Sir: Report has it that sometime after his coronation (December 2015) the current Ooni of Ile-Ife, Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja, visited his church for thanksgiving and bowed to pray. When some people expressed admiration, he responded by saying “Jesus is my Father”. But some other people jeered at him, calling him hypocrite. Why? I wish I knew.

Many Gentiles are reported as adoring Jesus in the gospel accounts, and Jesus is also reported as admiring some Gentiles, about whom he said: “Not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” That is the irony with Christians. Not to be a Christian is to be doomed. And so, who said Jesus is the founder of Christianity as a religion? What he stressed was love of God and neighbour; hence his parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story of the Centurion. He didn’t practise any religion other than Judaism from infancy to grave. He never demonised anybody on the ground of religion.

While Jesus said it is not those who call him Lord, Lord, who would enter God’s kingdom, but those who do the will of the Father in heaven, Christians are saying accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour is the key to heaven.

Christianity is no more about making sense but using the name of Jesus to build earthly kingdom for Christian clerics who are today’s scribes and Pharisees. Too many Nigerians will deny that Jesus carried away corruption and heartlessness that are creating mass abject poverty in a land flowing with milk and honey. Europe and America didn’t develop until they separated church from state: secularity.

Oyeniran Abioje,
Ilorin, Kwara State