Taking a stand against religious abuse

Of parental example

Both my parents are religious, along with other belief systems they have that has informed my miseducation and re-education hoping to jettison the holds of superstition and irrational thought whilst adhering to a pragmatic perspective of things.

Of that exposure, my apparent proficiency in Yoruba that is my parents’ mother tongue comes from being coerced into reading the Psalms in Yoruba into drinking and ablution waters almost as a ritualistic practice advocated by my mother, in case of my father, it is my affinity to the established church, the Church of England; I find my expressive spirituality in Anglicanism.

My service is over

He once told me a story of attending a church service that appeared to be extending into an interminably long activity of discomfort and endurance that after 90 minutes, he got up to leave. The president probably attempting to embarrass my father called out to ask where he was going. He responded, “My service is over.” And left.

The need for us to stand up to religious abuse and so-called religious leaders taking liberties without being answerable or accountable to anyone but deities cannot be overemphasised, it engenders cults and and creates cults of personality that then distract from core religious principles.

I am gone, gone, gone

Prince Philip, who passed on just over a month ago is said to have commented on long sermons, “The mind cannot absorb what the backside cannot endure.” I guess after a while of sitting in a pew listening to exhortations, admonitions, expositions, repudiations, condemnations, and whatnot, it does get tiresome, and you want to go home, because there is nothing else to gain or learn when you are uncomfortable.

From these two men I have learnt something, my devotion is regulated by what I willingly subject myself to, when I am done, I am gone. Thank you for keeping me engaged for as long as I could endure it, nothing is by compulsion, especially when it comes to religion. If only religious leaders can check themselves. God is not a cruel prison warder.