Jonah Achumi,Dimapur
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he recent NBCC’s proclamation to pray for the present political quagmire and the ongoing mud-slinging game which is mainly because of a power struggle and tug-of-war for handsome cabinet portfolios which more money and power and nothing else has completely perplexed and bewildered many right thinking Nagas and has invited the wrath of many as thousands of young Nagas on numerous popular social networking sites and in the press too. Not that it is wrong to pray for someone or something because even in the Old Testament kings and rulers are anointed by priests praying over them and so do the apostle Paul who also tells to pray for our leaders, but it would be much better and wiser if the NBCC can also pray for so many other crucial issues which has entrapped, ravaged and devastated our land by corruptions, divisions, killings etc.The Church must sure indeed bring a reconciliation or be a peacemaker in any hostile atmosphere or some adverse situations in a society but most of the time why it remained silent in many important and stressing issues that confronts our society has become a question. It should have been more consistent and persistent on issues it take up .It has been well known that in most other burning and crucial issues it became stiff-lipped and a mute spectator when our land is completely being ravaged by taxation, corruption, fratricide, illegal aliens overcrowding our land etc. raping our sons and daughters, why? The Church as a shepherd, one of its main objective is to Reconcile, Restore and Rebuild. Though in Reconciliation the FNR’s initiative is laudable but what about Rebuilding and Restoring our broken and dispirited land from the other Two Major Ills, i.e. TAXATION AND CORRUPTION that has completely shook the very tenets and roots of Christian ethics and principles of this Nagaland for Christ state?In the Gospel books of the Bible, once when Jesus was talking to a huge crowd he asked them “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, it is going to rain and thus it does. When a south wind blows, you say it is going to be hot, and so it is “. So Jesus angrily says to them, “You Hypocrites. You can predict the ways of the world but you cannot understand the present times you are living with?” Does the NBCC knows our state is in such a mess because of those corrupted lot and their heinous misdeeds? Does the NBCC know how those luxurious cars are brought, palatial mansions are built and crores of money for welfare and development siphoned off in personal bank accounts that have incurred our state a whopping 1234 crores deficit? Did the NBCC ever prayed for a tribal feud between our two warring Naga brother tribes in Eastern Side recently? Or some year back too in Dimapur? I don’t know if they have but memory fails me. So kindly add these prayer points in your next declaration too.
1. Pray for Corruption, Extortion and Killings all in the name of the slogan ‘ Nagaland for Christ’.
2. Pray for our Children and govt. employees who haven’t got their salaries for almost a year too(because of those people in Sovima Camp and Hotel De Oriental Grand for whom the NBCC want us to pray).
3. Pray for honest, upright, selfless and God-fearing leaders to stand against injustice and corruption in our land so that people get good rulers. In return let the people too be faithful and sincere in their own duty.
4. Pray for our land and young generations because Illegal immigrants are about to over-run the land in the near future if some drastic measures are not taken immediately.
5. Pray for truth, justice and peace in our land so that Nagaland for Christ will become a reality and not just a slogan for mocking the name of God.
Praying for a good leadership is not politics at all, and there is nothing wrong in it but pray for honest, just and God-fearing leaders in our land. So why pray only during a political crisis within an internal party issue? The young Naga generations have almost lost hope in the present leaders be it governmental or civil organisations as most crucial issues have not been fruitful for the good of the land till date since the inception of our statehood. But if the Church remains to be optional and selective only in issues which they feel are important but not for the people in general, it will surely go with the quote which was rightly said by Charles Spurgeon about our present time churches ‘A time will come when instead of Shepherds feeding the Sheep, the Church will have Clowns who will be entertaining the Goats’ .INSTEAD OF BEING FISHERS OF MEN, TODAY MANY CHURCH LEADERS ARE BECOMING KEEPERS OF AQUARIUMS. Has that time already come in our land? Can the NBCC as the Shepherd declare that it will not accept corrupted and money extorted from a poor man’s sweat and tears? If they can, I am sure and many thousands of young Naga generation people will agree with me, no doubt that corruption and extortion in our land will be solved to a large extend. The NBCC’s yeomen service are uncountable and it will consume may of their precious time or it will not be appropriate by our Christian values to tell everyone what good deeds we do like those Pharisees and the Sadducees do in olden times when many ignoramus lot complain or grouse about what the Church is doing regarding issues like prostitution and destitutes, orphans and beggars, broken homes but the Church need not and cannot tell everyone what it is doing as long as it reaps the harvest it sows for the Glory of God as the Bible clearly says, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your giving will be in secret”
Let us also pray that NBCC worry and pray more to let God be in control rather than being more concerned and worrying about whichever politician or political party is in power.
Hopefully hoping with hope that NBCC will take on the issues from now on which our land is suffering and crying for desperately.
