subterfuge: Church is simply business im nigeria. Goverment should find a way of church taxation and see if 90 percent of churches will not pack up
Conutry hard!! Yes so church is a way out. Bishop oyedepo did it in UK!! He exploited them and they cried out... If you go to some churches in Nigeria, they give you an envelop even before you get seated. I borrow the words of wole soyinka an sumarize thus ''pastors have beaten us to a state of TRansparent subterfuge''

when there is no difference between the values of a Pastor and a typical Nigerian Politician,then it's truly a bolekaja ambience.....

odum desmond: My problem with ur likes is that u cry more than the bereaved, has any person who gives tithes and offering ever come to u to complain about ur perceived exploitation? Surely those of us who "s*tupidly" give tithes and offering and also "st*upidly" get blessed in giving don't complain at all, infact I ve emptied my pocket several times for God and ve never failed to get double fold blessings in return, there is a mystery many pple re not aware of, it works for us and we can't just stop giving because ur type re crying out. My papa Bishop Oyedepo started out morethan 30 years back from a thatched roof church in a remote village, he was a graduate with prospects in a Nigeria of that time when employers would come to plead with u on the day of ur graduation to work for them, with huge tempting offers of salary, accommodation and even car; but he chose God, he chose to become a preacher than work , he was rejected by his dominantly Muslim family, he was mocked at, his parents felt they had lost a son, but he held on to what he believed in. Today, after all his suffering, he has in turn become raised by God and people are talkin, where were u wen he was goin thru all these for God, life teaches that there is no limit to which a man can get if he remains dedicated, committed and upright, he chose these and he is not only blessed but has become a blessing to thousands employed in several businesses he has. He doesn't ve to earn from church offering or tithe, he also has interest in businesses and has access to the best brains to work for him. Let me even ask, a church that has more than a million memeber world wide, shud owing private jet be too much? Have u read about Kenneth Copeland, his church has as at 3 years back given away about 25 jets as gifts to other ministries world wide. Is jet too big for God's work? Would we rather have a man who would teach decency, love, morals, fear of God, etc to fly on private jet just to meet preaching schedules world wide than give same private jet a Hollywood porn star/ artiste who only needs it to fly all over the world to promote nudity and immorality? The place we call Cannan land at Ota before Oyedepo came was a thick forest, the church has turned it to the best city in Nigeria, nobody is commending him and the church, Adeboye lived at Redeemed camp ground alone when it was a jungle with only him and his wife, surrounded by bush, no electricity, pipe borne water etc their kids refused living, with them there, today it has become a city like none in Nigeria in terms of organisation and facilities, a fit no Govt with billions of oil money in Nigeria has accomplished , yet for them to fly on small 10 passenger private jet is causing uproar in Nigeria. God is watching us all. I believe that a man who has paid so much that many other re unwilling to pay should enjoy what others are not entitled to, all pastors can't be on same level.

iamSi: He says "Private Jet is a neccesity and not Luxury"
...Hmmmmm I wonder why Jesus didnt get a Canoe for Himself to sooth his ministry...
*thinking* How long are we going to deceive ourselves

*mark my words* ALL PASTORS ARE GOING DOWN SOON* "He said all pastors cant be on the same leverl, but how come all Apostles in the past were all on the same level?

Table Leg :

My friend shut the fu/ck up .... Brainwashed goat!

odum desmond: LWKMD oh. My bible makes me understand that things of God looks stupid to the carnal mind, it takes a spiritual mind to decipher that too. So I am not amazed that u call me a goat, yes I am a goat(sorry I prefer to be called sheep, cos even goats are wiser than sheep). So even Christ himself when he was expousing strange doctrines of the Kingdom of God, doing miracles and so many others, they said he was demonised and possessed by Belzubeb(sorry I can't get the real spelling) who is the leader of all demons. So the mystery of God's word is not for ordinary people to understand, its only fooools like me that will sheepishly follow the rules and get stu*pi*dly blessed. Does it not sound strange that the biblical principle of blessing is in giving, whereas book knowledge or common wisdom says that the best it is in the accumulation of wealth by savings that u get wealthy?

odum desmond: My problem with ur likes is that u cry more than the bereaved, has any person who gives tithes and offering ever come to u to complain about ur perceived exploitation? Surely those of us who "s*tupidly" give tithes and offering and also "st*upidly" get blessed in giving don't complain at all, infact I ve emptied my pocket several times for God and ve never failed to get double fold blessings in return, there is a mystery many pple re not aware of, it works for us and we can't just stop giving because ur type re crying out. My papa Bishop Oyedepo started out morethan 30 years back from a thatched roof church in a remote village, he was a graduate with prospects in a Nigeria of that time when employers would come to plead with u on the day of ur graduation to work for them, with huge tempting offers of salary, accommodation and even car; but he chose God, he chose to become a preacher than work , he was rejected by his dominantly Muslim family, he was mocked at, his parents felt they had lost a son, but he held on to what he believed in. Today, after all his suffering, he has in turn become raised by God and people are talkin, where were u wen he was goin thru all these for God, life teaches that there is no limit to which a man can get if he remains dedicated, committed and upright, he chose these and he is not only blessed but has become a blessing to thousands employed in several businesses he has. He doesn't ve to earn from church offering or tithe, he also has interest in businesses and has access to the best brains to work for him. Let me even ask, a church that has more than a million memeber world wide, shud owing private jet be too much? Have u read about Kenneth Copeland, his church has as at 3 years back given away about 25 jets as gifts to other ministries world wide. Is jet too big for God's work? Would we rather have a man who would teach decency, love, morals, fear of God, etc to fly on private jet just to meet preaching schedules world wide than give same private jet a Hollywood porn star/ artiste who only needs it to fly all over the world to promote nudity and immorality? The place we call Cannan land at Ota before Oyedepo came was a thick forest, the church has turned it to the best city in Nigeria, nobody is commending him and the church, Adeboye lived at Redeemed camp ground alone when it was a jungle with only him and his wife, surrounded by bush, no electricity, pipe borne water etc their kids refused living, with them there, today it has become a city like none in Nigeria in terms of organisation and facilities, a fit no Govt with billions of oil money in Nigeria has accomplished , yet for them to fly on small 10 passenger private jet is causing uproar in Nigeria. God is watching us all. I believe that a man who has paid so much that many other re unwilling to pay should enjoy what others are not entitled to, all pastors can't be on same level.

odum desmond: Jesus never boarded a passenger Canoe/ ship. Several biblical account shows that he boarded a chartered ship while travelling with his disciples. Contradict me!

daroz: I cast my vote for Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and Pastor Tunde Bakare in their demosthenic vitriol against spiritual megalomaniacs whose modus vivendi has become increasingly byzantine and repulsively narcissistic.We must all begin to deprecate this razzmatazz and Nestorian braggadocio in the "HOUSE OF GOD",because when there is no difference between the values of a Pastor and a typical Nigerian Politician,then it's truly a bolekaja ambience.....


https://www.facebook.com/patrick.obahiagbon.3

Table Leg :

My friend shut the fu/ck up .... Brainwashed goat!

Private Jets For Jesus By Sonala Olumhense
Posted: November 25, 2012 - 03:35

Should a pastor own a private jet? That this is even a debate issue in Nigeria reflects just how wayward some of our Christianity has travelled, particularly since the end of the civil war and the arrival of large piles of oil money.

We are good adopters, and in the past 20 or 30 years, these Christian strands in Nigeria have “grown” side by side with the monies flowing in the streets and the technologies produced by others. Christianity has moved from the pews into the realm of business, and from the pulpits to American-style television.

In the process, some of the emerging Christian leadership, adopting the culture of American television and stage, became celebrities and rock stars. Christianity became marketable, and marketability became mistaken for commercialization.

These pastors also became instant television producers, concerned about their looks and make-up as they prepared for worship services tailored for broadcasting. They worked on scripts and colours and lighting, and arrived in stardom wearing expensive suits and jewelry.

They became stars as their Ministry became a business. And since there is no business without politics, business took politics in its arms and kissed her. Increasingly, pastors prayed not for right over wrong, nor simply for the mercy of God or the wisdom of Solomon, but for specific individuals or political parties.

Increasingly, pastors enshrined and preached the immediacy and centrality of prosperity, often praying for prosperity answers before nightfall.

Prosperity is good. In a way, our entire journey as homo sapiens is about prosperity: health, education, longevity; heaven is prosperity over earth, and if we make heaven, we triumph—that is, prosper—over humanity.

The problem is that some of our Christian leaders often neglected the fact that prosperity is not always about materialism. From their glittering thousand-dollar suits, some of them prospered into the best cars, alligator-skin shoes, suites in five-star hotels.

All of this often happened alongside barbaric businessmen, guzzling governors and looting legislators many of whom, in moments of guilt or periods of sickness or sadness, sought the comfort of a pastor.

As you know by now, many pastors pray with their eyes closed. It helps focus on the celestial, but also conveys the impression of holiness.
Evidently, it also helps block out the obvious: that some of the powerful people appearing for prayers in the dead of night, or conveniently arranging to meet with the pastor in faraway lands, are thieves who have robbed the people blind.

Now, forgiveness is normal in Christianity. It is the foundation of the Christian Church, as the entire mission of Jesus Christ, in the Christian faith, was to take away sin and effect reconciliation with the Father. It is the place of a Christian leader to help with that process, so when he engages a sinner, it is to be expected.

The only problem is that in Nigeria, some pastors have often seemed to close their eyes a little too much and too long: allowing celebrity thieves to impoverish the people longer or escape justice. The pastor thereby becomes an accomplice, accepting vast “contributions” they had reason to know could not have come from a legitimate income.

In 2007, Archbishop Peter Akinola, the leader of the Anglican Church, showed up at a “glorious homecoming” celebration for one Olusegun Obasanjo, who had recently, reluctantly, and vindictively, given up the job of President of the Federal Republic.

“You have got the best in the world and your eyes have seen the worst in the world. All that is left now is to make heaven,” he told Obasanjo.
He assured the former president that while he had finished his “horizontal fights,” his spiritual journey had just begun, and urged him to fight the battle of his conscience, and seek forgiveness from those he has wronged.

The people Obasanjo had wronged, for eight long years, were the people of Nigeria, and the good bishop knew it as did all of the pastors who followed Obasanjo around and prayed with him routinely.

Akinola told Obasanjo God had blessed him with everything. “You have enough money, you have enough houses, you have enough land, enough (cars), and enough properties, even enough children and all should be enough God has given you far too many houses. What to eat is not your problem. Paying children’s school fees is no longer your problem…”

He did not tell Obasanjo that all those riches were at the expense of his deeply disappointed people.

Indeed, many of the Christian leaders who interpret Christianity as a tool for personal prosperity pretend to see no link between bad governance and the manna from heaven they preach to their exhausted congregations. For them, their access to the corridors of power is merely part of their own prosperity.

They do not see their blindness to bad governance to be collusion, or their silence to be support.

This is really a double rape, because on the other side, the pastors collect relentlessly from the poor to fund an affluent lifestyle. It is the collections that are now said to be lucrative enough for pastors to bank hundreds of millions of Naira in personal wealth, and purchase jets by which to rule the sky.

In the case of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), he did not even have to work at buying the jet himself: his congregation presented it to him as a “gift.” It is impressive when a congregation can raise $40 or $50 million to buy a jet.

According to a recent newspaper story, in Nigeria private jet ownership has grown by 650 per cent in the past five years, with those wealthy enough to afford it, including our pastors, spending about $7.5 billion

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has described this trend on the part of Christian leaders as an embarrassment because it diminishes the moral voice of the church in the fight against corruption.

It is not surprising that he immediately came under attack. Sunday Oibe, a spokesman for CAN, said: “If there is any clergyman in the country whose constituency is government, it is Bishop Kukah, who served every government in power in the last decade.”

Kukah, he accused, served in the Obasanjo government, only to later attack the former president. Kukah, he accused, fraternized with former Governors James Ibori and Peter Odili.

Kukah never served in the Obasanjo government. “Fraternized” with corrupt governors? Does that mean he knew them, accepted contracts from them, used them as his route to riches and glamour?

Which explains the very point: corruption fights back. Corruption not only defends itself; in Nigeria, it advertises in Eagle Square. Corruption blackmails; on the offensive, it paints everything in its own colours.

The obvious is that it is those pastors who buy jets remind one less of a Christian leader and more of a playboy or a corrupt former governor. A pastor who buys a jet, even from “legitimate” resources, cannot avoid being perceived as being corrupt or compromised

The reason is that a private jet is not just a mode of transportation. It symbolizes a lifestyle of opulence and challenges the Christian values of humility. It suggests matching riches and possessions, affluent luxury homes, exotic cars, expansive hotel suites and immense bank accounts.

A private jet, for a Christian leader, suggests the corruption of the Christian spirit and contradicts the life of Christ and the ability to live a life of humility and compassion, or to serve the poor.

A private jet may be transportation to a businessman, and a Christian leader can argue eloquently that he needs it to simplify his mission. In a country as desperate as Nigeria, the only destination to which a luxury private jet transports a pastor is away: from his ability to confront power, and from the mission.

hustla:

What exactly is ya point stupid?