The Invasion of the Funky Pastors: Church Business at War With African Culture

When I left Nigeria as a boy for the USA in search of the proverbial greener pastures there was Christianity and there was the African Culture in Nigeria, both of which I had grown up in. Christianity fed me with the word of God, while my African Culture made me desirably and proudly different from a white man, an Indian, Mexican, or Asian. That was many years ago in the mid1900s. Today when I visit my little remote African village to enjoy some of the cultural values that I have missed so much while in the western world, my brethren in the village tell me that the culture is no more. Indeed, the entire Christian community of Nigeria seems to be heading towards the notion that the African Culture is suddenly out of fashion. The people's excuse is that they have seen the light in their new wave Christianity. Some traditionalists are not taking the culture-abuse lying down, and with their "fire-for-fire" response to the Christian zealots, there is truly a war of cultures in Nigeria. I am right in the middle of it, and this is my story. I must prepare my reader's mind for my general hardnosed criticism of Nigerian "Commercial Church" in this story. I lament that too many Christians are willfully making mischief, and a whole lot of money, all in the name of God. I am a devout Christian, and would never advertently say one bad word against Christianity, or any religion for that matter. My grouse is with the growing number of mischievous (funky) pastors, their zombie-like followers, their gross misinterpretation of the Holy Bible, and the war that they have declared against the African Culture. One might even say that my criticism is venomous, but I call it brutally frank, or frankly brutal.