Of Impromptu Pastors And The Conscience
"Having sustained a ruined career, the popular alternative route is to pick up yourself and set up a church and holler that you were "called".... Whatever that means!
But that's not me!
More, I am not a congenital two-faced person; and I am comfortable in my own skin...
Yet, overtime, I have discovered that adversity comes with its own grace and goodness!"
....Eghosa Imade
This is that time-tested truth that brainwashed Nigerian Christians don't like hearing....as blatant and as golden as it sounds....that their motley of actors...sorry, pastors merely.... take them for a jolly ride...our bad economy being a ready facilitator!
I should be sorely surprised if these submissions do not agitate them to pounce on us in a minute....
They have no qualms about baring their fangs at whomever as much as subject the tricks and antics of their sodden shepherds to reasoning...so long as they believe they are biting for Jesus!
As if this Jesus has implicitly mandated them to proceed on such biting missions...on his behalf!
What a sorry bunch....
Personally, I have no problem with religion...any religion...so long as it preaches love of fellow beings and frowns at evil. I may even concede to the existence of a primary force.
But when this primary force is elevated to the status of an animate being whose dread, reverence and worship takes precedence over love of fellow humans, when the emphasis is on "accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lord and saviour" over and above any other considerations...or celebrations,...relegating love of neighbour to the background, I can but only infer some dogma!
Two categories of victims...the slow-witted....and the discerning intellectual struggling to dampen his reasoning faculties just so he may fit in!
It matters not to them that their pastors are pranksters and tricksters....skilled in their trade!
Hear the earth-shaking "amens" that resonate after someone throws a well-measured prayer about...and you would not but marvel at the "glory of God". Even mere peddlers of goods are cognizant of the potency of this prelude....and are ever eager to dispense it with uncommon precision...just so they may arrest the attention of their audience!
Nigerians are deeply religious...yet deeply enmeshed in sin..... A crop of unrepentant pretenders!
So assured of the efficacy of pretence and deceit...they even make attempts to deceive their God !
Or how else do you explain the mindset of persons who are hell bent on being seen to worship God...but sorely averse to following his rules and doing his bidding?
A despicable bunch of pretenders!
But who are they deceiving?
The day you see me transform into one of these numerous "acting" pastors, be rest assured that I have been bitten by the con bug!
Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.