A priest-scholar replies to another priest-scholar:



I have just recently read two pieces- one on the
internet regarding American Black Pentecostals and the
other herein on this forum by Ogbu Kalu.
I just want to quickly note to the tenor that as in
religion as well as politics vested interests shape
different agenda. There are no common and monolithic
same self-interests cutting across all religious
domains and bodies. Even among and between religious
entities their different perspectives are shaped by
varying degrees of calculated self-interests. Hence,
in the Black Pentecostal piece, the Black Pentecostal
adherents while coming together in the shared value of
sanctioning "morality" within the arena of governance
differs with regards to the ends they pursue.  So, I
decided it worthwhile, in the light of Ogbu Kalu's
rejoinder to share this here. I hope it helps us to
understand why different actors pursue different ends,
including for instance why the Nigerian NGO and
Pentecostals would preference foreign presenters than
the numerous Nigerian theologians and religious
scholars. At the end of the day, it shows a linear
pattern of the prevailing pattern of the devaluation
of anything indigenous in preference for all that is
foreign, even if that foreigness does not offer a lot
in terms of what is local and indigenous. Hence, in
some cases, Nigerians may celebrate a Nigerian who
leaves for Kenya, since Kenya is anything but the
local in their imagination. I guess, there is also a
potent force within such imagination, that can be
asserted as dominating the popular consciousness.

A. Agbali