“Pentecostals are a dangerous group. They breed intolerance. When you can’t understand another person, it is dangerous because you stop short of going to war with that person.”
Emmanuel Yenshu Vubo, Professor of Sociology at the University of Buea tells The SUN that the only difference between Pentecostals and the Boko Haram sect is that they have not taken up arms to install their beliefs.
He says Pentecostals are a new religious group that is revivalist and come up with the traditional argument that people must live pure lives.
“…They are a brand of puritans. The other brand of puritans is evangelicals who argue that we must follow only the gospel as Jesus Christ preached. Evangelical puritans include among others the Presbyterians, Baptist and Methodist,” Yenshu says.
He adds that Pentecostals are a renewal group who believe in the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit can change lives.
The sociology professor posits that Pentecostals are intolerant and some even go to the extent to argue that faith is not compatible with science and will resist blood transfusion.
“The puritans are intolerant towards others. If taken to the extreme form, like does Pentecostalism, anything that is not theirs is considered evil. They have a term for it which does not exist in the bible. They call it “Paganism”. Paganism is part of the dichotomy between people. This breeds a form of intolerance.”
“In that light, the attitude of Boko Haram which says we should not learn western education is very much the same like the Pentecostals who say that we should not follow traditional customs. Anyone who accepts Pentecostalism considers every other person a pagan,” Yenshu opines.
He insists that Pentecostals are intolerant and that their difference with Boko Haram is that they have not taken guns to war to oblige others to follow their idea.
Hear him: “This intolerance is not good for our society. If I am doing something that you don’t understand, instead of understanding it, you brand it and create an ideological wall against it. We are living in a plural world where many people believe in different things. What you believe in is competing with what others believe in.”
Yenshu advises traditional rulers – Fons and Chiefs – not to get too strongly into politics and religion because “Politics and religion divides people”.
Yenshu says “Fons should not get into the issues of politics and religion. A Fon should have his political and religious leanings as private engagements. We should take the new religions with caution not to divide our communities.”
He condemned the recent chieftaincy squabbles in Bangolan Village and the destruction of a sacred tree in Bafut purportedly by a prophet.
“When somebody goes to Bafut and destroys a sacred tree, or goes to Bangolan to destroy a sacred stone, that is intolerance because those things have not killed anybody. Those are mere symbols of tradition. What will happen to someone who burns the national flag? Such a person will be imprisoned.
Fons have to know that they are the symbol of their tradition. As individuals, they can choose to have faith in some other religion as an individual but respect the beliefs of all others.
“You either leave the throne or practice Christianity or you make a few modifications to tradition and practice both,” Yenshu advises.
He says you cannot guide the stool with its traditional privileges and want to refuse the obligations.
To Pentecostal leaders, Yenshu says “a convert of a church should not be advised to renounce something. The Ten Commandments in the bible are clear about what we should do. They talk about not worshipping other gods. You should not cancel every other thing because you are the Fon.”