Salvation in our Land

Culture of Compromise must stop

Is it a good thing to compromise? Or to put it differently, doesn’t life require compromise? The answer could perhaps lie in what we are compromising on. If we compromise in order to forgive or reconcile with someone to restore peace, then it is well and good. However if we were to compromise, say on the quality of road construction, then this is obviously wrong. So while talking about compromise, there is both a positive as well as negative connotation. Many of the problems confronting our Naga society today is perhaps a fallout of the latter and this is why we need to reflect upon where we have gone wrong. Just look around us and one will notice that a culture of compromise has seeped into all aspect of our living—social, economic, political and religious. We have surrendered or compromised on our Christian teachings, traditional ethos, political ideals, Naga nationalism, individual values, to name a few, all at the altar of money and power worship. We don’t need to study rocket science to understand where exactly we have gone wrong as a society and people. To put it simply, we have failed to do good, to speak the truth and to uphold what is right. And how we have done this is by compromising on our human ideals.

Against the backdrop of this ominous state of affairs that we find ourselves in, one of the silver lining is that in recent years, well meaning Naga citizens are starting to openly discuss about the ills facing us as a people. Whether it is our Churches, tribal hohos, the political establishment, national workers or even the public, we have all been guilty of compromise one way or the other. One of the issues that need to be addressed is corruption. Recently there have been some adverse comments about how the institution of the Church in Nagaland has given legitimacy to corruption by way of receiving huge amount of donation (as tithes and offering). The claim is that some of these offering/s made from time to time are nothing but misappropriated public money. If the Church is party to such nefarious activity, one can well imagine the moral health of other institutions in our society.  There have been suggestions that the Church should be circumspect and not blindly accept donations that are suspect. If our Churches cannot set ethical standards of behavior for its members, one can well imagine the kind of society we will degenerate into. First and foremost therefore, the Church ought not to compromise.   

As already mentioned, this culture of compromise is not just confined to the Church alone but has entered every facet of life including our politics. Naga leaders and their followers, the general public, do not seem to be very fond of principles. Most of them will go where there is opportunity for power and money. Especially during and after elections, leaders and their supporters will be seen jumping from one party to the other. Except for a few diehards, party ideology has no meaning for many within our political class. Curiously, even the coalition principles at the national level do not work when it comes to our State politics. There is too much of contradiction in our ideology and belief. We seem to be concerned only with power and money. In essence we don’t have any conviction to stand for what we believe. The description ‘lukewarm Christians’ aptly applies to many of us. Mahatma Gandhi was insightful enough to tell missionaries, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” This culture of compromise has to stop if we want to the assurance of salvation in our land.