OJUJU IS COMING

Last week I got into a heated(boiling) argument with my naija friend in the midst of my other roomies(Canadians). At first the topic was religion and everyone was talking about the bible. Claims were made on how parts of the bible are discriminatory against women. The ever popular issue of the bible not being complete and having books( eg Judas version, incomplete chapters from the book of peters etc). Then, the discussion shifted to other religions and Islam, Christianity's nemesis (you can beg to differ with this) was mentioned. Y'all know there's a lot of BS to be said about Islam. Suddenly, my naija broda claims authoritatively that Christianity is not a religion. I hear some people saying an amen to that. That's alright, we all have our personal opinions. Still, I'm going to break this down in my own way. We're(roomies and I) are all seated down talking about various religions; Buddhism, Islam, Taoism and BAM!!!Christianity should not be put side by side with these others. This claim that Christianity is not a religion implies that it is superior and in another level from other ways of worshiping and communicating to God.

If there's one thing never to do, never argue about religion, In fact I'm never doing it again. Regardless, some Nigerians tend to believe that Christianity is on another level from other world religions. We have this view that other religions are "heathen" and ours is the only true religion. This belief might have originated from the brain washing of the colonial days. While growing up as a kid, I had the belief that my native Nigerian religions were of the devil, thanks to the manner in which they were portrayed. As children we got scared by the names of native Nigerian gods. For reasons that bordered ignorance and intolerance, we believe that those who practise their native religions were devil worshippers. Some people might argue that if you're a true Christian, you should believe that Jesus is the only and true way of communicating to God. Well, the Muslims think the same way of Mohamed. Most "born again" Christians would ask you to choose if other religions( African traditional religions is right or wrong). Well, I do not have any right to judge if the wooden image, or Deity, worship is wrong or right. I can only see it as being a different way of worship.