Religion by Choice

Lennon’s ancestry is synonymous with the identification of various religions. Though his family history has a vague account of the various religious practices before the existence of his Great-Grand father, Lennon’s grandfather, a core Buddhist, prior to his death told him that his fore-fathers incorporated various religions. According to him, it was due to the inter-racial marriages that existed. Lennon’s father,

 Grandfather and Great grandfather were all a combination of all human races; Caucasoid, Mongroids, Australoids, Negro, Gauchos, red Indians and other known races. Every man or woman who got married in the family, would, one way or other, enforce his or her religious values as norms to be followed by the family. This had been for over five hundred years.

However, the religious practices appreciated by Lennon’s family through the years had led to all kinds of disparities; broken homes, divorces, estranged marital relationships and seldom, sudden departure from their families to distant lands. The contradictions in doctrinal recognition by the various religions practiced engendered dis-harmony amongst family members. Lennon, as he was made to believe, came from a family who have followed the tenets of Buddhism, Hinduism, relativism, idolatry, Scientology, Satanism, Realism, Individualism, Confucianism, Puritanism, Maoism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam Zionism and well over four hundred religious recognition. Although Lennon’s family has exhibited a great deal of religiosity, social and cultural value stability had been an elusive subject for donkey years.Lennon sought for a practice that will promote peace and harmony amongst his family members existing in his day. But he had to vividly read through the family’s history of religious practices from the time of his great grandfather, since the history started with him.

Lennon’s great grandfather married three wives of Indian, African and Asian origin. By the way, his name was Monte. Monte was a rare combination of all races; he had from his ancestry a blend of racial marriages. More important was the various religions these women came with. His first wife was a core Buddhist. Lela, her name was, she came from an Indian family that practiced extensively three religions; Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. She got initiated into Buddhist worship at a tender age of three and has since kept the faith. This was because the Master made inspired her to be a full-fledged Buddhist because of his exemplary life. The second wife, Nona, had an African root that held to high esteem idolatry and ancestral worship. His third wife, Lang, was a typical Confucian but came from the family of all kinds of polytheistic worship. One thing was common to them all: they all came from religiously troubled families. Monte was an any-religion-goes man. All he wanted was peace and co-existence amongst his extended family members.

In all, the three wives bore Monte eighteen children, six from each.  Lennon’s grandfather, mote, was the first son of Nona and the 9th child of the family. There were apparently insurmountable challenges encountered over the religion that must stand. Each of Monte’s wives wanted her own to stand and this, for a very long period of time, persisted and would in future, affect their generations unborn about the choice of religion. Fortune smiled on the entire family when Monte, the family head introduced a logical ‘all-man-for-himself, God for us all’ initiative: where each wife will nurture their children in the light of her religion and share common values for the sake of peace and harmony. Indeed, this was successful, although some of the family members, especially Lela and her children, after intense moments of altercation with Monte, left the family to distant lands, never to return because the religion she practiced, as she believed, being the first wife of the family, ought to be the standard.

Mote grew up under a mixed religious setting and like his father, implemented the same initiative. But he was unlike his father: he was a follower of idol and ancestral worship as taught by his mother, Nona. Mote married two wives; Antonia from a Roman background and Linda from an Egypt-Macedonian ancestry. They bore him ten children; six for the Roman Antonia with a Jewish ancestry and four for the Egypt-Macedonian Linda. Being an ardent follower of Satanism, Linda was poised to nurturing her four children in that path. On the other hand, Antonia’s Judaism-founded knowledge filled the minds of her six children, from their childhood to their maturity days. Mo, the second child of Antonia and the third child of the family, Lennon’s grandfather, was Mote favorite child because he took after him; physically and mentally. His father gave him the best of training to reign in life and went to the extra-mile to send him to the best of schools of the time.  In school, a group of Christians preached to him about the savior Jesus Christ and how he came to save the world. He became so eager to accept the religion and collected materials from them to read.

After a while, he became a Christian and saw this new religion as foreign. He later got married to Rashidat, a devout Muslim. She bore him four children; two boys and two girls. Montana was the second child and the first son of the family. Rashidat, being a stronger of the two couples in terms of religiosity, in the name of love, introduced the Chris-Mus ideology where the children combined the doctrines of both Islam and Christianity as the way to living right. Montana grew up in the tradition but would not be able to influence his family due to his opulent status and busy schedules as a diplomat.

Montana got married to Tasha, a non-religious person from a non-religious family who believed in free thinking. She bore him a son; Lennon. Most of the time, Lennon would with his mother learning how to derive pleasure from what life had to offer. Montana’s opened mindedness engendered a gradually turning into a complete disregard for religion which he son would exhibit in future.

Lennon, after reading through his family religious history, made up his mind to become a pagan: this time, however, a P.A.G.A.N. with a difference. He adopted the acrostic, following a movie he watched, as:
P-People
A-Abolishing
G-Godliness
A-And
N-Norms
Afterall, based on his family’s history of religious ordeals, he concluded: “Religion was intended for the good of man. However, religion had, is and will be the opium of the people. To me, I feel the P.A.G.A.Nistic lifestyle is the best because I believe if adopted; the world will be a peaceful place Therefore, being a follower of P.A.G.AN. is a religion by choice”.