(Below) Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, CEO of Kenya Film Classification Board (photo courtesy of his Facebook page)
My 4-year old daughter, JFW, is an avid dancer. She likes dancing to the tune of ‘Ozali’ by Daddy Owen and ‘Dance ya Kanisa’ by Moji Short Baba. Her most liked social media tool is YouTube. But sometimes, I catch her watching and dancing to tunes that I, as the family’s moral policeman, does not approve of.
You know, being a moral policeman is no easy task. Ask one Dr. Ezekiel Mutua and he will tell you. It is a thankless job.
Last week, Kenya’s moral policeman, Dr Mutua was breathing fire. He was breathing fire because of a song ‘Unaweza’, sung by Femi One featuring Mejja aka ‘Okonkwo’. The ‘Unaweza’ challenge was however started on Tiktok (a short video app) by actress Azziad Nasenya and it took the internet by storm. The moral policeman was angry. He says the song is immoral. The artists think otherwise.
If Jesus was in Kenya today, where would he stand in this debate?
Now, Dr. Mutua, for those who do not know, is a figure just like the biblical Jesus. He splits crowds down in the middle. There are those who love him passionately and fight in his corner, and there are those who dislike him passionately and disparage him at every turn. Actually, it is this second group that refers to him as the moral policeman. It is a derogatory term.
But Dr. Mutua is also not like Jesus. Two Bible stories would help illustrate who Jesus was: The story of a woman caught in adultery and the story of Matthew the tax collector.
One time, a woman was brought to Jesus accused of adultery. Jesus, rather than condemning her, asked the crowd to stone the woman if none of them had ever committed any sin. They all walked away one by one.
Another time, he visited the house of Matthew, a tax collector. Matthew was hated by the Jews because he extorted money from them. He was a Jew but collected taxes on behalf of the Roman Revenue Authority (RRA). The Jews were angry and asked how Jesus could go to the house of someone who harassed them.
For these acts and others, the people who were most threatened by his actions, the Pharisees, referred to him as “a friend of sinners” and “a glutton”, because he partied with those they considered to be sinners.
What they did not seem to understand is that Jesus accepted people without approving what they did. This was the difference between him and the religious leaders of his day. He accepted the prostitute and Matthew without approving of their bad ways.
If Jesus was to come to Kenya today, how would he deal with the ‘Unaweza’ challenge? Would he give it a thumbs-up it or would he condemn it?
To be honest, everyone in life is trying to answer the ‘why?’ question. Even those who came up with the ‘Unaweza’ challenge are simply looking for purpose in life. Jesus knew the deepest desire of man’s heart. That is what he always responded to and that is why he was popular with the masses. He made them feel significant without devaluing them, unlike the Pharisees who always made them feel guilty.
Jesus met people where they were and walked them to where he wanted them to go. That is what he did with the woman caught in adultery and Matthew the tax collector. He did not condemn them. He pointed them to where he wanted them to go.
To go back where we began, where would Jesus stand in the ‘Unaweza’ challenge? He would stand with what is right and what brings life.
He would accept without approving and say: ‘Go ye and sin no more”.
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