CHRISTENDOM – A mess

These are not the best of times to be a Christian n Nigeria. The image and reputation of Christian leaders are at its lowest ebb with Nigerians beginning to wake up from the deep hypnotic slumber Christianity has put us. The scandal that is Coza has finally put a death knell in the coffin of the profligacy that is Christendom in Nigeria.

Today’s church leaders are nothing but merchants who trade on the fear and ignorance of the large population to create wealth for themselves and their cronies, falling back on scriptures that are selectively used to defend selfish and mundane theories all in a bid to perpetuate the rape that is religion.

Today, we have begun to look at these so-called Men of God for what they truly are, vultures who scavenge and feed where they did not build. Sooner than you know it the profession, yes that is what it is, would soon start receiving the same type of public odium that others like it receive.

The descent has been gradual and steady. It came from the birth of the psychedelic churches. Churches where the leaders walked around with jerry curled hair, carried guns and flaunted ill gotten wealth. It was only a matter of time before sex crimes joined the litany of sins that they found themselves in bed with.

From the huge cryptic empires that litter the Lagos Ibadan Expressway to the expansive landscape that cast a pale shadow over the rustic South Western Yoruba border town just north of Ipaja, to the dilapidated empire that used to house the great Bishop of the Mid West is just all stories of financial profligacy, authoritarian control of wealth, unitary and linear decision taking policies, poor accountability and an almost despotic control of powers delving down towards a psuedo monarchical system of succession.

Trading with strong personal charisma, a personality cult is woven around the structure and around the person of one strong individual who claims authority from an unseen being that can not be questioned and universally relying on a much maligned scriptural phrase – touch not my anointed’ to foist the kind of rape on people and their psyche far worse than what the Hollywood Pastor Fatoyinbo has been accused of.

It is for the lack of a strong moral justification that the leadership of the Nigerian church cannot rein in this loose canon that is all but further staining them. They know what they are doing being the same profligacy but in different colors. While the young boy on heat is being accused of turning his female congregation into a harem filled with both willing and unwilling adherents, the older ones concentrate on basically stealing from the people and flaunting same with lifestyles that would make hardened rock stars quiver like young virgins.

How God allows this to happen begins to even make someone want to question his existence. How he can keep quiet and watch these people steal and rape his children in his name beats my imagination.

I don’t even want to mention the issue of tithe and its application nor the young man who queried the General Overseer (GO) for being both the spiritual Head of the church and the Chairman/CEO of the multi billion naira institutions owned by the church. He lost his job for his headache. So how would the GO now face the young Pastor to talk him down on his unbridled libido when he is neck deep in financial avarice.

No wonder CAN and PFN cannot say anything but immediately cut him off and attempt to throw him under the bus in a shameful attempt at saving face and their industry. How benign?

Christianity has been trampled upon and raped by the same people who claim to be the touch bearers of the religion in Nigeria and it is no wonder that the flock is in disarray with no real purpose.

This is sad. Christendom, as existing in Nigeria today, is a total mess. I stand to be corrected.

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