Is orthodox religion failing the youth?

There is growing concern, among a lot of Nigerians, about the progression towards idolatry and fetish practices in the quest to be seen as having arrived at that materially comfortable stage which many youths look forward to. This raises a question that seeks to understand if orthodox religion has failed the youth. Orthodox religion is used here to mean that religious belief or interpretation handed down by a church’s founder or leader. It comes in context in the search to understand if established religious teachings have failed the Nigerian youth.

Let me first share a personal experience. I was once late to catch up with mass at my branch of the Catholic Church. Tired and unwilling to saunter in very late, I resigned to let it pass. However, a neighbour of mine came around and suggested that we try out any of the Pentecostal churches around the estate. There were quite a lot of them. I agreed. We dressed up and walked down the street in search of a church. One, with a lot of worshippers, caught our attention and we decided to perch there for the service. So, we walked in and were glamorously welcomed by cheerful ushers. They showed us to a place where we sat comfortably in an air-conditioned church hall. We joined in the dancing and occasional howling. Coming from a conservative church, those howling and loud Pharisaic chants disguised as prayers were distracting. But, we managed to hold on.

Shortly afterward, the pastor mounted the podium in overflowing babanriga. We could perceive the perfume oozing from him from a distance. Then, the moment that changed our perception of that church came. The pastor was through with sermonising and set for fundraising. First, he called for those who had their tithes to raise them for blessing. As they did, a man sitting right in front of us pulled out a chequebook and penned down some figures. He tore out the leaflet and raised it for blessing. Then, he went and dropped it in the collection box. Then, the pastor was set for a second call. He asked for donations towards the purchase of a musical set that the church so badly wanted. Again, the man drew out his chequebook and wrote another one. Then, the third call –a request to challenge God by sewing a seed. Again, the man pulled out his chequebook and wrote yet another one. My friend and I looked at ourselves and wondered, to his hearing, how much one would want to donate to a church that he couldn’t just drop the cash instead of writing cheques. (At this time, POS and online banking hadn’t come into vogue) Somehow, the man overheard us. He turned back, looked at us, and said “Don’t worry, if you keep coming to this church, you will start donating like me”. Those were his exact words.

Essentially, what the man said to us was that he was donating lavishly and probably hugely too, because he was a member of that particular church. Or, better put, that being a member of that church was an assured way to wealth. This seems to be the basic issue with the rise in idolatry among youths. To some extent, many youths were lured to churches or religious groups and organisations with promises of instant wealth. Time was when almost every pastor that organised a crusade or evangelical tour, had miracles, prosperity, and wealth as their unique selling points. These attracted a whole lot of youths. Many of those who ported to these churches or religious organisations came with the conviction that by sewing seed, challenging God with huge amounts of money, and donating to the pastor’s cause or those of his wife and kids, the gates of wealth would break open for them. For this reason, many youths paid for special prayers, visited mountains, birthed in the open, and paid for special handkerchiefs, special oil, soap, etc. While they do this, they lock off their shops and business premises or at best, hand them over to secretaries and apprentices.

With time, however, many of those who got involved in this began to see themselves as deceived and fooled. They suddenly realised that prosperity and wealth have more to do with hard work, brain power, and good luck than with Goya Olive oil. The outcome, as I perceive it, is that most youths who were caught in this trap started arguing religion as a scam. The next possible option was to gradually pull away from the churches and move over the miracle-performing native medicine men who presented themselves as having supernatural powers to force the vaults of banks to transfer their holdings into the bank accounts of someone who had yielded to persuasive promptings to sacrifice animals, make incantations and place some artworks and other objects at road intersections, in their homes and even business premises. This is a growing practice that is also aggressively advertised on social media platforms. They are presented as the quickest way to wealth. There are countless videographic materials on social media celebrating these sorts as having powers to cause a desperately helpless soul to suddenly swell in money, luxury homes, and automobiles.

Unlike in the past when such medicine men were overtly unkempt and dirty poor old men, today’s medicine man enjoys celebrity status, drives a horde of flashy cars, showcases mansions and estates as proceeds or returns from beneficiaries of his sacrificial works, and at the same time, using such materials to attract young people who have wired their brains to believe that wealth and prosperity can be worked out from some shrines where rams, chickens, and cows are sacrificed to the spirits of wooden deities. This is a developing problem that also challenges orthodox religion. Before this time, the exodus was from the Orthodox churches to the Pentecostals. Now, the exodus is growing in favour of idolatry which has behind it, the quest for wealth outside of hard work, perseverance, and good luck.

How is religion expected to respond to this challenge? First, religion created the challenge by promising immediate wealth and prosperity for the mere reason of attending a particular church and sewing seed, paying tithe, and challenging God with huge sums of money. In the middle of this is the youth who would be frustrated when idolatry also fails him. As it is, prosperity teachings and miracles seem to have failed the youth. His move towards idolatry will also most likely go the same way. The picture of what happens when eventually these youths come to realise that idolatry and the phenomenon of celebrity shrine chief priests are also scams of a different dimension can only be imagined. The possibility is that the open society may have more mental health issues to deal with.