Fact is the same as truth. "Facts" is however a term in law that also means the statements all parties in a case agree on explicitly or implicitly. Either way, the facts of Christianity lie within the Bible, it's interpretation by it's adherents and their actual practice.
With Christianity, the truth is, we need to study it from a logical as well as a historical perspective. It's also important to look at it from a theocratic way.
First, the logical. Christianity allows people to sin and ask for forgiveness seven times seventy seven times, which means forever. Compared to Saudi Arabia Islam where offenders are amputated or beheaded (or otherwise seriously punished,), Christianity is too permissive. This allows indiscipline and lawlessness. It's instructive to acknowledge that in Africa, even Islam is practiced much like this Christianity.
Historically, Christianity (which was the only religion anyway) kept Europe underdeveloped for more than a thousand years, between the fourth and sixteenth century. Anybody who did anything unusual or invented anything was seen as a witch/wizard or possessed by the devil and killed or punished severely. During the sixteenth century, many people, dared to challenge the religion. Some, like Copernicus were killed and others like Galileo were imprisoned. Other intellectuals, a good number of which were Catholic priests and monks, hid their discoveries until they died. Any book other than Bible books were outlawed, banned and smuggled into Arabia outside papal authority.
When Martin Luther challenged the Pope and set up his own church, it weakened the only known religious authority and encouraged others to fight religion. Europeans refer to the religious era as The Dark Ages because it prevented free thinking and stunted their development. Martin Luther broke the ice, leading to the end of the Dark Ages.
This period was followed by The Reformation. The Reformation was a period in Europe where different people set up their own churches. Besides the Lutheran's, other, John Calvin broke from the Catholic Church because he challenged the idea that the communion they eat is the real body and blood of Jesus instead of a symbol. John Wesley had a possession in church and started prophesying about how someone's mother was bewitched. The church sacked him and he promptly set up his own.
Intellectuals deduced that if individuals could set up any church, then there's no central verifiable authority. This espoused the era of free thinking in Europe. When the kings and priests reacted by punishing them, the intellectuals set up their own "church" called Free Masons. This "church", only members are allowed. They met to foster education and enlightenment. In order to hide their real activities, they also set up rituals to make it look like they were a real church involved in spiritual activities. Since only the initiated could enter, it became a secret society. Soon, they convinced Catherine the Great, monarch of Russia and other kings followed with time. Gradually, they brought intellectual works like Maths, History and Science back from Arabia.
By this time, radical Islam had taken root and Arab intellectuals were moving West with these books which they had developed and expanded. This era in Europe is called Enlightenment period. It succeeded the Reformation and comes all the way into the eighteenth century.
As more and more people used their heads, people started inventing better than better machines. When the light bulb was invented, the Catholic Church led a Europe wide demonstration against its use, arguing that God Jesus wanted light only during daytime. They also argued that lightning homes would allow bad men passing by see into homes and possibly attack innocent residents. By now, the Freemasons connived with powerful kings and defeated the church. This encouraged more free thinking. Other inventions like the spinning wheel won the battle against religion.
Soon, the West began to question the legitimacy of kings if God is not the one who chose them. Revolution started. Some kings were overthrown and killed. Others abdicated rulership and handed over to the people's elected choices. This is how democracy replaced monarchy.
So religion kept Europe underdeveloped. That religion is Christianity. It's important to acknowledge that naturally, every society has its own religion. The leaders of every society create a religion to support and grow the society. So when people don't understand things, they just say "It's God" so everyone goes about their duties unperturbed. When they make laws they suspect people will find difficult to obey, they attribute it to God and everyone obeys. When you ask them why they are the leaders, they say God. This allows very good government and progress.
Christianity, however, is especially evil for three main reasons. First of all, when people create religion, they create it to suit their particular needs. So for example, people living in the desert are allowed to ritually wash their hands and feet with soil in the absence of water before prayer. In the desert, soil is dry warm sand. If you try this in Southern Ghana, it's bizarre. This is an example of the human geography of God. If you read the full essay on this, you'll see how Europe lost most of its forests just by switching from bushmeat to sheep. So just because it's foreign, Christianity is bad.
So where is the home of Christianity ? In other words, which people crafted it for their society ? The people who crafted Christianity, the Romans, had their own functional religion. They created Christianity only to confuse Jews. Jews refused to accept it but the surrounding peoples gradually accepted it hoping to tap into Jewish mystic. These peoples easily believed Christianity because they were not Jews and so couldn't see the lies about Jews.
Eventually, the Romans themselves found Christianity easy to use to rule because too many in the empire had adopted it. Then they went around the world forcing it on anyone they conquered. That world was Europe. Eventually, Christianity destroyed the Roman empire itself. Any religion that tells you to disrespect your leaders and love your enemies can only destroy your society. Because it covered all Europe, they had nowhere to escape but fight to overthrow its darkness.
So because Christianity was created to successfully destroy society, that's what it does. Eventually, the Jews dispersed. In Christian Ghana today, if not for visa issues, everyone would have dispersed too. Secondly, the sheer reason that it's foreign, those who created it don't know your geographic needs.
Africans wrongly assume Europe today is Christian. It's Christian only in name. The Christianity of the Dark Ages is dead. The many festivals and rituals are dead and forgotten. Because of education and enlightenment, only a skeleton remains. Many Europeans today, are atheist, agnostic or Christian only in name (nominal Christian). Although functional Christianity is dead in the West, there's a rudimentary remnant of its leftover useful of study. Even though functional Christianity is dead in Europe, emotional spirituality, the belief that evil never stays buried, that murder will out, continues to elicit good behavior in the majority. Of course there's quality universal education, better criminal justice and ubiquitous surveillance to reinforce proper behavior today.
Theocracy is the rule of God. The people are led by a priest who is the representative of God and therefore possesses the authority of God. The priest can do anything, including killing anyone in the society who disobeys or challenges his God's laws. No one is accepted as God's messenger besides the priest, especially if their rules or prophesies don't conform to that of the ruler. The ruler, representing God Almighty, demonstrates his ultimate power by killing. The demonstration of Godly or priestly power is done by killing a chicken, a ram, a cow or even human being, depending on the power of the priest. It's a reminder that he is the giver and taker of life. It's called sacrifice. For a priest who rules a whole nation, the sacrifice is all too often, a human being. In a loose or fragmented society needful of much unity, there may be reason for perennial sacrifice to keep reminding the people of the binding and commanding power of the leader and their God. Even when the biggest sacrifice is done once, it may need repeating when the state is threatened, whether from within or without. While the given reasons for such sacrifices differ from one society to another and one occasion to another, the purpose and results are the same, sacrifice.
Keep in mind that only God gives life and only God takes life. Whether you think God is a spirit being in the sky, a mountain or the sun or "the voice of the people", that God you think, is still the final decider of life and death. It alone is the highest controlling power. In the case of Christianity, it's Jesus killed. In the case of Judaism, Moses slaughtered three thousand after receiving ten prime laws from the God. In the case of Christianity, it's instructive to acknowledge that many people were killed all over Europe just for challenging the edits of God Jesus through especially Bible. The pogroms, the Inquisition and the Crusades are but some of the institutions and occasions where such sacrifices occurred.
Monarchy is rule by a king or queen. In monarchy, the ruler gets their power by showing to the people that God has chosen him to lead. He may so demonstrate by catching a dangerous animal from the forest, commanding a tree to grow at once, causing a house to appear overnight, calling a stool from the sky or some such magical (AKA spiritual) act. In the case of monarchy, the monarch often gets a priest to do the act to show God's power, then confers the leadership title on the monarch. When the monarch dies, they are succeeded by their closest offspring. This may be a son, nephew, daughter or niece. It could also be a brother. In any case, the new ruler still needs coronation from the priest.
In the case of theocracy, the priest himself chooses who to succeed. The God is the name. It may have a icon or idol representing it. During coronation, such idol, like a statute or picture or book, etc is conspicuous in the ceremony. If the idol is unmovable, such as a big rock, river or the sun, the priest takes the king before it. An idol is the representation of a God. When it's lost, destroyed or stolen, the deity doesn't disappear. They search aggressively for it or simply replaces the idol in the name of the same deity. So if you go to steal the Jesus picture in a church, the statue of Mary in Catholic Church or the statue of Nogokpo, you have not stolen the deity.
During coronation, in the presence of the idol, the name of the deity is called. This is a powerful reminder to the monarch of the power being vested in them as well as the consequences of any breach. Subsequently, in the heart and minds of the monarch and all their appointees, the sacrifice cannot be missed.
In the case of democracy, the ruler is chosen by popular vote and called president. A democracy is not bereft of God. After the popular vote, the leader is not called "president" yet. He's only "president elect". After coronation, swearing in by the investiture of the power of God, the ultimate power of the people, the leader is now called president. Since democracy arose as a deviation from lost of faith in priests, the president is not sworn in by a priest. In a democracy, death is not pronounced by the palace or the shrine. It's pronounced by a judge. Thus in a democracy, the chief judge is the one who swears in the president. After having been invested with the power of God, the president becomes the final authority and no one can be killed by the state without his consent. So in a democracy, even after a judge passes death sentence on a person, the president has to consent before it can be carried out !
What happens in a democracy when government leaders, especially the president, flouts democracy ? For example, democracy has regular free and fair elections for the people to choose a new leader or keep an old one. If a president refuses to play by the rules, he is removed by the earthly power of the people, the army, the police or the masses themselves. A president cannot be imprisoning and killing arbitrarily. If for some such reason the army takes over, blood is often spilt in the transition, coup detat. Even if no blood is spilt, for anyone to be able to topple a government, speaks to extraordinary power. In the case of the army, their potential to kill is not lost on anyone. On top of it, the new leader may be coronated in association with the existing God by the Chief judge (AKA chief justice). So military dictatorship also draws on the power of God, the power to kill.
It's significant to acknowledge that in the case of the military, even if the deity being worshipped is a fake one, their ever ready guns is demonstrable proof of God. Also, because the power to kill exists within the army, discipline is far better therein compared to other institutions. So the army can be said to be a self inherent deity.
In summary, theocracy is the rule of God himself. Monarchy is the rule of God through an individual. Democracy is when a chosen individual subscribes to God's power to rule. Army dictatorship is the power of God ruling without any intermediary. The military dictator is constantly reminded of the power lurking in the arms of his colleagues anytime he wants to deviate.
In every one of the above, the most important thing is how powerful the deity is. Was the sacrifice chicken or human ? How many ? Is it recent or long past ? Even the process of the sacrifice is important. Beheading, shooting, hanging, torture or what ? Humans are pain aversive. The more painful, the more dangerous the people view challenge to the authority. The less painful the reminder, the weaker the God.
God is always feared and obeyed. If the deity is feared enough, whatever the rule is, whoever the ruler is, the people are content with government. Whenever you hear people individually, in private led groups like churches crying for God's intervention, it means their God has been stolen or weakened. When they have a strong potent Almighty God, it works seamlessly to their well-being, just like breathing air. When their God is truly Almighty, whether priests, king or president, the deity, the educated will of the people, is respected and well treated !
In ruling on Christianity, it's instructive to look at its constitution, the Bible, its practice and its outcomes. For outcomes, Christians themselves say that more than 90% of Christian churches and members fail the test of good behavior. The industry standard for the production of any goods or services (even mundane ones) is that, if more than five percent of output is deficient, the producer is questionable. Also, if more than ten percent is defective, we can order the return of the service. In the case of Christianity, producers and consumers alike attest to over 90% defective service.
Now let's look at the practice. Is it possible christianity is good but black people are the ones failing to practice it well ? Unfortunately, no ! Ghanaians go to church more often and more intensely than any Christian community I know. And I know a lot. If you have better statistics, please tell. Also, it's not like the pastor, follower ratio is insufficient. In Ghana, there are extra pastors rendering extra church services in homes, schools, workplaces and events. They also have strong broadcasting media presence.
People are quick to cite examples from Bible that most Christians don't abide. Truth is, anyone who tried practicing every instruction in the Bible, would either go mad or be arrested. Take any two of those sixty six Bible books and try this week. So the argument that Ghanaian Christians aren't complying with the Bible is equally crazy. And of course the instructions manual itself doesn't make any new sense besides our own indigenous religion.
There's no country in the world that progressed on the back of Christianity. Europe suffered Christianity as the dark ages for over a thousand years and saw development only after shrugging off Christianity. Americans are Europeans who run away from the discord of Christianity and progressed away from it's clutches. The Japanese and Chinese progressed by staving off Christianity. Do you now see why the people of Israel ran away from their land after Rome infected them with Christianity ? Any religion that tells you to disrespect your leaders, turn the other cheek, cut off your hand, bring your goods to the exploiter, forgive deviants and traitors and love your enemies, was created by your enemies to finish you. It's a dangerous addictive virus !
Mark Mcstill,
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