Dr. Salikyu Sangtam
Assistant Professor, Tetso College
Nagas zealously identify themselves as ‘Christians’ to anyone inquiring them of their religious creed. Indeed, there is nothing wrong in being enthusiastic about one’s religion. Yet, we become hypocrites, if I may be excused in using this term, when our conduct does not correspond with the preaching of the religion we profess to practice. From my own personal observations, we are insincere in our individual spiritual-religious lives. Surely, my observations, which I will divulge in a moment, are not new. In fact, many Nagas already are aware of such hypocrisy, but remain silent because of the reprimand from the religious institutions and the society, that invariably will follow for discussing such issues openly, even though it is not a secret. It is an unspoken ‘truth’ in our society that no one shall openly divulge its hypocritical religious aspects. In this regard, even one of the basic tenants of democracy, the freedom of speech, is restricted—who knows our society may very well assert the prerogative of Article-371(A) as a pretext to limit such freedom (since Nagas have a fondness to assert this ‘Article-317(A)’ even for the most mundane of issues).
It is a common sight, in churches, where the whole congregation, for instance, is asked to pray for those that have given large offerings—whatever the offerings may be—to the church. Here, the congregations led by pastors, reverends, deacons, etc., in unison pray all the while imploring the Almighty to shower His boundless blessings onto the donors’ households. Now, any astute person of sound religious mind will no doubt ask, what about the “poor,” the needy, and the “meek” that have come to church seeking solace? Rather, instead of consolation, they find themselves unnoticed and estranged by the occasion of ‘selfless offerings’ bestowed to the church. The church-leaders, overwhelmed in the elation of receiving large offerings, forget that there are numerous unfortunate and destitute worshippers in its midst.
Indeed, even when church fellowships conduct their weekly or monthly house-to-house prayers in their neighbourhoods, the prayers in affluent households come in a ‘special package’ that includes sheds of tears, lengthy obtrusive prayers with incessant mentioning of “shower Thy boundless blessings on so-and-so family”; while in poor households, the prayers are quieter and brief—and no mentioning of “shower Thy boundless blessings.” It is as if the ministries interpret the dictums in Matthew’s, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven,” and “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” literally, hence they are least bothered about its impoverished members because they will eventually “inherit the earth.”
Do such conducts correspond with the teachings of the Scripture? Does the Christian God, the God worshipped by the Nagas, answers and bestows His blessings only in accordance to the magnitude of the offerings a person is able to deliver?
Another observation, which is ubiquitous, is the insincerity exhibited in our individual lives as Christians. By this I mean, the conducts that are unbecoming of a Christian: such as gossiping behind peoples’ back, jealousy, greed, hatred, and deceiving others all the while being socially amiable, even to the extent of being friendly and kind, to the ones we are deceiving and gossiping behind their backs. We even go as far as to plot how we are going to deceive people with a smile. Such a tradition of behaviours are commonplace in our society and its workplaces—be they churches, organizations, schools, colleges, hospitals, government offices and departments, etc. All these we do for the most nonsensical reasons—be it because of some absurd animosity between tribes, clans, families; or over jobs, money, wealth, ego; and even for few hundred rupees. Can we still call ourselves Christians in light of such conducts? It is true that most of us, even while committing such unscrupulous acts, continue to regularly attend church services; we give offerings, sometimes even large offerings from money we’ve obtained through questionable means; we even commit ourselves to fasting and reading scripture; we never fail to give our monthly 10%; we do charity work; we attend religious sermons; we pray asking the Almighty for His forgiveness, for our health and, of course, for our ‘wealth’; we contribute funds for the church members’ study tours or excursions to mainland India and abroad, and so on. It is as if we can sanctify and buy forgiveness for our transgressions, and reserve our well-deserved seats in the Kingdom of heaven as long as we fast, pray, attend church services, contribute monthly offerings, etc. Isn’t this hypocrisy? Or is this permissible?
I am here reminded of a comment made the 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian, Søren Kierkegaard, who once remarked: “In a place where all are Christians, by that very fact, none are Christians.” Indeed, in light of our religious-spiritual hypocrisy, Kierkegaard was right. It is not far-fetched by any stretch of the imagination to propound that in our society, where every living soul professes to be a God ‘fearing’ and ‘loving’ Christian, none of us are truly Christians. I suppose most of us do not even understand what we believe in or what Christianity truly entails? This is not to say that there aren’t any good Christians in Nagaland. Certainly, there are people in our society who are charitable and religiously sincere, but they are in the minority. Majority of us are insincere; we are Christians only in name, Christians just for the sake of not leaving the religious affiliation box empty while filling out scholarship, medical, job, admission, phone, internet, or bank forms.
The reason for discussing these aforementioned issues is not to ridicule our religion lives, for these problems do blatantly exist, but to kindle thoughtful reflections on our shortcomings as people and as society. Surely, we owe it to the well-being of the younger generation, to pass them on to a better society than the one we live in today. This is no doubt evident by the fact that today’s youth hold cynical views toward religious, socio-economic, and political conditions of our society. And we can hardly blame them for harboring such cynicism; after all, look at what we’ve made of our society and the conditions in which we are nurturing them. How can the wretched conditions not give them grounds for anxiety about their future, when everywhere they see blatant hypocrisy, be it in political, religious, or socio-economic spheres? Can we hope to progress and attain many great heights that our society is capable of when we are spiritually insincere?
