A Catholic Priest popularly known by his Facebook name, Fada Oluoma has written the first-ever Letter to Mathias Ezeaku, a Traditional Religious Activist in Igbo Land, South East, Nigeria, who champions campaigns of calumny and criticism against Christianity.
In the epistle titled ‘First Letter to Mathias Ezeaku, Fada Oluoma brought to the limelight a series of confusion surrounding the Traditional Religion’s campaign launched by Maazi Mathias Ezeaku.
Below is the full text:
Dear Mathias,
We serve God bc of two fundamental reasons: creation and redemption. All religions, including the one practiced by our ancestors whom you have become converted apostles, acknowledge God as a creator. How they worship or conceive this ‘creator God’ definitely differs.
Common sense and intelligence agree that whoever is behind the origin of every person and thing in the world deserves worship, that’s the being we Christians worship.
Redemption is fundamentally a Christian mystery and doctrine. This is where Jesus Christ comes in. The majority of Christians believe that the creator God, though one, is three persons( father, son, and Spirit).
To save humanity from eternal damnation, God then (Jesus Christ) became man, suffered, died for our sins, and rose again. In his name, repentance is preached to all people.
This historical Jesus Christ was not a European, Christianity didn’t start in Europe either. Jesus was a Jew and Christianity started in Israel and spread out.
You always spew this falsehood that Christianity was brought to Africa by the Europeans to enslave us. Long before Christianity came to Africa, your ancestors were practicing slavery. There were slaves in Igbo land and most other places before Christianity came. I’m sure you are aware of the Osu and Ohu practices.
You also accuse Jesus of being the reason your people are not developing. You treacherously forget to acknowledge that most of the things you are advertising as solutions to our problems like education, medical facilities, industries, etc came to our shore first through Christianity.
The educational system that leads to the production of most of these modern technologies or systems you are advocating for is called Western education, I can tell you authoritatively that most of it started from the church.
Scholarship, industry, and organized systems are traceable to monastic life. This alone exposes your diatribe against Christianity and the church as malicious and false.
I challenge you to name one thing those who practiced the kind of religion you are advocating now invented that everyone is using, while I can give you an endless list of the things you and everyone else are using that came from people who practice Judaeo Christian faith.
You take flight, the pioneers of aircraft were the Wright Brothers, Wilbur, and Orville. Their dad was a Christian clergyman, they believed in Jesus Christ and worshipped him as God. Oya tell me which one adherents of the religion you are agitating for pioneered.
From the car you drive to the electronics you use, to the medical treatments you receive, to the phones you use, this internet you are using to propagate your views, and more than 95% of the things you use every day, I can bet that more than 70% of them are Western inventions or products.
May I inform you that Western civilization is built on Judaeo-Christian traditions, this is why the majority of the world’s scientists, inventors, and winners of the Noble prizes on different areas are Christians and Jews. You can Google it.
If Jesus were “useless”, you wouldn’t even be alive to make that statement twice Because his followers would have lynched you. The reason we will never do that is because he told us never to fight physically for him, but to bless even those who curse us or Him. More importantly, if Jesus were “useless”, you wouldn’t be enjoying most of the things his followers invented.
I do agree with you that a certain version of Christianity or Jesus preached by a certain breed of priests and pastors in Nigeria is not just fake but criminal. Jesus didn’t die to make anyone financially wealthy, the bible never mentioned that either, there’s no one in the bible that Jesus Christ made rich.
So all those who preach a Jesus that solves peoples existential problems by miracles or any other spiritual means are charlatans, and we have many of them. If their prosperity by miracle works, they should have made everyone in their villages wealthy by now, but check all of them that preach that fake gospel, they always look for lands in big cities to build ministries.
The Bible and the church make it clear that a well organized society with competent political and civil leaders are what a country needs to prosper and live in peace. A country where hard and honest work is rewarded, opportunities created, is where prosperity happens, not a country with big church auditoriums and miracle crusades taking place everyday.
So you have to isolate the fake Jesus and fake Christianity that some gospel merchants in Nigeria are propagating for their self interest from the true and authentic Christian faith. The most prosperous nations in the world are Christian in origin and identity, so Christianity is not the problem.
You must also learn the difference between criticism and blasphemy. Against false prophets who are ripping our people off in the name of Jesus and Christianity, I’m with you in calling out their cruel manipulation, we can do this without mocking the Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.
For want of space, I can’t tell you how much the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ changed the world order for better, maybe some other time. Also, miracles happen in the name of Jesus Christ, I mean verified and confirmed by third party, but we leave that for another time.
Udo diri gi
© Fada Oluoma, 2024
