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Religion: Beyond The Headlines

A woman lies in the bed she shared with her husband; she died over 7 months ago. No, this is not a scene out of a Stephen King book; it is reality in one of the neighborhoods of Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. The story broke the news over a month ago but it still shocks sensitivities for its unusualness and gore. Why did the husband keep the body? He said it was in the hopes of God resurrecting her from death. According to him, prayers would eventually lift her out of her state of advanced decomposition and somehow have her be amongst the living once again. The mental state of this man is unknown and whether or not he truly believed what he was saying to television crews is a mystery whose resolution is beyond the scope of this article.

This story, and others like it, tells us that religion now plays a different role in today’s society. Historically, people would pray for God to alleviate their burdens, assist them in times of need in the hopes of being invited to paradise once the soul departed the physical body. “Be good now, trust in God now, for your recompense will be in paradise once you die”. There isn’t really a need for instant gratification as all happens in Gods’ times. You want a car? If God wants you to have one you will, if not? Well, start collecting those coins to move around in a cab. New churches or “Eglises de Réveil” have completely flipped this way of thinking; it’s all in the now. They promise you that you can get whatever you want now. A car? Of course God will see you through now. Same with money, a husband, a new job. And if those things don’t happen, then it must be your aunt in the village who’s blocking your blessings; she was always jealous anyway. They prone the idea that we all deserve great and shiny things and not having them is not God’s plan regardless of one current’s situation. In Cameroon we now see a war between these two schools of Christian beliefs. The traditional way? Paradise awaits, well just die first and you’ll see. New churches? Paradise is now, just pray about what you want, buy this oil or water from us in the meantime to help in that process and what you see when you die is just the icing on the cake.

Which model to go with is a matter of personal conviction and doesn’t really get to the principal issue as both could be equally right or spectacularly wrong. At the core, religion is deeply personal: what makes one’s spiritual flow going may differ from its neighbor’s. People turn to these places of worship, new and old; to alleviate whatever pain they’re enduring in their lives. We’re talking about Cameroon where people are hurting; the younger population is looking for employment while the oldest is trying to live on a pension that couldn’t feed a family of one giving the cost of everything. And the people in between those age groups try to make ends meet in whichever way they can; legally or not. With so many trying to grasp at a reality of what their lives is turning out to be, religion is filling the gap that government is not, be it for good or bad. Maybe that holy water doesn’t really have magical powers but if one thinks it’s the potion to their problems, nothing can stop them from spending money they don’t have on it. People want solutions, religion is offering it. Those new churches are seeing the size of their congregations soar because people are hurting and the places of worship they used to attend no longer meet their needs.

So maybe the debate is not whether we should close those churches or not and cast them as anomalies of the Christian faith. Maybe the debate lies on how to make people’s lives better so that their choices are predicated by sheer will rather than by circumstances. Believing your wife and mother will wake up from her death is scary thinking. Sleeping with a putrid body for 6 months is dangerous behavior. This country needs solutions from its own people to improve the lives of all. An improved economic situation will make people less susceptible to anything they read and see; Cameroon wants thinkers not a flock of sheep. But if you do decide to be the Lord’s sheep, it should be on your terms, not your churches. Go ahead, buy that water, well that’s if you really want to, no judgment.

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