By Reno Omokri
One of the most significant differences between Islam and Christianity in Africa, and especially in Nigeria, is that Muslims go to their mosques and very rigidly do what their holy book and their prophet told them to do from God, with absolutely no deviation. And woe betide any Mallam, Imam, Shelkh, or Ustaz who asks them to do something contrary to al-Quran. They may donate the beating of a lifetime to such a fellow. And why? Because the vast majority of Muslims have read the Quran.
In contrast, many Christians go to churches and do what feels right in their eyes, or their pastors’ eyes, whether or not it is supported by their holy book and prophets. And that is why there is hardly any consistency in Christendom. On the contrary, Orthodox Christianity practiced in Ethiopia, Egypt, Greece, Russia, The Balkans, and Cyprus, has order and consistency.
It is almost as though Muslims are told by who they perceive as God how to worship, and many Christians want to tell who they perceive as God how they think He should be worshipped.
Today is Christmas, God, we invented it because we love you, and it does not matter if the Bible says we should not add or remove from what we are taught (Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19). We also have Easter. Though it is not in the Scriptures Your prophets gave us, it is so good, and we are sure You will enjoy it. And we have this remarkable woman, who knows how to preach. Although Yeshua, our Lord, only chose male disciples and apostles, and the Bible expressly says women should not preach and teach or have leadership positions in the church (1 Timothy 2:12-14), we are sure you will like this particular woman.
And again, even though our Lord and Saviour said we should not call anybody on Earth our father from a religious point of view (Matthew 23:9), we have this outstanding Daddy GO who is our father in the Lord, and we have one Pope that we call our Holy Father.
To Muslims, for the most part, the Quran is a book of Commandments from God, but for Christians, too often, our Scripture is a book of suggestions that we are not bound to follow if we can present logic and church doctrines that contradict them.
It is just as Scripture says in Judges 21:25:
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
Anything you have to use logic and church doctrine to defend instead of Scripture is problematic.
However, I must commend Orthodox Christians for bucking this trend for the most part.
I sometimes think that Orthodox Christianity has more in common with Islam than the Christianity practiced in The West and most of Africa.
You may now insult.