Religion and the flying pastors
By Anthony Akinola

Two athletes, one African and one British, were interviewed after the successful conclusion of their respective events. The African who had won an event attributed her success to the grace of God. "He touched my limbs, I could not have done it without him." The British athlete, on the other hand, gave substantial credit to her coach as she attributed her success to a regime of rigorous training.

Of course glory must be given to God for all we are able to achieve as mortal human beings. There are certain things we are never going to achieve in life either because we are too tall or too short! The natural attributes which propel us to unimaginable heights can hardly be purchased in the cosmetic market. However, our natural attributes or talents could be a waste if not augmented by appropriate training. In short, there is something to be celebrated in the explanations both athletes attributed to their individual successes.

Those of us exposed to cultures other than our own have exciting stories about the gulf of differences in cultures. The British man or woman may be quite happy to say "Happy New Year" to you but cannot understand why you need to keep praying for what you would like God to do for them in the New Year. He or she knows, for instance, that to own a home one would have to approach a bank for a mortgage!

There is this temptation on my part to assume or conclude that the British, for instance, may be more rational than the Nigerian. This writer is hardly the most rational of human beings, so there is an element of self-criticism here! Even among the British who go to church there is hardly the punctuation of every conceivable sentence with "in Jesus name" as is common among Nigerian Christians. They believe that a lot of problems can be resolved without having to involve Jesus in them. One sometimes wonders if Britain was indeed the nation that introduced Christianity to Nigeria, not least because the life of the typical British person is no longer dominated by religion.

I think I have a perspective into the Christian religion as is currently practised in Nigeria and this perspective came from a discussion with a Nigerian lady who once told me that "people have their different reasons for going to church". I tried to argue that there is only one universal reason why people should go to church, to worship God and assimilate the Christian culture and that the blessings of the Lord, either here or in heaven, come with devotion to the cause. Wanting to win an election, or an anxiety to be promoted at work, should not be the motivating factor for wanting to go to church. Unfortunately the Nigerian lady was talking from experience which, in itself, explains why many Nigerians have become vulnerable to exploitation in the hands of fake pastors who claim to have divine power for all sorts of problems.

The Nigerian early churches were what the Church still is in some societies. The priest prays with and for the congregation without claiming to have the power to reveal what lies ahead. Many Nigerians want to know what the future holds for them and they also seek miracles. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that some Nigerians phone home to ask their pastors to pray for their visas to be extended here in Britain? We are a people cocooned in ignorance and that is the major problem.

The Christian Church has been great to Nigeria, especially the southern part of it. Of course Christianity came with colonialisation but society in general has not been the worse for it. The achievements of the early missionaries are well documented and such achievements can be seen in the areas of education and health. It can be said without much contradiction that Christianity has contributed substantially tot the foundation of our society.

The Church continues to play a prominent part in development. Even a few recent churches have established universities of relatively good quality. The Church must continue to make its presence felt in areas of community development, as well as in improving the morals of our peoples. The Nigerian nation, sadly, is one of the most corrupt in the world - something of an irony for a nation which undoubtedly is also one of the most religious. The Church, therefore, has an ideological responsibility to engage in the war against corruption and a moral one to discourage materialism and ostentatious living which Jesus Christ himself so much detested in the predispositions of the Pharisees.

Is the perception of the Christian Church as a vanguard of morality well represented by pastors flying all over the place in private jets while most of their flock go about hungry and bare footed? I tried to appraise the issue of some Nigerian pastors and their private gets with an open mind - bad roads and long distances to travel - but a British theologian seemed to have convinced me that "[b]it is not the way to propagate the gosp[/b]el". The trend we are witnessing is towards the culture of those boisterous American pastors who tend to explain every big thing they have - houses, cars and yachts - as the favour of God. It will be sad if Nigerians now aspire to the leadership of the Church, as they do in politics, solely because it is perceived as an avenue leading to influence and flamboyance.


Dr Akinola lives in Oxford, England

[url=http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article03//indexn2_html?pdate=060409&ptitle=Religion%20and%20the%20flying%20pastors]The Guardian[/url]

fake pastor.

;d ;d

a thief as a minister.many of his members are nigeria corrupt politicians.

YOU PEOPLE ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE , AHHHHHHHHHH !!!

PASTOR ADEBOYE, I RESPECT HIM SO MUCH.

IF GOD DID NOT TOLD HIM TO BUY AN AIRCRAFT, HE WOULD'NT HAVE DONE SO.

SO TAKE IT OR LEAVE , GOD KNOWS ABOUT THE AIRCRAFT.

SO DIRECT NIGERIA'S PROBLEMS TO PRESIDENT YAR ADUA, WE HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH MONEY IN NIGERIA.

Why wuld God command him to buy an aircraft,it's considerably cheaper and more environmentally friendly to fly commercial.the money spnt aquiring maintaining and sustaining dat aircraft is totally more xpensive, d unnecessary green-house gases emittd is causing havoc to both environment and peoples health,later they'll say DNT SMOKE! It kills and its a sin, BULLSHIT

orin yin niooooo!
Ema ko loooooo!!!

Efi won sile
Eje kan ma ko looooo!

And what is their source of income as well.

What is your own source first.

am a member of rccg, we were told in church that the plane was bought by five members of the church with thier personal and borrowed money and that it was bought for 10 million dollars not 28 mil, now with that said, am going to say i do not agree with the decision of buying a private jet which according to them can also be hired , the church is not a business venture, its purpose is to attract people to the kingdom of God by modest means, now every human being is equal to the next irrespectiveof your race,gender,background,profession,religion,status and so on, when we see something that we believe is wrong we should call those responsible to question,no matter who you are but when u start differentiating people cause of one reason or another, then there is a problem,

religion especialy christianity is based on faith not reasoning (but can be questioned), but tyhe head of the faith is human and should be questioned that does not mean u do not believe in that religion

why do people always believe that cause you are a man of God you are perfect and above critisizm, people who are against the people critisizing tome are wrong, what u can do is to try and explain why he bought the plane thats alll, to me i dont think anyone is perfect even men of God so because of that we are liable to mistakes, the plane is his financial endevour and he doesnt have to always get that right does he, this doesnt undermine his religious status, now when theres a lot of criticism about the plane the pastor could look again to the plane and see if he,s got that wrong, if he has then he should apologise and do the right thing,

when pastors or followers potray themselves as people who cannot get things wrong,as people who are perfect then thats where the problem is, we now engulf ourselves in a world of illusion,in a world different from reality, which is obviously a big problem in nigeria at the moment, this world of illusion leads to extremism,deceit and so on, now like i said before am a christian (rccg) but i have learnt to worship God realisticaly cause thats the purpose of christianity in the first place, simple jesus christ came to this world (not heaven) to show us how to live realistically, so reality tells us know one is perfect, so allow criticism in order to allow improvement,

I'm in support of ray,u ve said it all.I like it when ppl luk at issues objectively irrespective of who is involved.I know it's very difficult for some RCCG memberz to come to termz with d fact dat sb dey ve luk'd up to as dier role model could commit dis kind of blunder,so they want to wish it away.I respect pastor Eunoch Adeboye a lot especially,for his humility but dat is not to say he's infallible or that when he makez a mistake it's wrong to point it out,he's just as human as all of us,he makez mistakes too and ask God for 4givnes dat does't diminish him in anyway.
If actually d jet was purchased by some memberz of his church for whatever purpose it still does't make it right.What actually is d motive for d purchase;
1.Is it to ease d pastor'z constant trips?Dat's not cogent enuf to spend dat whooping sum.
2.Is it for Business purpose?If yez how come it has d invinsible hands of the church in it.
3.What kind of busines do these people do?
Letz not just say it ok jst for d fear of not offending d pastor.

youngmonie:

@pastor AIO, when your family owns a bank like oceanic and one of the most wealthy family business in Nigeria, wht is $20m to you, figure that out

I believe that time has given us another perspective on this issue here. I think Sanusi should impound that jet.

Quote from: youngmonie on March 23, 2009, 05:35 PM
@pastor AIO, when your family owns a bank like oceanic and one of the most wealthy family business in Nigeria, wht is $20m to you, figure that out

Pastor AIO:

I believe that time has given us another perspective on this issue here. I think Sanusi should impound that jet.

AAhhh pastor, you had to go and dig up the above post. Na real wa O. Anyway i also wonder what pastor Adeboye's unsolicited defence attorneys on this forum have to say about this cause the implication of this is that the jet was bought with stolen money. Reminds me of the sheraton guy who was contributing all his loot to Oyakhilome in the name of sowing seeds.

osama

I don't blame the pastor. I blame those who attend his church every week to dash him money, thinking they're giving money to God.

Does God need your money?

Nope.

But Pastor Adeboye does.

rayray2828:

am a member of rccg, we were told in church that the plane was bought by five members of the church with thier personal and borrowed money and that it was bought for 10 million dollars not 28 mil, now with that said, am going to say i do not agree with the decision of buying a private jet which according to them can also be hired , the church is not a business venture, its purpose is to attract people to the kingdom of God by modest means, now every human being is equal to the next irrespectiveof your race,gender,background,profession,religion,status and so on, when we see something that we believe is wrong we should call those responsible to question,no matter who you are but when u start differentiating people cause of one reason or another, then there is a problem,

religion especialy christianity is based on faith not reasoning (but can be questioned), but tyhe head of the faith is human and should be questioned that does not mean u do not believe in that religion

Well spoken man, I'm a member of RCCG too. If I were Baba, I will simply ask for funds to be diverted to more charitable courses like financing education for less priviledge ones, paying for life changing operational procedures of thousands of members/non-members (believe it or not, there are people who die because they can't come up with money to pay for surgical operations)

Now if it's not feasible to get money from donors of the aircraft; I will think of someway to use that craft for members/masses in dire need of it, Or I might just sell it and divert the money appropriately.

There is no need for Baba to fly private esp. during this time of economic hardship. I know he has mentioned need for things like body guard, like he normally takes walk at night because of usual crowds that ask him to pray for them whenever he goes in public unguarded. If I were him, I will choose flying first class over a private jet to reduce the stress of having to hold night vigils on planes enroute to various international destinations.

Just my 2 kobos worth anyways

He bought it through miracle. Haleluyaaa!

I tank God that sum peep are wise with their comment ​ß̍̍̊ůh̶̲̥̅̊ the fact remain“wen jesus was doin his worldly ministry he neva purchase any worldly things or runin after them nd he said to us that dos things belong to the devil the ruler of ƌı̣̣̣z̶̲̥̅̊ world....so I now wonder y the pastors their so called leadr can't imitate their leader JESUS CHRIST,well the truth is very bitter to hear ​ß̍̍̊ůh̶̲̥̅̊ I must tell u DOS that are nt FOR GOD is against GOD! Cos I cnt imagine a spiritual leader after ƌı̣̣̣z̶̲̥̅̊ worldly tins wen they claim to knw the bible nd follow it... Dey can even decided to acguire as many as dey want since ƌı̣̣̣z̶̲̥̅̊ there home ​ß̍̍̊ůh̶̲̥̅̊ I can't neva be part of it