The messenger. The message.

             A cool Saturday morning in the beautiful city, everybody seems busy doing some cleaning up. And while I was sitting at one corner, taking a rest, I noticed a lady was smiling down at her phone. Out of sheer curiosity, I took a peep and she was looking at an image,
the image of her pastor (a famous Nigerian pastor. As a matter of fact, he is known and to say the least, well respected throughout the world has had his own fair share of controversies). Of course, it’s no big deal having the pictures of your “Man of God” on your phone, but what caught my attention and actually prompted me to put this down is the way she looked at the picture. Looking at her face, it lit up with joy, some sort of excitement. Her eyes screamed JOY!!!, and some sort of excitement. Through her eyes, one could see that she adores the man. For each picture, she lasted about 2 minutes, looking at it in admiration, before scrolling to the next picture; the same man’s image. From my point of view, I deduce idolatry (maybe in its mild form). This single act of hers today caused some thoughts to run through my mind, and then I realized a lot of people are a lot like her, behaving in like manner. A lot of people are (just) religious fanatics.
                                      
They are attracted and held spell bound by the messenger, and they end up (maybe not intentional or consciously though) ignoring the message. This is part of the reason why we have so many people who would ensure they have at least, one item that has the face (or any symbol) of their religious leader on it, everywhere they are – and funny, they feel safe and protected. Look within and around you. It is everywhere we turn.

                The purpose for this article is to bring us to a conscious realization that there is an evident practice of idolatry in the world today and it is as a result of sheer ignorance. We are carried away by the character, charisma and (I must add) the convincing personality of the religious leader and we ignore his message. Funny enough, these people realize that and they take advantage of their (naïve and novice) followers and it even gives rise to fraudulent people who become religious leaders, develop their strength, charisma and create a convincing personality for and of themselves; and voila, they have their preys. It is rather unfortunate, but it is true. We must therefore distinctively separate the messenger from the message. At no point should we forget the Creator who ideally, is the one the messenger’s message is centered around.