Pastor, Don't Teach Me Nonsense: Against Theological Violence, Part 3

They said people are suffering because of what their grandparents or ancestors did, yet those whose ancestors did worse—poisoned wells, exterminated indigenous people, pillaged, and dispossessed people of their land and resources—are not under a curse. People who went in droves to watch parties to see people lynched and occasionally have their body parts printed on postcards and sold widely are not under the curse of poverty, but those whose ancestors’ worship Ifa or Sango are. Please help me make this theology make sense.

Theological violence is when scriptures that were once weaponized and used as tools of domination, slavery, and dispossession by some people are subsequently repackaged with a new label and deodorized as Christianity.

Still on this theological violence, it seems that whenever there is a tragedy, someone jumps in to speak as a spokesperson of God, claiming power and foresight to solidify their identity as channels of the divine to the world. It is this weaponization of theology that so-called prophets/prophetesses who gained relevance by claiming they foresaw evil that God or their prayer could not avert on a celebrity use every time. Didn’t the scriptures say when God saw no one, his own right hand brought him power?

They parrot that scripture, Touch not my anointed, and how Marian got leprosy for touching the anointed. However, you rarely hear them emphasize that Moses' failure to reach the promised land, as a prominent theologian suggested, was partly due to his treatment of God's children. It is often overlooked that God is concerned with our treatment of those under our leadership.

One pastor allegedly said that Imole (Mohbad) reaped the harvest of his association when he died. How we blame victims who are already in pain is beyond me. As someone who has had my un/fair share of loss, I know that death and grief are twins that my PoP said visit the church house and the crack house. It is not prejudiced; it is not a reward or a punishment.

David said he would come to the temple to ask. Theological violence says we can’t ask questions because our natural mind cannot understand. When the same text suggests God calls us to a mental gymnasium with him, (Come, let us reason together.)

Anyways, this image is a picture of me at the archive last summer, telling the archive, "Don't teach me nonsense!" (with a nod to Mbembe, Stroler, and Michele Trillout)