RELIGIOUS PROMISCUITY

   

          The new trend in religious habits which involves people going from church to church has been received differently by various people in our society. Some are embarrassed with the phenomenon; some are excited with it; while a more or less small fraction of the population is simply insensitive to the whole issue. Religious promiscuity is born of many reasons and circumstances. Generally, the stated reason is loss of faith in one’s church or the quest for better knowledge and interpretation of the Bible. The Bible has been subjected to many different interpretations that try to convince the rest of the Christian world about different views. As human beings, some Christians naturally get carried away by the more charismatic and convincing preachers and missionaries. This leads them to change their churches.\

  However, it is gradually being noticed that much of the promiscuity is motivated by factors different from those generally stated. Many people leave their churches because of personal conflicts among them and church leaders or other members of the church. And most often, these conflicts are not even linked to religious issues. They could be business or partisan politics- related rivalries. Some are attracted to other churches merely by the way music is valued and rendered in those churches. Others, especially youths, are simply dragged along peer groups. In another case, youths get into rich churches so that they can get sponsorship for their studies or other career programmes. Similarly, one cannot rule out the allegation that some people break off from churches to form their own churches in order to benefit from missionary aid from Europe and America.

   The consequences of this situation are serious. There is an upsurge of small Pentecostal groups and religious sects, which sit in for churches. People move into churches they do not know much about and sometimes discover subsequently that their former churches were better. They may then need to tour five or more churches before coming back to be re-admitted and to settle in one, probably the first. This brings about considerable spiritual instability in many individuals and affects the fabric of the society.

   The existence of many churches entails a struggle for numerical superiority by each and every denomination. The ensuing completion is usually fierce and full of animosity. It starts with fierce debates and develops through violent quarrels into physical combat. The effects of this phenomenon may be no less disintegrating to society than those of a civil strife.

act doesn’t end on you- it runs down your family and may continue to have a negative impact even for years and generations.

  Most students who are promiscuous begin by dropping academically. This drop is obviously due to the lack of concentration since the students have little time to spend reading their books. Most finally drop form school either because of poor academic work or discipline. As a result of this, they may miss their careers, jobs and the position in society they could have occupied had they been hard working.

  Promiscuous youths feel they are on top of the world. They tend to look down on others because of this false notion that they are having a well-deserved satisfaction from all kinds of pleasures- night dances, films, sexual intercourse etc. All these make them feel that they have had a store of experience and are therefore above everybody in the society. The consequences of these are terrible-rudeness, carelessness, lack of respect for elders, naughtiness and haughtiness etc.

  Some pick up early pregnancies and because they don’t want babies so soon, resort to abortion and other unorthodox means of doing away with the pregnancy. As a result, most of them die in t he process either immediately or later on. Some are forced by their parents into early and undesired marriages, which either end up breaking or if the couples stay together, the conditions of living are appalling.

   The most dangerous effect of promiscuity is the risk of contracting diseases. It is very clear that the promiscuous are more exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis and AIDS, which remain without a cure. Those diseases may lead to infertility in the case of gonorrhea and syphilis and death in the case of AIDS.

   It is important to preserve African values. Promiscuity washes away these values, makes the African look mean and erodes what could otherwise have been a source of respect to us. Imagine how respectful the continent would appear if there were no premarital sex practiced here. But this is not the case now. We shouldn’t forget, however that in the past this was what used to obtain.