<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
All major religions acknowledge the struggle between Good and Evil, and whether it is the Salvation of the Soul, according to Judaism, Christianity or Islam or the attainment of Moksha\/Nirvana, according to Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism, they lay out the paths adherents should follow to attain Salvation\/Moksha\/Nirvana.<\/p>\n
Our former Accountant General, Mr, Pitoho Chophi, I.A.A.S, once related an encounter he had with a Sikh gentleman at a Christian Book Fair at Bangalore (now Bengaluru). The Sikh gentleman, apparently unaware of the seeming incongruity of a Sikh at a Christian Book Fair, seemed taken aback by the presence of a Mongoloid at the same, and asked Mr. Chophi if he was a Christian. On receiving a reply in the affirmative, the Sikh gentleman told him, “Christianity is the best religion in the world, but the most difficult to follow.”<\/p>\n
With this simple statement, a Sikh managed to describe Christianity. For Christianity, in toto, is humanly impossible to follow. If Christian tenets could be distilled and described in one sentence, it is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” These simple words, which are the essence of Chapter 7, Verse 12 of The Gospel of Matthew, hold the guiding principle of Christian behaviour. For every person wants to be loved, cared for, fed, clothed and sheltered; his sins forgiven, shortcomings overlooked, his lawful dues secured and justice for wrongs committed against him. But we are blissfully uncaring about the unloved, the abandoned, the hungry, the naked and the homeless among us. We are quick to judge sinners, mock the deficiencies in others, rob people of their legal rights and ignore their pleas for justice.<\/p>\n
The study of Christian Theology is a personal choice, but to enter the Church, one must have a commitment to serve God. The Church is not a source of employment, it is an Institution where its servants must choose to serve God and not to pander to their materialistic greed. It is a CALLING, not a profession. But Nagas are seeing our churches being run by professional theologians, professing spurious interpretations of Christianity. <\/p>\n
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council pokes its nose into every business, but the business of saving souls. Our church leaders, led by the N.B.C.C., have managed to reduce Christianity to issues which have nothing to do with the Teaching of Jesus Christ. Christianity, in Nagaland, has been reduced to Prohibition, although Jesus Christ’s first miracle was turning water to wine. Shutting down shops on Sundays (except bakeries, for it is necessary for the pastor to fill his stomach with baked goodies, in order to have the energy to preach, and petrol pumps, for his vehicle needs fuel to reach church).<\/p>\n
The specious argument that The Holy Bible states so, holds no water. The Bible is just a collection of religious texts, out of countless such texts, selected by some people. It provides a contextual reference for our Lord Jesus Christ and His Message of Love, Sacrifice and Forgiveness. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the only words which should guide a Good Christian; anything else in The Holy Bible, which seem to contradict the Gospels must be discounted.<\/p>\n
If we want to close shops on the Sabbath, lets close them on Saturday, the real Sabbath. If we want to ignore Christ’s message of loving everyone unconditionally, let’s stop eating pork, eels, scaleless fish and cheeseburgers, ban masturbation and start stoning to death, adulterers and killing all people who claim to have visions from God.<\/p>\n
But more importantly, where is the religious basis for the of prohibition of alcohol? Christ never spoke of the prohibition of liquor, nor does the entire Bible say anything about liquor except to use it in moderation. Are our tribal Church Organisations or the NBCC receiving kickbacks from bootleggers and liquor adulterers, that they are hell bent on perpetuating prohibition?<\/p>\n
Do they not care for the thousands of people whose health are being destroyed by spurious liquor? Do they not care for the hundreds driven to debt and penury because of the exorbitant prices they pay for a religiously sanctioned drink? Why did not the NBCC join the debate on prohibition, organized by the Morung Foundation and The Morung Express earlier this year in March? Why does the church never speak against the all pervading corruption that has enmeshed Nagaland in its strangulating coils, and which is the source of all Evil in Nagaland? <\/p>\n
The answer to these questions lies in the simple fact that our Churches are being led by irreligious, unethical, immoral, sacrilegious and spiritually bereft men and women. These professional theologians have reduced Christianity to closure of shops on Sundays and prohibition of alcohol, because they are in bed with the evil corrupters of Nagaland. They close shops and ban alcohol so that they may appear to be doing something “religious”.<\/p>\n
As stated earlier, Christianity is humanly impossible to follow, but God does not seek perfection in us, what He wants is for us to struggle to achieve perfection. It is our struggle to do good that determines our acceptability in the Eyes of God. Naga theologians, headed by the NBCC have given up the struggle to do good in Nagaland.<\/p>\n
GOD SAVE NAGALAND.<\/p>\n
Kahuto Chishi Sumi, Akukau (G.B.), Hevishe Village, Khaghaboto Range, Dimapur, (Kahuto107@gmail.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The reduction of Christianity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}