By Bola BOLAWOLE

Karl Marx, the man who taught the world the Marxist ideology and after whom it was named, described religion as the opium (or opiate) of the people. His exact words, in his 1844 work titled “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”, goes thus: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Is it not surprising that Marx said those words 182 years ago – and it looks as if he has just analyzed today’s living conditions of the oppressed and their oppressors? Tell me, are living conditions not making the people sigh, wail, weep, moan and mourn? Isn’t our world heartless and our leaders soulless despite our monstrous religiosity?

Today, is religion not “the sigh of the oppressed”? Always, their cry and consolation is: “God dey!” and “God will judge!” To quote the variant made popular by our erstwhile First Lady, Patience Jonathan: “There is God o!”

Leaders and vendors of religion must be heartless to keep taking from the poor, making them poorer, and giving to the rich, making them richer and widening the gulf between the rich and the poor, thereby making a mockery of the “great gulf” that the Bible says separates poor Lazarus and the rich man in the world beyond (Luke 16: 19-31).

Virtually all those stealing millions and billions and mismanaging our affairs on all fronts profess one religion or another.

Max Romeo crooned: “Stealing, stealing, stealing…Stealing in the name of the Lord…My father’s house of worship…Has become a den of robbers…They fed our mothers with sour grapes…And set our teeth on edge…Strike the hammer of justice…And set my people free…Or let my people be…They tell us of a heaven…Where milk and honey flow…They say this place called heaven…No rich man can go…Yet the reverend drives out fancy car…Buys everything tax-free…The people have to sacrifice…To give in charity…Stealing in the name of the Lord!”

Exactly what Karl Marx had said; not so?

While myopic, uninformed or deliberately mischievous religionists often (mis)quote Karl Marx and say Marxists abhor religion in its totality, what Marx actually meant – and this is a fact – is that religion, which may serve as a pain-relieving and comforting force, is also liable to being perverted and misused to dull the reasoning capabilities of the people, justify their oppression, divert their attention from discovering their real mission here on earth and, thus, prevent them from addressing the root causes of their problems and miseries. Religionists impose dogmas on the people to serve their own selfish ends.

In St. Matthew chapter 23, Jesus described the forefathers of today’s religionists severally as “hypocrites”, attention-seekers, “blind guides”, “fools”, “serpents”, “whited sepulchres”, and a “generation of vipers” who “strain at a gnat (but) swallow a camel”, who “clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess”, and who “bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

These, I dare say, were the harshest words spoken by Jesus during his earthly mission.

Like Fela also crooned, the people are taught to suffer here on earth so they can enjoy in heaven – as if there is necessarily a correlation between both! – whereas the teachers teaching them this nonsense enjoy to the hilt here on earth and still hope to live in houses built with gold in heaven!

Is religion – or, better still, spirituality – in all its forms and variants oppressive, repressive and unproductive? Not necessarily!

The disciples of Jesus Christ started out by practising communalism or Communism (Acts 4: 32-37); check it out! The Marxist creed of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, spelt out by Marx in his 1875 “Critique of the Gotha Programme”, takes a cue from this.

Until Ananais and Sapphira showed up to torpedo it with the greed, selfishness and avarice associated with Capitalism (Acts: 5 -1-11), communal living, not Capitalism, was the form of government practised by the earliest followers of Christ. Not any more! We now live in a Capitalist world of dog-eats-dog, of survival of the wickedest, and of everyone unto himself but God for us all!

To quote Marx again: “The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears which religion is the halo.”

Again, like Fela crooned, patrons and vendors of religion today sow “sorrow, tears, and blood” to press the people down and hold them captive. This has become, to borrow Fela’s words, the religionists “regular trademark.”

For instance, the religion of empathy and fellow-feeling bequeathed by Jesus Christ – and this is true to a large extent of the originators of other religions – thrived in the hands of his disciples up to the point that a greedy and capitalist couple came to mess things up. Capitalism, greed, selfishness, and self-centeredness took over and that is what has survived to this day.

Patrons and vendors of religion serve the people illusions (“illusory happiness”) while keeping “real happiness” for themselves and their offsprings. And it is this that Marx described as the opium of the people. It is a religion that feeds the masses with illusions to deny them the opportunity of understanding or going after “their real happiness”, which now is the exclusive preserve of the patrons and vendors of religion.

And like their Nigerian-politician counterparts, they line up their wife and children to take over from them, turning it into something like family business!

Marx’s call, therefore, is to the masses to give up this kind or form of religion, which covers the face – and social consciousness – with illusions, so we can appreciate and contend with our real material existence. Marx’s criticism of religion, therefore, is the criticism of the dubious and deceitful cover with which the patrons and vendors of religion hypnotize the people and dull their intellect, thus holding them captive and preventing them from fulfilling their manifest destiny and realising their full potentials here on earth.

Thus, liberating the poor is the very essence of the “Liberation Theology” movement made popular in Latin America in the 1960s and 70s, which combined the Christian faith with social justice; according priority to the poor and actively fighting against all forms of oppression. This is true religion or, better still, the salvation message of Christ.

Religion, thus, is a two-edged sword which can serve both positive and negative ends. It can liberate; it can also enslave. Currently, this sword is wielded against the people by the patrons and vendors of religion. Our people, who daily troop to places of worship, hold the short end of the stick.

This was the import of a post on social media last week. Are the places of worship business outfits that should be asked to pay tax or are they charity organizations providing social services and, which, therefore, should continue to enjoy exemption from paying tax?

Catholic Archbishop Olubunmi Okogie once raised a storm when he referred to some of these religious organizations as “business centres!”

Another storm was raised when Jim Obazee, Executive Secretary/CEO of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, initiated regulations requiring religious leaders to retire after 20 years in office or upon attaining the age of 70 years. But because Nigeria is a place where the right things are seldom done, the patrons and vendors of religion stirred, Obazee was booted out of office, and his innovations died with him!

There is a reason why retirement ages are set. Old age slows down pace and agility; it compromises competence and effectiveness, thereby allowing stagnation and frustration to set in, and organizations are the worst for it. It is not only in political offices that sit-tightism should be abhorred. Leaving when the ovation is loudest is wisdom. That was the example set by the iconic South African leader, Nelson Mandela.

So my thoughts are that we should revisit the Obazee initiative again.

Places of worship proliferate all over the place, blaring megaphones and loudspeakers incessantly disturb our peace and shatter the serenity of the environment, roads are blocked by worshippers demonstrating scant regard and consideration for other road-users; yet, run-away corruption, burgeoning moral laxity, and all manners of unimaginable criminality that leave no one behind are all we have to show for our contrived piety!

If charity organizations, then religious organizations must be discouraged from encouraging capital flight. Funds raised in local assemblies should principally be retained there for their own use. Funds raised within Nigeria should remain within the country and not be moved outside.

Religious organizations that run schools – or any other business venture for that matter – should be mandated to run them as charity – no fees of any kind should be charged. Collecting money publicly and turning around to run business enterprises with such funds without accountability is unethical, if not outrightly fraudulent.

Like Caesar’s wife, religious organizations must be above board in all their dealings. They must obtain necessary approvals or permits and obey relevant building regulations. Swearing to affidavits and telling lies on oath to circumvent building regulations is a criminal act. Religious leaders should pray for, and encourage those who flock to them to shun corrupt practices as well as pay their tax. Like someone said, it is the taxes that we pay, not zakat or tithe, that will help revamp the economy.

The video that got me thinking dwelt on the life of opulence of many religious leaders in the face of the grinding poverty of their members. Same time, social media was awash with stories of the stupendous wealth of Nigerians like the late Azeez Arisekola-Alao, Christopher Alao-Akala, Chief Adeola Odutola and Herbert Wigwe!

I marvelled at the list of properties, home and abroad, attributed to these fellows. To think that they left everything behind and took nothing with them – only for gossip, controversies, and litigation to trail their exit, scarring their memories and denying them RIP!

Should religious leaders also prepare such an end for themselves?