AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu Since we are on this subject of the superiority of man over a woman, it is important to enunciate very carefully what the Bible says regarding the position of men and women in the church and the society at large. As you study the Bible, it becomes pretty obvious that God has a divine order in society relative to man and woman. This divine order is manifest in marriage, the Church, and every dimension of human life. The basic pattern of God in every society, as it relates to the differences between men and women, follows a general principle. There is Authority, and there is Submission. This is evident in all facets of human relationship. For the purposes of their role in society, men have been designed by God to have the position of authority, while women have been assigned the position of submission. This is God’s divine pattern, and it is the distinction in the role, duty, and assignment a man and a woman are supposed to play. Therefore, a man must think of himself as so

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule are people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” ---Hannah Arendt---

By Akin Ojumu Nothing is more dangerous, in my view, than a half-baked and ill-informed knowledge of Scripture. History is replete with examples of evil that has been unleashed on the world by an adulterated interpretation of Scripture. At various times over the centuries of human existence, men of evil intent have weaponized the Bible to cause extraordinarily great harm. Genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, segregation, apartheid, white supremacy, and all kinds of witch-hunting are all tributaries of the putrid stream of the misinterpretation of the Word of God. Kari Lake, the extreme MAGA far-right Arizona gubernatorial candidate, is just another one in a long line of the abusers of God’s Holy Word. Her argument that women are not equal to men is a craven political platitude uttered to win votes. The sentiment espoused by Ms. Lake corrodes everything that’s good and perfect about God and His Holy Word. The idea that women are not equal to men is a perversion of the truth of the Word

By Akin Ojumu In the aftermath of the execution of a search warrant by the FBI on Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, the ex-president and his loyalists have reacted with lies, threats, violence, fire and brimstone. The rightwing social media has become a combustible of hostility towards law enforcement and ominous threats against the men and women of the FBI are bellowing from the dark recesses of the conservative media. Allies of Trump have floated multiple talking points to defend their man, whom they see as a poor victim of a witch-hunt. Never mind that there’s no smoke without fire and that witch-hunters only hunt for people they reasonably suspect to be practicing witchcraft. Painting the Mar-a-Lago search as a raid by Trump’s political enemies, the MAGA world attacks the Justice Department, and they issue Fatwas against the Federal Judge who signed the search warrant and the FBI agents who carried out the search.  Over the course of 1 week since the search, however, the tale Trum

By Akin Ojumu Conservatism is a worldview that never caught my fancy. That’s, perhaps, because of my intolerance to BS. There has always been, it seems to me, something insincere and sinister lurking deep at its very core. I philosophically disagree with, and I am diametrically opposed to, a school of thought that holds the view that being poor is karma. To think like conservatives, especially about the rich and poor in the society, that person needs a re-examination of their humanity. It must take a degree of soullessness to hold on to the belief that people who are less fortunate in the material things of this world brought it upon themselves and, so, deserve it. I simply cannot, for the life of me, explain how anyone who shares such a sentiment manages to sleep well at night – if they sleep at all. Amongst the many atrocious and detestable attributes that have come to characterize modern-day conservatism, none bothers me more than their deliberate amnesia and cognitive dissonance. I

By Akin Ojumu In every generation, there’s a song, a movie, that catches the youth like a contagion. For people my age, that bug was Grease. The romantic musical is still fondly remembered by many of us till this day. When it comes to classic movies, the 1978 box office ranks high up there on the charts. It was, perhaps, the one movie that singularly ushered me and my contemporaries into the world out there at the outer limits of our imaginations and far beyond our immediate geographical boundaries. Grease helped, in no small measures, shaped our world view on social matters, particular how to deal with the opposite sex. The leading actors in Grease were none other than Oliver Newton-John and John Travolta. These two were the megastars of that time. Many teenage girls there were swept off their feet by the leather jacket clad, greasy haired, smooth operator Danny Zuko (John Travolta), the leader of a pack of rascals. And there were many teenage boys whose first crush was the sweet voic

By Akin Ojumu It has been a pretty bad couple of weeks for the MAGA crowd and its propaganda machine. With the economic and political tides turning in Joe Biden’s favor, the rightwing nut house can’t seem to catch a break. The man considered to be on political life-support is suddenly enjoying a new lease on life as the wind of good fortune blows his way. As Biden is scoring wins left, right, and center, the enemies of progress on the far right are having the nightmare of their lives. The good turn of events is giving rightwing crazies all over the country heartburn. This is particularly true of the characters at Fox News who are left to consume volumes of Pepto Bismol to get some relief from the burning pain of their dyspepsia. First, it was Senator Joe Manchin who opened the floodgate of good news. Ironically, it was the man who has for long sabotaged his own party’s agenda that he looked more like an agent of the other party who got the ball rolling. Suddenly, Manchin had a personal

“We are an extension of a very big family,” says Barrister Omolorun Rueben Modupe, the patriarch of the Greater Aruntola Commonwealth. There is exhilarating power that flows from knowing once roots.

By Akin Ojumu When personal spiritual experience, which cannot be substantiated in any way, is elevated above Scripture, the written Word of God, doctrinal error is always the end result. What you find in this video is a classic example of how a supposed “jim jim” Christian magnifies her own experiences over and above the Word of God. Here is a young lady – supposedly a serious Christian – who says she is bothered not only by the fact that some Christians choose to put on makeup and wear jewelry, but that they do so using Scripture to justify their behavior. Now, you would expect Miss Holiness, who believes that makeup and jewelry are incompatible with authentic Christian living, to make a convincing and persuasive argument to these wayward Christians by quoting chapters and verses from the Holy Book to make these rebellious Christians see the error of their way. Predictably, she did no such thing. Instead, she resorted to pseudo-spirituality and turned to overblown sense of self-impor

By Akin Ojumu America never forgets. If you thought that’s nothing but a mere cliché or some cheap self-gratifying slogan Americans like to band about, think again. Regardless of how long it takes, no matter how deep and dark a hole you hide, if you shed American blood, sooner or later, America will make you pay. Twenty-one years after the horrific 911 terrorist attack, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the brain behind Al Qaeda terrorist network and the mastermind of the tragic events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, has been killed in a US drone strike on his hideout in Kabul, Afghanistan.  At 9:48 p.m. (New York time), on Saturday 30th of July, a US drone fired two Hellfire – appropriately named, I must say – missiles at Zawahiri as he stepped onto the balcony of a safe house where he had been living with members of his family. Before he could utter the usual, “Alhamdulillah,” the dispenser of terror was blown to smithereens and his remains burnt to ashes. Thus, his safe house was turned