OUR SPIRITUAL OBLIGATION AS A NATION

Ever since I was a child, the church was usually that drab place our parents (moms) dragged us to on Sundays. And sometimes they had to coerce, cajole or threaten us to get there. We were told to fear God and reminded to close our eyes when saying grace. The worship songs sounded like dirges, not to say anything about the long sermons. The ushers beckoning to the back, to get us to the front pews. Shaking everybody’s hands afterwards, it was all very akward. The scriptures were a haze of words and numbers, too intricate for our young minds to fathom. And so along school and visiting upcountry , the church made it to our list of boring places.

 
And it still was, years later on. Some of us continued going to church to evade chores, please our parents or just hangout. Nobody explained to us what (church) really helped us with in our lives. It was just some religion shoved in our faces. .An obligation to uphold family reputation.Some of us renounced as we sought for solace in forbidden worldly experiences;sex, alcohol, drugs or both. And religion remained just decency, politeness, cheek-turning and stuff…..you know! Very unpopular!


And much later on, when our debauched lifestyles led us to a dark world, we started to search God. A transcendent being who was powerful than ourselves. Realizing that pride, envy and hatred was only going to consume us. We started to acknowledge that we needed purpose, understanding, support and promise.. We found that spiritual void in our lives that longed to be filled. It was something we came by, questioned it, abandoned it even lost it, and now we were reclaiming it.

We all know that religion is at the centre stage of every nation’s social progress. It helps us foster a sense of our world, provide motivation and bind us together. Finding that faith footing , whether Christianity, Budhism, Hindu, Muslim or whatever else, knowing God boils down to detaching our bodies from worldly pleasures and upholding spiritual values. And this does not necessarily mean being martyrs; we get honor and true happiness out of being virtuous and compassionate to fellow mankind. The good book tells us that yielding to our passions and desires will enslave us and make us the laughing stock of our enemies. Our spirit being is higher than our body members.


A religious person tends to portray his religion as superior than others, and try to decamp men to his’ some Christians do that all the time. Some religion even resort to violence to sustain their tenets in this world. Islamophobia is now a common phenomenon in Kenya. A spiritual person on the other hand, takes time to cultivate his spirit, for the basis of his perception, hope and goodwill with mankind. So spirituality is neutral.

In a world that is quickly losing it’s moral values, it is imperative to instill the spiritual aspect of life to our young generation.Cultivate it in them at a tender a tender age. This will restore dignity and respect in societies. Spirituality does not have a mark, but is the fundamental requirement of all human beings of sound mind.

Religious freedom is an important attribute of modern democracies. Religious tolerance itself is a tall order in a country where new religions crop everyday. As the anonymous definition aptly puts it "Religious tolerance is not religious indifference. It consists of valuing the right of another person to hold beliefs that you know absolutely, and without a doubt, to be wrong." Well that is darn near impossible, as everyone wants to assert their set of beliefs as ultimate truth and supreme. It will cause strife and competition We'll stumble in confusion, even while 'prophets' take advantage of our gullibility. Me thinks we'd be much better off, if we had spiritual obligation as a nation rather than religious freedom and we'd be on the path of righteousness and morality.