Howdy folks, how are you all doing today? The weekend is already over and I enjoyed every part of it, all thanks to the fact that we were given a day off from work. Unfortunately, the weekend ran by so fast and tomorrow is Monday, back to work 😪
I want to ask, how many of you went to church today? I didn't go and that was because I was feeling too lazy (as usual) and I am currently in a new location, which means I am definitely not going to be comfortable with the churches here.
Now let's go to the topic for today; religious extremism. According to Wikipedia, extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". Now, I am not making this article to disrespect any religion, in fact, I am not even going to be talking about the more extreme part of religion, I just want to talk about some of the things I have seen.
Sometime last year, I came across a post on nairaland about how the Lagos state government rescued a baby from the jaws of death because the parents refused the recommended blood transfusion that will ensure her survival because of their religious belief.
That's just foolishness on the part of the parents, I mean we are talking about a 2-week old baby here and the parents were prepared for her to die simply because their pastor told them that blood transfusion I evil (or who knows what other crazy reason they had).
They probably feel that all they had to do was to pray and everything will be alright, they forget that God won't stretch out his from heaven to help them, he makes use of humans and this time around, it's the doctors and nurses.
I have heard of several cases like this in the past, people refusing to get proper medical help because of their religious beliefs, even at the expense of their life. Another case I have heard of is about a pregnant woman who couldn't deliver her baby and required a caesarian section (CS) for her to be delivered of her baby, but she and her husband refused.
Their church members were also around and they vehemently refused the CS, they gathered around her and kept praying for her to deliver safely, and what happened at the end? Mother and child lost their lives. What will the husband and the church members say at that point? Instead of them praying for the CS to be successful, they kept praying for her to deliver normally.
I am not in any way saying a miracle can't happen and she delivers normally, but why go against what the doctor has said and risk her life all because they didn't want to go against their belief, aren't they testing God this way?
"Heaven helps those who help themselves" but some people will rather wait for God to come down and help them, and without that, they are ready to die for their belief and at the same time risk the lives of others. Some even hold their pastors in high reverence even more than God, they follow every word that comes out of the pastor's mouth even when it goes contrary to what is in the bible.
I heard of a case where a lady who was about to get married was told by her pastor that her fiance isn't the man for her and that the marriage won't work out, she ended things with her fiance and that was when the true intentions of the pastor start revealing itself; he wants to pair the lady with one of his church members.
It was even the lady that narrated the whole thing on Twitter, the pastor ended up telling her that God has shown him the person she's to marry, and it's someone from the church. She knew there was something amiss because the person the pastor mentioned was the same person that has been trying to woo her but failed.
But the damage has already been done, she ended things with her fiance all because she listened to her pastor instead of listening to her heart. Did she end up regretting what she did? Probably, or at least that's what her Twitter post said back then.
Conclusion
Religious extremism is a very big issue and the things I mentioned in this article might not even be considered extremism by some persons, but it still borders around that. Academic articles have been written about extremism (which is mainly religious or political), it's one of the main sparks of religious or political violence.
It's okay to be religious but it shouldn't be done in a way that puts our life and others in danger. Many people are tied to their beliefs and don't even know when they have taken it to the extreme, everything is supposed to be done in moderation and we should be able to strike a balance between religion and our wellbeing.
My gratitude goes to @BCH_LOVER for her sponsorship renewal, thank you so much ma'am.
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Sunday January 9, 2021
Sometimes some people's beliefs are extreme. I also heard sick people not going to the doctor because their religion says so. Another was people burning their material possessions every 1st of January which is really extreme for me.