Dr Asangba Tzüdir
A Reality Check on the faith of The Church
Imaging can be said to be a process of producing an exact image of something. This process of image production takes a different turn in various spheres. In the field of graphic design, it creates a visual communication where the idea of ‘beauty’ is ‘redefined’ by the Photoshop and other software. In theatrical art and films, it is also employed to give the viewers a visual effect treat. In the field of psychology, it is employed as a technique in which certain mental images are created in order to serve certain end objectives. On the political front, it is employed to create representative images generated through certain forms of politically polarised imaging and media acts as the medium to propagate such imaging.
Coming to Churches in Nagaland under Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC), for long it has been actively engaged in trying to create its own Christian image under different banners like – “Nagaland for Christ”, “NLTP Act and Nagaland as a dry state”, “Clean Election” etc., and in a Christian dominated state like Nagaland, such kind of images that seem to serve as a precondition for imaging Nagaland as a Christian state fall prey to the religio-politically polarised politicking wherein BJP was projected as a threat to the Church. It became a dominant tool to inject fear among the Christian community especially in the led up to the recently concluded NLA elections.
In the mainstream politics of imaging, often certain ideology becomes dominant by way of its portrayal in the media, like the election result that was too good to resist. The Sunday Times of The Times of India (March 4, 2018) said that the North East has now become the “land of the rising Sangh” and added that the BJP is “now a truly Bharatya Party as it deepens its presence across North East, including Christian-majority states.” One can see that such projections become a counter-narrative to the various forms of Christian images which the Church hold dear so also struggle.
But, rather than countering the narrative through ways that would reaffirm the faith of the Church, it became victimised on the level of political imaging which translated into fear, a fact which the Church may not admit. In addition, in such ‘politics’ of counter-narrative imaging, as a political observer pointed out, the Church may end up being tagged as a ‘anti-secular’ institution.
Looking at the recently concluded election, except for certain cases of violence, it can be said to be a violent free election but in no way does it define the success of clean election. There is a lot of legal and electoral cleansing to do. Except for those who believed in clean election and voted clean, it was the money induced voting that defeated the very purpose and spirit of clean election. And if it is any indication to ‘preserve’ the image of the Church as clean, a certain pastor of a Church telling the congregation not to offer the money taken from the candidates in the bag or as tithe can only be seen as a hypocritic move. Now, if such a parameter is followed by every Church to set the processing of cleaning the Church, then the Church has a lot of ‘unclean’ money searching to do.
Now in the politics of imaging and counter imaging, it is high time for the Church to do a reality check. The Churches as a Church of God need to choose between fear and faith. When fear seems to have destroyed the faith of the Church, the Church and the people in it need to rebuild the Church through faith. The Church will bloom if the faith is rooted in the Christian principles and doctrines. No other Christian sounding image, but the faith image can stand the test of changing times and realities.
(Dr. Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
