People travel to church to fulfil a need

IT is saddening to find a lot of South Africans divided about the matter of the Nigerian church building collapse. When this tragedy occurred, a number of citizens wondered why people had to travel all the way to Nigeria only for a "church service".

A number of people kept asking the question: are there no churches in South Africa that people have to travel all the way to Nigeria to attend church? Additional to the fact that this was a poor question to ask, resulting from a limited knowledge of the situation, this question was rather an improper question to ask given the circumstances.

The matter here is not whether the people had gone for a party or church, but rather the "unfortunate" collapse of the building. Motor accidents happen daily on our roads, but no one would ask if the vehicles were headed for a church service in another province or otherwise.

During the Easter period, South Africa experiences a number of accidents which are related to the exodus of people from one province to the other for many reasons of which religion may be part. The point here is the nearest church to your home may not necessarily meet your personal needs.

What about a case where this collapse had been a museum building in Europe? Would we still ask if there are no museums in the country?

There are two main driving forces behind the movement of people to their preferred worship centres, whether in the country or outside, and those are desperation and conviction. Both these two are completely personal.

It is not a new practice that people have to travel from one country to the next to seek help. This has been the case since time immemorial.

People will always flock to areas where their personal need will be met.

This therefore suggests that the movement of South Africans to Nigeria was a personal decision with a hope of meeting a personal need and therefore should not be limited to a mere church service.

It is time that as South Africans we should unite, especially where a human life is involved.

Before we start lashing out with comments, we should consider that there are families who are crying over this.

Instead of our disturbing comments, we should rather unite and comfort one another.

We really would go a long way in our country if we would start embracing one another's pain and grief, and that is the true spirit of ubuntu.

Mfundo Sodela, Port Elizabeth