Kenya needs to take up Pope’s message of hope, compassion, and tolerance

Pope Francis (right), and President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledge greetings from members of the public on his arrival in Kenya at the JKIA on November 25, 2015. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Pope Francis is the most progressive and humble religious leader the world has witnessed in recent decades.

  • In a way, I wish the Pope was not Catholic because then, I would have found in him the hero and mentor that I have been searching for. 

  • You see, I am not a Christian. Nor am I a Muslim or a Hindu. You could say I am an agnostic — I have a gut feeling that this entity called God may exist but that I have just been looking for it in the wrong places.

If Pope Francis was not Catholic, he might have been the leader of a revolutionary movement.

Like his countryman, the legendary Che Guevara, he might have led a guerrilla war against the wanton greed and mindless capitalism that is eating the world like a cancer, threatening to destroy our humanity, not to mention our planet.

Pope Francis is the most progressive and humble religious leader the world has witnessed in recent decades.

Since he rose to become the Pope, he has opened his heart to all those who have traditionally been shunned by the Catholic church — gays, divorced couples, non-believers, even Communist Cuba — and reached out to the wretched of the earth, preferring to eat with Nairobi’s poor rather than our pompous, self-indulgent, and avaricious politicians.

HERO AND MENTOR

In a way, I wish the Pope was not Catholic because then, I would have found in him the hero and mentor that I have been searching for. 

You see, I am not a Christian. Nor am I a Muslim or a Hindu. You could say I am an agnostic — I have a gut feeling that this entity called God may exist but that I have just been looking for it in the wrong places.

The closest I have come to experiencing God is when I am writing; writing to me is a form of prayer.

Over the years I have also come to believe that most organised religions are woman-hating, life-denying, power-seeking entities.

I decided that as a woman I could not follow religions that looked down on me or made me feel guilty about my femaleness.

I suspected that male religious leaders were threatened by women’s ability to create (i.e. give birth to) life.

So women were crushed and made to feel small so that men could claim to have God-ordained authority.

Then there is the other uncomfortable historical fact that most religions were born out of violence.

SIKHISM

While it is entirely possible that their founders were pacifists, the interpreters of these religions have at one time or another called on their faithful to kill non-believers.

Even Sikhism, the relatively progressive religion I was born into, which sought to unite Hindus and Muslims and which denounced the regressive caste system and gave women more rights, was born out of violence.

Sikhism’s last guru, Gobind Singh, was a horse-riding warrior.

In my experience, those who shout the loudest about how pious they are, are usually people who will have no qualms about hurting people or stealing from them.

How many prayer rallies and church services have Kenyans attended where the chief guest (if it is possible to have a chief guest in a house of worship) is a man who made his money through robbing others? 

However, my views on religion changed somewhat after I watched the Pope address an inter-faith gathering in Nairobi last week.

He affirmed to me that there is still hope, compassion, and tolerance in this blighted world. He shook hands with leaders of all faiths and spoke with wisdom and humility.

The Pope could not have visited Kenya at a better time.

The country is currently rudderless, having lost its moral compass.

Lecturer and blogger Wandia Njoya could not have said it better when she wrote: “...Kenya’s soul is broken. Our hope that institutions could affirm the humanity of all Kenyans from all parts of the country, the hope with which we ushered in a new constitution in 2010, has been replaced by a despair [borne out of the realisation] that ultimately, theft of public resources and ethnic manipulation will prevail. And few people… have been able to sing the blues for our people, to speak our deep sorrow, and cry out to God about this overwhelming sense of injustice and helplessness.”

Last week, Pope Francis sang the blues for Kenyans.

He addressed all the issues that the government believed had been whitewashed during President Barack Obama’s July visit/ “endorsement” — land grabbing, corruption, tribalism, privatisation of public services.

He also sent a message to the many fake prosperity churches that have sprung up in the country by emphasising that Christianity is not a money-making business and hinted to our politicians that leadership is about serving, not about being served.

Will the Pope’s much-needed message stick? Only time will tell.