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• Nigerian Youths and the Signs of Time

The Unborn Child and the Christian View of Abortion

The Child is a wonderful gift of God to the human family. The child is God’s way of maintaining the human community and continuing the human lineage. Today the child is under threat because of the inclination of the human person to destroy himself. Despite the many religions in the world that advocate the sanctity of human life, there is an increase in the destruction of the earliest stage of human life; the unborn child. Christianity as a Religion promotes life from the moment of conception until death. Our Religion is naturally Pro – Life. What does the Bible say on the subject?

Nowhere in the Bible does it say "Thou shalt not abort your children." Neither will you find specific words forbidding suicide, infanticide (killing newborn children) or same-sex marriages. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches us that these things are wrong. A small, but noisy group of people (who are very active on the Internet) wish to have you believe that the Bible condones abortion. Although it doesn’t take a Biblical scholar to conclude that the Bible forbids abortion, it may help you to see the facts laid out. Simply put, the Bible forbids killing innocent persons. If an unborn child is a person, abortion is prohibited by the Bible. Let’s look at the evidence:

The Bible condemns the shedding of innocent life
The Holy Bible clearly prohibits taking the life of an innocent person. It follows that if the developing baby is a "qualified" member of the human race, all of these scriptures apply: Genesis 9:6 - Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.

Exodus 20:13 - You shall not murder.
Deuteronomy 27:25a - Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.
Proverbs 6:16-19 - There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood...
See also Exodus 23:7 and Deuteronomy 19:11-12

A child is a "Person" whether born or unborn
The Bible consistently uses the same word for a "born" or "unborn" baby.1 This is because the divine Author of the Bible did not recognize a material difference between the two. In Scripture, there is not some special event when a "human being" becomes a "person". Rather, he or she is a person from the beginning who goes through growth and development both inside and outside of the womb.

In the New Testament the Greek word "brephos" is used to describe the unborn, newborns and youth. In Luke 1:44, the word is used to mean unborn baby: "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy." Then, in Luke 2:12, it means a newborn: "So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger." And in Luke 18:15, "brephos" refers to a young child: "And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them."

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word "yeled" is used in the same way. In Exodus 21:22 it means an unborn child, "If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely...". And yet, in other Old Testament usages, it means "youth" or even a teenager. As late as the 16th century in our own culture, "child" was the word used for both the born and unborn baby. Late in the game, we have developed a new word, "fetus", to describe a developing baby2 (even this word is defined in some dictionaries as an "unborn human being" 3 ). Today, we often reserve the word "child" for a person already born.

In the Bible, our worth as a human being or our "personhood" does not depend on how far along on life’s journey we have come. Instead, we are beings who are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Each person is valuable because God created him or her that way. It doesn’t matter whether a person is still in his mother’s womb, a newborn, a toddler, an adolescent, or a senior citizen. Only quite recently has the concept of "personhood" surfaced. There are some in our society who want to find a developmental stage where they can justify that the fetus is only a collection of organs, not really a person. Carl Sagan put that fetal stage at perhaps 6 months, when the cerebral cortex is in place. Only then, he feels, should we confer "personhood" on a fetus.4 Such ideas are clearly subjective. It would seem that these discussions of personhood only arose from a need to justify the act of abortion. Certainly, they are not expressed in the Bible. Quite to the contrary, the Bible story shows that "personhood", or reaching one’s full potential, comes from knowing God. A person develops and is preserved through his communion with a personal God who reveals Himself to us in love. The Bible consistently links our "personhood" to the time we are formed (conception), or even before in God’s "mind".

According to the Bible, God knew you before you were born
Psalm 139:13-16. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

Luke 1:15. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.

Jeremiah. 1:5. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.
Before we are even formed in the womb, God knows us. He knows how each day of our lives on earth will unfold. His love and care go with us throughout life.

Early Church Leaders Recognized the Bible’s Prohibition of Abortion
One of the reasons that the Bible does not contain specific references to abortion is because the prohibition was completely covered in "Thou shall not murder". Israelites well understood this to mean killing by sword, by strangulation, by poison, by abortion, and by all other means. Later, as the church began to spread to the Gentile cultures that did not share the Israelite traditions, specific prohibitions were written. Church leaders and others consistently forbade the practice of abortion based upon their understanding of the Bible. Below are examples: "Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19 from 74 AD).
"…And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion" (The Apocalypse of Peter 25, 137 AD).
"You shall not procure abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1 from 150 AD).
"There are some women among you who by drinking special potions extinguish the life of the future human in their very bowels, thus committing murder before they even give birth." (Mark Felix, Christian Lawyer, Octavius chap. 30 from 170 AD).
"The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion (see Ex. 21:22) Tertullian, 210 AD.
"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" (Tertullian, Apology 27 from 210 AD).
"Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses." (First Canonical Letter from 374 AD).
"The law, moreover enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing humankind." (The Works of Josephus, Flavius Josephus Against Apion, Book II, 25).
"Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Jerome, Letters 22:13 from 396 AD).

How should Christians respond?
It is one thing when Godless, secular people try to dehumanize the unborn to support their view of abortion on demand. It is quite another matter when these same people attempt to distort scripture and church history to fit their agenda. There is not a legitimate "pro-choice" position that can be derived from the Bible. To support this position, it would be necessary to use text out of context, ignore the Bible’s attitude toward the young and innocent, and be ignorant of the history and tradition of the church.

God calls each of us to defend the innocent. Christians should elect leaders who share the Biblical view of abortion, support groups working to make abortion unacceptable in our country, and donate their time and money to pregnancy care centers. Every Christian should know the facts and their Christian heritage, and be ready to defend what the Bible really does say about abortion. And we should pray that God will change the hearts of those promoting the genocide of our nation.

God Speaks About Abortion
Abortion has slowly crept into the world of religion promoted as both a Biblically backed and logically moral act. Entire denominations now embrace abortion as an appropriate choice both in the eyes of God and their church leaders. More liberal denominations support abortion as morally correct in all situations while others like to limit their moral blessing to abortions done only before the point of viability. In either case, the decision to illegitimately claim God’s blessing on the act of abortion is both immoral and heretical.

The ultimate authority and word from God is found in the Bible and is used by both sides to claim the moral high ground. In articles dotting the Internet there are people claiming the verses popular to the Christian Pro-Life movement such as Jeremiah1:4-5 and Psalm 139:13-16 are either taken out of context or actually support the Pro-Abortion stance. It is the smaller detail of the many verses that the critics will miss; that God’s view of life starts well before birth.

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:13-16).

Yet You brought me out of the womb; You made me trust in You even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother's womb You have been my God (Psalm 22:9-10).
Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers? (Job 31:15).
Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3)
This is what the LORD says--He who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you … (Isaiah 44:2).
And now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength (Isaiah 49:5).
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

In these verses it is brought directly to the reader that God’s view of life begins before birth. Psalm 22 shows the beginning of our relationship starting before birth. In Psalm 139 the verses specifically show our relationship with God before birth as He formed us and had already planned our days to come. Jeremiah 1 again emphasizes God’s relationship with an unborn child and Isaiah 44 comforts with the picture of God’s faithfulness during the formation before birth. God does not look at our lives from birth to death; He views us from conception onward.

These passages certainly contain separate contexts and were meant for differing audiences, but it is with their diversity that the strength of the argument is made. There is not just one verse in one situation that mentions God’s view of human life to include the before birth stage; there are many verses in many situations. The Pro-Life view stands directly on the Truth as shown through the Bible; God’s view is that life begins before birth.

We do not need to decide when life begins, but accept what God has already shown, that life begins before birth. It is impossible to take a life before birth and be justified. The beliefs and ethics of God are not situational and do not provide the exceptions. Life always begins before birth in the eyes of God even if rape, incest, or other sinful acts conceived the baby. It is only as our human self-centeredness grows that we look for exceptions or man-based rules to govern when we can take a life of a baby.

Christians must understand that supporting abortion is opposed to God and his righteousness. We must not allow the heretical views of the world a place to seep into our individual beliefs or the churches that we attend. Taking a stand on abortion in your church is easy; you have God and the Bible on your side.

You Can Receive Forgiveness
Abortion is both an offense to God and a tragedy for the mother and child. The social disdain for the act reflects the knowledge of the sin and shines a painful spot-light on stinging guilt that often accompanies the horrific act. The person who carries out abortion or assist in the procurement of abortion have offended God. But God is Mercy and Compassion, meaning that he/she can receive forgiveness if the person repents of the evil act. Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy told us that there will be great rejoicing over the repentance of such a sinner (cf Lk 15: 1 – 10).

As Catholics, the penitent needs to go through Sacramental Reconciliation (Confessions), then makes reparations for the sin and join the Body of Christ, that is, the Church.

(inspirations from Pro – Life groups & writings)

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Nigeria's last virgins!
By: Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye <scruples2006@yahoo.com>

If you are a parent or grandparent, whose children or grandchildren are enrolled in Nigerian schools, and you read this article, and decide that the current attempt by a tiny clique of clearly depraved minds within the nation's educational system, to carefully disrobe Nigerian kids of their prized innocence and healthy mind and titillate them to perdition should not attract your unreserved indignation, conscious action, and, in fact, public outrage, then, just know that you are not qualified to answer a parent anymore. In fact, your children and grandchildren will certainly wake up one day to curse your memory for watching passively while some desperate fellows, for totally self-serving reasons, subjected their tender minds to vile and ungodly lessons that are carefully and solely designed to make them become animals in human skins.

A couple of months ago, when I was shown the topics to be treated under the subject called “Sexuality Education” or “Sex Education” which tender children in both junior and secondary schools in Lagos State are now being forced to learn, I could not imagine that anyone outside a mental home could be wicked enough to design a subject with such insidious contents, even for the kids of his worst enemy! In fact, as I think about it now, I consider the introduction of that subject in our schools the worst case of child abuse – brazenly endorsed by the nation's education authorities and unleashed on today's kids like a poisonous live snake. What kind of madness is this? Mere kids, some as young as nine and ten, are put in the hands of teachers, who deploy every energy, talent and creativity to pollute and saturate their tender minds with every detail about sexual immorality, masturbation, contraceptives (like condom and pills), etc. And like I said here last week, I can imagine how easy it would become for a teacher who has been targeting a female student to use his creative elaboration of this subject, to get the girl so aroused she would become easy meat. My suspicion is that in many cases, what the teachers would be giving out would be targeted more at titillating their tender victims than educating them!

When this matter was debated on the TV programme, “Patito's Gang,” recently, virtually all the participants wondered why a few people could take it upon themselves, to gather in one small room somewhere, and without adequate consultations with stakeholders, especially parents and even teachers, design such a vile subject, with far-reaching implications for the moral health of the nation. My brother, Reuben Abati, who moderated the discussions that day laboured so hard to sell the lame point about the need “to empower the kids with information,” so they could be in a position to make their choices.

As Reuben recycled these well-worn, uninspiring arguments, I remembered a particular essay of his in The Guardian on Sunday of March 3, 2002, entitled, “Mrs. Atiku's Search For Virgins, ” where he thoroughly chastised Mrs. Amina Titi Atiku Abubakar, Vice President's wife, for daring to say (in Reuben's words) that, “one way of stopping the alarming spread of HIVAIDS scourge in our society is for mothers and each and everyone of us to discourage and avoid premarital sex.” Reuben sounded so offended by Mrs. Atiku's suggestion that I began to wonder whether there was anything he stood gain by a possible “deregulation” of sexual immorality in Nigeria ! Well, I began to get a clear picture of where he was coming from when he declared:

  “ Mrs. Atiku wants virgins on our streets. Ah! Does she know the number of businesses that depend on premarital sex? … If Mrs. Atiku had been talking about safe sex, adolescent sexuality awareness programmes and general pubic enlightenment, that would have been fine. But to say people should avoid pre-marital sex, is simply revolutionary. ”

Yes, Reuben actually said that!

Well, Reuben is not alone in that camp. A few days after his article appeared in Nigeria , Mr. Andrew M. Mwenda published an article in The Monitor (Uganda's leading newspaper - March 22, 2002 ) captioned: “Sexual Abstinence: Rubbish!” Said Wwenda in the piece: “To demand that a girl abstains from sex until she is married… is to impose an unbearable burden on our daughters.” I should think that Mr. Wwenda is raising his voice in support of some “liberated” women who always feel extremely pained each time the word “virginity” is mentioned. For them, such a word was merely invented by men to subjugate women, since, it is often used more in relation to women than to men. Now, I don't intend this discourse to degenerate to a gender a war, and distract us from the more important issues we are trying to resolve here. I can only add that any girl who is swallowing such claptrap from her “liberated” aunties should first take a look at them, and ask herself whether her ambition is to end up like them. Yes, she should count the costs, because at the end of the day, reality, that ultimate unmasker of all self-deceptions, will discover everyone and hold aloft in broad daylight the relics of every misspent youth!

Indeed we deceive ourselves when we try to play down the point that in any sexual misadventure, the woman is always at greater risk, and this has to do more with her peculiar anatomy than societal conditioning, as some feminists would have us believe. Wisdom should therefore dictate that she who faces the greater risk should exercise the greater caution! I have my suspicions about the intentions of these anti-virginity amazons. It even becomes more suspicious when some men, hiding under some dubious “woman friendly” credentials, also enlist in the anti-virginity army, especially, as it relates to women. My take is that before any girl elects to take these men serious, she should do herself a favour by pondering the plain words of David Thomas who once said:

 “If I were a woman, I would never trust men who say they are feminists. Either they are acting out of guilt, trying to establish credentials, or they think they might be able to pick more girls. If I were a woman, I would say [to the men]: go away and have your first period. Then come back and tell me you are a feminist.”

The reason behind the introduction of these destructive teachings in our schools, I am told, is to help children escape teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS. The aim is to demystify fornication, give it positive image, as something to be cherished and enjoyed, without any fear, so long as it is done “safely”. The belief is that with the age-long “superstition” built around sexual immorality, a few straying kids tend to do it with fear, and in the process get into trouble. But, unfortunately, by introducing these teachings, these fellows are playing with fire. The totally naïve confidence they have invested in the effectiveness of their “safe sex” is not backed by any facts. In their desperation to introduce the subject and rake in millions of naira from the books already written and printed on it, they forgot to consider the consequences of their actions – a fallout this nation may never recover from. It is a fact that these teachings have been introduced in both the United States and Britain for several years now. As I write now, I have before me, a BBC report saying that Britain has the highest record of teenage pregnancy in the whole of Western Europe . Also, another report has it that the United States has the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the Western world. Again, in the United States, where years of successful and effective campaign for the use of condom has yielded massive attitudinal change in favour of condom use, new infections of HIV are still on the increase. Why is Nigeria always eager to import programmes and policies that have failed in other nations? Just why?

The point we must note is that what these teachings have done, and are still doing, is to excite immoral curiosities in those kids and push them into more dangerous adventures. Try and interview the teachers who teach this vile subject and be shocked by their narration of the vulgar excitement it produces in the nine and ten year-old babies on whom it is presently being inflicted. Ask the teachers, especially the mothers and fathers among them, whether they sincerely believe this subject would be in the best interest of the pupils! Where is this nation really heading to? How do we expect children to still concentrate on their studies when we saturate them with filthy teachings that only pollute their minds with lusts. As the nation encourages these babies to start having “sin-partners” at nine and ten, and indulging in “safe” unrestrained sex, what type of future leaders do we expect them to become? After “empowering” them to go on rampage and experiment with “safe” indiscriminate sex or masturbation at will, wouldn't we have succeeded in giving them a virus deadlier than AIDS? Every decent minded person in this country should rise in fierce condemnation of this desperation to give our children enough light to light them to damnation. He must enlist in the coming big battle to eliminate this unambiguous satanic script from our school system.

By the way, what is all this fetish about “safe” sex? Is there anything like that? Already, a lot of studies and findings have effectively punctured the dubious confidence that AIDS campaigners have for self-serving reasons built on condom. We know that when reduced to a very micro level, several objects, especially rubber and plastics, have tiny holes through which very minute micro organisms could pass. I read somewhere recently that “HIV virus is only 0.1 micron in size while the naturally occurring holes in a latex condom is of the order 5 to 50 microns in diameter.” Indeed, HIV is 500 times smaller than spermatozoa, yet research has established that spermatozoa are able to sometimes pass through the wall of a latex condom and cause pregnancy. Then tell me what happens with HIV? The example cited earlier of the worrisome rise in fresh infections of HIV in a place like the US despite the success of condom-use campaign would serve to buttress this point. So we better rouse ourselves from this lethal sleep and halt this brazen assault on public morality in the guise of protection of kids. Who knows who is inspiring this campaign? It is instructive that The Guardian on Sunday, July 18, 1999, carried a report that a cross section of American college (mostly female) students are regretting the limitless freedom their parents had taught them and are now pursuing a “no-sex” campaign. But in Nigeria in 2006, sex has been deregulated and democratized. What an abomination!

Right now, a serious regret is also seriously soaking the consciousness of the Western world, because of the moral wreck their children have become. But they are now helpless, because, it seems to have become too late, and things have got out of hand. They now wish they never gave a silly interpretation to freedom in their society at some point in their history and saved their children from becoming a little better than animals. But poor Nigerians, we are distinguished by our peculiar knack to gobble up everything Western, no matter how rotten. Go to the scummy pond called Nollywood, and ask them why they are going so wild and immoral, and the answer you will get is: That is how they do it in Hollywood . See what I mean?

But the question to ask is: to what extent should the state interfere in my life and family? Where does the state derive the authority to invade my home with pernicious teachings, and inflict them on my kids, just because I gave them my kid to educate in their schools? How I am sure that those who designed this subject are not moral wrecks themselves, who have a mission to poison society, and make everyone become like them? Must the state empower them to ruin the nation's kids? I know Reuben has already hinted us about the commercial consideration in the project, but must they prosper at the expense of all we hold dear? Indeed, I sincerely think the state has over-stepped its bounds, and must therefore be challenged. They can't take over the roles, which only parents can perform well. I have made up my mind to oppose this surreptitious attempt by the state to teach my children what a few fellows gathered somewhere and formulated, which I consider unhealthy for them. I don't care what anyone says, or if I am called primitive, but I am totally and wholly against any attempt by anyone to pollute the minds of today's youths and turn them to moral wrecks. For me, the struggle against this vile and obnoxious policy is just about to begin.

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Nigerian Youths and the Signs of Time

By: GODFREY DANAAN
Department of Theatre and Communication Arts, University of Jos , Jos

A paper presented at the Fifth National Conference of the Divine Mercy Apostolate, held at St. Murumba's College, Jos, October 26 – 29, 2006

Introduction

It is, indeed, a privilege that I was selected as one of the resource persons at this Conference, given the relevance of its theme to family life. When I was served with a notice to participate in this exercise, I considered the task as one that could expose my ignorance since great scholars and ecclesiastical authorities like Archbishop Kaigama and Bishop Martins Uzoukwu would be here to listen. I did not hesitate, though, because I trusted in the Lord who gave Moses the power of speech to deliver the Israelites. Again, I accepted to present this paper because of the consoling words of Harry Miller that “there would be no great persons if there were no small persons”. By implication, great persons who are here should not crucify me, a ‘small person' for presenting the paper small-small.

As a Catholic, I know that the sacred duty of the church is her salvific mission of helping God's people to gain salvation. Apart from the liturgy we celebrate, the church encourages us, the faithful, to devote time, talent and treasure toward promoting and upholding our faith. This, however, underscores the imperative of pious groups in the church which unite the faithful and strengthen their bond with God through faith-based programmes in which they express fraternal solidarity. Accordingly, the establishment of the Divine Mercy Apostolate, like other pious societies, is enshrined in Can. 215 which states that “Christ's faithful may freely establish and direct associations which serve charitable or pious purposes or which foster the Christian vocation in the world, and they may hold meetings to pursue these purposes by common effort”. This mandate, no doubt, has enabled the Divine Mercy apostles to practice their faith and share spiritual, moral and social experiences at both local and national fora such as the conference for which we are assembled.

This topic: The Youth and the Signs of Time , establishes the relationship between the youth and contemporary society. If examined rigidly, it would take the form of psychological or sociological discourse which may involve a correlation between the behaviour of the youth and the environment. But because our national conference looks at the family as a domestic church and discusses its many components, one of which is the thrust of this paper, our presentation shall be anchored on theology and day-to-day experiences in relation to the youth and the changing world. Our concern, therefore, is to reposition Catholic youths and give them a new orientation that would help to build a virile church and society.

However, ‘youth' is a familiar concept but it is broad and ambiguous. Its definition is coined from contextual postulations, thereby making it a relative term. For some reasons, terms that seem ambiguous are better defined by saying what they are not than what they are. This, no doubt, leaves the audience with the option of placing the social phenomenon where it rightly belongs. A youth is, therefore, not a person without physical and mental agility; he is neither an adult nor a child.

Rowland (2005:100), while citing Omooba and Okon, captured this stage of development in these words: “It is a period of growth in an individual's life which begins at childhood and closes at the beginning of adulthood.” In other words, it refers to the “development period during which its members are no longer children and have not yet achieved adult status”. A cursory study of Nigeria 's National Policy shows that citizens within the age bracket of 18 – 30 are youths, and constitute the productive segment of the national population. It, thus, implies that Nigeria 's wealth would largely be generated by these youths who are agile and full of ideas. But if forgotten and not considered relevant, they could be functionally deviant.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had conducted a survey on the developmental posture of the youths which ranges from cognitive (psychological) to physical, social and sexual changes. It is pertinent, however, to examine some of these characteristics in our discussion so that our judgment on the character of the youths would be predicated on both empirical findings and logic. The facts are inherent in the WHO report. It asserts that youths:

• engage in abstract thinking
• form hypotheses and want to try them
• think about the future, about possibilities and alternative ways of doing things (which are different from the way adults expect them to do)
• congregate together and do things together socially.
• engage in dating and experimentations (these experimentations include smoking, drinking, taking of drugs, sexual activities, playing games, listening to music etc). They are adventurous and inquisitive.
• segregate into groups such as cliques, gangs and secret societies and members of each group hang out together
• enjoy dating and companionship and they equate dating with ‘boy-friend\girl-friend' relationship, which often end in sexual intercourse.

Apparently, all that we would analyse in this knowledge sharing exercise would be a reflection or semblance of these hypotheses. It is on this premise that we would x-ray the facts and myths of our time.

Reality of Our Time

The youth is a product of society. He has the ability to explore the world in diversed ways. Some American philosophers agree that:

In youth the body grows faster than the brain.
The young think the world was made for them
In growing up we cross the line from innocence to corruption.
Youth is the one thing that never returns.
An idle youth makes a needy old age.
The ability to see beauty is the ability to stay young ( Pearls of Wisdom )

These witty remarks have many implications. First and foremost, the psyche of the youth is seemingly deceptive as it is yet to develop into right-thinking faculty. This attests to the fact that he sees the world larger than life, therefore, can take risks without weighing both sides of the coin. The second implication is that the transition from childhood to adolescence takes away his innocence and, sometimes, leaves him with negative attributes which are often advanced by peer group influence and hyper-curiosity. Lastly, the illusion of beauty connotes productivity. In other words, to stay young is to be vibrant, agile and relevant. These potentials can be harnessed for the growth of society, but its success largely depends on both the environment and the individual.

The signs today are glaring that our society is plagued by incurable disease inflicted on the youths by their forefathers who refused to atone for their sins. Nome (2004) substantiated this when she said:

Instead of manifesting those attributes and values that would enhance their potentials, our youths usually exhibit the contrary as they are overwhelmed by their environment and associated problems such as poverty-induced lack of quality or inadequate parental care; system-induced lack of appropriate quantum of role models; moral decadence in public circles; self-serving religious bigotry by the older generation; political manipulation of youth organizations; decline in provision of facilities for quality education; unemployment; and single parenthood; sexual exploitation; prostitution and female trafficking; drug abuse; abortions, delinquency in and out of school, violent crimes etc.

If we pause a while to reflect on the unfolding events in our land, our hope for the future would be dashed and we will grieve till the kingdom of God comes. The youths, whom we described earlier as hyper-active and vulnerable, are witnesses to the misuse of public office by those upon whose shoulders power rests. For instance, they hear of political thuggery and assassination in high places. They know about politics of money bags which eliminates Nigerians of high standing and raises the profile of dubious citizens. They are aware that the gimmick on tenure elongation by the present government which was thwarted by some well-spirited legislators is taking a new dimension as it continues to manifest in the war between Obasanjo and his bosom friend, Atiku. They know too that the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) is bent on using its machinery and some relevant institutions, especially INEC to impose unpopular candidates on the electorate in next year's elections.

Aren't they disturbed that there is no food on the tables of many families, and as a result, people are dying? Do they not know that the country is endowed with rich resources that are controlled and misused by selected few? In fact, the youths are following the story on the sale of public companies in which some key actors are benefiting under the guise of privatization. Although they appreciate the telecommunication revolution in the country which has improved communication and created employment for the teeming population, they are not unaware of government's neglect of the energy sector which has led to the total or near collapse of industries.

Again, these youths have been bathed in the toxic blood of hostilities arising from ethno-religious crises in parts of Kaduna , Plateau, Kano , Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa etc, as well as violent clashes in the Niger-Delta over resource control. They see Muslims and Christians rise against one another in an attempt to ‘fight for their God'. What about the spate of insecurity and corruption? People are robbed, raped and killed daily in their homes and on the highways, yet the police, though unarmed, are just watching. Their ‘duty' is now the taking of bribe from the ‘untouchables' and the extortion of money from poor commercial drivers and okada riders.

More so, our young people are observing the total disregard for our judicial system which has continued to undermine the democratic process. The anti-corruption crusade by the government is, no doubt, an effort towards healing our wounds. But don't we think that the youths are asking questions about the operations of the EFCC and ICPC? Are the Alamieyeseighas, Dariyes, Baloguns, Foyoses, Osujis, Adenugas etc the real casualties or mere victims of plot by the presidency? What about Babangida who planted the seed of corruption in this country and is still nurturing it to maturity?

Commenting on the abysmal pursuit of wealth by our national legislators in his book: Nigeria's Ghana Must Go Republic which x-rays the secret acts in the public square, Ojakaminor (2005:271), a Catholic priest, observes that:

In a country where the queues of unemployed young men and women in our cities (many of them university graduates) stretch into kilometers, immoral is the only word to describe the choice of one man to grab N16.9 million as welfare package. In a country where poor citizens appeal to kind-hearted Nigerians from the microphones of the NTA Newsline every Sunday evening, before they are able to undergo even minor surgery, the choice of one man to purchase 32 cars in his fleet with public money is a sin against humanity. How can only one man acquire 32 vehicles for his fleet with public money in a country where millions go to bed hungry?

This is where we are. Our youths are cultured in this scenario and there seems to be life without hope. Indeed, we may assume here that Kukah's (1993: IV) adoption of The Lord's prayer: A Nigerian version, a coinage of Alhaji Ali Munguno, was necessitated by this obvious national dilemma. The prayer, culled from the report of the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly (Vol. 1. 1977: 632 – 3) reads:

Our father, who art in Lagos/Abuja,
Praise be thy Name for thy struggles
To bring Peace to Nigeria!
May the Naira come to us, the non rulers,
As it has come to them the rulers!
Thy will be done in the rural areas,
As it is being done in the urban centres!
Give our villages pipe borne water,
Medical facilities, tarred roads and mini NEPAS (electricity)
That the village youth may not resort to the township drift
And suffocate for the sake of national development.
Give us the education that is functional,
That creates the climate of home made thinkers
That ambushes the culture of non productivity,
That arrests the shortages in the midst of plenty,
That liberates us from poverty and the experts borrowing,
And rescue us from living big in borrowed Naira,
We ask these for the sake of national security!
Forgive us our creeping mutual mistrust,
As we forgive those who daily hijack prices,
Lead us not into epidemic Udojititis (Udoji awards),
That causes darkness at noon in cities,
And deliver us from the mysterious fuel shortages,
And the increasing anxiety of no gari, no soup days!
We ask these for the sake of national survival,
For yours is the power to make all the difference!
To move away from gari-less and soupless days,
To that state of an average Nigerian
That we may truly in brotherhood stand,
We ask these things in thy name's sake. Amen

Religious drift

A great challenge in this era is the radical movement by the youths from the Catholic church to Pentecostal churches where the founders and pastors preach prosperity and present the Christian religion without the cross. Achunike (2003:114) believes that “Pentecostalism is thriving in Nigeria because the biggest response is what to eat, economic disaster, unemployment, war, bad news, frustration etc”.

The argument, on the other hand, could further be advanced with sufficient evidence. Peter Krieft, a Professor of Philosophy at Boston College , observed that:

Most Catholics simply do not know how to get to heaven, how to be saved. Most Catholics do not even mention Christ when they answer the question of how they expect to go to heaven. They think they get to heaven, if they are good enough, saved by good intentions, being nice or doing good deeds. Many Catholics have never been taught the most precious gift of all: that salvation is a free gift of grace, accepted by faith in Christ.

Catholics are generally non-challant about things that pertain to their faith. The absence of sustained catechesis is also a factor that heightens their ignorance. They are often empty and lack the knowledge of the God they worship and the tenets of Catholicism.

Apart from these, Quinn et al (2005:12) identified the lack of evangelical machinery that suits the new age as the reason for the youths leaving the church. According to them:

All around we see and hear Pentecostal and Islamic sects blaring out their messages on God's word. They have captured the electronic world; television, radio, tracts and powerful public address systems. They claim the parks, markets, highways and byways and old cinema halls that have gone out of business. Their missionary efforts and fortitude have won them thousands of converts mostly from the Catholic and main line churches.

While we admit that our Catholics hardly familiarize themselves with the teachings of the church and doctrine as well as church history and sacred traditions, Catholic families cannot be exonerated. Their guilt manifests in no small proportion. Parents, for instance, do not pay much attention to the teaching of their children about the faith, in such a manner that deviants would not see the reason to drift. One thing they have failed to realize is that they will give account of the good and bad they have done to the children God has given them. The code of Canon Law (Can. 226) holds that:

Those who are married are bound by the special obligation, in accordance with their own vocation, to strive for the building up of the people of God through their marriage and family…Because they gave life to their children, parents have the most serious obligation and the right to educate them. It is therefore, primarily the responsibility of Christian parents to ensure the Christian education of their children in accordance with the teaching of the church.

This theology has been taught over and over again. Children who experience love of parents are likely to pay great attention to such parents, even when they (children) have superior knowledge. The bottomline is that unless Catholic parents assume their duties by teaching the youths what they need to know about the faith to enable them cherish and practice it, the drift by our youths would become uncontrollable. The scriptures say; “Discipline your son while there is hope; do not set your heart on his destruction” (Prov. 19: 18); “He who loves his son will whip him often, in order that he may rejoice at the way he turns out” (Sirach 30:1); “Bow down his neck in his youth and beat his sides while he is young lest he becomes stubborn and disobeys you (Sirach 30:12).

Since one way to control the mass exodus of Catholic youths to other churches and religions is to mould their character with greater appreciation of the faith, this sacred duty must be performed without compromise.

The Way Forward

From the much we have discussed, it is evident that our youths are in a dilemma. Be that as it may, the determination to succeed is the benchmark. Thus:

Nigeria should invest in her youths by putting in place concrete programmes that would bring about youth education and economic empowerment and ensure security of their lives to enable them contribute their quota to nation building.

The new information age calls for concerted efforts by all stakeholders who must reorientate the youths on ICT use. The Internet is, no doubt, the newest companion of the youths and its destructive elements pose danger to humanity.

We are called to be good evangelizers. Catholics should be more interested in their faith by studying the bible and learning about the teachings of the church and the sacred traditions. This would help to instruct the youths on issues that pertain to faith.

Quinn et al (2005:44) made a striking statement that “Muslim extremism is on the march and so is evangelical. Pentecostal evangelism is now in every corner of the globe. Both have stolen our flock with great success, simply because they preach their message with conviction and power… we have no choice but to study how Christ and the apostles evangelized. We have to go back to the tools that Christ and the early church used. They are still useful, valid and powerful, namely: preaching, teaching, healing and deliverance”. Therefore, the church must be ready to adopt these strategies so as to reawaken the spirit of nominal Catholics especially the youths.

The church should encourage the use of Catholic hymns and develop a strong music ministry in parishes, as this would boost both charismatic and contemplative worship by the youths.

We should know and use our Catholic expressions and sacramental like the sign of the cross, rosary, kneeling, blessing etc.

Catholic parents should not only be busy with the training of their children in secular schools but adopt the culture of teaching them about Christ and his church as well as praying frequently with them.

Above all, the youths themselves must realize that their success lies in their hands. They must strive for holiness. They must also make themselves useful to their families, community, church and the world so that, like Saint Francis of Assisi, they may say “Lord, make me a channel of your peace, where there is hatred let me bring your love, where there is injury, your pardon; where there is doubt, true love in you…where there is despair in life, let me bring hope, where there is darkness, only light, and where there is sadness, ever joy…”