By Emmanuel Ojeifo
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“If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for our times.” – Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963).
In his Critique of Practical Reason, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), one of the most influential German thinkers in the history of Western philosophy, made a statement to the effect that we are now living in an age of criticism from which nothing can escape. He argues that when religion tries to hide behind its sanctity and when law tries to hide behind its majesty, they lose all the respect that human reason has reserved only for that which has been able to pass the litmus test of free and open scrutiny.
Ever since Pope Francis captured the imagination of the world during his recent visit to America with his simplicity, frugality and modesty by flying in a commercial airline, Alitalia, rather than in one of the world’s most expensive luxury jets, and driving in a low-cost Sedan and Ford Focus, rather than in a chauffeured limousine, many commentators, critics and observers have been questioning the rationale behind the extravagant lifestyles, flamboyance, conspicuous materialism and ostentatious display of wealth by many of Nigerian pastors.
Over the past weeks, the social media has been awash with photographs contrasting Pope Francis aboard the Alitalia airplane with tens of journalists and crew members and a big Nigerian pastor laughing wildly in his multi-million dollar Bombardier jet. Another photo shows Pope Francis waving to a crowd of people from his Sedan car, contrasted with a photograph of the wife of one of Nigeria’s biggest pastors stepping out of her limousine. The creative genius behind these photographs tried successfully to interlace candour with humour by labelling the two photographs with these revealing titles: ‘Your Pastor’ (to denote the extravagant lifestyle of the Nigerian pastor) and ‘My Pastor’ (to denote the simplicity and frugality of Pope Francis). Ancient wisdom was not mistaken when it said that, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
“What reason does a Nigerian pastor with less than two hundred thousand followers have to fly a $65 million Gulfstream G550 luxury jet when the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.5 billion Catholics travels in a commercial airliner?” a commentator on Facebook inquired. A September 15, 2015 news report on Sahara Reporters was spot-on when it noted: “Nigerian prosperity pastors have emerged as some of the wealthiest preachers in the world, but their luxury lifestyles are at variance with the squalor and poverty of most members of their churches.”
As a Catholic priest, I have tried to refrain from commenting on this sort of issues. My reasons are obvious. We are living in a country where there are no common values by which we can all agree on what is right and what is wrong. When you attempt to raise issues with a Nigerian, the tendency is for the real substance of the matter to be lost in the haystack of ethnic or religious prejudice. However valid your facts or the argument, you are quickly labelled as a bigot. It is here that you see how wildly emotive and rabidly sentimental Nigerians can be. Even among learned Nigerians, you find those who throw intellect out of the window and open the door for primordial sentiments when making value judgments on the truth claim or otherwise of any issue. The commentator may not proffer any superior arguments to trump your own arguments, but will simply substitute sound reasoning with verbal gymnastics, casting venomous aspersion and pouring bile vituperations on your personality rather than addressing the issue in question.
In logical reasoning, this fallacy is called “argumentum ad hominem,” a Latin phrase which means responding to arguments by attacking a person’s character, rather than addressing the content of their arguments. This is especially common among people who are intolerant of criticism, and in these days of polarised public discourses, one only needs to follow the trend on social media, especially Facebook, to get a feel of how much rot, foul-mouthed talk and vulgar verbal exchanges have infested our public vocabulary. Thomas Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist was right when he said that in today’s world of social media, “Everybody is connected, but no one is in control.”
However, I have reasoned that if a writer chooses to opt out of public discourse for fear of bruising his ego or for the sake of maintaining a good reputation, he would be failing in his duty to society. A society that is ill calls the writer to take his social responsibility seriously. He must constantly create a social mirror by which the citizens can look at themselves and reflect on their duties and responsibilities towards the attainment of a sane and healthy society. Through his art, the writer must seek to create new ways of sustaining an environment of decency, good order and civilisation. It is for this reason that I have decided to wade into this conversation about how the public face of religion has been disfigured in Nigeria today through the prosperity gospel, the craze for materialism and the ostentatious lifestyles of some of the acclaimed men of God, who should ordinarily lead their followers by personal example on how to live modest and frugal lives.
Now, anyone who is seriously concerned about the Nigerian situation will be hard pressed to explain how and why a nation that is so richly endowed would find its citizens living with some of the most inhuman conditions in the world. In the last few years, despite claims of being a growing economy, the standard of living in Nigeria has continued to fall dramatically. Interestingly, this fall in the human condition seems to have created a fertile environment for the emergence of the kind of deep religious spirituality that has ironically placed our country on top of both the most religious and corrupt nations of the world. One would ordinarily expect that in this environment of widespread moral degeneracy, religious leaders would rise up to their prophetic responsibility of not only speaking truth to power and working for the enthronement of a just and equitable social order, but also of showing good example in the manner in which they conduct their lives. Sadly, this is not the case. Not only has organised religion lost its capacity to help generate a sense of moral revulsion and prophetic outrage against the ills of society, often what we see is that religion has become an ally, a supporter of the status quo, and at other times a guilty bystander to the collective oppression of our people.
In a nation where millions of people go to bed hungry every day, where acute poverty now live in many neighbourhoods and even walk openly in the streets, some religious leaders have ridden on the crest of our collective social dysfunction to material and financial prosperity. A New York-based online media survey published in October 2014 showed that five of the top ten richest pastors in the world are from Nigeria. While some religious leaders worldwide are serving humanity by providing spiritual and moral guidance to people across religious and social divides, others are becoming very rich through their churches and investments. In a special study in Vanguard newspaper published in October 2014, and titled “Rich Churches, Poor Members,” the authors drew serious attention to the moneymaking venture that religion has turned to in Nigeria and how many leading Nigerian preachers are becoming multi-millionaire at the expense of their flock. They questioned the propriety and morality of making and hoarding such stupendous wealth in a vast ocean of poverty and misery. The report mentioned one pastor who is running a business empire, and who owns four luxury private jets with a combined cost put at $98.3 million. You can read the report here (https://www.vanguardngr.com/20…/…/rich-churches-poor-members/).
Whereas some churches and their ministers are providing social services to alleviate the plight of the poor and the needy in their midst, many others are making their way to financial stardom in spite of the misery in the land. Yet only a few critical observers are questioning this trend. The vast majority of Nigerians are quick to canonize such wealth as God’s special blessings to those who worship him faithfully, arguing that the God of their pastor is not a poor God. No wonder that in order to protect themselves against the Devil and his agents these super-rich men and women of God now ride in expensive bullet-proof SUVs and employ the services of gun-wielding soldiers, mobile policemen and bodyguards wherever they go.
One is tempted to ask: Which God are these multi-million dollar pastors worshipping when they are getting richer and their members are getting poorer? If the Jesus that these men of God claim to serve were here physically today is this how he would behave? What would be his reaction to this? Would he not make a whip and flog the hell out of these acclaimed preachers of his word who give religion a bad name by their lavish lifestyles? How come we have forgotten so quickly the compassionate and loving Lord who fed a great multitude of people and specifically instructed his disciples to “give them something to eat yourselves”? How come we now scorn the example of our Lord who came to the aid of the poor, the sick, and the needy with his comfort and kindness? How could we have forgotten the warning of Jesus to his disciples never to be like the hypocrites who make a public show of religiosity by their external rituals without internalizing the core values of the kingdom – mercy, justice, charity, and sacrifice? Where did this super-rich man of God mentality spring from when the Lord Jesus himself sternly warned his disciples about the dangers of avarice, hoarding wealth and wastefulness? At what point did we throw the values of the Gospel Beatitudes to the wind, which espouse and praise the poor in spirit, the meek, the gentle, the peacemaker, those who hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness, and those who strive to live by God’s standard?
Again, who are these men of God really serving? Is it the Son of Man who had nowhere to lay his head? Is it the God of Peter and John who said to the beggar at the entrance of the Temple, at the beautiful gate, “silver or gold I have none but what I have I give to you: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ rise up and walk?” Is it the God of Jesus Christ who rode on a borrowed donkey to Jerusalem? Is it the God of Jesus Christ who on the Last Day will inquire from us whether we came to the help of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the thirsty, the imprisoned and the naked as he commanded us? Is it the God of Jesus Christ who in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus asks that we be sensitive to the plight of the poor?
It appears that Reverend Father George Ehusani, a respected Nigerian Catholic priest and social activist, saw this situation coming when he published his classic book, A Prophetic Church about 20 years ago. Written and published at the height of the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha, Father Ehusani’s principal motive was to arouse the consciences of Nigerian Christian religious leaders to the widespread situation of injustice, corruption, oppression, poverty and misery in the land. He issued a rallying cry for organised religion to return to the timeless and unchanging values of the Christian Gospel. He was convinced that only a return of Christianity to its original purity, in the model of the early Christian community, could provide the needed inspiration for confronting the socio-political and economic evils of today’s society.
For this reason, Father Ehusani proclaimed: “Nigeria needs a prophetic church that will act as the conscience of the nation, a prophetic church that will courageously highlight the evils of society which constitute the obstacle on the way of peace and prosperity. Nigeria needs a prophetic church that will be forthright and consistent in denouncing individual evil and evil structures in our society… Nigeria needs a prophetic church that will stand alongside the oppressed, the impoverished, the marginalized, those denied their just rights and those discriminated against.” Nearly 20 years after its first publication, rather than diminish in stature and value, Father Ehusani’s book has grown to become a historic reference point, not only for understanding the defining features of Nigeria’s socio-political history, but also a nostalgic reminder of the failure of Nigerian Christianity to reclaim the revolutionary values of “old time religion”.
In the prescient book, Father Ehusani denounced religious leaders who grow fat when members of their flock are wallowing in abject poverty and untold misery. He lamented the level of unemployment, poverty, indignity, destitution and oppression in the land. “Millions of Nigerians are living each day not knowing whence the next meal will come.” Yet, “side by side with this state of near-destitution of the majority however, is the affluence and conspicuous consumption of a few super-rich Nigerians whose wealth and privilege have multiplied to about the same degree as the misery of the masses,” Father Ehusani noted. With young people getting jobless and disillusioned, children dying by instalments and old people resorting to helplessness and hopelessness, Father Ehusani averred that, “Nigeria needs a Christian faith that challenges the status quo and those who are satisfied with it. We need a Church that is committed to the interest of the poor, oppressed and marginalised people, and of those who struggle for justice.” In another place, he said: “The Christian religion must help the poor in their quest for life, for bread, and for dignity.”
It is not difficult today to see how much Christianity has derailed from these original goals. The Christian church in Nigeria has virtually lost its role as the conscience of society. In a country so richly endowed with abundant human and natural resources, many people are still dying by instalments due to abject poverty, hunger and disease. Majority of the people now live in near destitution while the few super-rich members of the elite revel in affluence and conspicuous consumption. Christian church leaders who should be at the forefront of championing the cause of social justice seem to be silent as a bunch of rapacious elite continues to impoverish the people. Whereas fidelity to the Christian gospel demands that the leaders of the Christian church take a stand on the side of the victims of injustice and oppression, following the example of Jesus Christ, some of them have rather taken the side of the oppressors.
The collusion of religion and politics has robbed many Christian leaders of their integrity and credibility, as many of them now openly court the friendship of politicians and the business elite for patronage and privilege. In a society where an exploitative and greedy class has held the citizens under siege, many of our Christian leaders continue to remain indifferent to the plight of the people. Today, many so-called powerful Christian leaders are among the chief lobbyists for government contracts. These are the same religious leaders with many business chains from petrol stations and bakeries to housing estates and transport companies. As a result of the severe economic hardship in the country, the preaching of prosperity now resonate well with the impoverished population who are told that they can improve their socio-economic status through “giving to the Lord.”
As part of the warped values of prosperity gospel, we now hear that certain pastors tell their people: “If things are tight for you, check your tithe.” This means that if you are undergoing challenges in life, check whether you have been paying your tithe to your pastor. For these self-acclaimed men of God, religion is no more than a vehicle for upward financial mobility. In many churches, God is presented as a money-doubler who gives back exceedingly to those who give to him unrestrainedly. It is this sort of grand deception that has pushed many Christians to steal public funds or engage in fraudulent businesses, in the hope that if they give a certain percentage of the booty to God through their pastors it will open doors to endless financial security and material prosperity.
How come we have found ourselves in this compromised situation where the Christian religion has lost its prophetic responsibility of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world? At a time when the political and religious leaders of Israel revelled in corrupt practices and robbed the poor of their goods, the Prophet Amos arose to warn them of the impending doom that God will visit upon them. Through the prophet, God exposed the injustice in the political and economic structures of the society, and denounced the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who not only fail in their duty as shepherds, but are also often a tool in the hands of the kings for the maintenance of unjust structures. “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, when will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: ‘Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds’” (Amos 8:4-7).
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah has dealt with this corruption of religion extensively in Chapter 12, “A Theological Economics of Reconciliation” of his book, Witness to Justice (2011) where he questions the moral credentials of those false prophets who choose to compromise with Baal. This is what happens in a society where “religion without morality” is the norm, as enunciated by the great Indian sage Mahatma Gandhi in his catalogue of seven deadly social sins.
Without prejudice to my conviction as a Catholic, I believe that we can draw a lot of moral and spiritual lessons from the words of welcome addressed by U.S. President Barack Obama to Pope Francis during his visit to America from 22nd to 27th September 2015, at a brief welcome ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in the morning of 23rd September: “Holy Father, your visit…reveals how much all Americans, from every background and every faith, value the role that the Catholic Church plays in strengthening America. From my time working in impoverished neighbourhoods with the Catholic Church in Chicago, to my travels as President, I’ve seen first-hand how, every single day, Catholic communities, priests, nuns, laity are feeding the hungry, healing the sick, sheltering the homeless, educating our children, and fortifying the faith that sustains so many. And what is true in America is true around the world. From the busy streets of Buenos Aires to the remote villages in Kenya, Catholic organisations serve the poor, minister to prisoners, build schools, build homes, operate orphanages and hospitals. And just as the Church has stood with those struggling to break the chains of poverty, the Church so often has given voice and hope to those seeking to break the chains of violence and oppression.”
The President went on: “I believe the excitement around your visit, Holy Father, must be attributed not only to your role as Pope, but to your unique qualities as a person. In your humility, your embrace of simplicity, in the gentleness of your words and the generosity of your spirit, we see a living example of Jesus’ teachings, a leader whose moral authority comes not just through words but also through deeds. You call on all of us, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to put the ‘least of these’ at the centre of our concerns. You remind us that in the eyes of God our measure as individuals, and our measure as a society, is not determined by wealth or power or station or celebrity, but by how well we heed to Scripture’s call to lift up the poor and the marginalised, to stand up for justice and against inequality, and to ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity – because we are all made in the image of God.” The interested reader is free to Google up the entire speech. Deep, profound and worth pondering upon!
When Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail on April 16, 1963, he was not addressing this sort of issue, but I strongly believe that his words about the impotence of religion in the face of moral corruption have the power to prod our consciences today: “There was a time when the church was very powerful – in the time when the early Christian rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being ‘disturbers of the peace’. But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were ‘a colony of heaven,’ ‘called to obey God rather than man.’ Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent – and often even vocal – sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church now as never before.”
