₦airaland Forum

taekwon:
The same man told us that every reasonable government should be able to provide power for it's citizenry within six months. why the stupid excuse. if you can't effect change then i suppose you should quit the position. FOOLS. Self centered idiots in a zoo country.

The government no longer owns the assets, when he made that statement, the government was still responsible for the power assets 100%. What exactly is stupid in what he's said? Why is reading so difficult for Nigerians?

ProAnti:
Let's for the sake of argument assume the private owners have been bad managers. What can we say of the government who is not just a part-owner in some of the companies but who in most cases fully own some of the key players?

The issues bedevilling the power sector can be solved by the private sector if and only if they get the backing of the government and the consumers.

We cannot put all the blame on the doorsteps of the private part-owners of the discos (and gencos) as the liquidity and other issues they face are substantial. As @Reference rightly inferred, government agencies and facilities are some of the biggest electricity debtors. I don't expect a disco staff to confidently disconnect a military installation for failing to pay electricity bills.

Of course a large part of the buck still remains in the hands of the government. The govt still owns TCN whose limited capacity is the reason we can't get over 5000mw even at the peak of the rainy season. A major problem which some of the GENCOs face is also lack of gas supply, which renders several functional turbines idle.

But finally, if we must be honest, the biggest impediment to reasonable power supply in Nigeria still remains the DISCOs. Can the govt really be blamed for the incapacity of the DISCOs?... Except we're calling on the government to start paying subsidies to DISCOs to improve their infrastrcuture and supply pre-paid meters to customers, I really don't see how government should be blamed for their incapacity.

daddytime:
But it was the FG's problem when GEJ was the President because solving Nigeria's power lacuna isn't a rocket science (in your own words).

Yeye people wey dey talk anything wey enter their mouth.

Dem say na where old man from dey till ground dey always soft pass for small pikin eye. E go say papa side soft that's why him dey fast pass me. When you give am papa side na dat time e go come know say block and blokos, difference dey.

aolawale025:
But fashola himself blamed the previous government. So this government deserves blame too. We can not shift the post after a goal

Under the last government, the power assets were still fully owned by the FG so yes, it wasn't out of place to fully blame the government then.

Those assets were sold off by the last government to private companies before Fashola came on board. So right now, Fashola is right about not having the powers, or not being responsible for how the private owners run their business.

As much as the typical judgmental Nigerian mind wouldn't have room to understand what she's said, what she has said makes sense.

igwefivestar:
this story is just a good example of fiction.

Actually a very poor attempt at fiction. Too many holes in the story.

Control7:
Good Morning All,

I need to seek advice from good people of Nairaland. A friend of mine was taken to UK some years back, all expenses paid by his Uncle, got a working permit. There was a misunderstanding between them, the Uncle seized his travelling document including Passport and was told to pay back all the money he used in bring him from Nigeria to UK (5 Million Naira) before he is going to release his document.

After my friend worked and payed, his Uncle just woke up one morning booked ticket to Nigeria for both of them saying they need to go home. As we speak my friend is back to Nigeria without anything and after paying the 5M, the uncle still didnt release his Travelling document.

Please I need advice, Can he apply for a replacement of both working permit and Passport, let's assume he was robbed and everything was taken away, though he has them snapped on his phone. This guy is already depressed.

His passport is a property of the Nigerian Immigration service, his UK work permit is the property of the UK government. If he has lost both, simply walk into a police station, declare the documents lost, go back to the immigration office, apply for a new passport and finally go to the UK embassy and apply for a replacement permit.

By the way, this super story is very poorly scripted. Is he a minor or a zombie that his uncle would just collect his documents from him even after paying N5million for them? Did his uncle charm him to get on the plane and return to Nigeria with him?... if the uncle siezed the documents in the UK, how then did he board the plane to return to Nigeria?

pauladonis:
The bottom line summarily is to Pay Tithes not because of fear of some curses in the Old Testament.

The bottom line summarily is to Pay Tithes not because of fear of some curses in the Old Testament.

The bottom line summarily is to Pay Tithes not because of fear of some curses in the Old Testament. The people of the Old Testament were so stiff necked that anytime Moses came with an instruction from God, he had to add curses for those that will surely disobey them. If we are not like them, gentiles or not, tithing is not optional for anyone who wants to fully activate the new covenant blessings in his/her life. As such, we should do it willingly and not because we don't want to be cursed. Like I said, It is a matter of personal encounter because you may not understand what God has told an individual personally (I know of several people who give more than anything he statutory 10%).


I'll advise that you get a copy of the book "Biblical keys to financial prosperity" by Kenneth Hagin.

You keep evading the very simple point and diverting to other issues bothering on the blessings of tithing. The point here isn't about the benefits of tithing, the issue here is how the sermon on tithing is being blatantly twisted (either deliberately or through negligence) by current day preachers.

All I'm trying to say is that there is no scriptural instruction or command that Christians should pay any particular percentage of their increase to a church, but we unfortunately still have a lot of preachers who teach this false message, telling believers that it a sin if they dont pay tithe. How can you not see anything wrong in this deliberate twisting of scripture from the pulpit?

FlirtyKaren:
A media company who said they want female corps members, has sparked an outrage with the way they rejected a male corps member deployed to their firm. 

The media company who rejected the male corps member over his gender, stated in their letter that they need 'two gorgeous female corps members, who they will receive with an open heart and a good heart'. 


https://lailasnews.com/how-this-media-company-said-they-want-female-corps-members-sparks-outrage/

There's nothing wrong with a media company saying they want 2 new female employees. But going forward to say 'gorgeous', that was quite audacious.

pauladonis:
Yes, as you have said, giving of tithe should be out of love, not because we fear God or because anyone forced us to. The Bible admonishes us to be coveteous of good works, tithing is a good work as such... Our pastors, prophets and evangelists these days are similar to the levites in that God doesn't allow them to have their own business, (at least my own pastors don't have their own business) and are right to receive tithes which is used to run the church.
Moreover, I believe that if God could give us His only begotten Son, and all the inheritance that comes with accepting Jesus for free, we shouldn't be forced to pay tithes to Him. The selfish nature of man however makes it difficult to accept this logic.

There are several Old Testament giving doctrines (e.g, doctrine of First Fruits) that some churches still follow and they reap bountiful blessings by doing so. These things become easier to practice for someone who understands it and has had a personal encounter with God.

Tithing is a good thing there's no doubt about that. But that is clearly not the point; the point is, 'did God command new covenant believers to always pay 10% of their earnings to him or risk eternal punishment'? Does that message have any scriptural backing?

The only scriptural reference to mandatory tithing was the Mosaic Laws which of course were fulfilled on the cross. Except one does not believe in Christ as the messiah or his sacrifice on the cross, new covenant believers, especially gentile believers were never subject to the Mosaic Laws. Even when the Pharisees tried to force down the Mosaic laws on gentile Christians, it was turned down by the apostles (read Acts 15:5-10). So why exactly are preachers of today clearly contradicting the stand of the original apostles by scaring Christians with the curses of the law over non-payment of a mandatory 10% of their income (i.e. malachi etc.)?... Isnt this what the pharisees were kniwn for which earned then rebuke from Christ severally?

Whatever happened to the teaching of Apostle Paul in 2Corr 9:7 where he taught gentile believers to give willingly whatever they chose in their hearts (as opposed to a specific percentage)? Does that no longer count as important?... Let us tell ourselves the truth, would Jesus really be happy watching today's preachers scare believers into paying tithes by threatening a potential financial crisis in their lives and eternal damnation?...

Foodforthought:
I don't even support any politician

But at least you dont have to raise false allegations and then curse others over a flawed allegation (whether they are pdp or apc supporters).

Try and get ur facts right.

Foodforthought:
May God punish all the Buhari supporters on this forum....
This one was also caused by Jona and PDP

Lol... hope you're aware that the so called N800 billion debt owed to marketers which is about to cause this crisis was debt incured pre-2015?, specifically in 2013/2014. Who was in power in 2013/2014?... and that was the period Nigeria made its highest income but instread of spending reasonably and clearing these debts, the money was being shared blindly with every idiot buying private jets. But we celebrated that lifestyle as 'economic progress'. Today you blame buhari for struggling to clear the debt?

Buhari in November 2015 already paid off about N500 billion part of the debts owed marketers pre-2015. Now the marketers are simply protesting why the remainder hasnt still been cleared to which the current govt is promising to pay a further about N236 billion in a week. These mess created by the last govt being cleared despite the over 70% less revenue. The marketers are asking for the full N800bn outstanding to be cleared this week, and that's the reason for this strike.

Ignorance Ignorance!!! If God should punish Buhari supporters, wetin God go do to GEJ and PDP supporters?

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/299954-why-nigerian-govt-owes-n800bn-debt-to-fuel-marketers-offers-n236bn.html

Naija! the forces holding this country down are very powerful. The only reason fuel scarcity happens every december is because some powerful opportunists make money out of it irrespective of the pain they put Nigerians through. Ordinarily, it would be a case of 'not enough fuel in stock'. This time, effort has been made to ensure there's enough stock, but marketers now want to go on strike 2 weeks before xmas?

Glink2018:
How Will a slowpoke comprehend?

You still speak in parables; you must think I'm one of your family members. God forbid!

Trizzi:
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Sunday swore that “the man in Aso Rock” was President Muhammadu Buhari and not any impostor as being peddled by the opposition.

Ngige stated this in Obosi, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, while answering questions from journalists.

He said those who were insinuating that Buhari was Jubrin from Sudan were those who wished him dead.


Ngige said,

Source: https://www.mediahelm.com.ng/2018/12/the-man-in-aso-rock-is-buhari-ngige.html

If I didnt believe the rumours before, this statement from Ngige don spoil everything; that man in Aso Rock must be an impostor robot

pauladonis:
Sir, I would implore you to go through the origin of tithing in the book of Genesis, Abraham, the father of Israel started the paying of tithes, He divided his spoils of war into 10 parts and gave tithe to Melchizedek, remember?
Jesus accused the pharisees when they claimed to be children of Abraham, Jesus said, "If ye were sons of Abraham, ye would do his works" Paul further said it in the new testament that "THE LAW WAS NOT MADE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS MAN" if the children of Israel were righteous, they would pay tithes without it being stipulated by law or commandments. The priesthood of Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek who recieved tithes of Abraham (the bearer of the promises of Israel) as "A priest of Righteousness"... Read more in Hebrews chapter 7 and pay your tithes as an exercise of Jesus' righteousness which is now in you as a born again Christian. Happy Sunday.

olumide4christ:
Thanks Bro for pointing out Hebrews Chapter 7 to him. I have also mentioned it earlier when someone was asking for verses of scripture that support tithing.

Unfortunately, a major proportion of the people speaking against tithing have not read the bible completely or even the entire new testament which they claim does not talk about tithing.
Now someone who has not read extensively about a subject, what right does he have to make assertions about that subject? You can only speak about what you know or have heard somebody talk about that. Unfortunately that's the status of many church goers in Nigeria today...the bible they know is only what the pastor preaches on the altar...they never have time to study & understand the bible on their own & as such, people like Daddy freeze shows up & says something unbiblical that is pleasing to them & like magic, they accept it without doing their own research.
Some say pastors force people to pay tithe...is it in all churches that happens? Of course not! The church where I worship for 22 years now does not force anybody to pay tithe or give...people do so because they know its biblical & we are answerable to God not the pastor. But many churchgoers (don't want to call them Christians) believe we give to the pastor not to God. If they aren't comfortable in a church where they feel they are forced to give, they should change church to a sincere church (BTW there are many of them around but they are not fanciful like the others) but give & tithe willing in the new church because its biblical & we shall all give account to God.

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with paying tithes; it's an act of love and honour for God and God definitely rewards faithful givers who make such sacrifices. The only area where there is a problem however is how some preachers teach that paying a tenth of ones earning is mandatory commandment of God given to Christians (i.e. new covenant believers including Gentiles); I'm yet to come across any scriptural backing for that message. Some preachers have also gone to the extent of saying a non-tither can't make heaven irrespective of what else the person does right. Should we actually believe this? How exactly is that scriptural?

Of course Abraham paid a tithe of his spoils to King Melchizedek and Jesus' priesthood is in the order of King Melchizedek. But then, there's nowhere the bible ever mentions or infers that the tithe Abraham gave was a commandment from God, Abraham gave it out of his own freewill and out of love and gratitude to God. Also, neither was it documented anywhere that Abraham did that more than once. It's on record that only the Mosaic tithing Law was mandatory for the Jews; and we all agree the Mosaic laws were never passed down to Gentile believers after the great commission.

So the real question is, for those preachers (a lot but not all) who teach about tithing on a regular basis being a mandatory command of God to all believers today, where exactly did that come from?

Glink2018:
Check the meaning of 'force'in your dictionary before you start using your stunted fingers and wasped brain be typing nonsense...
At your age, If you can adjudicate fews words or comments like this, how do you want to master your future...
Things fall apart...

You haven't said anything here, just empty words as expected from one who is frustrated. If you have anything meaningful to say, say it in a civilised manner.

Opelwonder:
lol. yahoo yahoo is not forced but the victims are deceived, so please delete that comment. some good churches do not deceive their members because the testimonies are real. e.g living faith, salvation ministries. dunamis. etc

OF course not all churches preach half-truths to psychologically coerce, deceive or better still, psychologically blackmail members to give. There are still many good preachers and churches out there who don't do that. But unfortunately, we're in the last days, so the culprit preachers seem to be more in number these days, just as Christ warned.

payloader:
No my brother. Quoting the bible to back up a doctrine still based on the bible is not psychological blackmail. Keep following Daddy Freeze and attacking the church and her pastors, but don't come online to defend it because no need.

Have you heard of the Berean Christians? Go and read the book of Acts 17; the reason Apostle Paul singled out the people of Berea as special people was because whenever he preached to them, they went back home and searched the scriptures to confirm if what Paul said was true or not.

Unfortunately a lot of Christians today (including myself) am sorry to say are just LAZY. We go to church, listen to whatever a preacher says and swallow it without making any attempt to independently confirm its correctness. In fact even when we accidentally discover that it isn't true, we're so awe struck by the god-like aura of the preacher that we just decide to still go ahead to take his word as truth irrespective of what we found in scripture.

Daddy Freeze might have made some needless personal attacks to preachers and might have blabbed over some issues, but be he a believer or not, he has also raised some valid scripture-backed points especially in pointing out some half-truths and contradictions in the popular tithing doctrines of several churches today. If I Obailala re-echoes a scripturally backed argument, I'm sorry, I do not see how that amounts to attacking the church; if I think a pastor has said something not scripturally correct on the pulpit and I point out the error, I do not see how that amounts to attacking a pastor. We need to wake up, that something has been preached for so long does not necessarily make it true.

olumide4christ:
Sorry to say...only preachers who do not know the bible will stoop low to begin to argue with people like Daddy Freeze...that's the reason for the silence. They know where he is coming from.

You dont have to argue with Daddy Freeze, we all know he's so little and unimportant for the 'big preachers' to belittle themselves to respond to. But you cannot wish away the fact that he has raised some valid questions which are crying for answers. So if Freeze is too unworthy of a response, there are currently a lot of others now asking the same questions; or have all preachers now become too big for everyone to anser scripture based questions?

Silence cannot be supreme on this one, for a scripturally sound preacher, silence only means you do not have any scripture backed response to a pressing accusation.

Rebuke:
The sixteen year old boy Op is far more intelligent than you. Sorry, but that's the truth.

If you have the capacity, then maybe you can try to break it down so we can have an intellectual debate. It's not enough to just drop subtle insults and then run away.

dancewith:
This is a wrong analogy. The fraudsters decieve their victims often the victims assume they are sending money to someone they aren't. In some cases they're fooled into paying for non existent goods. That a fraud

What the boy is saying is the tithers pay out of their faith, beliefs and generosity. Many supported a cause they believed in just like many supports their candidates in an election because they believe in them. They pay cos they are toeing a biblical path. Their faith. It's like asking a Moslem why he must pray 5 times a day or spend huge resources to go to Mecca where he might die

Let he or she practise in peace what they believed in. There is no emotional blackmail here. This is biblical and if they believe it to be so, it is entirely their act.

The bolded part of your statement above is not completely true, infact it's rarely every the case. Whilst a lot of people will not admit to it, the truth is that 90% of tithers do so out of FEAR of a divine punishment, and not necessarily out of love. I'm sure you've heard these sort of messages:

If you don't pay your tithe, you are robbing God.
If you don't pay your tithe, things would be tight for you
If you don't pay your tithe, you risk been consumed by the devourer
If you don't pay your tithe, you cannot make heaven and will be condemned to hell for eternity.

A biblically proven truth is that the commandment of tithing was never passed down to gentile believers; it was strictly a Jewish/Mosaic law. Current day Nigerian Christians fall under the category of Gentile believers. In the early church, when the church council wanted to force down the Mosaic laws to Gentile believers, the apostles stood against it and declared that the burden of the Mosaic laws shouldn't be extended to Gentile believers. So how come we now have bishops in 2018 doing the exact opposite of what the Apostle preached against in Acts 15:5-10?

When you put FEAR in the heart of a person in order for the person to part with their cash, especially when the message you serve to arouse this fear isn't completely true, then I'm sorry to say, but that is blackmail, spiritual blackmail; and it isn't much different from what yahoo boys do.

The original message Daddy Freeze conveyed regarding the non-mandatory nature of tithing. And because Freeze actually spoke a biblical truth, not a single preacher globally has been able to counter that his original message. Instead we've actually had a couple of preacher agree with him that tithing isn't necessarily a mandatory command of God to new covenant believers. A lot of other preachers however refused to comment directly on the issue because they know the truth; rather they just waited for Freeze to keep talking and talking until he inevitably started scoring own goals.

cc: Reference, DAYOODS, 1StopRudeness

seunlly:
Seriously.
Probably you didn't wroted this yourself too

Son of a thousand father.

I knew this was going to happen.

Boboye4slim:
I wanna ask a question. My intentions are not to insult you in anyway, just curious.

I’ve learnt first hand that most of these pastors you talk about don't coerce or force the people to pay. They always out of generosity propel themselves to give to these pastors. Now, If you ask the churches or pastors not to receive supports or tithes from the congregation, how do you expect the church to grow and expand the teaching of Gods word?? Or are you saying the churches need not to be run at all?? Even if this big men of God suddenly run down, are the churches going to run down too??

I think what you should be agitating for is that pastors need to be accountable and properly use this money to help the needy. You fighting a full blown war against the church, I said this because of the way you attacked the experience program which isn’t a platform to extort tithe or funds from the people. At this rate, you come against anything that pertains to churches. There are tons of intelligent people in the USA, Canada, China, developed countries like that, still, their churches pay tithes and support the ministry.

The Catholic Church receives tithes and offerings, there’s no church in the world that doesn’t receive tithe and support from her congregation, if they don’t, how else will the gospel progress. If your fight is against the accountability of Nigerian pastors, that’d be so understandable and logical, but this spilled over outbursts against anything church in Nigeria is in my opinion needless.

I have never in my 16 years of existence heard where congregations are coerced to pay tithe or support the church. In winners chapel, there’s even a platform where money are lend to borrowers with no interest, There’s a platform where after every service, food , clothes etc are shared among people that need them. In the cell fellowship centers in Winners Chapel, you can talk to your cell ministers when you are in need and those needs would be met ranging from paying school fees to paying rents and so on, you can’t tell me that’s a lie cuz I am living testimony to that. The buses to and fro Canaanland used to be free until running them became hard, now it’s only free for new converts.

So this things aren’t run on leaves but money. And this congregation are always happy to give to the church. After all when people spend huge amount in clubs on liquor, on gamble, or on the needy, on relatives, for friends, on habits, on hubbies.....when people spend on these factors no one complains. So why is that you see giving to church as a waste?

You blame the church for our country being the world poverty capital of the world. Do you want winners chapel or redeemed or MFM to start running Nigeria with the contributions of its congregations? Contributions that you still bash them about? Imagine what Bishop Oyedepo has done with covenant University of 10 years, now imagine if he has access to a vast national resources that UI or OAU enjoys. Why are you blaming the church for the nations poverty?? Was Jesus in charge of the nation’s economy in his time? Was he in charge of military? In charge of public hospitals? If you want the church to take over the affairs of Nigeria, why don’t you implore the government to handover to the church?? There’s the government and there’s the church. Both have their functions. The church can only voice out and advise the government on what to do, it’s left for the government to do something about it.

I know of course that freeze would spin and spin and grammar everyone against his opinion down but I think at the end of the day he knows the truth.

A lot of people are ignorant of the meaning of the word 'force'.

Tell a person who reveres your words that if he doesnt give you a certain amount of your money, he would suffer misfortunes, die and be condemned to hell. When you're charged to court in a civilized society for psychological blackmail, go ahead and tell the judge you didnt force the person. I would love to see how that case turns out.

Meanwhile I wonder why 419 or Yahoo Yahoo is still regarded as a crime in Nigeria. After all, according to Nigeria's understanding of law, the victims weren't forced.

Omooba77:
We are in the era of social media that tells us most time what we want to hear and not the Truth.

For some time now, Daddy Freeze has been most time against the church leaders in Nigeria, especially payment of tithes.

I was shocked to the marrow fews days back I read daddy Freeze said he was paying tithes up till a month ago.

Yet all the while he was shouting against it and many of us have bought into the erroneus teaching.

It reminded me of the story in1 Kings 13 of an old prophet that deceived a young prophet to die; but compelled his children to bury him in the grave of the young prophet because everything he said will come to pass.

A man of God preached one day and that message is helping me till now. He said some people will commit sin outside and when they get to the closet of their room; they will confess and yet some people will die in this ignorance and go to hell, because they will continue to fan the ember; unknown to them the originator has made 360 degree u turn.

Dont follow the multitude to do evil.

I hope we will all learn from Daddy Freeze's story and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Hve a glorious end to 2018!

I think a lot of people misunderstood that statement. Freeze's anti-tithe movement became popular when he had an interview on lindaikejiTV sometime in Sept 2017. I think what he meant from that statement was that even a month to that time in 2017, he was still tithing; I dont think he meant last month as in Nov 2018.

obaataaokpaewu:
Picture of the hospital?
27 general hospitals, how many of them are equipped? What is the essence of building hospitals that are empty inside?

Governance is about continuity.; if Rochas builds, the next governor should equip them. Rochas will not uproot the structures and dump them in a pit when his tenure ends... At the end, the people of Imo state are the sole beneficiaries.

But come to think of it, only a silly person would attack Buhari over the clone stories instead of attacking the actual buffoons who originated and keep spreading the story.

ogene007:
Buhari just confirmed that he is against free and fair elections, and the fact that his government has not done enough to deserve being re-elected. This is the time for the entire country to rally round the NA in vetoing the president on this bill.

Do you know what the bill is about and the conflict which is preventing its signing? How did you possibly come up with your above conclusion with scanty info?

Nobody has been able to clarify what the bill is about and the conflict which is delaying its signing. Nigerians in the usual directionless mob manner on this thread are just shouting buhari buhari.

Lazy journalists everywhere. Every report on this seems to just end at saying the president declines to sign the bill; why cant anyone repirt the reason?

But seriously, why is construction so expensive in Nigeria?... What exactly is in the 2nd Niger bridge thqt should cost N220billion?... a less than 2km long bridge?

genkins:
Pagan Christian.smh

And what exactly arr you talking about?

@Op,

There's nothing wrong with giving to the church of God. Oh yes, God is a spirit and doesnt need your physical money; but what God needs is your faith! God's hand can be moved in your life when he sees you do something difficult (a sacrifice) to gain his attention.

When God asked Abram to sacrifice Issac as a burnt offering, of course God isnt a cannibal so he wasnt going to come down and eat Isaac, he didnt need Isaac for anything. Likewise when God asks for animal sacrifices in the old testament, he doesnt come down to eat the lamb the people sacrifice, God doesnt eat or need your lamb meat. Also, when we fast to support our prayers, of course God doesnt come down and eat the food which we didnt eat, neither does He take pleasure in seeing you go hungry. But in all these things, God is simply moved when we deprive ourselves of something valuable to us in order to gain his attention. Depriving ourselves of something valuable or subjecting ourselves to distress is called 'sacrifice' if we do it to gain God's attention.

This isnt even restricted to God. Even juju spirits that ask for sacrifices in shrines for a native doctor to perform a charm, the juju spirits dont come down to eat the white spotless male chicken you bring. All the juju wants is for you to make an effort at something difficult, to deprive yourself of something valuable. At the end, it's the chief priest and his family that eats the chicken meat, but the juju god has seen your effort in providing such a difficult requirement (sacrifice) and that is the price you have to pay for the juju to grant your wishes.

So in essence, just the same way humans go on hunger strike when protesting and trying to gain attention of govt or whoever, that's the same way Christians fast or deprive themselves of money to gain God's attention. Both cases are called 'sacrifice'; but yeah, there is no doubt that the new generation religious movements have taken the money drive to a ridiculous level which even God can never be pleased with. It even gets worse when most churches now preach that giving to God must entail giving money to a church.