Just this past Tuesday, I was talking with a friend about alcohol. When I told her that it wasn't religion or my parents' rules at home that made me not fancy alcohol, but simply because it wasn't something I liked, she found it surprising.
Hold on,馃憢
This post is not to castigate people who take alcohol or smoke cigarettes.
My dad drinks alcohol. In fact, he's a notable man in the community, and people always gather at our house. During those gatherings, alcohol is usually the liquid that makes their conversations frictionless. My mom also, although she doesn't drink alcohol as the men do, doesn't like sugary soft drinks like Coca-Cola. She prefers palm wine, which is alcoholic too. So we were never warned not to drink alcohol; it was simply that my siblings and I decided not to follow that path. Although I'm deeply involved in church, where alcoholism is described as a wrong act, I don't judge people who drink alcohol as sinners.
To this day, I classify my decision to abstain from alcohol as a personal one and not something influenced by religion, culture, my environment, or any other factor. It's just my personal thing.
During my early days in school, I lived with roommates who were into alcohol. There were many times we went to bars together. They would order bottles of alcohol while I settled for a soft drink. They would drink to the point of stupor and become intoxicated, while I'd be the only "sound" one among them.
This same thing is applicable to my lifestyle in general when it comes to morality. My decisions to abstain from what I consider bad are not influenced by my environment, peers, culture, or religion. They are simply my personal decisions. This is also why I engage in some acts that many people, especially religious people, see as wrong, whereas I'm perfectly okay with them. One of those acts is buying alcohol or cigarettes for people who use them. Oh yes, it's commonly believed in religious circles that when you support people in such acts, you're directly involved in their wrongdoing, but I don't see it that way. Every individual is free to live according to what pleases them.
Some people say it's the church that built me into the person I am today. As much as I'm deeply involved in church, I can't say religion built the moral values I have today. For example, I've been a member of one of the churches in Nigeria that generally has a low rating when it comes to holiness, at least according to what people usually say. I have friends from this same type of church who are wayward in their way of life, but I choose to be different instead of letting religion define me. I live by what I know and believe is good for humanity and discard what I consider bad. I don't need anyone to convince me of what is good or what is bad.
Thanks for reading.
