You know Lagos is a funny place! A lot of folks in Lagos are annoyingly religious and stupidly fanatical. I get to see them daily! I was going to office yesterday and if you know Lagos driving can be hellish! You have many devils to avoid such as LATSMA, VIO, POLICE, FRSC, OKADA, KEKE, Korepe, Yellow Buses, Molue and maybe Agbero! So sometimes to regain sanity you do taxi or last mile which is Keke! Now in Keke from Computer village to Oregun (Bikkingsway) a woman in her 50s said thag it is not her time to die yet and she started doing these pentecostal mumbo jumbo! I got so irritated and I told her madam you no be small pikin again! That they horn kids today they die tomorrow! That we should learn to live our lives as if everyday is the last! They should stop this madness of I will not die! God can call us anytime in life! I lost my mum at 40yrs..such a sweet woman! It was her time to leave and she left making impact in our lives! Jesus died at 33yrs! Muhammed not even upto 75yrs! So these pentecostal should stop these thihgs I love Muslim on how they treat the dead.
You know at a stage in life you start seeing things from different angles. I was raised in a catholic home, I am still a catholic at heart, I do receive communion once in a while if I go to Mass but I am not a fanatical catholic. We have lots of them around! They have this huge chalet hanging around their necks and have tons of holy water to ward of the evil spirits. They believe that! I think thag is good for them.
Married a pentecostal, nice experience, dteted getting used to pentecistal stuff though I find it a bit funny and still I do… You know one thing about them is lack of uniformity and cohesion amongst them! Then the fanatics will be there! Those that do not drink not smoke… And I do drink yiu know! I love Trophy beer… The taste is heavenly and I quit smoking few years ago! So, in their face I am a sinner! Well, it is established that I can’t be a Born Again! For obvious reasons! It is too expensive! Born again wahala too much! They are judgemental and see everyone that is not a member of their church as a sinner! They can pray for so long and speak in tongue and me I don’t know how to pray that long or shout. I pray måx 15mins I am done!. Y God isn’t deaf and he can’t have me shouting fire fire fire like a pyromaniac! So I can’t be a born again! In short I am a sinner and I am comfortable with that.
Also, I grew up with the celestial church in owerri! The Cherubim at Zander was amazing! Their music was awesome and their dances were esoteric! Been there and have a lot of them as friend. The prophets, the holiee etc. In short I grew up selling 555 incense, Red, Blue and white candles! Mum has a shop and we sell those things to the celestial people… And having joined them in worship.. I must tell you the truth.. Their women can twert like hell… It looks as if the Lilith has possessed them when dancing. Their twerking will make Nicki Minaj and Tiwa Green with envy! In short going to Cele churches if you are person of the world, you might cum and get to cum without even touched due to their twerking… But they are such a nice folks.
Then as an igbo Mami don’t know how it happened, I am conscious of my culture and the need to understand thag those of our folks that died.. We call them Ndi Ichie while the oyibo call them ancestors and in Christianity they call them saints. Now, I have come to understand that the Ndi Ichie live on even after their demise. The concept of hell doesn’t even add up to me! It is a Abrahamic religion importation and that doesn’t talky with us. We Igbo do not believe in thag travesty. I don’t also believe in the hell issue personally. I think that providence will reward us as we live either we move to a higher plane or we reincarnate.
Now coming to that… I also remember growing up! I love reading, in our house we had library and I stumbled into a book by Ross Order and the Freemanson! Those books I can’t realise how I laud my hands on them,dis I borrow the most or did I find the best in archive but the fact is that I read up a lot and I was like 14yrs then! Was also in school. So I came to realise the purpose of life, the path and the eyes of horus and other spiritual enlightenment stuff. As I grow up, I realize that all religious proponents and dramatics personae like Krishna, Muhammed, Jesus, Abraham etc were all mesamagers of the Source or The Light or God! Now this level of spiritual enlightenment was refreshing and mostly all the religion have the same tenets and laws and the karmic laws are same everywhere.
When I read the book of Lobsang Rampa! A Buddhist monk explaining in five and sublime details the spirituality of souls and how we are on path then researched on NDE! The clinical and psychiatrist evidence of the bear dead experience and the concept of tunnel and tune of return! Then I realize that there is nothing to fear of after life only life right and do the right thing.
At the end of the day, most of these readings have elevated my conciousness! So most times when I go to churches and some preachers preach, I just sit down and laugh at them or I just listen to something they have to say and sift the one I want…
Anthony Emeka Nwosu