Ignorance is not just a lack of knowledge; it is the silent agreement to stay in darkness when light is available. It is the foundation upon which oppression, manipulation, and blind obedience are built. In the world I grew up in, ignorance was not seen as a curse but strangely paraded as humility. We were taught that to question was rebellion, to reason was pride, and to seek knowledge outside of church sermons was to flirt with the devil. This was the poison that crept into our souls from childhood the poison of ignorance.
The so-called men of God, who mounted pulpits and declared themselves spiritual generals, knew this weakness well. They thrived on it. Ignorance was the soil in which their falsehood blossomed. A congregation that does not ask "why?" becomes a congregation that will do anything. When a pastor says, "Bring your first salary to the altar," no one dares to ask, "What then will my children eat?" When he demands, "Sell your land and give the proceeds to the Lord," no one dares to ask, "Does the Lord really spend money?"
I have watched with my own eyes as people who could barely afford to feed their families sowed seeds of faith into the bottomless pockets of pastors who drove home in convoys of luxury cars. The people clapped and sang as if their own poverty was a badge of holiness. And when some brave soul dared to question, the congregation silenced them with one deadly phrase: "Touch not my anointed."
But what is anointing if not a responsibility to serve? What is leadership if not stewardship? Ignorance flips the meaning upside down until the shepherd begins to feed on the sheep instead of feeding them.
Ignorance is not just a spiritual disease it spills into every part of life. It teaches men to believe poverty is divine will rather than a result of laziness, bad governance, or mismanagement. It makes women accept abusive marriages because "God hates divorce" while ignoring that God also hates oppression and cruelty. It makes entire nations sit still, praying for manna, while corrupt leaders plunder their resources.
The Bible says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." Yet how many Christians recite that line without pausing to ask: If God already told us that knowledge is the antidote to destruction, why then do we celebrate ignorance as faith? Why do we treat questioning as rebellion instead of a path to deeper truth?
I have learned by experience that ignorance is expensive. It costs people their health because they believe a pastor's olive oil is more powerful than a doctor's medicine. It costs them their wealth because they think giving to a man of God is the only way to unlock heaven's blessings. It costs them their time, their peace, and sometimes even their lives. And the sad part is, once ignorance is deeply rooted, the ignorant will fight to protect their own chains. They will defend their captors and call them fathers in the Lord.
But ignorance is not irreversible. The day a man begins to ask questions, the chains begin to break. The moment a woman realizes that her life is as precious as her husband's, she begins to walk out of bondage. The instant a congregation understands that God is not hungry for their money, the pastor's manipulation collapses. Knowledge is power, but not just any knowledge the knowledge that liberates, the knowledge that brings light to where darkness once ruled.
I look back at my upbringing and I see how much I was conditioned to fear rather than to think. We feared hell more than we loved life. We feared punishment more than we sought truth. Fear and ignorance are twins, born of the same womb. And so long as people refuse to question, they will keep drinking the poison of ignorance, calling it faith.
To be free is to know. To be alive is to learn. To walk with God is not to suspend the mind but to renew it. And until this is understood, the masses will remain in chains, clapping and dancing to the songs of their own oppressors.