Colonial Legacy & The Gospel Paradox: When Devotion Defies Scripture
Colonialism and the Cognitive Reprogramming of Worship
THE editorial premise begins not in theology but in history. Colonialism’s most enduring conquest was not territorial but psychological. By replacing indigenous systems of governance, spirituality, education, and epistemology, the colonial project engineered a generational dislocation—teaching colonized societies to distrust self-derived knowledge while elevating foreign frameworks as superior, sacred, or civilized. Religion, particularly Christianity, became one of its most successful instruments—not necessarily because it converted populations, but because it arrived packaged with authority: government endorsement, Western education, missionary medicine, and economic access.
Interviews with historians, sociologists, and post-colonial scholars repeatedly confirm that colonized societies were conditioned to treat foreign systems not as optional imports but as aspirational identities. The result? Christianity expanded rapidly in Nigeria, but often without a parallel expansion of biblical literacy, doctrinal understanding, or interpretive depth.
The Bible Versus the Practice: What Exactly Is Being Revered?
To investigate the claim that modern Christian behavior contradicts scripture, one must examine observable religious culture: pilgrimages centered around objects, prayer altars built before statues, kissing of crucifixes, and the attribution of spiritual power to material symbols. These practices, though normalized in many church traditions, raise a critical question: Are adherents practicing Christianity as defined by the Bible, or Christianity as defined by inherited religious culture?
Scripture offers explicit references. Exodus 20:4–5 prohibits the creation and veneration of physical religious images. 1 John 5:21 delivers an uncompromising command to avoid idols, while 1 John 4:24 emphasizes worship “in spirit and truth,” not through physical intermediaries. Many church doctrines attempt to differentiate between “veneration” and “worship,” yet field investigations across Nigerian religious spaces reveal that in lived practice, the distinction often collapses. When objects become centers of devotion, reverence, or spiritual mediation, intent no longer alters classification—practice does.
The Literacy Gap No One Wants to Audit
An insider perspective from clergy strengthens the investigation. Pastors and theologians interviewed across denominations admit privately that while Bible ownership is high, Bible readership is low. One pastor summarized it starkly: only a minority reads the entire Bible, and an even smaller minority reads with analytical curiosity. If scripture is the official manual, then the most important audit is simple: Are Christians practicing what the manual says, or defending what the culture permits?
The deeper implication is sociological, not merely religious. A society that venerates objects because it never interrogated texts is not expressing faith—it is expressing inherited behavior protected by emotion rather than understanding.
