Christianity and the Naga Society Today

Religion has tremendous impact on people and ultimately the society. The truth is believers act and behave in the way each individual or society believes. We know that bad theology and shallow belief system can turn believers into mediocre or fanatic people, and today that is what Nagas seem to have become, whether one agrees or not. The saying, a person is known by the company he or she keeps may be resonated in the statement, “a society is known by the religion or denomination it professes.”

The embarrassment and the serious quest is, what kind of society have we become today with teaching Christianity for over 150 years? Materially, we appear to have changed much but our lives as Christians is far from what we should have grown in terms of truthfulness, righteousness and honesty. Aristotle who once said, “Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society” aptly describes where and what we are today; a people living on false pride and ignoble morality in the society, churches and offices.

This reality blatantly points that Christianity understood and practiced in Nagaland is a false one and I am ready to debate with anyone on it. True Christianity is not a religion for chicken-hearted or non-serious persons like us. Christianity is a religion for the brave and people of strong moral uprightness who are constantly in serious quest for the truth of Christ. Christianity is a religion based on reasonable reason that challenges injustices of all sorts, dishonesty and human frailties. Christianity, therefore, is neither an emotional or imaginary belief as many in our society understand it to be. Christianity, in all its truthfulness and entirety, is a religion that calls for standing up for truth and justice at the cost one’s life. History of Christianity testifies to this fact beginning with Jesus who was tortured inhumanly and crucified like a thief. His believers were either stoned to death, burnt alive or fried in boiling oil and they sang praises of God while they were being burnt.

Nagaland is a proud Christian-dominated state but woefully the society and the form of government, we seem to have, is not ‘Democracy’ but ‘Kakistocracy’, meaning a government by the worst people, for the worst people. This appears to be true because, even statistically, Nagaland as a State is one of the most corrupt in the country and governance is at its lowest ebb with no tangible works for the common good except self-aggrandizement activities.

The question that we must ask ourselves is, if Christianity is the best religion then how did we arrive at this? The answer lies in the nature of religion and Scripture. Both can be used and propagated in two ways; one to domesticate people and the other to liberate. My observation is that Christianity and the Bible, as taught and understood in Nagaland, are either in a distorted form or in the hands of wrong people.

We know that Jesus commanded us to love one another and care for each other but the type of teaching beliefs like ‘personal saviour’ and  ‘once saved is always saved’ have made us selfish, individualistic, stupidly self-righteous and pathetically lukewarm people today. We must realise that these teachings are unbiblical.

Below are few examples of false representations motioned as that of Jesus and Christianity; they are:-

a) Jesus never said ‘follow your heart’ because He knows that the heart is deceitful. What Jesus said is, “Follow me.”

b) Jesus never said, ‘believe in yourself’. On the contrary, He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the father except through me.”

c) Jesus never said, ‘live your truth’. In contrast, He said, “I am the truth and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

d) Jesus never said, ‘as long as you are happy and convinced that is all that matters’. In effect, Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

e) Jesus also did not say that “faith alone will save you”; rather He said, “Truly I tell You, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

f) Furthermore, the teaching of “Accepting Jesus as one’s personal saviour” may sound innocently plausible and spiritual but in effect can turn a society into selfish and individualistic one. The potential negative consequences are:- ‘social isolation’ where individuals focus more on their personal spiritual journey opposed to the teaching of Jesus, who said, “Love your neighbour as yourselves.” Besides, this individualistic focus can lead to a neglect of societal concerns like corruption and social injustices as the emphasis shifts away from collective action for social transformation and it appears that this is prevalent in our case.

This belief of personal saviour is nothing but hypocrisy because those belief this cannot cheat, bribe or misuse public funds. This hypocritical view is corrected by Jesus when He rebuked the pharasis and the scribes saying, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines’.”Another such precepts is the doctrine of “justification by faith or grace alone” propounded by Martin Luther in 1517 AD”. This doctrine is not only fallacious but also unbiblical as it goes against Jesus and his teachings. Contrary to Luther’s doctrine, Jesus clearly said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And, Jesus also said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

The shallowness of Naga Christianity, as a result of teaching human precepts instead of teaching the Bible in all sincerity, has made us hollow and unbiblical-minded people. This emptiness can be seen in the way we irrationally spew ideas like ‘pre-Christmas’, ‘worship festival’ etc. The reason is nobody celebrates pre-birthday of an unborn child, except the Nagas. The normal activity is, a family that is expecting the birth of a child prepares by buying baby clothes, soaps, napkins etc., and prayerfully awaits the birth of the child. This preparation biblically or in the Church’s tradition is called ‘Advent’ and not as pre-birthday or pre-Christmas. The other absurd idea is ‘worship festival’. The organisers of this imprudent festival did not realise that worship cannot be a festival as it can only be performed sacredly with the highest of reverence. Worship must not be slandered and degraded to festivity like potato festival or onion festival.

The calling of the hour is a sincere desire and eagerness to know more to be more so that others stop laughing at us for our stupidity.

Jonas Yanthan