A former National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, says most people who claim to be pastors or men of God are not, as they were not called by God in the first place.
Oritsejafor expressed displeasure over
how ‘these men of God’ have now turned the church into a business centre
and living flamboyant lives, stating that the development was the
reason kidnappers now see the church as a place to make money.
In a recent chat with the Punch, the
outgoing President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, said,
“The problem we have in the church is that a lot of these pastors are
not men of God as they were not called.
“They are mercenaries, commercially
minded people. The duty of the church is to preach morality not
materialism and because Nigerians are very gullible; they are easy
victims of deceit. They fall prey to some of these pastors or prophets
of doom. The way they live gives a wrong impression of what should be in
a church of God. There should be no room for material possessions.
“I am not saying a man of God should not
live a life of comfort but it should be a life of good comfort; that is
why kidnapping is now a common thing even in the church.
“It is unfortunate that we are having
this kind of problem because most places of religious gathering,
particularly of the Christian faith, are seemingly reducing their faith
to commercials. So many people think they have money and most of them
live a flamboyant lifestyle.
“As such, the kidnappers mistake them
for money men but there is nothing there. The kidnappers would be kept
at bay if they stopped preaching prosperity and allowing dirty money to
go into the church coffers. I also think the church is losing its moral
values. The values are disappearing gradually.
“We should preach values and not
materialism. I think the churches themselves should look inwards and
correct the poor impression they are giving people outside that there is
money in the church, whereas there is none,” he stated.
On his opinion on the Kaduna State bill
against public preaching, Oritsejafor said Governor Nasir el-Rufai had
seemingly taken the wrong step.
Oristejafor said, “He should call a
meeting of all the stakeholders in that state with respect to religious
activities before rushing to the state Assembly for any bill. Be that as
it may, we have to be very careful if there is any bill intended to
wear religious colouration.
“When Sharia was introduced into this
country we were lucky to have a Christian President, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, who tamed it. Nigeria would have been engulfed by the
conflagration. Sharia would have been misunderstood.
“There are already enough laws in the
statue book that take care of what Governor El-Rufai has in mind. I have
no objection if he wants to curb noise pollution in the name of
religion. I quite agree if this is the basis. But in a situation where
it is meant to tackle extremism, libel, sedition, incitement and more,
there are enough laws in our statute book for this. Doing otherwise is
not good for him.
“I have tremendous respect for him for
he was the person bold enough to say that there should be no more street
begging. Yes, that was a sensible thing because even in the Islamic
countries such is not allowed,” the pastor stated.
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