Let’s strengthen our ethical pillars to win war on graft

Is the church in Kenya excelling in selling indulgences to a sick and sickening political class? Can freedom from God’s punishment be bought in the church as was done in the Medieval Age? Can Kenyans buy blessings? Is the church a modern spiritual shop? Tomorrow Sunday February 14, you are likely to hear more about money than about God. You might also hear about love for sale. However, regardless that you go to the house of worship or you are intruded at home by televangelists, you are likely to hear about the earthly kingdom thrice as much as you will hear about God. And when you hear about God, it is likely that He is only the highway to worldliness.

In the Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries AD), money was personified and worshipped as a god. They called money mammon, borrowing from ancient Hebrew and Greek civilisations. The worship of mammon was typically characterised by excessive materialism and gluttony. Greed and unjust worldly gain and glory were its middle names. Even before these dates, the drift towards mammon disturbed the Patristic fathers of the Christian faith. Cyprian of Carthage railed against it, as did Jerome the son of Eusabius. John Chrysostom described mammon as pure greed.