By Vincent Akanmode
Given the way they were going about healing business, I knew it was only a matter of time that church leaders would turn it into an art. Hence it did not come as a surprise when the news filtered out last week that three different pastors had healed a woman of a particular physical deformity on her right arm on three different occasions.
One of the miracle-working pastors is identified as Pastor Chris Okafor, the founder of Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministry a.k.a. Liberation City. While Mrs Bose Ola, the woman at the centre of the controversy, was quoted as saying in an interview she had with a blogger that she developed the bulgy upper right arm purportedly healed by the pastors when she suddenly collapsed in her house about two years ago and broke her arm, a trending video shows Pastor Okafor telling his congregation that the woman, Mrs Ola, developed the problem after she was pushed by three people in her dream.
He then added that some witches, who apparently preferred her humerus (the long bone of the upper arm) to her flesh, had stolen the bone, causing that part of her body to swell like popcorn. The flamboyant pastor then launched into an incendiary prayer session, commanding the errant witches to return the bone which, fortunately, was still intact two years after they stole it. The congregation then watched in awe as the bulgy upper arm began to recede with the speed of a deflated tyre until it blended perfectly with the rest of the arm.
In another video, a pastor whose identity remains yet a mystery is seen praying for the same woman and achieving the same result as Pastor Okafor, even though he did not pray with the same energy as the latter. In the case of the second pastor, he simply placed the woman in an open place and got the crowd cheering as he poured water from a bottle unto the swollen spot which began to melt like ice until it became straight and as normal as the second arm.
As it will be expected, the development has sparked outrage from the huge population of doubters around the country who believe that there is something about the issue that does not add up. This is in spite of the pain a man who reportedly identified himself as Pastor Okafor’s publicist has taken to explain why it is possible for a pastor to repeat a healing previously done by another. The self-acclaimed publicist was quoted as saying: “The woman was in our church really. But you know in this issue of deliverance, some people could be delivered here and then (they) go back to where they stayed before and the attack would return. That was what happened to the woman.”
Mrs Ola herself said she had to visit different pastors because her arm’s condition relapsed two days after each healing session. “It is about two years now. I was in my house and all of a sudden, I fell down and broke my hand. I have gone to many churches for healing, but two days after healing me, my hand will return back,” she said.
Unfortunately, neither her explanation nor that of Okafor’s publicist could convince doubting Thomases who insist that unsuspecting members of the public were being manipulated to believe that a miracle had been done simply because the woman in question is blessed with the ability to make her arm swell or relaxed at will. In fact, a scoundrel in my neighbourhood was so sure about this that he asked if I could get him Mrs Ola’s telephone number. Asked why he wanted her number, she said he wanted to be her manager.
“Managing what?” I asked
“Ah, you don’t know something,” he said. “She is a big asset for any pastor desirous of a reputation for healing powers. She will do it for a fee; I will get my own cut; miracle seeking worshippers will flood the church and the pastor too will be happy.”
His, no doubt, is a condemnable perception of church business. Yet it is a reflection of the thinking of many people in today’s world who see it as one of the smartest ways to gain money, fame and influence in a society where salvation of the soul is no longer the motivating factor for congregants. The millions of churches that pimple the landscape are filled to the brim on Sundays and even on week days by people in search of employment, visa and healing from sicknesses that can be cured with right access to medical care — issues that would not be considered as problems in societies endowed with responsible leaders.
Rapacious church leaders are taking advantage of the people’s desperation to parade themselves as messiahs with the Midas touch. In return, the people pay heavily in tithes, offerings and other kinds of sacrifice without which they are told that they will never get a breakthrough. Priests are not to blame but the foolish congregants who think they cannot have answered prayers without him as the middleman. It is borne out by the adage that says you should consider yourself a loser once you miss out on a foolish man’s leg because the wise man will never surrender his.
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