And The Church Remains Silent In The Face Of Deceit

My friend Temitayo put up this post on Facebook and I just had to share it on here because it echoes the thoughts I have pondered on severally. Our religious leaders wield so much power that they simply cannot afford to sit on the fence while the country disintegrate before our eyes. They have roles to play and being silent on these issues may indicate consent.

His Post:

I was in Togo once when Gnassingbe Eyadema was still alive and I witnessed a Treize Janvier celebration. Seeing such a sycophantic national display, I was glad to be a Nigerian. I firmly believed that Nigeria, having escaped the clutch of Abacha, could never sink so low. Today, that myth was shattered.

I'll reserve any vitriol I have for Goodluck Jonathan for another day. To the smarmy clerics - Pastor Adeboye and Bishop Oyedepo, I never expected you to walk on water, nor levitate. I never had hopes that you will turn gin to champagne, neither did I believe you could feed 100 with a loaf of bread (never mind 5,000). The only expectation I had of you was to be a moral compass of some sort to a derelict government. A voice to reprove them when wrong  and push for equity when justice is perverted. An Elijah without the fiery miracles or a Jeremiah in this age. I would not expect you to tell your congregants to vote for one person or another. But a voice of condemnation you should be to unscrupulous leaders. A voice on behalf of the voiceless herd.

Sadly, your obsequious conduct is worse than that of any courtier in a medieval king's court. Your amoral ingratiating support of misrule makes the apocalyptic hell of the Bible superfluous. You have foisted hell on many Nigerians already. You are no different from the pastor to whom armed robbers turn for spiritual fortifications before or after a robbery.

There are so many failings that one has lost count. No matter how much I try to rationalise it, over forty boys were killed in their sleep because of one man's ineptitude. Yet you lack the courage to say anything by way of chastisement, however limp. The despot, who having failed to govern responsibly, knelt before you one day and stands up the next day to subvert the will of a nation. If the blood of Abel cried indeed as the Bible said, the voices of the unnamed dead slaughtered under your customer's watch will not cease to cry for equity.

 May God, Whose name you bring into disrepute, recompense us all according to our motives.

Post By: Temitayo Fabunmi