I
n today’s world religion can be
used to sanitize the world. There
can be no sane society without
law. The law of the land is impor-
tant. In religion, there are laws that
control our behaviours. God’s laws are
very essential in our lives. There is no
way we can evade the law. Evading it is
like running away from one’s shadow.
The laws protect us. Living according to
God’s laws gives meaning to our lives.
We cannot do whatever we like at the
expense of others. Our behaviours and
conducts are being censored by the laws,
the society and law of God.
Morality cannot be a matter of choice.
We cannot say that we are not in this
world to meet the society’s expectations.
Of course the society wants us to meet
its norms. Failure to meet societal norms
will incur taboos and reprimands. The
modern man is changing and he tram-
ples upon the laws of the land and even
God’s laws.
There is truth and there is no-half-
truth. Failure to live the truth drives
us to madness. We are suffering from
collective selfishness today. We have cri-
teria to discern what is right and wrong.
Our ethical norms have not taken us far;
and have not solved human problems
because man does heed to them. It is not
easy to justify ethics by pure reasoning. It
is clear now that religion has been there
in the last millennium. We cannot ignore
religion. If we ignore religion, it is at our
own peril. Today religion has been wa-
tered down by the modern man. Many
people worship material things. Thus car,
sex, and music, going on picnic, enjoying
the luxuries of life, having many wives,
dumping others and updating the old
ones with new ones could be plausible
goals for the modern man. This is so be-
cause many people lack moral compass.
Today, the young ones don’t like to
hear anything that will remind them of
their past. They live for now. Tomorrow
is not in their dictionary. The insecu-
rity of the modern man is disturbing.
The modern man is cut off from the
Transcendent Being; God. Modern men
rebel against His laws. They take drugs
to escape the meaning of life. Today,
we have the problem of ‘suppressed
meaning’. A great number of people
still believe that religion can answer the
problem of man, not politics. Our task
is to prepare ourselves for the future.
There are too many religions today and
the modern man shops around for any
religion that would not question his
philosophy of life or a religion that is too
strict. Today many pastors compromise
a lot and preach only what people like to
hear. This can be suicidal!
When politics is without morality
there is no belief in political salvation.
Today is not the time to bring politics
into religion. Some politicians say that
the church should not be involved in
politics. They have taken advantage of
that but there is no harm in questioning
the absurdities the politicians create
in the world. E.g Should the Clergies
continue bandaging the wounds of their
members without finding out what
wounded them? The church cannot
remain neutral to things that confront
their people. Politicians use the name of
God the way we butter bread to enable it
to taste better. Man is his own problem.
He creates problem by living outside
God. Man needs to go back to God. We
need the religious values. We should
not allow world politics to destroy our
values. We should not invade weaker
nations because we are powerful. Look
at political crisis all over the world. Can
we solve these crises without morality?
We must see ourselves as one people
under the doctrine of universal broth-
erhood.
There is an ultimate reality. We must
recognize that we are brothers and
sisters. We have a God who hates lies.
Politicians must operate from the divine
milieu. So how can politicians divorce
morality from politics? People’s right
must be respected. God exists. There
is no need for new codes; new religion
and we cannot have new values. The
values are already there. There is curious
yearning for new meaning as if some-
thing is wrong with the old values.
We cannot eliminate suffering by
ignoring it. To believe in God is a great
opportunity. Those in public life should
stop this needless ambivalence in the
meaning of life. Life has no equivalence.
It is not enough to talk about religion in
the abstract. It is not enough to say I am
religious but we have to go beyond reli-
gion to discover ‘’who we are’’. How do
you persevere in God today? One who
hopes in God will not be disappointed.
Religion in the concrete sense is about
values and experience of God in life.
We should not just talk about religion:
we should live it. There is danger of
exclusivism in the church. After Mass,
we ignore what had been said and pick
what we like. To be on the safe side, we
should be talking to ourselves and dia-
logue with others to discover the values
we lost by ostracizing ourselves from
God. We should not make our own god.
Politics without morality is like living
in the limbo of uncertainty. Those who
are not for God are against Him. How
can we assess the politics of today where
there are many killings, existential crises
created by politics operating with Mach-
iavellian ethics?
Politics of today is all about mate-
rialism, power, acquiring wealth in
quantum and handing power to those
that will sustain our political dynasty.
We are still living in anxieties created
by the last General elections and up
till now the election has not been
concluded with various appeals in the
courts. Some would be happy while
others may be sad with the eventual
outcome and the society divided into
the moody and happy people. The
Supreme Court has made a shocking
decision on Imo state election which
is raising eyebrows. Is there a secret
political ploy to bring destabiliza-
tion? That is politics and not religion.
Politicians do not consider “how
you feel” but “how to win”. For them,
Life should be win! win! all the time.
However, morality is judged by “how
you win”
Monsignor Livinus Ukah is a
Catholic Priest in Lagos Archdiocese,
a Peace and Social Justice Advocate
and Author of: THE UNFINISHED
BUSINESS OF LIFE AND POLITICS
OF POWER
