Religionism is stupid. And I mean that for any religion. Yes you heard me. Stupid. Dumb. In fact daft! Did you say you thought I was a Pastor. Don’t think. I am one. But that does not change my assertion. Karl Max was right. Religion can be like opium, transporting people to cloud nine heights of fantasy and transmogrifying esoteric. Mind-numbing. Illusory. Nerve soothing. But deadly.
I am miffed at the trending controversy on hijabs and choir robes masquerading as school uniforms in schools in Osun State. The matter and its attendant raging polemics have distracted our attention from more serious issues in our polity.
As a growing child, I learnt the aphorism that the hood does not make the monk. That did not make sense to me until I grew up seeing “padres” in mind-boggling sexcapades and scandals, including pedophilia!
Whoever said that a hijab makes a true ‘Muslima’? Or that a choir robe is the hallmark of chastity and God’s brand on a true Christian? A hijab can be a good cover for the most heinous intents and devious conduct. Many “ulamaas” probing fingers are ambidextrous in their versatility when it comes to removing hijabs in the manifestation of their dysfunctionality as unrepentant teenager defilers and pedophilic vampires!
Conversely, many babes in choir robes with their voluptuous lobes continue to have endless romps of countless orgies in choirmasters’ beds. If the uniform were the brand, then anyone who ever wore a ‘jalamia’ or ‘babanriga’ automatically became a ‘muslim ulamaa’. And anyone who ever donned a suit or shirt and trousers became a baptized Christian.
But then it wouldn’t be religion if it didn’t glorify externals above internal transformation. In the Greek there are two different words for “transformation”. One is “metamorphoo” from where you get “metamorphosis”. This entails a change from within that gradually produces an outward manifestation like the story of a butterfly. It is the type spoken of in Romans 12:2. The other is “metaschimatizo” which is a cosmetic external make-believe that masks the rot within and deceives all who see it into believing something other than the reality. This is implied in 2Cor.11:13-15. Another word for it is disguise.
I know no better disguise than robes. The Pharisees’ trademark. Hear what Jesus said about them,
“Beware of the scribes who walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogue…who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers”.
Did you notice that the pious robes didn’t stop them from preying on vulnerable widows? Jesus’ pronouncement is clearly unambiguous, “They will receive greater condemnation”.
A hijab doesn’t make you a true representative of Prophet Mohammed any more than a choir robe makes anyone an ambassador of Christ. And to those of my faith who are carried away by this shenanigan, hear this ‘gospel’ from me. You are DISTRACTED. I love you enough to let you know. That you have ventilated so much angst on this matter is a demonstration of the fact that you have departed from your first love.
REPENT and BELIEVE the gospel. Jesus Christ and the liberating work of Calvary constitute the kernel of the gospel. His righteousness is the believer’s robe! Any other is a disguise! Entering heaven has never been predicated on the wearing of choir robes! The required uniform, my Bible tells me, is the righteousness of God in Christ!
Hear Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 2:2 “for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”. Even as important as baptism is to the believer, Paul didn’t rate it at par with the gospel of Christ. 1 Cor. 1:17 states “For Christ didn’t send me to baptize but to preach the gospel…”. In Colossians 2:18-19, he counsels, “Let no one deceive you, insisting on asceticism…visions, puffed up…by his sensuous mind and NOT HOLDING FAST TO THE HEAD (Christ) from whom the whole body…grows with a growth that is from Christ”. On the issues of legalism- don’t touch this, don’t eat that, don’t wear this, etc, he had this to say, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of NO VALUE IN STOPPING THE INDULGENCE OF THE FLESH!”
Daniel in Babylon didn’t speak Hebrew. He came in as a young captive boy into the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. The system changed his name, his language, the diet, the literature, but they couldn’t change his CONTENT. Joseph was given an Egyptian name by Pharaoh. He spoke in Egyptian to his brothers! Yet his CONTENT was intact.
You should be more concerned with the GOD-CONTENT of your children than you are with donning them in the disguise of your RELIGION – Islam or Christianity! Yes, the forte of Christianity is CHRIST. When you take your eyes of that and focus on inanities, you downgrade it to a religion; man’s contrived manner of making God in his own image.
The God of the Bible is neither confused nor confusing. His message is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Stick to that and you can never be wrong. For this reason, Paul counsels, “Preach the gospel, be instant in season and out of season…”
Put the school uniforms back on your children. Unless the choir robes make them more like Christ or makes them ‘A’ students!
And to the Muslim, unless that hijab guarantees that your daughters remain virgins until marriage or intend to be some of the seventy virgins promised to a man in Al-janna or the Muslim’s understanding of paradise. And unless it means that they have mastered the Hadith and walk in its precepts, please put their uniforms back on them.
And by the way, is it every Christian girl that is in the choir or a member of Girls Guide? So what happens to those who are in neither? Yeyenatu!
Using your prejudices to contaminate the lives of these children and teach them intolerance and hate is one thing you will give account for before your Maker. Teach your wards the WAYS of GOD and they would not need a disguise!
And if you continue on this wayward path, you are exactly what I said religionism is.
Did I hear you repeat STUPID? Thou sayest!!!
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
and then