An Honest President Is Not Enough to Fix Nigeria

Why personal integrity alone cannot fix Nigeria. Don Kenobi examines corruption, Peter Obi, institutional reform and the need for development.

Dear Dr. John,

Your hypothesis that “if the leader doesn't steal, then the followers are less inclined to steal” seems logical at face value, but in a country like Nigeria, it is profoundly wrong.

Profoundly so.

A Conversation I Have Never Forgotten

Let me tell you a story.

Around 2006, before the presidential elections of 2007, I was on a bus from the main car park to the office. Beside me sat a friend from the North.

“I’m so glad Yar’Adua has emerged as the PDP’s presidential candidate,” I told him.

He laughed.

“I thought you’d be happy,” I said.

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” he replied. “The man will not steal, but he will not achieve anything.”

He believed Yar’Adua’s record in Katsina already demonstrated that.

I have never forgotten that conversation. My friend may read this and remember it differently. I am recounting it as I remember it.

I am not minimising the importance of integrity. I am saying that developing Nigeria requires much more than an honest president.

Corruption Is Our National Dial Tone

Our problems are deeply embedded in our culture. That is the basis of my argument, my numerous hashtags and my book, Apprentice Nations: From Ruin to Renewal.

#CultureNotStructure

#ReCultureNotReStructure

Buy the book na!

Corruption is like the country’s dial tone. So much depends on it that, without it, things often refuse to move. To imagine that an honest president alone can fix Nigeria is to underestimate the problem.

Corruption is one thing. Development is another.

We must confront corruption while also making the country work.

Think of a bullet lodged near the heart. Sometimes, removing it immediately poses a greater danger than carefully managing the patient while deciding how to proceed.

I am not saying we should leave corruption alone. I am saying we must keep the country functioning while dealing with something deeply embedded in its institutions.

Peter Obi and the Problem of Ineptitude

And that is precisely why Peter Obi’s ineptitude bothers me so much.

Ineptitude generally bothers me, but it is particularly troubling in someone seeking to govern a country as complex as Nigeria.

Take away the bogeyman. Take away the scapegoats, the people to blame, the soundbites and the declarations of personal integrity.

What is left?

What exactly is he going to do?

He has not demonstrated the clear-headedness required to articulate whatever solutions he imagines he has.

And that is a serious problem.

Nigeria's problems will not disappear merely because the president sets a good example.

We Must Design Corruption Out of the System

We need systems that make corruption harder, expose it earlier and reduce opportunities for public officials to divert money.

We have to find ways to design those opportunities out of the system.

One proposal I have put forward is a network of regional central banks, one for each of the six geopolitical zones, with a seventh at the federal level. These institutions would finance development, with clear responsibilities and public oversight.

I am not pretending every detail is settled. These are ideas to be examined, challenged and improved.

That is what serious thinking about governance requires.

Boya-Jeka: Give Power Back to the People

That is also why I proposed, in Apprentice Nations, the Boya-Jeka ward assemblies, drawing inspiration from Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga.

People must be involved in decisions about their communities.

When government allocates money for a road, drainage or irrigation project, the people should know how much was allocated, what it will deliver and when it should be completed.

They should have the power to monitor the work and demand answers.

We must give power back to the people.

Citizens should not merely be spectators waiting for an honest president to rescue them. They must become participants in governance and auditors of the development taking place around them.

The Questions a Serious Presidential Candidate Must Answer

These are the questions a serious leader should be addressing.

“I am not corrupt” matters, but it does not answer them.

How will you change the incentives?

How will you make institutions work?

How will you empower citizens?

How will you deliver development while confronting corruption?

What will you do differently, and how will you make millions of public officials behave differently?

These questions require thought, strategy, institutional design and the capacity to execute.

Not soundbites.

Not slogans.

Not endless declarations of personal virtue.

Four Years? Who Asked You?

And Peter Obi says he will do all this in four years?

Who asked him?

If he is doing a good job, why only four years?

Why would someone seeking to undertake the enormous task of rebuilding Nigeria arbitrarily limit himself to a single term?

Is this a serious development strategy or simply another sales pitch?

My conclusion is simple.

He is just a salesman. He is not serious.

Nigeria needs more than a president who will not steal.

It needs a president who knows how to make the country work.

I hope this explains my position.

Don Kenobi
Writer | Author, Apprentice Nations: From Ruin to Renewal

The Looming Electoral Failure of an Apprentice Nation

Nigeria’s opposition appears unable to mount the kind of political challenge that could seriously threaten the ruling APC. Beyond the electoral arithmetic lies a deeper failure: the absence of compelling alternatives, rigorous public debate, and sustained pressure on government policies. The problem is not simply who wins the next election, but why successive governments reproduce the same failures.

Drawing on themes from Apprentice Nations: From Ruin to Renewal, Don Kenobi argues that Nigeria needs more than another change of leadership. It needs a revolution of thinking, stronger civic participation, and institutions that make government accountable to ordinary citizens. Through concepts such as Boya Jeka, he challenges Nigerians to move from passive spectatorship to collective responsibility for their country's future.

 

The list of the top 10 states by registered voters got me thinking....

State	Registered Voters
Lagos	7,488,633
Kano	6,570,276
Kaduna	4,662,640
Katsina	3,876,051
Rivers	3,736,434
Oyo	3,588,111
Delta	3,525,988
Benue	3,057,225
Ogun	3,037,981
Bauchi	3,012,547

Look at those numbers! Simple arithmetic. First thoughts? Make dem de play de go de go. (Tinubu is going nowhere.)

They’re all working for Tinubu, as far as I’m concerned: Atiku and Peter Obi. The only credible candidate out there, in my view, is Sowore. Him sef fit de operate behind smokescreen. At this late stage, I trust nobody.

But one thing I believe: the APC will not lose the coming elections. Anyone dreaming otherwise de play.

It’s all about hearts and minds. Serious candidates, by now, would have created a narrative that was virtually unassailable, a narrative in which ordinary Nigerians could see their future so clearly that Tinubu’s return became politically untenable.

By now, Tinubu ought to be panicking, reversing his atrocious tax laws, perhaps even reducing the price of fuel simply because the political pressure had become unbearable.

Whosai!

The man is powering on. And why? Because nobody is really putting him under the kind of political pressure that matters.

Not a single candidate is speaking seriously about bringing back the subsidy. Just open your mouth and say it! Create that possibility. Give people something to believe in. Create the political pressure. And when elected, do as everyone else has done: explain how difficult it is to actually implement.... (It's called politics.)

Instead, they’re lining up behind Tinubu, helping him explain why subsidy is gone for good.

Nobody is talking seriously about the tax laws either. Why should anyone pay taxes in this country at rates higher than what they were paying before? Government has not even adequately justified the previous rates, and now it wants to increase them?

If the country’s internally generated revenue is low, well… how is that our fault?!

Three decades of a profligate Fourth or Fifth Republic (I’ve stopped counting) brought us here. What about us? What about our own internally generated revenue? E nor de increase?

It should be quid pro quo. Increase our ability to generate revenue for ourselves internally, and then we can tolerate an increase in your own internally generated revenue.

Where is the candidate who stands up and says, "This is unacceptable. We will do it differently"? Where is the political argument against this inordinate tax increase?

Instead, the candidate who claims to be the people’s best friend seems more interested in travelling than engaging in serious intellectual debate. New York to pray for the victims of 9/11. Washington, D.C., to “consult” with Nigerians in the diaspora. Then Europe.

But where are the serious engagements with our universities: UNILAG, UNIBEN, ABU, UNN, UI, and Ife? Where are the lectures, the debates, the difficult questions from students and scholars about his vision for Nigeria?

A presidential ambition should be subjected to intellectual scrutiny, not sustained by endless appearances and reassuring platitudes.

That is the tragedy of political obscurantism: visibility without intellectual engagement, movement without direction, and rhetoric without the discipline of serious questioning.

Mercifully, he left Egypt out of his itinerary. Hopefully, he still remembers what they told him 4 years ago about electricity generation.

“He’s a clown. An annoying one,” someone said in a Molue a few days ago, before continuing, “Anyway, I will not be voting. Na una sabi.”

Me? I think the problem is larger than one election, one candidate or one administration. The failure we are witnessing is not merely electoral. It is institutional, historical and intellectual. We keep changing the people at the top without changing the arrangements that make failure possible.

That is why I wrote a book whose original subtitle was The Anatomy of Failure. The editors changed it to From Ruin to Renewal. A change I now regret. Because perhaps The Anatomy of Failure was actually the more important title.

Before we can renew anything, we must understand how we arrived at ruin. We must examine the habits, institutions and assumptions that keep reproducing the same outcomes, regardless of who occupies the presidency.

Apprentice Nations (link below) should, in my view, be in the hands of every Nigerian.

My vision for the book was that it might one day occupy something of the place that Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth occupied for generations of revolutionaries - across Africa and indeed the developing world.

Why? Because armed revolutions in Africa have largely failed. The need for a revolution of thinking is dire!

From Mozambique to Angola, from Zimbabwe to South Africa, and from Libya to Burkina Faso, we have repeatedly seen the same basic problem: changing the men at the top does not necessarily change the system underneath them.

Sometimes we change governments. Sometimes we change ideologies. Sometimes we change uniforms. But somehow, we keep reproducing the same failures.

Nigeria has tried its own versions of political rupture, military intervention and revolutionary rhetoric. Yet here we are.

What we need is NOT another armed revolution. What we need IS a revolution of thinking.

And that starts with anatomising the past.

It starts with asking why citizens remain spectators in a political system that claims to represent them. It starts with asking why public failure is tolerated for so long, why political promises are so easily abandoned, and why the people are repeatedly asked to endure conditions that would be considered intolerable elsewhere.

Those questions lead directly to one of the central concepts developed in the book: Boya Jeka.

Boya Jeka, in a certain Nigerian language, suggests: Oya! Let’s go. It is a barely disguised homage to Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga.

The Loya Jirga is hardly a democratic system in the conventional Western sense, but there is something instructive in the underlying idea of an assembly in which members of a community come together to discuss matters concerning their own welfare.

The idea is simple enough: people should have a mechanism through which their voices actually matter.

That mechanism must do more than provide the appearance of participation. It must create a genuine connection between citizens, their communities and the decisions that shape their lives. It must give people a way to identify problems, demand answers and organise around their own interests.

Nigerians, have you ever wondered why, after several decades of war, the roads in Afghanistan are better than the Benin–Auchi road?

Think about that for a moment.

Afghanistan has spent decades dealing with war, insurgency, foreign intervention and political instability. Yet here we are in Nigeria, on a major highway, watching trailers literally overturn as they attempt to traverse the Benin–Auchi road at the lowest possible speed.

How does that happen? How does a road become so bad, for so long, that heavy-duty trucks are effectively fighting for survival simply trying to pass through?

And more importantly, why does nobody seem to care enough to fix it?

Could it be because there is no real pushback? Because the voices of the masses are unheard? Because citizens have become spectators rather than participants in the political process? Or because the representatives we send to Abuja are more concerned with pursuing their own interests than with pursuing the interests of the people who elected them?

This is where Boya Jeka comes in. It is an attempt to provide a roadmap, not merely for changing governments, but for changing the relationship between citizens and power.

That is all a book can do. A book cannot build the road. It cannot repair the bridge. It cannot force a government to listen. It can only present a path forward and say: Here's another way.

The walking is up to us.

And perhaps this is the uncomfortable truth Nigerians need to confront: we are all complicit in our own imprisonment. By omission or by commission. By what we do and by what we refuse to do.

By the politicians we tolerate, the failures we normalise, the roads we endure, the institutions we abandon, the elections we reduce to tribal contests, and the years we spend waiting for somebody else to come and rescue us.

The point of Boya Jeka is not that someone else will save us. It is that we must create the means by which ordinary people can begin to act collectively, insist on accountability and reclaim responsibility for the conditions in which they live.

Other interesting concepts are Associocracy and Bank-ocracy.

I have done my bit.

I rest my case.

Obi Akaraiwe | Don Kenobi

Apprentice Nations | From Ruin to Renewal is published by #BigAgendaAfrica and may be found on Amazon using this link:

https://a.co/d/02CbKOou

“This Prosperity Gospel? It Is of the Devil”

With folks still clapping, the Oldman said almost offhandedly:

“This prosperity gospel? It is of the devil.”

It was a stunning statement.

The clapping stopped.

An unappreciative silence descended on the Molue, a mood he correctly read. Nobody said anything. He quickly backtracked, although it took me a long time to realise that he was not really backtracking at all. This was a deliberate, carefully thought-out attack on a doctrine he considered completely false.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “What I mean is, this prosperity gospel, e de do me somehow!”

That drew laughter. Relieved laughter.

“A few times,” he continued, “some of their praise songs sound like the kiss of Judas. Cold-blooded betrayal.”

By now it was raining heavily, and the sound of the raindrops striking the metal roof of the Molue was distinct, like thousands of tiny metal beads.

“For instance, why was it necessary to betray Jesus with a kiss?”

He had everyone’s attention. He left the question hanging in the air for a few seconds, then asked again:

“Why was a kiss necessary?”

The young student answered with a question.

“Perhaps he had a problem with what Jesus was teaching?”

“No!” the Oldman shot back. “If he had a problem with the Lord’s teachings, he would have stood like a real man, pointed at Jesus and shouted his grievances as he directed the Roman soldiers to the Lord!”

The student nodded.

“That was exactly what St. Paul did!” the Oldman continued.

“Word!” I exclaimed.

“Paul was a believer in every sense, albeit in the traditions and theology of his fathers. Judas, on the other hand, cared nothing for Jewish tradition or theology. If he did, he would not have spent three years following Jesus all over Judea. And, as it turned out, neither did he care for the teachings of the amazing young Rabbi.

“Judas cared only for himself.”

The noise of the rain seemed almost to pause to allow him to make his next point. I had not noticed it at the time, but listening to the tape recording years later, the background noise seemed to cease altogether.

The Order of St. Judas Iscariot

“Let us leave prosperity teachers and pastors for a moment and talk about prosperity followers. They may not realise it, but Judas Iscariot is their patron saint.”

Then the rain intensified.

The Oldman raised his voice to make himself heard above the hammering on the roof.

“Prosperity followers are, first, the ones with itchy ears. Those are the words of St. Paul. Second, the ones who will not tolerate sound doctrine, the ones who turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Third, they are the ones who gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.

“They are knights of the rapscallion Order of Judas, and their pastors are the Supreme Knights, Grand Advocates of the Order of St. Judas Iscariot!”

No one said a word.

It had become unbearably humid inside the Molue.

“You have digressed,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied, nodding solemnly and patting me on the back.

Once again, I felt useful to this ministry I had somehow just become part of.

May the Testimony of Demas Not Be Yours

“May the testimony of Demas not be your testimony, in Jesus’ name!” the Oldman proclaimed.

“Amen!” we responded.

“Say a louder Amen!”

“AMEN!”

“Say a louder Amen!”

“AMEN!”

“Now,” the Oldman said, “this is why you must say an Amen louder than that. In Philemon, Demas is praised by St. Paul. St. Paul calls him a ‘fellow worker.’ Amen?”

“Amen!”

“He is mentioned by Paul as a fellow worker alongside Mark and Luke. Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, and Luke the doctor wrote the Gospel of Luke. Gospels which have been read for thousands of years.

“There is no Book of Demas.

“Think about that.

“Nothing more is heard from Demas. The last words written about him in the Bible are: ‘For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.’”

He paused.

“Thank you, Sir,” I said, for no reason at all.

But perhaps there was a reason. The fact that he was doing all this for the love he had for Christ was inescapable.

He patted me on the shoulder and continued.

Back to Judas

“Back to Judas,” he said.

“Having betrayed Jesus with the barely disguised mockery of a kiss, Judas was himself immediately betrayed by Satan, also in a barely disguised manner.

“How do I know?

“He hanged himself!

“He had lost God, yes, but at least he still had his thirty pieces of silver. He might have steeped himself in River Lethe and tried to come to terms with his loss of God. Perhaps he might even have beaten a retreat to the Cross. I can only guess.

“But the loss of God was acute, and in all likelihood it was made worse by the barely disguised mockery of Satan.”

He paused again.

“Perhaps Satan called him a betrayer. Perhaps Satan said to him, ‘Get out of my sight, you betrayer!’”

Then, raising his voice, he asked:

“Would that be too mean for Satan to do?”

No one said a thing.

“Left desolate, bereft of hope, he killed himself!”

We all clapped.

“Thank you, Sir,” I heard myself saying on the tape as the applause continued.

I remember feeling grateful to God for this strange man who laboured so hard for the Gospel of Christ.

He nodded, rested his hand briefly on my shoulder and eased himself back into his seat.

“May the testimony of Judas and Demas not be your testimony, in Jesus’ name!”

The Molue erupted.

“AMEN!”

Rain on the Roof of the Molue

This was already a Wednesday to remember forever.

It had begun with the Lord speaking to me as I stood beside the railway track, calling me by my name and saying, laconically:

“I change!”

Rain had now been falling steadily for almost an hour.

The raindrops kept up their staccato rhythm on the metal roof of the Molue, but somehow the noise seemed perfect after the Oldman’s long homily. It gave every passenger a private space, framed by the sound of rain, in which to think.

But the Oldman was not finished.

He suddenly stood up and pointed at the young student.

“Can you please pray for the rain to stop?”

Traffic was at a standstill, and it had become unbearably hot inside the bus.

“I’m an atheist,” the young student replied, laughing.

“Well, tell the rain to stop then!”

“I can’t. It’s an act of God. I mean…”

“I get your point,” the Oldman said wickedly. “Just pray. Say anything!”

The young man thought for a moment.

“Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. Amen!”

Everyone laughed.

“Great!” said the Oldman. “One last thing. Say, ‘In Jesus’ name.’”

“In Jesus’ name,” the young atheist said, wearing a huge smile.

And the Rain Stopped

It was not immediate.

But within a minute, the sound of rain falling on the metal roof of the Molue ceased completely.

We all noticed.

It was unremarkable, really. It could have been coincidence. These things happen.

But then the sun came out.

And then the floodwaters on the road began to ebb.

And because the waters ebbed, traffic started moving. Cars which had invaded other lanes because of the flooding began returning to their proper lanes.

In less than two minutes after the prayer of the young atheist, we were moving at a steady pace again.

Fresh air rushed into the Molue.

It was bearable again.

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” Gladstine shouted.

“Rain, Rain, Go Away”

Eventually, the Molue driver stopped and asked everyone to come down. Many passengers had remained aboard longer than they normally would because of the rain and flooding.

“Oya! Everybody come down!” the conductor shouted. “If you stay, you go pay again o! Even if na Herbert Macaulay you de go!”

“Can we pray for the rain to start again?” the young student quipped. “My bus stop still de for front!”

Everyone laughed.

The Oldman was already making announcements as we climbed down from the Molue.

“Wednesday and Saturday! Catechism class! Do not forget! I want to see every one of you there!”

Then, remembering the atheist’s prayer, he added:

“If anybody comes from this Molue, just say, ‘Rain, rain, go away,’ and I will consent to your immediate baptism! You come, we will baptise you. Rain, rain, go away!”

What a day.

Then he turned to me.

“You have to be going back now.”

The Oldman removed the stick handle from the collection bag and handed it to me.

“See you Wednesday. Bring it with you.”

And just like that, my first day in this strange ministry was over.

Don Kenobi
#MyFrancisEssays
#OldManInTheMolue 
Excerpt: The Oldman In The Molue

Scripture References

2 Timothy 4:3–4: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine…”

Philemon 24: Paul includes Demas among his “fellow workers.”

2 Timothy 4:10: “For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.”

Note to a “Christian” Trump Supporter

Leave Christ Alone: Why Don’t You Share Things from Trump’s Bible?

Christianity and Political Loyalty

Do you realise how contradictory it looks to share Christian posts while defending Trump as though nothing he says or does deserves criticism? Do you pray for his repentance, conscience and salvation—not merely for his political victories?

I cannot declare that Trump is going to hell, and neither can you declare him safe from judgment. That belongs to God. But Christ told us to examine the fruits. Where are the love, kindness, gentleness and self-control in the conduct you defend?

When Politics Overrides Truth

What about his COVID misinformation and the people harmed by it? Does concern for truth and human life disappear because he is your preferred politician? Does the commandment against bearing false witness stop applying when the liar is your man?

You cannot excuse dishonesty and cruelty while presenting Christianity as though there is no contradiction. Ask whether your politics are being judged by your Christianity, or whether your Christianity has been reshaped to serve your politics.

Sometimes the Christianity you present seems to mean: hate LGBTQ people, hate liberals, and boom—heaven. Where are repentance, humility, compassion and the difficult work of loving your neighbour?

I write this because Christianity is serious to me. These reflections are among the most important work I do, and I intend them to outlive me.

Do You Listen to the Rosary?

You say the rosary, but do you listen to its words?

“O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.”

What about Trump? Is he not in need of mercy?

Of course he is. None of us earns mercy by becoming worthy of it. We pray that sinners recognise their need, repent and receive it. Pride is dangerous because it refuses to acknowledge that need.

The Poor and the Abuse of Power

Does the gratuitous wickedness not bother you—when aid is withdrawn from poor people? You repeat the reasons, even though the person giving them has a troubling history with truth and facts. You say USAID was being stolen.

Okay… so stop the steal… stop the steal!

When Suspicion Becomes a Death Sentence

Does the use of lethal force against people in boats not bother you? Do you ask whether the evidence justified it, whether arrest was possible and how innocent lives were protected?

If people can be located from the sky, suspicion should not become an automatic death sentence. These are serious moral questions for every Christian, regardless of party.

Human beings are not disposable because a government labels them enemies, and those who authorise the spilling of innocent blood should fear God’s judgment.

Will You Sweep Away the Righteous?

Abraham’s plea over Sodom should confront us:

“Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

Why place Trump beyond reproach while applying moral scrutiny to everyone else? Must political disagreement erase every good thing about Biden or Obama, while political loyalty excuses every wrong?

And when you repeat sensational allegations about opponents, do you establish their truth, or merely value them because they are useful?

Conviction Without Hatred

You know the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage, but hatred will not make the Gospel credible. You can explain your convictions, pray for people and treat them with dignity.

Christ approached lepers, tax collectors and people accused of sexual sin with mercy and respect, while calling them to changed lives. He did not teach us to enjoy their humiliation.

Take Christianity Seriously

That is the Christianity I am asking you to take seriously: pray for Trump, criticise him when criticism is deserved, apply the same moral standard to those you dislike, and stop confusing loyalty to a politician with fidelity to Christ.

Religion Is Like a Rolls-Royce

Religion is like a Rolls-Royce.

Don Kenobi argues....

The failures of Christians do not define Christianity.

To judge the faith, we must ultimately judge it by Christ.

What Did Christ Teach?

What Would Jesus Have Done?

No - the actions of those men did not expose the inferiority of Christianity. They simply brought Christianity down to their own level.

The analogy of a car may help explain what I mean.

The Purpose of the Automobile

Cars are involved in accidents. People are injured in cars, people are killed in cars, and cars can even be deliberately used as weapons. Yet none of this changes the fundamental purpose of the automobile. It exists to move us from Point A to Point B.

Its purpose is not redefined by every foolish, careless or wicked person who sits behind the wheel. If a drunk driver crashes a beautifully engineered automobile into a wall, we do not conclude that the automobile was designed to crash into walls. We look at the driver.

The same distinction should matter when we talk about religion.

Suppose a Man Is Given a Rolls-Royce

Suppose a man is given a Rolls-Royce. What he chooses to do with it does not change what the car is, although he remains entirely accountable for how he uses it.

One man may sell it and give the proceeds to charity. Another may hitch it to a refuse bin and use it to haul rubbish to the dump. Someone else may register his as an Uber and spend his days carrying passengers around town, while another may simply park his in the driveway so that the neighbours can admire it.

These choices tell us a great deal about the owners, but remarkably little about the automobile itself. Its engineering does not deteriorate because its owner behaves foolishly. Its craftsmanship is not diminished because somebody misuses it, and its pedigree does not disappear because someone employs it for a purpose its designers never intended.

The misuse reveals something about the owner. It does not redefine what has been entrusted to him.

Christianity Must Be Judged by Christ

So it is with Christianity.

Christianity must ultimately be judged by the Christ to whom it points, not merely by every terrible thing human beings have done while carrying His name.

The Crusades, the Inquisitions, slavery, colonialism, segregation, prosperity preaching, political Christianity, corruption and hypocrisy must all be examined. Where condemnation is deserved, condemn. Where institutions have done evil, hold those institutions accountable. Where religious leaders have abused their authority, hold them accountable. Where individual Christians have behaved wickedly while invoking the name of Christ, hold them accountable too.

But after doing all of that, there remains a more fundamental question: Was that what Christ taught?

Did Christ teach conquest,

racial superiority,

exploitation,

cruelty, 

greed or

the worship of political power? 

Or did human beings take His name and attach it to their own ambitions?

That distinction is crucial because Christianity makes extraordinary claims about Christ, not about the perfection of Christians. Indeed, Christianity begins with a rather unflattering assessment of human beings. It assumes that we are capable of pride, greed, cruelty, hypocrisy and self-deception. It should therefore hardly surprise us that human beings can take even religion and bend it towards those same impulses.

Look at the Christian

The corruption of Christianity by Christians does not necessarily disprove Christianity. If anything, it demonstrates something Christianity itself has always insisted upon: human beings are capable of corrupting even the highest ideals placed in their hands.

So the question cannot merely be, “What have Christians done?” That is an important historical and moral question, and Christians should never be afraid of answering it. But another question must follow: “What did Christ teach, and how closely have those who invoke His name actually followed Him?”

There is an enormous difference between those two questions.

Christianity does not become false simply because Christians behave badly, any more than medicine becomes fraudulent because a doctor behaves unethically or justice becomes worthless because a judge accepts a bribe. The corruption of an ideal may expose the people entrusted with it without necessarily invalidating the ideal itself.

The Tragedy Is in the Misuse

And perhaps that is the tragedy of Christianity throughout so much of history. Too many Christians have taken something noble, beautiful and transformative and brought it down to their own level.

They have taken a faith that calls human beings towards love, mercy, sacrifice, forgiveness and service, and sometimes converted it into an instrument for wealth, status, tribalism, domination and political power.

That is not the failure of Christ's teaching. It is the failure to live by it.

Perhaps that is where the distinction ultimately lies. We should absolutely judge Christians by Christ. We should ask whether their conduct resembles the faith they profess, whether their lives reflect the values they preach, and whether the Christianity they practise bears any resemblance to the Christianity Christ taught.

But we should not judge Christ by Christians.

Christianity must ultimately stand or fall on Christ.

Hope this helps 

Don Kenobi
#MyFrancisEssays 
#OldManInTheMolue 

On church succession

Lillian,

My first response to Zaynab was deleted.

I however expounded and reframed it, and posted it on my wall.

Like you said, we move…

But first, your 3rd point addresses a point I do not understand. Perhaps you are a member of that assembly.

As I mentioned in the reframed article, selecting whomsoever is to succeed a departed General Overseer is NOT a matter for public debate!

However, if you wish to justify it, a roll-call of well-known charlatans having done the same thing is not a very strong argument:

Warren.

T.D. Jakes.

Franklin Graham.

I have omitted Osteen because:

(1) I love him like a brother, and

(2) I know he was never groomed to succeed his father.

He was a cameraman in his father’s ministry, and when he told his mum that the Lord had spoken to him to take over the mantle of leadership, his mother laughed!

I heard his mum tell this story herself. Live. Not on TV.

The rest of my argument is on my wall, but the summary is this:

THE APOSTLES.

They gave us a formula for replacing “fallen” members of Church leadership.

Fallen spiritually.

Fallen physically.

Doesn’t matter.

That formula is the CASTING OF LOTS.

Ballots.

(Interesting. I never realized until now that “lots” is contained in “bal-lots.”)

Sons and daughters succeeding parents in Church leadership is a phenomenon found principally in what I call Prosperitarianity: Prosperity-Christianity.

Not even traditional African churches such as the Cherubim and Seraphim and Christ Apostolic Church routinely succeed leadership in this worldly manner!

Worldly?

Yes!

You find sons succeeding parents routinely in family businesses and corporate organizations.

If these churches are corporate organizations, then THAT is THAT!!

Let them only admit that they are BUSINESSES, stop the pretence and deceit, and no one cares.

But to pretend these “worship houses” are part of the Body of Christ?

That must be grievous to the Holy Spirit!

The personalization of these churches through hereditary succession must surely raise a profound theological question: if the Holy Spirit truly DID build these churches, should THEY not be afraid to proceed without seeking HIS leading, and without seriously considering the example of the early disciples in a matter as important as choosing a new leader?

My next statement is harsh, but it came to me just now:

“The Holy Spirit appears to do nothing at all, not even express His dislike for these leadership shenanigans, perhaps because He has nothing to do with a self-serving, heretical church system?”

They survive because God is patient and merciful.

NOT a single evangelical church I know meets all the good deeds for which the “Churches in Asia” were commended by Christ in the Book of Revelation. Yet those churches were still condemned, sometimes in extraordinarily strong language, for their shortcomings.

That should make serious Church leaders think.

Deeply.

Isn’t it ironic, and I’ve said this before, that churches such as these, which do not believe in the doctrine of Purgatory, are perhaps the ones which most desperately need it to be true?

I rest my case.

#Dk

#MyFrancisEssays

#WeMove

GRACE WITHOUT DISCIPLINE

 

GRACE WITHOUT DISCIPLINE

Standing before his students, Timotheus reflects on grace, divine discipline and the danger of celebrating another person’s downfall. God may permit disgrace, he argues, not to destroy His child, but to correct, refine and ultimately restore him.

A monologue delivered by Timotheus to his students

Timotheus stands before the students. He writes one word on the blackboard:

GRACE

He turns and studies their faces for a moment.

You have all heard it said:

“All things work together for good to those who love God.”

Romans 8:28.

It is one of the most beautiful promises in Scripture. It tells us that, for those who truly love God, nothing is ever completely wasted.

Not pain.

Not failure.

Not rejection.

Not even disgrace.

God can take the worst moment of a person’s life and bend it towards something good.

If necessary, He will redirect the trajectory of the stars. He will command the light of the sun. He will make the very laws of nature submit to His purpose.

Somehow, He will make all things work together for good.

He pauses.

But there is something dangerous about grace.

Not because grace itself is dangerous, but because human beings can misunderstand it.

When people become too confident that God will rescue them, they may begin to live recklessly.

They stop watching their steps.

They stop listening to correction.

They begin to believe that because God is merciful, consequences no longer exist.

And that is when the Lord brings them under the yoke of discipline.

He turns to the board and writes beneath “GRACE”:

DISCIPLINE

Grace without discipline will eventually end in disgrace.

Let me say it again.

Grace without discipline will end in disgrace.

God loves us too much to allow grace to become an excuse for foolishness. And so, He corrects those He loves. He permits them to stumble. He allows consequences to find them. Sometimes, He lets them walk through humiliation.

Not because He has abandoned them.

Because He is training them.

Timotheus steps closer to the students.

Now listen carefully, because this is where many religious people become cruel.

When you see someone passing through a season of disgrace, do not assume that God has invited you to join in his punishment.

Do not laugh.

Do not mock him.

Do not add weight to the burden already bending his back.

Do not look upon him with disgust and call your cruelty righteousness.

You may think you are helping God to punish him. You may even quote Scripture while you do it.

But God did not place that person in the fire so that you could pour petrol into it.

God may have placed him there to correct him.

To humble him.

To refine him.

And perhaps, one day, to raise him again.

So be careful.

The person you are helping to push down today may be the very person God is preparing to lift tomorrow.

And if you attempt to deepen the disgrace that God is using merely for discipline, you may suddenly discover that you are no longer standing with God.

You are standing against the person God intends to restore.

He looks again at the words on the board.

Yes, all things work together for good to those who love God.

But that promise is not permission to live recklessly.

Those who take grace for granted will be disciplined. God will place them under a yoke until they learn obedience, restraint and wisdom.

Grace is the hand that saves us.

Discipline is the hand that teaches us how to remain standing after we have been saved.

Without grace, discipline may crush a person.

Without discipline, grace may be squandered.

But when grace and discipline work together, disgrace is no longer the end of the story.

Timotheus wipes the word “DISGRACE” from the board and replaces it with:

RESTORATION

Divine discipline is not destruction.

It may hurt like destruction.

It may look like destruction.

The person passing through it may even believe that everything has been lost.

But God is not always tearing down when it appears that He is tearing down.

Sometimes, He is removing what cannot support the life He is preparing to build.

So, when a brother falls, do not dance.

When a sister is disgraced, do not celebrate.

When God is disciplining one of His children, do not volunteer to become His executioner.

Stand nearby.

Pray.

Speak the truth, certainly, but speak it with mercy.

And when the lesson has been learned, extend your hand.

Because the purpose of divine discipline is never humiliation for its own sake.

It is correction.

It is transformation.

It is restoration.

Timotheus turns back to the board. He draws a line connecting the two words.

GRACE → DISCIPLINE → RESTORATION

That, my students, is how all things work together for good.