They are respected for their religious leadership. But, sometimes, some Pastors do things many consider bizarre, writes ROBERT EGBE
The light-skinned, short man in a black t-shirt and jeans slowly approaches the worshippers occupying plastic chairs on the front row of the church pew. The camera pans in on his face as he stares down menacingly at a woman in a brown dress and red beret. A male usher steadies her shoulders from behind as the man grabs and shakes her head roughly. The man leans in, lifts the bigger woman onto his shoulders with little difficulty. Her dress rides up and he starts slapping the back of her knees as he walks away.
“Watch the powerhouse!” an excited voice in the background screams from a microphone, “watch another dangerous mysterious operation by the mega one. Watch him lifting up the whole woman, this huge woman, according to the direction of the Holy Spirit! Christianity is not a religion. Watch your screen; watch what the … one is doing.”
The man turns around and faces several rows of small, blue and red plastic chairs. He throws a foot forward and slams the woman on the chairs, WrestleMania style. Both woman and chairs collapse to the floor.
“This is a mystery and strange to those of you…that is power!” the unseen speaker screams again.
The man – self-proclaimed Prophet Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere Dumeje, aka ‘The lion himself’ – kneels beside the unconscious woman touches her neck like he is feeling for a pulse and begins to mutter.
The one-minute video captures one of the ‘deliverance sessions’ by Dumeje, the General Overseer of Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention, Onitsha, Anambra State.
Dumuje’s theatrically violent performance is only one example of bizarre practices that have, in recent years, crept into major religions in Africa, particularly Christianity.
From Nigeria to Ghana, to South Africa, the invention of smartphones and social media has helped to expose often disturbing conduct by religious leaders.
The founder of Fountain of Life Ministry, Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, in the last two Sundays referred to how theatrics like this and the miracles’ fad impact on the image of the Church.
Pastor Odukoya said his wife showed him the video of a pastor, who was behaving like Kingkong and men were falling as a result of his theatrics. He added that such performance was painting the body of Christ in a bad light.
Five pastors, same woman,
same miracle
Unless you’ve been away from the internet for the past two weeks, you won’t have missed the latest trending ‘Christian’ wonder involving five church leaders.
The story is that a pastor prayed for a woman with a misshapen, stunted arm and it miraculously, on camera, stretched back to regular size.
Two days later, however, the ‘healing’ failed and her arm returned to its former state. So, she approached another church. Its pastor, again, in another dramatic live prayer session, caused her arm to stretch to its regular size. Again, after two days, the healing failed. So, she approaches three other churches and their pastors all healed her arm.
Critics believe the entire healing thing was a scam orchestrated by the pastors and the woman. They believe the woman was using her medical condition for private gain into a source of income.
Doctors who have also seen the ‘deliverance’ videos, say she appears to be suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS), a group of genetic connective tissue disorders with symptoms which may include loose joints, joint pain, stretchy skin, and abnormal scar formation.
But the woman, Bola Ola, told the President of Guild of Professional Bloggers Association www.cknnigeria.com last Friday that no pastor paid her any money to stage-manage a miracle as some nosy, non-god-fearing people had insinuated.
Ola said she went to the first church but was not fully healed and she kept on going to different churches till she went to Pastor Chris Okafor’s Mountain Of Liberation.
She said she suffered an arm injury two years ago, following an accident and has been to different pastors for divine healing.
“Once they heal me, I feel no pains but after two days after, the pains return, the reason I continue visiting various churches for permanent healing,” Ola added.
‘Death prayers, branding
women, children as witches’
There’s nothing wrong with being religious or spiritual. But a problem arises when people believe all their problems have a spiritual origin. In many cases, the problems are seen as the fault of women or child witches. It is thought that they are under a spell and have the power to wreak havoc.
Misfortune in the family, such as a breakdown of a marriage or a relative’s death or illness, is thus attributed to witchcraft by a woman (especially elderly women), a child or ‘village people.’
Some churches, particularly in rural areas and Nigerian movies play a major role in spreading this belief. And there are many self-proclaimed pastors who brand children as witches and then charge extortionate fees to ‘exorcise’ them.
A researcher, Uwem Essia, in an article published in the Science Journal of Psychology titled ‘The Social Economy of Child Witch Labeling in Nigeria: The Case of Akwa Ibom State’ blames Pentecostalism for encouraging this trend.
Essia argued that the religious discourse of the new Christian Pentecostal movement has heightened the belief that child witches exist.
This belief, perhaps, has led many pastors and their congregation to pray for the death of the person, or spirit behind the ‘spiritual attack’.
It is thus not unusual to see or hear pastors in the average Nigerian church leading their congregations in ‘back to the sender’ prayers.
The epicentre of these accusations appear to be in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and a 2008 report estimated that 15,000 children in these two states had been accused.
A 2010 survey found that in one region of Akwa Ibom State, for instance, 85 per cent of street children had been accused of witchcraft.
Unfulfilled predictions,
sorry prophecies
“Please Nigerians, warn (President Muhammadu) Buhari that he is going beyond his boundary, the Lord said his tenure is just for four years if he tries to contest for the second term before they vote, he will die,” – South Africa based Prophet, Samuel Akinbodunse.
Prophet Samuel Akinbodunse, General Overseer of South Africa-based church, Freedom For All Nations is not the only Nigerian preacher that has made prophecies that have not come to pass.
The General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman, is known to have made several unfulfilled prophecies.
In 2016, Suleman prophesied that Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai of Kaduna State will die over his plan to amend Kaduna’s “Religious Preaching Laws of 1984.” El-Rufai is still alive.
One unfulfilled prophecy that had internationally relevance was the one made by Prophet T. B. Joshua, who leads the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
He incorrectly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 United States election. Prophet Joshua told his congregation that he “saw” a woman winning.
Following Republican candidate Donald Trump’s surprise victory, the post was temporarily deleted from Joshua’s Facebook page before later being restored.
The preacher, whose services often attract tens of thousands of worshippers from around the world, posted an explanatory message afterwards.
“We have seen the outcome of the election in America. Having read, you will notice that it is all about the popular vote, the vote of the majority of Americans,” he said.
The statement seems to be a nod to Clinton’s lead in the so-called popular vote-i.e. the individual votes collected by a candidate, rather than the number of states won under the U.S. Electoral College system.
But critics accuse these religious leaders of making up prophecies without hearing from God.
Read Also: Osinbajo warns churches on use of social media
‘Fighting’ demons
or demon-possessed people
Prophet Dumeje wins this one hand down. In an August 2019 YouTube video, the popular cleric is challenged to a duel by a younger man possessed by “a wicked spirit from Hell-Fire.”
The Lion Himself engages the man, who takes off his t-shirt, in a karate session and beats the daylight (sorry, demon) out of the fellow.
‘Falling under the anointing’, ‘slain in the Spirit/falling in the Spirit is a practice many churchgoers in the country know of. There are also several biblical examples.
It is primarily practised in Pentecostalism, and generally takes place during church services or deliverance sessions. An “anointed” pastor or leader, “full of the Holy Spirit,” touches someone (usually on the forehead), and the power of God that “flows” that out of that pastor/leader is so overwhelming that the person they touch cannot stand, and they fall backwards.
In some cases, some very popular, mostly Pentecostal leaders, throw one hand forward and the congregation, sometimes in their hundreds, begin falling backwards. Everyone, except, of course, the camera crew and church workers: they do not seem to be affected.
The problem is, in some churches where being slain in the Spirit is practised, it often appears more like a theatrical display than a work of God.
For instance, it is not unusual to find pastors, not touching, but pushing people so that they lose their balance and stumble or fall.
An American bible teacher and psychologist, Steve Shirley, who has studied the phenomenon, agrees that people can “fall” to the ground because they are “overwhelmed” in some way by God.
However, he also noted that there are many stories of Americans who have been involved in this practice, and then get out of it.
In his article, ‘Why do Christians fall over when someone touches them?’ Shirley said nearly all of these people admit that they “fell” on purpose because one of several psychological factors was at work:
He identifies the factors as: “Peer pressure, falling because it was expected. Falling because they desperately wanted to have that ‘experience’ others were having. Falling so they didn’t make the person laying hands on them looks bad. Falling so they didn’t seem less spiritual or falling because they gave in to the power of suggestion.”
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