Nigerian Christians: A call to arms

By Enomfon Bassey.

I had a strong argument with my best friend last night on the need for Christians to learn “the art of self defence” and the use of arms.

Obviously, arms proliferation in Nigeria is an alarming issue that is almost ignored by the government and the governed.

Of late, even the media that is suppose to do the whistle blowing job are almost ignoring the menace caused by the rise of illegal use of arms in Nigeria.

A columnist in The Town Hall, Bethany Blankley, had express that one actual news story ignored by nearly all media this past Christmas was the slaughter of over 100 mostly Christian Nigerians by murderers whom the government deemed were “herdsmen.”

In her article, she expressed that the murders weren’t committed in isolation, in the sense that roughly 50,000 homes were set ablaze, many were wounded, thousands of acres of farmland were destroyed, 10,000 people in southern Kaduna, Nigeria were displaced.

It is quite unfortunate that the Nigerian Christians suffer this and many more attacks from the Nigerian Muslims who pose as herdsmen, Boko Haram etc to perpetrate havoc in the country yet the government who had sworn to protect the country, lives and properties of citizens has done completely nothing.

If one could ask, how many arrests has been made and how many have been convicted for the dead toll in Enugu, Benue, Ekiti, Adamawa, Imo, Zamfara, Delta and the Southern Kaduna?

Why does the newly enacted Sharia penal law in the northern states of Nigeria encourage Islamists to kill as many non-Muslims as possible yet Christian remain subtle even about self defence?

Sam Omatseye, a columnist for The Nation, wrote, “The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has cried out and the government has seemed unable to stanch or even anticipate the attacks, again and again.

“Has anyone gone to jail or even been identified publicly? We need answers to these questions. It is not even whether the outcry of CAN over genocide is right or wrong, the question is, why is the government failing the people over and again?”

In light of these, isn’t it pertinent for Christians in Nigeria to arise and defend themselves since the government has failed in this aspect?

Sam Omatseye further asked in a tweet;

“Isn’t it time for CAN to use its tithes to buy arms for Christians for self defense?”

This indeed is a valid question: if Christians and churches are consistently being attacked shouldn’t they be protected?

Using the Bible as a refence, even when the Bible teaches the followers of Christ to turn the left jaw for a second slap when slapped on the right, there is certainly a biblical case for self-defense.

Town Hall reported of an East African preacher, Sam Childers, the Machine Gun Preacher of East Africa, and founder of Angels of East Africa (AOEA), who argued he wouldn’t have been able to save over 1,000 orphans without using guns. His mission to protect children “when no one else will” has resulted in him not only rescuing these orphans from a life of starvation, disease, or enslavement as a child soldiers, but also has enabled them to live, work, and go to school safely in a well-guarded village.

Missionary and author Charl van Wyk, the founding member of Gun Owners of South Africa, vividly explains why self-defense is needed in church in his best-selling book, Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self-Defense. In what became known as the St. James Massacre, an armed man saved many lives by defending innocent congregants during a terrorist attack at a church.

In Kenya, 83 percent of its 44 million people are Christians. After the 2015 murder of 150 Christian students in Garissa, Kenya, churches began hiring armed guards to protect their flock, especially since “these attackers are targeting Christians,” Fr. Willybard Lagho, a Mombasa-based Catholic priest and chairman of the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC), told Reuters.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. agreed in practice, viewing violence against Christians as an opportunity to bear witness to God’s love. He argued, “The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community.”

Yes the Bible commands “thou shall not kill” but does the Bible also command “thou shall not defend thyselves”?

Yes following Christ comes with persecution but does Christ command; “thou should be killed”?

Human right allows the right to life and freedom of worship, thus, Nigerian Christians should awake and defend themselves and religion else, Christianity will go extinct in Nigeria.

REUTERS / THE NATION / TOWN HALL

Loud Whispers