I leave a WhatsApp group the moment people begin posting the same old, tired, gasping-for-breath anti-caliphate rants.
These hot-headed religious bigots espouse what I term Taliban Christianity.
How conceited they are to think they can protect The Faith from extinction.
They believe they can achieve this by going against the most fundamental tenets of that same faith.
How pathetic that they delude themselves into believing that, to survive, our great Faith needs a defender like Donald J. Trump.
Fast forward to September/October 2025.
These Taliban Christians are now preparing to lay Nigeria to waste under the pretense that there is a “genocide against Christians.”
They want to make Africa’s most populous nation a testing ground for their regular trademark — sorrows, tears, and blood.
Yesterday, October 4, 2025, I had the distinct displeasure of debating with someone who styled himself as part of a group of “intellectuals.”
They claimed to have compiled evidence of this so-called genocide and presented it to the U.S. Congress.
I told him, “I hope you also compiled evidence of all the peace efforts your group of intellectuals started which failed — and your post-mortem analysis of why they failed.”
I also told him:
“There’s nothing more unpatriotic—and unchristian—than rushing off to the U.S. Congress to talk about a genocide which, in reality, is a conflict with ancient roots.
What about the Muslims killed by these same ‘Islamic’ terrorists — do their lives not matter?
Whatever clashes exist between these terrorists and Christians is a sign of the times.
At the bottom of it all is poverty — poverty both material and spiritual — on both sides of the religious divide.”
I should have added:
“The U.S. Congress should send you all back with this simple admonition:
‘To jaw-jaw is better than to war-war.’
It is, after all, an Americanism — one sadly lost in today’s climate of recklessness and geopolitical arrogance.”
As Nigerians, with each passing day, many innocent women and children are caught in the endless, bloody cycle of violence between farmers of one religion and herders of another.
Stopping this should be our primary concern — not inviting foreign powers to join in drinking from the cup of grief.
The Irony of Christian Militancy
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been a huge letdown.
How grievous it must be to Jesus that we choose to fight—rather than turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give our shirt also when they ask for our coat.
We were meant to win over our adversaries with transparent love — with a desire to draw them into the life we live, with Jesus at the center of our being.
Not snarl and rattle our sabres to show how long our concealed fangs really are.
I once tried to discuss this with a very senior lawyer friend, but he told me, “That would be the peace of the grave,” and added that I was suffering from the Stockholm syndrome.
I remember responding:
“You do not trust that obeying the words of Jesus will take you to an expected end — yet you trust that paying tithes, which Jesus never mentioned nor asked you to, will make you prosper?”
Do we Christians really think we can save our religion — one that changed human history without swords — by fighting or defending it with swords?
A faith that survived Emperor Nero, Caligula, and all the Caesars — do we now think we can save it through fiery intolerance toward other religions?
What happened to the weapons of warfare bequeathed to us?
The Weapons of Warfare
2 Corinthians 10:3–5
We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do.
The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Every argument I have ever made against Christian militancy pales into shameful insignificance beside those three verses.
They also put to shame the TV and radio evangelists who invade living rooms preaching hate and bigotry.
What happened to the weapons of warfare bequeathed to us?
What happened to Love?
The Roadmap: Love for God’s Glory
1 Peter 4:7–9 gives us a roadmap on how to love for God’s glory:
“The end of all things is near.
Therefore, be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Show hospitality to one another without complaining.”
Let’s pause at verse 7:
“The end of all things is near; therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.”
To be able to pray, we need clear-mindedness and sobriety.
And we need to be able to pray — because the end of all things is near.
On Clear-Mindedness
Clear-mindedness, or mental clarity, is the ability to think and focus without confusion or distraction — allowing for rational decision-making, calm discernment, and a mind free from worry or overwhelming emotion.
From a Christian point of view, to be clear-minded is to have spiritual and emotional clarity — the ability to think straight without being clouded by fear, anger, greed, or pride.
It is not just mental focus; it is spiritual focus.
On Sobriety
What, then, is sobriety?
Sobriety means self-restraint, discretion, and prudence.
It means balance — being calm, self-controlled, and unshaken by extremes.
A sober Christian does not get intoxicated by power, politics, pleasure, or even religion.
They are steady — serious about life, yet peaceful and watchful.
When St. Peter says, “Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray,” he is saying:
- Discern what truly matters.
- See through deception.
- Refuse to let emotion or hysteria drive your choices.
So that your prayers do not drift into panic or selfishness.
Above All—Love
“Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
After all the wars, debates, and doctrines, Peter returns us to the core of the Gospel: Love.
Then he adds, “Show hospitality to one another—without complaining.”
How, then, has the religion of Love become the religion of hate?
Forget what is going on in the world for a moment and ask yourself:
Are we being tried?
Is the Body of Christ being tried?
#OldManInTheMolue | #dk
(October 2025 Edition — from an idea first penned in January 2019)
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