THE FACADE IN RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP.

 THE FACADE IN RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP.

  Man, as the popular saying goes, is an arena of infinite possibilities. Man, in order to find answers to the infinite number of questions that divides his attention, seeks to enter into various relationships with the world, springing from social, economic, political, environmental and of course the climax of this interrelatedness, the religious. John Mbiti, in his seminal work: African Religions and Philosophy, highlighted that deep within the human heart is the conception of a divine. No one needs to be taught that. 

The widest arena of men, religion, has suffered unspeakable abuses from religious leaders. Scandals of all sizes, shapes and types have become the order of the day in various religious settings. It looks as if all hopes are lost, since there is none forthcoming. Against this backdrop, do we set out in this thesis to discuss strategies in combating this misnomer. So that, if not fully, at least some of these mishaps may be nipped in the board. However, in order to do this, a good and critical understanding of the term “religion” and what it stands to represent is deemed necessary.

   According to Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic bishop of Sokoto in his work: Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, defined religion as “a set of rituals by which the human being relates with the higher being…reflecting the effort by fallen man to re-establish contact with his creator”. This clearly gives us the picture of what religion ought to be. In this re-establishment of man’s relationship with the divine, there are certain people who have assumed the office of acting as intermediaries between God and men. These intermediaries are supposed to act with a keen consciousness that they stand as reference points. No matter how lucid this duty appears to those who act as such intermediaries, the story revolves round scandal upon scandals. So that this has become the normal line of action that we are almost used to it. Hence, it shakes no more dust in our present world. Nevertheless, however good we paint evil, evil remains what it is. 

  Karl Marx, in trying to combat the façade placed behind the face of religion comments: “religion is an opium of the masses.” The popular statement is found in the introduction of his work : A CONTRIBUTION TO HEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT. Here he desired to know if man really found fulfilment in the practice of religion. Is it an imposition on the poor, is religion a realistic phenomenon? what is the product of religion? what does the struggle against religion consist in? can it be objective or not? These and other questions of the like were what bothered the German philosopher that made him stand vehemently against religion. Consequently, Marx would posit that Religion is that which served as the heart of the heartless world. If religion which ought to be the only means of re-establishing man’s contact with the divine has been misemployed by the so-called religious leaders, what then is the hope of man?

The love of money, fame, prestige and all what not, are what constitute much of humanity’s problem which has attained baptism and confirmation among religious leaders. Augustine, in capturing this in his moral philosophy, The Role of Love, writes “humanity’s moral problems consists not so much in loving or even in the objects of humans love, as in the manner in which they attach themselves to these objects of love and in their expectations regarding the outcome of this love.” Further, David Hume, drives home this truth in his Treatise on Miracles, “it is certain that self-love, when it acts at its liberty instead of engaging us to honest actions…is the source of injustice and violence.” 

   Again, bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, in the same work cited above states:

It is in appreciation of the burden of this problem that the universal Catholic Church sensed this urgency and proceeded to assemble some of its leading church men and women from all over Africa with representatives from all over the world where they dedicated one full month to discussing the future of the Catholic faith in the political and economic transformation of Africa.

The apostle James in his epistle, indicates quite convincingly that prayer without good works is dead. Taking Immanuel Kant as a teacher of ethical conducts, in his categorical imperatives, says "act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law." Kant, goes on to posit that acting morally, is only acting in accord with good reason. For a man who acts justly, applies his reason.

Our acts, whether leader or flock, ought to spring from a right motive. Only when we act with goodwill as our motivating force, can our actions be praiseworthy. When actions flow from ‘what I can gain from it, we not only act selfishly, we act irrationally; it is a flawed way of reasoning. This goes back to Plato and Aristotle, who posit that if men knew what is good conduct, they would certainly act in accord with it. So that for them, ignorance is what makes men act hedonistically (for pleasure alone). I would think that if every religious figure understands that an account of his conduct would be required of him or her, after a life spent either in diligence or in frivolity and mediocrity, reasoning would feature more in behaviours.

FRIAR EMMANUEL IGBOEKWULUSI, OFM CAP.

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