Bishop Ernest Obodo’s Radio Discussion on Christian Faith and Neopaganism
- Neo-paganism has been variously defined as an aberration. What is your take on Neo-paganism?
Before we examine the word neopaganism, it is good to think of paganism of which the word neo is its adjective. The word Paganism comes from the Latin word, paganus meaning rural or rustic. It was coined around 4th century AD to designate members of the Roman empire who practiced polytheism or other ethnic religions other than Judaism or Christianity. So, a pagan was seen as one who practiced native or ethnic religion other than the mainland world religions.
Neopaganism is, therefore, a new religious movement whose aim is to revamp the practices of those native religions other than the contemporary world religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. Neopaganism signifies people returning to ancient or former ways of their forefathers.
Paganism was the original religion of fallen humanity. It was not in the plan of the creator. God created MONOTHEISM. He created man to know him, to love Him, to worship him alone in this world and be with him in eternity. Even the OT forbids the worship of any other god except Yahweh. “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other god beside me” (Exod. 20:3). In 1 Kg ch.18 Elijah fought the prophets of Baal. Jesus referred to paganism when he said, “Do not babble like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Mtt 6:7).
People often confuse the concepts of Neo paganism, culture and tradition. Culture comes from the latin word, cultura which means cultivation, tillage or care. It means to cultivate or care for and make beautiful those aspects of our life which integrate us into society.
Culture is, therefore, a way of life of the people; how they eat, drink, dress, talk, marry, are integrated into society, how they celebrate when they are happy; how they treat the various grades of people like children, youths, adults, the sick the needy and adults; how they educate their children, how they celebrate rites of passage, how they bury their dead; their conception of life after life. All these falls into culture and confront every human being whether Christian or traditional worshipper
So, when people engage in acts of violence in the name of Neopaganism, it is absurd. When people play the ODO or masquerade cult and carry weapons and maim others in the name of returning to the religion of their ancestors, it is laughable. When people are playing masquerade and block the movement of people, they call it culture. This is wrong. When people prepare charms, oke ite, empower young people with amulets (Odeshi) to steal, kidnap or maim people, they call it culture or Neopaganism. This is ridiculous.
Making of charms is not a part of our culture. It means invoking negative forces to act for the benefit of man. Yahweh also forbade witchcraft in Leviticus 19:31 “Do not go to mediums to consult fortune tellers, for you will be defiled by them. I the Lord, am your God”.
My grandfather was a native priest who was preparing herbs for barren couples and making sacrifices for them to help them conceive. He would always warn that making charms go either way. (Ogwu na ere isi na´abo). Young people who claim they are reviving our traditional religion often think of making charms; using charms to make quick wealth. This is a negative mindset. I thank the Governor of Anambra for what he is doing in this direction of routing people who make charms to encourage kidnapping or armed robbery.
Our forefathers practiced a religion which the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium no. 16 called Proto Evangelium or preparation for the Gospel. The Church is never against our Omenani. She welcomes those aspects of our culture which promote the good of humanity. Those aspects which are intrinsically good but extrinsically dirty, she washes and makes it holy. This is what we call INCULTURATION. A good example of inculturation is celebrating new yam festival which is often associated with rituals. The Church inculturates by removing those things which are not intrinsic to it. Celebrating New yam festivals should be moments of joy and thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth and the work of human beings. We celebrate the merits of hard work and God´s blessings of good health. We share our joys with one another. Those whose farms experienced drought or epidemic diseases are supported by the lucky ones. The aged are appreciated for the role they played in shaping society. Why should the Church not be involved in such acts of thanksgiving to God. This is the meaning of our Mass. It is an act of thanksgiving. But some omenala, or aspects of our culture which are intrinsically and extrinsically evil are not acceptable to the Church. Examples of this are killing of twins and the Osu and Ohu Caste systems – where there is a dichotomy between one who says I am a freeborn whereas the other person is a slave. Christ died to set us free.
There are some people who think that Christianity is a white man´s religion. Far from it! Christianity is the religion which has its origin in the person of Jesus Christ. His preaching brought together those who were to carry out his message to the ends of the earth. So, those who are preaching a return to the ways of old have their motives. Their mindsets have been corrupted by a get-rich-quick mentality.
- The present youth have their idiosyncrasies or rather, What do you think could be characterized as the general mindset of the youth, especially about Neo-paganism?
The dictionary meaning of mind-set is an established set of attitudes held by some people. It is a psychological word which speak of how one decides to arrange one´s mind. The way people think constitutes their mins set. Simply put, how one sets one´s mind while looking at realities around him is one´s mindset.
Someone could have an archaic or modern mid-set. The general mindset of contemporary youths is seen in the errors of modernism, summarized as subjectivism. This divorces truth from reality and leads to the worship of the ego and the rejection of the God question. Average Nigerian youth have a mindset which tilt towards get-rich-quick (Ego mbute). Modern day youths have lost the virtue of patience in hard work. They no longer believe in working hard to make their money. At the of 18 one is already thinking of possessing the highest car without sweating it out. The Igbo apprenticeship is one of its kind in the whole world. Apprenticeship was designed in such a way that the youth serve their masters who in turn help them to establish their own trade. This was the mindset of many youths of yesteryears. It involved hard work and industry and produced many billionaires. But because some youths of today could not bend down to serve older and more established people, they wouldn´t be able to learn the trade nor get enough start-off funds to begin any good business. After some time, they wind-up their business and return to the village. The next thing is to blame everyone including their parents for being Christians and the Church for being responsible for their poverty. Some Ezenwanyi and Dibia-Okite cash in on this mind-set to hypnotize them to believe that going back to the religion of their forefathers is the solution of their problem. Many of them are initiated into Ezenwanyi and Okite system. They dwell in the villages and some of them engage in pilfering and robbery. Some of them use Mmonwu and Odo Masquerads to harass young girls and break into people´s homes. Some attack and maim unsuspecting, innocent people, all in the name of Neo-paganism. This is a terrible mind-set.
On the other hand, this get-rich-quick leads many of jakpa; leave the shores of this country in droves. They believe that there are money-yielding trees overseas where people go and pluck money. That explains why the brain-drain is on the increase. One must agree that bad governance has turned our people into beggars in a land rich and flowing with mild and honey. The solution is not to engage in acts of violence or fetichism. Another example of mind set is the fact that there is no natural death. Any one who dies must have been killed by someone somewhere. Even road accidents are being caused by a monitoring spirit elsewhere.
- At your ordination as the Auxiliary Bishop of Enugu Diocese and, in fact, during your days as Rector of St. Bernard Seminary Hostel, Nchatancha, you have always championed Agriculture as a way of empowering young people and moving the economy forward; what impact do you think you have made on the generality of the youth? What advice would you give to the present government in the South East to arrest idleness and Neo-paganism?
Three things are involved in this question: my championing agriculture, what impact I have made on youths and what advice I have for our governments. First, I must say that agriculture is at the foundation of every nation´s economy. During the covid 19 period, when businesses crumbled and movement of people from place to place was hindered, there were two businesses which thrived in spite of the non-movement of people: agriculture and communication. People needed to eat at least two square meals per day and they needed to communicate with their loved ones outside of their homes. This underscored the importance of these two industries to humanity.
MY MOTIVATION TO EMBRACE AGRICULTURE!
I give you a little background to my motivation to embrace agriculture. When I was sent to Austria to study, I studied canon law, not agriculture but during my stay there I saw the importance the Government and people of Astria attached to agriculture. Because of this, hunger was not their problem. In fact, they have a slogan, “hier darf niemand verhungern”- “no one should be hungry in this land”. If anyone was hungry and goes into a restaurant to declare that they were hungry, they were served food immediately. This revived my passion for agriculture.
When I came back to Nigeria and was made the Rector of St Bernard Seminary Hostel, Nchattancha, Nike, I discovered how poor the seminary was. I called the staff and student and told them that we were like men sitting on gold and begging for food. I declared state of emergency on agriculture. At a point students were afraid that I would cultivate on their football field. We produced almost 65 percent of what we ate locally in the fallow lands around the seminary. The bishop was happy and when I was appointed Auxiliary Bishop, he asked me if I could not repeat what I did at Nchatancha at the diocesan lever. This challenged me to start Mary Agro Farms.
What impact do you thing you have made on the generality of the youth?
On the issue of what impart I have made on the generality of youths; I must confess that those who passed through me come to terms with the fact that I believe that good things do not come easy. Man must work hard to survive. This is my philosophy. Love for hard work could be said to be the impact I am making on young people. Many people are coming to love agriculture because of our approach to the subject matter. They are changing their mindset. Mindset is the first subject we teach them when they come to our farm for training.
A young girl who studied chemistry single honours had the opportunity of being trained in our farm and when she received the empowerment from us, she started a vegetable farm and after few months, she was supplying tomatoes, cabbage and pepper to people. At a point she was making one hundred and twenty thousand Naira every week. When we asked her if she would want to seek for employment, she no, because she makes almost five hundred thousand Naira every month. How many civil servants would be making that at the end of the month? This is a change of mind set. This is the impart we are making on our youths. HARD WORK!
What advice would you give to the present government in the South East to arrest idleness and Neo-paganism
My advice to the government of South East is to embrace agriculture and make it attractive to young people. It would deal a great blow to Neo-paganism. Most young people who are into Eze nwoke, Eze nwanyi, Oke ite are doing so because they have no job or because they have the wrong mentaliy of get-rich-ick. White collar jobs are no longer available. The Governments of South East can go into massive investment in agriculture. The former Governor of East Central State, Michael Okpala did that and the economy of East Central State became one of the best in Nigeria then.
I thank the present Governor of Enugu State for his stride towards agriculture. He understands the indices of modern economy. He understands that when the carriers of the economy like security, good roads, clean water, energy, availability of primary health care and agriculture are activated, the economy grows rapidly. Our people are very industrious and resilient. They need just the basic things from Government and they would grow the economy. It is the collective effort of individuals through small scale industries which drives the economy very fast. How I wish that this could be multiplied in the whole of South East. One would see the magical effect on the economy.
- WHAT OTHER PROGRAMMES WOULD YOU ADVICE THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DAY TO EMBARK ON TO ARREST POVERTY AND CRIME AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE?
Functional education and industrialization are key to economic development. I thank Governor Peter Mbah for what he is doing in these two areas. I understand that in the smart-green school system is intended at integrating technology and modern infrastructure; focusing on EXPERIENTIAL learning and preparing students for the digital age. This is a welcome development!
Whenever we get right in enthroning functional education and industrialization, the economy would grow. We have a faulty form of education here. In Austria where I studied primary education means introducing a child into the culture of its own people while higher or tertiary education means science and research. That explains why the ministry concerned with primary and secondary education is called ministry of education and culture while that controlling tertiary education is called Ministry of Science and Research. At the primary level the child is introduced into the culture of its people, how to climb mountains, how to enter buses and trains, how to ride bicycles and swim, then how to do creative thinking. Children are the greatest philosophers. The ask the most basic questions, “mummy, are you my mother?; what is the origin of the world…?”
In experiential learning, children are not asked to memorize the thoughts of others. This is the rudiments of what Governor Peter Mbah is introducing in his smart green school. He is combining education and agriculture. These are most basic.
In Austria, at the tertiary level, the Ministry of Science and Research are involved because at this level, young people are now mature to research and manipulate science. When youths are involved in science and research, it would become the starting point of industrialization. Vocational education should be encouraged in Nigeria. People are diversely gifted. Many of the foreign engineers you see working on our roads or erecting buildings for us never saw the four walls of a university. They studied in vocational institutes and became masons, mechanics, painters, upholsters, etc. In our Catholic schools we have departments of vocational education and in our Godfrey Okoye University there is a department of vocational education. One notices that most young people who make the ceilings or tiles for our houses come from Cotonou or Ivory Coast. Our children go through primary, secondary schools and university and when they graduate and discover that there is no jobs waiting for them, they go back to learn tailoring, painting, computer repair, shoe making, etc. This is where they should have started. During workers´ day in Germany, hand or artisan workers are highly celebrated. They boast that “We made Germany” Can our workers boast that they made Nigeria?
- THE RISING CASES OF HUMAN SACRIFICES IN THE QUEST FOR MONEY IS A DISEASE THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE AND INTENSE DESIRE TO GET RICH QUIKLY BY ALL MEANS?
Get rich quick syndrome is one of the things we fight against in our training programme of resetting mind set of trainees in Mary Agro Farms. Some young people engage in human sacrifices with the intention of making money. This is very wrong. In his book, The Priest is not his own, Fulton Sheen noted that the priesthood of Christ was different from the Priesthood of all pagan traditions. In Genesis chapter 22 we read where Abrahan wanted to sacrifice his only son, Isaac to God. Fulton Sheen holds that Old Testament priests offered bullocks, goats and sheep, victims that were less a part of themselves than the robes they wore. It is easy to shed someone else´s blood as it is easy to spend someone else´s money but in doing that we offer nothing because we offer nothing. That is no sacrifice. Sacrifice is what St Mother Theresa of Calcuta called, “Giving until it hurts you” In 2 Sam 24:24 God instructed David to build an altar for Him in Araunah´s land. Araunah was willing to offer his land free of charge but David said, “I will not offer to the Lord my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing”
Today, we hear people offering their parents, brothers or sisters in ritual sacrifice. We hear of people kidnapping others to use them for human sacrifices. I tell you, most of these are not human sacrifices. Most often they are people who do organ harvesting. They kill others, harvest their organs and sell them overseas to make money. We must be very careful. These things are happening in Nigeria. With our near- to-hopelessness in the area of security in our country, organ trafficking is highly suspected in our country.
Even though scripture says in Heb. 9:22 that without the shedding of blood, there would be no remission of sins. That was exactly what Christ did for us. Heb. 9:26” Christ offered himself once for all for the sins of mankind” And CCC no 607, collaborated this when it asserted that Christ offered himself to his Father for our sins. After the death of Christ, no human sacrifice nor bloody sacrifice of goats and bulls are valid before God. Heb 1:1-2 says, “In times past God spoke to our fathers in varied ways but now he has spoken to us through his son, through whom he made the universe. My advice to young people who want to get rich quick is to embrace hard work. God created man to be lord and master over the world. God said, “increase and multiply subdue the earth and conquer it” (Gen 1:28). In the New Testament, Jesus said, “My father goes on working and so do I (Jn 5:17). If God who created us goes on working we his children should also be creative.
- THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD IS A VOCATION FROM GOD. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OR ADVICE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN PRESENTING THEMSELVES FOR PRIESTLY AND RELIGIOUS SERVICE?
Yes, you are right when you say that the Catholic Priesthood is a vocation. In Mk 3:13 scripture says that Jesus went up the mountain and called to himself those he wanted. So, vocation is a call by God himself. He calls those whom he wants. No one takes this honour upon himself but everyone is called as Aaron was (Heb. 5:4). We do not call ourselves just because we want to be priests. Of course, the desire is the first step but it must be accompanied by a divine approval. The seminary training is the process to discern the will of God; to discern whether we are called. Canon 1029 of the 1983 code of canon law states that those wishing to be ordained priests must possess sound faith, be motivated by right intention and endowed with requisite knowledge, proven virtues, physical and psychological qualities. They must also enjoy a good reputation and have moral probity. Sometimes young people look at the lives of priests and develop the desire to become priests. This is a holy desire but we must accompany this with our prayers to discern God´s will. Sometimes they are deceived by appearances. Appearance is different from reality. Becoming a priest is different from being a priest. Pastores Dabo Vobis of Pope St John Paul II outlined four aspects of formation as human formation, spiritual, pastoral and intellectual formation The long training in the seminary makes these qualities to permeate the lives of those to be ordained. My advice to young people seeking to be ordained is to be prayerful and have right intention. If one is being drawn by the desire for materialism, then the vocation is not of God.
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