Posted by PINI JASON on
Three different stories in the last two weeks came together in an unholy wedlock to illustrate the serious trouble facing churches nowadays.
Three different stories in the last two weeks came together in an unholy wedlock to illustrate the serious trouble facing churches nowadays. In Yaba Lagos, robbers strolled into the priory of St Dominic's Catholic Church and shot dead Rev. Godwin Okwesili. In Akure, Ondo State, two ex-convicts robbed a bank of N25 million ostensibly to establish a Pentecostal church! I guess the two robbers would have become "men of God", soul winners and miracle workers, with ardent and fanatical followers deceived into their folds with staged testimonies. We have had cases of Pentecostal ministers either receiving stolen goods or dueling with one another over money. And those of us cynical of these dupes in trendy suits are threatened with barbecuing in hell!
Then came the news that the Church of England, the custodian of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion worldwide, has approved same-sex or gay marriages, with effect from December 2005. In a pastoral letter issued recently, the House of Bishops of the Church of England reportedly affirmed support for same-sex marriage, but with an undertaking from those going into the union not to engage in any form of sexual dealing! What a hypocrisy! Can there be any marriage devoid of sex? What is the motivation for gay practice if not sex? Who is going to monitor the gay couples to ensure that they do not stray? Who is the Church deceiving? When did Churches begin to lie? This is coming at a time that the African Communions of the Anglican Church are still fighting the ordination of a gay Bishop in America! Imagine introducing a Bishop and his "wife" and the wife turns out a man! This is a proverbial fall of faith!
There is no doubt that the Anglican Church or what we have always known as the Church of England, is in the throes of death. And if the Anglican Church is a dying church, it is as a result of a self-inflicted wound! The Church of England has, in the last few years, turned every bit of its practices upside down. The Head of the Church of England, which is a product of a rebellion against established Catholic doctrine, is the Monarch of England. Because of that, there were things a person who heads the Church, or who is in waiting to become the head, was not expected to do. Having a divorce or marrying a divorcee were some of them. But these have not been observed for Prince Charles, the crown prince and king-in-waiting, unless it is being suggested that the chap is going to be a soroye till death puts him out of his misery!
When these churches came to Africa, Nigeria in particular, they treated us like people without religion. They declared our religions heathen. Till today, the Anglican Church, especially in the villages, has continued to confront some Nigerian cultures. Some overzealous members, particularly the Anglican knights, have become the modern day crusaders who still blindly follow this mental slavery by declaring our cultures as inferior and "satanic." They followed this profanation with the declaration of our forefathers as idol worshippers. They arrogated to themselves a superior culture, which was not and is not true.
A 12-year-old Igbo boy, Oluda Ekwuano, abducted into slavery, on his first encounter with the white man, was able to detect that he had an inferior culture. Ekwuano observed and was horrified that the white men ate without washing their hands and did not pray! He also realized they were cheats. Some bought articles from him and refused to pay. Several times he paid the agreed sum to buy his freedom, only for his white master to renege. Any man who could take a fellow man slave could not have a superior culture! Yet, they brought us their religion by force. They told us polygamy was unchristian, but was it really unbiblical? Now, which is more ungodly, homosexuality or polygamy? Where really is the morality of the Church of England?
The doctrinal decay and moral degradation going on in the Church of England should be a red alert for the Africans and should in fact lead us back to cultural rediscovery. We must reclaim all the good things that we surrendered to the invaders when we were forcefully colonized. We must reinforce ourselves with our culture before they do the ultimate harm to us through moral assault. They are now targeting our morality the same way they targeted our culture, religion and freedom. We do not know what next they would try to foist on us. Africans must continue to reject the homosexual culture and resist its filthy intrusion into religion.
Africans, especially Nigerians who are vulnerable to religious fanaticism due to the harsh economy, must accept the truth that you do not go to hell simply because you reject any or all of these churches. Salvation is not in the churches, and certainly not in the hands of a homosexual with the Holy Communion wafers! The whole world is not full of Christians. There are many other cultures and civilizations with their different promises of heaven.
I am glad that the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola condemned this "unbiblical" act with the strongest terms and called on the Church of England to reverse it. I don't even think that the Church of Nigeria needs bother itself about these ungodly people. The Church of Nigeria should immediately lead the other African Communions to totally and completely severe all relations with the Church of England and their American counterpart. Otherwise, some of us who feel uncomfortable with homosexuals may be forced to reconsider our membership of the Anglican Church. I would rather sit at home than have a sexual pervert "onye ruru aru" to administer Holy Communion to me.