Bishop David Oyedepo
When
the British begun to colonize Africa just few centuries ago, they saw
nothing wrong with using the Gospel of Christ to bamboozle our ancestors
into surrendering their lands and resources over to Her Majesty’s
government; now fast-forward to modern times where African pastors are
some of the most influential persons on Earth, it seems the detractors
have arrived in busloads.
The Daily Mail, one of the United
Kingdom’s most widely read publications is the detractor of the day.
Perhaps somebody needs to hand them a copy of the King James version of
the Bible, or maybe a contemporary version of the material would
suffice.
Prosperity ministries like Living Faith, popularly known
as Winners, will continue to generate a lot of confusion-based
controversy in places like the United Kingdom where the people
increasingly are distanced from the doctrine of the gospel (the Word of
God).
Many ex-Christians and Christianity bashers always cite the
fact that Jesus Christ was humble and didn’t fly in private jets or ride
in luxury cars; they always remember how Jesus rode on an ass. Well the
gospel also informs us that he made himself poor so that we could
become rich. 2
nd Corinthians 8:9 says “For ye know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.
Church
attendance in British churches are at an all time low, and many of the
British church buildings are now tourist centers and not places where
men go to fellowship with God. The Africans who were first taught
Christianity by British missionaries in the 19
th century have
now mastered the gospel in a way that certifies the Great Commission
given to men by Christ. I can imagine how the Archbishop of Canterbury
would be ticked off about this, or the Bishops of Reading, Newcastle,
Coventry and Birmingham, just to name a few.
Truth is
African Pentecostalism is the most successful and fastest growing branch
of the Church of Christ world-wide, and the scandal prone churches of
the West are uneasy considering the trend.
Statistics show,
“regular church attendance in the United Kingdom stands at 6% of the
population with the average age of the attendee being 51. This shows a
decline in church attendance since 1980 when regular attendance stood at
11% with an average age of 37. It is predicted that by 2020, attendance
will be around 4% with an average age of 56.This decline in church
attendance has forced many churches to close down across the United
Kingdom with the Church of England alone being forced to close 1,500
churches between 1969 and 2002. Their fates include dereliction,
demolition and residential conversion.”
The statistics paint a
picture whereby funds are being generated by African churches where
attendance is on the increase, and diminishing in British churches where
attendance is on the decline. It’s easy to see how the
Charities Commission can get sidetracked and misinformed. However it
would be a violation of several international and divine laws for Her
Majesty’s regulatory bodies to revoke the status of a faith based
institution.
The Roman Catholic Church is arguably one of the
richest institutions on the face of the planet. Africa’s prosperity
ministries/churches are rapidly amassing the wealth that took centuries
for some religious organizations to acquire. There is bound to be a
conflict of interest as there are many open and hidden interests that
would not want to see this scale of empowerment for the African man.
Living
Faith ministries owns at last count, three universities in Nigeria. In
less than a decade some of the graduates are already working for
globally recognized institutions like the World Bank, Goldman Sachs,
KPMG, Deloitte, Mobil, Total, Chevron and a long list of other Fortune
500 companies. It is understandable why some anti-progress machineries
are in motion, what is befuddling is how one of Britain’s most widely
read newspapers goes about misinforming its readers about a progressive
faith-based spiritual organization that is ordained by God.
The
Daily Mail has been sued severally for libel in the past and has had to
cough up millions of pound sterling in damages to the victims of its
occasionally leaky mouth. One would think that the publication would
have done legitimately not to publish the junk it did on Sunday.
Including in the
article
was this, “Followers (of Living Faith) are urged to target vulnerable
people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as
potential candidates for conversion.”
To the undiscerning eye, Winners will be made to look more like
Exploiters,
whereas the truth remains that the writers are obviously not of the
Christian faith and are just looking for a story controversial enough to
sell their newspapers. Christ did tell his servants to minister unto
the down-trodden and the bed-ridden and the poor. A quick fact check of
the New Testament would have saved the Mail this ignorance that is sure
to cost them.
The obvious remains yet to be stated and it’s as
simple as this, before the journalists at the Mail rush to the press
again, they should patiently pick up a copy of their bibles, dust it
thoroughly open, and read some of the pages. After all, every man is
entitled to have freedom in his religion, and in the way he thinks about
God and HIS prophets. There should not be an abuse of this right by
anybody, not even the Fourth Estate.
The only intelligent portion of the article was after it, in the comments section. A commentator from
Grove
Park South East London said, “Are any members of his congregation
complaining about the money they pay this man and his family? Has any
member of his congregation complained that they did not receive the
‘blessings’ they prayed for or that the devil was not knocked out off
that woman when she received that blow to the face? Has any members of
his congregation been convicted of any criminal activity? If the answer
to those questions is “no” then really what harm is this so-called Man
of God causing?”
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