe the congregations have become too acclimatised to the main requirement of offering their weekly tithes for cancelling sins and purchasing their homes in heaven, even without having to attend church. Maybe the church is only an occasion for personal stress relief and spiritual repose without much emphasis on living by the Bible’s requirements – or maybe most of these churches are just wrong (Matthew 7: 21).
HOMER SYLVESTER