At my local RCCG place of worship, a provincial headquarters in Lagos,
it is a common thing to see families, especially women and their kids
dressed gorgeously.
However, accompanying them are teenagers or under-teens dressed like
those from war-torn Syria or Libya Slave Market, apparently their
maids.
These maids are spotted during the service dozing off, obviously from
being ‘brutally’ used at home doing ‘imaginary and endless’ home
chores.
At a church service in one of the Sundays of December 2017, a woman
sitting two rows away from mine signalled her ‘maid’ sitting beside me
to get her phone across to her in order to take selfie in church. I
asked myself, ‘is her phone now too heavy for her to need a maid to
hold for her?’
One thing that still amazes me is ‘why do we come to the house of God,
which should a place of love, to show how wicked we are?’
If someone can be that wicked to a maid in the house of God, one can
only imagine what the house help goes through at home.
This and others make me wonder the kind of Christianity we practise in
this part of the world. The religion is meant to show love, but those
that practice it do otherwise.
Church leaders tell their members not to have anything to do with
fellow Christians from other denominations for selfish reasons. Being
in a gathering of people from other religion(s) is even seen as a
taboo.
Interestingly, these so called men of God grab every opportunity to
laugh, wine and dine with ‘people of the world’, especially
politicians, who we all know in Nigeria are not near God-fearing.
Back to my main point, will it be a sin if a maid is treated like
one’s child; eat good food, attend good schools, wear good cloths and
others?
Don’t forget, some parents leave their children in the hands of these
maids to take care of. Now, how will a maid that has been made
worthless not pass his/her frustration on the kids?
I hope clerics will look into this issue and warn their members to
stop giving bad name to Christianity.
On my own part, I will surely take this issue up with my church
leadership. Our lives must reflect the lifestyle of Jesus Christ.
After all, Christians were first called so in Antioch (in present day
Turkey) because their lifestyles reflected Christ.
Osaremen Ehi James is a Lagos-based journalist and can be reached via
textjames@gmail.com