Yet to deliver

Having taken it upon itself of playing the role of mentor and moral guide of society, the church in Nagaland has much to learn by taking a serious introspection of what has been achieved through its ministry. The church has taken up various issues but hardly worked on a long-term basis to effect change. For instance, it went hammer and tongs over liquor, then even before the dust settled, it launched a ‘clean election’ campaign in 2012 which has instead become a slogan by which the church appears convinced that it has at least achieved something. The other issue that the church used to be quite happy to raise was on factional clashes and factionalism. The phrase gun-culture nurtures factionalism as every faction seeks to legitimize itself with another medieval term ‘revolution’ and legitimizing the ideology of Mao Zedong that power flows through the barrel of the gun and have pushed their lifestyle to force the ‘passive/fearful’ sheep that they live, by ‘might is right’ and not what is right. This stone age concept is accorded a dominant status. A society under gun siege is not free nor democratic and speaking out the truth (even supposedly traditional style) is not supported by the people but ire of those exposed and silence from society. However, the church appears to fight shy on the issue of corruption possibly because it could ill afford to displease the wealthy donors who count. This silence has only made corruption no longer an unscriptural offence since donation and fund raising drives have many whose hands are tied. In a world of feel good gurus, there are not two opinions about Mamon, which morally, is a good servant but a bad master. The radar to divine wisdom is not properly functioning and, on the ground, the compass is also not giving accurate reading. That is why contemporary society is continually being churned by changes but at the same time, suffering from an inertia and thus lost vision of the reality. Recent incidents in the state point to erosion of the social values where moral absolutes are but hurdles that stand in the way. Respect for the law has been lost because the freedom that exists is to do as one please or perpetrate the ‘khushi-khushi’ syndrome. This deepening crisis has created a moral abyss where eventually, the means justify the end. Despite all that is being professed by the people, neither the preaching nor teaching inspire people anymore. What has gone wrong then? Probably because these lack magnitude and direction and above all, fail to confront the problems squarely in the eye. But who can bell the cat? So long the church buries its head in the sand and only hope for a miraculous deliverance, the ailment will turn it upside down. In the recent past, violent activities have continued without respite and could even turn worse in the next few years and if the church fails to read the writing on the wall, then it is like the end times happening.